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20050609 Revelstoke BC 52/78Partly cloudy, clear later. Picture Link
Three hundred twenty-three miles today. We wanted to get reasonable close to Lake Louise, Alberta so we can arrive there tomorrow early enough to be assured a campground site in their first-come-first-served park.
So we blasted out of Fort Langley, turned west and scurried to Hope BC, where we refueled in a gas station that had construction in the road in front of it. We had to back out of the pumps into a parking lot to get back out onto the road.
From Hope we took BC-5, a toll road, the hundred and some miles to Kamloops BC. This toll road is a shortcut that saves miles (hard miles) if you follow the Transcontinental Hwy (TC-1). We'd taken enough of this road downhill four years ago to know we didn't want to buck it uphill. Even BC-5 has two decent hills on it, Coquihalla Summit (1244m) and another whose name I've forgotten at 1444m (about 4,700 feet).
Kamloops then to Revelstoke via TC-1 again, mostly at water level following a big lake named Shuswap Lake. We stopped to take a few pictures.
We pulled into the local KOA here and made up sphagetti with meat sauce and hot italian sausage. With wine, it was quite good. Since it had turned warm here, we took a hike around the campground. We even said hello to the campground horses and ducks.
The water pressure in the shower was enough to blow one out the door, but it felt good anyway.
When we settled into the trailer, we dragged out the computer and printer and printed the strip maps for the next phase of the trip - from Lake Louise, Alberta, to Homer, Alaska, via the Cassiar Highway. You'll see it as we go.
One radio station here (CBC), no TV. Really quiet.
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The truck did well all day, but I had to get used to a whole different sound from the engine. I suppose this is caused by the new injectors and rebuilt pump delivering fuel more efficiently to the cylinders and the different injection pump timing put in at PDR yesterday.
Other than sound, the truck has a little more power although I didn't put it to any severe test today. When I jump on the throttle I get instant snappy response (and a cloud of black smoke). When I'm not pushing it, there is little smoke and it just purrs along as it always did.
The change in the injection pump to a 3,000 RPM governor spring (from 2,500) makes a big difference, as I thought it would. For a good part of the day we cruised at 2700 RPM in 3rd (direct, not overdrive) doing about 67mph; with the prior governor I would have been pushing my foot to the floor but now I have throttle left over if I want more. It will heat up faster (of course) when I'm going faster like this, so I'll have to watch the EGT's (exhaust gas temperature) and transmission temperature.
So, it was a good move to make these changes to the truck and to have it done at PDR, a little out of the way.
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