Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Travelin’ Man”

28 Apr 2015
2 Comments

Tusayan!

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The scenics between Congress and Kirkland were amazing, but there’s no place to not pay attention to the road, let alone stop for a photo. So, you get I-40 heading toward Williams instead.

I arrived in the Prescott National Forest a few miles north of Paulden, Arizona today. It was supposed to be yesterday, but my departure was held up by the discovery that the 2-year-old connector hoses running from the dual 30# propane tanks to the pressure regulator on the front of the Defiant were leaking. I was going to take a date-expired tank in to a welding shop in Wickenburg that also does propane refills. They swap them for newer ones for $9.50. Opening up the remaining tank on the trailer showed it to be empty, which it definitely should not have been. Both rubber hoses showed deep cracks, so that was that. It took me long enough to find an accessible dump station, trade in the propane tank for a 5-year newer one and chase down two hoses, that it would have been a bugger to get to Paulden so late in the day.

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The Defiant Biosphere heads into the forest in Tusayan.

 

So I arrived in the camping area north of Prescott about 1 PM today. I found that the spot I was hoping for was Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged
02 Jan 2015
6 Comments

Ima Inna Yuma

As long as my wheel chocks hold, I'll have a pretty view out the window each day.

As long as my wheel chocks hold, I’ll have a pretty view out the window each day.

I arrived in Yuma, Arizona about a week and a half ago, or more properly, Winterhaven, California. The border between the two is just a few miles down the road. Turns out I arrived just in time, since a cold front moved in that day and has been producing lows in the high 20s and low 30s more recently. How is that good, you ask? It’s even colder in Quartzsite. Normal cabin temps settle Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , ,
06 Nov 2014
7 Comments

Parker to Quartzsite

A rest stop on 95, alongside the Pahranagat National Wildlife Reserve.

A rest stop on 95, alongside the Pahranagat National Wildlife Reserve.

I made it to Quartzsite, Arizona from Wendover, Utah. The photo above is what was missing from an earlier post about Pahranagat, but I figured it was worth posting now since most roadside rest stops are flat, denuded affairs that have no charm. This one has very usable picnic tables, shade trees, decent views, and a break from winds.

Wendover to Parker was originally scheduled to be four short days of driving, but the first day had to be doubled because of the combination of high altitude and a cold front about to move into it. It was a good thing that the Pahranagat rest stop was available then, because sunset was approaching and Pahranagat’s Upper Lake camping area was chock full. This compound is very nice, but its designated sites are very limited in number with specific vehicle types in mind, and the now-55′ Defiant could wedge into only one or possibly two of the choices anyway. Those with much less majestic rigs will fair better but, given Pahranagat’s popularity, I’m told it’s best to arrive before 4 PM to avoid disappointment. I suggest 3 PM if staying there is important to you. A 14-day facility, I would imagine that Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Travelin' Man and tagged , ,
27 Oct 2014
4 Comments

Solitude? I Got it!

No photos today, folks. I could just barely post this text. The trip down to Parker, AZ from Wendover, UT took just two days of driving and three days for the trip itself, due to a high wind advisory on the way down. Hauling the Defiant isn’t that much fun in high winds, and I managed to skate past Nevada’s 18-hour limit in their roadside rest stops by staying in the relatively delightful Pahranagat Lake Rest Stop (GPS:37.232690, -115.090228), which is situated with the raised roadway on one side and tall hills on the other, so the threatened 45 MPH gusts literally went overhead. So I stayed there with one other camper for two nights instead of one. Such a rebel!

The Parker, Arizona campsite in the boonies about 8 miles NE of town is fab in many respects. It’s pretty, and some of the low mountains on the Shea Road access are beauties. With plenty of wide-open area at points, you just drive in and plant your rig. It seems to be near some off-road trails used by ATVs and some pretty stout-sounding Baja-style off-road pickups. Every now and them, I can hear the faint musical call of a highly modified V8 under stress, so I’ll have to check that out. But overall it’s quite quiet, and the only sound to be heard is the generator of some campers a quarter of a mile away.

At the location I picked, a mountain seems to make for an early sunset, shading my solar panels, but that’s of little concern since I cranked the trailer to catch more of the morning sun earlier. The cool weather front predicted never really materialized, so it will be toasty here for another business week while the pickup is being worked on in town.

The only bad news is the miserable cellular signal. This is great for folks who feel the effects of radio towers and such, and who need a relatively “clean” area to camp in. But for me, it means that, even with an amplified antenna, getting a cellular data connection here ranges by the moment between nonexistent and half the speed of a laundromat’s free WiFi. Without the amplifier, my phone’s reading is a flat No Signal. I’m not into biking miles into town just to hunt up free Wifi and post, so brilliantly fascinating reading with fabulously glorious and illustrative pictures will have to wait until the Mighty Furd is back on its feet and I’ve relocated to Quartzsite. Actually, that kind of writing might take awhile longer than that, so don’t get your hopes up. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get some work done!

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, Travelin' Man and tagged
07 Aug 2014
14 Comments

Wild Horse Canyon Road

The long climb up from Green River, Wyoming tends to get one's heart and spirit a'thumping.

The long climb up from Green River, Wyoming tends to get one’s heart and spirit a’thumping.

I had partially forgotten the sensation of driving up Wild Horse Canyon Road’s 1,300′ climb above Green River, Wyoming’s 6,100′ elevation. That’s enough to drop temperatures several degrees, and enough to make life very comfortable for heat-generating persons such as myself. The main climb is gravel over dirt, and four thoughts kept churning in my mind during the ascent. The first was that Wild Horse Canyon Road is almost exhilarating to drive up, since the views presented during the unrelenting climb are impressive. The second thought was of course wondering if I’d once again see any wild horses. Were the two I saw last year a fluke? Third, the road itself prompts a mental note to take the descent seriously when I leave. The Ford’s brake module failure has decreased the amount of braking that the trailer alone can contribute. That alone is unlikely to pose a problem, but a wet descent could. Fourth, the slow climb, rough in many places, was such a crawl as to prevent locking up the torque converter. “I hope it’s okay with this long a period of stress”, I thought to myself. The trans temp itself stayed unmoved from normal. You don’t need to know anything about torque converters to appreciate this concern, because all you need to know is that they are expensive to be replaced. Near the top, it occurred to me to put ‘er in 4WD Low, to ease the strain, and that worked out great. Fortunately, the first two thoughts dominated the others, and near the top of the initial climb, I was rewarded with the distant sight of a small herd of horses grazing upon a hilltop.

I guess they don't call it Wild Horse Canyon Road for nothin'!

I guess they don’t call it Wild Horse Canyon Road for nothin’!

Once again, I'm caught with my telephoto down! Each horse had a different level of concern about my approach, but I was so far away that all stayed put.

Once again, I’m caught with my telephoto down! Each horse had a different level of concern about my approach, but I was so far away that all stayed put.

Thus rewarded, I pressed on. One campsite commentator promised, “Numerous boondock pullouts along the entire 30-mile stretch”, so I decided to go past Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Tourista!, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , , ,
06 Aug 2014
2 Comments

Vedauwoo Recreational Area

The Defiant, in her secret lair.

The Defiant, in her secret lair.

Another double-length drive through Nebraska got me to the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, at sunset. To boondock there, you go past the entrance for the Vedauwoo Recreational Area, which is a very nice paved campground and picnic area, with walking paths right up to some of the finest climbing cliffs I’ve ever seen. The day use area costs $5/day, and camping (without any hookups) is $10/night. I’m not dead sure any of the spaces will fit the Defiant, but there is some accommodation for larger rigs.

After a tour down several miles of the worst washboard gravel road I’ve seen to date, I managed to find a spot to turn around, and wound up pulling into the same area I stayed at last year, but in a position that would limit exposure to mud if the weather turned bad, as had been forecast. It was dark by that time, and quite late, so the evening celebrations were curtailed a bit.

This is hardpack, and with a stiffly-suspended vehicle, it's time to rock and roll. A normal one can skate over this at 30 MPH or so, but the result of doing that with the F-250 and trailer is not so good, at least at tire pressures that will handle the weight.

This is hardpack, and with a stiffly-suspended vehicle, it’s time to rock and roll. A normal car/truck can skate over this at 30 MPH or so, but the result of doing that with the F-250 and trailer is not so good, at least at tire pressures that will handle the weight. A few miles of this at 1/2 MPH makes the paved fee campsite pretty appealing.

Breaking out the solar panels the next morning on a whim, I hoped to stay 3 nights before moving on – a choice that requires solar power unless I want to live Spartan. I popped the Evelo Aurora off its rack after Read more…

Posted in Campsites, E-Bike Pack Mule, Tourista!, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , ,
03 Aug 2014
10 Comments

Enter the Wagon

Yesterday evening I pulled into Stromsburg, Nebraska after 7-1/2 hours of driving, twice my self-alotted amount. That’s because after a hot, moist evening at the Iowa I-80 “World’s Largest” Truck Stop, I knew it’d be the same deal at a highway rest stop near Casey, Iowa the next night. On the face of it, I-80 Truck Stop is fab. They’ve got roomy pull-throughs to get automotive diesel, a decent sit-down restaurant and a fast food place, all the truck-related geegaws you could ever hope to see, convenience store, clothing counter, electronics counter…heck, they’ve even got a selection of raccoon hats just like Disney’s Dan’l Boone wore in the 1950s TV series! And the separate pull-through RV area away from the trucks is fairly rare to find at a truck stop.

But as an RV overnight spot, it’s still an all-night-noise truck stop. The RV slots are so narrow that 8-1/2 foot wide rigs like mine just skin through, an especially difficult task because the curved approach is often choked with overflow vehicles. Many RV drivers can’t cope with it, and wind up cutting down the limited number of spaces. At best, it’s a bad idea to leave folding doorsteps down or incautiously open doors.

I knew it would again be a hot day, and began early in the next day’s drive to think about Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Tourista!, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , ,
01 Aug 2014
15 Comments

The Delusion of Grandeur

The HMS Surprise.

The HMS Surprise.

I’m departing Sandwich, Illinois today for points West, and will likely take just over a week to get to northwest Utah. Unlike previous trips, I won’t be posting day-by-day travelogs since I intend to route my trip along stopping points I’ve used earlier. So, I will post only if I find something uniquely notable along the way.

The departure itself will be as the opportunity presents itself: thunderstorms and frequent rains will hopefully present me with a window of opportunity for one last commune with the dump station a little later. Travel is limited to empty waste tanks only, as the Innsbruck’s frame rails are already bent quite enough from travel with full tanks, apparently. If I can’t dump those tanks, I won’t travel. Since Wunderground Weather at the moment says I’m enjoying clear skies and 3 MPH breezes, it may be entirely up to me to seize any opportunity, since actually it’s pouring both heavy rain and hail in a wind stiff enough that the trailer is bobbing about. That wouldn’t be notable except that the wind is coming in straight from the nose of the trailer. This patch of turf gets pretty soggy with rain, so I may use the Mighty Furd’s 4WD to ease out, just to avoid unnecessarily tearing up the grass.

Having always been a homebody, I’ve found it surprising that I’ve recently felt a growing impatience to get back out west. The quiet urge is not to get back on the road per se, since the peculiar  Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing, The Defiant, Travelin' Man and tagged ,
02 Jun 2014
6 Comments

Day Nine, Sandwich Illinois

Now THIS is Illinois, Land of the Shock Absorber. Flat, with disintegrating pavement. Home.

Now THIS is Illinois, Land of the Shock Absorber. Flat, with disintegrating pavement. Home.

It was a mere three-hour drive today to complete the last bit of the journey, including about forty miles on rural farm roads. Lo, I’m at the Sandwich Fairgrounds, just outside the fenced area. For $90/week, you get unmetered 30-amp power, city water hookup, and access to an onsite dump station and dumpster. Too bad the Defiant’s greywater tank meter has gone rogue. It reads as empty no matter what. So, when refilling the trailer’s fresh water tank manually, the greywater tank needs to be dumped every second refill. With a direct hookup to a fresh water hose, the only way to know when it’s time to transfer greywater to the Tankmin is when the bathtub backs up from its drain. It may not be blackwater, but it still smells.

There are a hell of a lot of wind generators west of Sandwich.

There are a hell of a lot of wind generators west of Sandwich.

Still, I’m anticipating a great stay here for a couple of months, mainly because the Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged ,
01 Jun 2014
4 Comments

Day Eight, Davenport Iowa

Spoiling myself, on the cheap.

Spoiling myself, on the cheap.

For someone who likes to boondock solo, this is my second commercial camp stay of the trip (and the year). Actually, it’s the Bald Eagle Campground in Scott County Park, and there are several campgrounds in this very sizable park. The attractions: level, concrete pads, full hookups, and balky free WiFi. The overnight heat and humidity the last couple of days have been getting to me, and for $21/day for enough power to run the air conditioner, electric elements of the water heater, and the computer and TV, I’m sold. This evening, I shall be Mr. Stinky no more.

A perfectly paved road wanders through the entire park. Iowa is so GREEN!

A perfectly paved road wanders through the entire park. Iowa is so GREEN!

I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, as a storm wave has been slowly Read more…

Posted in Travelin' Man and tagged ,

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