Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the tag “Travel”

14 Feb 2017
14 Comments

Trip Routing

 

 

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This post is definitely more about describing how I work out where to go and where to stop than it is about how you should do so. There is a right way to do things, and then there’s my way. I’m now seriously behind in routing my trip for the upcoming commute/touring season of seven or so months, but that won’t stop me from delaying that task further with this post. Procrastination comes in many forms and with many faces.

Assuming – and that’s a big, pending assumption – that the local medicos do not seriously interfere with my departure schedule or make it necessary to closely monitor dosage results in a way that is incompatible with living on the road, I should be able to clear out of here somewhere in the last half of March, when the temperatures ramp up.

The primary goals are just two: get to Illinois in time to plague family and show up for pre-scheduled annual appointments in that area, and hunt for cooler high-altitude air along the way, at least until the true long-distance commute begins. Secondary goals are to visit the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, and then steer counter-productively back northwest to Prescott to see about installing rear air lifts on the Mighty Furdster. Then, according to plan, I hope to attend the Overland Expo West once again this year, not so much because Read more…

Posted in Miscellania, Navel Gazing 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 , , , ,
04 Sep 2015
10 Comments

Victor, Iowa

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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
10 Aug 2014
15 Comments

Bonneville’s Jinx?

The new Rancho Begley. Note that the Aurora, loaded with dirty laundry, looks more at home out here than it does in a suburban area.

The new Rancho Begley. Note that the Aurora e-bike, loaded with dirty laundry, looks more at home out here than it does in a suburban area.

With the Southern California Timing Association’s Speed Week event scheduled to run August 9-15 this year, recent sprinkles had bumped the planned start by just a day, with first actual runs to start on Monday instead of Sunday. Not bad. When I arrived Friday afternoon, everything was looking promising. The short drive from I-80 to the “Y” intersection of the access road to the salt and Leppy Pass Road to the camping areas at the foot of the Silver Island Mountains was jammed with traffic and vehicles parked on the shoulder. Several BLM Rangers were directing the stream of traffic, asking each driver what they hoped to do, and then directing them as needed.

This guy is hoping to run his Cummins diesel-powered rod for a record.

This guy is hoping to run his Cummins diesel-powered rod for a record.

I made my way up toward last year’s campsite, found a workable area, and parked just long enough to yank the Evelo Aurora off the front end of the Ford. Racers are nothing if not celebratory partygoers, and although I found a Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, E-Bike Pack Mule, Tourista! 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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