5 week cross country trip

[DbltreeBelgians]

Picked up a Keystone Fuzion 419 toy hauler back in March so Jill and I decided to load the Polaris General up and head west.


 

Left Ohio on Saturday May 13th and arrived in Grand Jct. Colorado on Sunday evening. Hit the mother of all potholes on I-70 in Denver and my dash lit up like a Christmas tree. Lost ABS, cruise control, traction control, hill decent control and a host of other functions but the truck was drivable. Found the hit was so harsh it sheared the lower airbag mount off and cut the left rear ABS sensor wire. Ordered a new sensor, repaired the airbag mount at my sister's house with the help of the Lincoln welder they have and that ain't gonna happen again.
Took the daughter out to do a little off-roading at Bangs Canyon outside of Grand Junction on Friday the 19th. What a beautiful ride. I took her to the Billings Canyon Jeep trail to show her some extreme 4-wheeling. It's not a trail my machine come close to running but we went as far as possible. Here's a couple pics that tell the tale.



 


 
I heeded the warning on the 2nd picture and we turned around and used the bypass. All in all it was a great ride and Dani had a blast.
Next stop is a week at Sand Hollow in SW Utah, then a week at Moab Utah, then we trek north to Grangeville Idaho to visit my aunt. We'll the turn east for Billings Montana , Fargo, somewhere near Duluth, across the U.P. of Michigan and end our last stop in Wolverine Michigan Father's Day weekend. I may have to make a detour to Detour Village also if the boss will have a couple visitors for a few hours or so.
I'll get to see some country I've never seen before and I'm sure by Father's Day I'll be ready to get home.
More to come later.

Brent

Edit:

Pics of the cut ABS sensor and my Polaris General 



 



 

Brent 

[thecfarm]

Guess I can't tell you stop in for a visit.  :D
Have fun!!!

[Magicman]

Sounds like an exciting trip Brent.  Enjoy !!

[barbender]

Geez that sounds like some pothole!😬 I'm jealous of the trip though, sounds like a blast!

[sawguy21]

You say you have an aunt in Grangeville ID? I have family there I have never met, maybe we are cousins. ;D It is not a large community.

[DbltreeBelgians]

My dads younger brother and SIL and 3 boys moved to Grangeville in the mid 80's from NW Ohio. My uncle passed years ago and the boys have all flown the coop and are all married with their own children. I haven't seen my cousins since they moved.
Highly unlikely we are even remotely related but hey, it was worth a shot eh!!
It will be good to see her again but she doesn't know about it yet.
Was on top of Grand Mesa today and they are still snowmobiling up there.



 



 


 


 
Snow still pretty deep. They really need it out there to help with the long running drought and to refill the reservoir's 
Pulling out of Fruita Colorado in the morning and headed for Hurricane Utah.

Brent

[Magicman]

I have made many tracks on Grand Mesa.  We have also had snow to shut our hunt down and make us move out, twice.

[DbltreeBelgians]

That don't surprise me at all Lynn. I lived in Grand Junction for many years and I've seen all kinds of weather on the Mesa. I got married to Jill at my parents place at Arrowhead Ranch near Blue Mesa reservoir on July 2nd and as soon as we said our vowels the thunder clapped and it snowed, hailed and rained. Had to shovel the wrap around deck off.

Brent

[barbender]

"And Brent, do you take Jill to be your lawfully wedded wife? In sickness and in health, for better and for worse?" "A,E,I,O, and U."

[firefighter ontheside]

Dang.  Sorry about the truck issue.  At least you were able to fix it.  The airbags working well otherwise to level the load?  I have hit some potholes in Illinois with the camper on that I swore were going to take the axle off my truck or camper.  Illinois idea of dealing with the problem of bad potholes is just to put up a sign that says "bump ahead".

[barbender]

I was quite indignant at the fact that in Illinois you have to stop and pay tolls, to drive on their trashy unmaintained highways🤬

[DbltreeBelgians]

Yes Bill the bags really help stabilize the load. The truck did ok without them except you could really feel the truck roll side to side on a turn or a cross wind. Now the factory helper springs don't even come into play. I'm glad I put them on.
When we hit the Utah state line everything smoothed out. By far the best roads we've traveled so far. Colorado by far had the worst roads and I always thought Michigan roads were rough. Not even close.
And the scenery in Utah was out of this world. I've seen a lot of canyon and desert country but places like the Goblin valley and the San Rafael Swell were stunning. And who would have ever thought they would have huge hay making operations out here. Jill looked it up and they have over 800,000+ head of cattle and many large dairy farms.
We took the General to Sand Hollow State Park on Wednesday and had a decent ride. I did get scolded by Jill for a few stunts I pulled. I dropped off a ledge that was so steep that I hit the front bumper of my machine and gassed it at the last second to keep from flipping over forwards.  She flat out told me "Don't EVER do that **** again" !!! Yes my dear I won't, trust me!!  ;D  
I have a lot of GoPro video of our rides but don't have a clue as how or where to post them. I didn't take much pictures as I was driving but here's one.


 

Torquerville Falls is on the agenda for Friday and I'd like to day trip to Hoover dam and Lake Mead and also Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
We'll see what we have for time left before heading to Moab on Memorial Day.

Brent

[firefighter ontheside]

Be careful on the road to Toquerville Falls, MORR is always getting people unstuck or rescuing their broke down rig.  Leaving for Croatia today!

[beenthere]

Yes Bill the bags really help stabilize the load. The truck did ok without them except you could really feel the truck roll side to side on a turn or a cross wind. Now the factory helper springs don't even come into play. I'm glad I put them on.
When we hit the Utah state line everything smoothed out. By far the best roads we've traveled so far. Colorado by far had the worst roads and I always thought Michigan roads were rough. Not even close.
And the scenery in Utah was out of this world. I've seen a lot of canyon and desert country but places like the Goblin valley and the San Rafael Swell were stunning. And who would have ever thought they would have huge hay making operations out here. Jill looked it up and they have over 800,000+ head of cattle and many large dairy farms.
We took the General to Sand Hollow State Park on Wednesday and had a decent ride. I did get scolded by Jill for a few stunts I pulled. I dropped off a ledge that was so steep that I hit the front bumper of my machine and gassed it at the last second to keep from flipping over forwards.  She flat out told me "Don't EVER do that **** again" !!! Yes my dear I won't, trust me!!  ;D  
I have a lot of GoPro video of our rides but don't have a clue as how or where to post them. I didn't take much pictures as I was driving but here's one.


 

Torquerville Falls is on the agenda for Friday and I'd like to day trip to Hoover dam and Lake Mead and also Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
We'll see what we have for time left before heading to Moab on Memorial Day.

Brent

You can make YouTube or Rumble videos from the GoPro vids and link to them in your posts. Look forward to seeing them, as agree that Utah has some extraordinary sights to see.

[DbltreeBelgians]

Went to Torquerville Falls on Friday. Having not been there before and looking at the Ride Command mapping in the Polaris I decided to go right at the split in the road. Kinda glad I did go that way as we dropped down a loose boulder infested very steep grade that I'm not sure I'd have made it up had I went left and ran the looped trail in a clockwise manner. Then we came to a stream crossing and the General sounded like an outboard motor with the muffler being submerged. Jill thought we were goners. Forded the stream and stopped to let Duke cool off in the water.



 

He was loving it. We ended up crossing the stream about 4more times and finally came upon the falls.



 


 

Jill and Duke at the top of the falls. It's kinda neat as you can walk or drive across the top. Not slippery or any too deep. The place was packed with people and dogs running back a forth across the top.



 

But from the looks of this guy the water might have been a touch bit nipply so to speak.
On our return back to the trailhead we continued on a counter clockwise route and it was mostly smooth sailing. Met a lot of jeeps and 4x4 vehicles so the place was gonna be packed and we got out in good time.

Brent

[DbltreeBelgians]

On Saturday we made a trip to the Hoover Dam and lake Mead. Sad to see the lake level so low as you can see by the bathtub ring on the canyon walls.



 

Found out no pets allowed anywhere other than documented service dogs and we had Duke with us. I really wanted to tour the inner workings of the dam. Jill said go and she would stay with Duke in the truck and maybe take a nap. She had been there long ago and wasn't the least bit interested in touring the inside of the *DanG dam. So off I went. First was a movie on the construction then a tour of the power plant and then inside different levels of the dam.



 





They had one turbine they were in the process of reassembling after major maintenance. The overhead cranes were massive.
Then into the bowels of the beast.



 



 

This was a 6' diameter shaft that lead to one of I believe 4 vents on the face of the dam. Next picture is looking out the vent to the Colorado river below.





This place is a masterpiece of engineering and hard to even fathom the amount of blood, sweat, and tears involved in building it.
As we were leaving I asked Jill how far to Vegas as I had never been there. So off we went just to say I did it. Never again!! Not my cup of tea. So then I asked her how far to California. She said about an hour or so. So south we go on I-15. Made it to the first exit in California and turned around and made my way back to southern Utah. We hit 4 different state on Saturday and I'll probably not ever make it to 2 of those states again. Maybe I'm wrong about that but at least I can say I've been there, done that. I'm good with that.

Brent 

[Magicman]

I agree about California but.... The Redwoods are worth seeing but that is kind of a trip all of it's own.

Keep on keeping on and I am enjoying your trip.    

[Don P]

I was in that generator room and tunnels.. 51 years ago. I don't think the towmotor has even moved  :D. There was not a rebuild underway then and the lake was at full pool. My instamatics are long gone. At the time they were still pumping cooling water through the concrete, at almost 40 years old it was still hot because of the slow heat mix and the incredible mass of it. At around 90 I wonder if that part is done.

[DbltreeBelgians]

@Don P  I inquired on the cooling tubes. My reason was I figured by now they would have corroded. He stated exactly and they have actually filled them all with grout as the tubes have rusted away by now. The tour was amazing.  I would've paid extra to tour the maintenance shop but 
no bueno!!!    Bummer
We're in Moab now. The drive up I-15 to I-70 was total chaos. Everyone must've been heading back to Salt Lake City area. Once on I-70 eastbound and down it was smooooth sailing and no traffic to contend with. South on Rt.191 to Moab was pretty good too but northbound was bumper to bumper with everyone heading home. Should be a good week here other than the Colorado River is flooding due to snow melt upstream.

Brent

[customsawyer]

Enjoying the pictures. Keep them coming.

[nativewolf]

What a great trip but if you miss CA you are missing on the most incredible natural wonders in the world.  The Big Sur is just...amazing.  Redwoods, the CA coastal highway, and on and on.  San Diego is still a good visit, San Fran used to be my favorite city in the USA but they let it go to heck.  Wineries are neat in northern CA.  Small towns along the coast of CA are mostly worth a day in and of themselves.  It's still pretty rugged and wild in many places.  

If you are into technology touring SpaceX or Tesla's factories is pretty awesome if you can arrange that.  It's one of the most dynamic places in the USA and though I don't live there I encourage you to at least take the CA coastal highway for some good long distance.  

I've traveled on a good many continents (still need Antartica) but have seen a many incredible sights.  Nowhere packs it in like CA.  Coastal BC/Alaska is neat, Fjords in Norway/Lofoten Islands- neat.  Tasmania-nice.  I have not been down the coast of SA, would like to see southern Chile one day.  I have not been to see the highlands of Ethiopia- that's a to do as well.  Japan is ok- nice scenery and comfort never far away, Indonesia nice but so dense.  Malaysia is under appreciated but the wild parts are really not easy to access.   I could go on but missing CA is a big miss.

[barbender]

The natural wonders of California are high on my list of things to see someday. The populated areas don't interest me at all, though.

[sawguy21]

We were on I-80 just outside SF on a Friday afternoon, found a way out of that gong show quickly. I thought I had seen traffic but nothing like that.  LA was no better. Big Sur is definitely worth seeing but very touristy (expensive). I enjoyed visiting California but have no desire to live there, the cost of living is brutal.

[DbltreeBelgians]

@nativewolf  I would love to see the redwoods and the Sierra's. Yosemite would be awesome too. But the big city's and big crowds, well that ain't in my wheelhouse. Not much for the ocean either. That's just me, to each his own. I love the mountains, the red rocks of the canyon lands and the forests. I'm sure there are many beautiful place I'm missing out on and some day I'll knock a few more off my bucket list.
Jill would love to do a river cruise in Europe. She loves castles. And bagpipes. She plays bagpipes with Toledo Fire Pipes and Drums. I'd love to go to Switzerland, Germany and Austria but with the way the world is currently I think I'll just keep me feet planted on good ole U.S.A. terrafirma for now. I don't have a passport so I can't even go to Canada.

Brent

[barbender]

Brent, maybe we could do a guy's trip and our wives could go do a European River cruise. I'm all about the mountains, forests and wild country. No passport here, either🤷