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Went to work and the same thing happened as it does every day. Listening to an idiot that has no clue how to work on trucks tell me how it might work better if I applied rainbow dust and unicorn fur.
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Most of the people are doing the same thing every day. me too.
I've taken a few trips in my truck(s)
For the 4th of July 2012 I had just graduated college and decided to drive to California to visit my sister. She lives near Sacramento I live in Arkansas, so we don't see each other very often. I loaded up my older brother and myself with a cooler full of ice, gatorade, and lunch meat into my 2003 F150 RCSB flareside 4.2L 5spd manual. We left at about 6pm, I drove to OKC and stopped for fuel and coffee, and to swap drivers. We continued on I40 and soon realized we were going to arrive at her house at around 3-4am. So we decided to cut north out of Gallup and head up to Monument Valley. We tooled around Southern Utah and North AZ for a few hours and came back down into Flagstaff about 6pm. Perfect timing to head over to Needles and cross the mountains at night when it's not as hot. Rolled through Barstow around 1am headed to Bakersfield and up I5 to Sac. Got there around 10am. Coming home a week later we went through Reno and across I80 all the way to NE where we had planned to catch I29 South but the Missouri River had other plans and we ended up driving little farm roads from Lincoln, NE down to KC, KS. Then made it into MO and back down into the Arkansas Ozarks.
I took my dad's 1999 Expedition to MT in Sept. 2015 for what would be my first annual hunting/birthday trip. I drove up through KC and stopped at a rest area just south of Sioux City IA. I stopped and slept a couple hours then drove on to I-90 and across SD. Made it to Sturgis and turned North to Belle Fourche then on US212 to Broadus, MT. I then spent 6 days camping in the back of that Expedition in a sleeping bag. There was no cell signal within an hour of me and I was perfectly happy until I drove to town one night to get gas. I got flooded with emails and texts and app updates. But I did check in with mama and the GF, then back out to the prairie. I went 5 days without actually speaking to another person. It was kinda nice. I was eating lunch at a roadside picnic table on my last day there when a nice elderly couple from Kentucky stopped have lunch. They were riding a Harley trike pulling a trailer and were on week 2 of a weekend getaway. Oh, and I think it was day 2 that I had a run-in with a little mule deer buck. I bumped his ham with the bumper as I slid to a stop on a gravel road. He kinda wobbled and looked back at me then jumped the fence off into a field. Thankfully, neither him nor the truck was damaged.
Oct. 2016 I did a repeat of the above hunting trip, except I drove my then new '16 F150. Made the trip without incident. Was a bit cooler this time with night temps down in the teens, so I decided to sleep in a local motel. But I was able to put about 5k miles on the truck which more than doubled what it had on it at the beginning of the trip.
In Oct. 2017 I drove to Billings, MT where my GF was flying in to meet me. Her first time to leave the South. I had a little more time being that I had to go pick her up, so I made a swing through the Badlands at about 5am and saw the sunrise, as well as all the critters that run around there. Bighorn sheep, bison, turkeys, prairie dogs, etc. I made it to Billings and the little lady was in awe of the 'mountains'. Though most of the ones near Billings are rather tame compared to the Tetons and such. But she enjoyed it. We stayed in a little hotel in the town of Hardin that week. She had a shot at a few antelope, but she just couldn't get comfortable enough in the 30mph winds to take a shot. Thursday of the trip we got up at 6am and the wind was howling and spitting snow/sleet. About 18F degrees and my Houston native GF didn't like it and sure wasn't going to go walking for miles across the prairies in that mess, LMAO. So we had breakfast at a little diner and headed south. Down into Wyoming, went through Sheridan and down into the Bighorn Mountains. Where she got to see some real mountains above the treeline with snow on top, haha. We went up to the Powder River Pass (Elev. 9666ft). We then turned around and headed back down and East over to Devil's Tower and messed around there for a bit. Ended the day driving back up into MT and back to the hotel. Made for a nice 12ish hour road trip. Showed her some hills bigger than what she has in East Texas, haha. Had a good week but then headed back home She flew to Houston and I drove back to Memphis, stopping only for gas.
I made the drive again this year. I'm getting to where I know which rest stops or gas stations (or fast food joints) I like stopping at and which I'd rather pass-by. But I enjoy the long drives. Only thing that happened was I made it 6 miles on the return trip home when I had a flat tire. I was able to thrown on the spare and drove an hour to the next town and got an air compressor. I plugged my old tire and re-inflated it. Then finished the drive home.
I'll see if I have any pics of my truck from my trips and try to post them in a following post.
Rich travel experience!
I enjoy the long drives too. Not only for the scenery, but also for the interesting people I met on the road.
I drive an older Honda around town and for short trips. The truck is normally used for longer trips, camping, hunting,and towing. I volunteer for a local SAR team but we don't get a lot of work for that locally. We are more likely to be asked to assist other teams, usually on cold cases where we are looking for remains rather than survivors. I end up doing quite a bit of travel doing that and usually pulling a trailer loaded with 2 ATV's. I live in NW GA, but have worked searches in FL, SC, NC, TN and AL just in the last year. The longest trip was to Kokomo Indiana.
In November I drove it to Colorado to elk hunt. Had a great time even though I was unsuccessful. My wife and I are retired teachers and we did a lot of long road trips with the kids during summers. This last hunting trip to CO was the 9th road trip either through, or to CO in the 6th vehicle.
01-29-2019, 03:28 PM
