Just catching up a bit now that I can download photos again

 

I just want to go back and recap my summer......above is a photo of one of the reasons I go back to Utah every summer....looks like I'm more excited about it than he is..lol

We sold the farm this year so lots of time and effort went into moving, selling and giving away stuff!!!

I can't remember if anyone helped me load the old shed on the trailer or not...I do know I took it up there by myself years ago in the cold rain. My guess is that Matt went to get this with me, but I just can't say.....if so thanks Matt.

Selling my old 1960 Dodge was not easy....I bought it back when Randi and I lived in Creston Washington 199? something. It was a good old truck with a 318 wide block engine and 3 speed on the floor. The 318 wide block was a Hemi block with poly heads.....faster than a 327 Chevy for sure and tuff as nail if you keep oil in it......some jackass who is no longer liked did not take care of the oil thing....truck is missed he is not!

Fortune cookies know so much....I got this one this summer. I have one in my wallet that told me I would go for a ride in a tired car.....driving home the 327 in my 67 Chevelle SS blew a head gasket and I coasted home....the car never ran again. Better believe fortune cookies is all I can say about that.

I saw this set up near the farm. The owners had just left Bo Huffs place.

If you do not know who Bo is check out his facebook page or just Google him.

https://www.facebook.com/bohuffcustoms

 I have know Bo for a number of years now and can say he is one of the most interesting guys around.
Friendly to all and very generous... not to mention talented and fun. I wish him the best.

If your into 4x4s ....VWs.......or 4x4 VWs

I think I did a post on the garage and all the damage....tons of work left for Sandy and me in cleaning up, dealing with the insurance, tons of garage sales and swap meets.

I built a nice work bench out of a bowling alley and some bathroom cabinets. Thought that was going to be it for work around the house.....I was so wrong...lol!

I guess the only way to show our wives we love them is to do big jobs around the house...this year I got a job that I almost could not get done  and would not have without help from the homeless, family, friends and Sandy.

Here is the start of a new patio and much bigger driveway.

 I don.t see photos, but it all started when a young man, woman and baby came by looking to work for cash...Sandy felt sorry for them so she had them mow the lawn.....sucker on the hook.....what else do you old folks need done....next thing I knew we were going to have him redo our landscaping.

He said he would be here tomorrow so I got up rented a early ran and rented a jackhammer to bust up the sidewalk.....next thing I knew I...I said I had finished busting up the whole sidewalk when the kid showed up. I was so tired I could not do anything more so he kicked around looking like he was doing something....next day he promised to be there at 9am. I had the car trailer so we could load the cement and haul it off....I was 1/2 loaded before he showed up, he help me clean off the trailer and needed more money ????

I gave him money and never saw him again for days, I rented a sod cutter and he helped me for 1 hour or so and we never ever saw him again.....no sidewalk and no grass.....I tried to do things on my own, but ended up go and getting some help from the shelter....It was good help and I made a friend.

Days of shoveling out so I could haul in gravel and sand and the pounding began.....


 Here is Sandy after she saw how much difficulty I was having pounding bricks, even though I,m doing better, bending over still wipes me out fast. 

we did the shoveling and stuff in sections....man these photos make the old concrete look bad....please don,t tell Sandy...lol

Here are shot of it done.....still have many things to do, but I like what we got so far....check out those copper flower boxes and fountain....I made those years ago and we moved them to this house.

I made them by building a frame with copper water pipe and sheets of copper roofing that I pounded dimples into with a ballpen hamer, they are 10 years old or so and still not turning blue!

 

With the money from selling the farm, the family bought Sandy and Me a new home away from home ....it,s almost 40 feet long and has two bedrooms and a garage for the dune buggy.

It,s a bit different than the old 5th wheel, but I,m getting used to it.....I pulled the solar system out of the old trailer and installed it all in this one so I have all the free power I need....I did get a bit low  after 5 cloudy days, just cut back from leaving the tv on all night for background noise.....I really don.t need it anymore as I'm not as sensitive to light and noises as I used to be.

Do you see where I mounted my old gas pump face back there on the garage....Derrick and I did that!

I thought the Black Dodge would pull this new trailer......I was sooooo wrong.

I ended up getting this F-350 and it sure does a nice job pulling the big toyhauler.

This is what happens when a tire blows out on a trailer...sucks to be me that day....and tires for this 17,000 pound trailer are very expensive. $250 a tire.

I still need to buy 2 more any one got a grand sitting around they do not need? 

My time in Quartszite so far...photos only!

On the road again with the new truck and trailer

Felt like old times.....I drove Semis for a few years and sleep in them many nights.

nothing like a 8 foot clearance overpass.

First drive....I like it

Here's my friend Dean wondering if $16,000.00 is too much  lol

Jusst a small part of the swap meet area....let me know if you see anything you need

This was just as things got started. There are many venders moving in everyday. It will be packed for acres and acres by the end of December.

just checking to see if you are paying attention!

Look Sandy's here////only for a few days

 

OLD TIRES

I got things packed, kissed Sandy googbye for just a few weeks this time. Sandy will fly to Arizona for Thanksgiving so I'll see her then.

I got to California, about 1/2 way between Needles Nevada and Parker. I'm just across the river from Havasu, when I heard a big bang.
Blew what looks like a new tire, but it's not........ pressure was just checked a few hours ago. Looks like the tires are about 12 years old ....trailers not that old....what's up with that? Could be the seller changed the old tires for some real old ones. Oh ya....the spare has a hole the size of a tennis ball.

I set up camp for now very close to where I camped last year on my way to Quartzsite .
I like this part of the desert, very peaceful with nobody around. I'll go to Parker for tires today.

For some reason I am not able to post photos, I'm not alone so I might need to change hosts....what a pain.
I'll try to post photos later.

I'm fine truck is fine but trailer took a big hit as will my wallet later today when I replace 2 tires.

All packed up....

I am almost all done packing the new 5th wheel, just a few final items like tv, memory pad for the bed and a toothbrush left to pack.

The toy hauler is MUCH bigger and heavier than the Excel.....so much so that I had to buy a bigger truck.









I found a Ford F-350 with a diesel for a great price and had it shipped to Utah from Texas. Nice truck and was almost everything the dealer said in his ad. I did have to replace the exhaust pressure sensor which was not to difficult. My eyes are getting a bit weak and I need lots of light to see small details and if there is something shiny all I see is twinkles.

The Ford makes my old Dodge feel like a sports car. We traded the Dodge in on Sandy's new car......she was involved in a accident when a young girl ran a stop sign.....sure miss her Saab and my Dodge, but we are both liking her 2012 Ford Escape.....too new Fords and they are both white.  We got what seemed like the most trucks for the money.....I like my F-350 too, sorry hope his feelings are not hurt. The big Doge trucks are very popular and I understand why......too bad it makes used ones so much more expensive than the Fords. I never even looked at the GM trucks don't like the looks. I did look at a old semi tractor that had been setup for 5th wheels, but got cold feet thinking of repair bills???? Never know with something like that......sure was cool though.

I have been rushing to get out of Ogden and very worried that I would not be done in time,  now I'm ready to go,  but the weather is holding up and I feel ok with just a little bit of health stuff so I'm going to wait till the long weekend (5 days) is over for Sandy. Will give me a chance to help her out with fall chores and I can have her help me get the toy hauler out of the driveway.

Our driveway is on a busy street and I found I need to build ramps over the curb to keep from dragging the rear of the trailer getting in and out. With the long truck and 40 foot trailer I completely block the street and it is crazy to see how angry it makes other drivers. I had one guy drive over the curb onto my driveway behind the trailer and back off the curb, lucky I saw him in my mirrors in time to slam on the brakes and miss the a**. It happens almost every time I try to line up to back into the driveway and I try not to dilly dally. With this trailer it take more time as I need to build the ramps while the truck and 1/2 the trailer are pulled out onto the street.

It is more difficult to get the big Ford to swing the frontend when backing so it take more room to turn the traile when backing and I have not found the sweetspot for backing into the driveway right next to the fence with just one try......frustrating for an old longhaul driver, I was pretty good at backing back then. The longer the truck the harder it is to back trailers......I do not think I even want to tryto back Sandy's little Buro with the F-350.

Another frustrating thing with this truck is the dually wheels.......I can't see the trailers in the mirrors very well, my car trailer I do not see until it is 4 or 5 feet off to the side and that simply sucks......I need either a set of flags on the rear of the trailer or a rear view camera for the car trailer, at least the toy hauler is tall enough to see which way it is turning.

 Next year I may not even bring it here, I can park it at my daughter Randi's place. Why not two 5th wheel trailers, I have like 12 vw bugs thwre already.....THANKS RANDI  AND MATT you save my butt.

ya but!

I woke up this morning with thoughts of writting in the blog. I know it has been awhile, too long really.

I was watching a new chanel on tv (no idea how long it has been going), it is Newmax a news magazine that has a Conservative Christian view.

The program was about the Founding Fathers and their beliefs about religion. One thing that hits home is how history has been rewritten. The other thing is how honorable leaders and men in general has become a thing of the past. The program is called "Rediscovering God in America"and I think it should be shown in every classroom in America.


It made me think about "Ya But! " I wonder how many times in my life I say, ya but, to myself and others.Ya but is excusing bad or dishonorable actions. I thought what if we all lived our lives in a way that we never had to say ya but to ourselves or to others.

We all have someone we want to impress, I have many, who would they be and in what ways would I want to impress them? For me the 1st and most important choice is easy and also the one choice that I know loves me even when I fail......and just like most fathers he loves me unconditionally.

Second on my list would probably be myself, but my wife and all our offspring come in so close that it is about the same. I do not want to disappoint them any more than myself.

A new poet Prince EA is making a splash with his poems and hip hop songs. He has a line that I like:  "Our role models today 60 years ago would be examples of what not to be".

Check out his video:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=prince+ea&qpvt=prince+ea&FORM=VDRE

I have just one more thing to share, I watched Glen Campbell's video " I'm not going to miss you "

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U8TsAh-zYFI

I see it as a love song to his wife, kids and fans.

It sure hits home with me..........I have notice more memory loss this year than ever before....maybe I need to eat more dark chocolate to go along with cranberry juice for my kidneys which seems to be working one day and not the next...oh well I can always say Ya but.

God Bless you all

p.s.  please say a prayer for one of my adventure companions Jeanne who is fighting cancer this year and may not be able to traveas she is going through treatments. She is also a fellow veteran and I want to pass on a THANK YOU to her for her service.

Mad Max is now in Ogden

Another very quick......too quick......trip this last week.

Sandy and drove to Sacramento Ca. Friday to pick up a homemade dune buggy that will fit in our new toy hauler.

It is smaller than it looks...but at 10.5 feet it will fit in the new toy box rv we bought when we sold the farm.

The toybox has a garage that can serve as a second bedroom/man cave for me when Sandy joins me on the adventures. We found a used 39 foot 5th wheel that is like new even though it is as old as my other 5th wheel and the price was fair. I will now have to remove all my solar system from the old 5th wheel and install it in the new toybox. This will be a lot of effort for me, but should be worth every bit of the trouble and I hope this will be my last trailer.  I'll do a post once I get it home.

For now here is the trip to pick up the Mad Max.

Our trip started very early Friday morning 2am. We drove west and stopped just a few miles from Wendover

.

The salt looked great this early

The rest of the trip was a mad rush as the seller was waiting for us and he needed to get on a plane to travel for work.

Here it is all loaded up

We got in and out of California pretty quickly, but what a mess........I hate traffic and crowds!!!!

I was not able to find out much about the buggy yet, but it was done much better than if I had built it myself......I'm pretty pleased with it!

We did not see many bugs.....not like when I was a kid, guess these things are getting rare. I saw 3 bugs being driven on the whole trip and only 4 or 5 sitting in back yards. Things have changed.

Reno was busy this week as it is the Hot August Nights this week and it would have been fun to check it out, but we needed to hurry along.

We did stop and eat all you can eat Lobster Buffet.......I tried my best to get my $75.00 out of them.....I had 5 lobsters and at least 10 legs not to mention a bunch of other stuff.......Sandy hates lobster so I had to work hard to cover the cost for both of us.....lol

Sandy did have plenty to choose from and she said the food was very good........I loved it!!!

The parking lot was interesting too....

 

We spent the night in Winnemucca  Nevada after I realized I could not sleep in the Dodge

The Mad Max is a bit hard to get into but I do think it will be a part of the family for a long time, both Sandy and I like it alot!!!

 

Here we are home safe and sound....If you look closely you can see my next big project.....finish the landscapping!!!!

 

West Yellowstone

Seems like I have been crazy busy this summer.

For weeks I have been feeling over whelmed with all the things I need to do this summer.

Sold the farm and got the house emptied out so one of the biggest things is out of the way.

I do have a lot to do at the farm, but I leased back the big barn and included storage of personal items for a year so I have some time off on that one.


My good friends Jim and Sue have an old farm in Idaho near Bear Lake, they have been asking Sandy and I to come visit for years, but whenever I got free to go someplace I always needed to go to my old farm so I have never been there.

It worked out that the weekend we planned to go to trade the hood was the same weekend Jim and Sue were going to an annual salmon fry near their place. We were able to go to the salmon fry and spend the night at Jim and Sue's place. Jim's mother, son and grandson were also there so we had a great time.

 

 As you can see it is a very nice place and now that I do not have my farm I hope to spend many days up there with my good friends Jim and Sue. I have known them about 40 years and the friendship has made my life much better, I hope you all are as blessed with good friends as I have been.

Sue's family has owned the house longer than she has been alive, she grew up in this house and was lucky enough to be able to have purchased it and has put a ton of work and love into the place.



Another big thing on my list this summer was trading the carbon fiber hood off the Crossfire with my friend Gary. Gary has been wanting the hood for years so I packed it up along with Sandy and her Buro trailer. We met Gary at West Yellowstone to make the trade......I got a great like new TIG welder, now I need to sell it or learn to weld TIG!!!!

Sandy and I drove up to West Yellowstone last weekend to trade the fibber carbon hood I had for the Crossfire. Since Sandy and I were there we decided to make a mini vacation out of the trip so we headed up through the northern part of Yellowstone.

The trip was nowhere close to a vacation like Sandy wanted, but we did see northern Yellowstone, a bear, a buffalo or two and Cody Wyo.

The park was so busy, even up north where it is usually less crowded.

We got to see a few buffalo and even had a close encounter with a bear.  We got caught in a traffic jam.....tons of cars stopped in the middle of the road and running around all over the place....FOOLS!!!!! Sandy was sitting with her window down wondering why all the excitement when I spotted the bear just 30 feet from us......we had food in the truck and the bear had his nose up in the air.....I saw him start heading our way so I rolled the window up just as Sandy saw the bear......Sandy was grabbing her camera/rolling the window back down as I was pushing the button to roll the window up......rather exciting....the bear ran directly in front of our truck and across the road to disappear into the woods. Sandy did not get a good photo, but I got a poor one....I can not believe how stupid these people act.....I saw them out of their cars chasing buffalo and standing less than 50 feet from the bear.

Sad to say this is the only photo we got of the bear.

You can not see the parking lot or the crowds in this photo.....kind of makes it look like nobody was around.

I gave up pulling into the pull offs to go site seeing as all the traffic was too much.....cars were parked everywhere and if you had an rv you could be stuck in one spot of hours......I will never go back!!!!!

We did find a great spot to spend the night, we pulled off into a wild flower meadow

Here is the bear as he ran off

After we got out of the park Sandy drove over to Cody Wy where we got a good meal and then headed towards home. We found a spot to pull off and spend the night.

 

 

For those of you who may not be familiar with the western states, there are millions of places where you can just pull off out of the way to spend some quality time.....free boon docking spots are everywhere and are usually left alone.


One mistake most travelers make when traveling through the western states is to stay on the freeway where they miss most of the beautiful sights. I have often heard from others that they drove through Salt Lake, Ogden, Boise and many other cities and that they thought they were so ugly.......from the freeway they are, but if you get off the freeway and drive through the towns they are often beautiful.

I have often been amazed by Wy......I have driven the I-80 hundreds of times over the years and it is such a long ugly drive, yet if you get just a few miles off the interstate there are so many wonderful low valleys with rivers, streams, trees and wonderful people. Paradises can be found just a few miles away and so few ever see it.

Here are two photos I took just to show you what you often miss.  Some how these places are not seen from the freeway.

Another hidden treature is the worlds first J.C. Penny store....still going strong.

Kemmer Wy.

There is a great museum just a block east of the store where Mr. Penny lived it is worth the time, and very interesting.


http://www.kemmerer.org/

Our trip ended with a bang......just two miles from home the buro broke..

I was able to limp home slowly on residential streets and have since been able to get the frame tacked together .......now if I just knew how to use that new TIG welder!!!!!

God Bless you all and thanks for joining along.

Papa