Finally, A Bad Thing

So the bad thing finally happened yesterday. On the way back from dinner Friday my warning came on for diesel exhaust fluid. It’s an additive that makes the exhaust less noxious. It’s usually no problem. My first thought was why didn’t the dealer fill the tank when I was in for service some weeks back? But sometimes they say they’ve checked things when they obviously haven’t.

The bigger problem came when we went to fill the tank and it overflowed. Maybe the dealer had put it in. But then why the warning? Oh well. It’s full now. No problem. But the warning wouldn’t go off. I did remember the dealer telling me it sometimes takes a few starts for the message to go off. Nope.

It’s Saturday on a holiday weekend. All the service departments in the immediate area were closed. We finally found one almost two hours away near Portland. The tank was not full and the warning needed to be manually cleared.  If we had run out of the fluid, or if the truck thought we were out of fluid, it would have restricted our speed to 50 miles per hour. Not a good speed for towing a trailer on the highway. But now we are all set.

The good part of the trip to Portland was a stop at VooDoo Donuts. We weren’t going to make a two hour trip just for donuts. I guess maybe the truck heard us and created a way to get us some donuts.

By the time we got back to the camper it was late. We took our showers and watched TV. I edged Lion orally. Afterward he made a comment that we haven’t played yet but he’s had some attention and he loves that. When exactly were we supposed to have the time and energy to play so far? We were tired Friday but I still made sure to edge him. We were gone all day yesterday but I still made time to edge him. I think that’s leaps and bounds ahead of where we usually are in any trip. True, it’s not play, but it’s keeping him happily unhappy. Today I’ll have to make sure nothing happens to invade our play.