National DML Meet

Hey, Look what I found!

2006-08-26T12:06:00.000-06:00

Retrieved it this morning less than 30 miles from my house. Here it is on the roof of my 96 Dakota.

Need a hint?

The Gen II Dakota Travel bug Jon dropped in CO during the National Meet. Ray's 92 Dakota is pretty fast.

Now I have to figure out where I'm going to drop it. Hmmmmmmm.

Quote of the day: "I Use A Multi-Billion Dollar Military Satellite System To Find Tupperware In The Woods, What Do You Do?"

Track logs updated

2006-08-17T11:30:00.000-06:00

I've been going back and updating the track logs that I had previously posted. I'm caught up with our westbound trip, through July 14. Now I can start filling in the logs that I had saved from the actual meet.

Blogger allows for the dates of posts to be modified. I've been changing my posts about each day so that they appear on the actual days. That'll make it easier to create an overall meet report from this blog, but it makes it more difficult to find the posts since they won't appear at the top of the blog.

So, I'm going to post links to my recently changed posts for convenience. Here is what I've updated so far:

http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-10-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-11-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-12-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-13-track.html
http://dmlmeet.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-14-track.html

Walt-n-Ingrid's Blog

2006-08-01T10:19:00.000-06:00

This is a link to our personal Blog. Now that were home again, I've made it public. It has a lot of the same posts at the DML National Meet Blog and some additional. I'm working on updating both right now.

We are home!

2006-08-01T06:23:00.000-06:00

Rolled into the driveway about 9:45PM last night. 6322 miles doorstep to doorstep. 473.58 gallons of gas at a cost of $1,413.27 with an overall average of 13.349 mpg.

Had a small problem in PA, yesterday, that required a 3-4 hour visit to a dealer. The hard line for the rear brakes ruptured. The line itself was all rusted up and of course it had to pop right behind the fuel tank so they had to drop the tank (which of course was full) to replace it eating up about 4 hours on us. Was able to slowly limp it to a nearby dealership since we had no brakes. Because of the delay, we skipped 3 final stops on out itinerary Centrailia, Cabela's and OCC.

I also have to take a look at the AC. It quit working sometime after I was cleaning on Sat morning before the DTW NGTG show. The compressor kicks in and has enough pressure (50-60 psi on the low side according to the gauge I put on it), but it just blows at outside air temp and not cold. However, the line running from the condenser to the firewall gets cold enough to have condensation on it. Sunday, it was cooler to run with the windows down vs. up with the AC (even in the 100 degree weather). I'm hoping I just knocked loose a connector for the blend door or something like that. I think it quit after hitting the engine compartment with the hose at the car wash. I'll have to poke around a bit and see if anything stands out.

Met up with Gary Hedlin in St. Louis. Both he and I took "Top 10" trophies at the DTW event.

I stopped updating the blog just before leaving CO, so I have some catch-up to do. At one point, I couldn't update my personal Blog because it would time out while publishing over the cellular connection. I had to open a Remote Desktop session with my 2000 server at the house and publish to the blog from it, however, that was a time consuming process so I just gave up after a few times. Give me a day or two to get situated and I'll get back on that.

Just got home

2006-07-30T19:22:00.000-06:00

My odometer says 5090 miles traveled, I'm betting Waln & Ingrid will have that beat significantly but that was quite a bit of seat time. Truck behaved quite well, but I've got a long list of maintainance and quirks that I made to take care of over the next... well.... lifetime :-)

I'll deal with my pictures some time this week, in the mean time, thanks again everyone.

Home again, home again

2006-07-29T18:00:00.000-06:00

We've actually been home for about 25 hours now. We've been in recovery mode trying to catch up on lost sleep and work out all the various aches and pains that we got from sitting in one position for four days. We had a pretty uneventful trip home, although I've decided once and for all that Michigan is the most annoying state I've been in (sorry Dave and Jan and anyone else from Michigan). More details to be posted over the next several days as I go back and fill in our perspective on the meet before I forget it all.

The GPS trip computer says we traveled a total of 4178.6 miles over our total vacation. Stopped time 58:28:18, moving time 96:42:44 (clearly spent a lot of time stopped looking at stuff). Moving average 43.2 mph, overall average 26.9 mph. Keep in mind that includes all of the Colorado sight-seeing, off-roading, etc. We also didn't get much high-speed travel in to improve the average while pulling the trailer. It's not conducive to moving very quickly, particularly with a headwind (I thought the jetstream was supposed to move west to east, how did we have a headwind out of the east the whole way back???)

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-26T20:46:00.000-06:00

Thursday, July 20, 2006
Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Random Amusing Meet Photos

2006-07-26T16:33:00.000-06:00

We all took a lot of pictures during the meet, but here are a few of the more amusing ones that have not yet been posted...

Adam blatantly disregarding the "No Rock Climbing" sign

Jon's mobile home

Evan enjoying a fresh cold beer (cup) at the Coor's Brewery

Mike admires the Enchanting Goddess of Beer

Walt shares his good fortune with "Mike" the travel bug

Jan discovers the compactor's seat is wet

Tom enjoys his chance to tower over Ed

The Henry's are Home

2006-07-25T20:47:00.000-06:00

We're back, and didn't even loose any more parts along the way. We'll do the edit thing and fill in a few more details later.

Last post from Lone Duck

2006-07-25T07:59:00.000-06:00

Norah and I are enjoying our LD breakfast, and I thought I'd log in and make a quick post. We're the last stragglers left in the area. My parents left for home yesterday afternoon, Walt & Ingrid and Mike left the day before that, and everyone else was gone by Saturday. It's weird to be around camp without any DML shenanigans going on. There's a large church group pulled in to the group area. They've built a virtual city in there, but as near as I can tell they don't have any plans to do anything other than hang around camp. Our setup was elaborate enough for the amount of time we spent there. Oh, and they do have a pop-up trailer in there. When I talked to LD, they told me the group area was for tents only, but I guess pop-ups count as tents.

I have lots I want to post, I just haven't been very dilligent about logging in to post it while on vacation. I get in to "unplugged" mode pretty quickly, and given a choice between sitting around a camp fire and walking up to the office to use a computer, I've been taking the fire. I'm going to go back and fill in the details from our perspective after we get home. Blogger allows for the date of posts to be altered, so I'm going to fake the posting dates in order to keep the overall record in order. That'll make it difficult for anyone to find the new posts, so once I'm done I'll post another post linking to my previous posts. Posthaste.

We're already looking forward to the next meet. Any ideas? :-)

The Henry's Trip Home

2006-07-24T07:46:00.000-06:00

We'll edit this later, but here's the highlights.

Stopped at Grease Monkey in Colorado Springs to check the Trans / TCase fluid. Trans was fine, TCase was a quart low. No charge for checking or adding the extra quart. Gotta love that.

Made it to Topeka for the night. Got in around 1AM or so. Crashed and then got up and left.

Stopped in St. Louis, and did a quick tour of the arch.

We're in Terre Haute Indiana now, and are leaving for Indianapolis to see the Zoo and Botanical Gardens today, then its off to home tomorrow.

We forgot a couple containers of ice cream at Lone Duck (You reading this Jason & Norah?). Inquire at the desk if you're interested and it's still there.

Korey's Closing Comments

2006-07-23T19:53:00.000-06:00

Dusty, Evan and I arrived home at 1:00am this morning after a 800 mile day of driving from Colby, Kansas. Obviously we didn't make it very far on Friday before stopping for the night. Although our time with the DML passed too quickly, it's still nice to be at home.

I have a somewhat unique perspective on this meet, as an outsider, basically. Before this meet I had never spoken to or met any member of the DML, though I've been lurking (and rarely posting) since 1999. I was nervous joining the meet, not knowing exactly what we were getting into or who we'd be camping with.

My nervousness was unfounded. Hanging out with the DML was a great time. You're a fun group, and made us feel very welcome. As I’ve read about in the past and experienced on this trip, you do anything you can to help each other.

I enjoyed meeting you all, putting faces to the names, and being a part of your adventures. We did a quick survey, and discovered that nearest participant traveled 700 miles and that the furthest was 2000 miles. I for one can say it was worth the journey. I hope we can meet up again in the future.

I've put the pictures I took online at:

http://www.atterberry.net/photos/?lzkfile=Events%2F2006+National+DML+Meet%2F

Made it home from the meet

2006-07-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

To make a long story short, the plane from Colorado Springs to Chicago was about an hour late in leaving, then O'Hare got socked in with thunderstorms so we circled Peoria for a bit and then landed at U of L in Champaign/Urbana for some more fuel and to wait out the storm before heading back to Chicago. There was wifi access there, but restricted to university staff and students only unfortunately, so I couldn't send an update at that time. There was supposed to be a 4 hour layover in Chicago, but with all the delays, they were actually beginning boarding of the connecting flight to Buffalo as we were getting off the plane from Colorado Springs. I was a bit worried about the checked baggage making it over in time, but 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, I saw my bags being loaded onto the conveyor. Nothing left to do now but recover from the meet. :-) I'm a bit tired naturally but I think I caught something at the campground; had a bit of a scratch in my throat on the last day, I thought it was from breathing too much bonfire, but the grogginess and sniffles have started to hit me today.

I don't recall who came up with the suggestion (Adam or Mike maybe?), but I would definitely be up for making a meet of this type a more frequent event. It would be an interesting way to see parts of the country that we might ordinarily never have the opportunity or motivation to visit. The scripts and such that I wrote to do the voting for the national meet could certainly be recycled to determine the next location. Maybe if you're watching the travel channel or stumble across a location which might make a good meet spot, keep it in mind to throw into the hat for the next time. I hope you'll forgive me if I don't put quite as much effort into future meets though. :-) I think I learned my lesson with this one; plans seemed to change faster than the weather did last week, and I do regret spending so much time and effort in preparation for things that never came to be. Not that I'm complaining; it is what it is... It seems like the DML in general prefers to take the "fly by the seat of your pants" route; I probably should have recognized that sooner, but that's fine by me, I can adjust and will just plan on winging more stuff myself. :-)

One thing that I hope we can incorporate into any future meets is the geocaching. I have done some of it myself in the past, but always by myself. Doing it in a group really does add a new dimension of fun. Plus, the caches are easier to find with all those extra pairs of eyes. :-)

Leaving the meet

2006-07-23T12:36:00.000-06:00

This week went by *way* too fast, I've got some catchup posts that I should probably make - though I'll bet Walt will fill in most of what I would, so perhaps I won't have much to add. I'm sitting in my truck at Lone Duck freshly showered and all packed. I'm headed to Fairplay, CO to cross Mosquito Pass to Leadville. This was on Thursday's agenda but we didn't get to it and I'd very much like to. I'll be staying in a hotel in Brighton tonight and tomorrow night before heading for Minnesota - all for work.

More later, but "happy trails" to all in the mean time. Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic week - especially to Jim Ward for his efforts without the ability to enjoy them in the end. I didn't catch you on Friday when you were in camp, but thanks very much for your efforts Jim, sorry you couldn't make more of it. Thanks to the rest of the organizers too, Jon, Jason & Norah and Tom as I recall. I definitely would like to make this more of an every-ten-years thing, and that seems to be a pretty common sentiment.

EDIT:
Just for the record, after a mechanical problem on the road in (lost brake caliper key; found on road and pounded back in; still holding), taking a few wrong (but extremely interesting, unbeatably scenic, and slightly technical) wrong turns in the Fairplay-side valley, I did make it up and over "on my way" from Lone Duck to my hotel in Brighton.

Dakota Hideout

2006-07-22T19:38:00.000-06:00

While driving down CR-123, we passed by a gate that we just had to get a photo of. Since we are in CO to attend the DML National Meet, the gate marked Dakota Hideout, on Dakota Lane, was just about a perfect close to the week. Here are a couple of photos of Mike's Dakota by the gate.

Leaving the meet (by Jon)

2006-07-22T14:17:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting in the Colorado Springs airport at the moment (hooray for free wifi access!) We cut it REALLY short getting to the airport. When checking bags, you're supposed to have them checked in a minimum of 1/2 hour before the departure time. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:22 and we were standing in line to check our bags at 1:50. My bag was the last one to go down the chute. For some reason the baggage handlers had already closed the flight, but the people at the check-in counter contacted them to tell them there was one more bag for the flight. In something of a lucky break, the flight was delayed due to the plane we are supposed to fly on being late. Its supposed to land at 3:00, so we've got something of a wait. Better than rushing though. I've got a scheduled 4 hour layover in Chicago for the connecting flight, so I should be OK there; it'll end up being more like a 2 hour layover.

Sorry that I had to leave so abruptly; I was looking forward to having one last lunch with everybody before heading out, but between having to wash the Jeep, running on fumes, and being behind schedule to begin with, there just wasn't any time for that. :-( I had a lot of fun, and the week was over *way* too quickly.

Friday's ups and downs (by Jan)

2006-07-22T07:48:00.000-06:00

After we went UP with the group up to Pikes Peak (yay!) with the group, David and I headed off to try a last shot at seeing the Cave of the Winds. We got tickets to the 5pm lantern tour and killed some time at Garden of the Gods climbing on Balanced Rock. (we have photos, but I don't know how to load them)

The tour of Cave of the Winds took us DOWN into the cool cave which looked like a great place to have a Halloween party, with stone walls and illuminated crevices, courtesy of modern day electricity. Our tour though took us further into the cave where there are no lights, and we had kerosene lanterns to carry. The large part of this tour was stories of the guy and his friend who owned the place, and how they became not-friends over ownership, and mentions of "George sightings" in various forms... life form, ghost form, etc. The guide told us that they've had a tough time getting maintenance workers to go down there; apparently those who have won't return... apparently there have been apparatition sightings. George had a mummy, one of his gimmicks to get tourists to come, and one day the mummy was gone... and when we were led into a certain passageway and told to blow out our lanterns into complete darkness, we were told that the mummy had been found in this very hall, and that it announces itself nowadays by grabbing your ankle, wrist or blowing in your left ear.... thanks a lot to David, who thought this would be a great time to play a joke on Jan... (made me say "hell" in front of the little girls who were actually doing quite well).

The tour felt a bit short though it did last the appointed 1.5 hours. It was enjoyable. I could do a better job at this story, but we've got to pack up and head out this morning.

Thanks for being a fun group and for the great ideas and roads we traveled!

Friday, July 21 (by Jon)

2006-07-22T00:05:00.000-06:00

Early this morning, we headed out to Pike's Peak; leaving camp just before 8am. Upon arrival, we were dissapointed to hear that only the first 13 of the 19 miles were open, due to "fog". (read: clouds) On the plus side, we were told it could burn off, and the admission was half price. We decided to give it a go, killed some time in the gift store, etc. By the time we reached the closed section, they had opened it again, and we could drive all the way to the top. There were still sections obscured by clouds though, and the entire summit was covered in clouds, so unfortunately there was absolutely no view from the top. However, we were greeted with some very nice views on the way up and down. Some of those views are included below, although naturally the pictures simply cannot do justice to the real thing.

Tom got his truck back today, fixed and ready to go, so that is a good thing. After Pike's Peak, we were going to meet up with Jason's parents at a shooting range to punch some holes in paper and also possibly get in some paintball, but due to the time and distances involved, that didn't work out. Walt, Ingrid, Mike, Ed, and myself went out geocaching in the afternoon to find some caches with travel bugs in them. Unfortunately we did not locate any travel bugs, but we did find a couple of caches, one of which required a hike of about a mile and a quarter or so. Although the cache didn't contain the travel bug which was supposed to be there, the scenery was very nice. Along the way to this cache, we stumbled across some signs of recent bear activity, but didn't actually see anything more dangerous than a rabbit and a gaggle of Canadian geese.

Afterwards, we all met at the Black Bear restaurant (www.blackbearrestaurant.com) at 8:30 for some dinner. The food was excellent! Afterwards, we headed back to camp for the evening bonfire. Actually, I'm just headed for the bonfire now. It has been a week of long days and short nights, which I think is starting to catch up to me a bit as I am really tired tonight. I might turn in (relatively) early, and sleep in a bit tomorrow morning before packing up to catch my flight home. Unless of course we decide to do some more geocaching in the morning, which might be a possibility.

Following are a few pics from the day:

A picture of our campground, since I just realized I had forgotten to take one. My tent is the red one to the left.

Another campground pic.

Pike's Peak

Pike's Peak

Pike's Peak

Pike's Peak

The entire group at the summit of Pike's Peak

The DML's very own sasquatch

A problem and a solution. Also known as "is this log too big for our fire ring?" Not with a sufficient quantity of flammable liquid, it isn't... :-)

A view of the northernmost finger of Rampart Reservoir, from the geocache area.

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-21T07:14:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Peakpeek (Traditional Cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for How did this get here? (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-21T07:03:00.000-06:00

No big loss, it's just an S10

Thursday, July 20 (by Jon)

2006-07-21T01:25:00.000-06:00

Today, we explored a very small portion of some of the off road trails in the general vicinity of the campground, had some lunch on the trail, and combined the offroading with geocaching. We found three caches today, two of which were at the top of rather steep hills, so those of us who went up to the top got a fairly good workout. The last two travel bugs were dropped off today (Gen III and Gen IV), so all of the travel bugs are in the wild now! It was rather fitting that Don was the one to drop the Gen III travel bug into its starting cache; that travel bug is based on his truck.

We explored Forest Service road 318 which comes off of Mt. Hermon road. It had been listed as a difficult trail in a guide book that Jason has. It started off rather mild, but did get more interesting towards the end. The trail got a bit too narrow for Walt's full size Ram, so he held back, and Jason & Norah also turned around once they got to some of the more technical stuff, and once the storm clouds started moving in. The two Jeeps (Adam driving one with Jackie, Jay and Korey as passengers, me driving the other with Ed and Tom as passengers) and Mike in his Dak with Don as a passenger continued on. The road kept going and going well beyond our maps, so we figured we'd better turn around and head back to Walt, Ingrid, Jason and Norah. Ed and I walked down the trail just a bit further, past a narrow section that would have been very challenging, even for a Jeep, and were rewarded with a fabulous view of the valley below. We ate some lunch and then headed back out; Jason & Norah went back to town to meet Jason's parents who were driving in and the rest of us followed Walt to find some geocaches.

I must say that I am impressed with this little Jeep. Granted, we haven't gotten into any real hardcore stuff but there were a few technical places, and it has done great, despite being bone stock, on fully inflated street tires. Being used to wheeling a full size, extended bed Ram, this little Jeep is spoiling me a bit with its maneuverability. You have a lot more options for choosing a line, rather than just having to stay between the trees and power through whatever the road might happen to throw at you. Its also easier to fit through the narrow sections. I might have to put one of these on the ol' wish list. ;-)

During the trip, a storm rolled through and the skies opened up on us. Ed and I had to hop out of the Jeep and put the sides back on to prevent the inside from getting soaked. We got soaked in the process. :-) There was thunder and lightning all around (we calculated the nearest strike at 1/2 mile; we were at around 9,000 feet at the time). As seems to be the pattern though, the storm quickly passed. We had some on and off rain for the remainder of the day, but nothing that was a big deal. It stopped drizzling in time for the nightly DML bonfire. We're going to have to ramp up the bonfire a bit though if we want to burn through all of the wood we purchased. :-)

Here are a few pics from the day:

The view from near the end of the fire service road number 318, off of Mt. Hermon road.

Some bolders that were steaming after a rain/hail storm.

Some of the hail that was left all over the ground from the aforementioned storm.

Mike, flexing his suspension in a kind've off-road play area we stumbled upon.

Adam, climbing a rock in the above area.

Searching for a geocache, we drove through a large section of burned forest.

To get to the geocache we also had to drive through a flash flood area. It was raining, but nowhere near enough for there to be any danger.

A bunch of folks heading up to find the aforementioned geocache; the third and final find of the day.

A view of a cloud shrouded Pike's Peak from the geocache area. We're planning to drive to the top of Pike's Peak tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to share a photo of the view from the top in a bit. Speaking of which, I am going to end this message now as its 2am and I need to be up in time for the 7:30 trip to the peak!

David and Jan's version of Thursday

2006-07-20T20:14:00.000-06:00

We returned to the zoo to visit the Shrine of the Sun, which is accessible by a road only available through the zoo. By DML standards the paved road is extremely mild, although the switchbacks might freak some uninitiated folks in cars. At the top, you visit a stone tower -- pretty cool -- that has rooms in it memorializing the actor Will Rogers. The point of the shrine is to have a place for the ashes of a couple by the last name of Penrose. They're responsible for a number of places around here, and lived quite a nice life and they spend eternity there in a beautiful chapel high from the city in peace and quiet. I'm envious! At any rate, the elevation is about 9,000 and the views of the city are just amazing. (David took photos) Unfortunately "they", whoever they are, closed off the observation deck atop the tower which deprived us of the full height but we managed to make our way through a door on the second or third floor, which went out onto a tiny deck and displayed spectacular sights. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be able to exit there or not, but after a bit of toying with the deadbolt, we got the door open and went out onto the little ledge. Sure glad that door wasn't secured with one of those darn Master locks that were everywhere else. But the trip up there was well worth it, I think.

David wanted to go higher up Cheyenne mountain via a road that took off from the paved road, but I pointed out the sign said "no vehicles beyond this point". Shoot. Another road we passed on the way down didn't have a sign saying to get away, but I pointed out that we were solo and the road looked a little iffy. Yes I'm part chicken sometimes... but oh well.

After that we headed down to the nearby World Figure Skating museum, which I know isn't on the hot list of most DMLers, but personally it was like a mecca to me, to actually be near memorabilia from my very elite peers, whom I could never emulate but always admire. I skate for the enjoyment of flying across ice, they skate and earn millions. But whatever.

We had planned to visit the Cave of the Winds afterward, but the last lantern tour was at 5, and we got stuck in traffic. :-( It's on our list for Friday, after we go with the group to Pikes Peak. It's then or never, so I hope we do make it.

The group kinda split up a bit today, and I hope everyone found what they wanted out of the day. At least the lightning around Colorado Springs was the wickedest I've ever seen... lots and lots of cloud to ground spikes, in vivid purple. I can believe now why they warn against being high up when it strikes!!!

Log by Walt_Felix for Mt. Deception (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-20T18:21:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Mt. Deception (Traditional Cache)

Fri Plans

2006-07-20T18:03:00.000-06:00

Cathy's back, so we're planning to come down sometime Fri PM. Any plans in the works? (Grub, etc....)

Wednesday, July 19 (by Jon)

2006-07-20T02:44:00.000-06:00

The plan today was the Coors tour, lunch in Golden, Lariat Trail, Red Rocks, Bandemere Speedway, then back to town. We left a little late, spent more time than expected on the Coors tour and lunch, so we skipped Lariat Trail to head directly to Red Rocks, where we met up with Jason & Norah. Jason W. had arrived at the brewery just in time to join our tour group, so we had already met up with him earlier in the day. At Red Rocks, we basically stood around and looked at the sights in the general vicinity of the ampitheater. I had kinda figured somebody might be interested in doing some hiking and checking out more of the park, but I guess not. :-) I checked out some interesting history and displays in the visitor's area and struck out on my own for a very abbreviated hike and also had a go at jogging up the ampitheater stairs. I only made it about 3/4 of the way up though before I had to pause to catch my breath. This thin air will really take the wind out of your sails!

After Red Rocks, apparently a majority of the folks in the group didn't seem to want to go to Bandimere so we headed for camp. Our "full schedule" day had turned into a relatively weak, content-free day and I was getting a full-on case of cabin fever. We were headed south on I-25, where once we got to Monument, Ed and I pointed the Jeep towards the mountains so that we could take a more circuitous, "back road and 4x4 trail" route to camp. Mike and Don thought this was a good idea and exited as well. After a brief fuel stop in Monument, and a failed attempt to open a locked bathroom door for the gas station employees, we headed west on Mt. Hermon road, which climbs up Mount Hermon, then generally headed west, reaching about 9,000 feet or so before heading south towards Woodland Park and camp. The views weren't as good as they could have been due to the rain and clouds, but it was still very interesting. The whole makeup of the area was completely different than Dakota Hill or Kingston Peak. Lots of large, round bolders and gravel here. There was a pretty good storm system in the area with rain and lightning, and it was starting to get towards dark, but in a way, that actually added to the fun. The day still wasn't as full as I would have liked, but at least that brief, therapudic offroading excursion helped to take some of the edge off. :-)

Following are a few pics from the day:

Part of the Coors brewery tour. They make 1.5 million gallons of beer here every day!

The packaging area of the Coors brewery tour. The tour was interesting, but what holds the most fascination for me are the automated machines and assembly lines. This was the only view we got of that sort of thing, unfortunately.

A view of Denver from Red Rocks.

The Red Rocks ampitheater

Me at Red Rocks

A view of the storm over the mountains as we were headed south on I-25. Shortly after this pic, we turned west into those very mountains for some offroading fun.

Tuesday, July 18 (by Jon)

2006-07-20T01:09:00.000-06:00

We left camp later than planned, which unfortunately resulted in not having enough daylight to actually see St. Mary's Glacier, but we did get in some nice offroading with great views, and drove up to the top of Dakota Hill. We also dropped of the GenII travel bug, so that's 2 down and 2 to go!

Some random pics for the day:

Tom comes up Dakota Hill

All of the trucks parked on Dakota Hill

Jason & Norah on Dakota Hill

Adam & Jackie on the trail between Dakota Hill and Kingston Peak.

An alpine meadow between Dakota Hill and Kingston Peak. We stopped here to find a geocache.

Walt & Ingrid near the same location as above.

A small herd of elk, spotted from the Kingston Peak trail. There were about 20 or so. Later on, we saw a herd of around 100, but unfortunately they left before I had a chance to snap a picture. I think Ed might have gotten a shot with his telephoto lens though.

A view as we are nearing the top of the Kingston Peak trail, at around 12,000 feet. The view down into this valley with its snow fields, glacial pools and waterfalls was amazing. It was also amazingly windy, and very cold. As you can see, we are well above some of those patches of snow. Its amazing to think that on the drive up, we saw temperatures in the 90s. Pictures just can't do it justice, but this view alone was worth the drive.

The trucks heading further up Kingston Peak.

When we got back to camp, we discovered that our small pile of firewood had been delivered, and that Korey had stacked it. No more scrounging for us - flame on! :-)

David and Jan's Wednesday antics

2006-07-19T19:56:00.000-06:00

David and I took a different route on Wednesday and explored the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. As far as American touristy sites go, it's pretty good. Avoid most of the foreign-made unrelated junk in the store, but certainly enjoy the range of freedom you get with this site. The "doors" into the various rooms are open for you to enter, if you fit. I felt like a kid again as I crawled through small door openings into the rooms. Hot day, but pleasingly comfortable inside. David took some liberties with the freedom though... we thought it would be fun if he hoisted himself upward using the wood beams spanning the small rooms. He will post photos I took of him standing up there. After the dwellings we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The animals there don't seem to like each other. I've never seen a bear charge another bear in the habitat, until today. Ditto for the tiger. That was worth a scream. The poor tiger was relaxing in the water in their habitat, and the larger tiger slunk around behind it, easing itself into the water until it was just behind the resting one, and then lunged at it, grabbing its hind leg in its mouth!!! The attacked one responded with a great roar. Good show, guys. Oh, and guess what, Patrick has an example of him at the zoo! Yes, they've got a quaker there in the bird room. He wasn't as neat feather-wise as Patrick though -- a little picked on the head. We missed the trip to the Will Rogers Shrine up there, because they closed the road early but our receipt was validated so we could return Thursday. David hopefully will post some photos of our antics in the kids park... the spider web was just too tempting for David to leave alone. We've got Thursday and Friday to get the rest of the sights in. Our plan next is to visit Cave of the Winds on the lantern tour, return to the Shrine so we actually see it, stop by the World Figure Skating Museum and of course go to Pikes Peak with the group. All in Thursday and Friday. We leave Saturday at noon, so the National Lampoons trip is in full swing.

Guess I should get around to posting!

2006-07-19T14:19:00.000-06:00

I havn't had time to post anything since I left for Colorado friday. Its been interesting heh. I didn't leave wisconsin until 7:10 pm central on friday. I made it as far as Winona, MN where I grabbed a room at a best western for the night. After a restless night sleep, I hit the road the next day at about 9 am or so saturday morning. The drive was long and mostly uneventful except for rendering some roadside assistance. I responded to a truck driver saying that there were two women stranded on the side of I-80 in Iowa, trying to change a flat tire, which turned out to be a woman and her 6-7 year old daughter. I helped them change their tire and got them back on the road. She was very appreciative of the help and thanked me over and over. That was a good feeling :)

The drive seemed to drag on a very long time and I made it into Lone Duck at 2:30 am MST... with approx 1200 miles on the clock. Thats about 1050+ miles in a single day over an approximate time of 17-18 hours. I slept in the cab of the truck when I got to the campground. Woke up at 6:45 sunday morning after no where near enough sleep. We bummed around camp most of the day and went to Seven Falls waterfall later that night and saw some really awesome rock formations and waterfalls.

Monday was pretty awesome too. We set out for Garden of the Gods rock formations. Adam Jackie and Mike and I went walking around a few of the many trails in the area - seems like every where you turn around here theres one skyline or another thats more awesome than what you just saw. We met up with Jon and Ed afterwards and hit some trails for some great photo ops.

Tuesday we set out in the morning for Dakota Hill and other areas which I can't remember the names of right now. Dakota hill was pretty cool actually. The only signs of civilization was the communications and cell towers that were posted up there. I was able to get some lightning strikes on video. The trees up at that elevation are all very thick and stubby and short. There were what Mike guessed to be, mining test holes, dug out and filled in, with 20-some year old trees that had taken root, all over the top of the hill... adding to the eery landscape.

We set out for the highland afterwards and eventually topped well over 11,000 feet elevation. We made it to the top of this particulat mountain range, the name of which escapes me... at the top the wind was blowing something feirce and it was cold. We were well above the tree line and had spotted a couple herds of elk on the way up. The trail was moderate/easy. With lots more bumps than really difficult sections. Jason and Norah's stock quadcab made it over them just fine. The views were more than breathtaking. Its a sight I will not soon forget and one that I hope I'll see again. Everyone remarked that they had a wonderful day.

Wednesday decided to throw me a curve ball. A sound I was hearing tuesday night, turned out to be both front axleshaft joints on the Ram's front DANA axle, grinding their rusted, non-greaseable, factory OEM u-joints to peices. After runing around town all morning fetching u-joints and having to buy and entire craftsman socket set just to get a single 1-11/16ths socket for the spindle nut, I started taking stuff apart and saw that the bolts that hold the wheel bearing units to the spindle, are a funky ass 12 point dealy. A bolt head that I do not have a socket for. I am pondering if I should run all over kingdomcome trying to find that socket, or just have a shop change the joints and be done with it. As it is I can't get any parts. I'll have to put everything back together again to go look. Everyone else is out in town. I missed the brewery tour this AM and unless someone comes back to camp, I'm going to miss the drag racing at Bandamire, to say nothing or participting. Somthing that I had *really* been looking forward to - as I have never done that before. Anyway... I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I think I'll make a few phone calls and see what a shop will ream me for to change the joints.

Log by Walt_Felix for THE TEDDY BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUMTAIN (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-19T02:02:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for THE TEDDY BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUMTAIN (Traditional Cache)

We dropped out 3rd travel bug,

Walt-n-Ingrid's Virtual Roadtrip #3 - Mustang

Log by Walt_Felix for Ghost 4 - American City (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-19T01:52:00.000-06:00

While Off-Roading, I saw the Ghost 4 - American City Geocache on my GPS and decided to stop quickly. Dropped one of our vacation travel bugs. "Walt-n-Ingrid's Virtual Roadtrip #4 - Dodge Dakota".

Log by Walt_Felix for Ghost 4 - American City (Traditional Cache)

We are at the Summit of Dakota Hill

2006-07-18T15:47:00.000-06:00

Jon & Ed arrive at Lone Duck

2006-07-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

The flights went well, actually got into Colorado Springs ahead of schedule, but thanks to a traffic jam due to a crash on I-25, we lost some time before engaging in some creative use of an on ramp to exit the freeway. ;-) Got the rental car without any problems; its a bright yellow Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Met up with Jason, Norah, David, Jan, Walt, Ingrid, Tom, Mike, Adam & Jackie at the "Garden of the Gods" park, which we drove through briefly on our way up to Rampart Range Road. A very nice drive on windy, dirt roads that ultimately got us up to about 9500 feet or so (with other mountains still towering above us). We found a couple of geocaches along the way (well, Walt found them and I just tagged along) :-) I dropped off the Gen I Dakota Travel Bug in one of them; so one travel bug is in the wild; 3 to go!

We headed back through Woodland Park; some folks went on to Lone Duck, and others stopped for groceries. Just as we got out of the vehicles in the grocery store parking lot, the skies opened up with rain and hail. It only lasted a few minutes though, and fortunately did not hinder setting up the tents. I set my tent up a bit too close to the fire though, and figured I'd better be safe than sorry, so with the help of a few of the guys, moved it into a less hazardous location. :-)

The plan for tomorrow is Dakota Hill along with a couple of offroading routes with a glacier thrown in the middle for good measure. :-)

Following are just a few random pics of the day:

The rental Jeep, parked along Rampart Range Road.

Some of the other vehicles, parked along Rampart Range Road. (Mike's Dak, Adam's rental Jeep, Tom's Ram, Jason & Norah's Dak, and David & Jan's Dak.)

Me, standing at an overlook along Rampart Range Road, with Pike's Peak in the background.

This is Patrick Henry; David & Jan's Quaker Parrot. He's a cute little guy, who likes to ride along on David or Jan's shoulder or sleep in a pocket. As you can see, he's a bit tuckered out from a full day of offroading. :-)

Walt-n-Ingrid @ Rampart Range Road 02 by carlschulz

2006-07-17T20:39:00.000-06:00

While taking a mild off-road excersion on Rampart Range Road we foung Rampart Range Road 02 microcache by carlschulz

Walt-n-Ingrid @ Glen Eyrie RM2 by Colorado Papa

2006-07-17T20:37:00.000-06:00

We found the Glen Eyrie RM2 Geocache today and dropped one of our travel bugs, "Walt-n-Ingrid's Virtual Roadtrip #1 - Dodge Ram"

Good day, great time

2006-07-17T10:43:00.000-06:00

Great day on Sunday! Super glad to meet y'all - finally! Was especially good to get out of the house for a bit. Special thankx to Korey & Walt for the taxi services (owe you guys - no bitching!)

Talked with Cathy this morning in KS - we'll definitely be back down Thurs or Fri evening. Will finalize our thoughts later in the week.

Seven Falls

2006-07-17T07:34:00.000-06:00

I've got a minute before I grab breakfast and jump in the shower, so I wanted to post an update of last night's activities. We managed to make it over to Seven Falls around 9:30 or so to see the night time light show. As it was dark, pictures were naturally difficult to get. I haven't downloaded mine, but after I turned the flash off I managed to get a couple that look pretty nice in the little preview window on the camera. It remains to be seen how nice they actually are. We got postcards though, so we do have pictures of it.

My review? Nice, but I'm not sure it was worth the admission price. There's so much else to do and see in this state for free that I have a hard time with the built-up touristy stuff. But, I'm glad we went over to see it, at least we can say we did something more than just bum around camp and go grocery shopping :-).

Today we're headed over to Garden of the Gods in the morning, where we'll be meeting up with Jon and Ed this afternoon.

I'm at the airport

2006-07-17T04:54:00.000-06:00

Sitting in Buffalo airport at the moment, trying to get some value out of the outrageously expensive wifi connection I had to purchase to check my e-mail. ;-) Sure hope I didn't forget anything. So far, so good.

Q: How many DML's does it take to....

2006-07-16T20:10:00.000-06:00

A: ...enough to maybe re-state the laws of physics

"uhhh...is this the top or the side?

The drag racing trophies are done!

2006-07-16T18:29:00.000-06:00

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh? :-) Of course you realize that given the time and effort I have put into them, this will practically guarantee that the track gets rained out on Wednesday... ;-)

Along the "Information Superhighway"

2006-07-16T12:01:00.000-06:00

Internet access is limited but works. I spoke with the owner of the campground and he said he just discovered a broken antenna on one of his access points, which is probably why we can't get a signal down at the group sight.

It's official...

2006-07-16T11:56:00.000-06:00

Hood up, working on a truck... it now qualifies as a DML meet.

I sure hope those canopies are fireproof...

2006-07-16T11:49:00.000-06:00

DML HQ has been assimilated

2006-07-16T11:44:00.001-06:00

They managed to get the banner up. Mike's antenna doesn't quite clear it, hopefully it'll stand up to the abuse. It took the entire group to figure out how to get the canopies up. The outside of the package said "Easy as 1-2-3!" which was a blatant lie. Walt figured out how to bridge between his canopy and Jon's, so we have a pretty nice large covered area set up.

Tom's here

2006-07-16T11:44:00.000-06:00

6:30 AM, I take the dog out for his morning visit to the bushes, and I notice Tom's Ram sitting in the driveway of the campground. "Cool!" I think to myself, "he must be inside getting registered." I look inside... no Tom. I look in the Ram, there's Tom, asleep, stretched out on his bench seat. I have no idea what time he got here, but it must have been some time in the middle of the night.

Log by Walt_Felix for Pearl Street Webcam (Webcam Cache)

2006-07-15T21:01:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Pearl Street Webcam (Webcam Cache): "Took a small detour while driving from Estes Park back to Cascade to hit this webcam Cache."

Log by Walt_Felix for The Power Of Water (Virtual Cache)

2006-07-15T20:18:00.000-06:00

Ingrid and I stopped by this Geocache today. The Power Of Water (Virtual Cache) It's a small memorial next to the Big Thompson Canyon Fire Dept. In 1976, a flash flood in the area claimed 144 lives when the volume of the river increased from it's normal 200 cfs to 31,000 cfs in just 4 hours. People traveling the canyon were caught in their cars. The memorial lists the names of all 144 victims.

Atterberry's are heading to Lone Duck tomorrow

2006-07-15T19:38:00.000-06:00

And it sounds like we'll be bringing Jim along with us. We're still in Estes Park, but didn't see any solar yellow Rams. We did find some nice offroading outside of Meeker Park (on the Peak to Peak scenic byway). My friend led us through the trails with his jeep.

I've been blogging about our trip over on my website at http://www.atterberry.net, for what it's worth. It's basically just a family vacation journal, so there may or may not be anything interesting there.

The Henry's are at Lone Duck

2006-07-15T16:02:00.000-06:00

We'll edit this later after we get everything setup.

Walt-n-Ingrid - Friday July 14th

2006-07-15T10:03:00.000-06:00

Ingrid and I drove up north to check out the B17 crash site. Had to drive down 25 miles of dirt road then turn off onto a 4x4 access road that is passable to cars but only those with high clearance. Followed that road as far as we could to we came upon a small parking area and a gate preventing us from going any further. Got out and hiked the rest of the way, which turns out to be about 3 miles straight up the side of a mountain. After an hour and a half, we found the crash site. Took a ton of photos that I will upload later when I have more time.

We then hiked back down the mountain, to the truck, took a few moments to snap some flex shots as this is the very first time I've had the Ram Off-Road.

Back down the trail and 25 miles out to the paved road. Amazing landscape.

Then it was on to Estes Park, through a really cool looking canyon the road just twists through. Once in Estes Park, dinner and drinks at the famous Stanley Hotel. By the time we were done, it was already 11pm, so we decided to stay the night at the official motel chain of the DML, a Rodeway Inn. We're going to kick around here for a while and then head back down to Lone Duck this evening.

The Gen III Travel Bug is Done!

2006-07-15T00:21:00.000-06:00

The Gen III Travel Bug is ready to go. It is based on Don Mallett's 2000 V8 Quad Cab. Its web site is located at http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TBQ1E9

National DML Meet Schedule

2006-07-14T23:46:00.000-06:00

I finally got around to updating the schedule at http://meet.dakota-truck.net. Please keep in mind that these aren't mandatory marching orders, this is just something that puts all the things we would like to do into some sort of order where it looks like they will work. With the exception of Wednesday, we can actually move stuff around to do on different days, or not at all. Basically the idea behind the schedule is to preempt the "I dunno, what do *you* want to do?" game. :-) Check it out if you like; if you would like more info about any of the offroading stuff in it, Jason can help you out there; he is the go-to guy on the offroad planning. :-)

As far as why Wednesday can't be moved around, we have a reservation for 11am at Coors for the tour, and the drag racing at Bandimere is also a set in stone event, so we're basically working around those two items. We can certainly shuffle the other stuff around if we feel like it when the time comes, but are limited somewhat since we are boxed in by Coors and Bandimere.

Its Here!!!

2006-07-14T23:27:00.000-06:00

This post is mostly just a waste of space :-) but I just happened to pull up the meet web site and was greeted with a countdown that said there are only 35 minutes to go until the meet officially begins! Seems like only yesterday, that thing said 90 days...

July 14 track

2006-07-14T22:00:00.000-06:00

This is the last update of the track logs I had previously posted, and covers our westbound trip. Further updates to follow with new track logs to cover the actual meet itself.

We got in to Colorado pretty early in the morning, having camped so close the night before. Eastern Colorado is virtually indistinguishable from Kansas.

Because we had some extra time, we decided to make a side trip to check out Burlington Colorado, just because we live in Burlington Ontario and thought the coincidence was amusing. Burlington Colorado is a pretty dusty little town that's apparently there solely for a fuel stop, and people who need to give the kids a break. There are a few "old West" themed attractions, a museum, an old carousel, and so forth. Unfortunately they weren't open yet for the day when we were there. We drove around, got a few pictures of things that said "Burlington" and stopped at a gas station that had a large sign outside claiming to have a large selection of souvenirs. For such a small town, the sign was true to reality. They had a lot of cool things there, so we got a lot of our souvenir shopping out of the way early. The attendant working there was quite happy to see a couple of tourists who wanted to spend money in his shop.

We continued on to Limon, where we parted ways with Interstate 70. We gassed up at the Flying J there. Most Flying J locations are nice and large, well laid out, with ample turning and parking space for trucks and RVs, and a nice store. The one in Limon is a dump in comparison. It looked like someone took some tiny Sinclair station and painted "Flying J" on the side of it. Traffic was a mess, because all of the truckers and other RV drivers made the same mistake I had of assuming that a Flying J would have enough room to accommodate large vehicles.

From Limon, we picked up US Highway 24 to Colorado Springs. This was a two lane highway (one in each direction) across the rolling hills of eastern Colorado. Naturally every other vehicle on the road wanted to go much faster than we were traveling, and none of them were happy to see us blocking the highway. I'm sure they got over it.

We managed to navigate through Colorado Springs by following the signs for the highway. Unfortunately, the maps on my GPS haven't been updated for the recent construction that's been happening in the area. We were fairly close to what the GPS said, but not exact. It was still an immense help to see where we were in relation to major features like the airport and freeway.

Most of this day was a continuation of our gradual uphill climb across the plains and rolling hills. Just out of Colorado Springs, we launched up the canyon, which was a very steep climb, especially pulling the trailer. I knew the canyon was going to be steep, but I hadn't expected it to be so narrow and twisty.

We arrived at Lone Duck and got checked in and made sure everything was still on track for taking over the group area on the 15th. No problems. Steve had set aside an RV spot for us right on the creek, next to the group tent area. I went to check it out, and realized that there was no sewer hookup. I asked him, and he said that we could just let the grey water (sinks and shower) run out on the ground, and dump the black tank (toilet) at the main dump station before leaving. I realized we were also going to need to dump the black tank before parking for the week, so I had to do some interesting turning around maneuvers to get lined up without smashing the trailer in to the side of their office building. Lone Duck is a cute little campground, but there's not a lot of room for larger vehicles. And our trailer isn't even that large, I'm impressed by how well the guys with the huge 5th wheels manage to get parked.

Our spot was also in a position that we had to back in to it. I'm still working on my trailer reversing skills, but I managed to get it pretty close to where I wanted it on the first try, much to my amazement. To my even further amazement, it required no side-to-side leveling whatsoever. I thought for a second that the level must have been stuck. I've never had any camp site that was that level. I usually can't even get it that perfectly level with the leveling jacks. After marveling at this for a few minutes, we got the truck unhitched and the water and electrical hooked up, and got the trailer stabilized and all arranged for the next week of camping.

Hanging in Denver

2006-07-14T21:06:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, saw everyone posting their travel adventures, so I thought I'd do the same even though its not that exciting.

Left California later than I wanted to since a buddy of mine asked for a last minute favor to bring some wheels with me to Denver. So instead of leaving 2pm from work, I left at 4pm from home. My route is pretty simple, I-15 north about 550miles, then I-70 East for about 550miles. Typical commuter traffic on the way out of town, bit not too bad. 60miles and 1.5hr before traffic let go.

It was hot. Driving a race sprung, no AC, no radio standard cab across the desert in July probably wasn't the best plan. I'm sure the sign was broken, but the world's largest thermometer in Baker said it was 129F as I went past around 6:30pm. I don't drive all that fast and got through Las Vegas at about 8 for my first fuel stop. 300.2mi (tire corrected) 14.929gal = 20.1mpg. Note I was sweating like a pig.

So out of Vegas on through the NW corner of Arizona and into Utah. I that's a real speed trap, so again, just a few mph over the speed limit. Gaining altitude and getting close to midnight it started to cool off. I finally got to roll up the window and listen to some books on tape off my lap top (no Radio, remember). Hang a right on I 70 and although I'm sure I had enough gas to make it across the 100mi no mans land, I chickened out and stopped in Salinas for gas and grub. 300.4mi (no I didn't plan the 300mi tanks) 16.902gal = 17.8mpg. Since it was 2am, a greasy Denny's breakfast platter was the only option. I couldn't have had less in common with the Mormon graveyard shift waitress, but since I was the only customer there she insisted on trying to strike conversations. Now that I've been out of the driver's seat for almost an hour, there was a distinctive squish sound and cold feeling as my 10hrs of sweat was found to be hiding in the seat cushion.

So back on the I-70, the Denny's deal started to hit me. About half way through the no mans land I pulled over and took a 3hr nap. When you see me on Wednesday, take a good look at the driver's seat I slept in. About as comfortable as sleeping on a fire hydrant. The sun burning out my retinas at 7am woke me up. Although I fell asleep on a lonely ranch road off ramp, by morning there was three big rigs catching winks behind me. Guess they like to cluster. Back on the I70, made short work of the rest of Utah, although majestic, I've seen it several times. Blasted through the white trash cities of western Colorado and decided to top off one more time in Rifle. 268.7mi 15.094gal = 17.8mpg.

Up and over the Rockies. Always a fun windy trip, its too bad the speed limits are so low even in these optimal conditions. Down the other side without incident, but coming out of the Rockies it starts to get hot again. My destination was a parking lot at the Denver international airport, the Mt Elbert parking lot if you must know. The organizers already had everything set up, and some racers were taking practice runs. I found some friends from back home and swapped to my race wheels (which was a lot harder than normal after a 20hr journey and 5200ft). Teched, registered and boned out to my hotel in Aura. The meager AC, compact toilet and dank smell of the best Super 8 has to offer has never been so welcomed.

Good sleep tonight then start racing tomorrow morning. If anyone is passing near the air port tomorrow morning, I'll be getting my butt kicked at about 9am on the Mt. Elbert concrete parking lot and again 8am on Sunday. I'd be hard to miss, the only pick up out there.

See you all Wednesday.

Jay W
505/287 Dakota

The Bleazards are at Lone Duck

2006-07-14T20:02:00.000-06:00

We rolled in here around 1:30 this afternoon. I thought the transmission might not survive the trip up the canyon, but it got us here fine. I'm glad that trip wasn't any longer than it was.

We've been taking extensive notes on our trip that we can post later. Yesterday was a pretty long day. 13 hours of driving. We got to our regularly scheduled stop in Wakeeney Kansas and went to check in. I had been watching a really ugly black thunderstorm north of the highway. I had figured it was okay as long as it stayed north of us. Usually storms track east, right? According to information I was given at the KOA, this particular storm was coming straight south, making a beeline for the campground. They said that the highway patrol had advised them it was creating golfball sized hail and 70 MPH winds. We decided to keep going. Did another 110 miles to the KOA in Goodland.

But at least that took some time off our trip today, which wasn't so bad.

Another update: Mike rolled in about 45 minutes ago (or thereabouts). We've identified Walt's spot, but no sign of Walt or Ingrid or their truck. DML HQ is currently full of muggles, but tomorrow we get to kick them all out and assimilate the entire area. Korey, your spot is right next to us, we're both on the creek which should make some nice burbling sounds to fall asleep to. Just remember when you wake up that it isn't raining, it's just the creek.

That's it for now. GPS tracks and pictures and more details to follow once we get settled. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get any WiFi signal down at our site, so I had to walk up to the office to log in. Hopefully someone will figure out a solution.

Korey's travel bug

2006-07-14T16:15:00.000-06:00

For the geocacher's in the crowd, we dropped off our travel bug in Golden, CO. Ours doesn't have a goal like the racing Daks, but hopefully this one will fare better than our last.

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TBGDEG

Attempt at summiting Dakota Hill

2006-07-14T15:39:00.000-06:00

We left Denver today on our way to Estes Park, and decided to drive as close to Dakota Hill as we could. We took the Peak to Peak scenic byway north out of Black Hawk (119) and turned off on CR15-S (at N39deg 50.075' W105deg 30.979). It's a decent dirt road, passable by cars. It's kind of hard to find that turn, but it's right past Missouri Creek. A little way down that road, there's a fork. You have to take the right fork- the left takes you to Pickle Gulch.

We were pulling the camper, so we couldn't make the top due to the next road. At N39deg 52.574' W105deg 31.727 there's a left turn it looks like you have to take. This road is not maintained well, but I walked up it a little ways and it looks like it's accessible to 2WD high clearance vehicles, at least as far as I could see. There are a few ruts, some small boulders, etc. but not too bad. I'm an off-road wuss, and I would have driven it gladly if I didn't have the camper. On the course I plotted, based on where the mapping software says Dakota Hill is (n39deg 52.150' W105deg 33.217'), it should only be another 2.5 miles.

I also found a fun road leading up Saxon Mountain out of Georgetown, but I turned back on that road - it was very rough, consisting of probably 6 inch boulders largely, and since my stock 2005 QC 4x4 has the ground clearance of a Pontiac Sunfire, I didn't want to break my only way home. For those wanting to travel from Como (near Jefferson) to Breckenridge, there's a scenic dirt road called Boreas Pass that we took. It's also passable by any car, but there a a few technical roads coming off of it.

Korey

So much for leaving at 5 am

2006-07-14T15:10:00.000-06:00

Looks like I'll be leaving at 5 pm instead. I'm almost done, few more things to do and then I'm on my way. my cell number is 715-347-1672 if anyone feels like yacking at me :)

I can't stand it.....

2006-07-14T08:59:00.000-06:00

National DML Meet
Well, things continue to get interesting. Cathy left this morning for her Mom's outside of Wichita. Looks like it's getting on to time to put her into some type of Sr. facility, and we need to start going through her stuff now as we learned a couple of days ago there will be an opening coming up soon.

So, now I'm left stranded here w/a bum leg & 2 squirrely dogs all by my lonesome until Wed. PM. Cathy was willing to run me down to LD on Sat or Sun, but that's now off the table.

Anybody open to shuttling me down sometime this weekend so I can at least met y'all? I live outside Castle Rock, about 45 mins N of LD. More than happy to pitch in on gas money & etc.

Jason, Jon & Tom have my #'s.

JIM W.

Almost Ready To Leave

2006-07-13T23:50:00.000-06:00

Well it seems I just can't catch a break with this trip. After crushing the oil pan on Christine, I resigned myself to the fact that trusk just was bound and determined not to go to Colorado, and that I was forced to take the Ram. I worked 12+ hour shifts all week and had not done any packing or prepping. I needed to change the oil on the Ram and I decided I would swap in a new steering damper to see if that would help on the highway. What started out looking like a fast job turned into a several hour long nightmare. I got the oil drained and started unbolting the damper, and couldn't break the stud free from the tierod. I busted a tierod end puller trying to get it off. While I was laying under the truck in utter frusteration, I looked up and noticed the lower radiator hose was touching the frame. Me thought "this no good". Sure enough it had almost rubbed through the hose. @#$%^&*!! It was also pretty spongey and I knew it had to be changed. As it turned out it was splitting and cracked in another place too, that I had not originally seen. I doubt that lower hose would have made the trip without blowing. I checked the upper hose and it wasn't much better... so off to the store to get two hoses, more coolant, and a pitman arm puller for the steering damper. Now... here is a word or 20 about the factory OE springy hose clamps. I ended up reusing all but one of them, because I wanted to save a few bucks and they seemed to still be tight enough. I want to melt them all down, cast them into bullets, track down the Sombich who invented them, and then shoot him with the bullets!

I was in tears just about, trying to put the hoses back on with those clamps. I ended up having to remove the serp. belt, and the alternator in order to get them all back in. Bolted the damper up, refilled the radiator with coolant (by the way - the cooling system was JUST flushed about a week ago and I'm very not happy about having to replace brand new freaking coolant), throw in some engine oil and the Ram was done. I also decided to get a bed cover installed today. $420 and change installed for some-other-brand-or-whatever soft folding bed cover. Its a real nice one and I really like it. Lifetime warrantyso ya can't beat that. It has tension ajustments, no snaps, and a really neat clip lock system that latches it in place. I figured there was no better time than now to get one installed than for a long road trip.

Anyway -I'm half packed, I still have some last minute stuff I need to pick up at the store, and I should be set to leave some time tomarrow. I'll be stopping overnight some place - depends how far out west I get, I don't feel like rolling into lone duck at 4 am.

I'll let everyone know when I leave. I gotta say I hope this trip is worth it, because I really need a vacation, this month has been nothing but Bull-S and problems for me... at home, at work, and in general.

Walt-n-Ingrid @ Mopar Big Block Party

2006-07-13T22:47:00.000-06:00

We went and checked out the Mopar Big Block Party in Golden, CO this evening. Will post more photos later.

(GCND0E) Garden of the Gods Earthcache by vorticity

2006-07-13T22:40:00.000-06:00

(GCND0E) Garden of the Gods Earthcache by vorticity

Will update post later when I download photos off camera.

Log by Walt_Felix for Too Tough to Quit (Virtual Cache)

2006-07-13T22:39:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Too Tough to Quit (Virtual Cache)

July 13 track

2006-07-13T22:00:00.000-06:00

This was a long day of driving pulling the trailer. And it was 102 degrees. If you look at the elevation scale, you'll notice that Kansas isn't really flat. It's a ramp. Uphill the whole way. This was also the day that the thunderstorm chased us out of our scheduled stop at Wakeeney (as mentioned before). I've seen The Wizard of Oz, and Kansas has these things called tornados that can pick up real houses and transport them to far-away lands. I had no desire to stick around to see what might have happened to our travel trailer.

So we kept driving on to the next KOA in Goodland, Kansas. We were watching for other campgrounds, but didn't see any that looked worth stopping for. Mostly the kind that advertise with sheets of plywood with "CAMP HERE" spray-painted on them. I'm sure some of those are perfectly nice, but at least with KOA you have an idea what to expect. While driving we caught the edges of a couple of thunderstorms. I noticed at first that the wind was coming out of the north, which made sense as the big black scary storm that we were trying to avoid was north of us and reportedly moving straight south. A few miles down the road, I noticed a smaller storm to the south of the highway, and noticed that the wind was coming out of the south. We got some nice fat rain drops from that one that sure made a racket when they hit the truck. I don't think there was any actual hail, although it almost sounded like it for a minute.

It occurred to me that north winds that close to south winds are not a desireable feature in tornado country. So we kept going. Once we got to clear weather, the Goodland KOA was the first campground we saw that we felt like trusting, so that's where we stopped.

Another Mindless Day...

2006-07-13T18:43:00.000-06:00

I just dropped off my rims at the shop, my tires will be in tomorrow, and I'll pick them up, mounted, after work. Definitely a good thing since that means I won't have to make a special trip up to Littleton next week just to pick them up.

On the down side, no news on the spacers I want to run in back, which means I'll have some clearancing of the rims to do, which I didn't want to have to do. Long story short, the H2 rims are 8 on 6.5 but with a smaller center bore than normal. They are probably in the 4.75" neighborhood, and they have a nice lip that's easy to hand grind to at 5", however my rear needs 5-1/8" center bore. I was hoping to just get some spacers to take care of that issue and even out my track width, but no dice on that so far, so I'll be doing a little backside freehand clearancing on the rims over the weekend so I can get my truck looking non-laughable again.

I've also got (another) broken motor mount. I totally forgot that I hadn't reinforced it since I put it in on my Tellico trip, and it's now in two pieces. The roads around Denver aren't just punishing me, but breaking my truck too (they come in two flavors: brand new and cobblestones-would-be-smoother, so it seems).

If I can't find a way of welding that up, I'll have to refrain from really leaving the pavement. I don't trust my header to stay attached to the head in an offroad situation if the exhaust and steering shaft have a hard collision, and that's really the last thing I need. It'll be bad enough if I can't fix it and end up rubbing a hole in my header....

So, todo:

open up rim centers a bit more with hand file/reamer + cordless drill

fix motor mount. a few options
- find Dodge dealer with replacement mount in stock. swap mounts, hope replacement holds for remainder of trip (simplest, and it's a cheap part)
- drive truck to shop, pull mount, weld up, reassemble
- drive truck to shop, position motor & mount where they belong, weld up (certainly fastest, may not be good enough weld to hold)
- drive to Lone Duck, pull mount, beg ride to welder, weld, drive back, reassemble

hmm....

The Henry's are alive and in Iowa

2006-07-13T17:08:00.000-06:00

We'll fill in the details later. So far Jan hasn't been awake long enough to type anything up...

We just passed the I-80 truck show Mike missed. GPS is in the truck, we found the rest areas here have wireless access.

David

Today was a long day!

2006-07-12T22:18:00.000-06:00

But a thankfully uneventful one. I can do without nearly loosing a tire every day!

I left Morris, IL (I-80 exit 112) at 8:30 or so, eastern time, and arrived at my home for the next few nights, the Bradley Homesuites in Centennial, CO at 22:15 ET. 980 miles according to my odometer, and after doing some careful comparisons between my odo and my GPS, I found that I'm .6% off, so 976 actual miles driven today. From start to finish, including 4 stops for fuel, I averaged almost exactly 71mph. I love western speed limits. I didn't do any math on economy yet, but it felt like the same mid to low 13s I've been getting, which is amazing. I can't stand how the truck looks with the little tires on it though, so I can't wait to get the fuel wasters mounted up. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow, but there's a little catch with that of course (::rolleyes::).

I've got a sweet hotel room here, not sure if I'm going to camp Friday night or stay here Friday night and head down saturday morning. Seeing that Walt has set up camp though, I'm leaning towards an early check-in.

I didn't see the Bleazards today at all, so I'm betting they were treading the previously discussed southern route instead of the shorter but more Chicago-infested I-80 route - though with my speeds and their speeds, if I happened to pass them while they were fueling or stopped for whatever other reason I'd have no hope of seeing them outside huge coincedences.

Horay for making it in much less time than I should have, and as uneventfully as I did. I hope others have as good a luck - even if Walt & Ingrid had all sorts of fun stops on the way, and I didn't have time to stop into the model train museam in Iowa that cought my eye, or to stop by the Iowa 80 Truckstop since I heard on the CB that this coming weekend is the Wolcot Jamboree (biggest truck show in the country), and that there were already some pretty cool trucks there. I can't complain though, the perks of having this as a combined business and pleasure trip far outweigh the burdens. That, and there's always next year for doing a trip like this the RIGHT way (like W & I are).

'till next time,
MM

July 12 track

2006-07-12T22:00:00.000-06:00

Back on the road, this day also went pretty much as planned, again except for the fact that my idea of being on the road by 5:00 AM to avoid the heat turned out to be a total impossibility for us. Too bad we didn't manage to pull it off, as the temperatures really started to climb during this day. The overhead computer was over 100 degrees while we were driving. My other idea about driving without using the air conditioning was also quickly abandoned.

We arrived as planned at the Lazy Day campground in Danville, Missouri. We had some extra time, so we decided to go for a quick swim. There were a few afternoon thunderstorms building on the horizon, which I was keeping an eye on while wondering if maybe there was a reason that we were the only people in the pool. No problem, though, the storms stayed far enough away not to be a problem.

The campground has a commemorative wall set up to allow people to express their patriotism since 9/11. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to sign it. We had planned on doing so in the morning, but we left before the office opened, and we realized that we didn't have any markers. Ball point pen would have just looked silly, so we didn't bother.

I did meet the world's second friendliest cat at this campground. The collar tells me he wasn't a stray, he must have belonged either to some other camper, or the campground owners. I was working on something outside of the trailer, and I noticed this cat wandering around a few camp sites away. He saw me, and made a beeline for me (as much as cats ever make a beeline for humans, naturally he had to pretend that he just happened to be wandering in my general direction). When he rubbed up against my legs, I sat down for a minute to pet him. He instantly jumped in my lap and started purring. After a few minutes, I put him back on the ground and continued what I was working on, then went back inside. The next time I came out of the trailer, I found him sitting on the steps of our trailer. Then he saw that we had a dog. He ran to a safe distance, and gave me a "how could you?" look. It was almost like he wanted to hitch-hike with us. We have enough cats at home, thanks anyway.

Where's Waldo - Part 2

2006-07-12T18:25:00.000-06:00

This link has 3 photos from Woodland Park, CO. See if you can find Waldo in the images. (Hint, Click the images to view them full size. He's driving a Solar Yellow Ram)

Log by Walt_Felix for Woodland Park Webcam Cache (Webcam Cache)

2006-07-12T17:45:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Woodland Park Webcam Cache (Webcam Cache)

BTW: While here, I found myself another new Dakota. It was right next door to the webcam. Now if I can convince the owner to give it to me ;)

The Henrys will leave eventually

2006-07-12T16:46:00.000-06:00

David is fixing the windshield wiper control right now; he went out to get a new part... the one on the turn signal stick. (Sorry for the less-than-technical terms) The other day he was replacing the radiator. I'm glad we're doing this now before we leave... hopefully that's all that is needed.

Got the truck bed filled almost completely, and we still have some stuff by the door that needs to be put in.

We have 300 miles to our first sleep destination. Yesterday after surveying our pile, David (jokingly?) estimated we'd leave after midnight. But that can't be right.... We have plennnty of time, it's only 6:45 Detroit time. Yeah wishful thinking, right?

Last Chance

2006-07-12T16:32:00.000-06:00

Came through this little town on the side roads we used to circumvent Denver. It's a little town in the middle of no where. Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zilch! Just a cross road going off in 4 directions for as far as the eye can see with nothing else in view. Once had a Dairy King but it was obviously closed due to the lack of business.

Walt-n-Ingrid arrive at Lone Duck

2006-07-12T14:08:00.000-06:00

You guys will love the narrow pass Rt. 24 goes through coming out of Manitou Springs. It's starting to rain so I want to get the tents set up before we get soaked.

MikeM On His Way!

2006-07-11T22:49:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the blogger invite, Jon.

I'm spending the night tonight in Morris, IL at a Super 8, and will hopefully make Colorado tomorrow. I'm working in Colorado before and after the meet (lucky me! seriously.) so I'm on my way now.

Had a near severe mishap on my way today, right around Forestville I was getting off 90 to get fuel, and as I slowed it felt like I had a low tire. I stopped and got out to look, and my passenger front tire had loose lug nuts, and the bolt holes had opened up almost far enough to let it walk over the remains of the lug nuts. I'd changed my tires last night since the Iroks are nearly bald (considering all the rain today I'm *so* happy I did), and it seems I didn't get the lug nuts tight enough on that one. BIG oops, but catastrophie averted when a local shop had a random spare sitting around, and I picked up more lug nuts from the same shop where I got a lot of my parts during my SAS.

I've got a set of rims in the bed that are going to be shod in new rubber as soon as I get to CO (according to plan) so the mismatched all terrain isn't going to be an issue, and all else has since gone smoothly. Almost 1000 miles to go tomorrow so hopefully that holds.

Averaging 75 or so (not including stops) and getting around 220 miles to a 17 gallon fill. Rough numbers coming out of memory but I can't complain too loudly at ~13MPG. That's darn good for my truck going as fast as I have been.

Cya all Saturday!

July 11 track

2006-07-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

After a somewhat more respectable start this morning, we set out westbound from Jon's. This was the first time I had ever set foot in the state of Ohio. I've flown over it a few times, and stopped in the Cincinnati airport. However, that airport is actually located in Kentucky, and stopping at an airport doesn't really count as visiting a place. Everything other than the time of day went according to plan, and we rolled in at the Dayton KOA without any problems. One note about Ohio... Andy was correct: the entire state is under construction. I've seen places with a lot of construction before, but nothing like that.

The KOA is a nice campground if you're in to that kind of thing. It's large, well maintained, and has lots of facilities available. However, you're camping right next door to a few dozen of your closest new friends. When I had a tent, I used to make fun of people who camped like this. Now I'm one of them, and quite happy about it.

This KOA was supposed to have wireless Internet access. I managed to get an intermittent signal in the trailer. Rather than try a blog post, I thought I might have better success with a quick e-mail to let everyone know that we had made it safely to our stop. I managed to get logged in to my webmail service, composed a message with a few details of the day, and while I was composing I lost the signal and my message disappeared. Argh. So I logged back in, fired off a real quick message and sent it, and shut the computer off out of aggravation.

Gen II Travel Bug is done!

2006-07-11T13:58:00.000-06:00

The Gen II Travel Bug is ready to go. It is based on Ray Block's drag racin' 1992 Dakota Sport. Its web site is located at http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TBPPRX

Gen IV Travel Bug is done!

2006-07-11T13:44:00.000-06:00

The Gen IV travel bug is ready to go. It is based on David Deming's 2006 Club Cab. Its web site is located at http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TBPWR8

Log by Walt_Felix for Patriotic Rock (Traditional Cache)

2006-07-11T10:35:00.000-06:00

Log by Walt_Felix for Patriotic Rock (Traditional Cache)

Walt-n-Ingrid - Tuesday July 11th

2006-07-11T07:34:00.000-06:00

Leaving Grimes this morning for Brush, CO. Along the way, we'll be making stops at the Patriotic Rock Geocache in IA and the Cabela's store in Kearney, NE

Walt-n-Ingrid @ I saw the light (Virtual Cache)

2006-07-10T23:03:00.000-06:00

Caught a beautiful sunset here in Vermilion OH, after a full day at Cedar Point. The setting sun lit up the sky with yellows, oranges and reds and slowly shifted to blues and purples. Great spot, definitely worth the side trip while traveling to CO.

After a full day, we were happy to get back to Camp Sandusky where we were staying. Here we are checking out a few photos on the laptop before climbing into our sleeping bags for the evening.

Walt-n-Ingrid's Sunday Sidetrip

2006-07-10T22:28:00.000-06:00

We spent Sunday at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. Here, we are enjoying the Magnum XL-200 roller coaster.

The best coaster of the park is the Top Thrill Dragster that launches you from 0 to 120mph in just 4 seconds, to thrust you over a 420ft vertical tower with both 90° approach and decent angles. Photos don't do this 42 story structure justice. It's insane. However, after standing in line for over an hour to get on the monster, the other coasters in the park just no longer gave us the adrenaline rush. This ride should be saved for last.

July 10 track

2006-07-10T22:00:00.000-06:00

Here's our super exciting trip up to the storage area to get our trailer, then down to Jon's. With all of the other packing and shopping trips this short little jaunt wound up taking most of the day, but that's okay.

I had meant to get a picture of the truck and trailer together immediately after hitching them together. I completely forgot. Then I decided I'd get a picture of them parked at the Duty Free shop just before crossing the border. I forgot that as well. I only seem to think of taking pictures while we're driving and I'm not doing anything else. Once we get stopped, my brain switches over to thinking about where to park and what we need to do while we're here and I don't seem to remember about digging the camera out.

I did, however, finally remember to get a picture when we were parked at the grocery store doing our shopping. It's not very interesting, but it is the first picture I managed to get of our big excursion, so here it is.

Once we got parked and positioned in Jon's driveway, and hooked up to leech off his water and electricity, we set about figuring out how to load his and Ed's gear in to our trailer. As we already had it full of our stuff, we just sort of put their stuff in to whatever leftover space we could find. It actually all fit pretty well, as long as I remembered not to try to get out of bed on my side.

Then I decided to try connecting to his wireless network so I could check the blog. Supposedly he has an access point in the house. He was able to see it with his laptop, but mine refused to pick up on it at all. I had to walk down to the barn to get any signal at all. Little did I know at the time, but this actually set the tone for my wireless Internet activities over the entire trip. I think maybe my computer decided that we needed a break from each other.

Jason and Norah are at Jon's

2006-07-10T20:18:00.000-06:00

Finally. We actually rolled in here around 6:30 PM or so. Didn't even leave the house until after 10:00 this morning, after my early morning post that we were "almost ready" to go. Ha, ha. Forgot about mundane details like, oh, breakfast, getting dressed, that sort of thing. If you're going to try to cross the border, it's best not to do so while wearing your bathrobe.

Anyway, we have several travel notes to post later when we get more time, and a picture or two, and a GPS log. For now, it's off to bed. We're really going to try to be up earlier tomorrow and actually on the road at a decent time. No really. Stop laughing. I can hear you from here.

The Atterberry's have arrived in Denver

2006-07-10T15:10:00.000-06:00

Hey all- Just dropping a quick note on our progress. We left central IL saturday morning, stayed in North Platte, NE that night and arrived in Golden, CO sunday afternoon. We averaged 14.9 mpg pulling our popup camper about 5 below the speed limit. We're checking out sites in the Denver area for the week and plan to head down to Lone Duck this sunday. If we can find the time, we'll see if we can find a route up Dakota Hill, since we're not far away.

Looking forward to the shenanigans next week!

Korey

Jayson's Travel Plans

2006-07-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

Okay guys, I've gotten it pretty settled.

Out of dumb luck the SCCA is conducting two important races in Denver (DEN airport) on July 15-16 and July 22-23. Since the DML meet is during the same time I can't say no to killing 3 birds with one trip.

So the plan:
Thursday (13th) afternoon I'll start my drive to Denver. Get there mid day Friday (14th) stay in my hotel and race Saturday and Sunday. The race organizers have set up parking for the week, so I'll park the Dakota there and fly home Sunday night.

Wednesday (19th) morning bright and early fly back out to Denver. Pick up my Dakota and meet up with you guys at the Coors Brewery. From here I'll just tag along, hope to get a few drag runs in, but expect them to be disappointing at such altitude. I'll stay at the camp site and more than likely just sleep in the back of my truck with an air mattress, I'm a simple guy that way.

My truck is no dirt monger, so for Thursday (20th) I'll be hitching a ride for all the off-road exploits. Hopefully we won't get to see my lunch. I haven't decided on what I'll be doing Thursday night. Either another night on the air mattress or heading back up to a Denver hotel. Probably depends on when we get back to camp.

So I'll be heading out of camp for Denver either Thursday night or Friday (21st) morning. Get ready to do another race with some practice starts, the race on Saturday and Sunday. I'll probably be leaving the Denver area around 1 or 2pm on Sunday and heading home. So I'll keep an eye out for any DMLers heading back west.

I'd like to exchange phone numbers with somebody so if the Meet's plans or my plans change we can coordinate.

Jay W
505/287 Dakota

The Henry's Travel Prep

2006-07-10T06:04:00.000-06:00

Changed the oil, cleaned the air filer, replaced the dead auxillary battery with a good one, and worked on trying to track down a few other electrical gremlins (horn, intermitent wipers, reverse lights).

Decided to double check the fluid in the radiator (puke bottle looked ok), and I found out the reason the leak I thought was curred wasn't leaking anymore (lack of fluid). I drained and pulled the radiator last night (all 1 1/2 gallons). I'd be more worried, but I don't think It's been driven more than 5 miles at a time, and rather infrequently at that. Hopefully I can either get this one fixed or find a replacement in time. Still need to clean out the truck, bleed the brakes, and lubricate the suspension. Also need to start packing stuff up...

-- David 94 CC Sport 4x4, 318, 5spd, Lifted with 33" BFG MT's

Almost on our way

2006-07-10T04:34:00.000-06:00

Norah and I are in the middle of our last-minute preparations getting ready to head out this morning. We take way too much stuff. We had to take a truckload of it up to the trailer yesterday to leave it there because we realized we wouldn't have room in the truck this morning for all of it.

So, we've still gotta get the last of it packed up, go hitch up to the trailer, head down to New York, do some grocery shopping for the road trip, and head over to Jon's. We'll be staying at DML HQ tonight and launching the real trip from there tomorrow morning.

It's been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. I believe that our journey of 1600 miles won't really begin until the first time we have to turn around to go back and get something we forgot. I wonder what it'll be today...

da latest

2006-07-09T13:19:00.000-06:00

As some folks are now departing for the meet, a couple of local updates:

Weather has been WET here since 1st of July - we're recieved something like 4-5 inches of good, soaking rain. Very good news for us natives here, where a full-blown drought was in process.
How this affects the meet....
good newz - 1. most (but not all) fire restrictions have been lifted - campfires are definitely on! 2. mud has certainly been born in some lower areas. 3. everything is quickly greening up & looking veddy purdy.
bad newz - 1. streams are running fast & full - be very careful if crossing while offroading. 2. Some roads are closed here & there due to washouts, mudslides or unstable rocks. Rt. 67 between Woodland Park & Deckers (our proposed back route to Denver) washed out in several places. Closed indefinitely.

Reason is that this year's monsoons have arrived early & are much more wet than usual. We're about at the end of the 1st wet wave, which will follow with 7-10 days of clear, dry & hot (mid-90's forecast from Wed beyond here.) Pattern will have things revert back to wet later - hopefully after the meet.

Log by Walt_Felix for The Beacon's Booty (Multi-cache)

2006-07-09T05:33:00.000-06:00

Our second cache of the day. Great spot to cool down with a breeze off the water. Signed Logbook, left key chain, took nothing.

Log by Walt_Felix for The Beacon's Booty (Multi-cache)

Log by Walt_Felix for You'll likely hate me... (Multi-cache)

2006-07-08T16:30:00.000-06:00

We had to log a DNF for our second cache of the day, Ingrid found the first stage of this multi stage cache with little problem. The cache name is appropiately named as the second stage is only a half mile away if you could walk to it, but you can't. Here, I'm in the back of the Ram at the first spot.

Log by Walt_Felix for You'll likely hate me... (Multi-cache)

Erie MetroPark WebCam (Webcam Cache)

2006-07-08T12:18:00.000-06:00

On the Road Again!

2006-07-08T06:25:00.000-06:00

Forgot to post when we left the house this morning at 4:30AM. Crossed NY state line @ 5:33:45 AM and into PA @ 6:29:51 AM

At first fuel stop right now in Bloomsburg, PA @ N41 00.931 W76 29.506 - 8:04:18AM - 254 miles traveled, 12.05mpg @ average speed of 70mph.

One of the new mudflaps I installed on the back melted against the tail pipe, otherwise uneventful 1st leg.

Important safety tips

2006-07-04T13:18:00.000-06:00

OK, seriously, if you're planning on coming to the meet, I strongly suggest you read this stuff if you haven't already. I'm not one for the scare tactics, there's nothing out there that's really that dangerous, but there are a few things worth keeping in mind. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Medical info
Safety info
Driving tips
Vehicle maintenance

There are probably a zillion things we didn't bother to mention, use your heads because I don't feel like spending my vacation playing the "emergency medical evacuation" game. Basically just continue to be the intelligent, thoughtful person you know you are and you'll be fine.

That is all.

Well, after all these years!

2006-07-01T12:28:00.000-06:00

This was in the back of the April 2006 Playboy.

updates & rambling thots

2006-07-01T08:42:00.000-06:00

1. Having surgery on the knee Wed. AM. Will take approx 6 weeks to get out of the splint & off crutches. Means no driving until mid-Aug sometime. Bummer.
2. Good newz is that the job is putting me on the VPN list for the duration, as compared to being fully out on FMLA. So, it'll be "have laptop/softphone, will login" from the house. Vewy kewl. My PTO time is safe!
3. So, dang nab it, I'm not going to let a little life reset stop me from enjoying what I can of what I've spent over a year planning. (Tom- you listening?) While going down to LD won't be possible, I'm hoping one of you might be open to picking me up here at the house in Castle Rock so I can at lesat tag along on one of the Denver days. Whatever else creative we can think of, I'm game.
4. Finally - Tom, you're just bummed a bit - I have a broken wing. So, I expect to see your happy arse out here, or I'll have no choice but to release my Appleton/Sheboygan Wisconsin friends/family on you. Have mercy if it comes to that Seriously though, if you need some help, ping me offlist.

Have a grreat holiday weekend & we'll see y'all in 2 weeks

Henry Travel Plan Update

2006-06-30T23:30:00.000-06:00

Our plan now is still to leave Wednesday night July 12, stay in Joliet IL. But instead of a lot of stops along I-80, I think we're planning on making better time and then staying in a Nebraska hotel Thursday night, with more travel Friday and a few stretch and see stops along the way. That should put us near Lone Duck in the latter part of the day Friday, July 14. We were going to check in early to Lone Duck, but discovered today that the information was incorrect -- they can't accommodate us in a cabin until Saturday, our original check-in day. So we're going to find a place to stay Friday night and see some sights. Then when we finally roll into Lone Duck on Saturday the 15th, we have some moving in to do at our cabin then, and I also made a list of Colorado Springs shopping destinations for food and any forgotten necessities so if timing works out, we may do our shopping then too.

On our schedule, that leaves us with the rest of Saturday and Sunday, as well as a couple other days during the week, that we will do the touring of sights from our National Lampoons list of activities.

Because we bumped up our arrival by a day, we're adjusting our departure to Saturday morning, July 22. We're returning on I-70 and will make a stop in Indianapolis. There's a zoo there and gardens. I'll be the lady with a bird in my purse.

Okay and while David has been planning where to stay and how to get there, he thinks it's funny that I've been planning for (or wondering about) the trailside bathroom stops during the off-roading drives. I don't need a marbled bathroom with hot water and soap to survive... I can deal with less-than-stellar bathrooms, outhouses, and yeah even trails. But it's just something I think about, because females can't stand by a tree and look as though that tree is super interesting. Casually standing there as if it's the Mona Lisa or something. It'll be a good use for the GPS: find spots that aren't in the path of a cache!

Maybe there will be more desirable places to "go", but I did some reading and basically if you're out on a trail and nature calls, the instructions were to just step off the trail and take care of it. Around home, that would probably be kinda rude. But out there, I took that to mean it's pretty rugged. It's also a different altitude, so the other instruction was drink lots of water. Hmmm.

National DML Meet tshirt

2006-06-30T13:28:00.000-06:00

Jon designed a really sweet t-shirt for the event.

National DML Meet tshirt

T-shirt silliness

2006-06-29T20:05:00.000-06:00

Well, I went ahead and created a safety themed T-shirt, for my own amusement. I set it up on CafePress, feel free to get one if you want. If I happen to make any money off it, that will go back to the DML.

I'm sure there's room for improvement, but I don't have a whole lot of time to fool around with it right now. If you want to take it and try to improve it, feel free. Let me know if you want the original graphic files.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about official National Meet shirts, I understand that Jon is pretty close to having them ready as well. This one's just something I put together for myself and thought I'd share with the class.

Well - this suckx....

2006-06-29T18:00:00.000-06:00

Soooo...there I was happily heading out into the garage/driveway Tues morning to get the paper. Next thing I know I'm on the garage floor in a lot of pain. I either missed one of the steps going down into the garage or my right knee gave out altogether. Bottom line is that I've completely torn the quadrecep muscle attaching to my knee & wiil have to get surgery done on it right away. At present, I'm in a knee splint that runs from the hip to the ankle, on crutches & in a good deal of pain.

Meeting with the surgeon in the AM to discover all the fun details. Looks like any chances of my participating in the meet are basically gone. Even with a fast recovery, I'm blowing out the PTO time I had reserved with this crap.

The title says it all - this suckx, and Jim is one bummed out boy.

Maybe I can invite y'all up to my digs sometime during the week for some grub & BS, but we'll see how things go.

JIM

The GenI travel bug is done!

2006-06-29T13:55:00.000-06:00

The GenI travel bug is ready to go! :-) There are a couple of pics on the blog, and also on geocaching.com. Just in case you can't read the back side, it says: "This is the Gen I Dakota Travel Bug; a participant in the Dakota Mailing List's 10th Anniversary Travel Bug Race. It is racing from Colorado to New York (against three other travel bugs), and is representing the Gen I Dakota - those trucks built from 1987 to 1990. This particular travel bug is based on "Christine" - DML'er Tom Stack's infamous 1989 Dakota 4x4."

The travel bug was created by using a CNC plasma cutter to make the outline out of 16 gauge sheet metal, both sides were primed with Rustoleum primer, and the base color of the top side was spray painted, then the details were hand painted. The text on the back side was created by printing it out, then gluing it in place. The final step was to coat both sides with a single pour of a two part expoxy coating called "Glaze Coat", equivalent to 60 coats of varnish. Hopefully it will hold up to the abuse - we'll find out sooner or later I guess. :-) If I can find some way to make a protective plastic sleeve or something to hold the TB in, I will do that just to give it a bit more protection when rattling around inside an ammo can with a bunch of other stuff.

The other travel bugs are being made the same way, so I'll skip the description when I post them; they are in various stages of completion, but I think the GenIV will probably be the next to be ready. I'll post 'em as I finish them.

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TBQ286