West Coast Expedition, 2012

Pics and reports of past Juniper / Beverly Dunes runs
OldGreen
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West Coast Expedition, 2012

Postby OldGreen » Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:26 am

We started out at sea level in Pismo Beach:
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Then did Disneyland and a whole bunch of desert highway (won't post ALL of the vacation details. . .but. . .the first real wheelin' day was 7/24. Imogene pass at 13,000'+
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THE TOP:
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Will actually fell down this one. . .and survived:
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Next few days are Rocky Mountain National Park and a Rockies Game. I'll post up some more wheelin' pics as they come in. All next week is wheelin'. . .I think 6 trail days. I gotta run and change a hub on the trailer now. . .There will also be a carnage report at the end of this thing. . .

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commando14
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Postby commando14 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:54 pm

Very cool.. looks like a fun a trip

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Danny
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Postby Danny » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:43 pm

B U T full. Can't wait for the carnage report. :thu2:
Forget your age and live your life!

OldGreen
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Postby OldGreen » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:43 am

Now, the rest of the story:

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Day 1:
Friday, the 13th. . .and also my 40th birthday.
While cruising down hiway 97 just outside of Moro, OR (3 hours from home), we heard a "pop" and oil pressure went to zero. . .5PM, Friday afternoon. . .in the middle of BFE.

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The engine still turned over. . .so, that was a good sign. After a little cussing and diagnosis, I determined that there was no spark. Jeep + no spark = CPS. Upon testing it, it was, in fact. . .toast. Sheriff rolled up, gave some phone numbers. . .nobody had it. Now. . .DAN, the tow truck man comes by for a consult.
He has to run to the Dalles anyway, so he went and picked one up. No it is 10:15PM and I have the unit in my hand. . .11:00PM and it is in> NOTHING> > >still no spark.

That narrows it to the PCM, the Cam Sensor, or the coil. Hotwired the coil and NO SPARK. Damn. Bad Coil. Upon further review, CPS and Coil often go out at the same time. . .I had no idea. Anyway, it is now midnight and we are parked 6' from 60mph big rigs. So, we popped up the camper and tried to get a few hours of sleep. It was Miserable. Especially since we had a prepaid hotel room in Bend just waiting for us.

First thing AM, I gave Dan a call. He rolled up with the roll back and loaded us up with the trailer hooked on behind. He dropped the trailer in his yard in Moro and took Lori, Will, Orville, and I to the O'Schucks parking lot in The Dalles. Popped out the old coil, ate a subway (we hadn't eaten since lunch on Friday), Screwed in the new one. . .PRAYED. . .and fired it up. Good as new. Whew. . .

Now, a little fuel and we are only 22 hours behind schedule. So. . .we picked up the trailer back in Moro and headed out to Vallejo where our next hotel was waiting. . .along with 6 Flags on Sunday AM!!

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We had planned to cruise down the 1, but we were still a little off schedule so the 101 would have to do. . .Next stop: Pismo Beach and our first "official" night camping:

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From there, we picked up Jessy from her camp (National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine at UCLA) and spent a day at Disneyland. I left my camera in the car for that part, but you've probably been to Disneyland. . .

We had planned on spending Thursday night, 7/19, at the Grand Canyon, but Disney flat wore us out. . .so, a nice hotel in Kingman, AZ, won out.

Then, on to Durango, CO.
Lifted Subaru behind the DQ:
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O chillin' downtown:
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Tour Jeep Scrambla for Jose:
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Chased the train for a moment, of course:
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After doing the Alpine slide at Purgatory the next morning (Will even did a zip line), we headed off to Silverton:
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Top of Molas:
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From Silverton, we rode the Million Dollar Hiway over Red Mountain to the Amphitheater Campground above Ouray (The JEEP Capitol of the World. Seriously, there were more Jeeps in that town than anywhere but a festival). I had noticed a bearing howl back in AZ in O. . .after further inspection, I had a bad passenger front unit bearing on my "new to me" front end. So, I took a few minutes and swapped in the spare. Good as new. . .

On the 24th, we drove the hiway over to Telluride and took the Gondola to Mountain Village
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After lunch, I aired down and we headed over Imogene Pass (pics above in the first post). I will add that Will FELL down this waterfall and into the creek over his head. . .bruising his A$$ and scaring the SH*^ out of his mom:

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We stewed in the hot springs, did some laundry and prepared for the trip across the state to Colorado Springs and our old stompin' grounds.

Just outside of the Springs, we hit a bump in the road (about a 4" vertical ledge) at 60mph. Needless to say, the little 20" trailer tires don't really like that. . .so. . .BANG BANG BANG. . .Sheered off 4 of the 5 lugs on the passenger side trailer hub. 8PM on Tuesday, 7/24, 20 miles from town. . .*sigh*. We were bordering Ft. Carson Army Base on one side and Ranch Land on the other. Luckily, after a quick survey, I found a driveway on the other side of the hiway that lead to a ranch. There was a phone number on the mailbox. The B&B Ranch on Wildhorse Road let us park "outside the gate". We dropped the trailer there and headed to our hotel for the night. Next morning, we stopped by a trailer place and picked up repair supplies and were off and running in no time:

Garden of the Gods:
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Then off for a couple of days of fun in Rocky Mountain National Park:
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Then we watched the Rockies lose to the Reds:
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From there, we headed off to Empire, CO, to meat the Wilcox' for All4Fun. But, that is another thread!!!

Stay tuned.


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