February 17 - 20 February 21 February 22 February 23 February 24 February 25 February 26 February 27 February 28 March 1 March 2 March 3 March 4 March 5 - 7 March 8 - 11	Wednesday March 8, 2006 When we woke up, it was trying to snow, so we packed up the car, explored a little more, then headed east. We got as far as Colby, Kansas for the night. Other than rain and spitting snow, it was an uneventful day. Oh, dinner that night was some of the best steaks we’ve had in a long, long time. The steak house we ate at did them right! Thursday March 9, 2006 We topped off the radiator and took off down I-70 again. It was not really an interesting day, at all. We landed in Columbia, MO, for the night. After checking in to the hotel, we tried finding a restaurant recommended by the front desk, in the dark - and it was raining. While looking for it, Carl noticed the car's temperature rising. It soon got into the red... We let it cool down and added some coolant. It seemed all right. Since we assumed it was a small leak, we stopped at Wal Mart after dinner (which was delicious - shrimp and crab ravioli) and picked up another container of Prestone and some stop leak. Then back to the hotel for the night. Friday March 10, 2006 Carl put in the stop leak and topped off the radiator. We loaded up the car, and headed off. We hadn’t gotten five miles down the road and the car redlined again!! We stopped at a truck dealer to borrow the Yellow Pages and find the Subaru dealership. After some searching, they found one (very friendly folks at this Freightliner). It was back about 14 miles, on the other side of Columbia. After topping off the radiator again, we headed back west. Just two miles down the road and the car was definitely in the red again. We pulled into the Subaru dealership (the only one between Kansas City and St. Louis - why didn’t this happen while we were in the Denver area, where there seems to be a Subaru dealership on just about every other corner???), steam rolling our from under the hood. They had no problems believing that we had a problem... They turned the car over to their top Subaru mechanic and we settled in for a wait. First, he replaced the thermostat. That wasn't the problem. The radiator was cool at the top and very, very hot at the bottom. So they pulled the radiator and sent it to the radiator shop for analysis and cleaning. It came back several hours later. About 6 of the 30-35 fins were working at all. Something had clogged the radiator, something almost unheard of on a car with 53,000 miles on it. So, they routed it out and fixed a couple of small leaks and brought it back. She runs fine now. (Edit two years later - it still runs fine!) Carl has a theory that the radiator may have been defective from the factory, but, since Subaru over-engineered the cooling system, it took this long to show up. Anyway, after a quick test drive, we were on our way again. It was now after 4 pm... We were determined to get a couple of hours down the road before stopping for the night. And we did. We saw the Gateway Arch in the distance as we crossed the Mississippi in St. Louis. One of these days, we’ll stop and ride the elevator to the top. We got to the eastern outskirts of St. Louis and collapsed for the night. Saturday March 11, 2006 I added together all the mileage we have left and, if we make it an “Orlando” day, we could make it home today. About 550 miles to go (it’s about 600 from here to Orlando). And we did. We stopped at the grocery store for supplies and drove into the driveway a little before 9. We woke up the dog . Unpacked and headed straight for the hot tub!! As a side note, Carl checked over the Forester the next day and discovered that it’s coolant level was a little low, also. And the hot tub popped the circuit breaker and gives an error message saying it’s overheated. Everything’s overheated!!! The hot tub people will be by on Tuesday to analyze that. It needed a pump replaced, which was a warranty item. We beat the bad weather home, luckily. Denver had a couple of more snow storms after we left. Flagstaff has finally gotten their first measurable snow of the season. The tornados that hit Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas on Sunday (3/12) hit some of the areas we went through on Saturday. Except for the ice storm, we did well on the weather.