The van was still running ok though so we headed south, trying to figure out where to take it for some service. Jill, our GPS, came up with a Mercedes dealer address in Ft Wayne, right on our way. The service manager in there couldn't take the van in today, but did come out and diagnosed the trouble code.
He reset the code and sent us on our way, no charge. It was Emissions related, and he felt it was unlikely to be a problem (and as it turned out he was right).
It happened that the dealership was right on the road that became Hwy 24 outside of town, so we were able to just head west on #24, which is what we intended to do today. Not a really pleasant drive, with strong winds from the South blowing snow across the road and building up small drifts. It was actually better driving into the wind once we turned South on #41, as there was no snow blowing across the road then.
Along the way today we stopped at a WalMart and got a portable WiFi hotspot. It's one of their own brand, and a $40 card gives us 4Gb which expires after 60 days, so it could cover our trip. We deliberately tried to get it registered on the Verizon network, and apparently did. We've had web access when neither of our phones could connect with AT&T, even for phone or text access, and even at our isolated campground tonight.
We got to a basically deserted state park in Illinois this afternoon (Stephen A Forbes), with electricity live at the site. It got up to 13.5C today but is falling now, so will be good to have some electric heat. Free camping too!
It's dark now, but still 20C or so. I'm typing this email out at the picnic table in my shirt-sleeves. Nice change!
I should have mentioned yesterday that we had the smoothest US entry ever for us. The only car in front of us in the line pulled away as we were stopping. The agent checked our passports, asked where we were going and how long, how much money we had with us, and sent us on our way.
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