Spring Fling 2026 - A Small Scare and now in Missouri

Due to foggy conditions we weren't able to leave the Richards farm HH until almost 8:00 a.m..  Traffic on I-70 was heavy at times and there was many instruction zones and two spots where we experience delays due to crashes that happened before we got there. 

In other words quite the slog, and then we had our little scared near the town of Wentzville.

We were cruising along and all of a sudden d engine lost power and shutdown!  Cursing, I posted what stop at a somewhat safe spot on the side of the highway.  The gauges were still operating so it wasn't the same problem as before I thought. After a bit I turn the engine back on, things seem to be fine, and we decided to drive to the next exit which we can see down the road. 

Getting off the highway, there happened to be a Camping World franchise right there! 

We drove into their parking lot and  parked the RV to check things out.  Nothing immediately or obviously wrong. She was a little low on oil so I added some.  I had noticed that she had thrown the usual P0152 OBD code and I mentioned it to Martha.

She immediately started using her Google-Fu and one of the items to be checked was the status of the air filter and also the MAF sensor. 

I opened up the air filter housing and discovered that the air cap on the air filter had separated from the filter element and had apparently blocked the air inlet enough to cause the engine to shut off on the highway.  At least that is the theory.

The black cap is supposed to be glued on...

We disconnected the Honda CRV and drove a couple of miles to the nearby NAPA auto parts store and got a replacement filter.  This time I bought the expensive version versus the cheaper one, hoping that the more expensive one have better glue to hold on to that stupid cap!

We hooked the Honda CRV back up and once again rejoin the slogging traffic on I-70. By 14:30 hours we had arrived at the Harriman Hill access camping spot just off of the I-70 highway. 

We secured a nice spot but we found that the site was next to the highway and there was quite a large amount of highway noise. 

Leaving the RV there, we took the Honda CRV and checked out the nearby Roberts Bluff camping area and boat ramp.

The site was quieter and empty of other camping rigs.  I left Martha with a lounge chair to hold down our spot while I raced back in the Honda CRV to the first site.  

I returned with the RV, towing the Honda CRV and setup camera. 

It was a hot and humid day under the sun and we both took cooling showers after setting up the RV for the night.  I even took a dip in the nearby river, using the boat ramp to get to the water.

There was a noticeable current in the river so I didn't go too far from that shoreline. 

The RV seem to run fine after I replaced the air filter. So I am hoping my theory was correct.