Eastern Oregon surprises a lot of people who assume all of Oregon is a rain forest. LOL! Most of it is high desert, but there are a lot of really cool places to explore.
I drove south and made a dumb error. I though taking the coast down would be a good idea, so i headed west after leaving the south end of the park. I drove an hour down some winding death roads in the rain and arrived at the 1 and it was so foggy i couldn't see the road ahead of me. you could not see the ocean barely at all. we took this picture and back tracked towards the 101 to the bay area:
There was a whole lot of white knuckle driving. I was having fun for a little bit, listening to the little diesel engine breathe the cold sea level air. It was fun to throttle it through the turns as with the stiff front swap and the weight so far up the truck ti would easily pick the inside tire off the ground. Once there was two tires up and mom wasn't so amused .
Anyways a few hours of this really wore me out. by the time we got back to the 101 we had added about 3 hours to the trip. We rolled into Palo Alto nearly 3AM. I have to say hitting that SF traffic with all those crazy drivers at 2am really was stressful. I wouldn't have thought it would be so busy, but it was madness with cars passing me left and right at at least twice the speed limit.
Today would be the last day before I sleep in my own bed. We planned to camp on the beach in Pismo/Ocean dunes SVRA at the end of the night.
We had a few little stops on the way:
We hit some winery for a tasting near this park's entrance:
A few hours later and we arrived in Pismo. My lady friend drove up from Orange County to camp with us that night on the beach, but we found out that the dunes were full from some classic dune buggy meet. Bummer but we ended up getting a largely overpriced crappy hotel to stay at with plans for the dunes int he AM.
We did get up early enough to show my mom what sand dunes are for however:
So last year with the previous powertrain i came to the dunes and realized a fatal flaw in my gear selection. With either a 4.0:1 or 4.7:1 reduction box, and a ~3.5 1st gear i would either top out at ~15 mph in low range 4th gear, or bog trying to get it moving in 1st gear hi range. The new gear spread was meant to remedy this, and it sure did! The truck is a completely different animal now. it flies through the dunes in the 2.3 low range with the new 5 speed and power plant.
Mom gained an appreciation for the 4 point harness when we were playing around
Here's our dog we found in Baja Mexico last winter:
We found him living on the street in Bahia d los angeles and after camping there and feeding him for a few days we decided to take him back. He cleaned up nice after 9 months! His first ride was in the 40 when we snuck him back to the states . After the long bumpy ride to Crange County he though he lived in the 40 and didn't want to get out!
I skipped about a bunch of things like wiring, new tailgate lid, washer fluid res, coolant res, ecu relocation ect.
These are just the things i have pictures from. I will add more when i get more free time.
New mirror brackets:
Measuring a few things for panhard bar clearance:
Raised the bottom KC's:
I changed the heim on the rear traction bar and found the most evasive rattle ever: a loose pinion dust shield. It took me forever to find that one.
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