05-02-2025 Entry

Woke up around 5:15, Ann was getting up too. We packed up the stuff from the tent and we're on the road a little after 6:00. Drove back through Sedona and got onto I-17 toward Phoenix. Stopped at a gas station for Ann to pee just outside Anthem, and an emission control system check engine light came on after we got on the freeway. Ann found us a repair shop in Anthem, Wilhelm Automotive, and they were very friendly and pretty quick to get the car in for diagnosis. It was the engine knock sensor again, not sure why it tripped this time, as I was regularly checking the oil. Maybe the 86 octane gasoline we used several times during the trip. To make sure there wasn't engine damage, we had the car towed to a Kia dealership in Peoria. Rode in the cab with the tow truck driver, who was the same age as me and looked at least 10 years older. At the Kia dealership, we dropped the car off, got some essential things out of the car, then I walked to an Enterprise rental car place and rented a Hyundai Kona SUV in case we needed a vehicle to drive home with our stuff. I drove back and picked Ann up along with our stuff, including my bike, then we drove to a locally owned pizza restaurant nearby and had lunch at a leisurely pace. After lunch, we walked around the suburban shops until I got a text message indicating that they had looked at the car. It didn't need any major work, but they checked the engine for malfunction and didn't find anything. They reset the computer and installed some new control firmware, and we were back on our way. Dropped the rental car off, then I drove home the whole way (pretty exhausting). I wanted to monitor how the car drove and keep the RPMs below 3000. We stopped to get gas in Glendale after we dropped off the rental car, then drove through Arizona and into California, stopping again for a bathroom break in El Centro. So, it was a long day, to put it mildly. Got home around 7:50 and pretty quickly unloaded the car, then I unloaded my bags, had a shower, and was ready to go to sleep.