Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Scratch Hazel behind her
ears.
Picking up where my last letter left off...
Shopping at Costco the other day.
At checkout the clerk examined my card and said: “There was
someone else here from Pie Town yesterday.” There are only a
few people in Pie Town who would drive that far to shop so I
asked them “What did they look like?” “Well,” they said,
“They was kinda tall, silvery hair, bought a lot of liquor.”
That description fits a lot of my friends, I thought, I'd
better check around, I might be missing out on a
party. (Thanks for the plagiary Kathy)
I wonder if all the coast and
geodetic survey charts and topographic maps are going to be
updated as fast as the sea level rises in the next few
years. Will Mount Washington shrink to six thousand two
hundred and 87... 86... 85... feet?
My mother used to say: "I'll make
you a wish sandwich."
"A sandwish?", I responded, only
the first time she offered.
"What's that?" I asked looking up
at her eagerly. "You wish in one hand," she said, "and shit
in the other, and see which one gets full first."
Monday August 7, On The Road Again
Headed for the eclipse. Convoy of
two: Spencer in the Arctic Fox had the back door. Wishing
for clear skies. Not withstanding my Annual Migratory
excursions between Tonopah and Pie Town I've not been on a
road trip adventure outside of these two states since my
2011 visit to Astoria ORegon. On the road by mid-day: Pie
Town, Quemado, almost to Grants. Now in La Ventana Natural
Arch Rest Area at the north end of The Narrows on Hwy 117.
Off to a good beginning. After extra rememberings the only
thing I forgot was to fill my ice cube bag. I'll pay for
that faux pas with warm G&Ts until I find an ice cube
store.
Tuesday 8th, Off The Road Again.
After a great overnight at La
Ventana, watching the full moon rise over the arch, and the
stars and the cars... We got under way late morning headed
east. Somewhere in the vicinity of i40[Scenic View] the foot
throttle linkage failed and I coasted into this paved wide
spot for a pit stop. You can see in the picture where the
weld holding the nut being positioned by the screwdriver had
failed. I thought about going off to look for a shop  where I might get it rewelded but finally
figured out how to rebuild the linkage my Self. Tailgate
down, extension cords extended, that vise on the bumper at
the ready, and making use of material and tools I've been
hauling around lo these many years, I fashioned two “L”
brackets as seen in picture two. The remains of the broken
weld were cut and ground away and the new brackets riveted
in place. Pedal in situ, hinge pin connected, the linkage
works great! On the Road Again.
Now writing from Ojo Caliente where I'm
getting soaked. An upscale resort where everyone is
way overdressed but the water is great. A fitting and
relaxing end to a 218 mile 12 hour day. Onwards next to
Alamosa.
Friday 11th, Fire in the Engine Room!
The Ghost of Wolf Creek Pass
strikes again. Fortunately the self-extinguishing materials
did their job. Two evenings and one whole day visiting OAE
Fred (Palmer & SPOLE) and his delightful Char and her
sister and grandson. The last two were there only for one
supper but so far they were the high point of the trip—Wolf
Creek Pass notwithstanding.
We got off to an early start this
morning to get up the big hill before the day warmed
overmuch. Wolf Creek from the east side is a much nicer
climb and the Clatterpillar 3208 hummed right along in high
range. Hot for sure but not too hot for the motor. Just too
hot for too long. Smoke became evident after a while;
Hurricane Hazel, the smoke detector cat, was not at all
happy with these developments.
Actually, at first it was hard to
tell the steam from the radiator water spray from the smoke
from the smoldering foam insulation. Stopping at the top of
the pass cleared up that mystery. Next week I will install a
sprinkler system. Spencer came alongside with his outside
shower and we were able to cool the firewall and make the
smoke go away.
But then I couldn't get started.
The extreme heat had melted the plastic liner of the foot
throttle linkage cable and glued the inner control cable to
the outer sheath. We futzed around with the problem
for a few minutes in the cold and intermittent rain.
(Wait... was that a snowflake over there?) Lets just push
her over the edge and coast to the bottom. I'll fix it
there.
Once moving the bus found the road
all down hill. 7% grade sometimes. Very scary at first. Very
scary at second too. I won't even begin to write about third
and fourth. But the gears worked and the engine brake worked
and we eventually arrived at a nice paved flat spot just
inside the city limits of Pagosa Springs. Coasted to a stop,
no need for a throttle.
I cut off the melted section of
throttle cable—a couple feet long—and found the rest of the
cable worked fine. Tools and parts and peaches and tea later
and I've rigged a bypass that works better than the original
method. So now we are miles and miles closer to Driggs at
the Wally World Caravanserai in Cortez.
Saturday's Fixit Adventures
Had a generally great drive from
Cortez west on u.s.491 (which used to be known as u.s.666
until someone complained—the Devil made them do it) then
north on u.s.191 and west on u.s6 (the same u.s.6 that
starts way back in Provincetown) up until around Price. We'd
been losing altitude since Cortez—a couple thousand feet at
least—and now were climbing again, narrow twisty roads, few
wide spots, sometimes not much of a shoulder. Just getting
to begin the climb to Soldier's Summit and the Nagrivator
shut down.
Not a big deal in and of itself. Mr
Magellan was doing ok and Spencer was close behind with his
GPS. But I noted there was no ac on the wind vane and the
auxiliary defroster fans did not come on when I tested them.
Just what I needed, a primary ac failure. So we pulled off
the road and I commenced to check. The inverter was on; the
fridge was on; so the inverter was ok. I wriggled some plugs
and suddenly everything was ok. Nagrivator rebooted ok. So i
pulled out onto the road again and then noted I had no
chassis battery charge. 30 amp load from fans and lights and
no charge; the battery is not going to be very happy about
that. Had to drive about ten miles before I found another
wide spot.
There I poked and prodded and
measured and got wet when a thumper opened up. Decided I'd
have to deal with whatever was wrong later. Rain and cold on
the outside and in the engine room everything was too hot to
handle so I set the big dual battery switch at the APU to
BOTH so the house battery was connected to the chassis
battery and went on up the hill and down the other side to
this place Tie Fork Rest Area on u.s.6, about ei8ht miles
west of Soldier's Summit and had supper whilst awaiting the
rain to stop and the motor to cool.
I observed that the alternator was
charging the house battery so that part was ok. And
the chassis battery would crank the motor so all that wiring
was ok. And there was voltage on the battery isolator where
I expected to find it. So that left the finger pointing at
the chassis battery diode but that tested ok too. hmmm...
then in the course of poking further found that the 7/16th
nut/bolt that ties the diode to the battery wire and the
sense wire was loose. Great! hah! the proverbial "loose
connection" was actually real! That assembly is on a
Plexiglas bar/insulator and my guess is that the plexi has
softened in the blast of hot air from the radiator fans and
thus pulled back from the hardware and cable ends. Charges
all OK after the lose nut tightened. Phew! All set for
tomorrow.
Sunday—May the Force Be With You
Would you believe it? Aside from
getting turned around twice in SLC (stupid meaningless
Detour Sign in the wrong lane and/or no longer valid—streets
changing faster than the Nagrivator can keep track of
them...) we had a day of nothing breaking. I almost feel
disappointed. Or left out.
Along the way we took a side trip
to look for Ogden Hot Springs up a narrow twisty road into
Ogden Canyon, east of Ogden Utah. But there was a chain(link
fence) across the path with a No Trespassing sign. Oh
Well...
Now in Idaho at the Welcome Center
after 200 miles of i15 and a fillup of 108 gallons of Diesel
(first fuel since 23 June). I think the traverse of SLC on
i15 was more harrowing than the descent of Wolf Creek Pass.
Looks like we might should may make Driggs tomorrow.
Where
is Driggs , anyway? Driggs is: at N-12 on the
AAA chart; a little west of Alta WY; in Teton County IDaho,
on ID33 between Tetonia and Victor; about two thumbs and a
pinky north east of Idaho Falls.
Monday—Stupidity At An All-time High!
No diagnostics in this bus but for
my Fluke DVM, two screwdrivers, and a hammer. Fluke came in
handy when the diagnostics reported the starter button was
not working and the starter would not start the
Clatterpillar. The motor started OK from the rear remote
start switch so I concentrated my efforts in the front.
Eventually, further diagnostics read out from the Fluke
indicated an open 5a fuse. The Fluke even pinpointed the
fuse location to the top left corner on the Ignition Block.
However the readout stops short of telling me why the fuse
blew. Sufficient to the day is that a new fuse rectified the
situation.
That fuse failed on the third
restart, when I was on a fuel island in Rexburg. This time
the replacement blew right away. So I put in a larger size.
And that caused a fuse further upstream to blow so I put in
a larger one there too. Not good practice I know but... I
had to get off that fuel island or be towed.
So, now I are here in Driggs and
have a week to sit still and troubleshoot. If at first you
don't succeed try a bigger hammer. As long as I can keep my
feet out of the way. Start mileage was 30803. End mileage is
32023. How cool is that?
Fixing Surprises
But the problem turned out to be
elsewhere. Didn't have to take apart my bed and go through
the firewall. Tracing the wires from the Start Buttons (the
person who wired this bus kept no notes at all, compounded
by the person who rewired it keeping notes in some sort of
shorthand...): from driver's start button up stream to the
bridge battery-bus and down stream to the starter, I found
the #16 red wire going out through a hole in the deck by the
shifter pedestal and aft through a conduit along the frame
rail. So not a firewall problem at all. That red wire went
to the coil terminal of a solenoid on the frame rail next to
the starter. A similar white wire came from the rear start
button to that same point.
With both wires off the starter
solenoid coil terminal they measured open circuit with my
Fluke. The coil terminal however was flaky. Sometimes
measuring a proper 4 Ohms but at other wriggles measuring 2
or even zero Ohms. The terminal did not seem to be loose but
the measurements were erratic. I replaced the solenoid. So
far, after four starts, no blown fuses. So I took apart the
solenoid and could find nothing wrong. Cleaned the contacts
and reassembled. Coil resistance looks good now
(consistently at 3.8 Ohms) but I have no idea what I did.
I'll keep it as a spare to replace the previously repaired
spare that is now in service.
Parked in a grassy yard at the end
of a smooth gravel road. Cloudy and drippy the day we
arrived, just partly cloudy the next day, clear with a Green
Flash sunrise over the Tetons this morning.
Countdown in Progress
Hype and Hoo-Ha! Been there
done that got the tee shirt. Really tho, an entire
generation has come of age without knowing the profound
experience of a Total Eclipse of The Sun. Too bad many of
them are going to see this celestial wonder on the telly. Or
their stupid phones. With instant replay and colour
commentary. Especially for those of you who will not see
this eclipse in person the post office issued a special
postage stamp. The ink is temperature sensitive. Press your
warm thumb on the shadow and after a few seconds the moon
will appear. Well Done Post Office!
The Day Before Armageddon
Major power failure here as we were
just getting into the second movie of a double feature and I
started up the hot air popper. Seems to me I have used that
tool before with no problem but last night the inverter went
off line. DC lights were OK and the battery looked OK. With
torch in one hand and DVM in the other I went about opening
battery bay and inverter bay and found the inverter with a
blinking green light crying with an incessant
beep-beep-beep. I'd never in all these years experienced
this condition so I had to rummage through the bus file and
find "The Book". Eventually found the Trouble Chart.
The inverter was ill with a "seriously low battery" alarum.
That is a hard failure which requires manual reset
procedure. Today I suppose I should at least do a battery
load test but I don't want to get into tearing down the
system for fear of what I might find.
The Eclipse of A Lifetime!
I stayed up all night keeping the
clouds swept away, wore out two besoms which I will have to
replace before next eclipse, but there was little I could do
about the smoke and haze.
The first thing of note was the
drop in temperature. At that hour in the morning the day had
warmed to 73f from the 42f observed at dawn but as the
moon encroached more and more the temperature slid
downwards. By about 70% obscured, daylight was noticeably
dimmer, shadows were sharper, output from the PV array
on The Cat Drag'd Inn was down from the 20-30 amps
normal at that time of day to only 15 amps, and the
air was cold enough to run inside for a warm woolly jumper.
We had laid out on the grass a fine
white wool blanket, frayed around the edges but not too
moth-eaten and just at the moment of totality were able for
a fleeting instant to see the fabled shadow bands. The
temperature was down by ten degrees by then. The sky was
dark, at least one planet was visible, my camera wanted to
turn on its flash. Hurricane Hazel curled up for a nap--but
that was nothing unusual so I doubt we can attribute her
behaviour to the lack of sun.
And then moments later, The Diamond
Ring heralded the end of totality, the return to viewing
devices, and hopefully to warmth. But the temperature
dropped another two degrees before turning up again. Lowest
observed was 60f. Think about that. How fast the air cooled!
Wouldn't take but a few hours for the earth to freeze if the
sun were to go out altogether.
After that rather spectacular
eclipse in Driggs I spent three hours to drive the twenty
miles from Rexburg to IDaho Falls where u.s.20 turns west.
Traffic was bumper to bumper. Once I got on 20 west I was
able to get up some speed and made it to
EBR-1 with minutes to spare. Now on to current events
and another meltdown of the diode/alternator/charge feed
wire and subsequent roadside repair.
23 August - IDaho needs more Passing Lanes. 
The 21st and 22th I drove sometimes
10-15 miles of hilly curvy two lane blacktop with often not
even a passing zone never mind a passing lane. And no wide
spots where I could pull over and let all the cars and
trucks pass me. OTOH only a fool would be driving 60-70 on
those roads. There were a lot of fools on the road the past
couple days. In Arco ID at a fuel stop/pit stop I met a
family who are just starting the conversion of their old
bus.
Picked up Nita in Boise and now we
are on the road to Bishop. Yesterday was really hot driving with hills to climb and that was
when the primary charge wire from the diode isolator to the
chassis battery failed again. Drove about twelve miles at a
50a load before finding a wide spot, where The Cat
Drag'd Inn and fit, to effect repair. This time I
rebuilt the connexion so there is no meltable plastic
involved. Then on to Jordan Valley and a grassy city park
with a large bell to ring just in time for a good night's
sleep.
Now writing from Basque
ORgon, a tiny island of connectivity in a vast radio
desert. But then again, as with mobile service in Pie Town,
sheep don't have cell phones. I'm sure the service is only
for this “Population 10” road camp. Onwards.
24-26 Aug...There's a hot spring just down the road
apiece.
On a last minute spurn of the
moment we headed east instead of south. I suppose I could
blame the conflict of instructions between Ms Money-Penny of
the Delorme GPS and Mr Magellan (in drag), not to mention
the AAA paper maps... Off to look for a couple of hot
springs, one I'd not been to and one I'd been to several
times and is a special favourite.
![NoWhere NV [Nita Photo]](ajo17cNL6064_NowhereNV.jpg)
At Nowhere NeVada is Reese Hot Spring. Found more by good
luck than good management, a mostly rocky cauldron within a
"cow proof fence" is found a bit of a shelf surrounding a
bottomless hole to the centre of the Earth filled with clean
hot water. One mis-step on the slippery tufa and you're in a
lobster pot. A little on the hot side for a hot afternoon
soak, still a welcome reward for all we went through to find
the place. I've written the editor of the hot spring guide
book to correct the instructions.
Onwards and upwards through Austin
(NeVada) and down the other side to Spencer Hot Spring. My
favourite. I will have to come back again. And stay longer.
Spencer is
not a place for a one night soak. Too good for that.
Deserves several days to explore.
![Spencer HS [Nita Photo]](ajo17cNL6128_SpencerHS.jpg)
Now we are at Fallon visiting Sandy and Gordon (thank you
very much for supper and a shower) and their quarter slot
machine and air compressor and becoming reacquainted with
the Sounds of the City: Honk! Honk!
oohwee-oohweee-oohweee... Beep-Beep. Cock-a-doodle-dooo.
Onwards to Falloff? Well, at least as far as Bishop and a
few more hot springs.
The Bishopric of Bishop
Where I am camping in this huge
paved carpark the sprinklers turned on at oh-dark-thirty
last night. 'Rain' thudding against The Cat Drag'd Inn
spooked Hurricane Hazel-Rah and brought me running up the
companionway to close windows. A few hours later I am
dreaming about playing in the surf and awaken to find my
face wet from real rain coming in through the roof vent.
Writing from Bishop in the carpark
at VONS. Work all done here; time to get on the road again.
Hurricane Hazel is anxious to return to her ministerial
responsibilities amongst the avian communities in Tonopah
and I need to do a laundry.
Today I picked up two bags of trash
at Keough Hot Ditch, a few miles south of Bishop, and had a
grand soak in a nice sandy-bottomed pool there. Very special
place, worthy of a special trip just to go there again--not
to mention visiting friends in Bishop.
My astronomer friend Little Jon
made a 4 1/2 minute video of our eclipse experience. He and
Jane were in ORgon, Nita was on the west side of Idaho
whilst Spencer (not to be confused with the hot spring of
the same name in Austin) and Paul were with me and Tony on
the east side in Driggs. We all saw the same sun, minutes
apart,
but Jon got the best pictures.
170903 - Dirty Socks to Newberry and Beyond
 Another Ah-Ha! Moment
occurred today. Two of them actually. 2,554 miles to the
other end of i40 the sign proclaimed as The Cat Drag'd
Inn across the “00” at the point where i40 branched
away to the right from i15 in Barstow CA. It occurred to me
that I could not recall ever before crossing “Mile Zero” of
an Interstate Highway. A few miles further on I turned off
i40 at Daggett and followed “Historic 66” east to Newberry
to camp at Newberry
Mountain RV Park. Recommended by my Escapees Discount
Camping Guide and just in the nick of time. The heat was
oppressive (105f at the thermometer bulb behind the front
bumper) and the air was dry and my patience was wearing
thin. Too damned hot to be wearing clothes; I'd been driving
au naturel (that's just a PC way of implying nude) all day
except for a couple of “No Shirt No Shoes...” stops. This
camp was going to require at the least a dashiki (...the
demanding signs never say anything about trousers...) or my
XXLL Cool Space polo shirt.
The second Ah-Ha! came up in the
first quarter-mile of “Hist 66”. I've been on other sections
of Old Route 66 where short lengths of pavement exist
between i40 exits. There is one section that bypasses over
70 miles of i40 between Seligman and Kingman AridZona that I
have driven in both directions. Another section is in Adrian, west
of Amarillo TeXas. Adrian is on Route 66,
half way between Chicago and Los Angeles. "When you're
here you're halfway there."
I realised that, as with some of my
hiking on the AT and the CDT, I have been doing Historic 66
in little pieces, in no particular order, by happenstance,
or detour, a few miles here—a few miles there. This little
strip of two-lane is magical. All sorts of sights to see and
places to visit; a new view presented around every bend.
Trains and cows (one train had 5 engines then 90 cars
followed by three engines and 45 cars with two more engines
pushing), derelict dwellings and paved paths in the desert,
and bridge weight limits of “3 Tons” with no place to turn
around. Some parts of this road are so bad that The Cat
Drags Along at limping speed. Other parts, newly
paved, you zip right fast. The part east of Amboy is
closed—they are replacing the bridge.
But before I got that far I found a
side
road, no more than a driveway, snaking off to the
south.
Too late in the day to walk to the
crater; the temperature was 105f in the shade. I was running
the APU to power the a/c. Burning propane, using heat to
make cold. The info signs advised hiking only in the Winter.
So I decided to stay the night and hike in the morning at
second light.
September Fiveth, Hiking Amboy Crater
Nice hike. Attired just as Colin
Fletcher taught me (sun hat, sturdy foot gear, plenty
of water) I followed the trail out and around and up and
down and up and up, to the rim of the crater where I could
see the Bee Line Trail return path. Then, driving again,
following Historic 66 east from Amboy, I came to the bridge
replacement project and the detour north to i40. Good thing
that bridge was out else I never would have discovered the East Amboy
Dolomite Quarry
and a further detailed report about the dust
on TinyTruck.
Important Aside
Certain city governments think that
by making
“overnight camping” at Wal-Mart illegal we who live on
the road in Residence Vehicles will flock to the campgrounds
of their constituents and spend dollars for a space to eat
and sleep—not to mention full hook-ups, pool, laundry, rec
room, and playground (in some cases off limits to
unaccompanied adults)—when we would rather spend that money
on groceries at Wal-Mart and thank them for their courtesy.
Kingman AridZona must be that sort of city. Remind me to
avoid spending any money there. Kingman is not the first
city where I have run into that rule, Venice Florida was
another. And another near the eastern end of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike. Campgrounds are Ok when you want
hook-ups, pool, laundry, rec room, and playground; I've
spent thirty dollars a night twice this past week just to
have access to grid power for my two a/c units. Beats paying
to pour propane through the APU to achieve the same chilly
feeling (which I did do for one night). However, when all
the Residence Vehicle driver wants is a quick
get-off-the-road for supper and sleep little else along the
road beats a Wal-Mart caravansary. They are usually less
noisy and smelly than the truckstop at the next exit. I
mean, that's why we live in self-contained vehicles, eh.
Often, the next wide spot in the road is easier to get to
than a constituent's campground.
An Ignominious Ending – 5-8 September
But normal is running out. Now for
the bad news... Main radiator in the bus has another leak.
Bad leak. This is gonna mean a new radiator. Prob'ly
happened in the dark tuesday just before my arrival at North
Ranch in Congress AZ. First indication was a sudden drop in
coolant pressure but no puddle was evident next morning.
That didn't happen until thursday morning as I am hitching
up to leave for the last leg to Tonopah. Now I'm not going
anywhere. At least for another day.
I attempted another quick fix with
JBWeld, same process as on the first two leaks in Show Low
at the start of this Eclipse Expedition. After the JBWeld
had time to set I commenced to refill the radiator and
immediately found another hole. This one in a place I could
not reach. Time to call AAA for a tow. This is gonna be an
ax-pensive repair. Couldn't have happened at a better time.
This must be Summer. Even my
repairs are in rerun. Repair Rerun Specials! The Cat
Drag'd Inn has been towed only twice in my time of
living aboard. First time was 22 May 1998,
Friday, Springfield Oregon, The Cat Gets Drag'd
In. The second was in late April 2002 on
Wolf Creek Pass ...yes, the same Wolf Creek
Pass. Now we are three.
The AAA tow truck is waiting.
Gardyloo, Hugs, Love, ajo (and Hazel who is tirelessly
ministering to the indigenous alar natives. Except at the
moment she is seriously involved in a sleep apnea study..)
|
2017 Septober [for the Autumnal Equinox] —
Greetings Virtual Travellers: 
