diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | chaco.txt | 16 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | dallas.txt | 45 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | escaping-texas.txt | 21 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | trinidad-lake.txt | 33 |
4 files changed, 107 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/chaco.txt b/chaco.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc17863 --- /dev/null +++ b/chaco.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +Chaco Canyon has been one of those places I've wanted to visit, but for whatever reason, I just never made it. While we were in Trinidad I noticed an interesting break in the weather in this region. For about three days the high was going to be in the high 80s to low 90s, which is just about perfect[^1]. Nice weather right when we were driving through made it a good stopping point between Santa Fe and Durango. + +After a rough dirt road -- thirteen miles took about an hour in the bus if that gives you some idea -- through the vast nothingness of New Mexico desert, you hit a welcome paved road that runs the length of Chaco Canyon in a loop. Off a tributary wash to the north is a small, open campground. There is no shade anywhere, save canyon overhangs most of which were built out millennia ago and hence roped off now. Shade stolen by the past. + +And you want shade here. It's hot, you can see it all around you all the time, even if it isn't hot when you're here you can see how obviously hot it gets. It wasn't bad during our time, the afternoon were best spent in the shade of the bus awning, but the effects of heat are everpresent. + + + + +Chaco is also the most tightly controlled national parkish area I've ever been in. In my experience National Parks typically have a tightly controlled area, generally around whatever the feature of the park is -- yosemite valley, Sequoia trees, the grand canyon, etc -- and then the backcountry is more or less unregulated, at least in terms of where you can go. Not enough people venture beyond the first mile of trail to bother regulating the backcountry too much. Not true here. + +It's still true that no ventures beyond that first mile, but here the backcountry is regulated just like the rest. There's not even overnight camping allowed in the backcountry. It's a little bit like being a kid again (not in a good way), you have to be home by sunset. + +[^1]: We've found those to be very livable temps in the bus, even without any air con. It's always a little hot around bed time, but the nights cool off quickly and we're all pulling on extra blankets before midnight. + + @@ -1,8 +1,29 @@ -From Austin we drifted north, toward Dallas. We pulled into Fort Parker State Park on a Thursday afternoon and spent the next day watching the campground fill up. This is more or less the pattern, even in summer, the weekends are jammed full, during the week we have the campgrounds to ourselves. We passed a couple of days in Fort Parker State Park and then headed north to Plano, TX to visit Corrinne's sister and her family. +From Austin we drifted north, toward Dallas, hitting a milestone along the way: -Thanks to the bus we ended up spending an entire week in Plano. Let this be a lesson to those of you who have invited to your homes, sometimes we way overstay to that point when the smell of rotten fish is upon us. Possibly worse we shipped a ton of parts, random purchases, laptops I'm reviewing and other stuff that piled up around the house. Seriously, think twice before you invite us over. +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-02_134942_fort-parker-state-park.jpg" id="image-577" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-03_135705_fort-parker-state-park.jpg" id="image-578" class="picwide caption" /> -It all starts out innocently enough. We show up for a couple days, make some vague plans and then. Then. +We pulled into Fort Parker State Park on a Thursday afternoon and spent the next day watching the campground fill up. This is more or less the pattern, even in summer, the weekends are jammed full, during the week we have the campgrounds to ourselves. + +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-04_144933_fort-parker-state-park.jpg" id="image-576" class="picwide caption" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-04_082110_fort-parker-state-park.jpg" id="image-579" class="picwide caption" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-04_101711_fort-parker-state-park.jpg" id="image-580" class="picwide" /> + + +We passed a couple of days in Fort Parker State Park and then headed north to Plano, TX to visit Corrinne's sister and her family. Thanks to the bus we ended up spending an entire week in Plano. Let this be a lesson to those of you who have invited us to your homes, sometimes we way overstay to that point when the smell of rotten fish is upon us. We tried to get it off in the pool. + +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_151806_plano.jpg" id="image-575" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_151820_plano.jpg" id="image-574" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_151827_plano.jpg" id="image-573" class="picwide" /> + + + +Possibly worse we shipped a ton of parts, random purchases, laptops I'm reviewing and other stuff that piled up around the house. Seriously, think twice before you invite us over. It all starts out innocently enough. We show up for a couple days, make some vague plans and then. Then. + +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_153310_plano.jpg" id="image-572" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_153313_plano.jpg" id="image-571" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-07_155201_plano.jpg" id="image-570" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-11_150803_plano.jpg" id="image-569" class="picwide caption" /> The engine was, yet again, running hot on the way into Plano. I figured since we had a couple days and there wasn't really room to park on the street anyway, I would take it to a repair shop and get the radiator fixed and have a place to park -- two birds one stone sort of thing. @@ -12,7 +33,7 @@ The old guy at the radiator shop -- by the way, never trust a mechanic under 50 Long story short, for those that don't find engine adventures entertaining[^1], I gave him the go ahead to re-core it. Expensive, but we want to be able to get into the mountains and not worry about overheating. I even considered making it four core, but held off on that since clearance could have been an issue. -Getting the new cores and having it all rebuilt added a weekend and some change to our stay. But it gave me time to install the water tank and get the solar panels on the roof. So I spent my morning in the alley behind a mechanic's wrestling a 65 gallon water tank under a bed and crimping pex. To do all that I had to empty out everything under the bed and pile it out in the alley with me. And then run back and fourth to home depot ten times in two days. Oh who am I kidding, it was probably almost twice that many times. I actually didn't think much of the whole project, but then one day I just left everything outside the bus while I was at home depot and I came back around the corner and realized it looked like a small tornado had hit a dumpster and blown everything all over the alley. +Getting the new cores and having it all rebuilt added a weekend and some change to our stay. But it gave me time to install the water tank and get the solar panels on the roof. So I spent my morning in the alley behind a mechanic's wrestling a 65 gallon water tank under a bed and crimping pex. To do all that I had to empty out everything under the bed and pile it out in the alley with me. And then run back and forth to home depot ten times in two days. Oh who am I kidding, it was probably almost twice that many times. I actually didn't think much of the whole project, but then one day I just left everything outside the bus while I was at home depot and I came back around the corner and realized it looked like a small tornado had hit a dumpster and blown everything all over the alley. In the afternoons I would eventually start sweating so much my eyebrows would fail me and I couldn't see anymore. I'd give up and pack it up. Fortunately there was a pool back at the house and I could spend some time recovering in proper fashion -- floating it all away. The kids of course spent nearly all their time in the pool playing with their cousins. @@ -20,10 +41,18 @@ Eventually I got the water tank in and the radiator back in to. Started it up, d We said our goodbyes and headed west, into the sunset. -We weren't even out of the subdivision when the temperature gauge started to climb again. There was some creative swearing in the bus for a few miles. It's frustrating to fix something and realize you didn't have the right problem, but it's even more frustrating when you spent almost $1000 doing it. I stopped at an auto parts store and let the bus cool, while I contemplating trying to install a thermostat in the parking lot. The part store intervened and saved me from myself by not having the part I needed anyway. +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-13_100418_plano.jpg" id="image-567" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-13_100305_plano.jpg" id="image-568" class="picwide" /> +<img src="images/2017/2017-06-13_100536_plano.jpg" id="image-566" class="picwide" /> + +We weren't even out of the subdivision when the temperature gauge started to climb again. There was some creative swearing in the bus for a few miles. It's frustrating to fix something and realize you didn't have the right problem, but it's even more frustrating when you spent almost $1000 doing it. I stopped at an auto parts store and let the bus cool, while I contemplating trying to install a new thermostat in the parking lot. Me pulling out radiators at the side of the road, it could be a thing. The part store intervened and saved me from myself by not having the part I needed anyway. + +Eventually the engine cooled and I thought screw this, let's push on. Perhaps not the best choice, but I'm stubborn and I needed to get on the road. I also decided to test something hairbrained. Back when we first entered Texas I put some insulation around the engine doghouse, mostly just to cut down on the heat coming off the engine into the cabin, but also to cut down on the noise. It happened to coincide with the engine starting to run hot, so I thought well, let's crack the doghouse and see what happens, maybe that extra airflow was helping. + +Crazy, I know. But. *But*. Well, no that didn't help at all, but it did reveal something interesting -- a loud clattering sound that was previously muffled enough that I assumed it was just some pans in the oven rattling. But with the engine hood open it was very clearly louder and coming from the engine. The mechanically inclined could probably put those two clues together -- rattling metal sounds and overheating engine -- and figure out the problem. It took me about 20 miles but it slowly started to dawn on me, water pumps have ball bearings in them. -Eventually the engine cooled and I thought screw this, let's push on. Perhaps not the best choice, but I'm stubborn and I needed to get on the road. But, I wanted to test something. Back when we first entered Texas I put some insulation around the engine doghouse, mostly just to cut down on the heat coming off the engine into the cabin, but also to cut down on the noise. It happened to coincide with the engine starting to run hot, so I thought well, let's crack the doghouse and see what happens, maybe that extra airflow was helping. +We pushed it as far as Denton, which wasn't far and, very frustrated, called around looking for someone to take a look. About five different shops didn't want anything to do with it, one shop did, but couldn't get to it for another week. Finally on the advice of one of the other shops I called a place way outside of town that supposedly "did old engines". No one answered so I said screw it, let's drive out there and see. So I did and somehow convinced the shop owner, who was mainly a rat rod and custom car builder, to take a look at the bus. Well, I didn't really convince him, the bus did, the bus is cool like that. -Crazy, I know. But. *But*. Well, no that didn't help at all, but it did reveal something interesting -- a loud clattering sound that was previously muffled enough that I assumed it was just some pans in the oven rattling, was very clearly not coming from the cabin. The mechanically inclined could probably put those tow clues together -- rattling mettle sounds and overheating engine -- and figure out the problem. It took me about 20 miles but it slowly started to dawn on me, water pumps have ball bearings in them. +So he agreed to replace the water pump the next day. We grabbed a hotel room to wait it out. -[^1]: If engine adventures bore this is no the blog for you. Until we get everything dialed in I expect to have more engine adventures. +[^1]: If engine adventures bore this is not the blog for you. Until we get everything dialed in I expect to have more engine adventures. diff --git a/escaping-texas.txt b/escaping-texas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6950d25 --- /dev/null +++ b/escaping-texas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +By the time we left Denton we'd put in a new radiator core, new water pump, new thermostat and new power steering hose that had cracked when I made too tight of turn in the hotel parking lot. In Texas we had in fact pretty much redone the entire cooling system of the bus. Ideally that would have solved the overheating issues, but it did not. I left ahead of Corrinne and kids, hitting the road by 6AM to avoid the forecasted 105 degree midday temps. + +The night before I purchased one of those nice digital thermometer guns in hopes that perhaps the problem was the temperature or sending unit. Armed with that I stopped frequently to crawl under the engine and take temp readings all over the place. What quickly became obvious was that most of the temp readings were well within ideal operating temps for the engine. The exception was right around the sending unit, which sits roughly on the first piston on the passenger's side of the engine. That area was notably hotter than everything else, though still not overheating hot. + +Despite the heat I made it Amarillo without overtaxing the engine. And just for fun, since I have the digital thermometer anyway, I started taking readings in cab of the bus... about 122 degrees on the dashboard (which is direct sun), about 108 on most other surfaces and 115 by my right foot where a bit of engine air still leaks out. Hot. Damn hot. + +That night I sat out sweating the Amarillo night talking with my uncle Ron who serves as official bus mechanical repair consultant. He walked me through a few scenarios/possibilities, but in the end the most likely fix will probably involve flushing the engine block. In the mean time, the temp readings stayed pretty constant and within operating params for the engine so we decided to push on out of Texas, out of the heat wave and into the mountains where the bus, and we, would be much cooler and happier. That meant bypassing one of my favorite places in this region, Comanche National Grassland, but with a forecast temp in the mid 90s and not a hookup for three hundred miles, we were hesitant to push it. We still hadn't actually camped without hookups in the bus so we didn't know what sort of temperature would be comfortable and what would be miserable. But 93 degrees sounded miserable so we decided to skip it. + +I left Amarillo at 5AM, well ahead of Corrinne and kids, trying to push through to the mountains before the heat of the day kicked in. I was halfway out of Texas when the sun finally did start to glow on the eastern horizon of the vast nothingness that is the western Texas desert. This is part of Texas I know reasonably well and happen to really like, the wide open, barren land, parched badlands of windswept sand and nearly endless grass and creosote. But only crazy people come out here in June. Even if you're not crazy when you get here, you will be soon, the heat bakes you until you come unglued. The day we passed through the forecasted temp was 112. + +I was well into New Mexico long before the sun got high enough for those temps. When I stopped to take this photo: + + + +This train honked and I looked over to see the engineer waving and giving me the thumbs up. I've driven a lot of miles in this country, seen a lot of trains, but I've never seen or heard of train honking and waving at a car. The bus is like that though, it extracts the extraordinary from the ordinary. + +The bus struggled to get over Ratan pass, which is just shy of 8000 feet. It made it, the engine wasn't overheating even, but I didn't have much power. I was doing about 35 by the time the road finally started down again. From there I coasted on down to Trinidad Lake State Park, which has two campgrounds, one with full hookups and one totally dry with nothing save a communal water spigot and some pit toilets. We grabbed a site in the latter area, filled our new water tank and settled in to enjoy an afternoon at the lake. + +Unfortunately I made the mistake of asking the ranger if there were any good sandy, beach-like areas further down the road. I was prompted informed that there was no swimming in the lake. Say what? The ranger was unable to provide any reason for the no swimming, but I'd already blown it -- there's no plausible deniability after you ask. Never ask permission, just do and play dumb when you need to. I know this, but sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my brain. + +So we ended up just sitting around the camp, which was nice enough, if a little warm. The heatwave was still too much on us, so we hatched a plan to head higher into the mountains the next day. That night was a first in the wide open big sky of the west. I let the fire burn down and watched the sky instead. The sunset was obscured by thunderheads over the peaks of the Uncompadghre range. Arcing flashes of lightening bounced around the clouds like streaking silver pinballs. Just as the last light faded away coyotes because to bark and sing. Finally, the west. diff --git a/trinidad-lake.txt b/trinidad-lake.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ea6b2f --- /dev/null +++ b/trinidad-lake.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +After one night at Trinidad we had to leave. The weekend thing. Saturday night even the "walk up" dry camping sites were booked. Because in Colorado state parks "walk up" means, whatever hasn't been reserved online. It's a crazy, chaotic system that makes no sense at all. All I know is that we had leave on Saturday because there were no campsites. + +We decided, since it was still a little warm at bedtime for the kids that we'd head higher into the mountains. There were a couple of National Forest campgrounds up higher in the mountains above Trinidad so we booked on and set out. + +Inside my head there are tons of voices, but one dominates the rest most of the time, it's the voice that always says, sure, let's try it, what's the worst that could happen? Almost all of the time the answer to that question is very tame. Once you get past your prejudices and irrational fears and give some serious thought to, well, what is the worst thing that could happen and how likely is it to occur you find that it's really not that bad. Most of what you fear is very unlikely to occur. For example, could you fall to your death while driving a mountain road? Well, technically yes, but millions of people drive mountain roads every and don't fall to their death, so there's a very good chance you won't either. And so on. + +That's just to preface this adventure slightly, or rather to explain my thinking when I tell you that the campground we were headed to was at 10,500 feet. + +Did I really think the bus would make it to 10,500 ft? Honestly? No. But I was damn sure going to try. And so we did. + +As per our usual these days I left early, around seven, though once I got a few thousand feet I knew air temperature wasn't going to be the problem. The problem was even simpler -- air, or the lack thereof. Internal combustion engines need three basic things -- fuel, fire and compression. The higher you go the less compression. The less compression, the less power you have. The less power the less an 8000lb 1969 Dodge Travco goes forward. + +The drive started well, the bus breezed on up to about 8500 ft like it was nothing, and it was, the grade was mild, the air cool and traffic almost non-existent. I stopped at a tiny store and let the engine rest a while. There were rocking chair and hummingbird feeders. I listen to two local talk about how they spent the winter, and got the impression that, despite living less than 10 miles apart they hadn't seen each other in months thanks to the snow. As I keep telling Corrinne, it's beautiful here, but if want to know the truth about Colorado mountain towns, check how far up the stovepipes extend. Now you know how much snow sits on your roof all winter. + +I enjoyed the country store porch so much I went back to the bus and pulled out a 100-300 zoom lens I bought off eBay and shipped to Corrinne's sister's house back when we were in Dallas. Producing an decent image of a hummingbird hand-holding a massive, heavy, manual focus 100-300 zoom from the early 1980s turns out to be as difficult as it sounds. But photography is a lot like fishing in that the fish, the photos, aren't really that important some times, sometimes it's all in the trying. I discovered an interesting thing that happens with digital viewfinders -- the screen refresh rate is far slower than a hummingbird's wings beating, which means that through the viewfinder you get a live-action, slow motion movies of a hummingbird's wings beating. It's gorgeous, but it's only in the view finder. + +I was about to go dig out my tripod and get serious about taking a hummingbird picture when Corrinne and kids caught up and we all set out up the mountain again. The next 1500 vertical feet happened much faster than the first 1500. I didn't track the mileage, but I doubt it was more than ten. It was hard climbing. The bus just didn't have the power (I was also carrying about 35 gallons of water since it was unclear from our research whether there would be any water at the campground, that added about 300lbs, which I could feel in the steering). + +The final grade to the pass was long, winding and steady climb with no breaks. It was too much. I dropped to about ten miles an hour and then five and then I felt the transmission slip. Because I am an extremely luck person, the only pull out on the entire grade was about 50 feet back from where the transmission slipped. I gave up. I rolled back down, backing into the turnout (a private dirt road really) and shut it down. Could I have sat there, let the engine rest and cool for a while and given it another try? Sure, but I knew from the maps that even after the pass I'd have to go down 1000 feet and then back up 1500 more and that was never going to happen. + +Like Kenny Rogers' said, you got know when to fold 'em. + +I let the engine rest a bit, called Corrinne back and then started back down. We made it down to a lower, larger pullout and parked the bus so we could scout around and maybe find somewhere to boondock for a few nights. We headed up into some National Forest land on a dirt road that eventually led to a campground, but had plenty of boondocking spots on the way. We know this because they were all full of happy looking van dwellers and RVers. Damn you Colorado in the summer time. + +Eventually we made to all the way to the campground, which was at 9500 ft. It was beautiful, tucked in an aspen grove on the edge of an alpine meadow with crystalline, wildflower lined streams cascading down the mountainside seemingly everywhere. There aren't many places where you can drive to scenery like that, usually you have to strap on boots and hump it over the mountains on foot to see things like that. + +We sat there for a while and debated whether or not the bus could get up there. I still don't know, it might have. But it turns out there are some consequences to driving, rather than walking, to an elevation like that. I've never really suffered much from altitude sickness, I get it a little bit, dizziness usually, but I've seen more acute symptoms in plenty of hiking companions -- dizziness, nausea, disorientation, confusion. It's rather difficult to describe if you haven't experienced it. Usually you can just sleep it off and be fine the next morning, but with everyone a little off, and the bus not running as well as I'd like it was an easy call. We headed back down to Trinidad. If we want to camp in an alpine meadow we'll do it the right way -- by hiking to it. + +Getting down the mountain was nerve wracking for me, not because of the drive, but because I was unsure what kind of gas mileage I had been getting on the way up and I had calculated the gas such that we'd just make it to the gas station on the other side (I was trying to keep weight down). Going back the way we came meant adding 20 miles to the drive. I wasn't sure I had the extra two or three gallons I needed to do that. I was sweating, not entirely from the heat, by the time I made it back down to the first gas station. I paid mountain gas prices and was happy to do so. + +By then it was near dinner time and everyone was tired, frustrated, hangry and cranky. We grabbed one of the last hotel rooms in Trinidad, took some showers and headed out for burgers. Really good burgers as it turned out, bison burgers and fries at the What A Grind Cafe, which also served up a proper pour of Guinness, which goes a long way to getting your tail out from between your legs at the end of a long day. + +We decided to go ahead and stay in the Trinidad area. It was warm, but not too bad. The low nineties during the day, but there was a breeze to make things bearable and the temperature dropped quickly in the evenings so putting the kids to bed was fine. And we could always use the van to head up into the mountains if we really needed to get away. |