On Lydia's last work weekend, April 5th and 6th, the southeast was getting hammered with rain, so I decided to load up the Ody for a weekend of chasing rain. The best rain appeared to be in the Alabama/Tennessee area, so once I got off of work on friday I loaded up and headed for Canton, GA, which would be a good place to stop and wait and see what the rains had brought up. At about 1am, I pulled into the parking lot behind the comfort inn, climbed in the back of the van and went to sleep. Upon waking up, I pulled out the laptop and checked the gages... Nothing was running from all of that rain! So, after a few phone calls I was headed to Chattanooga to meet up with Jonathan Shanin and Dave Levit to try and catch something on the Plateau.
We headed to Henderson Creek and met up with a crew of Knoxville and Chattanooga Boaters and loaded up for the shuttle. Here we are strapping every boat we can to Ted Hayes's F250.
Fortunately for us, this was also the first trial of a new "short" put in, found by Kirk Eddlemon. After a short hike in, we were just a few hundred yards above the first rapid, Spinal Adjustment.
The second drop at the bottom of the shot leads into a 10-12 foot drop onto rock, hence the name. My Line was good, and fortunately, my spine was not in need of adjustment. The rest of the run consists of some big class 5 boulder drops and then the run out is on a nice class 4+ stream, Richland Creek. Unfortunately, I didn't take anymore pictures since I had other things on my mind. Jonathan and Dave and I headed back to Chattanooga and spent the night at Dave and Kat's house. Jonathan and I woke up, checked the gages, and noticed that Big Creek was running, so we made our way back to Greenville via Big Creek and the Smokies. Good Lines, Great level, good times....After two nights in the Van, I made the conclusion that while our sleeping loft was at least as good as a ultralight thermarest on the ground, we could do a lot better. So, our sleeping loft now has a new Memory Foam mattress topper, and it is VERY comfortable. Much better!
During the next week, I decided to catch up on maintenance on the Van. I changed the oil, and did a drain and fill on the transmission. Odysseys are not known for having great transmissions, so I figure the ounce of prevention was worth the time. I plan to do the transmission every other oil change to be on the safe side.
The next weekend, April 12 and 13, I had to work on Saturday, so Lydia and I decided to take the Ody up to the Ocoee to meet Brian and Erica for a Day of Fun on Sunday. For the unfamiliar, our Ocoee Day of Fun Consists of paddling the Ocoee in the Morning/early afternoon followed by a Mountain Bike ride in the afternoon. The trails at the Upper Ocoee whitewater center (Tanasee) are very high quality, and have several great downhills. Here's a shot of the two of us after the ride.
The van did great, and over the two trips averaged 22-23 mpg. Not bad.After our Ocoee trip, I drove the van Tuesday, and had the Dreaded Check Engine and TCS lights come on. I was afraid that the transmission was going south, but I went to the Advanced Auto and had them pull the codes from the computer to see what was wrong. The codes were P1491 and P1739. After some research, I found that the P1491 was a code for an EGR valve problem due to a plugged EGR port, and the P1739 code was for a 3rd Gear pressure switch in the transmission.
The fix for the EGR code involved removing the intake manifold and cleaning out the EGR port, as well as cleaning out the EGR valve. Below shows the EGR port (Center top) clogged completely up. There is a dealer fix for this that includes installing a teflon liner to this port, but I chose to clean it out and see how long it stays clean. 
The 1739 code it seems can be tripped by a wiring problem in the transmission harness, so I checked and cleaned all of the connections, and the light is out. No more codes!
Immediately after cleaning the EGR port, the van feels much peppier. Not bad for $6 worth of Throttle body cleaner and 2 hours of time.
That's all for now!
