Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Travelin’ Man”

27 Oct 2015
12 Comments

Trippin’ Toward Pioche

Moving out of Wendover is not all bad when lots of little flying friends wait patiently at the screen door to come in and say hi.

Moving out of Wendover is not all bad when lots of little flying friends wait patiently at the screen door to come in and say hi. They gravitate toward whatever side of the trailer is on the draft side of the wind, especially when it’s cooler outside.

Monday began on a path not entirely unfamiliar. Having camped near Wendover for a little over a couple of weeks, I was near completion of breaking camp when a City of Westover pickup truck stopped by. Its proprietor worked at a water treatment plant somewhere up the long, paved climb and had apparently driven past each day, wondering just how much solar panel wattage the Mighty Defiant had proudly been displaying during her stay. On hearing that the total panel power approached 800 watts, he asked whether that was enough to run an air conditioner. He was within shooting distance of retirement, and had a modest rig with a very modest solar system, and found the whole solar thing to be a helpful but deep mystery when it comes to the specifics of possibilities. Naturally, I had to shoot down his hope of moving away from a generator for that kind of thing. I suppose that all those side-hanging panels make for a memorable rig, since I was surprised that he was already aware that this had been my third visit in as many years – something I hadn’t fully realized until he mentioned it!

A low cloud does its thing outside my door.

A low cloud does its thing outside my door.

By the end of the long conversation, he had volunteered that he had gone to culinary school and had a fondness for cooking, which neatly dovetailed with Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged ,
11 Oct 2015
2 Comments

In Limbo In Wendover

The Mighty Defiant is now very near the Bonneville Salt Flats just outside of Wendover, Utah. The campsite is an unromantic spot in the flat area where racers tend to congregate in August and September in a sort of junkyard camping festival. I wondered at the different appearance of the entire surface here, as it looks like vegetation has made a start at filling in places where the campers usually congregate. Looks as though nobody’s been here! An online tour of the various clubs that use the track for speed events indicates that few if any have been able to use the track due to rainstorms flooding the salt surface. A little Datsun-based truck camper has commandeered the spot I had last year, and I explored an alternate further in – as far as it’s safe to go with the Defiant – that has a rock projection surrounded by “dirt” and thick dust. That was a no-go, since a walk around it showed that the Ford alone might make it with momentum in 4WD, but with the trailer, no way.

The Defiant is unhitched, but still in Travel Mode because the winds are brisk and gusty enough that carrying the big solar panels out to hang them would be risky and difficult. I wondered at that, because on the short romp here, the Mighty Furd was Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged
10 Oct 2015
7 Comments

That Weather Thing

Well, I got up today and checked the weather. Surprise! There is an advisory out that a cold front will be moving in tomorrow. No rain, just wind. Predicted gusts of up to 50MPH “in the windier locations”. That’s here on top of this bluff, for sure. I hate to think what the true windspeed will be up here. Time to bail. Remember my post saying that having the weather forcibly mess with my camping was a nuisance? Here ya go.

This will not be at all easy, since the Defiant’s various supplies are low and must be replenished, the waste tanks need to travel empty, and the decamping procedure is lengthy, which will badly eat into the 5-6 hour drive to Wendover, Utah. Resupplying in Wendover is possible, but more limited and problematic. I was going to take a different route south on this trip, but delaying here in Green River, Wyoming has made my original route non-optimal.

In short, I’ll be offline until all things can be made happy-happy again!

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged
23 Sep 2015
6 Comments

A Miss and a Hit

You know, if I had a fishing license...

You know, if I had a Wyoming fishing license…

The trip to Green River, Wyoming was uneventful save for the beginning and the end of the 245-mile jaunt. The dirt trail going into Vedauwoo is bad washboard, as I’ve whined about before. My camping spot was just short of a couple of miles past the paved entrance. On the way in, I’d taken it at a crawl, the F-250s stiff springs making it jerk about, while the Defiant bounced up and down on the pronounced ridges with a sort of whaka-whaka rhythm. I noticed a hard-side truck camper idle in the following day, bouncing and rocking something fierce, too.

Since that time, the many passing vehicles appeared to be taking it at about 20-30 MPH, and although the ones with various kinds of trailers made a horrendous noise, that seemed to be the style of the locale. So, running solo later on a couple of errands to Laramie, I tried it. The trick was to get up to speed as quickly as possible in order to minimize the rather alarming judder. Not that bad! It was also not bad in that it chopped the trail time from a half-hour to a few minutes. All I had to do on hitting the pavement was to shove the GPS’ power plug back in. On the way back, slowing down to take the turn into my camp was unique, in that slowing on the washboard steered the back end right as the rear tires, inflated to their towing pressure of 75 PSI, made only occasional contact with the ridges. That aided my left turn, but the resulting door shake was disconcerting.

in the right type of RV, this place would be quite a treat.

in the right type of RV, this place would be quite a treat.

When departing for what promised to be a 5-hour drive – four hours to get to Green River, and maybe another hour to take Wyoming 530 and then nine miles of 012, marked as the “Lost Dog” Use Area – I decided to man-up and pull the Defiant over the washboard at speed. What the heck, why not try it? To crawl out again would just take too long, and the manly approach usually Read more…

Posted in Campsites, The Defiant, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , ,
07 Sep 2015
9 Comments

Wyoming!

Ooo, birdie!

Ooo, birdie!

Just into the eastern border of Wyoming is a welcome center at about 5,100′ elevation, high enough to knock the cabin temps down to a balmy 83 degrees. There are only an official 6 truck spaces here, though more will probably pack around the perimeter. It has a slight slope to it, but nothing that the fridge can’t compensate for.

So much for rest stops in corn fields...

So much for rest stops in corn fields…

Today’s drive was the proverbial three-hour, 177-mile jaunt, and with the shift to Mountain Time, I got here somewhere after 1 o’clock. Not a tough day.  The Magic Readout initially showed 12 MPG for quite awhile, but the gradual climb up netted 11. That was until I noticed a roaring sound over the radio’s music. With the radio off, it was apparent that I was suddenly bucking a pretty stout headwind about half an hour short of this stop, and the turbo pressure gauge was higher than normal in order to keep speed up. Keeping an eye on the pressure gauge is an instant way to get a pretty good idea of Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man
06 Sep 2015
10 Comments

Wimped Out Again!

No much for picturesque, but the WiFi signal is awesome. That's the park's #3 antenna next to the trailer.

No much for picturesque, but the WiFi signal is awesome. That’s the park’s #3 antenna next to the trailer.

Well, this was an odd end of day. I hit the Cozad Rest Area, and with only six truck spaces inline right next to the highway, mostly full, I could tell that it would not be primo. So, I went some 17 miles further west to my Plan B stop, another rest area near Brady, Nebraska. That had 22 truck spaces in diagonal. That was about half-full already, but I pulled in and began liberating the Defiant’s couch so I could lounge.

Trouble was, the cooling rain never showed up, and the trailer’s interior was once again reading 92 degrees. I listened to the refrigerated truck next to me grinding away, and the sheen of sweat began. Ugh. Another hot, moist and noisy night. Plus, Nebraska officially allows only a 10-hour stop.  I yanked out the iPhone and Googled “RV Park North Platte, NE” and found the Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged
05 Sep 2015
10 Comments

Comfort Wins

Good advice from Atlas Van Lines.

Good advice from Atlas Van Lines.

Pragmatism won out over Cheapskate. After a miserable overnight in Victor but a nice morning, I decided to forgo a duplicate at a rest stop near Underwood, Iowa in favor of a little-used RV stop hidden behind an Econo Lodge about 25 miles short in Walnut. The 88-feels-like-96 temps and high humidity made me not look forward to enjoying the journey after climbing out of the air-conditioned Mighty Furd. Once you climb into the 92-degree Defiant to lounge and relax, it’s more like the sweatbox in any WWII POW camp movie you’d care to name. But it is a more comfortable heat stroke, I admit.

Nighttime at the rest stop. Do people never stop finding these things? A 1930s Ford sedan, shot over the back of my 2008 Ford pickup. That duct tape holding down the edges of the roof's cloth inset will have to come off, pronto.

Nighttime at the rest stop. Do people never stop finding these things? A 1930s Ford sedan, shot over the back of my 2008 Ford pickup. How ya doin’, cousin? That duct tape holding down the edges of the roof’s cloth insert will have to come off, pronto.

I wouldn’t call this an RV park, exactly. It’s a great idea that somebody had a couple of decades ago, and then it Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man
04 Sep 2015
10 Comments

Victor, Iowa

IMGP1471

Rest stops in Iowa are pretty nice, overall. This one is a little toasty at 90 degrees, but that can’t be helped. I’m not busting a gut to get through Iowa because rest stops are frequent on I-80, and they let you stay up to a day. Illinois is more like 4 hours and Nebraska is 10. So I’ll be picking up the pace in Nebraska. There’s little point in getting to Wyoming ASAP, since I’d get there before any campsites opened up on Tuesday.

Labor Day traffic is up, but that means little to me since my 60 MPH cruising speed means that no one is in my way – I’m one of the obstacles to be gotten around! I was concerned for Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged
17 Jun 2015
2 Comments

Just a Glance Back

New Mexico, Land of Enchantment and Whoop-De-Do's.

New Mexico, Land of Enchantment and Whoop-De-Do’s.

Previously, I’ve written day-by-day travel accounts on my voyages from Illinois to Arizona and back. Not this trip, since these long-distance transports of the Mighty Defiant are simply that – eight days of driving a total of two thousand miles at sixty MPH, and stopping to overnight at the closest workable facility. Depending on the state, that includes Interstate rest stops, truck stops, city park campgrounds, and Sam’s Club parking lots. Ah, the romance of the road. In this case, enjoying the journey is not part of the equation. The goal is to Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged
28 May 2015
12 Comments

More Adventure!

Hmmm, think some tire dressing would help?

Hmmm, think some tire dressing would help? Note the rubber marks on the body and the broken-off piece of fender.

Well, the inevitable happened. I was going to post about what I saw at the Overland expo next and ignore the return trip, but here you go. Travelling up I-25 north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, I stopped at a rest area to hit the potty and check the Defiant’s wheel bearing and tire temperatures. Everything was stellar. Not ten miles farther on, I felt some weirdly bumpy pavement and while I was wondering what the deal was, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that the trailer was no longer level side to side. Glancing out the right side mirror, bits of tire debris were spewing out of the Read more…

Posted in Daily Life, The Defiant, Travelin' Man and tagged ,

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