2023 apr 11, scenic drive to Tuscon

 
11 apr Tuscon, f’ing hot.

yesterday was waist deep in snow, today, it’s 100F out in the desert.   I’d rather be waist deep in snow.

I’ll give it another day, but I may have to tap out.   I get Jeff’s reasoning, a lot of stuff in Coconino was closed, but only from a driving/overlanding pov.   you could still get to trailheads and hike, but Jeff doesn’t seem to want to do that.     there were plenty of campsites too.   just can’t drive out to the Mongollan Rim Road like he wanted.  

I’m so sick of driving.

idk, maybe I just need some alone time.   as you can tell I’m cranky as F.   it’s hot and sunny.   A ginger’s two least favorite things.  

temps will drop more, will try to stick it out.   jeff’s heading out on the 19th, so I can deal (i hope)   

loving the hiding spot i have under my awning, with the 70% shade cloth blocking the sun.   The shade cloth still lets the breeze through.

I’ll look for a hike in the mts nearby tomorrow.   maybe jeff goes driving, and I go for a hike.   win win.
my truck temp was saying 100F driving to camp just an hour ago

 

 

 
shade cloth and thule awning, my chair is inside the black cloth. 

gzilla awning poles for the GFC tent doors (let’s a breeze go through)   will leave them open tonight.

 

2023 apr 10, Mongollan Rim

 10 apr near Mongollan Rim in Coconino National Forest. Overlanding Shenanigans 

 

 

in the screenshot above I show our camp (the tent) and the broken thing is where we couldn't get any further.

the morning was a bust looking for a place to top off the water in Jeff’s van, so he has to be a stinky boy.  Campgrounds open mid april, probably next week.

we drove south from Heber. got on some backroads.   saw a super swanky ranch that’s off grid w solar.   like Dutton’s Yellowstone, but for alpaca’s

got into some hijinks trying to get to the Mongollan Rim to camp.   we were blocked by a stretch of snow and 2 felled trees.   a local, Kevin, with a tan 9mm  glock strapped to his waist showed up in his toyota w his wife, Michelle.

he had a chainsaw, and cut the first tree fine, we cleared the cut bit by hand no problem.  I used my dmos winter shovel to lower the center hump a jeep must have left going over before the trees fell.

the 2nd tree was a bigger problem.  Kevin got his saw stuck.  and it was too far away to winch.   So I dug out my  Safe-T bottle jack to jack up the tree, and he got his saw out.   he got close to binding it again because he wasn’t doing a relief v cut.   probably because his saw was running rough and hard to get going so he was minimizing the cuts.   but he gave in and did the relief cut.

then the problem was the main tree settled on the bottle jack.  it was no bueno getting it out by hand or digging.   so that’s where the fun began for me.

i drove the truck up past the first tree, and that was fun.  the truck wants to go driver side off the side of the road into the ditch.   so back and forth, back and forth and got the proper line cleared.

got close enough to use the winch and pulled the beast of a tree just enough to get the bottle jack out.   my winch pulls 9500lbs, and it was maxxed out and started to pull my truck towards the tree.  anyway after a few release and pulls, or yanks it moved off the jack enough to get it out.

  I had a nice base plate for the jack that’s a bit bent now.   I’ll hammer it flat when I get home or order a new one.  they’re like $50

while i was there, jeff wanted to clear the road by moving the smaller cut part of the tree, even though there was no way in heck his van was getting through the snow.   it was personal now i guess.

so jeff got his pulley out and tree strap, and walked down the ditch a little so we’d have a pull point off to the side of the road.     Made it easier to swing the cut tree off the road.    I had my tree strap on the felled tree near the fresh cut. 

winched and it went off the road easy.  no yanking.

i was able to back down out of the snow no problem and turn around, but then an old lady showed up in her side by side with her two dogs.   

she saw we cleared the trees, so she wanted to go, I told her the snow was deep, but maybe she’d float more than my truck.   She did not.
got herself good and stuck.   She hammered the gas until she was good and buried.   

so I turned the truck back around and pulled her out.   Fun times!

after that found camp nearby, had a nice Geyser sponge shower and now hanging out w Jeff by his cookie tin candle fire thing.

a good day.   did get some photos and video of the hijinks.   can’t wait to show my builder the dumb sh!t Jeff and I did.   He’d approve.

a prop train for a movie that was supposed to be blown up, but they ended up not needing to

2023 Apr 09 Petrified Forest_Painted Desert_Coconino National Forest

 

9 apr Sunday Moki Dugway to Petrified Forest/Painted Desert to Coconino National Forest.

Jeff and I agreed to shoot for leaving at 8a.m.  I was about 10 minutes late, but mostly successful
We drove out from camp and down the switch backs of Moki Dugway.   had to pull over a few times for cars driving up, but wasn’t horrible.it can be scary.   narrow road and cliffs of doom.  (sorry Mom)

it was an uneventful 4 hour drive after that to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park.   Jeff and I ate from our campers in the Visitor Parking lot, like proper dirtbags.   jk.   i was the only dirtbag because my kitchen is the tailgate of my truck.  i also was using the tiny backpacking style Kilos Gear chair I have.   You have to have the leg strength to do a proper squat to sit down into it, or to get back up, but it’ll support 325lbs.   It’s about 2lbs and sits lower than most camping chairs, but I discovered it’s perfect to use when airing down/ airing up my tires.   it just got a promotion. lol   previously I was using it as a footrest most of the time.

anyway, the painted desert stops were very pretty, more pinks and reds than other similar formations that i’ve seen.

the petrified forest was interesting.   i’m a dumbass because I thought there’d be more stumps, but it just looks like logs cut up for firewood strewn all about.  

Drove to Winslow arizona (such a fine sight to see)   stocked up at their Walmart.   
Got a new bluetooth keyboard for $20, so I’m back in blogging action.   also got a $6 wire style vertical paper towel holder that i tied to the rear GFC tailgate windows corner brace.   i’ll take a photo in the morning.   but it works well and it’s not at risk of hitting the glass.  also got a short power strip for the electric kitchen gadgets.   the only one I have to unplug is the mymini skillet, it doesn’t have an off switch.  the rest of my gadgets can stay plugged into the strip, which will be nice.

On the way into Winslow, didn’t make it across the train tracks before the gates came down, but I got to see a BSNF line pass by.   FOUR engines were at the front pulling a long line of double stacked shipping containers.   there were 2 engines at the rear facing the rearwards.

on the way out of town, actually saw the standing on a corner spot mentioned in the Eagles song.  thanks to Jeff for point it out.   

anyway,  drove into Coconino looking for a camp spot. found a turnout which will suffice.  drove in a rough jeep trail.   along the ridge we saw some elk.   Jeff used his spotlight to point out a few.  

tomorrow we’ll explore more and find something better, camp wise..

too hot for the heater right now, but I’ll need it in the wee hours of the morning.   i just wait to wake up cold then turn it on.   otherwise the GFC is like a sauna if I run it before going to bed.   I’ve got it set to the lowest setting too.   good problem to have vs the other possibility

Tomorrow will be a high of 70 something and Tuesday mid 80’s, but first thing in the morning it’s been 30F or less.   that’s desert life.  stays warm for a few hours after sundown, but the heat rapidly goes away overnight.

anyway, been a very long day.   it’s only 8:30 right now, but feels like 9:30 seeing how we were back on MT time the last few days.

12+ hours of being on the move today, but it feels good.  
time for pj’s and will watch some tablet tv.  good night.