4Cruisers
SILVER Star
That was $1 a pop, right?I can't believe there are still stickers! Perhaps I should work on trying to get payment for those
Our Travelogue...
- Thread starter hecrod
- Start date
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If it gets back to DFW area, I can take it east to Louisiana or north to Oklahoma, or south toward southeast Texas. My brother @cruiserbarn is in Texarkana so could go to Arkansas. He has several 40 series he just don’t get on Mud much.
Somebody ring my bell if I am needed. Loved doing this the first time and would like to participate again. I will carry it or would be content to tag along.
Somebody ring my bell if I am needed. Loved doing this the first time and would like to participate again. I will carry it or would be content to tag along.
When this adventure started I'd just wrapped up the restoration on my 40 and was still living in the Middle East. I watched this thread with rapt attention. This was a brilliant idea by @hecrod and I was quite bummed that I wouldn't get a chance to participate.
Roughly when this started I was giving my boys one of their first rides in my restored 40...
And yesterday I explained the briefcase to them and their sister and let them rummage through the contents. They LOVED naming off all the cities and states represented by the doodads in the case. I'm being inundated with "When are WE going to go visit Virginia?!" and many other states as well.
I did a quick layout of all items.
And all returned to the briefcase.
Roughly when this started I was giving my boys one of their first rides in my restored 40...
And yesterday I explained the briefcase to them and their sister and let them rummage through the contents. They LOVED naming off all the cities and states represented by the doodads in the case. I'm being inundated with "When are WE going to go visit Virginia?!" and many other states as well.
I did a quick layout of all items.
And all returned to the briefcase.
States represented by the materials in the case at this point:
Arkansas
Deleware
Maryland
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Viriginia
New Hampshire
Arizona
Please correct me if I've missed something!
Arkansas
Deleware
Maryland
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Utah
Viriginia
New Hampshire
Arizona
Please correct me if I've missed something!
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ginmtb
'74 FJ40 - my first!
Yes but consider it a donation to the cruiser gods...
brian
SILVER Star
Mt Washington is in new Hampshire
There are two Mt. Washingtons represented in the suitcase! The one I looked at in detail said Pennsylvania.
List updated to include New Hampshire.
Friday morning we left our house on the Mesa in New Mexico in our 83’ American spec FJ40 to meet Joel @Honger in his beautifully restored Middle East spec 1977 FJ40 for a hand-off!
Catherine @Mesa Woman and I drove I-25 to I-40 and took a left turn, no, right at Albuquerque.
The head-on windy weather added another level of enjoyment to the ride at 80mph, kinda like riding out a thunderstorm in a box!
We turned south at exit 89, on 117 and drove alongside the “El Malpies” Badlands lava flows, thru the “Narrows” and stopped briefly at La Ventana arch.
Moving on south we drove 30 miles of gravel road that is also the continental divide trail towards the Sawtooth mountains and Pie Town. Along the way we passed TLC Ranch that is open to CDT hikers.
We arrived in Pie Town at about five and found a free campsite, nestled among the pines and alligator junipers in town and set up camp.
Joel arrived an hour later with his daughter and they set camp and Joel cooked up some great steaks on a charcoal grill! We had a few ales to wash it down then quickly retired to our tents and sleeping bags for warmth as the wind was too much for a campfire.
During the night we got a fierce wind storm and about an inch of snow. The sun came up and weather was nice so we had that campfire we wanted and hot coffee as Joel kindly cooked a breakfast of Hatch green chile eggs, bacon, and bagels !
We were now ready for the briefcase hand-off!
And Pie!
Catherine @Mesa Woman and I drove I-25 to I-40 and took a left turn, no, right at Albuquerque.
The head-on windy weather added another level of enjoyment to the ride at 80mph, kinda like riding out a thunderstorm in a box!
We turned south at exit 89, on 117 and drove alongside the “El Malpies” Badlands lava flows, thru the “Narrows” and stopped briefly at La Ventana arch.
Moving on south we drove 30 miles of gravel road that is also the continental divide trail towards the Sawtooth mountains and Pie Town. Along the way we passed TLC Ranch that is open to CDT hikers.
We arrived in Pie Town at about five and found a free campsite, nestled among the pines and alligator junipers in town and set up camp.
Joel arrived an hour later with his daughter and they set camp and Joel cooked up some great steaks on a charcoal grill! We had a few ales to wash it down then quickly retired to our tents and sleeping bags for warmth as the wind was too much for a campfire.
During the night we got a fierce wind storm and about an inch of snow. The sun came up and weather was nice so we had that campfire we wanted and hot coffee as Joel kindly cooked a breakfast of Hatch green chile eggs, bacon, and bagels !
We were now ready for the briefcase hand-off!
And Pie!
Briefcase has been in good hands…
Briefcase Hand -off at the Pie-o-neer on Saturday morning with two FJ40’s! Definitely a first in the history of Pie!
Briefcase Hand -off at the Pie-o-neer on Saturday morning with two FJ40’s! Definitely a first in the history of Pie!
The Briefcase took a ride on the front of the 40 around the dirt trails at the campgrounds and through pie towns back roads and across hwy 60 to get Pie after I forgot I put it there! I parked and Joel looks at it with a curious grin and I was like “what!”
Mesa man thinking, can I just try all the Pie’s. I finally chose a piece of fresh hot peaches and cream and a small New Mexico apple pie with pinion nuts and green chile to go! Catherine had Honey pecan and caramel apple to go!
Mesa man thinking, can I just try all the Pie’s. I finally chose a piece of fresh hot peaches and cream and a small New Mexico apple pie with pinion nuts and green chile to go! Catherine had Honey pecan and caramel apple to go!
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Here’s to add onto @mesa man ‘s post…
Mesa Man’s 1983 FJ40 Jaguar Green briefcase handoff with @honger’s Dune Beige 1977 FJ40 on Saturday, April 27, 2024… keeping the movement of the black briefcase alive!
Camp was lovely but no fire because of high wind so we all had a great meal and an early night. Lows hit 34° with wind chill of 27°
Crazy wind gusts and then snow!
Until the following morning when we enjoyed the warmth of hot coffee, hot food, sun and fire! The snow was a lovely touch to the scenery.
My view from the tent with hot coffee in hand, sun shining on me, Joel cooking up some food, Gabe making a fire and Cora enjoying the snow creatures she was able to create! Life is good!
To be continued…
Mesa Man’s 1983 FJ40 Jaguar Green briefcase handoff with @honger’s Dune Beige 1977 FJ40 on Saturday, April 27, 2024… keeping the movement of the black briefcase alive!
Camp was lovely but no fire because of high wind so we all had a great meal and an early night. Lows hit 34° with wind chill of 27°
Crazy wind gusts and then snow!
Until the following morning when we enjoyed the warmth of hot coffee, hot food, sun and fire! The snow was a lovely touch to the scenery.
My view from the tent with hot coffee in hand, sun shining on me, Joel cooking up some food, Gabe making a fire and Cora enjoying the snow creatures she was able to create! Life is good!
To be continued…
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On to the pie oh and the handoff… here’s more pics and stories
We headed over to The Pie-o-neer in Pie Town, NM to do the official handoff and get our pictures before the parking lot was full, and boy are we glad we did! I40 had a major shut down at the NM-AZ border that caused 100s of semis and other traffic to go through these small towns heading to their destinations. At one point the woman running the counter, with at one time 10 people waiting in line after many had been through said, “Honestly people, we maybe in some doo-doo today having i40 being shut down due to a train derailment and explosion!’ All they were serving was pie and we saw at least 6 people in the back making pies and several others running pies slices out to the tables. But boy were they glad they found this little slice of pie heaven! They had Honey Pecan Pie, New Mexico Apple Pie (w/piñon nuts and green chili), Rhubarb Pie, Meyer Lemon Tart Cherry Pie, Hot out of the oven Peaches and Cream that we had to wait 15mins before they would serve us Pie, and and some other pies, oh Apple Carmel Big Foot Pie, some cold pies, so many pies… I bet Joel and Gabe could name more… and muffins and cookies!
We really should have told them that a sampler pie plater would be a hit!! Imagine a big platter with so many flavors of pie, mouth watering thin pie slices with the largest scoop of the freshest homemade vanilla ice cream in the middle!
Next time….
Our helpful ladies behind the counter with more behind them. Oh, and the briefcase posing with the pie!
Joel will eventually figure out what he wants…
Gabe kept asking me…
No more pics of our slices as we ate them all gone! Clean plate club!! But Gabe did share our take out pies with the briefcase above!
Oh here’s our pie currently as I type this:
In the solar oven… NM Apple Pie!
Our briefcase adventure continues…
We headed over to The Pie-o-neer in Pie Town, NM to do the official handoff and get our pictures before the parking lot was full, and boy are we glad we did! I40 had a major shut down at the NM-AZ border that caused 100s of semis and other traffic to go through these small towns heading to their destinations. At one point the woman running the counter, with at one time 10 people waiting in line after many had been through said, “Honestly people, we maybe in some doo-doo today having i40 being shut down due to a train derailment and explosion!’ All they were serving was pie and we saw at least 6 people in the back making pies and several others running pies slices out to the tables. But boy were they glad they found this little slice of pie heaven! They had Honey Pecan Pie, New Mexico Apple Pie (w/piñon nuts and green chili), Rhubarb Pie, Meyer Lemon Tart Cherry Pie, Hot out of the oven Peaches and Cream that we had to wait 15mins before they would serve us Pie, and and some other pies, oh Apple Carmel Big Foot Pie, some cold pies, so many pies… I bet Joel and Gabe could name more… and muffins and cookies!
We really should have told them that a sampler pie plater would be a hit!! Imagine a big platter with so many flavors of pie, mouth watering thin pie slices with the largest scoop of the freshest homemade vanilla ice cream in the middle!
Next time….
Our helpful ladies behind the counter with more behind them. Oh, and the briefcase posing with the pie!
Joel will eventually figure out what he wants…
Gabe kept asking me…
No more pics of our slices as we ate them all gone! Clean plate club!! But Gabe did share our take out pies with the briefcase above!
Oh here’s our pie currently as I type this:
In the solar oven… NM Apple Pie!
Our briefcase adventure continues…
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Saying our good byes and departing Pie Town, us East and Joel West with all the traffic… we’ll have to hear from him how his adventure home was. Long and he made it safely, that I know.
Briefcase in Gabe’s hand.
Until next time Joel!! Solid Axle Summit 9 you said!! Looking forward to seeing you, your wife and kiddos there!!
The weather was in the 50s/60s with some wind but not too bad so driving did not seem as hard on Gabe as the first windy day. The cruiser was cruising down the highways 75mph, 2000rpm, 180°. I forgot to calculate the mpg, which we usually do! Oops, but our Dakota digital fuel gage was not working so we were more focused on how many miles we traveled. We traveled about 450 miles total making a big loop around SW New Mexico.
As we made our way home we were feeling adventurous and stopped first to take some pictures of Tracks, our FJ40, and the VLA (very large array) near Magdalena, NM.
Then I caught Gabe tagging the guard rail with all the other stickers… @POTATO LAUNCHER, I need more SAS stickers!!
More VLA in the background
To be continued…
Briefcase in Gabe’s hand.
Until next time Joel!! Solid Axle Summit 9 you said!! Looking forward to seeing you, your wife and kiddos there!!
The weather was in the 50s/60s with some wind but not too bad so driving did not seem as hard on Gabe as the first windy day. The cruiser was cruising down the highways 75mph, 2000rpm, 180°. I forgot to calculate the mpg, which we usually do! Oops, but our Dakota digital fuel gage was not working so we were more focused on how many miles we traveled. We traveled about 450 miles total making a big loop around SW New Mexico.
As we made our way home we were feeling adventurous and stopped first to take some pictures of Tracks, our FJ40, and the VLA (very large array) near Magdalena, NM.
Then I caught Gabe tagging the guard rail with all the other stickers… @POTATO LAUNCHER, I need more SAS stickers!!
More VLA in the background
To be continued…
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@mesa man added the official Inaugural FJ40 Cross-Country Expedition 2016-2017 Passport to Adventure sticker to the collection.
VLA in the background
We are thinking about getting new stickers printed as it’s now 2024! And I see this continuing as long as ppl keep adventuring in their 40s with it!
As we continued on we did not make it that far, through Magdalena and off on dirt FR 505 headed towards the Magdalena Mountains.
The weather was lovely but honestly we did not check to see what lies ahead as far as weather goes… so the dark clouds here and there were curious. But all was well!
Headed for those mountains with briefcase in tow!
To be continued…
After a short break to walk the dog and make some dinner…
VLA in the background
We are thinking about getting new stickers printed as it’s now 2024! And I see this continuing as long as ppl keep adventuring in their 40s with it!
As we continued on we did not make it that far, through Magdalena and off on dirt FR 505 headed towards the Magdalena Mountains.
The weather was lovely but honestly we did not check to see what lies ahead as far as weather goes… so the dark clouds here and there were curious. But all was well!
Headed for those mountains with briefcase in tow!
To be continued…
After a short break to walk the dog and make some dinner…
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Our curiosity can take us on adventures, especially in our bad ass FJ40! We were not expecting a 4-hour detour on our way home, our older teen boyz thought we were going to be home around 3p and we did not get home till around 7:30p. NM Forest Road 505 took us towards the Magdalena Mountains and as we got closer to the mountains, we noticed a few switch backs going up the side of one of the smaller mountains. I looked on the map and found FR182 that took us towards them on a 4x4 road.
We locked the hubs, put her in 4 low and crawled up the side making our way on a one lane, no pull outs, steep road winding back and forth towards the mountain forest.
After a few miles of slow crawling, we came to a stopping point about 1 mile from the end of the road... we were still very curios what was at the end, an awesome camp spot, a mine? We decided to hike the rest of the way and discovered that the overgrowth had made it challenging to get the vehicle any farther.
Our hike continued and about 1/4 mile away from the end I stopped, and Gabe continued on up to the end.
To be continued…
We locked the hubs, put her in 4 low and crawled up the side making our way on a one lane, no pull outs, steep road winding back and forth towards the mountain forest.
After a few miles of slow crawling, we came to a stopping point about 1 mile from the end of the road... we were still very curios what was at the end, an awesome camp spot, a mine? We decided to hike the rest of the way and discovered that the overgrowth had made it challenging to get the vehicle any farther.
Our hike continued and about 1/4 mile away from the end I stopped, and Gabe continued on up to the end.
To be continued…
Our guess was right as we found a mine, possibly an old silver prospector's dig so there was not much of anything but a few specimens of Azurite, Malachite, Peacock Ore, and some other interesting stones.
We hiked back to our Cruiser and had ourselves some yummy chicken sandwiches then made our way back out the way we came in.
We zig zagged up the light colored hill on the right and made our way to the left by a small light patch… I forgot the mileage, but it was about 5 miles round trip. We enjoyed ourselves and the scenery and of course our 40!
Our last leg of our trip home was smooth with some rain showers around Albuquerque and on up to our home.
Thanks to those that got this started it’s been a pleasure to help get this to the next hands with @mesa man. Way back in 2016 you were wondering if this would be weeks or months and here we are years later. May we see more trinkets and stickers added to the briefcase and see more adventures posted here and in the logbook!
My story is complete for this adventure at this time!
We hiked back to our Cruiser and had ourselves some yummy chicken sandwiches then made our way back out the way we came in.
We zig zagged up the light colored hill on the right and made our way to the left by a small light patch… I forgot the mileage, but it was about 5 miles round trip. We enjoyed ourselves and the scenery and of course our 40!
Our last leg of our trip home was smooth with some rain showers around Albuquerque and on up to our home.
Thanks to those that got this started it’s been a pleasure to help get this to the next hands with @mesa man. Way back in 2016 you were wondering if this would be weeks or months and here we are years later. May we see more trinkets and stickers added to the briefcase and see more adventures posted here and in the logbook!
My story is complete for this adventure at this time!
Great write-up and pictures. It’s amazing to me how these simple utilitarian FJ40’s can connect people from across the country/globe and their adventures to each other. We all get to experience these unique places, interesting people and make friends that some may otherwise never see or do.
Knowing that you could take off across the country in a 50 year old vehicle, have a mechanical problem in some out of the way little town or backcountry spot and turn to Ih8mud then have someone you’ve never met show up with tools, parts and a handshake. That belief will no doubt drive more of these great write-ups and adventures.
