The big difference from other “hybrid” cars such as the “Prius”, is that propulsion is expected to be from the battery the majority of the time.  The battery can sustain travel for up to 40 miles, more than enough for most drivers daily needs (80% of Americans drive less than 40 miles in a day).  If needed, a gas engine is on-board as well, and by functioning as as a generator (a “GenSet”), it can increase the range for up to another 200 miles.    For the majority of Americans, that would mean eliminating gasoline for ever! 

Bob Lutz, GM’s 76-year-old vice chairman for global product development, and the force behind the project, say’s he’s shooting for a sales price of “$40,000 or less”.

Oh well, you can always wait for the end-of-year sale.

After a number of hours going through small farm towns, and mile after mile of newly planted fields, we arrived at Lake Clinton. They have “camp hosts” here to advise, take your money, etc. They were pleasant enough, but I guess “alcohol” is a big no-no, so we were asked if we had any on board. I said “I thought we might have a bottle of wine or two”. The camp host kinda winked and said to keep it under wraps. Judging from here demeanor, I think she welcomed any travelers that would/could leave her a bottle or two.

We had a lovely isolated spot on just up from the lake, with a path leading down to a small beach. In the morning, we made Maggie’s day by taking a short hike along the lake before departing for Chicago.

In Chicago, we looked up the birth place of Abby THe Design Goddess’s mother, Miriam. It was in Argo-Summit, IL, just southeast of downtown Chicago. Things have evidently changed since she grew up here, as it the area was pretty grubby. The grocery store that here family owned, with living upstairs, was now a TV repair shop, and by all appearances, a crack house up stairs. The whole area had a peculiar odor, kind of like slightly fermented tomato sauce. Anyway, we took many pictures for RV Mama’s Mama, and will report the sad news about her old digs.

We decided to do a quick loop through Chicago, so headed straight East and hopped on the famous Shore LIne Drive. Chicago is another one of those places we wished we could explore more – a beautiful looking downtown, art museums, etc., but it’s not easy parking a 35 foot RV towing a jeep in a busy, crowded, metropolitan area! Again, maybe “next time”.

What can I say, I can see why KOAs stay in business and do reasonably well – they are everywhere, and always convenient to the weary traveler. This one was just south of St. Louis. Again, pleasant, clean, curtious employees, and relatively attractive sites. No grief about our dog Maggie here – laissez faire.   

This was filmed just outside of Gallup, NM with a Nikon D300 set to 10 second interval. It was high on the dash on our camera mount.

According to Google Maps it was bad traffic for the next 35 miles.

Right as we are preparing to merge into the 5 north from the 10, one of the dirtiest, congested, graffitied areas in Los Angeles, probably the world, we hear a loud explosion and rumbling noise we thought we had a blown tire, about 2 miles down we find a pullout large enough for our rig and look around to find all the tires intact.

After looking around more we discover there is air rushing from the engine and it is misfiring, when we open the engine hatch i immediatly see the problem. We saw a gapping hole, and a spark plug dangling precariously by a thin wire!

At first not knowing what to do about it we tried calling a tow truck but they don’t do road side repairs anymore and all the shops in the are where closed for the weekend.

So with that bad news and being stuck on the side of the 5 South with traffic blasting past us i tried to see if we can get the plug back in.

After looking at the engine and the spark plug i realized that the engine and parts are intact. After putting it back in and torquing it by hand i put the Coil back together, it was then i noticed that the bracket for the Coil was broken and it would have nothing holding it there. But we where sitting on the side of the 5 freeway so we had to get it moving, with the Coil jury rigged in place i started the engine and it sounded better then before.

After calls to RV Dealers to try to get a new Coil we where told that spark plugs shooting out is a common issue, most the time ripping the threads from the engine block.

We then found the next Ford dealer that was on our way and purchased a new Coil for a whopping $106.09, remember we have a V10 so it would cost over $1000 to replace them all. Probably would be cheaper to buy a reconditioned engine!