Part 1
Well it all started with me driving home from work early Sunday morning. I didn't even stop at home drove right by and headed for the shop where Jeremy had half of his engine ripped apart in order to replace a blown head gasket. I dove right in and we started getting it apart. Took the head off cleaned everything up and reassembled. We finished at about 9pm that night and I had left Fort Mac at 4am. Truck still had no drive shafts but I told him not to worry because I had a few places in Red Deer that could get them done. I picked up parts for his shafts on Monday and dropped them off at Extreme Driveline and said we would need them by tomorrow.
Tuesday came and it was time to get ready for the big trip. Paul wasn't going to wait around to leave so he hit the road in the morning. Gherra was scrambling to get his truck running right so he could come. David had issues with his steering in the front and it wasn't looking good. I got the call to come get the shafts for Jeremy. So I headed over picked them up and gave them to Jeremy. A little bit of parking lot wrenching both on the Hilux and replaced a worn tie rod end on the Tacoma. We loaded up and decided to meet in Airdrie. I stopped in to check on Gherra and he seemed hopeful only a couple minor issues plagued him.
Jeremy showed up and we headed to the grocery store for ketchup chips and a bunch of Canadian beer. Loaded up we headed for the border. Paul was wondering how far we would make it and was planning an earlier stop for some cold brews in the states. I told him to push on to Helena because that will be where we would meet up and stop for the night. Everything was going smoothly and working well. Jeremy was getting pretty tired by the time we got to Helena so a bed was a welcome thought. We made it there by about 2am Wednesday morning more than ready for bed. We woke up and all grouped up for a big breakfast for a long drive ahead.
We hopped on the highway and made our way down the highway south. Our GPS crapped out the night before so I bought a sweet big screen road atlas version for $13 at the next fuel stop. It worked quite well and allowed us to carry on with our adventure. We stopped in a huge Army Surplus store in Idaho to see what goodies we would like to pick up. Jeremy was being plagued by strange overheating issues so he was driving with the windows rolled down and the heater blowing full blast. Paul was bragging about having A/C before the trip so of course that had to crap out on him in his cool black 80 series.
We made are way down to Pocatello, Idaho for our supper stop and to clean out the Kokanee that was there. Sat on the patio of one of the little local places we came across. We ended up not stopping at any chain restaurant the whole trip. Instead we decided that it would be better to see what kind of cool places we can find along the way to eat. We decided to push on and due to lack of places to stay, we had to go later than we planned and ended up in Winnemucca, Nevada. Crashed into our hotel beds and called it a night. We went for a good breakfast and headed for the car wash so Jeremy could attempt to wash out his radiator. We were told to leave the property though cause they didn't like us trying to clean out the rad fins. So we hit the road for the last of the long hauls. We made it to Carson City, Nevada and loaded up on food for the trip.
We headed for South Lake Tahoe for some supper and final gas stop before we headed to Loon Lake. Everyone was pretty excited to get to the destination. We stopped at a outdoor sports pub and had some great food. We headed out for Loon Lake and enjoyed the scenic drive through the high Sierras. Got to the camp ground and set up for the evening. Jeremy pulled his radiator right out to find it plugged. He gave it a good cleaning and reinstalled it in his truck. Had a few beers met and talked to some people that were also camped and hit the sack.
We woke up ready to hit the trails. Grease guns out, tire aired down, and final checks complete we were ready to hit the trail. The guys were pretty excited to see what was in store for them since both Paul and Jeremy were pretty surprised by what they encountered and what there vehicles were capable of driving over. James had a lot of work cut out for him spotting the big 80 through the tight sections.
We made great time and had no real issues what so ever except for Paul having his tcase always kicking out of low range. So he pulled his linkage off to keep that from becoming a serious pain throughout the day.
We stopped and checked out a few of the other rigs doing the optional obstacles like "Soup Bowl" and "Little Sluice". Some of us scheming for ideas for better rigs for next year so we can have some fun on these obstacles.
Unfortunately for Paul his rear bumper snagged his tire and got bent up so version 2.0 should be better for rock collisions. We ended up stopping for lunch at Buck Lake and to just take a break from all the fun.
Does that mean you got your radio yet, or are you just going to buy one there? Might be a bit cheaper?
