ZUKIWORLD Online | Suzuki 4x4 Editorial and Forum
ZUKIWORLD Discussion Forum => Adventure (Let's GO WHEELING!) => Topic started by: bentparts on October 15, 2009, 07:23:07 AM
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Aside from the constant rain, the next couple of days on the road were fairly easy. The drive through Tennessee and Arkansas was pleasant and the roads good. Even the rain couldn't dampen the excitement of my road trip. There's nothing like the feeling of being on an adventure and going to a place you've never been. I did make a stop at the local Home Depot in KY for some heavy duty contractor trash bags before I headed back on the road. These 3mil thick extra large bags swallowed my roof top duffel's and from then on kept everything dry. Highly recommended for roof top storage and cheap, box of 60 $14. They would prove quite useful in the coming days and weeks.
Another thing that made the long driving days really good was my Sirius sat radio. Not only does it provide uninterrupted commercial free music ( I really like the outlaw country channel) as you travel from time zone to time zone, it automatically keeps up. Also highly recommended. So, traveling along in the right lane, doing a modest 63 to 65 mph, with the cruise on, diggin' on the radio as Charlie Danial's would say. Life is good. Through Tennessee and Arkansas all I did is drive, listen to the radio and stop for gas, often. It seems I could only go 160 miles or so before the needle on my gas gauge was near E. This was really beginning to concern me as I was on a pretty tight budget for fuel. I had the Jerry can full with 5 gals, so I decided to try an experiment, run it down as far as possible. Screw the fuel filter I thought, and proceeded to run it down. What surprised me was just how far I could go. The thing kept on running at least another 60 miles with the needle eventually reaching the bottom of the "E" mark. I finally pulled in for gas and filling it up I found I still had a gallon left in it. Somehow I must have screwed up the float level in the tank when I did the tank lift. I spent the night in a KOA in western Tennessee setting up my tent between rainshowers. For $20 you get to listen to kids running around all evening, smell 20 different kinds of fire cooking, and no privacy whatsoever. A soggy morning and reloading of the camping gear, a quick shower and I was on my way again.
The next day I covered most of Arkansas and stopped in Fort Smith and spent the night visiting an old Army buddy. I rested and we talked well into the evening. He's my age, early 50's, and still in the National Guard preparing for his third tour of Afghanistan. I thought, that could be me if I stayed in, and was glad it wasn't. We consumed many beers. I wished him a sincere good luck, told him to keep alert and keep his head down. What can you say to a guy who's risking his life for a better retirement option?
Morning and a good check over of the Tracker found everything in good working order so back to the road I went heading west into Oklahoma. I had been looking forward to getting on the flats after two and a half days of mostly mountain driving and finally got my wish. Oklahoma is pretty flat where the interstate passes through, so on with the cruise and sit back and relax was my mantra. I was able to increase my speed a few mph and cruise at 65 to 68, roughly 4000 rpm. Things were looking up, weather sunny finally, warming up nicely, Tracker running fine. I was finally starting to really relax and enjoy the trip. The cities were getting fewer and farther between and the road was becoming more of a friend than an opponent. I spent the day enjoying the relaxing driving and eventually treated myself to a cheap motel room on old route 66. I decided to take a little side trip on 66 since it follows the same track as the interstate for most of whats left of it. I met up with some fellow travelers at the motel ($29.99+TAX) two couples in vintage Corvettes and two Germans on rented Harley's. Both groups were following Old 66 from LA to Chicago, my kind of people. We had a good time sitting in the parking lot, talking traveling, vehicles, and the general goodness of being on the road, until the sun went down . Many beers were consumed as well as a few shots of good whiskey. A good time and fitting end to a good day.
Welcome to Texas! The next morning I drove a couple hours in OK, and finally crossed into the Texas panhandle. Like Oklahoma, This is cattle ranch country, the ranches going on for miles and miles. Huge parcels of land devoted to cattle grazing, and by the looks of it, suitable for not much else. The western part of the panhandle has a canyonlike feel and look to it. Rolling hills and sharp ravines cut into the land that seems to go on forever in every direction. What seemed really unusual was most everything was green. I had been driving into the storm that had whacked Texas and Oklahoma pretty hard, both receiving record amounts of rain. As a consequence, both were really greening up, especially for so late in the season. Most of the locals were loving it, and the ranchers especially appreciated the extra feed for grazing cattle. It sure made the driving more enjoyable as the green added just a touch of nice to the desert like terrain.What i did notice is I was steadily going up' I had reached the Colorado Plateau, and the elevation was going to steadily increase from here on. I would reach my eventual elevation of 6000ft average just inside New Mexico. This did take a toll on gas milage as once again I was running the Tracker pretty hard to maintain a good speed of 65 to 68mph. It was near or on boost for most of the two days it took to cross OK and TX. I did a long day trying to get to my eventual destination of New Mexico and once again found a motel just west of the state line for less than $30. Let's see, camping $20, tent, setup, etc. Motel $30 bed, TV, roof. Hm mm, motel wins. If you look away from the truck stops and get off the highway a couple miles there are small in dependant older motels that are pretty cheap. Some are real nice, some are just rooms with showers and beds. Still better than a campground. Next day I begin my final leg into New Mexico, a long one for sure, so an early start is what I need.
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I like that last picture of the cadillac ranch... I didn't know it was fenced off... Maybe there is more than one?
-Eric
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Nah, that's the one and only. You can still walk in, just not drive up. Bring your spray can, or find one there! It's all about the grafitti now.
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For anyone who wants to just look at photos, I've begun to post them to my flickr site, www.flickr.com/photos/bentparts. Between Rita and I we must have taken 500 pictures, and it's taking me awhile to organize 'em.
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I just realized that bentparts just won the Zuki Adventure Game for having pictures crossing the state line with a Zuki. :D
How hard was it to wire up the cruise control?
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It's easy Drone, the new style cruise controls don't even use a vacume signal, they read right off the VSS in the speedo. Sure made the trip easier, and made it easy to relax. I got mine from a company called Brandon Distributing, model 250-1223 Global electronic. Works great and company is great to deal with. Hey, what did I win? I bet second prize is twice as much of it.
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Go to http://www.zukiworld.com/forum/index.php/topic,25918.90.html and post your second picture. Then you get to choose the next contest. :D
Hmmm, if it runs off the vss I suppose that means I should fix the speedometer first... :D
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Mike, love the story. Wish I was along. You need to join us next summer for our trip. If you are still up for more offroading maybe we can do some Rausch Creek this fall.
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Never tire of off roading Skitime! Always up for a trip ( when I can afford it!) Sometime you'll have to come out for a Pinebarrens Forest run.
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oooo the pine barrens! Can I come?! ;D
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Anytime Mooch. even found some new stuff!
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Cool! I'll be ready for round two in about a year. :-\
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oooo the pine barrens! Can I come?! ;D
X2! ... ?
Great trip; nice write up.
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I guess we need to start thinking about organizing another Lost in the Piney's Tour, 2. Sounds good to me.
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...I'd like to join you if you can pick a date...
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We can go out any weekend that's good weather wise. When it rains alot, it gets pretty wet ( meaning DEEP) back there in spots. It does keep the dust down though! Lindenmooch doesn't look like he'll be ready to go for awhile, if he's not just kidding that is. So if you want to go out sometime ecoast, just let me know. You can always stay overnight here at my place if you don't feel like driving home afterword. Same goes for you Skitime.
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Looking forward to part 3! Living in the midwest I need to get my Tracker running very well and do a trip to somewhere interesting.
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Hah Mike.....I may not be ready again until late next summer. The Tracker is pretty rough, and I'm currently deciding if I should part with it or not. Don't have a lot of money, and I need to focus on just one thing right now and haven't yet decided what that one thing should be. Gotta figure out where my priorities lie.
I could work on my truck a little and run that through the pineys......or try to fix the Tracker up for another tour of duty. Who knows..... v :-\
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We can go out any weekend that's good weather wise. When it rains alot, it gets pretty wet ( meaning DEEP) back there in spots. It does keep the dust down though! Lindenmooch doesn't look like he'll be ready to go for awhile, if he's not just kidding that is. So if you want to go out sometime ecoast, just let me know. You can always stay overnight here at my place if you don't feel like driving home afterword. Same goes for you Skitime.
Thanks for your gracious offer!
Sounds great; fellas only or wives (or significant other...?)
...going to Zu this weekend; maybe next weekend or more likely the one after Thanksgiving would be good; weather permitting. It's really not that far for me to day trip.
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Wive's, significant others, girlfriends all welcome.