Mon. Aug. 30 - " The Hooter's Girl Fell Off "

We left home in the late afternoon. Not much excitement on the way out except for the motorcycle dude who flew by the " caravan " wearing a T-shirt that read: " If you can read this, the Hooter's girl fell off. " Didn't get far today, about 400 miles. Stopped for the night at a rest area in Western Iowa. At least there was cell service. The next week or more will be off the edge of the universe, or at least Sprint's limited universe!

Tue. Aug. 31 - Let's Take A Short Cut

After numerous trips back and forth via I-29 and I-90, it seemed there might be a short cut through Nebrasky. So, US 30 through Blair, NE 91, US 77, US 275, US 281, NE 12, NE 11, US 18, and finally US 183 to I-90 was the " shortcut of choice. " The weather was great, the roads sucked. I failed to realize that this was road repair season in Nebrasky. Either they needed to boost the economy by employing a lot of people, or the people who drive these roads need special attention as each miserable chunk of highway under repair needed a flag person at each end and a pilot car to get one through the dreaded repair zones. Of course, at each of the many dreaded repair zones the pilot car just left and the stop sign dude would flag us and make us wait for the next trip. At times the " caravan " was selectively chosen to be stopped for no reason. Maybe they just wanted to ogle the DamJP for a while, who knows.

Finally, destinated at Whispering Pines in the late afternoon, 12 miles longer than the I-29 and I-90 combo and 4 hours longer. So much for the shortcut. Met up with the Boyz from Illinoiz and proceeded to look at their stash of beer for the week they they had stored in the garage of the " chateau " they rent at the campground each year. " 1572 bottles of beer on the wall, 1572 bottles of beer..... "

Wed. Sep. 1 - Craig's Scenic Loop

So met up with the Boyz From Illinoiz: Tim, Tim, Tim, Stu, Heyward, Shane, Bill, Garry, John, Craig and Craig. Yes, there were a few non-Tims. One of the non-Tims lived here before and took us on a 40 mile scenic tour to Slate Creek in search of an elusive 4WD trail. This was one of Craig's favorites and he wanted to share the fun he had on it with us. Unfortunately the Forest Service beat us to the trail head (by about 4 years) and closed it down. Damn the man! Scenic, though.

So what do you do when the trail you want is closed? You find another! A small contingent of the Boyz from Illinoiz and some of the Boyz from Minnezota (along with their full size Blazers) went to Jake. This was very entertaining and only 15 minutes away from camp when Dave doesn't lead. (Read between the lines on that one!) The 1/2 hour trail took close to 3 hours as we watched one of the Blazer guys crunch a hole in his rear diff. And yes, we caught the diff fluid. At an appropriate spot, and with fire extinguishers at hand, John welded the errant diff cover.

Onward. Next, Shaddy got hung up and needed some encouragement to achieve forward motion. Once again, he provided great entertainment.

We got back before dark, had some liquid refreshment and congratulated ourselves on having a great time!

Thu. Sep. 2 - Priceless!

Thursday we met up with Rick, Bridgett, Chuck, Ardis and Deanna, the rest of the crew from Illinoiz. While sightseeing was on the top of their list for their first time in the Black Hills, we did take another small contingent of the Boyz from Illinois, along with Rick and Chuck, back out on Jake for a short introductory run. We blasted through in 45 minutes and 15-20 minutes of that was taken up by a shift lever on the DamJP that fell out.

$300 diesel fuel to get out here. $2.00 a gallon gasoline for the DamJP. The look on Tim, Bill, Rick and Chuck's faces the first time they ever went REAL 4-wheelin': priceless!

Following their introduction, the rest of us gathered and headed out on Kong along with the Minnezota Blazer Boyz. While there was some carnage to our vehicles (Craig's front U-joint), it was nothing compared to the steering box that was ripped right out of the frame on one of the Blazers (and Yup, it was the same one whose rear diff cover failed to perform as advertised yesterday.) At least we got out going forward - the Blazer had to be winched out of the 5+ trail backwards with limited steering and trailered back to camp where he repaired it the next day. All's well that ends well.

Fri. Sep. 3 - It Takes A Twisted Mind

The Boyz ran Twisted - and yes it did take a twisted mind to come up with this trail. This was the first of three rainy, wet, soggy, cold days. But a bad day wheelin' beats a good day at work.

The first entertainment of the day is when Shaddy's exhaust pipe almost melted completely through the plastic gas tank on the highway as we were heading to the trail head north of Lead. Another few minutes and we would have had some awesome photos! At any rate, he got it fixed and caught up with us about halfway through the trail.

It was cold and wet, but we had a great time with little breakage. I took few photos. The only one is this non-descript photo of the trail. Craig took a bunch and when back home, will go through his and pick out some better photos for this page. Stay tuned!

Got by 1 PM - record time - got back to camp, warmed up and rehydrated.

Sat. Sep. 4 - The Iceman Cometh

Always a great trail, Iceman was even more fun in the fog and rain. We had a group of 21 vehicles, mostly from Illinoiz and Minnezota. As we headed down, some woman chastised us for heading into the canyon. Apparently she feels ownership of the entire canyon and is working to get it closed. We politely informed her that we had a permit. " Thank you for your concern and have a nice day! "

After descending a cool shelf road that got some of the newbies attention, we did the Loading Dock. Once I get the photos from Craig, there should be another one of me with both front wheels off the ground, or at least so they say. Chuck was riding with me on this trail and was able to observe my extraordinary driving skills.

Timmy provided the best show as he slid off on his side and then backed up, under his own power, about 20'. (Yes Virginia, you CAN do that!) We decided we're going to market a new product that one can slather on the side of a vehicle in a case like this. It'll be filled with K-Y Gel and will be called " Rock-Off. "

Craig also gave it his best shot as he took his $30,000 Rubi through the obstacle, also on its side. The difference - he went through forward - without the K-Y, much to the glee of Don (standing on the rock) who sells Jeeps in Rapid City.

Shaddy gave a great performance on some un-named obstacle as he tried to see how badly he could wedge himself between a rock and a hard place. Believe it or not, he drove out of this under his own power. Awesome!

Most of the day was heavy fog but there was intermittent drizzle to keep the rocks wet and slippery. I'd run this trail in 100 degree heat in previous years so this was quite a change. I'll take the 100 degree heat, thank you!

Jason's Rock is always entertaining, especially when we're able to use one of our Illinoiz Jeeps to " assist " one of the MInnezota boyz Blazers.

Once again, a great day. Thanks Don for leading the trail. At the camp, helped Rick and Chuck bend a tire rim back into submission and decided that fixing the bent lower control arm in the rain just wasn't worth the effort. Good call!

Sun. Sep. 5 - Rain Rain Go Away

AKA, a shitty day. Rained all night. Got up and said screw it - went back to bed. Later that morning motored into Hill City where it finally stopped pouring about noon. Ate breakfast and then went to a winery to taste very, very small samples of wine that was not quite up to my unusually high standards for wine.

Got back to camp and packed up for the next leg of the journey. Fortunately the sun came out to dry things up a bit. Had a great supper with the remaining attendees. (I'd guess maybe 40% of the folks left early Sunday morning due to the rain.)

Once again, an outstanding time. Thanks Black Hills 4 Wheelers and Whispering Pines for all the hard work and effort to make this such a great event!

Mon. Sep. 6 - Custer Slept Here

One must amuse one's self when one can. The drive from Whispering Pines to the middle of Montana is OK, I guess. Remember, a boring day driving beats a good day at work!

The blue highway was long and straight, except for the turns. Blasted through such towns as Broadus, Lame Deer and Colstrip. Was amused by the historical marker pointing out that Custer camped at that spot. The General would be proud of Max and Faye.

Stopped briefly at Pompey's Pillar to see the writing on the wall where Lewis and Clark disfigured a rock by carving their names in it.

Billings was, well, Billings. And yes, Sprint sucks. Largest city in Montana and no Sprint. Not only does this drivel need to be uploaded, we also need to call home to see if home is still there.

Drove another couple hours away from the city and wound up two miles on a dirt road at a delightful sounding place called Deadman's Basin. Set up, turned on the inverter, watched some TV and spent from dusk until 11:30 writing. At least this blog is now caught up, temporarily.

Tue. Sep. 7 - Radon is Good for You - Really!

Hit the road, so to speak, at 7 AM. Took scenic Highway 12 to Helena and enjoyed a 1 hour tour of the city via open air tour thingy. Was a nice way to see the highlights but decided to head down to Boulder (MT, that is) since I was having Jeep withdrawal symptoms. After driving around for a couple hours, finally settled on a campground, the Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine - no kidding! The campground was great and very scenic, about 500' above Boulder and will be easy to find at night. While enterprise may be free, the campground wasn't. But it was only ten bucks a night and worth every penny considering most campgrounds are now $25- $30 per night. They gave us a tour of their " health facilities. " This was originally an old uranium mine and they converted it to a " Health Mine. " After descending 90' in the elevator, we entered the drift. Must have been over 500' long and there were at least 30 - 40 folks, including an Amish family, down there getting their daily fix of radon. Whatever........

Now it's late in the afternoon (around 4 PM) so time to take a " short " drive. Head up Galena Gulch. Turn left. Turn right. Turn left. Hmm. The road's getting smaller. Check the GPS. Damn Forest Service map is wrong. GPS must be off also. I'll go this way. Oops. Dead end. I'll go that way. Oops, dead end. Ah - this road is open, but why are we going southwest when I want to go southeast. Oh well. I'm gonna go this way anyhow. Hmm. Sun's going down. Not too far to go. Up hill. Down hill. Over rocks. This doesn't look right. Shit! Dead end again. Damn GPS. Damn Forest Service map. Backtrack. Backtrack. Backtrack. Turn where I should have in the first place. Oh well, wanted to do a night run anyhow. 9PM, cold, dark, thirsty and hungry finally pulled into Boulder and headed up the hill to heat, food and drink. Had so much fun, didn't even take any photos. Love it!!!!

Wed. Sep. 8 - Damn GPS. Damn Forest Service map.

9AM, trying to find a road heading to Elkhorn ghost town in the DamJP. USFS map shows a trail up Rawhide Gulch. Finally get to the trailhead and find it's for ATVs only. Look at the map. Hmm. Looks like a road to me. Well, we certainly don't want to irritate the US Forest Service personnel so head back to town and try Brown's Gulch instead. Signs all over the place: " Private Property - No Trespassing - Go Away. " Damn USFS map. Shows a road there. Won't take this road as I wish to PO the locals even less than the USFS personnel as the locals have guns! So drive along to another access road on the map. Hmm. It ain't there! Damn USFS map. Finally by noon, caved in and took the 4-lane highway to Elkhorn. From there took a very nice rocky, off-camber 4 mile trip to Iron Mine. Very good wheelin' - even put it in 4WD for a few minutes.

Back at 3. Time to go to the Occidental Plateau. Found an old abandoned railroad bed and decided that was preferable to the nonmaintained cattle access trail for obvious reasons. Lo and behold, found the mile long Wickes railroad tunnel. Someone had pulled the chain link fence and razor wire down from the entrance. There are no " No Trespassing " signs. Go for it says I. Entering it, one could really see the light at the end of the tunnel - hopefully not an oncoming train. This was a cool trip. It took a long time to get through as there was much seepage from the ceiling and massive puddles of water, each approached gently to ensure there wasn't a surprise lurking in the pools. Halfway through it dawned that hopefully the other end wasn't blocked. Would be a ways to back up. The other end was indeed open. The trip was a great success and a helluva lot of fun.

Went past a very large, active gold mine on the way to the Plateau. Once on the plateau, followed a USFS road, as marked on the map, on a scenic route around Cataract Basin. Getting late. Road narrows. There are fresh stakes by the road so this MUST be the road out. Over rocks. Up hills. Down hills. Over streams. Double line road on the map - must be OK. An hour later, " Oh My!, " another dead end road. Damn USFS map.

Gee, here's a shortcut to the road I need on the other side of the valley. Cuts right through the valley. Hmm. Looks like a big valley with a stream and lots of cows. Trail gets smaller. All I need to do is get over to the other side of the valley. Oops, mud puddle. Oops, stream. Oops, big mud puddle. Still, there are two tracks going across the meadow. Hmm. Turns north. If I follow the two-track, the map shows another road. Stream. Mud. Cow crap. Might as well be in Pittsfield. Very slow going. 1 mile. 2 miles. No road. Damn USFS map. GPS is not helping either. Will drive until I get stuck or find a road. There has to be an east-west road somewhere here. The map says so. SUCCESS. Hmm. This is the road we came in on. Oh well. Backtrack. Backtrack. Backtrack. Finally found the main road and a potential retirement cottage.

Drive 10 miles down on Cataract Creek and finally reached civilization. Headed back to Boulder and even got back to the camp before it was totally dark. Thank goodness for radon.

Another excellent day. Love it!!!

Thu. Sep. 9 - But It's Butte!

Departed the Radon Mine campground in the morning and took the scenic route to Butte. Fascinating town. Head frames for old mines all over the place - right in town. 3000 miles of tunnels under the town. It's not a clean place but has an interesting history of gold, silver and copper mining. This town is right out of the 1940's. Spent a couple hours there looking at the old houses, stores and mines and then headed out through Anaconda, another old mining town. Settled in at the Missoula, MT, WalMart for the evening (despite the signs that say no camping allowed.) It was so full of campers we barely found a place to " camp. "

Typical Butte - really!

The Montana Past Time - this sign is less than 1 year old.

A scenic lake 40 miles from the nearest town.

Fri. - Sun. Sep. 10 - 12 Hell'n'Gone

So Friday 'shot' up to Hell'n'Gone to see some friends. Took very few photos which indicates a good time. Friday did some wheelin' in the mountains. Very scenic but not hard. It was most enjoyable. It was the last day to be topless as Friday appeared to be the last day this century when the sun shines in the Pacific NorthWest. Rain, rain and more damn rain. Forecast is for rain from now until next weekend. SHIT! Last year when I was up here it was dry all summer, they had fires all over the place, and as soon as I showed up it rained like the devil. I suspect my next career (excuse me - job) will be Dave - the Rainmaker.

Saturday it rained all day. Bummed around town a little but did no wheelin'. Ate some exceptionally food meals and drank some exceptionally good beer with some exceptionally good friends!

Sunday - had so much fun and enjoyed the beautiful weather so much that we stayed another day. Doc and I went wheelin' on a 120 mile scenic round trip. The first half was cold, rainy and miserable - but a bad day wheelin' beats a good day at work! The Vermillion Pass sign was entertaining. By 2 PM the sun came out for 10 minutes. WOW! Found a neat road leading to a most scenic little lake in the mountains. Another good day in Hell'n'gone. Got back, drank all the Beck's, made a helluva dent in the Henry's beer and solved almost all of the world's problems!

Mon. Sep. 13 - Spokane

Reluctantly left Hell'n'Gone. Elected to go to Spokane and seek the tire Oracle there (Wingfoot's) to see why the there was so much vibration in the motor home at various speeds.

" Sir, your tires need to be rebalanced and rotated. "
" But I just had that done this spring. "
" Whoever balanced them last sucked. They're all f****d up. "
" OK fix 'em! "
......... $179.72 later they are still all f****d up. Oh my!

So tomorrow will head for my 8 AM (10 AM CST) Washington Carriage Works (sounds expensive) appointment to have them replace a 90 degree fitting on the dash air compressor that died of fatigue (metal fatigue, that is.) No freon - no air so to speak. But who needs it when the high temperature is 55 degrees. Damn!

Miserable, rainy day. Yuch! Once again, found and accommodating WalMart in the rain. Lots of people camping there- including a a couple camped in a POS car - go figure! The photo shows only about 20% of the " campground. " Went into WallyWorld. Would have been cheaper to stay at a commercial campground! WalMart knows what they're doing!

Bought a bottle of Latah Creek " Huckleberry D'Latah " wine to sooth my ruffled feathers. The more I drink the better it tasted. Didn't do much for the feathers. Hic! Belch!

Tue. Sep. 14 - Damn Good Thing It's Cold!

So off to the Washington Carriage Works. After replacing the 90 degree connector and evacuating the system, charging it with 4lbs of R134A - the connector still leaked. A closer inspection showed that the cast aluminum fitting on the AC compressor itself was cracked. ARG. $154 for the work there and then had to order a $400 compressor from Country Coach to be delivered at home when we get back. Then still have to charge the system. This is the 3rd crack in the fittings in this area all due to poor design. There's a lot of vibration from the engine and there are no shock mounts on the compressor. That'll get fixed!!

1 PM: finally headed west, in a foul mood, to Coulee City. Found a great campground but looked like rain. Fortunately, it never materialized. Instead, the next day, drove down into a dry coulee and poked around. Fascinating place. There were massive floods over the Eastern end of Washington State during the last ice age and these massive coulees were carved. This one, Dry Falls, had 10 times more water flowing over it than the flow of all the rivers in the world today.

Once again, all the trails, AKA roads, were closed, including this old railroad bed. I just don't understand.

Wed. Sep. 15 - Which Way to Wenatchee

After a morning of driving in the coulees, headed out to the midpoint of the trip, Wenatchee. From here it's all downhill, so to speak. This town is high on the list of retirement places. It's on the banks of the Columbia River and grows a lot of the country's apples. It's a clean town with a lot of amenities. Drove up Squilchuck Road into the mountains (and the rain.) Came back down to sunny skies. Bopped around town for a few hours and picked up a few supplies. To my amazement, Sprint cell service is here. Will wonders never cease?

Found a great restaurant, McGlinn's, and had an outstanding meal with some outstanding local beer.

This is a really nice area. May stay here for a few days.

Thu. Sep. 16 - Wenatchee, again

Headed to the north of Wenatchee and then up Mill Canyon Road. This whole area burned around 1994 and there were no mature trees for the first 10 miles or so. It really made the roads obvious. Quite a sight to see all the roads on some of the mountains. Also found a few helicopter pads that were used a decade ago to fight the fires.

The day started sunny but quickly turned cloudy, cold and windy the higher and further west we went. By the time we climbed the 5000' to Chumstick Mountain, it was windy and cold, cold, cold. There was snow not too far away. Found an old trail back down and headed into the Bavarian town of Leavenworth for a not-so-good German meal - but excellent German beer which made up for the not-so-good German meal!

Drove up Tumwater Canyon a ways but started to rain. Arg. Came back down, drove up Icicle Canyon. Yet another area heavily burned around 1994. Still raining and cold. Headed back to camp for a warm beer and found a nifty rainbow.

Fri. Sep. 17 - Coulees and abandoned rail lines

Holy cow! The sun was shining today. Haul ass up to the hills on the east side of the Columbia River. Found some old trails, but as usual, they are open to hunting and " other " recreation, but not wheeling. This is discrimination!

By noon was fed up with the lack of connecting trails and the " Road Closed " signs on Blue Grade Road so came back down, ate, and headed up Badger Mountain Road to look at the expensive houses on the top of the hill.

From there, headed into the lava and wheat fields to the east, through Alstown (1 grain elevator and an abandoned railroad line) and then into Douglas Creek which eventually dumps into Moses Coulee. The creek road descended into a canyon with a sign that implied the road was closed at some point ahead but there were no more signs to that effect. Besides that, I'm a tourist - what do I know? There was an old railroad bed that followed the creek and it was a kick driving on it. Where the road was allegedly closed there were some delightful speed bumps that some bureaucrat put up to deter those driving Honda Civics. No signs though, so I assume the speed bumps were put there for recreational purposes. Looking at the number of tracks on them, others appear to think that way also. So after going into 4WD (I'm amazed I remembered how do do that anymore - it's been so long!) and a little recreational up and down, descended into Moses Coulee, and up through Rattlesnake Creek to another " Road Closed " sign. My map said " Yes, " the sign said " No. " Damn. Not sure which is worse - not being topless for over a week or seeing so many " Road Closed " signs!

So headed down to Quincy (WA, that is) instead and proceeded to find the Baird Springs road where the BNSF railroad makes a sweeping 180 degree turn. Too bad there were no trains there, would have been really cool. By this time, had clouded up and rained again. Hopped on to Hwy 28 and took the long 30 mile drive back to Wenatchee. Had some more wine and elected to catch this blog up to date again.

Sat. Sep. 18 - Question: How much gas is in the DamJP when the gauge reads 1/4 full?
Answer: None.

Jeez! The sun is shining. Got to get going and see the sights before it rains again. Head into downtown Wenatchee to mail some postcards. The DamJP allegedly has a quarter tank of gas according to my trusty gauge that after 108,000 miles hasn't yet betrayed me. Engine is coughing a little on the hills. Probably just cold. Ran fine for a few more blocks. Coughed more. Hmm - may be in need of a little periodic maintenance. Might be a plugged fuel filter - after all, my trusty gauge hasn't yet betrayed me --- yet. Will head back to the " caravan " for some periodic maintenance. But just about 30 seconds later, right downtown, the engine dies. Must be a plugged filter. Get out the tools, blow out the filters. Hmm. They're OK. After much cursing at this most embarrassing situation, cut a spare valve stem apart (couldn't find the air nozzle) and jammed that into the fuel supply line. Hooked it up to the onboard air compressor and proceeded to push some air into the tank in that slim chance there was a blockage in the supply line. To my dismay, when the newly created air fitting was pulled from the hose, I was not drenched with the $2.23/gallon fuel as expected, but got only a modest puff of return air. SHIT! I'm really out of gas! I feel betrayed!

Now in downtown Wenatchee there are a shortage (read zero) gas stations. So hike 12 blocks, buy a gas can, get some gas, hike 12 blocks back. Put 4 gallons in the tank and spill 2 gallons because the morons that designed the filler nozzle on the tank didn't make it long enough to open the stupid vent trap that the EPA morons make car manufacturers put in the fillers. Do you know how heavy 50 lbs of gas gets after 12 blocks? Do you know how big of an area 2 gallons of spilled gas covers? Oh well.......

Engine started, ran fine, drove 12 blocks to the station, filled up the tank and learned a lesson. The good news - the DamJP wasn't 50 miles from the nearest gas station. Can't complain - well, except for the moronic design of the gas filler tube.

With a full tank, went up to Rocky Reach Dam and saw them building a generator. Way cool. Marveled at why they had to put up signs warning people about not sitting their kids on the dam edge with a 200' drop on the other side. Saw lots of fishies swimming and swimming right over the dam (fish ladders don'tcha know!)

Went back to the campground and boogied on out of town. Wound up in a dumpy campground in Cle Elum (yes, there is a town by that name.) Did I mentioned it was cloudy and raining again?

Sun. Sep. 19 - KBHR, Cicely, Alaska

Foggy and miserable today. A road trip might cure that! Drive 10 miles up to Ronald and the sun is shining! Head out to Cle Elum lake but the lake is gone. Drove down the 1/4 mile long boat ramp, 150' below pool level, only to find yet another " Road Closed " sign. They put them in the damndest places.

Came back through Roslyn only to find something looked familiar. Sure enough. This is where they filmed Northern Exposure for 6 years. Took a bunch more photos of the stores and the town. This made the day almost worth while.

After being sufficiently entertained in Roslyn, headed on down through Ellensburg (a very nice college town, by the way) and proceeded into Yakima Canyon. This is a 20 mile drive between Ellensburg and Yakima and is also way cool. The road and a railroad track follow the river through a narrow basalt canyon.

Found a place to camp right along the river. Took a drive to head up to the top of the hills and and, you guessed it, another " Road Closed " sign. Had I only known, I could have made a helluva a lot more money selling these aggravating signs than the work I've done all these years.

So, 9:30 PM, PST, running on inverter, smashing the keys trying to get this thing caught up to date once again. Might as well do that as the motor home erroneously parked itself in such a place where the DirecTV satellite can't be received. Did I mention it clouded up and rained again?

Mon - Tue. Sep. 20, 21 - Yakin' in Yakima

Drove a whole 27 miles from the Canyon to a nice commercial campground NW of Yakima with a view of Mt. Rainier nearby. Took a " scenic " drive into the mountains. Tried 5 different mountain roads, all with the same GD " Road Closed " signs after about 45 minutes of driving on each road. This is starting to piss me off - among other things. 150 miles today but unable to make any loop drives. 1 way in, 1 way out. But yet logging trucks (on our public lands) are OK. Grrrr.

The next day just drove around town and about 2 PM headed up into Snoqualmies in search of the elusive 12 " pine cone. No luck. Came upon the camp that we stayed at in 1997 for the Pacific Northwest Jamboree but was unable to remain there or return for a few days on this trip. Damn! So what to do? Go into Grant's Brewing in Yakima and buy a case of Mandarin Orange HefeWeizen and a pack of 22 oz. bottles of Hopzilla IPA (90+ IBU!) Ahhh, I feel a little better now.

Wed. Sep. 22 - Humulus Lupulus, Tour d'Vine and a Cheesy Dairy

Time to start the depressing drive towards home. Still have some plans for wheelin' on the way back but the best laid plans......well, I digress.

Drove to Toppenish and visited the Humulus Lupulus museum. Smelled wonderful! Purchased some Humulus Lupulus flavored soda. Nothing to write home about (but worth a few bits here!)

Shot down the Yakima Valley Highway to Zillah and spent the next few hours getting mildly buzzed doing the wine tasting bit. Not impressed. I still like Columbia Crest. It was fun, however, and there were some great views of the vineyards. (The views were better than the wine - but what do I know about wine?)

Unfortunately, the horse tour was passed up. Yup, you can do the wine tasting bit via horseback. Dunno why. I guess it's easier to tell when you've tasted too much wine - you fall off the horse. Small town Americana - don'tcha just love it?

Next stop on I-82 was a well publicized dairy. That was the problem. The dairy was a cheesy tourist trap extraordinaire. (Sorry 'bout the pun - just couldn't help myself.)

Drove past Hanford (not able to take their tour) and settled for the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Pendleton, Oregon.

Sun. Sep. 26 - Eval was Here

What to do in Twin Falls on a Sunday morning? Drive along the North rim of the Snake Canyon and see where Eval Knievel did his thing in 1974 (My Gawd! - that was 30 years ago! Holy shit! I still remember that!) The good news is that I was allowed to put the DamJP into 4WD for 2 minutes to climb on a chunk of lava rock before heading back to the campground.

From there, 45 minutes south to Jackpot, NV, a wide spot in the road with more casinos than stop lights. Stayed at a nice, non-casino campground and drove down to Contact and visited an old mine and picked up more rocks.

Back to Jackpot for supper at one of the casinos. I continue to be amazed at the number of mathematically challenged people dumping their money into slot machines that seemed to never pay off. Once again, I entered the wrong line of work.

From here to here, per plan " A "

Whew!

The trail is down there somewhere

Mon. Sep. 27 - Casinos, Canyons and Wrong Turns

Took a 100 mile tour of the Nevada " desert " in search of a number of old mines. It was SO nice to get away from the casinos of Jackpot. Surprise! Nevada is NOT all desert. There were some outstanding roads to travel and some fairly high mountains with some great shelf roads and deep, wide canyons. Unfortunately, there was little need for 4WD until I made yet another wrong turn and had to back out of a yet another slightly embarrassing situation. All told, I had fun. Later that afternoon, got caught in a Nevada thunderstorm where the wind speed was higher than the raindrop count (50 vs 30.) The map was obviously printed incorrectly as it took slightly longer to get back to the campground than planned. Once again, had to go to a casino for one of the worst meals I ever had (and fairly expensive also.)

Tue. Sep. 28 - A Trip to the Vet and Petrified Wood

Quite a scare this morning as our 16 year old cat, Damm Katt, seemed to have a major problem walking and with balance. Now while this happens to me once in a while, we all know the cause. In this case, however, there was great cause for concern so we headed back to Twin Falls with the motor home and took her to a vet. Vets are doctors also, which mean they practice medicine (perhaps to see if they will ever get it right.) There was no diagnosis nor prognosis. Perhaps she had a stroke. Perhaps not. Perhaps she will be ok. Perhaps not. But give her these pills anyhow.

I shouldn't be so cynical (aw, what the hell, yes I can!) The vet was very nice but the more I see of medicine and doctors, the more it scares me.

She seemed to recover pretty well. There's nothing anyone can do anyhow (except give her the pills) so we drove back to Jackpot, breezed right on by, and settled in a valley 30 miles south. This " campsite " was in the middle of nowhere on BLM land, 30 miles from the nearest town (and hopefully the nearest camper!) Nice isolated place. My kind of camping. No people.

Drove into Hubbard Basin (30 miles round trip) to find petrified wood, but got there late and needed to get out of there via a circuitous road before it got too dark. Made it back about 1/2 hour after sunset. Fire up the generator, drink a little wine, eat, watch a little TV and catch up on this blog again.

The weather sounds crappy for the next few days in the Rockies so the plan to get back is to have no plan.

Wed. Sep. 29 - Rain Rain Go Away, deja vu

Woke up to find the black cloud had once again descended. It was raining and cold - a nice morning to crank up the heat, drink some hot coffee, eat some hot cereal and then go out and put the top up on the DamJP in the rain. It was already drenched so what's a few more minutes? (Now had the top been put on last night, it would have been a bright, sunny day. Screwed up again.) Pulled out and by the time we were at Wendover (where the Enola Gay made its practice flights) the sun was out for about an hour.

Had to make a stop at the Salt Flats but didn't take the Jeep down and go for a drive as it was starting to rain - again!

Took the scenic bypass around SLC via the Tooele Valley and Eureka - where they were filming a movie. Kept on a truckin' and started up Soldier Summit on highway 6. Even without the sun, I've never seen so many colors and so much autumn beauty in one place. Won't even try to describe it and the photo doesn't even come close. Found a pull off and got a shot of the weather subdued colors, right by a nifty railroad tunnel.

The colors were so awesome that we turned around at the pull off, came back down the mountain and decided to bag it for the night. The rationale was there might be a chance that tomorrow morning there may be a sliver of sun before the clouds come in again (yeah, right!) and an opportunity to see the canyon in all its autumnal glory. Found a little Forest Service campground at the bottom. It got dark, real dark, real quick, and it looked like there would be a nasty storm but only a few raindrops fell. Most of the campground's trees were a brilliant yellow and, when contrasted with the storm clouds, they really looked impressive. Took lots of 35 mm shots - the digital photos just don't cut it. No one here in this part of the campground. Once again, I love it!

Thu. Sep. 30 - On the Road Again

This was a day of alternating sunshine and rain showers. At 7 AM it was cloudy so headed out Hwy 6 towards Utah. Got 20 miles, past Soldier Summit, looked back to the west and saw some blue sky. " F**k it - we're going back. I want to see some fall colors, dammit! " 20 miles back down made an incredible difference. The sun was out and the colors fantastic. Even saw about 10-12 cowboys (yes, on horses) herding about 150 cows down the highway to a gathering pen. These two photos are from about the same spot, just different views, near the town formerly known as Thistle.

In 1983 a massive mudslide occurred, dammed the Thistle River and put the small town of Thistle under a lot of water. The dam slide is still there, they eventually drained the new lake, but Thistle is no more. This was one of Utah's most deadly natural disasters.

So after driving around and ogling the colors for a few hours, it clouded up again. Time to move on. Up and over Soldier Summit. Watched the Utah Railway move coal up the steep grade - 4 diesel pullers and 4 pushers. Pretty neat.

Got down to Price, another favorite town, and headed out the east edge of the San Rafael Swell where a number of adventures have occurred in the past (see the Moab blogs.) Couldn't stop. Bummed.

Went past the turn off to Moab. Couldn't stop. Bummed - but at least got a photo of the Book Cliffs. This is why I like this country so much!

All through the 60 mile drive past the Swell and the 100 miles from Green River to Grand Junction, there were 8 to 10 neat thundershowers off in the distance. Never went through any of the storms, but seeing them from a distance was pretty neat.

Wound up in the Junction for the evening. A little wine and an incredible sunset as the last vestiges of the sun lit up the distant storm clouds.

Finally, a day with some sunshine, but unfortunately no wheeling :( Bummed, sort of.

Book Cliffs

" Solidified fog "

Fri. Oct. 1 - Play it Again, Sam

Left the Junction in the sun - cool day but nice. Elected to use I70 to had back since snow and ice was predicted for most of the central Rockies. They were right. Wasn't a big deal except that the aspens were turning and it would have been nice to see them in the sun. Even in the clouds and solidified fog, they were so incredibly pretty.

Pushed through Denver by 2 PM and picked up US 34, a nice 2-lane that provides a scenic alternative to the drab interstate as it heads through such towns as Akron, Yuma and Wray. Pulled in for the evening at Swanson Reservoir, southwest Nebraska and was able to get a shot of the lake while the sun was out for a few minutes. This is another of my favorite haunts - no people - away from cities and towns, only a quiet campground, lake and a BNSF rail line with an impressive trestle at one end of the campground. Enjoyed a nice meal and some great scenery - even a sunset!!!

The cold front has moved through. There'll be frost on the pumpkin tonight!

Settled in and watched Casablanca. " Round up all the usual suspects..... "

Sat. Oct. 2 - Home

What more can be said! The trip back to Illinois was uneventful and MUCH longer than the trip out. Now to pay bills, fix the motorhome, the Jeep, the trailer, work on the house, the lawn, go back to work, pay bills,.........Jeez........ should have turned around and gone back! See ya next year in March for the Moab adventure.