Day Two - Saturday June 5th
Woke up at 4AM, hoping to be rolling by 5AM, missed our time by 15 minutes. First bit of road had us on Route 66, made it about 5-6 miles before my dad lets me know that there is a rather warm puddle at his feet. He suggested turning around and returning to Chenoa while we still could. I made a uey, traveled a couple hundred yards then pulled the van over thinking it's just the heater core, we don't need that. Opened the hood, looked over the hoses and saw that they were held in place with spring clips. Removed both hoses from the heater core and the upper one at the block, then routed the lower hose back to the block to discover that GM used two different diameter hoses the smaller of which was still connected to the block. I compared the two hose diameters and thought that I might get lucky and have the small stretch enough it go on the bigger fitting. After a few attempts the hose slid tightly in place, but the smaller spring clamp wouldn't fit. Had to pull the hose back off to use one of the spring clips from the bigger hose. Once attached, I grabbed the emergency gallon of water and filled the reservoir. About a 20-25 minute fix and we were back on the road.
Not long after I was glad my dad applied the Rain-X. Heavy rain came down across eastern Illinois and western Indiana, and rain was common for most of our trip east. Our first stop was in Indianapolis, IN, first at a Kroger for lunch supplies and gas, then at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take a picture of Grumpy in front of the sign. I thought about a side trip to Morrow as we passed through Ohio, but it added to much time to the day's drive. Since we were passing near Hershey, PA a detour was made for a pic, which made for some wrong turns and fun driving as a result.
Back on the interstate we pushed on, it was getting dark and my dad didn't like the idea of reaching NYC at midnight and finding a place to park and sleep. Just inside the Jersey border we pulled off into a Travel America, went inside to get ready for bed, then set the van up for sleeping. Circled the TA lot looking for a darker spot, but the only dark I could find was out back by the semis, which for some reason at this TA was off limits. My dad saw a indicator for a welcome center/rest area up ahead, so we drove to it. Turned out to be one of the no facilities/dark pull-offs that mostly truckers use. I've slept in these before so I pulled the van into a spot at the far end near the ramp. Not sooner had I shut off the engine than we see a police car cruising through, shining the spot light all over the place. Of course it ends on beat up old Grumpy. The officer gets out of his car, comes up to the window, in a huff and asks what I'm doing here. Being honest I replied that I was hoping to get some sleep before heading into NYC in the morning. Turns out that this rest area is a gay-prostitute hot spot, it had just reported that someone was running around naked and at that moment I was suspect number one. Great. Two more squads show up. Living out an episode of Cops, I get asked out of the vehicle to be questioned separately from my father to see if our stories match while another cop is flashing his light in the van asking why there is a bed in the back. The cops huddle together match our stories and after warning me that I better not be the naked guy that we can go ahead and sleep there. Yeah, right. My dad gets on the GPS and finds a couple hotels nearby, we pulled in behind a Holiday Inn and slept. This one night experience ending the van camping for the trip.
