First off, sorry for the cheesy title, but I just couldn’t help myself. I’ll get to why it makes sense in a little bit, but first I need to catch you up. A lot has happened, so hold on! Lee and I rolled out of Columbus with our newly “fixed” truck, excited to be back on the road again. Unfortunately right off the bat there was a terrible accident in WV so we rerouted ourselves to head north towards Pittsburgh. Normally this would have been just fine, but about 2 hours into our day the truck started acting funny.
When we were going up hills, or really anytime the turbo should have kicked in, the truck was seriously lacking in power. Our choice was to keep going or head back, and for a variety of reasons, we decided to just keep going and see. The thermostat temps were OK, the truck was just a little sluggish and it wasn’t clear what the deal was. But we kept tackling some crazy grades and except for one stop in Pittsburgh to let the engine cool a bit things were stressful but OK.
It’s hard to drive when something might be wrong, but maybe not, and with the trailer its not like you can just pull over and find service. Since we knew Bill and Kelly were on the other end of our drive we thought it was best to keep going and finally made it to Hickory Hollow.
We love Hickory Hollow and not just because Bill and Kelly are there. It’s a huge beautiful campground with really nice owners and lots of space for Jack to run around. Jack was thrilled to see his friends again and Bill used his meter to check and see if we had an error code and discovered that the repair shop didn’t add enough coolant into the secondary coolant well. Turns out the truck put itself into a slower mode to protect itself due to the lack of coolant. Insanity but we were glad we made it and were cautiously optimistic adding the coolant would solve the problem.
Jack and his buddy Bill
Hickory Hollow is near the small town of Somerset, PA and since we had scheduled 8 days we decided to really check out the area. Kelly and I went to multiple thrift stores together and Bill and Lee went and played disc golf. We also ate at several really cool local restaurants and had campfires a couple of nights. One of the coolest places we went is called Bargain Clothing. It is only open 2 days a week and has stacks and stacks of new clothes. Insanity really, but Kelly and I had a blast pawing through all the stuff and looking for stuff in our size. We both found some treasures.
Lee was having so much fun Bill joined in 
Lee adores the fish at Kings and Queens
Another day we went to see the wind chime installation at the 9-11 memorial park. The chimes were not fully installed when we came last year and unfortunately there wasn’t enough wind (it needs to be 10-15 mph) for sound on this visit. It was still pretty though and we got some great pictures.
On the way back from the chimes though something really cool happened. We passed a salvage yard in Stoystown and it was huge. I have been looking for months in multiple cities for a back seat for our truck. Told you I would get there! About a year into being on the road Lee removed our back seat and put in his tool chest. Later this came out and he built a wooden stand for storage that let the dog sit up high. We never missed the backseat, and then we had grandkids. With babies you need a rear seat to attach the car seat to and the last couple of years it has really put a crimp in our taking Oliver places. This would also be an issue with Elliott so the seat became a priority.
Unfortunately new ones are $1,000 just for the part and I didn’t want to spend that much. Imagine my excitement after months of searching when Stoystown had one!!!. Lee went right away and it only cost $100 for the seat and then another $100 for the seatbelt hardware. $200 was a huge bargain and in a few hours we had a back seat again!!
Lee removing the platform 
One seat!! 
Cleaning up!!! 
Ta Da 
Bill checking it out!!
Lee did an excellent job and we both felt that the universe was smiling at us. Now if the transmission fluid fixed the turbo problem we would be all set driving. We had a great time with our friends and were so grateful for their help but off we go to see our daughter Kay!
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Camper Chronicles 
Don’t you just hate it when you leave a repair shop snd something isn’t quite right?! I hope the coolant fixes it. What luck on the seat! Did you alter the dog platform or get rid of it? Always fun with Bill and Kelly! Enjoy time with Kay.
Hey Deb. Totally got rid of it. Poor Jack ❤️
Oh yay!!! Back seat is back!!