We left Las Vegas after morning restock, headed up I-15. We got to St George UT via a terribly twisty and windy traverse of the Virgin River Gorge. Don’t know how we could have gone a different route, but we’ll be looking next time. Twelve miles of stomach clenching and mild terror. Avoid this passage.
We stopped for visitor info in St. George. Following the recommended route (St George to Hurricane to Fredonia AZ then north to Glendale UT) took us over a large part of the Arizona Strip. About three miles south of Orderville UT (about 10 miles from the end of this leg), the Goose lost all power. Restarting the engine a few times allowed us to make it to the campground, albeit accompanied by the dreaded Check Engine Light (CEL). We got advice on where we could get the code scanned and decided to do that the next day. We thought the trouble might be a hot transmission, since we had climbed from 4600 ft to 6100 ft in about 38 miles, up and down.
Next day (Wednesday, 9/14), we dropped the Gosling and motorcycle and got the Goose down to Orderville and the code scanned. The tech didn’t record the code number, and cleared it before we could see it. They said it was emissions related and shouldn’t be a problem. So, we found coffee and croissants. We tried to return to the campground, but power loss and CEL recurred. A phone conversation with the Mercedes dealer in St. George ensued, with them recommending we try to limp back to St. George in lieu of waiting many hours/ maybe a couple of days for a heavy wrecker to come get us.
We took the advice, traveling about 100 miles in well over three hours. We were on highways, climbing hills at 10 mph in first gear, the only way to get up the hill. After the first hill rose 1500 ft, and we made it, I thought we’d eventually get back to St. George.
We count ourselves fortunate to have gotten back to the MB dealership, and to have the Goose taken in for analysis the same day. Once again, a tech named Josh worked on our rig (third time this year), assessing a sticking fuel injector. Since the engine was hot, they couldn’t work on it until the next day.
We occupied ourselves with finding a rental truck to retrieve the Gosling from Glendale, a rental car in case we had to stay in St. George for a few days, and a hotel room to lay our head. With a few minor issues, we did all those. We then had great food at the local Ribs/ Chop House, with a feeling of stress relief.
The next day (Thursday, 9/15), we drove back to the campground, loaded the motorcycle into the Gosling, hooked up the Gosling, and drove back to St. George. We picked up a rental car, having decided to skip Bryce and Zion this trip. We dropped the Gosling at the hotel. By then the Goose was ready for pickup, with the new injector installation having been covered by the MB extended power train warranty. We drove the Goose to the hotel, hooked up the Gosling despite having been blocked by parked cars and parked the Goose/ Gosling combo beside the hotel and found some lamb curry.
Finally, we decided to go the the Grand Canyon the next day, then start driving toward Winslow AZ for the rest of the trip.
Steve Steele
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of relief that comes when a potentially vacation-ruining cluster@$!* gets resolved. Glad things smoothed out. Remind me to tell you about our flight to Copenhagen when next we meet.