redshifter
19-December-2008, 08:03 AM
I'm smitten with the SW United States. I'd love to spend about 3 mos. traveling throughout Utah, Colorado, NM, and Arizona. My fave 'road trip' was with my son, we left Seattle and drove to Moab, UT via I-90, I-82, I-84, rt. 93, I-80 (right by Bonneville Salt Flats), I-15, rt. 91 (I think that last one is correct). We spent a couple days checking out Arches NP and rafting the Colorado river as well. Then on to the Grand Canyon via Monument valley, and through Death Valley and E. California on the way back home.
I also took a road trip to New Mexico, staying near Las Vegas at a place called the Star Hill Inn. It's a place that caters to astronomy geeks like me. Of course, the weather was atrocious and I got about a night and a half of observing over five nights there. They almost had to cancel the big balloon fest that year I guess. Still, lots to see in that area of NM, so overall it was a great trip.
I usually prefer to travel by car on trips as opposed to flying, I'd like to see as much of this country as possible, and not at 30,000 ft.
Worst road trip: Driving from the Tri Cities in E. Wash to Ft. Ord, California in 1986 or 1987 when I was in the military and stationed there. I was headed back to Ft. Ord off of leave and drove from the Tri Cities and through the Columbia Gorge in the worst snowstorm I've ever seen. I could barely see the end of the hood of my car and the tailights of the car in front of me. As we headed W, the state patrol was closing the freeway behind us. Of course, having a 1972 Chevy with rear wheel drive and a lot of torque made it even more interesting. Most white knuckle drive I've ever done.
Studioguy
19-December-2008, 10:54 PM
About two Christmases ago I was headed to my family's place down in Mississippi with my wife, (then) 3 year-old son, our wonderful golden retriever, and the most annoying little dachshund on Earth that we were "dogsitting" over the holidays. We were in the vehicle that I drove generally, a 1999 GMC Yukon, headed down I-65S. I felt a little shimmy to the right (in the front-end) and then started hearing a rubbing sound. I quickly got us stopped and went around to find that the right side wheel bearing had burned out.
I crawled us along to the exit a quarter-mile ahead and hopped off the interstate and found an Advance Auto Parts. In their parking lot, I started disassembling the hub, hoping that a new rotor and bearings would get us back on the road. No such luck. The bearings had burned into the spindle, so the whole assembly had to be replaced. Sunday night before Christmas...stranded in the middle of Alabama.
But the story had a blessed ending. A man came into the store while I was standing there returning the rotor and bearings that I no longer had any use for. He said that his neighbor was a mechanic and he might be able to help me. He called him and handed me the phone. I talked to him and explained the situation (Wife, toddler, two dogs, three-wheeled vehicle, stranded, etc.) and within 15 minutes he showed up with his tow truck, which had a car loaded on it. He unloaded the car and tossed me the keys and told me to move whatever I needed to over to that and drive it until he got my truck fixed. Then he handed me a post-it with a name and number on it and told me that it was his wife's number and she could fix us up with somewhere to sleep. Turns out she was the manager at the Holiday Inn down the road.
This was nightmarish to begin with, and bear in mind that I spent nearly three hours wrestling with this problem while my family (two and four legged variety) watched DVD's in the truck. I was also trying to nurse a ruptured disc in my back, so I was in pretty bad shape to be doing this. It was looking pretty dismal for a while.
That night we stayed at the Holiday Inn (which I insisted on paying for), and ate some takeout from Hardees while watching the Grinch movie with Jim Carey in it. Oddly, I have fairly pleasant memories of that night in that hotel room, piled up in the bed with the whole family.
You may or may not believe in things like angels, but that night, a dude named John was an angel for us. He located a spindle for my truck and had it put on by lunchtime the next day and we got on our way. I was half-expecting a big "gotcha" when he was done in the form of an outrageous bill, but he charged me $140 for the spindle and $50 per hour to put it on. A cool $400 later and we were back on the road. I tried to pay him more and he wouldn't hear of it. He wouldn't even let me pay him for the loaner car!
Just goes to show that there are still some decent people out there.
Graybeard6
20-December-2008, 06:56 AM
One Lap of the USA
April, 1998 – Satellite Beach. Fl. We put our house on the market (with the real estate agent next door) loaded up the motor home, hooked up the dinghy, a Geo Metro convertible, and headed west. The goal was to follow “Blue Highways” as much as possible. First stop, Carrabelle, Fl. Where I had two brothers that I hadn’t seen in years. Found the Ho-Hum RV Park. Used our brand-new cell phone (no roaming charges) to call my brother; no service. Used the phone in the office, all good.
We had a great couple of weeks exploring the “Forgotten Coast” One brother was a state forest ranger and took us through miles of uninhabited country; one day he stopped his jeep and said “You’re now 40 miles away from anybody.” One afternoon we went to a seafood place on the St. Mark’s river that had an outside bandstand. The first number was John Prine’s “Paradise.” The three of us sang the chorus, and then we each said, “You know that?” Instant bonding after ten years.
We then followed US98 to Pensacola, where GB, Jr was stationed.
There’s lot’s more, but consider this chapter one.
Graybeard6
21-December-2008, 06:44 AM
One Lap of the USA, Chapter 2.
Pensacola: Parked the RV in Jr's front yard, spent lots of time with Jr., National Museum of Naval Aviation, great seafood, old forts. No service on cell phone; called Cell Company on landline “We’re going from here to Erie, PA via Montgomery and Huntsville, AL, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, on US highways.” “Uh, we don’t have service in any of those areas.” I guess that’s why they didn’t have roaming charges. Off to the north on US 29 to US 31. Spent a pleasant night at Maxwell AFB, (more airplanes) and headed for Huntsville, our home from 1973-84. We parked the RV at the Space & Rocket Center and started calling old friends and neighbors.
(BTW for Kai; we had lived 1/2 mile from the center, and Jr. belonged to the Space Explorer post, they had unlimited passes to the museum and once a month to the Omnimax theater and bus tour of Marshall space Flight Center. They also had private meetings with scientists and astronauts, one of whom was Dick Scobee. He had met the Scobee kids at a Shuttle launch (a whole other story) and said “hey! I’ve met your kids.” They had a nice conversation. Two years later, the Satellite High School students walked out of class to watch the Challenger launch. All of us in this area were crushed, but “Dad, there was someone on that shuttle I KNEW!” A hard thing to deal with at sixteen. When Space Camp started, they wouldn’t take local kids. I think they wanted kids from other than NASA areas.)
Back on US 31, stopped in Murfreesboro to tour the battlefield, spent the night at Barren River State park in Kaintuck. We had to take the Blue Grass Parkway from Bardstown to Lexington. but got on to US 68, headed for Ohio. Horse country; are there any farms more beautiful?
End Chapter two.
mugaliens
21-December-2008, 03:23 PM
Gosh - I've been on so many road trips, driving through all but about 2 of the continental United States (Maine and North Dakota), that when I have the opportunity to fly, I take it. In fact, I've been in all 50 states!
Greatest adventure/epic...
It all began when I was living in Vegas. Our son had just turned 2, and I had two weeks off. Instead of spending tons of money on hotels and an expensive vacation, we decided to rent a small, 13' trailer at an affordable price, so we did.
During loading, around 10am, the day prior to our leaving, I noticed something odd about the trailer, and bent down to take a look, not believing what I saw.
It's axel was broken.
More precisely, the axel remained attached to the leaf springs on both sides, but on both sides, only the forward part of the leaf springs remained attached to the trailer. Thus, the trailer was resting directly on the axel, instead of the leaf springs. Any good side movement in that configuration would cause it to wrench itself apart.
I called the rental agency, and they were out of other trailers, but would send someone by to pick up the current trailer. I certainly wasn't going to risk dumping it in it's broken condition!
When the guy came by, it was the manager. He looked, said, "Yeah, it's broken, all right," but he didn't bring a replacement as he was all booked out. "Tell you what, though - I'll make some calls, and if there's something available anywhere nearby, I'll let you know."
Sure enough, he called about an hour later, and told me that everything in Vegas had been rented out, which confirmed what I'd just learned after spending an hour on the phone, but that he'd found a trailer up in St. George that was available, and that he'd arranged with the owner to rent it to me at the same price - he was paying the difference because he felt bad about giving me a trailer with a broken axel.
"Do you have a Class IV hitch?" he asked.
"Yes. Why?" I responded.
"How about electric brakes?"
"Yes, I have electric brakes," I said, and again asked, "Why?"
"Because trailer in St. George is a little bigger than the one I rented to you," he answered.
"How much bigger?" I asked, wondering what I was getting myself into.
"Oh, about 29 feet," he said, offhandedly. "You can handle that, can't you?"
Oh, gee! Twenty-nine feet??? I'd towed some pretty decent sized boats, but nothing that large.
"How much does it weight?" I asked, wondering what my Yukon's owner's manual had to say about it.
"Eighty-five hundred pounds," he said. "Are you ok with that? It's a really nice trailer, but if you're not comfortable with that, I'll give you a full refund and first dibs the next time."
Ok, here's a little insight as to how guys think: "Sheesh! 8,500 lbs, huh? Let's see, the manual says 5,000 lbs, but that's without brakes. The trailer has it's own electric brakes, has a load-leveling hitch, so about all I'd be doing is steering the thing and providing motive power. 4WD for any off-road pulls, and I've flown aircraft weight several hundred thousand pounds, so, what could go wrong?"
"Sure," I told him. "I can handle it."
I got directions, kissed the wife and kid good-bye, and proceeded north to pick up THE TRAILER.
After waiting about half an hour for the guy to come back from a 2:30 pm "lunch," he finally showed up and showed me the trailer. Full master suite up front, queen bed, isles on both sides, closets, and it's own entryway. In the middle was the toilet, shower, and sink. A decent "central air" system was on the other side, next to a reasonably large closet. The dining area was a pop-out, across from the kitchen, but you could sit one person deep, on each side of the table, when the pop-out was popped in. Full kitchen, including a large fridge, 4-burner stove, medium-sized oven, two-basin sink... Rearward was a smaller room with a bed, in which we'd put our son, some closets, and the main entryway.
First stop was at the gas station, where I filled my tank and adjusted the tire pressure.
As usual, the wife managed to overload it, adding everything but the kitchen sink, so that we were tripping over things during the entire two weeks. At one point, after nearly breaking my neck, I put an event on hold until all the extra junk was permanently stowed in the aft room, "because if it isn't, my next stop will be a post office where I'm mailing it all home!"
Back at the ranch...
I pulled up around 5 pm, just in time for supper, and my wife and the neighbors were goggling the trailer, so we decided to eat outside on the front porch. After dinner, we loaded up the trailer, filled the water tanks, showed my wife how to operate all of them, and fell asleep, around 9am.
It's absolutely wondeful to be able to load up the evening before, isn't it? I mean, that way, you can wake up early, quick shower and a shave, throw the wife and kid in the car, and head on out of Dodge as the sun comes up, right?
Right?
We didn't make it out of there until noon.
First, we had to swap out half the junk with other junk, because the first bunch of junk wasn't quite what she wanted to bring.
That took two hours.
Next, we had to pack meals. Nevermind that we'd known about the trip for two weeks, our grocery store was "only three blocks away," so I waited another two hours, playing with the kiddley, while the wifely shopped and packed.
Great! It was 11 am, and we were...
"Honey, I'm so tired - I need to rest, is that ok?"
"Huh? You can rest in the car. Come on."
"Nooo, I don't want to rest in the car. I'll only be a few minutes. I want to rest on the bed."
"But you always sleep in the car, anyway. Why don't we put some miles behind us while you're sleeping?"
An hour later, I woke her up, on our bed, and said, "Honey, no, don't get up. Just rest. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to take a quick trip, be back in about, oh, three hours."
Suddenly wide awake, she asked, "Where are you going?"
I answered, "Well, you're pretty tired, so I thought I'd just drop the trailer off back up in St. George, while you rest, and..."
"Oh, all right. I'm getting up..."
I smiled.
She finished her nap in the car, as we headed towards California. The inspection station was a gas, as my wife had thoughtfully packed fruit, both in the car, as well as in the trailer, unbeknownst to me, which is a no-no. She knew better, too, as she's from California! Of course, that distinction isn't necessarily helpful....
After sheepishly tossing the fruit in the car, we were pulling out when she said, "What about the fruit in the fridge?" This prompted me to pull over, get the fruit out of the fridge, walk it back to the station, apologize a second time for the fruit, and a third time for living, before walking back to the truck and pulling away.
Shortly thereafter, we encountered Newton's Law of Gravity as we attempted to pull this behemoth up the pass between Nevada and California using an engine (5.7 L) made for 4,500 lbs to haul closer to 13,000 lbs. I thanked God I'd ignored my wife's insistance that we didn't need a transmission oil cooler with the Class IV hitch as I sat there climbing the hill in 2nd gear, the engine floored, while watching the oil temp, the transmission fluid temp, and the engine temp all climb higher. About half way, I pulled over, stopped, and left the engine running while the temps returned to normal, before proceeding on. Although the air was less dense at altitude, it was cooler, and the grade wasn't as steep, so we never had another problem along those lines.
We pulled in to a campground at King's Canyon around 2 am, courtesy of getting out of town so late, and proceeded to follow the park ranger's instructions, managing to snake a 29-foot trailer into an area designed to handle nothing larger than 20 feet. By the time we got to our assigned camp sight, it was clear that they'd made a mistake. Another twenty minutes of snaking our way back out, the ranger said, "Oh, you can't fit that thing back there!"
I wondered if he even saw it when we pulled up 45 minutes earlier?
So, we camped out in the parking lot, which was fun, as there wasn't a level spot.
The rangers, being the dutifully adept people they are, knocked at my door at 6:01 am, after I'd slept a marvelously refreshing 3 hours, and said, "You can't park here. You'll have to leave."
"But the other park ranger..."
"He was in error. You'll have to leave immediately."
"We have reser..."
"I said get out of the camper, now! You must leave the park!"
Instead of argueing, I got the reservations paperwork off the counter, walked out the door, in my underwear no less, and asked him, "Can you read?"
"Yes..."
"Then read this," handing it to him. "I'm going to go get some clothes on, before you arrest me for public indecency or something."
When I came out, he apologized, mentioned freeloaders, blah, blah, here's you trailer site...
After a couple more hours of sleep, we set up camp for the next week and thoroughly enjoyed just hanging around.
After that, it was a trip to the valley, where we spent a couple days at her folks, then on to Carmel, for another couple of days, then to Southern California for another three days, and back home.
All in all, it was a very fun trip! The usual knots to untangle at the beginning, but hey - isn't that what makes for an adventure? Jumping through all the hoops that are required to make something happen?
I had fun!