The Nomadic Life

[bigbill]

I just got home from driving 3.5 hours with CAT as my co-pilot. I had never backed the trailer into the backyard in the dark, I need more lights. The gate is 14' wide and I have to angle the trailer into the back yard and then back straight. The fence and trailer are intact. I left it on the hitch to finish up tomorrow. The horse trailer is in the side yard (our lot is .5 acres) so we can clean it out tomorrow. My ears are ringing and it feels like I'm still driving.

[Too Tall]

I just got home from driving 3.5 hours with CAT as my co-pilot. I had never backed the trailer into the backyard in the dark, I need more lights. The gate is 14' wide and I have to angle the trailer into the back yard and then back straight. The fence and trailer are intact. I left it on the hitch to finish up tomorrow. The horse trailer is in the side yard (our lot is .5 acres) so we can clean it out tomorrow. My ears are ringing and it feels like I'm still driving.

Welcome home, I know the feeling.
When in doubt and in the dark my go to trick is drop a flashlight at my swing point....stop...get out and move it to the next.
PS Hydrate ;)

[bigbill]

Welcome home, I know the feeling.
When in doubt and in the dark my go to trick is drop a flashlight at my swing point....stop...get out and move it to the next.
PS Hydrate ;)

I have a small LED floodlight that I ended up using. As a bonus, since the light was on the ground, it cast shadows against the wall so I could see how far back I had backed. This AZ, we have cinder block walls and a gravel yard. I need to make some marks on the wall to know when I'm in the right position. Back in the day when I was a ship driver, channels were marked with buoys and hiviz reference markings on poles so I could "hit my marks" without actually hitting anything.

[ides1056]

My van is getting more work done before I head home to Massachusetts from California. Eurovans are common enough out West that there are specialists and it made sense to take advantage of this, bite the bullet and get it sorted. I am beginning to give some thought to the route, which will depend on weather and road conditions. I want to avoid salted roads, first and foremost, and if dodgy weather continues I will take the long way around by heading South. I’ve no set date to leave, but would like to be home by mid-April.

[bigbill]

My van is getting more work done before I head home to Massachusetts from California. Eurovans are common enough out West that there are specialists and it made sense to take advantage of this, bite the bullet and get it sorted. I am beginning to give some thought to the route, which will depend on weather and road conditions. I want to avoid salted roads, first and foremost, and if dodgy weather continues I will take the long way around by heading South. I’ve no set date to leave, but would like to be home by mid-April.

If you want a suggestion for a route, and heading south is your best option, I-40 should be decent from March onward. We drive to Wyoming from Arizona on US highways instead of interstates, because we're not going to drive at 75+ mph pulling trailers. You could pass through Grand Canyon NP from west (south entrance) to east (toward Cameron). Drive up through Monument Valley into Utah. North of Moab you can pick up I-70. We take I-70 to Rifle then head north to I-80 in Wyoming. Since you're traveling with your camper van, county fairgrounds typically have cheap spots with full hookups plus public bathrooms with showers.

[ides1056]

If you want a suggestion for a route, and heading south is your best option, I-40 should be decent from March onward. We drive to Wyoming from Arizona on US highways instead of interstates, because we're not going to drive at 75+ mph pulling trailers. You could pass through Grand Canyon NP from west (south entrance) to east (toward Cameron). Drive up through Monument Valley into Utah. North of Moab you can pick up I-70. We take I-70 to Rifle then head north to I-80 in Wyoming. Since you're traveling with your camper van, county fairgrounds typically have cheap spots with full hookups plus public bathrooms with showers.

That sounds under awesome. 65 is the sweet spot for the van and driver. I will get out the map.

Thanks Bill.

[bigbill]

I'll blather on about US Highways. We live north of Kingman, AZ, near Hackberry. When we travel to Wyoming, we take old Rt 66 from our house to near Ash Fork. Along the route is Peach Springs (Hualapai Reservation) and Grand Canyon Caverns (vintage tourism). Seeing all the closed hotels and gas stations along the way reminds us of what the country was like before interstates. Seligman has great pie at West Side Lilo's. From Ash Fork, it's a short drive on I-40 to Williams and Hwy 64 to the south entrance of the Grand Canyon. Passing through the NP and exiting at the east entrance toward Cameron. Leaving the east entrance puts you in the Navajo/Hopi Reservation. The Cameron Trading Post has a great hotel and local art (silver, turquoise, sand art, and weaving) for sale. Leaving Cameron on Hwy 89, travel north to Tuba City and Kayenta to reach Monument Valley which is best enjoyed in the early morning. North of Monument Valley are a series of Mormon towns leading to Moab, so there are plenty of places to stop for the night. Moab itself is mostly tourism, but north of town is Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, and Dead Horse Point SP. On a clear day, you can see the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

North of Moab is I-70 which has spectacular scenery heading east. We exit at Rifle and take Hwy 13 north to I-80. At Rawlins, we head north through Wyoming to our summer spot. If the weather permits, picking up I-25 to I-90 at Buffalo allows you to visit Devil's Tower, Vore Buffalo Leap, then head southeast to Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Rushmore is easy to visit because of ample parking, even during peak season. After that, east on I-90 there be sea serpents.

[ides1056]

Blather is good. I last drove across on 80 with my son. The first day was easy: Petaluma to Mono over Ebbet’s Pass so he could see the Sequoias. Then we drove through Lee Vining the next morning and took a left just south of there through the high desert on the loneliest road in America to Salt Lake, where we got on 80. We drove without stopping all the way home to MA. I could do 16 hours before I had the sleep and he’d take over for a few. Epic. Dodge diesel that belonged to a tenant. Had a sloppy steering rack, which took some getting used to.
The one place I’d like never to drive through again is Chicago at rush hour. So I am thinking how to avoid that. I am looking at heading to Poughkeepsie first to see friends before getting home. Any advice is welcomed. I’ve been in CA since mid-November and would like a good view along the way but I plan to make time. I will come back next year to wander the Southwest with my bike.

[bigbill]

In 2012, I drove from Boise to Laramie. I was heading to Texas after retiring from the Navy to begin my six year Huggies career. I had plenty of time and was in no hurry. I filled up my car outside of Ogden and once I got on I-80, I set the cruise control and didn't touch a pedal until the fuel light came on. I didn't intend to have an 11 hour day, there was just no place to stop until Laramie. As a side note, a 2010 Subaru Forester is not an 11 hour car, my back was mad at me for the next two days. Laramie had a Perkins so I had pie for dinner. Looking at a map, my route wasn't the shortest way to NE Texas, but I was going to Fayetteville, AR, first to have my retirement photos taken. Andrew Kilgore is legendary in the portrait world. He was Bill Clinton's photographer.

http://www.andrewkilgore.com/?fbclid...QhaaAE_rur5P_g

[j44ke]

To be honest, I haven't seen many Airstreams out west. There were fewer than a handful at Yellowstone last summer. I'm sure they're a small player in the RV world compared to Jayco and others. I looked for a used one last year before getting the Jayco, and the best I found was a 23 foot model for $65K that needed some TLC.

Airstream owners tend to have the proper vehicle, unlike the guy we saw a few months ago pulling a big Jayco with a half ton chevy. That setup made my brain itch.

I have a question, if an RV park has hardwired wifi, will I need a router?

If by hardwired you mean that there is an Ethernet jack at each site, then you could just plug in your computer and share the connection with other devices with your computer’s wifi. Or you could attach a wifi router to the Ethernet and connect all your devices to the router by wifi.

[bigbill]

If by hardwired you mean that there is an Ethernet jack at each site, then you could just plug in your computer and share the connection with other devices with your computer’s wifi. Or you could attach a wifi router to the Ethernet and connect all your devices to the router by wifi.

I didn't think about going straight to a computer and then hot spotting it. Good idea. I had considered taking a router and just putting it under the trailer for wifi.

[Too Tall]

I didn't think about going straight to a computer and then hot spotting it. Good idea. I had considered taking a router and just putting it under the trailer for wifi.

Just for the record this is how I'm dealing with Internet in a multi-dimensional poop show of situations.

Netgear came out with a slick cellular gateway. Provision this with AT&T Pay as you go or Verizon, I'm using AT&T. NETGEAR Nighthawk M5 5G Mobile Hotspot with WiFi 6 (MR5200) Pair that with a MiMo antenna stuck to a window facing the best tower https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and you are in business.

Price of entry is steep however I see this tech. as something that is long lasting and well done so hey it's only money.

FWIIW The WiFi this unit spits out is good enough that even when located inside my Airstream Faraday cage I'm getting good signal sitting 20 feet away.

[ides1056]

Westy Werks in San Luis Obispo got my Eurovan completely sorted. I am relaxed about the cross-country trip ahead of me. These guys do it right.

[AngryScientist]

Westy Werks in San Luis Obispo got my Eurovan completely sorted. I am relaxed about the cross-country trip ahead of me. These guys do it right.

Nice. What is it that needed done? Anything major?

[ides1056]

My choice: motor and tranny mounts, brakes, flush this and that, fluids, filters. If you are just knocking around town you can get by with a bit of funky, but I am more particular than the prior owner and prefer to fix things proactively. The motor is reputed to be comically reliable. At 180K other things needed a refresh of sorts. I like brakes more than any other part of the equation so put braided lines on, cross-drilled front rotors and new shoes in back. Much better. Night and day.

[bigbill]

My choice: motor and tranny mounts, brakes, flush this and that, fluids, filters. If you are just knocking around town you can get by with a bit of funky, but I am more particular than the prior owner and prefer to fix things proactively. The motor is reputed to be comically reliable. At 180K other things needed a refresh of sorts. I like brakes more than any other part of the equation so put braided lines on, cross-drilled front rotors and new shoes in back. Much better. Night and day.

Good call on the maintenance, especially on a vehicle that may be unfamiliar to many mechanics. As a guy who was stranded for five days when my truck broke down, it was a helpless feeling even though I had the travel trailer with full hookups. I hope you have a fun and uneventful trip home.