Death Valley Roamings

Despite Death Valley being the lowest, driest, and hottest location in the US, or perhaps because of it, we have returned to the Valley for the third time. The allure of the bizarre and contrasting landscapes with hidden treasures has pulled us back on our route to Baja. It helps that the temperatures here in the winter are reasonable (high 40s to high 70s in November). After freezing in New Mexico, we were in a hurry to get somewhere that wouldn’t drop below freezing at night, landing us near Las Vegas. Once there, it was just a few hours to Death Valley.

You might think that having been there twice before, we would have seen all there is to see there (at least that is interesting), but no. We explored the central areas our first trip. The next trip focused on the western and southern sides. With this excursion, we finally traipsed north to see Scotty’s Castle and the Racetrack.

Rolling into Death Valley in the early afternoon, we quickly secured us a spot in the northernmost campground: Mesquite Spring. Then we zoomed over to Scotty’s Castle.

We had previously avoided this attraction as it costs money. Reading up about the tours, we decided that we had seen 1930s houses and décor before. Thus, we thought the best bang for our buck would be the underground tour that covered the mechanics and tunnels of how Albert Johnson made a vacation home in the isolated Death Valley canyon. The logistics and such were definitely interesting, all made possible by a spring further up the canyon.

The house had incredible details, right down to every exterior door being unique. The door to the underground was graced with a sea scene with fish and gulls, complete with a seahorse handle.

However, my favorite part of the house was the pool. That man knew how to make a worthwhile pool. It had a bridge, fountains, and underwater ports that would light the water and also provided a view in the tunnels under the house. If I ever had a pool, it would have to be like this one. Unfortunately, it was never finished. If it had been, it would have sported beautiful turquoise tiles, an elaborate diving board, and an atrium.

The next morning we got up early and made the 2.5-hour trek along washboard gravel roads to the Racetrack. Along the way, we were surprised to find a Joshua Tree forest, covering hill upon hill along the road.

Seeing how the rocks have traveled across the playa (dry lakebed) was very intriguing. Quite the phenomenon.

As a break before we set out for the bumpy return trip, we decided to follow a trail that looked like it led to an abandoned mine. About halfway up, we discovered that the trail seemed to go to the top of the next mountain, instead. So, we went off-trail in search of the mine. It was just a small one. It went about 20 feet  back then did a 200° turn and continued for another 30 feet.

On the way back down the mountain, we discovered that large rocks we had seen on the way up were actually used for walls for housing for the miners.

Between the dust build up (from the gravel roads and the dust storm in Texas and New Mexico) and the squashed insect guts (from Oklahoma and Texas), the interiors were quite dirty. Ergo, when we got back to camp, I finally wiped down all the interiors. Yay for cleanness again!

Our last morning in Death Valley we visited Ubehebe Crater. This landmark created approximately 2000 years ago by magma steaming underground water to the point that the hill blew its top. It would have been filled with water long ago, except for the dry weather patterns here. Even the countryside still has evidence of the silt it spew across the land, making it look more like a picture in sepia than a real landscape.

There is a trail that follows the rim of the Crater, which is about 1.5 miles total. With gusto, I thought we should go the whole way. But after traipsing through the thick layer of pebbles to the Little Hebe Crater, I thought that the walk around the entire crater would be a bit too strenuous, thus we turned back.

That ended our escapades through Death Valley. After filling up with water and picking up our trailer, we left the Valley to find Internet and determine our next stop.

Throughout our travels on the paved roads of the Valley, I was plagued by the question. The paved roads had no more than about 6 inches of paved shoulder. Occasionally, however, the shoulder (on both sides) would widen to about 2 feet for about 15 feet, then narrow again. Neither Jonathan nor I had any clue why. As we were traveling back from the crater, I believe I solved the puzzle, though; and I am quite pleased with myself. Although Death Valley is dry, when rain storms do cross it, torrential floods and rivers spring up and often cover the roads with wash. This can tear up the edges of the road. I believe these shoulder expansions are sacrificial lambs at likely wash locations, offering the shoulder to be torn up instead of the actual road. This is just a deduction, though. If anyone knows for sure, you are welcome to enlighten me.

Across the plains: America’s Big Empty

As you may have inferred when reading our posts, Jonathan’s writing is a much more interesting read. Thus, I don’t know why I do all the writing, except maybe a stronger inner-compulsory obligation to alert family members of our doings. Regardless, Jonathan graciously volunteered me to write this post. You might have guessed this, as I would never call America’s high plains the “Big Empty.” Anyways, on to the story.

We took off from Tulsa on Thursday, November 8. I tell you, when we are trying to get out of a location that we have been camped for a while, it is like pulling teeth. It takes us at least a full day to get packed up. And, then, we often have several errands that we still have to do, e.g. grocery shopping, small parts shopping, mailing, etc. Always something more to do. This departure was no different. We had planned on leaving Wednesday, but between having a few more things to tie down and the axle swap taking longer than expected (as I expected ;) ), we decided to leave Thursday instead. Even then, it took us all morning to get out of Tulsa. We finally had Tulsa in the rearview about 1:30pm.

Our first destination was the free recreational area at Skipout Lake on the border of Oklahoma and Texas. It was a decent little area, but rather popular for the deer hunters. When I went to the restrooms to take care of business, I found one of these hunters occupying the co-ed half of the restroom (the other was men only). When he heard that there was a female on the premises, he quickly finished up his business, apologized, and ran to meet up with his comrades. I entered and found that he (or any of the men before him) had decided to pee all over the toilet, instead of into the pit. Sigh, I don’t understand that one. If you are a man only needing to pee, you might as well as go outside instead of peeing into a pit toilet. Admittedly, it was dark, maybe he didn’t have a light, and maybe he was in a hurry, but if I was male, I would have just gone outside.

After our rush to and from Alaska, I had wanted to travel a bit more slowly. Not only shorter drives, but sticking around in a single location for more than just one night. I had planned to do that at Skipout, perhaps take the kayak out on the lake for a bit, go for a run, etc. As is common in the high plains, though, the wind was blowing rather strongly. Thus, none of the activities I had planned would be pleasant. We decided to move on to the next destination: Lake Meredith NRA near Amarillo, TX.

Unfortunately, the weather hadn’t changed much here either; it was still windy as all get out. But since we arrived early in the day, we still got around to doing a few things. Jonathan worked on trying to get a coolant level control unit installed while I went running. Next day as windy as the last, we left again the next morning. 

This was the day that Jonathan might have been justified for this post’s title. I mean, just because there aren’t any trees throughout the plains except in residential areas, doesn’t mean it is empty. I don’t see lack of hills a bad thing either. It means you can see what is around you and opens up the sky. Yes, I am aware that most of America would disagree with me. Even those in the plains would not agree with me. I am not normal. I came to terms with that long ago. Now, back to the journey from Texas to New Mexico. This day was extremely windy, like semis were occasionally knocked over by the wind. And, with this crazy wind on the border was a dust storm. At some points it was so thick that you could barely see anything. I found it different from the dust storms of my youth in Kansas in that they were red dust. That made it particularly entertaining for me, but you might have guessed that Jonathan didn’t see it that way.

By the time we got to Santa Rosa Lake State Park, our stripes were tinged with red.

This trip, instead of just figuring it out as we went, I thought I would be proactive and plan out our trip. It took me the better part of the last two days in Tulsa, but I planned it out so that we would have a more ideal traveling schedule. The drives between destinations would be between 2 and 4 hours. The camping locations would be free, if at all possible. In those 2 days, I was only able to map out our route until the Mexico border, but I managed to make those goals happen. We would only have to pay for a campsite once in California. I was impressed with myself. Sadly, the best laid plans of mice and Jennifer often go astray. I had checked the weather in a few of the locations, and found them to be acceptable. But as we entered New Mexico, the weather turned colder.  I am sure the elevation didn’t help anything either.

After Santa Rosa, we camped in Cibola National Forest. There was already snow on the ground when we stopped. That should have been a warning, but if it stayed around freezing, it wouldn’t be an issue. This is where all the plans went awry. It dropped to 14°F that night, freezing all the water in our system. In fact, even the sink faucet was frozen, so I couldn’t stow it the next morning at 5:00am when we decided it was too cold and we need to evacuate. When Jonathan went outside to investigate the van for any damage caused by the extreme cold, the sliding door handle broke off. What a night!

When we had cell service again, I checked the weather at our next couple of stops and found them to be way too cold to stay. So there went the plan. At first, we were driving along and I was trying to determine where we could go to get to warmer temperatures and still find reasonable places to stay. I began to stress out about my lack of information (my phone was be wacky and not working properly) and the timeline to make a decision: Jonathan was still driving down the road and we need to decide if we should turn south to Phoenix or keep going on I-40?  We finally pulled over to rest a bit and discuss the options. Jonathan graciously made the decision that we would drive all day long (ending up being 10 hours driving) to Las Vegas, where temperatures finally warmed up a bit.

After the stress of the last few days, I think I went to sleep about 6:30pm that night and slept until about 7am. It was greatly needed. Hopefully warm weather will be in our future from here on out.

With Family

As with all things Luth and van, we ended up sticking around in Tulsa a lot longer than we originally expected. Between waiting on parts and coming up with new things to do on the van, our few days at Josh’s turned into over a month. Poor Josh and Brit. They moved into their house on a Thursday (or was it Friday?) with his parents staying with them, as they were in town. Then, right after the parents left Saturday morning, we pulled into their driveway Saturday night. While we were there, Josh and Jonathan’s mom moved back into their house as she had a new job in town and has no house of her own there.  How Josh and Brit have been able to put up with not being alone for a single night in their new house, I will never know. Bless them! They have more patience than I do on that front, that is for sure.

While living in their driveway, we did get to see some interesting creatures. Who knew you only had to go to your own (or your relatives’) backyard to see some critters? Despite the three cats and two Great Danes that claim Josh and Brit, there were some small animals that would avail themselves of the yard when the pets were not about.

One was an entertaining squirrel who liked to chitter at you from the trees and then lay lazily on the back fence.

One was a young possum who would amble along the yard in search of food. One night it thought it might find something in the trash can, so it crawled up the fence to reach the (closed) lid.

As “electrician” Jonathan scoped out the attic for a project, he discovered a set of bats taking advantage of the roof’s warmth between the attic vent and the screen.

While Jonathan was still making repairs to the van, I found out that my mother’s extended family was going to have a family reunion dinner one weekend. I had thought that we would be on our way elsewhere by then, but as the day approached, we were still grounded. Deciding to take advantage of our carefree schedule and our spare vehicle (while we still had it around), I decided the night before that I would take my truck and go to the family reunion.

It was a delightful and whirlwind trip. Leaving early for the 5-hour trip, I whirled in in time to take a buggy ride with my great aunt Sadie and (2^nd-cousin) Aunt Rose as well as my old friend Floyd driving. There were yummy desserts on display to tide you over until dinner was catered. My grandparents and other cousins and greats arrived. Michelle and I did a puzzle while the younger cousins tossed around a football and volleyball. Dinner was great, catered by my family’s Cattleman’s Café. Later, I talked with fellow travelers about Alaska. After staying the night with my grandparents, I rose early to help with making breakfast for their hunters. I must say that my grandma’s French toast and syrup is one of the best breakfasts you will ever have. One Home Depot trip and a Dropbox and Password Safe lesson later with my parents, my mom joined me for the trip back to Tulsa so that she could get back to Shell Knob via my truck.

 

Apparently October was the month for deer attacking cars. First, Jonathan’s dad, Dave, had a deer try to take a ride in the passenger seat with him. That totaled the car. A day or so later, my Dad’s mom was driving home and a deer tried to remodel the radiator on her car, totaling it. Fortunately, there were no injuries suffered in either case. My grandma, however, had no way to obtain a new vehicle. Thus she was stranded at her house. My dad arranged for a vehicle for her, but the problem was getting it to her (in Kentucky) in a timely manner. As Jonathan and I had been planning a visit anyway, we took her the vehicle.

Kentucky is beautiful this time of year with the changing leaves, enhancing our travels. Not only did we get to spend some quality time with my grandma, but my half-sister and her family as well. Despite me only ever making it over that way every four years or so, we only stayed for a few days. I was ready to get moving on to some warmer weather.

Don't I have an adorable nephew?

On our way back from Kentucky, however, we stopped back in Shell Knob to visit my parents again. One of the main reasons was to deliver pictures of my dad’s grandson to him. Forgetful me, though, forgot to give them to him, so I had to mail them from Tulsa. Then, as we were expecting a few more items to have arrived in the mail while we were gone, we stopped at Josh and Brit’s again. While there, we discovered the right rear CV joint had gone kaput (it even smelled burnt weirdly enough). Knowing the issues we had had trying to fit the spare CV joint on the last axle, we had to order a whole new axle/CV joint combo. Back to waiting…

At least this wait allowed us to get our vehicle insurance and registration renewed. I also got to go fabric shopping with Brit for pillows and dog beds. I even added some magnets to the rear curtains for better light blockage. That allowed me to work on Brit’s late grandmother’s 1951 Singer sewing machine. It is rather impressive for a 61-year-old machine. Still runs beautifully.

So for these nearly two months, we spent a lot of time with family. It was really good, but I am ready to move out, heading for warmer weather. On Thursday, November 8, we finally put Tulsa in our rearview mirror, planning on visiting Baja after a few stops in the southern US.

And...We're back!

Howdy folks.  It has been a while since our last post.  If you have been checking this blog weekly, hourly, or god forbid daily…  Sorry for the delay.  (FYI there is a subscribe link on the right of this page for email notifications when we post)

We have been flitting about, here and there in the Midwest portion of the USA.  Most of our time has been spent taking care of family related business, and making preparations for our journey south.  Nothing really noteworthy has occurred, hence the lack of postings.  However as I write this we are back on the road and bound for warmer shores; both literally and figuratively. Jen will be posting soon with details of our trip to date, and some pics of the dustiness.

It may not seem obvious, but there are two very important keys that I have discovered for the successful planning of roadtrippage.  First, lots of detailed planning (made possible by the glory of Al Gore’s internets).  Second, lots and lots of sleep.  I can guarantee that up until recently I have been indulging in the latter.  One can never have enough of the former, but lack of it does make for interesting experiences after the fact.

Despite the voluminous amount of sleep I have indulged in, we still managed to accomplish a decent amount over the last few weeks.  We were able to fix a few of the mangled bits of Chuck that were still left from our Alaska excursion.  This was made possible by the good graces of the Japanese and a variety of Chinese parts.  We also obtained equipment for filtering water.  While most water in Mexico is decent, I see no reason to tempt Montezuma’s Revenge (aka Cryptosporidium).  I originally thought we would take our chances with water in Mexico, (most guides report it is potable in most major metropolitan areas). However, the very thought of 3 days of vicious sharts convinced me otherwise.  

0.9Micron filter for drinking water.

New Axles for Chuck

We also were able to add some camouflage to Chuck, as well as repair and refit his fridge.  I call the look, dusky tiger, I think vanagons everywhere will be trying it out.  This entire decorative scheme was accomplished in an afternoon with duplicolor Car-Art temporary paint, and 5 rolls of electrical tape . 

 

Currently we are planning to make a beeline for the southern west coast.  We are considering stops, weather permitting, at the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Redwood National Forest.  Why all the side trips you ask?  Several members of my family are strongly considering visiting us in Los Cabos Baja in December.  If they (and their passports) come through, we will need to delay our crossing into Baja for a few weeks.  Besides, we need to get our money’s worth out of our national park yearly pass. By the way; it seems that with sufficient planning, one can make a 5 day trip to Los Cabos for less than $1200.  With a group of 3 or more this price will include a car, flight, hotel, and a decent amount of food.  While not my preferred method to visit another country, it seems Mexico can be a great holiday getaway. 

For you readers: What do you want to see more of?  Campsite GPS coordinates?  Photos of Chuck’s engine bay?(aka van porn)  Our menu?  You tell us, your feedback could help make this cluster of ramblingness more interesting. 

Upcoming posts

Across the plains: America’s Big Empty

Van Life: Staying Sane in 120 Cubic Feet

Chuck: The Van, The Myth, The Legend

Mud Flaps, and Puppy-Sitting

I realized, as I woke to the wailing of an ambulance combined with the steroid pumped hornet buzz of a street racer’s bike, that while having access to big city comforts was nice, empty wilderness had its perks.  I rolled over on Chuck’s lower bed, grabbed some pants, and headed for a midnight snack in the well-stocked fridge not 20 feet from where I slept; perks indeed.

When we left Alaska (more like chased from, by snow) we decided that we needed to take care of a few of the most important issues that were hindering van life.  While none of these issues were major enough to require a substantial layover on their own; combined they presented a substantial block of work.  This presented a unique challenge due to the numerous concerns of doing work while under way, particularly with winter on its way.

After some discussion (which lasted several days and about half the length of Canada) we decided to return to Tulsa to knock some stuff off of my Honey-Do list.  Now, a few interesting things were occurring at this time. First, my Mother had taken a job in Tulsa (moving from Iowa of all places) and would be starting soon.  Second, my elder brother Josh has just closed a deal to sell is old home and purchase/move into a new one. (Something about a dance floor, or a hot tub…)   Anyways, due to a variety of happenings, weather etcetera, we arrived the day after he moved into his new home.  (Cough cough, totally a coincidence….)  Thankfully his new pad has a decent driveway and power outlets on the outside, so we had everything needed to get cracking at Chuck. 

Now I bet by this point you are wondering about the post title, and when I am going to explain it.  Well, deal with it, I feel like rambling, and there is nothing you can do about it, except maybe skip down a few paragraphs…. OK, you got me there.

Now down to business; our initial list of fixes and tweaks is as follows.

Sway bar down-link and bushings (see post The Adventure in the “Last Frontier”)

Window seal leaks (30mph cross winds will show you where they are….)

Transmission oil seep (face->palm, must of messed it up during assembly)

Floor tiles (going from 110 to 30 degrees did something to the adhesive)

Exhaust hanger (see post Transmission Mission)

Additional LED lights (hard to read up front at night)

Mud Flaps (so…much…gravel….)

Water Pump belt (Always better to be proactive)

Horn contact ring (sometimes you just need to lay into it)

Drives side window regulator (had the glass slip down and get stuck once, bad mojo in Alaska)

Replace the hubs on our Harbor Freight trailer (cheap junk, ‘nuff said)

Valve cover leaking onto the exhaust (Fog them skeeters baby!)

Now, bearing in mind that this was our intended list not everything on here got done.  Also it may seem like an epic list, but none of these things are safety related, or seriously degrade the performance of Chuck.

 

Whenever I stay with family, I somehow get roped into helping with just about anything (a side effect of being a freeloader I guess).  This stay was no exception.  Here were a few of my responsibilities.

 

Director of Hot Tub Maintenance

Master Electrician

Lead puppy sitter (brother and wife have 2 Great Danes, both under a year old, Can you say big?)

240lbs of pure furry terror.

Despite all these added responsibilities I was just glad that to not need to tear apart anyone else’s car.  Also nothing caught on fire, at least not for too long…  It was a pretty good visit in that respect.

After we had helped my brother settle in, we got down to business on chuck.  Here is a breakdown of what actually happened.

Sway bar down-link and bushings

Replaced: Had to hack up some generic bushings to fit. (30 year old cars, GRRRRR)

Window seal leaks

Repaired: $3 of weather stripping from ACE

Transmission oil seep

Patched: The Right Stuff gasket maker (pretty much the shiz)

Floor tiles 

Glued: Headliner adhesive.

Exhaust hanger 

Repaired and reinforced:  Some mill time and a few bolts. Remember, there is always a bigger hammer.

Additional LED lights

Delayed: Amazon delayed the LEDs…

Mud Flaps

Installed: Also had to repaint half the fender flares due to rock chips.

Water Pump belt

Replaced: Had to try 3 belts, a GM alternator swap, and a hacksaw.  Ended up needing to cut a chunk out of the alternator to make everything fit. GIT-ER-DONE!

Horn contact ring

Fixed: Machined new ring, tried half a dozen adhesives. Grrrr.

Drives side window regulator

Delayed: Don’t want to pay $100 for a used part…

Replace the hubs on our Harbor Freight trailer

Fixed, Kinda of: New hubs in the mail for free, not much better than the old ones.

Valve cover leaking onto the exhaust

Fixed: Magic in a can The Right Stuff instant gasket maker. Ended up fixing a couple of vacuum leaks.  30 year old rubber, meh.

There were also a few unplanned fixes.  Something to be said about VWs making owners into mechanics.

Fridge developed a propane leak 

Fixed: took longer than I would care to admit.  Had to remove the fridge 4 times.  

If anyone else out there feels like donating (or funding)
a modern fridge like a Truckfridge CF49…

PCV Grommet tore 

Replaced

Mud jammed in front right suspension (see post The Adventure in the “Last Frontier”)

Replaced/fixed: repacked wheel bearings as well.

Steering Rack wear: 

Replaced: should make windy passes more enjoyable.

After everything was accomplished; it had been almost 3 weeks. We are long since due to hit the road again.  Preliminary sketches put us visiting some friends and relatives for a few weeks, and then it’s off to Baja!