Feb. 17, 2001, 09:00 A.M. A cold Saturday Morning and we are off for New Orleans. I have been preparing for a week, and we are ready. The diesel tank is full, (half summer fuel, and half mixed winter fuel), and two quarts of treatment to prevent diesel jelling. Can't load the car at home as the drive is too icy to tow it out, so the Wife will drive the car to the McDonalds Truck Stop five miles away, and I will load it there. Got everything all worked out. It is more than ten below zero, but we are ready!!
09:10 A.M. One half mile from home and the engine has no power. Can't be jelled, but seems like it. Well, I'll just sit here on the shoulder a while and see if it straightens out.
09:20 A.M. Okay, it did straighten out and I got about a mile, but here I am again. The Wife is in her car behind me with a puzzeled look on her face. Too damn cold to walk back there and explain. I'll just wait a while.
09:50 A.M. Got three miles with only three stops to warm up. I guess it is jelling after all. Shit!! I will overcome this and get to warmer weather if it kills me. Deputy Sheriff just stopped across the road and asked if I had trouble. Yeah I thought, as if I want to sit here and freeze my ass for fun. I explained to him that I thought the fuel was jelling, and he asked if I had far to go. I replied about 1300 miles and he laughed and left. Big help he was. I hope his heater quits!
10:30 A.M. Managed to limp to a parking lot in the Industrial Park. Walked back to my Wife's nice warm car and asked her to go to the auto store and get me some canned HEET. Hope that will disolve the jell. My Ass is COLD!
11:30 A.M. Heet did work and I am now at the truck stop. Motorthome is running fine and I will load the car and we will get the hell out of this cold. Wife wonders if maybe we should turn around and go home. I WILL NOT GO HOME! I WILL get to warmer weather. Theres no problem now. Is there?
12:30 P.M. Got about about twenty miles down the Interstate and I'm jelled again. The engine has not warmed up enough to open the thermostat, so we have no heat in the coach. The windshield is iced up and all I have is a little pee hole to see out of. I can scrape it, but it just ices up again. Wife must be cold. She is wearing mittens and is wrapped up in a robe. All I can see is her breath coming out of the robe and she is very quiet. The Air Ride System is frozen so the comperssor won't shut off, but the air bags are flat and the coach rides like a hay wagon. I say,"hang in there Honey, we'll get through this to warmer weather in no time at all". There is no answer, just a cloud of breath from the robe.
02:00 A.M. Well we're making good time. Since nine o'clock this morning I have goten eighty miles. Still no heat and the Wife is still pretty quiet but I have gotten into a truck stop and am filling up with blended fuel that shouldn't jell. Only problem is the tank is only one-quarter down. A friendly truck driver tells me never to use Heet in a diesel. What does he know, his ASS wasn't freezing.
