Monday, July 30, 2007
On the way back home from our meandering Oregon Trail/ Trout Fishing trip, we stopped at a pull-out on the beautiful WY130 Snowy Range Road. We could hear the stream from the road, and wandered down about 50 yards and Logan baited a hook with a worm… and the magic happened.
This was brook trout nirvana… eight brookies in about 10 minutes. See for yourself:
Friday, July 27, 2007
Our last leg of the Oregon Trail journey had us parting ways with the Trail to head southward into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Wyoming to meet up with a fellow busnut and his family and extended family for a weekend of fishing, eating, hiking, and more eating. Craig Shepard of MN kindly invited us to his annual family camping trip, and gave us exact GPS coordinates to find his spot just over Battle Pass on State Hwy. 70… and boy were those coordinates exact. After huffing and puffing our SpaceShip bus over the pass, about a mile later my new GPS software on the laptop said “turn left in 0.2 miles” and I turned precisely into the secluded spot to see Craig’s MC9 for the second time in as many months.
Craig was off fishing with the kids, but his wife Teri introduced herself and showed us a few places we could park and set up camp in their circle. And we quickly did just that.
We’re about halfway through the trip to see a few sites along the Oregon Trail. We finally found a wireless hotspot in Casper, WY… in a Jehovah’s Witness temple’s parking lot, no less, that I discovered while waiting out a huge storm that passed though here yesterday. I came back here this morning to upload a few pics.
More details, pics, and video to follow (of course)!
Sunday July 22, Cheyenne Frontier Days…
Rather than continue to sit around and watch Mom work, the kids and me are heading northward this Saturday up to the North Platte River in NW Nebraska to see parts of the emigrant trails taken westward by over 1/2 million homesteaders, 49-ers, trappers, Mormons, and traders in the 19th century. In the course of a handful of days, we can see several vestiges and landmarks along the Trail (even some surviving wagon wheel ruts), along with good museums (and the occasional roadside oddity).
Our kids are sure to learn something along the way. We’re even taking along Logan’s best friend, Sage, who can hardly wait to go. In this day and age of GameBoy and PlayStation mind-rot, it’s encouraging to see a kid get excited about a good old-fashioned road trip. I’m reading up on what I can to be a halfway knowledgeable “tour guide”, and I’m taking pioneer diaries and stories to read while we’re there. Our “SpaceShip” bus should make slightly better time that the prairie schooner of yore!
Here’s a list of things we might do.
We’ll no doubt be able to do them all this time. But, we’ll see where the Trail leads us. If I find some WiFi access points along the way, I’ll post some updates here on the blog. We’re meeting up with busnut Craig Shepard (gumpy) and his family… and hopefully some other busnuts the last week in July near Encampment, WY for some trout fishing. At some point, Sage’s folks and brother will meet us up near Saratoga for even more trout fishing.
Wagons HO!
On Friday, June 22nd, we met up with some Twin Cities, MN- area busnuts on our way up to a graduation party there that weekend. We jokingly called it the “Brian’s Busnut Bash”, since we were all named Brian, less Craig Shepard… but his son is named Brian, so he said the name should stick.
B. Diehl had graciously offered to have the bash at his house in Maple Grove. But Darlene “wondered” whether there would be much for the kids (and her) to do there while a bunch of guys sat around and discussed engines, transmissions, two-strokes vs. four-strokes, Jake Brakes, latching relays, and other fascinating topics. In perusing Google Earth a few days before, I found a large lake and park just a few blocks from the Diehl’s, so we all met up there that afternoon, at Fish Lake Regional Park.
B. Elfert brought his Dina Viaggio coach. Dad of B. Shepherd brought his “slightly modified” MC9. B. Brown and family obviously brought their GMC 4108. But B. Diehl and wife Hillary could only bring their pickup (and hamburger meat and hot dogs - thanks!), since he said he’d have to do the “Fred Flintstone thing” to get it there, since their MCI 96A3 conversion is in its last throes of a major re-power project.
Way back in January, Dar spotted a portable air conditioner unit at our local Home Depot. And January is great time to find a good deal on an air conditioner. It was up on a shelf, covered in dust, so she calls me and asks if we could use one of these units in the bus. “How much?”, I ask. “Clearance price is $300,” says she. “Sure!,” say I. When Dar gets home, she informs me that she got it for half off of that price, since it was obviously a used floor model unit when they got the box down, and she talked them into a serious price reduction.
This portable air conditioner unit, like most others I’ve seen, is on wheels, has a reservoir for collecting the condensate, and a rather large diameter hose for exhausting hot air out of a window or more permanent fitting. Our unit is rated for 10,000 BTU, has three fan speeds, and even a dedicated dehumidify-only mode (which we surely don’t need here in the “high desert” of Colorado, but could have used it on more than one occasion whilst beach camping).
On our last trip last fall, something went very, very wrong in our right rear axle of our bus conversion. There was grease leaking into the brake drum, rendering it useless… which is a really big deal when it comes time to stopping a 25,000 pound vehicle. The rear brakes on a two-axle coach like ours provides something like 70% of the stopping power of the brake system. So losing one side of the 70% percent makes for a very dangerous condition. I was able to limp the bus home from Texas last November, and by the grace of the Good Lord, we didn’t kill anyone or ourselves, nor even have any close calls with stops.
All this month I have to make some major repairs and maintenance on Da Big Bus to get it “road worthy” for our upcoming trip to the Bay Area. Sunday I went up to Harbor Freight to buy a mongo impact gun to take off the lugnuts. I lucked out on a big 1″ gun with 1,450 ft-lbs of torque on clearance for $99. I also needed a big hose and big sockets to take off the big lugs. To run the kind of air the gun needs in copious quantities, I also had to rig up a punk take to send the air en masse to the beast.
Several hours later, it sounds like a NASCAR pit stop in our back yard, and the bus nuts are whirring off the wheels and the compressor is straining hard to make air between brief clatters from the gun. Ten lugs per wheel. Maybe ten minutes, and the outside dual is off.
Logan just had to give it a go on the inside dual. I held the gun while he pulled the trigger… but not before I snapped this pic that makes him look like he’s doing this single-handedly.
Who needs a GameBoy when you got big bus toys??!
Last week I reserved us a spot on Half Moon Bay State Beach for six nights during our upcoming Bay Area blast in April. I went to great lengths to get a site that offers me a windshield view of the mighty Pacific. For some reason it’s important to me.
Six nights came in at exactly $157.50, or $25/ night + a small reservation fee. Darlene commented that this was pretty expensive. (?!) I should point out that the Ritz Carlton a few hundred yards up the Bay from us is $300 per night. Obviously, we forgo the heated towels, mud baths, chocolate on the pillows, et al for moonlit strolls on the beach, seagulls and roaring breakers lulling us to sleep, and pretentious-free solitude. Check out the video below for our beachside digs:
The image of HMB SB used for the above video is courtesy of Ken Adelman’s amazing California Coastal Records projects.
While we’re at it, let’s see some past “windshield views” from our travels…
OK, that last pic makes it look like I have this pressing desire to turn the bus into a boat!
There’s a bunch of my busnut buddies (bus conversion folks) on the Net that head down to Arcadia, FL every year about this time. While they’re enjoying 70 degree weather and chatting it up about all things bussing, I’m shovelling around the 4 foot drifts! Oh well, at least there’s no hurricanes here!