OT Back to reality

It was a hot but wonderful week at table rock lake this week.

The boating was great, I was super impressed with the cleanliness of the lake, you could easily see your toes. It is about 60 miles from end to end if you wind around and around. My boat has a 305 chevy engine in it. I cruised at 3500 RPM most of the time, which ended up being about 40 MPH and 5 GPH. I put about 14 hours on it this week, which was not to bad. The boat is 14 years old with a little over 100 hours, so this was a good week.

This was the first long haul with the 2016 super duty and I was impressed with the drivability, not the mileage. The trip was really hilly, I pulled the trailer at about 70 most of the way with the cruise on. It ran about 13 MPG most of the way, but dropped down to 9 in the steep hills. The hills south of I44 were the worst. The cruise held within a couple of MPH. The boost would pop up to 22 up the hills with no downshift and the transmission usually dropped 2 gears going down to keep the speed down. I used the tow mode most of the time in town and rarely used the brakes. It seemed that if I tapped the brakes in town, the engine would downshift and maintain the speed.

We went to see Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, and all I can say is WOW, they serve you a huge four course meal while you watch sort of a rode/riding show that is fabulous. I bet they fed way more than a thousand people during that show. I guess they also have one at Dollywood park. The legends singing show is really good, and my wife wanted to see the Greg Brady 70s revival. The original Outback steak house is there, which the chain was modeled after, food was really good there too.

Now home and back to work Monday

My folks had a house at Emerald Point on Table Rock Lake until they got too old to keep it up. It is the nicest lake I've seen - it rivals Colorado lakes, and those folks know how to take care of nature.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. That area has been my stompin' grounds since right after I graduated high school and went to college at Hard Work U (School/College of the Ozarks) at Point Lookout just south of Branson. I now live south of Springfield so I get down there quite often.

Landry's Seafood!!!!! Also that Greek restaurant downtown.... maybe also Rocky's Italian downtown, it it's still there..

lamberts hand tossed rolls at Ozark comes to mind. I ownd a dump truck and did lots of work there at branson. seen lots of shows too. as for table rock I like roaring river ,darn its cold by the cave where the water comes out.im about 65 miles north west of there.glad you enjoyed your trip too

Do they still make you drink out of a boot? We were there 10 years ago this fall for our honeymoon. They fed a lot of people when we were there too. Amazing how many cars are driving around at certain times of the day.

We drank out of mason jars at Dixie.

I forgot to mention the car and tractor museum. I would not spend the money on that if you are looking to see tractors. There were a lot, but they were common models, and the restoration quality on them was pretty poor. The car part was good, but not really worth the money.

Yes, we did eat at Landry's, they are a chain, but the food is always great.

The Bob Evans there was very good and they have corn meal mush.

They are getting a ton of power out of these new engines, but the way they tune them to make them as idiot-proof as possible, burns a lot more fuel. The BTO I worked for did a full delete on his 6.7 Cummins looking for fuel mileage, but said it just feels like it has the power to match the fuel mileage now.

Of course the guy behind the wheel is the biggest factor, and I think his feet are made of a denser-than-normal lead alloy. 15 mpg at 80 mph in a solid-axle 4x4 isn't that bad.

Drop it to 65 and see what it does. Granted my old Cummins has over 270 thousand on it, but I can still hit 20 plus if I behave and keep it around 65. I lose 2 mpg before I get to 70 mph.

I've also found that other than running around town, tow mode makes for better mileage if the truck is run at the right speed. Like just fast enough to keep it in high gear with the converter locked.