Bronco Broko

I took my "new" bronco off-roading this weekend. Er... "wheeling" that is. Gotta get the lingo right. It broke. Which is apparently to be expected of a new truck. It turns out that there was a bolt missing from the bottom of where the radius arm is supposed to attach to the front axle. I bet whoever did the lift forgot to put it back in, and, well, it turned out to be kinda important. So... wheeling turned into a back-woods mechanic extravaganza. Sage's bronco broke too, his transmission got unhappy and dumped all it's fluids. So, we had to bum a ride back to Ojai in Steve and Shaun's jeeps. Once there, we collected parts for my truck and a trailer for Sage's, grabbed some burritos and headed back up to Apache Canyon, along with Steve, who had already replaced the leaf-spring in his jeep in the time it took us to scrounge up parts and tools. We got back to my truck around 11pm and had it hacked back together in under an hour, which I thought was pretty darn fast. It was good enough to get us out of the tricky parts of the canyon that required 4wd, but came loose before we were all the way out. This time, we stuck a washer over the bolt to hold the lower bracket in place and with Ryan's awesome driving made it the rest of the way out. We didn't bother replacing the drive shaft to the front and just put it in the back of the truck for the ride home. Once we got back to the campsite (and Sage's truck), Steve and I tried to do something about my alignment which was pretty messed up from the front axle rolling around all uncontrolled like. We also tried to tighten my alternator belt, since I'd been having electrical problems all day. The belt is on pretty darn tight now, but it doesn't appear to have solved the problem. Ryan thinks it might be a bad battery, but I guess we'll figure it out next weekend. Anyway, we managed to yank my tie-rods back into some semblance of right and the truck became slightly less un-manageable. We headed out on the road with me behind Steve and Ryan and Sage following me. Or at least they were for a while. I eventually noticed the lack of headlights behind me, stopped, waited for a bit... and then turned around and went looking for them. I found them walking up the road towards me, and a short way behind them was Sage's truck, still on the trailer and Ryan's truck... not really on the road anymore... but pretty well connected to a tree. Apparently towing stuff when you have a spool type locker in your rear axle makes for difficult to non-existent steering. At least when you're driving like Ryan was. :) About this time I started wondering where Steve had gotten off to. Anyway, we hooked up my bronco to the trailer and managed to get them un-stuck. That's when we discovered that the pittman arm had shorn clean off at the steering box. Hmm, that's pretty broken. Fortunately, we had a part truck on the trailer, so we could cannibalize a replacement steering box / pittman arm from it. Halfway through the repair, Steve showed up again. He was pretty pissed. Apparently he'd been off wheeling around and gotten his jeep stuck on it's belly. He was wondering where we were and thought we'd buggered off without him. Eventually he managed to get himself unstuck and came back looking for us. About this time I realized that having radios installed and working would be a Good Thing. This is particularly lame since I bought radios (both a CB and a 2m) for my truck over a month ago. Anyway, I crawled off to nap in my truck while Ryan and Sage worked on putting the stuff from his truck into Ryan's. About an hour later they were done and we were back on the road. I guess it was around 3 or 4am at this point and everyone was pretty happy to see the pavement. My truck was a heck of a lot less squirrely on the pavement, but the alignment was still bad enough to keep me awake for the drive. We crawled up Pine mountain at about 10mph with Ryan's truck running pretty darn hot from the towing. That part was fine with me, but the longer trip, back down the other side of the mountain was a heck of a drive. Imagine being in a truck that pulls either one way or the other, depending on where you weight is. When you correct, you shift your weight which makes it pull to the other side. Braking exacerbates the problems, so the only solution is to just keep it slow. Annoyingly, the speed I wanted to go was faster than 1st gear engine braking would give me an slower than 2nd gear engine braking. So I had to alternate between gas and brake in 2nd gear. Needless to say, it was a rough drive. Fortunately there wasn't anyone else on the road for the entire duration of the trip, except our sad convoy of limping trucks. By the time we got back to Ojai, it was starting to get light again. We parked our busted broncos at Ryan's farm and Sage and I bummed a car to drive back to Carp where we crashed at my place for a few hours. The morning after (well, technically later that same morning, but after we were washed rested, fed and feeling human again) I drove my STi and Sage took the loaner back up to Ojai and then we enjoyed Casitas Pass in the STi on the way back. What a world of difference between driving that and driving a bronco with ruined alignment.

Houston, we have landed...

The drive from Rolla Missouri was pretty boring. Once I hit Oklahoma, I put the cruise control on at about 135km/hr and blasted along the straight west. The term "big sky country" kept coming to mind and photos just don't do justice to the scenery. Texas was about as flat and you could go a hundred miles between seeing anything other than a couple of dozen other cars sharing the road. I stopped at Grants, New Mexico after driving just a little over 1600kms (yeah, 1000 miles) and through a huge snow-storm that blew in just before I hit Albequerque. An endless hour of carefully working my way across slimy road in a near white-out took it's toll and it wasn't a conscious decision so much as my body just decided to take the exit and that was that. As crossroads go, it wasn't much, but the room was cheap, included internet and was beside a Denny's. It turned out to be a nice, large room but the internet didn't work and I was too zonked to do anything about it. Finding the entrance to the Denny's parking lot next morning turned out to be a challenge too, but I got my hot breakfast despite the obstacles and was on the road by 7am local time. The sides of the road were dusted with snow and were beautiful in the pre-dawn light. I decided to visit the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in Arizona since I had made excellent time that morning. I shot dozens of photos, which completely failed to do it justice. The best description I can come up with is that it was an unearthly mixture of vivid pinks, blacks, blues and grays painted on a jumble of hills, mountains and valleys. I think it needs to be seen in person to appreciate it's beauty and grandeur. This is a photo of the Agate Bridge, a petrified tree that arches across a small gap carved out by water. The true effect only hits home when you get close enough to see that it's actually a tree trunk and not just more of the surrounding rock. A while after the Petrified Forest, I passed through Flagstaff, and over the continental divide at an altitude of some 7000 feet at which point I knew it was all downhill from there. And there were some spectacular downhills too. I just stuck it in 6th gear, took my foot off the gas and let it roll. Shortly after crossing the Colorado river, I entered California. The next part of the drive was almost hypnotic as I swept across the Mojave desert. Eventually the road swooped down into the LA basin (I think it was a good vertical mile of drop). After a couple of hours of LA rush-hour that actually moved pretty well, I entered Ventura and swooshed down another mile and a half vertical drop. After that it wasn't far to Carpinteria and the oldish motel I'm currently staying at. I spent the day trying to get in touch with realtors to little avail. Eventually I gave up and headed into Santa Barbara where I stumbled upon a car wash and finally the somewhat tatty Mexican internet cafe where I'm writing this update. I start work tomorrow and hope to find a place some time this week. It's been quite an adventure so far. I think I'm going to call it quits and head over to this micro-brewery that's been recommended to me a few times. Then head home, find some "work appropriate" cloths for tomorrow and call it a night.

Fwoosh

I shot through Ontario promptly and enjoyed my last Tim Horton's coffee (and deliciously greasy breakfast sandwich) before crossing the bridge at Sarnia. The border dude wasn't really friendly, but he went through my papers pretty quick and I had my visa in about 45 minutes. The rest of the day I simply put miles behind me, to the tune of about 1400km. Highlites of my drive included dinner at the Steak-n-Shake (delicious burgers instead of steaks, but the shakes were tasty), and crossing the Mississippi river. I stopped to try and take a photo but it didn't turn out. And some drunk hicks in a pickup truck almost ran into my car while attempting to throw a beer bottle through the rear window. At least I think that's what they were trying to do since they missed pretty bad and the bottle glanced off the front side panel and didn't even leave a dent. I'm writing this from a somewhat dinghy Day's Inn in Rolla Missouri. Here's hoping I make such good time tomorrow, although I plan to stop by the next AAA and pick up a "Route 66" attractions map so I don't miss all the sights.

California or Bust

Well, my papers are finally all in order, I hope. Tomorrow morning I hit the road bright and early. The car is packed pretty full (take a look at how low it's riding in the rear). For those of you who haven't yet heard, I'm off to California. My route plan is basically to head for St. Louis then follow Route 66 the rest of the way. I will of course have my radio on 146.520 and 446.000 the whole time in the hopes of chatting up some locals for restaurant recommendations and such en-route. I'll post updates when and if I find motels with internet access. In addition to this blog, you might want to check out my Picasa Web Album for more photos.