Road Trip: Day 29

Last night the weather decided to get dramatic, and not long after I went to sleep a line of thunderstorms passed through the area. This morning there were a few lingering showers, but nothing major.

Today consisted of a very long and boring drive across Kansas and Eastern Colorado. You know it’s going to be a long day when the GPS says, “In 410 miles turn left”!

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I slowly worked through the miles, looking at the clock far too often. It didn’t take long for the songs on the radio to start repeating… at which point I quickly realized I’m terrible at karaoke. While I survived, I really don’t know how I’ll be able to make it through the scheduled 9.5hr drive across Nevada on I-50 I’ll be doing in a week!

I drove 7,849 with zero issues, but today I received a “Contact Dealer” alert. At first I thought it was my “Rest Reminder”, but I turned that off last year… and the fuel gauge was showing completely empty. The code that was thrown was P0461 “Fuel level sensor circuit range/performance”. The G8 was running fine… fuel pressure was up, pumps were turning on, etc. I checked the fuel level reading on my DashHawk and it showed 38% (which is where it should have been). I was planning to stop and investigate, but after ~40 miles the alert cleared and the fuel gauge returned to normal. I’ll keep an eye-out for other fuel issues, but so far it seems this was just a hiccup.

As I approached the Denver area I spotted a rain cloud in the distance. I figured it would make for a dramatic background, but before I could find a good place to stop for a photo… I was in the thick of it! At times the rain was so heavy I could feel my tires having a difficult time pushing through the standing water. Fortunately the rain didn’t last long and cleared-out as I arrived at my hotel.

After checking into the hotel I ventured out to take my daily photo of the G8. I tried a few places but with no success. I found a transit station with a cool bridge, but it was in a bus pick-up/drop-off area. Disregarding the “do not enter” signs I swung around, parked briefly, and snapped a few photos.

I had originally planned to spend the next two days in a rental car driving to some of the highest roads in the US, but the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating.

I’ve rearranged hotels with the hope that maybe the snow will melt, but it’s not looking good. Oh well, I guess this is a good excuse to return to Colorado next year!