First Snowbird adventure
I know, to many of you this sort of stuff is mundane, but to us first timers, everything is new and exciting! This is actually why we became interested in the first place. We left east central Ind...
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Well, here we are, folks, on our second grand adventure!
We are currently parked in the only two story parking facility I ever saw for a Walmart! Downtown Salt Lake City, UT. We have plans to help out some friends host a campground in Donnelly Idaho during July and August,, so we're headed that way a little early.
We left home on Tues, Jun 14th and took four nights to get to Moab, UT. That was the interim goal for the journey. I always wanted to see the rock formations, canyons, and desert of central Utah. We stayed in a BLM campground called Horsethief with no facilities (well, pit bathroom, picnic table and fire ring) So we got to hone our boondocking skills a bit more. Only a couple issues, this time. The slide topper for the dinette slide got cattywompus and wouldn't allow the slide to move. So I had to remove it. Then the spring tension flipped out, so we deep-sixed it in the dumpster. After I called a mechanic, and he said it's pretty hard to repair those and match the tension on both ends.
Oh, did I mention the temps were about 104 to 112?!? What a great time to pick to boondock without AC. Fortunately we have nice fans. Now I know how a turkey feels in a convection oven! It usually cooled way down to about 80 by the time we were to get up the next morning, so no worries (can't say "no sweat"). It's not something we have to do, just something we choose to do. Some would not, but we're having the time of our lives!
I learned a valuable lesson on I-70 Westbound from Denver. You see, there is this tunnel you go through at about 11,000 feet, or so (I didn't measure, myself) then you start down. Well, I think the sign said 8 miles at 7% grade. Well, I just headed down like I had sense! NOT! Got going too fast too soon, and there is not much way to slow down my 21,000 without using brakes! Guess what, when you take your foot off the brake, it starts to speed up again.....pretty fast!....TOO FAST! By the time I went eight miles, and even the manual trailer brake switches began to feel mushy, I was REALLY glad the descent was not ten miles. You see, I've been told what is in those run away truck ramps, and you can't get out of those without a wrecker! Well my average speed was over 60 and I was determined not to white-knuckle the next time. So when that time came, I just put my flashers on, slowed down to 45 and downshifted, and let 'em pass me, if they're in such a hurry! Okay I got to nearly 4250 RPM's but there is no red line on my dually tach, so I figure I'm good. At least I didn't loose any fingers to blood loss having them clamped to the steering wheel for over 20 minutes.
Tomorrow, we hope to see a little drop in the average temperature. When we arrive at Donnelly, at least we have full hook-up, so if it gets this hot up there, at least we can have AC.
Happy Trails to all. Please be careful and watch out for the other guy. Another story tomorrow about the adventure...
We are currently parked in the only two story parking facility I ever saw for a Walmart! Downtown Salt Lake City, UT. We have plans to help out some friends host a campground in Donnelly Idaho during July and August,, so we're headed that way a little early.
We left home on Tues, Jun 14th and took four nights to get to Moab, UT. That was the interim goal for the journey. I always wanted to see the rock formations, canyons, and desert of central Utah. We stayed in a BLM campground called Horsethief with no facilities (well, pit bathroom, picnic table and fire ring) So we got to hone our boondocking skills a bit more. Only a couple issues, this time. The slide topper for the dinette slide got cattywompus and wouldn't allow the slide to move. So I had to remove it. Then the spring tension flipped out, so we deep-sixed it in the dumpster. After I called a mechanic, and he said it's pretty hard to repair those and match the tension on both ends.
Oh, did I mention the temps were about 104 to 112?!? What a great time to pick to boondock without AC. Fortunately we have nice fans. Now I know how a turkey feels in a convection oven! It usually cooled way down to about 80 by the time we were to get up the next morning, so no worries (can't say "no sweat"). It's not something we have to do, just something we choose to do. Some would not, but we're having the time of our lives!
I learned a valuable lesson on I-70 Westbound from Denver. You see, there is this tunnel you go through at about 11,000 feet, or so (I didn't measure, myself) then you start down. Well, I think the sign said 8 miles at 7% grade. Well, I just headed down like I had sense! NOT! Got going too fast too soon, and there is not much way to slow down my 21,000 without using brakes! Guess what, when you take your foot off the brake, it starts to speed up again.....pretty fast!....TOO FAST! By the time I went eight miles, and even the manual trailer brake switches began to feel mushy, I was REALLY glad the descent was not ten miles. You see, I've been told what is in those run away truck ramps, and you can't get out of those without a wrecker! Well my average speed was over 60 and I was determined not to white-knuckle the next time. So when that time came, I just put my flashers on, slowed down to 45 and downshifted, and let 'em pass me, if they're in such a hurry! Okay I got to nearly 4250 RPM's but there is no red line on my dually tach, so I figure I'm good. At least I didn't loose any fingers to blood loss having them clamped to the steering wheel for over 20 minutes.
Tomorrow, we hope to see a little drop in the average temperature. When we arrive at Donnelly, at least we have full hook-up, so if it gets this hot up there, at least we can have AC.
Happy Trails to all. Please be careful and watch out for the other guy. Another story tomorrow about the adventure...
