Archives June 2010

So here I am, back in Naples for a few days.  I didn’t bother to do an entry for the last day of driving from Tallahassee because it was basically just me driving, fast. 

 There was an annoying thing about our last nights stay in Tallahassee.  Ali had some sort of dog friendly app on her Iphone that identifies hotels that are dog friendly.  She found the place we stayed through the app and called the number listed.  Well it was a front for Expedia.  Don’t ever call Expedia, the 99.99 rate we were quoted was almost a full $20 higher than what we would have gotten calling the hotel directly.  PLUS, Expedia, even though they took all of our dog information over the phone, didn’t include the pet charge in the fee so I had a nice additional $25 surprise waiting for me upon check out.  So in total, after taxes we spent $140 on a suite which was a huge waste.  Sure the suite was nice but it was totally wasted on us since we just needed a place to crash.  Several times on the trip we paid triple digits for a room which was just stupid.

F Expedia and any service like them. My advice is to find the deal through Expedia and then call the establishment directly.

  We pulled into our driveway a little before 3 pm which was very nice. Our house seemed intact although the lawn was approaching jungle-like status.  The weeds in the landscape beds were quite happy to grow quickly in our absence.

We spent our evening Saturday getting the van unpacked and stuff put away.  The real grunt work didn’t begin until Sunday when we tackled the outside of the property.

First up was the dreaded chore of weeding.  If you don’t weed before mowing/whacking the grass that flies into the beds makes weeding much more of a headache.  The garden was first to get attention.  There were weeds everywhere. The watermelon plant had grown out of control, escaping the confines of the fenced garden.  I cut it off until it was in a more defined space.  I am hoping the plant puts some energy into producing fruit instead of expanding it’s size.

The butter crunch lettuce I planted shortly before leaving immediately molted so I pulled all of that out.  The lone tomato plant we had left had bit the dust as well.  Ali pulled out the remaining carrots and I hacked out the carnations Ali planted in the front that became a tangled, overgrown mess.  After maybe close to an hour of work we finally had the garden looking presentable. 

We then systematically moved around the house, weeding methodically.  I felt bad because I knew Ali still not feel 100% recovered from her illness she acquired late in the trip.

Next was mowing/whacking.  Ali manned the tractor while I grabbed the weed whacker.  I got maybe 20 minutes into whacking when the weed whacker stopped running.  I was using the old Homelite, the newer Homelite had stopped working correctly a couple months ago.  The old one seems to have developed an issue running when it is very hot out for long periods of time.  It was very hot, in the low 90’s.

So I turned my attention to getting the newer whacker running.  It would only run if I had it on full choke, as soon as tried to open it up it would shut off.  I was getting incredibly frustrated.  I had so much work to do, I didn’t have time to f around with weed whackers.  I bought a fuel system tune up kit for the homelite awhile back.  I decided I may as well try installing it.  When I got the old fuel line and filter out I saw the filter had a coating of goop on it, presumably a side effect of that wonderful gas additive, ethanol.  It made sense that a nearly clogged filter would cause the engine to die in anything other than full choke due to lack of fuel.

So I installed the new fuel line and filter, confident that I had fixed the issue.  I fire it back up and still, it only wants to run at full choke.  F’ing thing!  Luckily the old whacker had cooled down enough at that point that it once again would run and I was able to finish the job.

On Monday I had another list of things I wanted to address. Early on I went to Wal-mart to get oil change supplies for the van AND the Camry.  My experience fixing the van on the road made me decide that it was stupid to pay the Toyota dealer tons of cash for routine maintenance.

The Camry was due for the dreaded 60,000 mile service.  If I remember correctly the dealer wanted to charge around $800 for this “necessary” maintenance.  Well I pulled out the factory maintenance manual and looked at what was actually recommended at 60,000 miles, basically just an oil change, air filter and cabin filter. WTF?  So the dealer knows better what the car needs than Toyota?  What a crock of shit.  So I changed the oil using Mobil 1 synthetic oil, swapped out the air filter and reset the MAINT RQRD message, total cost about 40 bucks.  Since the car is out of most of the factory warranties at this point there isn’t much reason to overpay the dealer to do things that I can do myself. While I had the supplies out I changed the oil in the party van as well.  I never got around to getting it changed while we were still out on the road.

Later in the day on Monday I got the urge to power wash the pool cage and lanai.  It was just getting gross.  The cage frame had ample amount of mildew on it that turns areas various shades of black and green.  I had starting feeling sick myself so my energy level was pretty bad but I just wanted it done.  I worked right up until dusk, finishing after 8pm.  I had everything washed, all that was left was to get the furniture and items moved back inside which I did Tuesday morning.

My Tuesday was pretty relaxed.  I was still feeling under the weather with a sore throat and runny nose.  Ali spent a huge amount of time out on the mower.  She mowed the back part of our property AND the neighbors yard.  Yea we once again have neighbors in the foreclosed house next to us.  Alison met the woman, supposedly they are doing some rent to buy thing.  The house will be occupied by this woman, her two kids, their two dogs and possibly her boyfriend, I’m not quite sure.

I met the boyfriend yesterday.  He seemed rather quiet and reserved.  I tried to engage him somewhat in conversation and offered him use of any of my stuff he needed to get going.  He obviously wasn’t very interested in talking.  Alison said the woman was very nice.  It’s cool that they have dogs, I think.  We’ll see how it all shakes out.

Let me just summarize the trip a bit.  Ali kept a spreadsheet of our expenses along the way and there were a hell of a lot of them.  In total we wound up dropping more than 4k along the way.  The van repairs contributed close to a grand to that total.

We used about 450 gallons of gas and we averaged close to 16 mpg which in the big picture is pretty poor but compared to PV 1.0 it is about a 20-30% improvement.  We logged a total of 6,575 miles even.

People always ask what your favorite part of the trip was and to be honest I can’t narrow it down to one.  Each stop was amazing in it’s own way, none were a disappointment. 

As before having the dogs with was a burden at times.  There were MANY things we could have / would have done if we didn’t have to worry about the well being of the two pooches in the van.  For example we literally RAN through Craters of the Moon because the dogs had to stay back in the van.  However some of my favorite parts of the trip involved the dogs like hiking up the trails in Aspen. Of course a dog is not a kid but we could both clearly see the excitement on their faces as they both got to see and do things they never did before much like a child would.

Certain moments stand out during the trip, both good and bad.  I remember lying in the grass outside the tire place waiting and waiting for those damn tires to arrive, wondering just how bad this trip was going to be if it started out this way. 

 I recall clearly feeling despondent when the belt broke in the middle of Idaho.  My mind raced through endless scenarios on how to not miss our Aspen reservation, none of them seeming very realistic.  The fact that we actually made it to Aspen was a minor miracle.

The belt snapping also was one of my proudest moments of the trip.  Being able to fix the breakdown myself and walking/running to the parts store multiple times to do it was incredibly frustrating and rewarding at the same time.  When I finally got the belt and idler pulley on and fired up the van I felt much like Clark Griswald at the end of Christmas Vacation, mentally saying to myself  “I did it”.

 L sitting in front of Mt Rushmore was a spur of the moment thing.  I had joked about L sitting on the trip but hadn’t considered it seriously.  Once the first picture was taken it opened up the floodgates for more.  I was always looking around, looking for good spots for a L sit.

When we arrived in Yellowstone in what looked just like a mid-winter day it was surreal.  Although Ali and I both hate the cold, to experience that kind of weather in the middle of June made the biting sting of the wind almost feel acceptable.  It was just so wild to be walking around in the snow.  It was also the first time either dog set foot in snow.  They weren’t bothered by it in the least.

We took so many pictures during the trip, beautiful, epic pictures.  We saw countless scenes that just took your breath away.  However out of all of those pictures I think this one is my favorite for some reason.

I’m glad to be home but I’m also glad that we took the trip, warts and all.  Overcoming adversity is what it’s all about.  In those two weeks we created many lifelong memories.

I am so glad that I was able to blog as I went.  Trying to recant all of this stuff after the fact would have surely obscured many details and been nearly impossible to pull back from my dusty memory afterward.

Back to the grind.

Testing a new embedded media gallery.

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I didn’t bother to blog yesterday because A) it was late and B) it was Texas.  Ali and I have a natural dislike of Texas.  Even though we have driven through it’s entire width no less than 4 times we have never done any sightseeing in it.  Maybe it’s because of our hatred of the Cowboys or maybe because W calls it home, but neither of us have any desire to get to know Texas any better.

Today we logged another bunch of miles going from Houston to Tallahassee. Both Ali and I are quite eager to pull into the driveway tomorrow.  Ali is full blown sick at this point.  Being sick away from home sucks.  Being stuck in a van with a sick person for 10-11 hours sucks too.

By the time we got to Tallahassee I was ready to just relax in the hotel.  Well our hotel wound up being over a half hour off of route 10.  I was unable to hide my frustration.  Ali booked the place and hadn’t checked into exactly where in Tallahassee it was.  It was an honest mistake and I kept telling myself that.  However my full moon fueled angst got the best of me more than once. I was looking for something to punch.

Once we finally got to the place I unloaded the van and headed right back out for food.  After grabbing Subway for the second night in a row I decided we needed some alcohol.  I was literally going nuts.  I was in what I call Keener-mode, named after my good buddy Troy.  In Keener mode you talk to yourself constantly.  The dialogue goes something like this, “yeaaaaaa, need some wine, f it!!!  Yeaaaa , get out of my way you f’in a-hole, fu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  It is basically just rambling obscenities that make no sense.

After I got the wine and corkscrew (learned that opening wine with a needle nose pliers sucks in Yellowstone) I was heading back out to the van.  Some young guy was stumbling across the parking lot, obviously under the influence of something.  He yells over to me after seeing my bag, “Dude, where’s the party at!!??”  “No party” I said, in as disinterested of a tone as I could muster.  Party dude starts reading my bumper sticker “Wall Drug of South Dakota, DUDE that looks like a PARTY VAN.” “Yea it does” I say as I close my door.  I told Ali I should have shown him the bottle of white zinfandel and said “see? no party.”

So tomorrow once again I will be getting up early for the final push home.  Originally we weren’t supposed to get home until Monday.  I am quite glad to have a few extra days to decompress and get the homestead back in order.

It’s been a great trip but if it went on for much longer I may go insane.

I slept late this morning, 7:40 am due to staying up too late watching Lost Episodes.  I was unsuccessful tracking down the short that keeps killing the power locks and seat the night before which meant another day of me doing all the driving.

For the first time in in ages we actually found a local Dunkin Donuts.  There were none to be found at our stops in Idaho, South Dakota, Montana  or Colorado.  It was a nice start.

Today was our last planned sight seeing stop of the trip, a visit to White Sands National Park.  We were there during our 2007 trip west so we knew what to expect.  The main reason we wanted to go was so Sadie could experience the huge, awesome dunes.

We stopped at the first walking area and let the girls off leash.  They immediately headed off, thrilled to be exploring yet another new thing.  They ran around and played.  However unfortunately we cut the walk short.  It was brutally hot, triple digits I’m pretty sure.  All that heat bounces off the pure white sand and back at you, amplifying the effect.  We could tell they were getting very overheated very quickly.

We ushered them back to the air conditioned van and had them both drink up.  We decided walking hem around in the oppressive heat would be downright dangerous so we decided to drive back to the big dunes towards the back of the park and just let them climb up there with us quick.

Both dogs did much better at getting up the dune than I did.  They beat me easily.  They both looked like they were having so much fun.  Watching them rocket down the dune was even funnier.  They went full speed down the dunes.  On the one trip down Nicki was moving faster than her legs would carry her and she dumped it at the bottom.

Ali did a nice job taking some great pictures including what is probably my last L-sit of the trip on one of the park picnic benches.  Before we left I had the bright idea to have Ali take a picture of me jumping off the dune.  She got me just as I took off and when I was farther down the hill.  Luckily she missed the barrel roll that happened in between.  My sneakers and socks were filled with sand.

After the park we had a relatively short 2 hour drive to El Paso, our stopping point for the night.  El Paso it right on the Mexican border.  The town is big but again just appears to the casual passer thru as yet another over populated urban mess.

For some reason I find myself being surprised that almost every single hotel we have stayed at winds up being packed.  It seems that there are so many hotels by the interstates that there is no way they could all be so full, yet at least in our case, the La Quintas are always full by night time.

This evening I took another whack at fixing the flaky locks and seat circuit.  I ripped the door panel off and moved the harness around.  I basically shifted the section that comes through the door around.  I had no way of visually spotting exactly what was causing the short. 

Well as of now it is all working.  My adjustment survived the door slam test, a test my previous repairs failed.  As soon as I closed the door with any force it would pop the circuit.  So I am hoping this latest attempt proves to be effective.  It would be nice to have Ali be able to share the driving duties for the long haul home.

When planning the trip, Ali broke the trip into smaller chunks to make the days not so long.  Now that the sights have been seen I am going to be really motivated to cover huge miles to get us home sooner rather than later.  The key to making the days not seem so long is to get started early.  I am hoping to be on the road by 8am and off by around 6pm so we have some time at night to decompress.  We’ll see how it all works out.  We all know how much I love the drive across Texas.

Last night we decided to go down to the fancy pool area at Sky and grab a drink.  I wore the closest thing I had to a bathing suit, a pair of running shorts with a liner in them.  The pool area was relatively empty. 

The pool/patio at Sky is VERY cool.  On top of the pool is a nice sized hot tub and on the deck there are two separate fire pits as well.  The pool was heated to the mid-80’s so even though the sun was going down and the air was cool the water felt good.

After hitting the pool we moved to the hot tub which felt great.  After awhile we were joined by two little kids, a little girl that was 4 1/2 and her brother who was 6 1/2.  Their parents were sitting on the deck just chilling out.

Ali and I were happy to talk to the kids and did they like to talk.  They talked our ears off for a half hour probably.  Eventually their parents came over and joined us in the hot tub.

Ironically they were both pretty serious athletes.  The woman did a lot of running until she blew out her ACL skiing a few months ago.  The guy is big time road biker and also had done a number of triathlons.  He gave Ali all sorts of advice on her training.  We talked with them in the hot tub for awhile.  It was a nice way to spend our last night in Aspen. 

This morning instead of venturing out for a sit down breakfast and risk running into more snooty dog haters I went across the street to a great little French deli/bakery thing.  Ali started feeling sick this morning so I brought food back for her.

After we ate we didn’t waste much time before venturing out with the dogs for another hike.  We thought they possibly would be sore from all of the hiking yesterday.  If they were they didn’t show it.  Both dogs were thrilled to hit the trail again. 

We did a less steep trail this time that was also less shaded.  Along the way we ran into a bunch of people, several of which were also with their dog(s).  We also were passed by a couple people RUNNING the trails.  I was amazed.  Not only are these trails inclined, they are also very narrow and have lots of spots where footing is somewhat difficult.  I can’t imagine running up the trails, especially paired with the thin air.

On our way back we stopped at another small park near our place and interacted with more people and dogs.  There was a lady there with her granddaughter and their little dog Oscar.  The little girl loved Sadie and got a thrill as Sadie sprinted around the park while Oscar tried his best to keep up.

Once we got back we were ready to check out.  We paid our crazy $52 parking fee and bar tab and were on our way.  Much like Aspen, the more time I spent at the Sky Hotel the more I enjoyed myself. You just have to stay away from the silly honor bar.

To head towards Santa Fe we had to go over Independence Pass.  This road is incredible.  It is closed during the winter because of the steep inclines and endless switchbacks but man are the views amazing.  At the top I got out with the dogs and walked along the patches of packed snow and took some pictures.  It was just so beautiful.

Other than that, the drive to Santa Fe was literally non-stop.  We didn’t stop for food or even a bathroom break.  Ali spent a lot of time trying to rest, she really felt shitty.  Unfortunately I am now also starting to feel that same shadow of illness come over me.  It would suck being sick for the long haul home.

Remember that Check Engine Light issue on the van?  It fixed itself.  I am pretty sure it was just 85 octane gas related.  The van drove flawlessly during this leg of the trip.

We are just resting in the hotel tonight.  From what we saw of Santa Fe we were not impressed.  It just looks like another over-populated area with brown everywhere.  We’ll be happy to pull out.

After our less than desirable start of the day dealing with dog haters at breakfast, the rest of our full day in Aspen was nice.  For a small chunk of the afternoon Ali napped while I caught up on stuff on the computer.  The dogs were zonked out as well.  I just sat here typing away with the door wide open enjoying the zero % humidity.  It was just a treat to not have to drive at all for one day, seriously.

I later went down to the fitness room here at Sky.  It was the best one we have seen on the trip with nice cardio machines, dumbbells and even a pull up / dip station!  I had the place to myself.  I did 3 sets of push ups, incline presses, dips and pull ups.  The elevation really does a number on your endurance.  I was sucking wind big time and felt very weak.  Even so it felt good to work out a bit. 

In between sets as I was trying to catch my breath I watched the end of the Milwaukee / Rockies game.  Man the Rockies relievers sucked balls.  It was tied up 1-1 going into the 9th.  The Rockies gave up 5 runs.  In the bottom of the 9th the Brewers brought some lanky righthander that threw 97 mph smoke as well as a nasty curveball.  He mowed down the side 1-2-3.

We decided to go on another hike in the afternoon on a trail that was recommended to us earlier in the day.  This trail was steep but shaded which was good for the dogs.  Once we got up onto the trail we again let them off their leash and off they went.

Both Sadie and Nicki LOVED hiking up the mountain.  It was so funny to watch them.  We hiked for a good hour or so, some of which was very steep.  They had no problems going up or down.  We may try to get some more hiking in tomorrow before we shove off for Santa Fe.

After hiking we went straight to eat at another place with outdoor seating.  Again we felt a bit like second class citizens as we were told we had to sit on the outside row of tables and the dog leashes had to be fastened to the fence that surrounded the area.

I had a couple beers and a burger which was good.  Ali talked about how much fun hiking was.  It’s funny that the most enjoyable part of Aspen for us is the simple, zero cost options.  I got a lot more enjoyment out of that than the $52 it is going to cost me to have the van driven around a corner tomorrow.  More pics are uploaded, check them out.

Did you know Ali went to charm school as a child?  Seriously.  I guess that is why she is so charming today.

So first thing in the morning after eating breakfast I was out and under the van.  I had tunnel vision and was going to fix this thing come hell or high water.  So first order of duty was removing all of the remnants of the old belt, much of which was wrapped around the fan.  A long snips I bought the day before was very handy in the process. 

Next I installed the new idler pulley.  Removing the air cleaner box made access to the area much easier.  Installation of the pulley was no problem.  All that was left was the belt.

I routed the belt around the various engine accessories and then was at the point where you need to push the tension arm down.  It took me awhile to realize I could do this easily by inserting a socket into the arm and pushing down.  However even after doing this the belt wouldn’t quite slide under the idler pulley.  I even called Ali down to help me and still we couldn’t get it. I told the AutoZone guy the day before it looked short, damn it!

The original belt was a 2435, he sold me a 2425 and said it would still fit, wrong.  So my only option was to haul ass back to AutoZone which I already knew opened at 9am.

Time was crucial so I went upstairs to the room and grabbed my running sneakers.  I was going to run there and back.  The day before my right knee had been hurting so I knew this wasn’t smart but I popped two Advil and headed out.

Surprisingly, it didn’t really hurt to run.  Maybe the extra cushioning in my NB sneakers made a big difference.  I jogged into the parking lot and saw my buddy inside.  I slapped the too small belt on my hand like a bat and said jokingly, “I should beat you with this.  I told you it looked short!”  Christian was surprised it didn’t fit.  He went and got the next largest size they had which was a 2440, slightly longer than what was on.  I thanked him for the help and ran out the door, literally, and back to the hotel.

I was wearing my “work shorts” that I typically use a belt with because they are big on me.  I didn’t wear a belt unfortunately so by the time I was on the run back they were hanging off my hips.  In the process of them falling my boxers moved up, giving me a wedgie.  I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and dug my hands into my pants to readjust as non-stop traffic flowed by.  I told Ali it probably looked like I was pleasuring myself.

The new belt fit just fine, imagine that.  After routing the belt and making sure it was in place I cautiously turned the key and crossed my fingers.  It fired right up and the belt and new idler pulley looked just fine.  The deafening squeak at idle had now disappeared.  I proudly called Ali with news of my success.

Unfortunately it took us awhile until we were actually ready to shove out by the time we loaded the van, finished up with laundry, grabbed stuff at the grocery store that didn’t accept credit cards (yes you read that right) and gassed up.  Hey at least we were back on the road, something that seemed like a near impossibility less than 24 hours before.

On our way out of Twin Falls we stopped quickly to look at Snake River Canyon.  It is a very cool steep but narrow canyon.  Hell at the bottom of it there is a country club and golf course.  Of course I did an L sit on the wall overlooking it.

Next was driving, endless driving.  We covered roughly 700 miles during the day.  The late start made the day seem even longer.  I haven’t been able to figure out the electrical issue that keeps popping the circuit breaker for the power seat and power locks so I drove the entire way, not fun.

We saw some INCREDIBLE vistas along the way, especially on route 70.  At points it looked like you were driving into the Grand Canyon, it was so beautiful.

As we were in the middle of one of the endless steep ascents the orange “Service Engine Soon” light came on in the van.  I had to smirk in disbelief.  Well the van was still running just fine although I did notice some surging under heavy load.  I have a couple theories on it’s cause.

Right before this leg of the trip I filled up for the first time with 85 octane gas, something the van has never eaten before.  Evidently because of the elevation, 85 octane is the starting point with gas grades.  Perhaps the low octane caused a sensor to throw a code.

Another theory is when I had things ripped apart I could have bumped around a sensor, most likely the MAF sensor that is connected to the air box.  Either way, once I see the next town with an Autozone I will stop and have the code read/cleared.  Right now it isn’t a huge concern.

My belt/pulley repair seemed to hold up just fine for the 700 mile drive.  All the gauges read perfectly and the van is much quieter at idle.  I think I might try to get the oil changed though mid-trip.  We are at 4000 miles so far and having the engine cook briefly when the belt broke makes me think it would be a good to get done sooner, rather than later.

It was our first day where we drove into the night, we didn’t arrive at the Sky hotel until 10:40 or so.  As soon as you pulled up you could tell this place was ultra-chique. 

Ali went inside to check us in.  Within a minute of her coming out there was some dude that drove up to unload and park the van “valet parking only” he said.  Any of you that know me know I HATE valet parking.  As I hate in general paying money to have things done that I can easily do myself.  Well it looked like I had no choice in the matter. 

I didn’t expect to be unloading the van right there on the spot.  I handed the stuff out to the bellhop.  I couldn’t help but feel like I was being worked from my first interaction with the guy.  He was very chatty and informative but it all felt very rehearsed.  I felt like the location they were taking my van was top secret and all access to it could only be through the bellhops/valet guys. (so I can tip more)  I found this very annoying.

Then came the time I hate the most, the tipping process.  Since I avoid valet anything like the plague I never have any idea what is appropriate.  I only had 4 ones and the rest 20’s in my wallet so I gave him the four ones, probably too little but who knows.

Our room was very modern as well albeit small.  In reality it is probably the most cramped room of any we have stayed in so far.  It did have a nice little balcony where the dogs could go outside and hang.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that in my rush to unload the van I forgot some stuff which isn’t surprising.  I went back down to the lobby to tell them I needed to get back into the van for stuff.  Luckily it hadn’t been whisked away yet to it’s secret hiding place.

Later, there was more stuff we realized we needed.  This time the guy seemed to discourage us from going out to the van.  He was saying he could bring it around for us.  I’m like , “Where is the van, I will go get the stuff myself”  He reluctantly revealed the location behind the hotel.  It was bizarre.

I couldn’t help but think the staff thinks the Beverly Hillbillies just rolled up in their 96 conversion van filled with junk.  The place seems way upscale.  I think they are much more used to catering to millionaires than middle class folks from Florida.

As we scanned the room I had to laugh.  Right in front of the bed is was a collection of food and items that you could help yourself to, at a price.  There was the $6 bottle of water, the canister of oxygen for $60, $20 sunglasses for $100 and even sexual aids ranging from condoms to a mini-vibrator.  Unreal.

I made various jokes to Ali about how ritzy the place was.  I just felt uncomfortable.  Ali soon tired of my jokes although they were quite funny.  We were both exhausted and slept the latest of the entire trip, 8:45 am, a minor miracle.

This morning we took the dogs out to breakfast.  There was a dog friendly place down a few blocks.  Well the establishment was dog friendly, it’s patrons were not.

The outdoor seating area was very compacted.  You had very little room in between tables.  We had the bad luck to be sat in between some people that don’t like dogs.

On my right was a younger couple.  The man cringed when Sadie moved towards him and inched his chair over showing his obvious dislike of sharing a space with a canine.  On my left were two dumpy women.  When one of the waiters came over to ask them if they minded moving their table a little closer to us one of them said in a decidedly snooty voice, “Oh no, I don’t want to be ANY closer to the dogs”

Great.  Ali was instantly infuriated by the old battleaxe’s comments and started making her own comments loud enough for all to hear.  I was trying to be the voice of reason.  After all not everybody likes dogs and the area we were jammed into gave zero room. 

As the meal continued Ali was getting more and more angry.  I thought it was just because of the initial negative reaction from the people around us.  Evidently Todd and Margot continued to make quiet little dog comments which I couldn’t hear because of pole between me and Todd. 

Not knowing that this was going I told Ali to relax, that she was overreacting.  She never told me that those two were continuing to make remarks until they left in a huff after some other dogs by other tables barked a bit.  They left mostly full plates of food behind, surely disgusted.  

Luckily after the grumps on either side of us left, a woman, her daughter and thier dog sat down next to us.  It helped to wash that nasty taste out of our mouth that Aspen is filled with yuppie, elitist assholes. (although I still think there are a lot of them here)

Once Ali told me that Todd and Margot were firing little barbs the entire time I was pissed.  I wished I knew because I would have gone from peace maker to war creator.  It bothered me for awhile after we left.  I mean it could have gotten real ugly which is the last thing anyone needed.

After breakfast we walked around Aspen and eventually found our way to some hiking trails.  Once we were up on the trails we left the girls off leash and they LOVED it.  They had so much fun hiking.  The only problem was we didn’t bring a bowl to put water in.  We cut the hike short so they could get drinks.

We discovered that Nicki has yet another irrational fear to go along with her collection of fears like the fear of water, the fear of rumble strips and the fear of cats.  She is now afraid of gondolas.  

 Right near our hotel there are gondolas that go up the mountain.  On our hike back down the trail took us right under the gondolas.  As soon as Nicki realized the gondolas were close she turned around and literally ran a hundred yards back up the hill, ignoring our calls to stop.

Finally we caught up to her and put her leash on.  We went down another much steeper area that did not go under the terrifying gondolas.  Once we got back to the room the girls both gulped down tons of water.  We might go back out on the trails later today.

I noticed a couple weird things on our trip.  After we left Yellowstone, the next day an old man was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear outside the east entrance.  Then, today I see that there was a bad tornado in Billings, Montana yesterday, another place that we stayed at.  Pretty wild.

The picture collection is huge.  So huge that I started a second album.  The first album is here, the second one is here.  There are some incredible shots in there, enjoy.

Ali had her 10k this morning.  Unlike Florida races that start at the crack of dawn to beat the heat, this race started at a casual 8:30.  While Ali was running I walked around a park with the dogs before we took up a spot on a bench to cheer on other runners and eventually Ali.  We hurried over to the finish line to get the finish picture.

Ali said the course was beautiful as it looped around a very scenic riverside area of Idaho Falls.  After the race we headed over to where the post game food/awards were supposed to be.  Ali and I both scratched our heads as we saw two very long single file lines, each one with at least 50 bodies in it.  These were the food lines, WTF?

When we do races in Florida you have food tables that people descend upon as they see fit.  We don’t make people stand single file in line for 15 minutes to get something to eat, totally silly.  So we opted to skip the post race food and head back to pack.

Our first destination of the day was Pickles Place, a little dive restaurant in Arco on the way to Craters of the Moon.  The place was highly recommended to us by our Idaho native running club buddy.  I ordered their specialty Atomic burger, it was quite good.  Arco reminded me of some of the tiny towns in New Mexico.  The locals we saw in Pickles looked very, um, local.

Next up was Craters of the Moon national park.  When we read about this prior to the trip I had the impression that this park actually had some meteoric craters.  Nope that isn’t the deal at all.  The park is however one MASSIVE lava field.  The structures we saw in the park were unlike anything we had seen up to this point.  I climbed up a giant hill made of nothing but cinders.  Later Ali and I walked across the lava field and into the Indian Tunnel.

This tunnel was a cave and a pretty damn hazardous one at that.  I told Ali that I was seriously surprised they allowed Joe Blow to go through there, I saw countless opportunities for someone to fall and crack their skull on something.  That being said, hiking through the cave was pretty damn awesome.  The temps inside were at least 20-25 degrees cooler than above. 

As we approached the exit point of the cave Ali questioned if there was an exit at all, it didn’t look like there was a way out.  The way out was a tiny little hole that required you to stoop to get out of, it was pretty nuts.

After you exited the far end you got back to the main path by following “rock markers”.  Rock markers looked like fence posts just jammed into the lava field haphazardly.  Eventually we made it back to the main path.  Once we did, Ali started jogging back towards the van.  She was worried about leaving the dogs in the van for awhile.  Like Yellowstone, dogs were allowed in the park but basically had to be confined to the vehicle. We left the park happy to have added it to the to do list, it was well worth seeing. 

Our final destination of the day was supposed to be Salt Lake City via Twin Falls Idaho.  Twin Falls is where Evil Knievel tried to jump Snake River Canyon.

As we were traveling the mostly barren countryside dotted with a small town here and there Ali and I noticed an odd noise from the van.  When I stepped on the gas it subsided so I didn’t pay it much attention.

Well we were in the middle of a long stretch of nothing when I heard a noise up in the engine compartment followed by the sound of some debris hitting the road.  After a quick glance at my voltmeter gauge I knew what happened, the damn belt broke.

I told Ali we were in deep shit.  I said the van will run for a little while off the battery which it did.  I however did not know the PV had one serpentine belt that did EVERYTHING.  My original hopes to baby it until we could get back to civilization were scuttled when I realized my power steering was gone and the coolant temp was pegged to the right.  I immediately pulled over and shut it down. I was in disbelief, not again….

We have AAA so we called them and described our situation.  The lady explained to me we only have the “basic” plan so only 10 miles of towing is included.  Yea, yea ok, send somebody, fast!  They said someone should be there in 45 minutes, it was probably closer to 75 until he showed up. 

While we were waiting a local police officer stopped by to check on us.  I told him help was on the way.  Instead of heading out he lit up a cigarette and was shooting the shit with me for awhile.  There were also three or four other vehicles that stopped to check if we needed help.  Idahoians are nice.

While I was waiting I got out my repair book and surveyed the damage.  The belt was shreaded.  Originally I just thought the belt was old and broke.  However I soon saw the idler pulley was a few threads from falling off and the bolt that holds it on was bent.  The van has also been rather squeaky and noisy when sitting there idling.  I am pretty sure that noise was my signal that the idler pulley was on it’s last legs.

Finally the flatbed arrived and I met up with Josh, a nice young kid that works in his father’s towing/automotive repair business.  Josh asked me where I wanted to get towed to.  I told him I had no idea, we were from Florida, I was hoping he could give me some guidance.

Josh named some of the small towns in the vicinity.  However he said more than likely all parts stores in these small towns would be closed and NONE of the garages are open during the weekend.  Ok after some Iphone research by Ali we planned to go to a town named Jerome.

The van got loaded on the bed with the dogs in the van, they couldn’t ride in the truck.  Ali wasn’t thrilled with the idea but we really had no options.  On the way to Jerome Ali was frantically working her phone trying to score us a place to stay.  Our original thought was we were shit out of luck until Monday so she booked us two nights.

Well as I talked to Josh it became clear that Twin Falls which was farther away was a complete modern city and would have many more resources available to me to fix the van as quickly as possible.  The only downside was it would cost us more for the tow, that was the least of my worries. So now we were going to Twin Falls.

Now Ali had to frantically work the phones again, first to cancel the Jerome reservation which initially they weren’t going to let us do.  Luckily they eventually agreed to cancel it and Ali was able to book us a place that turned out to be really nice in Twin Falls, Shilo Inn.

So Josh drove us to the hotel where we unloaded Ali and the two dogs.  I told them to go check in, Josh and I were going to AutoZone.  I found one on my Iphone maybe a mile up the road from the hotel.  Josh pulled the tow truck in the lot with the van still on the back of it.  I ran in and waited impatiently in line for help.

I was happy to see they had the belt in stock!  I didn’t have the idler pulley with me.  I initially thought there was no way Auto Zone would have one so instead I bought some WD-40 to spray the old one with, hoping it would hold up until I could get a replacement.  Josh came in while I was waiting to get rung up, saying he got another call, we had to get going.  I quickly paid for my stuff and hopped back in the truck.

We got back to the hotel and found a good spot to unload the van.  I thanked Josh for all of his help, and gave him a 20 buck tip on top of the $100 towing bill.  It left me with exactly $21 of cash in my wallet.

So I took our stuff from the van up to the room and filled Ali in.  I told her I had a belt and I think I can fix it myself.  She placed a food order and before I went and picked it up and went down to work on the van.

It took me a little while to extract what was left of the old belt but when I did I realized the new belt was a couple inches shorter than the old one was.  I knew the old belt was stretched but this was more than stretching.  I knew I had the wrong belt. Shit.

So after slamming down my supper I had to hoof it back up to AutoZone.  I brought the new wrong size belt, the remains of the old belt and the bent up idler pulley in the remote possibility that they had one.

It wasn’t a fun walk.  My right knee was already sore from a days worth of walking.  Finally I made it back to the store which thankfully is open until 10pm.

I told the guy at the counter I had the wrong size belt and I showed him old one which had some marking that included the number 2435.  The one they sold me had 2415 in the part number.  He said the bigger belt is for the models with the heavy duty alternator which ours must have.  The only problem was he didn’t have a 2435, his inventory system showed a 2425 should work just fine.  I told him I hoped he was right, else I would be back with fire in my eye.

Then I showed him my messed up idler pulley.  I was surprised when he came walking out with a replacement pulley and bolt, no problemo.  I grabbed a few other tools that would assist me in the repair.  The guy even told me if I had any trouble getting the belt and pulley installed his brother Pablo would come over and help me tomorrow for a few bucks. Holy shit.  Did I mention Idaho people are nice?  The kid even said he would offer to drive me back to the hotel but he was the only one left at the store.

I gimped my way back to the hotel with a glimmer of hope in my eye.  If things go as I imagine,  I will be out there under the van as day breaks and hopefully have us up and running a couple hours after that.  If that all happens we have a nearly 11 hour driving nightmare awaiting us to get to Aspen.  Cross your fingers, send your well wishes and do your good luck dance, we will need it.

Oh, I just stepped in dog shit, seriously.

So this morning we awoke to the ground with a fresh coat of snow on it.  I saw people out scraping their windshields, it made me laugh.  The road also had a thin coating of ice in certain spots.  I almost lost my footing a couple times. 

I didn’t want to waste time so after eating a quick breakfast from the deli we packed up the van and headed out.  Our plan was to go around the loop in the opposite direction we went to get to Old Faithful.

We saw so many awesome sights along the way.  We saw a ton of bison, some of them no more than 20 feet away from us.  We also went through another geyser hot spring area that had quite an interesting history.

The area is full of downed, dead trees.  After reading the info board we found out why.  In 1978 there were a series of strong earthquakes that shook the hell out of the trees but they remained standing.  However shortly after the earthquakes the ground the trees stood on got incredibly hot, around 200 degrees.  The high temps killed the trees from the bottom up.  Could you imagine 200 degree dirt?

We spent into the early afternoon exploring the park.  It was fantastic.  We wound up our Yellowstone experience eating lunch in a picnic area where we were observed by some sort of gopher/squirrel/prairie dog looking animal.

The only gripe we had about the park was they are very restrictive on their rules with dogs.  They aren’t allowed on the trails, not allowed more than 100 ft off the road, not allowed to do very much at all.  It’s a bit of a bummer.  I would have loved to hike some trails with the dogs.

In reality we only brushed the surface of what Yellowstone has to offer.  Hell we could have easily spent a week there hiking and exploring.  Unfortunately for us to do that we will need to do a trip sans-pooches.

Luckily we had a relatively short drive to Idaho Falls which is a good thing.  I just was sick and tired of driving.  Idaho is very pretty and very rural.  The populated areas are few and far between.

I was a bit rammy when we got here.  Not being able to do any semblance of a regular workout routine bothers me.  I did a quick search for “Idaho Falls playground” hoping to find a spot with some bars where I could do some body weight work on.

I got a hit that was less than a mile away.  I told Ali I was going to check it out.  Well what I actually found was a beautiful park along the river that was dog friendly.  I called Ali up and told her I would be right back to get her, the dogs will love it.

So we headed back here with the dogs in tow.  They have been getting rammy themselves.  They didn’t understand why we left them behind in the van time and again as we checked out various things around Yellowstone.  We put them on their extended leashes so they could roam around awhile.

The park was very scenic.  We walked a good distance up and back.  We saw an otter on our journey as well as somebody water skiing in a wet suit on the river. Everyone had a good time.  Nope I never did find any bars to work out on.

This trip has mentally been tough.  In the past on our journeys west we had periods of 5 or 6 days when were at my dad’s place waking up in the same bed.  This time around the only time we will be at a place for more than one night will be the two nights at Aspen.  Other than that it is round robin accommodations.

We travel with a lot of stuff.  Each time we crash at a hotel I have to lug no less than a dozen bags up into the room and then reverse the process the following morning.  It’s a drag, believe me, not to mention EXPENSIVE.

Tomorrow Ali is running in a local 10K, something she planned months ago.  After that we have a very busy day with many things to see and not enough time to see it all.  Originally I had hoped to make  a mid-trip addition of the Bonneville Salt Flats to our agenda.  However logistically it just won’t work out.

Since the Aspen reservations are set in stone we just don’t have flexibility to add a day to our travels leading up to it.  Oh well, I’ll see the flats next time.

Tomorrow we should be seeing the Craters of the Moon national park and a couple other places recommended to us from one of our running club buddies that just happened to live in Idaho for a long time.  Our stopping point will be Salt Lake City.

Oh yea here is the Yellowstone, in the snow, on a boulder, with mountains in the background L sit picture.

For dinner last night I grabbed take out from a very Carraba-esque restaurant right across the parking lot from the hotel.  If we didn’t have the dogs it would have been a nice place to sit down and eat.  While I was waiting for the food to come out I slammed a beer at the bar while watching the Phillies finally win a game against the Yankees.

Driving west does all sorts of strange things to you because of the time change.  I woke up at 5 am Mountain Time.  After walking the dogs I went down and used the hotel fitness room for a half hour or so. While I was on the treadmill I tried to actually watch some of the World Cup.  I made it through about 10 minutes of the Argentina / Korea game before I couldn’t tolerate it.  It’s so damn boring plus the f’ing natives blowing those horns incessantly during the match is annoying beyond description.

Billings seems to be an expensive area.  Out hotel room was over $100 with the AAA rate. Yea it was a nice place but not $107 before taxes nice. I mean wtf, it was a Wednesday night.  Gas was expensive as well, in the $2.90’s.  We expected gas to be dirt cheap since we saw no less than three refineries in the Billings area.

We loaded up the van and headed out.  I still hadn’t had a chance to revisit the power lock/seat issue.  I wanted to pick up a spare relay to help in my testing but after stopping at 3 different places and striking out I decided I will continue my troubleshooting without one.  For now I am the full time driver and we do a lot of door locking and unlocking by hand.

The drive to Yellowstone was EXTREMELY windy.  I couldn’t believe just hard it was blowing.  Several times a cross wind blew me across the center line.  Early on in the drive Ali and I were impressed by the huge, snow covered mountains in the distance.  It just seemed surreal to see snow in mid-June.  Little did we know just how surreal things were yet to come.

As we got closer and closer to the park it got colder and colder.  As we got near Ali said she thought she saw snow.  At first I didn’t notice.  Soon you couldn’t miss it.  We had freaking snow flurries coming down.  As we got to the shack to pay our $25 entry fee the POSSIBLE ICY ROADS sign left no doubt that we indeed were experiencing winter in June.

The deeper into the park we got the more it felt like Christmas.  Cripes they had some roads covered in cinders.  We drove through many steady periods of snow, luckily the road was warm enough that it didn’t stick.  There was plenty of snow on the ground however.  Neither of our dogs have ever seen/felt snow.  We saw one pull off area that had a nice mound of it so we stopped and let the dogs check it out.

Ali was sure Nicki would hate snow.  Back in Florida Nicki generally dislikes going outside on cold days.  To our surprise she seemed to have no problem with the snow and was happy to walk around on it.  In fact the dogs were thrilled to be out in the cold temps with snow coming down.  Ali and I on the other hand were not.  With a strong wind blowing and neither of us having anything close to suitable clothing, the air felt like icy daggers as it hit your body.  It wasn’t pleasant. 

On the way in we found an open grassy area that looked good for the dogs.  When we got out we saw signs maybe 50 feet off the road indicating it was a bear area.  Well let me tell you, bears create tremendous piles of shit.  I am talking volleyball diameter piles of shit and they were everywhere.  You could also see bear prints in the mud very easily.  Of course the dogs found all of this excrement fascinating and Nicki was happy to add to it.

We then headed to our lodging for the day.  Ali booked this way ahead of time and it’s a good thing she did, supposedly there are no rooms available ANYWHERE in Yellowstone right now.  We actually aren’t in a hotel, we are in a duplex cabin.  It’s small but quaint.  Thank goodness the heat works.

After unpacking it was still only mid-afternoon so we decided to venture out to Old Faithful which was almost 40 miles away.  Yellowstone is HUGE.  The main loop that goes around the park is something like 100 miles long.

On our way there we made a ton of stops to look at stuff.  We saw numerous steam vents in the ground that pumped out steam like a locomotive.  We saw various wildlife including some sort of deer/anteloupe, elk/caribou and buffalo.  There were so many awe inspiring vistas, it just made you appreciate just how beautiful parts of our planet can be.

We saw some people whose sanity we questioned like the ones on motorcycles and even bicycles.  They had to be frozen solid.

Eventually we got to Old Faithful.  We timed it pretty well, by the time we grabbed gas, coffee and a hot chocolate we only had about 15 minutes until the geyser was due to erupt again. (happens approximately every 90 minutes) 

Ali and I left the dogs in the van and headed over.  We were freezing our asses off.  My sweatshirt and jeans were no match for a windchill that had to be in the 20’s.  As we impatiently waited for the scheduled 5:16 eruption we talked with some people around us whom were all freezing their asses off as well.  Several times while we waited it snowed steadily.  I had to keep pinching myself, remembering it is June 17th.

5:16 came and went, nothing.  A few little gurgles came out but not the big plume. Finally around 5:22 it let loose.  Unfortunately the gray skies and frigid temps made the eruption blend in with the sky.  It was very hard to see much definition in the flow.  It was cool regardless to finally see something you have heard about your entire life. 

The geyser spouted  for probably close to a minute before going back into hibernation.  Ali and I wasted no time getting out of there.  We were both frozen solid and decided to jog back to the van to both lessen our time in the cold air and warm up our bodies a bit.

I went inside to get us a nutritious gift shop dinner of pizza, hot dog and salad before we headed back to our cabin.  We stopped again on the way back to let the dogs relieve themselves again in some bear shit covered grass.  It was so damn cold.  After 5 minutes we were craving the warmth of the van.

So we are chilling tonight.  I am writing this entry in notepad to later be copy and pasted over to my blog.  We have no internet, no cell phone service and no tv.  It’s back to basics.  We have a SHITLOAD of pics from today that I will upload once I am back on the matrix.  Yes I did an L sit in Yellowstone.

Tomorrow we will be seeing some more of Yellowstone in the AM before heading out to Idaho tomorrow.  Ali is supposed to run a 10K in Idaho on Saturday. She said if the weather is anything like it is here she ain’t doing it.

What a day.

Did I mention that I have managed to watch 7 or 8 Lost episodes while on the road?