Father and Son take a cross country trip..

[concretejungle]

After taking some pictures, giving big hugs especially to Tom and drying some wet eyes, we all started to load up and head out. Cruiserdrew knew we still had a haul ahead of us and so he pointed us out and we said our goodbyes.

Cameron and his crew were behind us along with Brock/Brian. We kicked it out to the parking lot and i used cameron's ARB compressor to air the tires back up.

Everyone was tired and the reality of things were hitting as well.

I gave the truck a look over and noticed that the front diff was leaking again. I had popped the front diff somewhere on cadillac and it had knocked my FIPG patch loose. I made sure it was topped off with gear oil, greased the drive shafts, checked the control arm bolts, checked the oil and decided that she was ready for the highway.

Although i was ready for a shower and a big fat cheeseburger, i really didn't feel like i had been camping for a week. I guess the combination of the dry air, having the river for our use and perfect temps kept me from my normal camp rot from back east. Regardless, our destination that day was Fallon, NV.

We jumped on US50 and basically backtrack our trip through Lake Tahoe > Carson, NV > into Fallon. The weather was overcast and it felt like a storm front was on our shoulders as we headed east. It turned out to be perfect driving weather. It was a windows down, music loud, cruise control in the cruiser kind of day.

Ultimately we had decided while sitting around at Rubicon springs and chatting it up with everyone that we HAD to stop by a hot springs in Nevada off US 50 and, we had to run fins and things at Moab.

Off we went....

 

[concretejungle]

As we drove past Lake Tahoe and due to the overcast skies, the water was not blue in fact, it actually looked like a normal lake. It looked like a lake i would see back home and that got me a little worried; it was too early for the excitement to be wearing off. So far i was used to everything being a landscape that you see on postcards. Now, i was looking at a "normal" lake.

I don't recall exactly where it was that we stopped, but just ouside of Carson City, NV we stopped at a hamburger place. Dad and i were ready for a greasy fattening meal and this was perfect! The burger was amazing, the coke with ice in it was amazing. As we sat there and ate i could see a few drops of oil accumulating below the front diff under the 80 sitting in the parking lot. I knew that i would have to do something about that when we got to the hotel and that was a little sad.

Feeling fat and melancholy we got back in the truck and kept driving. Dad started to nod off and i was comfortable behind the wheel. I felt good, the weather was cool and the sun was not cooking us. On the trip back dad would occasionally think that certain clouds were far off smoke from the colorado wild fires that were burning at the time.

Finally after driving for hours, i was getting a little excited because we were going to get off the highway and drive out to a hot spring for a little relaxation. I had always imagined it to be like this little palm tree oasis in the desert with a big hot tub, natural hot tub with shady palm trees and little fruity drinks... something you would see in a vacation ad.

I had gotten GPS coordinates from friends back at the springs telling us about these hotsprings just after you get through Austin, NV. As we drove through Austin we found the road and took it. When we got to the head of the "dirt road" that lead out to the hot springs, it was pretty humbling. It just appeared to head out into the absolute middle of nowhere. In fact, you really couldn't see where it went, it just disappeared into the horizon. So, i floored it.

Then came the corrugations but what the hell, i was giving her hell. Dad thought the truck was going to shake apart and after about 5 minutes of hauling across this dirt road leaving an enormous dust cloud behind us, i thought about my front diff, the leak and all this shaking. I decided to slow down.

Finally i could see a little bit of what looked like a hill with something off in the horizon which was exactly where the GPS was saying we needed to be. We wandered up and as we got closer we started to see a few of the metal cattle watering troughs. We also saw a small hill with some kind of stacked rock and, a small RV parked there.

I thought there was no way that the feeding troughs were the springs, after all where were the palm trees, rock lined pools and fruity drinks! I figured these metal troughs were for peoples horses if they were out here camping and riding.

I beleive i mentioned in an earlier post how my dad seemed to have this fear of death. He kept thinking we would flip the truck and die, or accidentally drive off a cliff to our death... something. As we got closer dad said.. "don't drive up to that RV! There could be a crazy person there with a gun and kill us! They would never find us out here!" I told dad to chill out man... we weren't going to die!

I circled up and around the RV and still never really spotted a big pool anywhere. Then i saw more of these "troughs" scattered out. So i drove down to one of them, staying away from the possible "RV KILLER". I wanted to at least see if the water was warm. We stopped at one and both got out. The water was warm! Maybe this was the hot springs. I had to at least get my feet in the water. I took my shoes off, socks off and got in. It was nice. Dad thought the guy could have a long rifle with a scope and we should leave, so finally i had enough and we got back in the truck.

The rest of the drive was pretty relaxing and uneventful. We followed US50 back through the most isolated country side i had ever driven in. I still was completely content. I don't know why the drive didn't bother me, but it really didn't. Even though it was hours and hours and hours, it didn't bother me. I'm sure if i had to make this drive on a regular basis it would get old, but now, i was cool with it.

We finally rolled into Moab around 8:00 pm.

 

[concretejungle]

The plan, at least as far as i was concerned, was to grab some good dinner, a few good beers and then go camp. It was pretty comfortable outside. Dad had a different plan. He insisted on a hotel room. I agreed if he paid for the room, he agreed and so we stopped in at the first hotel in sight. He came right back out and said they were full, so we drove across the street. Just like before, he walked right back out of the hotel lobby and said they too were full.

I told him a had seen a couple more hotels down the road, and so we stopped in at the next one, who too, was full.

I decided that we should have some dinner, try another hotel and if they didn't have a room we would camp.

We pulled into a great restaurant called the broken oar. I was in the mood for some dark delicious beer, so i ordered up a polygamy porter and an captain bastard stout! They were so yummy. We both got big burgers, fries another round of beers and then we were finished.

Off for one more try for a hotel. Dad came out a lot slower this time and said they had a room. Cool..... well, not really. THis was a complete dive, we are talking s*** hole basically. When it was all said and done, considering the air didn't work, the mattress was horrible, 5 channels on the tv, no hot water, we might as well of camped.

The next morning we hit the local Denny's and grab some maps for Moab. Our goal was fins and things. After running fins, we would jump back on the highway and head for somewhere east of Denver.

 

[lumbee1]

Excellent read! I need more!

 

[BenMara]

WOW.....one day...