Hi Tony,
First and foremost, THANK YOU for your service....America loves you and appreciates your work, you have to know that.
From what I've seen, for every civilian that thanks you, twenty more want to but we're just a little shy!
Second, when you clean your throttle body, make sure you know if it is O2 Sensor safe or not...from what I've used 'Carb cleaner' is not but 'Throttle body cleaner' is. Make sure the can says O2 sensor safe.
Third, I had a minivan a long time ago who's throttle body main valve/ pintle dried out so bad the accelerator got stuck on wide open throttle...in traffic. Yeah.... that was a fun 10 seconds. Had to shift into nuetral and kill the engine at 50 mph in heavy traffic...what a thrill. Lesson: even after cleaning the throttle body, lube it. On that vehicle all that was needed was simple vehicle grease. Never had a problem there again.
You might have sent the crud you cleaned out into the combustion chambers and possibly smaller throttle body chambers.
You CAN use a mist of water to clean deposits, but it is hard on the engine so don't overdo it (learned that trick from a retired air force mech.)
On the towing, my 3.2L 2002 Rodeo Sport tows 4500 lbs.
Lemoore is pretty flat (and boring I'm afraid) and if you come in from the south it shouldn't be too bad. Is that where "Top Gun" school is? Yeehaw!
Welcome to California,
johann
(Sacramento)