On the Road to Yuma with Danny

[Danny]

As some of you may know we've been planning this trip for several months now. Well, the departure date was today.

I thought it would be intersting to keep a log of our travels on PP, kind of a live travel/wheeling log. I thought I'd post up interesting items, and okay, maybe some not so interesting stuff, for you to check out. It could include anything from attending a quilt show to wheeling in the SW desert.

So, today was day one.

We departed the TC about 8:30 this morning and drove 325 miles today in about 7 hours bucking a 30-40 mph wind...almost head on most of the day.

Our first day wouldn't have been any fun without a trail (well, highway repair). The couple we are traveling with lost a solenoid and when we parked tonight they didn’t have any 12 volt power in their motor home. After about an hour of trouble shooting and a call to Monaco we had it nailed and headed for Sucks for a new solenoid. Can’t wait to see what day two has in store.

If anyone has any good places to check out for wheelin down here let me know and I'll see if I can get there and send back some wheelin footage.

Here's our first night stay at Mountain Home, ID...now you know why the dead wind was such a problem. Any, yes, the jeep is back there somewhere, and supporting Peak Putter logos.

[OldGreen]

At least you picked the right toad!!!

[Roman]

Danny, the new MH looks SWEET!!!

[SPR]

Wow, what an impressive setup. I look forward to your updates.

[Danny]

At least you picked the right toad!!!

Ya, dragging the Honda down there would have been the pits.

Hoser....you haven't seen the new ride yet have you....it is nice.

[Don]

That thing is awesome Danny

[Beep Beep]

Right on. Keep up posted.

[Danny]

That thing is awesome Danny

Thanks Don. It's been a goal for a long time. It's 10 years old but you'd never know it. Can you see Primm or Misquete in that? Ya baby!

It will sleep 4 but pretty tight for the two on the sofa. One or two could sleep on the floor if they didn't mind getting stepped on.

[Grumpy]

Danny, have you been watching the weather down in AZ? Scottsdale is catching it pretty good. 50mph wind, and lots of rain. Been watching the Barrett-Jackson, and they're telling the crowd to stay put for now. Travel safe!!

[Danny]

So here's update II - January 21

Covered 562 miles today....Mountain Home, ID to Cedar City UT. Most of the day was great, hardly any wind and pretty good roads made for good time.

Weather turned to S_ _ T about 80 miles from Cedar City. It's about 60 miles north of St. George.....in the form of SNOW! Had to back off to about 55 to stay on the road. Got to our campground about 6:30 with about an inch of snow on the ground and snowing hard. They are calling for another 2-4 inches tonight. We'll see what it's like in the morning, may be here another night. Tomorrow....VAGES BABY!!! Beat ya here this year RGR.

Okay, can you guess where in the world Danny is?


Here's a cool pic I took North of Salt Lake a ways.

[OldGreen]

NICE!!!

Is that SLC?

[SPR]

Danny, Anything good to report?

[Danny]

NICE!!!

Is that SLC?

Yup; took 215 around SLC and shot that out the window at "The Temple". thought you'd enjoy it.

Weather here has been great. We're running around in T's and shorts getting sun burned.

We didn't make it to St George the second night so stopped in Cedar City in a snow storm. It continued to snow through the night and morning had about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground with the road between St. George and Cedar City requiring chains on semi's. We made it out of there about 11 and got safely down to St George and into Vegas about 2:30.



Here's what the road from Cedar City to St. George looked like.



Here's one for the RGR guys, a Peak Putter jeep in Vegas; and guess where?



Here's home for the last several days. We're moving tomorrow to another lot and will be there a month. Wheelin pics should start coming in in the next day or two.

[Roman]

Danny, your killin me! I just made my reservations a couple of days ago and now all I can think about is getting to the "Station" on time!!!

[Lurch]

I know I'm definatly looking foward to the trip. It's been to long since I've been down there.

[Roman]

Danny, you know I've looked at this picture at least 100 time . . . It's killing me!!!

I'm looking forward to the time on the strip as much as the race itself!

[OldGreen]

Jealous. . .

[Danny]

Okay guys....I knew I'd get ya with all this. Wish you were all here.

Haven't been doing any wheeling until today....too many other things takign up my time....BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, all day....and then there's Happy Hour.

I did go out today into the desert and foothills across the road from where we're staying. Nothing too serious but I did get to do a couple really neat hill climbs.

Here a couple of pics of the jeep after making the climbs. I'll do some more on Thursday and send those pics too.

Enjoy.







This pic is looking down on where we started. There were only two really challenging climbes here.

[iaccocca]

What, are we supposed to be jealous? Okay, I'm .

Keep up the posts, I'll live vicariously through you for now.

[OldGreen]

Danny, as you know, my heart leaps when I see pictures of the open desert.

It looks like you are having a BLAST!! I'm thinkin'. . .maybe if you map out the whole area and find a bunch of great wheelin' that we could call a run for next winter or late fall? One day down, wheel and hang w/you for a week, one day back.

Heck, even if the wheelin' sucks, I bet we could prerun the whole area and find the fountain of youth or something. . .

[SPR]

Thanks for posting Danny

[Danny]

Okay, guys....sorry for the delay in getting back to all of ya, but there is SO much to do around here wheelin is taking a back seat. I did get out to a canyon the other day for some rock work...nothing very exciting but it was fun just the same.

Here are a few pics.
Had a friend get out and shoot this coming through a little tight spot.




Ya, you gessed it....over the rock and landed on the nerf bar...just backed off, turned a little to the right and came tumbling down. Friends thought I was stuck for the duration of the trip....their not wheelers. I was LMAO!

[iaccocca]

[tobyw]

Well done, Danny!! Getting hung up on the nerfs is something I'm going to have to get used to now...

[binderfan]

Danny, as you know, my heart leaps when I see pictures of the open desert.

It looks like you are having a BLAST!! I'm thinkin'. . .maybe if you map out the whole area and find a bunch of great wheelin' that we could call a run for next winter or late fall? One day down, wheel and hang w/you for a week, one day back.

Heck, even if the wheelin' sucks, I bet we could prerun the whole area and find the fountain of youth or something. . .

It's 1300 miles from tri-cities to Phoenix. I recommend 2 days... It's a nice ride, though, no matter which way you go.

If you need a list of trails, there is a book that has about 60+ of them that covers AZ, such as the old telgraph road, the old butterfield stage route, etc. I'll get the ISBN number if anybody is interested.

Our Scout club takes a trip from Punkin Center, near Roosevelt Lake, over the greenback mountains, and along cherry creek every other year or so. There is a canyon back there with some huge cliff dwellings that are worth a look. The trail is easy, but on a long trip from home, an easy trail isn't such a bad thing. The trip through Canyon de Chelly is pretty cool as well, although you have to hire Navajo guides to ride with you to be allowed into the canyon.

There are some popular trails fairly close to Phx, and many more all over the state, both desert and mountain.

The virtual jeep club in AZ had a whole bunch of them on their site last time I checked. As you can guess, being an internet based club, there is a whole lot of input. The sonoradesertscouts.com site has just been overhauled, and I don't know if it has the links to the trail runs yet.

I'll be heading to the AZ IH Rendezvous at the end of March, which will be in Wickenburg this year. The Hassayampa River is a nice run, and there are several more in the area. The desert starts to bloom in early spring, and it really is a sight. Not sure where the sunday trail runs will be, but I am sure that everybody would be welcome to come along.