(A word I will never not associate first with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.)
We woke up this morning in Kadoka and headed over to Badlands National Park for a couple hikes. The wildfire smoke seems to be a little worse today, really desaturating the sky, but that only added to the strange effect of the environment in the park. I’ve seen badlands formations in other parks like Petrified Forest and Death Valley, but here, those formations split mesas of grassy plains. It’s like Death Valley had a weird baby with a yard.
We stopped by the visitor center briefly, but fled when we realized two charter busses of tourists had crowded into the tiny space. Instead, we pressed on to a fossil exhibit and nature walk down the road. Because of the soft sediment at Badlands, there are more fossils discovered here than in most other parks. And, quite wholesomely, most are discovered by children — you know, people who are curious, close to the ground, and have a tendency to wander off.
On our way out of the park, we got stopped by a buffalo herd grazing along the highway.
From there, the drive to Keystone wasn’t too long. The Volvo and I both had a hard time. I developed a headache, shortness of breath, and fatigue — which prompted George to put a carbon monoxide monitor in my car, knowing that I may have an exhaust leak and I also can’t turn off my cabin air recirc. (No alarms detected! I’m inclined to blame the fire smoke, though this isn’t my first time traveling in a wildfire.)
But I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t breathe. The Volvo really struggled up the mountain to Keystone. The general lack of power isn’t unexpected — this is a geriatric wagon — but the engine also kept lugging and shaking like it had a misfire or intake problem. Flooring it in third, I should be climbing faster than cyclists…
Ultimately, we made it to our cabin for the next two nights. After dinner in town, we poked around my engine looking for obvious faults. Evan also graciously looped in his friends at a Saab/Volvo specialist shop in Tulsa. He asked a few leading questions, and we found a couple possibilities on our own.
Gabe also suggested pulling the cap off the distributor and cleaning any corrosion off the contacts in it. Tomorrow is a “beach” day after a string of heavy mileage days, so we’ll be tackling some of these things tomorrow. We’ll also try to make it over to Mount Rushmore and play some Zelda.
