Well, in the last week, I logged approximately 3,000 miles on the 'burban. Some of them were easy, some were difficult, and some proved to be almost impossible. Literally.
The way up there was a breeze. Too good to be true, honestly. Cruised 75mph the whole way with occasional 80mph bursts if I was feeling frisky. Oh, and before I continue, I didn't track a single mpg because I don't care.
We drove into the mountains to Winter Park for a little snowmobiling. The drive up I70 and back was miserable. CO needs to get there act together there, my friends. I realized instantly once I started getting into the mountains that the 350's days were numbered once I got it back to TX. Just no power to handle those hills at all. On the other hand, going down hills was a breeze with the ol' NV backing it up. Didn't need to crowd the brakes at all.
The way back was a challenge. I was planning on meeting up with a fellow CK5'er
@ZooMad75 but that was gonna be tough so I decided to roll on through beautiful and scenic Pueblo

and keep going. Apparently, Pueblo doesn't appreciate TX humor because the sub stared going apesh!t right after I made it through. Won't go into every detail but the fix was to pull over and reset the ECM by disconnecting the battery every hour or so after that.
From there on out I thought I was golden but then my bad luck came back with a vengeance around the time I started approaching those steep passes near Raton. The sub started going nuts again and would barely do 25/30 up the passes and spitting and sputtering the whole time. We were headed for Santa Fe but it was just about dark and getting cold and I didn't want to risk getting stranded with my wife and one year old in the middle of nowhere so I decided to stay the night in Raton. Yay.
I spent a few hours messing with it before bed and took it for a test drive and naturally it ran awesome. Couldn't figure out what the eff happened but the next morning I decided to just drive it home. Wasn't feeling too adventurous since I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Again, I won't get into all the details but it really had me stumped.
Next morning we messed around in town and about noon we were headed for beautiful Lubbock, TX (definitely being sarcastic here) and about 40 miles North of Lubbock a banshee yelled out from under the hood of the suburban. I had no effing clue what the noise was but I pulled over and kept it running and popped the hood and immediately noticed that the tensioner pulley wasn't turning. The belt was still intact but I knew it was a ticking time bomb so I shut it down. The next town was Littlefield, TX and the Oreilly's there had the parts I needed. I called the local non-emergency number and asked if a county officer could pick me up and give me a ride into town and they said no problem. I was extremely grateful but the officer got busy with other calls (I completely understood that I was at the bottom of the list) but as time went on I realized that Oreilly's would be closing soon. So, without too much time to spare (an hr-ish) I pulled the belt off the sub and cranked her up and headed down the highway. When the temp hit 210 (I was going about 55mph for roughly a min) I shut it down and coasted. Pulled over, popped the hood and waited. Once it cooled off, I did that again. And again. And again. And again. I got within 2 miles of the store and realized I wasn't going to make it so I got out of the sub, handed my wife a pistol and took off on foot. I am no marathon runner by any means but I do run occasionally so the 2 miles wasn't too difficult but I'm sure I looked like some sort of fool running down through town fully dressed lol. Anyways, I literally got there within 5 minutes of them closing and bought the parts.
Naturally, the parts wouldn't work....so I hopped back in the sub and drove a mile at a time until I got to the hotel and ate a whole pizza a relaxed in a hotel room til I passed the heck out. Woke up the next morning and took another stroll to the Oreilly's to get the correct parts and come back to the hotel, fix it and drive my happy ass home.
I've been home for an hr as I type this and I don't regret the trip a single bit even though I was challenged a fair bit. Thank God I have at least some sense in order to get myself out of a relatively tight spot.
I encourage everyone to take their squares on a road trip with the family. It's a blast.