Home The Jeep By day (1 2 3 4 5 6 7-9 10 11 12 13-17 18+) All days Flowers

Day 1 - 4/7

Off for the trip! Rushed to get everything in the jeep, build the iPod holder, do some last-minute fixes (a kinked fuel hose, among others), and get on the road. Left around 5pm, stopped for Indian food, left Eureka around 6:30 PM. Under two hours into the trip, rendered some roadside assistance - a hippiebus at the truck stop with a bad starter motor or starter solenoid - after checking connections and trying a jumpstart, decided to just pop start it - which the jeep did easily in 2nd gear. Drove down 101 to 20, over the hill, and down I5 into Sacramento to stay at a friend's house.

4/6 13:54 PDT

4/7 18:50 PDT

Note: Some images are available in an even larger version. Click the to see them.

Day 2 - 4/8

Left Sacramento, stopped to visit said friend at UTI (they have security guards patrolling the school, and won't let unauthorized vehicles in the buildings - because we all know autoshop students are prime terrorist targets!), and around noon headed south on I5 towards San Luis Obispo to see another friend. We weren't able to meet with him, so headed out towards Death Valley. Took 155 over the hill to Lake Isabella, a nice high mountain pass with lots of snow left. Went around the lake and headed towards Death Valley, deciding to camp just on the other side of the hill.

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Day 3 - 4/9

Headed into Death Valley. Stopped to give directions to someone in an RV, who took our picture. Got gas in Death Valley - so much for being uninhabited. Went across the valley and over the hill to Las Vegas. Went on the freeway for about 2 miles, which took about 20 minutes. Headed southeast to the Hoover Dam. Stopped to get food, ran into someone who wanted to put a J-truck on a M715 frame - the first person (of the many who stopped to chat throughout the trip) who knew what a M715 was. Went to the dam, had to be inspected - "Please open the back" etc. Went over the dam, no traffic at all - but we passed almost a full 7 miles of stopped cars trying to go the other direction. Headed towards the Grand Canyon. They wanted $18 to park in the campground, so we just picked the back corner of a bus parking lot instead.

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Day 4 - 4/10

Woke up, drove over to the parking lot by the edge of the canyon to get some pictures. While leaving, stopped to get some more. Some of them might even be able to be assembled into a panorama. Got to Four Corners around 5pm, and got a few photos just before they shut the gate. Continued on to Mesa Verde, which was distinctly not green, with the vast majority of trees and shrubs dead. Got photos of the various ruins, along with two other people there, the only other visitors we saw. They have a big gate preventing you from actually getting to the ruins - don't go there expecting to see anything up close without forking over a lot of money for a guided tour. Went back down the hill, drove east over Wolf Creek Pass, 10,550ft. Camped on the other side, somewhere between 8000 and 9000ft. Despite several inches of fresh snow during the night, the back of the jeep stayed nice and warm, without needing to turn on either heater.

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Day 5 - 4/11

After waking up nice and warm, mostly just drove today. Got into Amarillo, TX late at night, decided to get a hotel so we could have hot showers, etc.

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Day 6 - 4/12

Got up, showered, checked email/uploaded pictures/etc on the hotel's marginal wireless. Went to the jeep, found someone stole our toolbag from the front! Texas, the state where people steal tools from a jeep on easter sunday. Things taken include our nice hand-made jumper cables with heavy gauge wire, insulated non-shortable clamps, LED polarity indicator, and Anderson plug to connect to the jeep's power system, the remote for our winch, which was another hand-made job, much fancier than warn's remote, a good pair of sunglasses, my multimeter, my good test light, two cigarette lighter to molex plug cables, two molex extension cables, a handmade spotlight on a big magnet, some spare electrical parts (terminals, wire, etc), a brand new LED flashlight, and other items I'm sure I'll remember when I go to use them and they're not there. Yay texas. Then, when we went to start the jeep, it made bad noises... which quickly turned to worse noises and lots of smoke as the starter grenaded. Pulled the starter, found the windings and commutator ripped apart, the brushes shreaded, etc - other than the field windings, not a salvagable part in it. Got a pull start from some lowlives (best term I can think of - and they were looking for either a drug dealer or a hooker as best as I could tell) in a truck, and headed towards MO on the "don't turn it off unless you're parked on a hill" method. Got a few looks at gas stations filling it with it running, but otherwise no problems. Stopped at a store (can't remember the town), backed up a hill on the side of it, and stopped to get some things. Asked the clerk if he knew of any local junkyards - he replied by saying the person to talk to had just walked in the door. The owner of the town's only towing and salvage company (with one tow truck... parked facing downwards on the other side of the same hill we were on, due to the same problem!) said he saw us park, and knew we needed a starter motor before we even asked him! After showing him the starter to refresh his memory ("Ya shelled it!"), he said he knew for a fact we wouldn't find one in that or any nearby counties. His suggestion was a yard 62 miles away. Stopped there, by luck ran into an employee who was there on easter sunday, but they didn't have one either. After admiring a nice Deuce wrecker ("they use that a lot... mostly towing tractors out of fields"), decided to head straight to MO and give up searching that day. Saw lots of nice wind turbines - good to see renewable energy in use. Got to MO too late to bang on a relative's door, so slept in the jeep down the street.

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Day 7 - 4/13

Met with the family, then started trying to find a starter motor. Not easy! One junkyard was part of a nationwide network, which said they only had 6 starters in the entire country, the nearest being 500 miles away. After calling about 20 junkyards, got a suggestion for another one to call, which had a suggestion for another one... which said they might have one (he didn't want to spend the energy to go check), and only about 60 miles away! Drove there, one semi-unfriendly guy with over two thousand cars in the backyard. He had one 230 engine, sitting in the back of a chevy van, with the starter still attached. Gave him $50, popstarted the jeep, and drove back to put in our new motor. Took it apart, oiled everything (it was pretty stiff), gave it a once-over, and put it back together. Decided to wait for the next day to put it in, as it was dark and the BBQ was done...

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Day 8 - 4/14

Installed the starter first thing in the morning, worked great. Got reminded how incredibly annoying it is to get the bolts threaded in while lying on your back under it, trying to support the motor with one hand and turn the bolt with the other, while everything is in the way, crud is falling in your face, and you're being slimed by every drip-covered part under the jeep, followed by the half hour of turning each bolt 1/12th of a turn at a time. Also adjusted the e-brake and various other maintenance tasks. Spent the rest of the day playing with family and getting more music for the ipod.

Day 9 - 4/15

Not too much done today related to the jeep or the trip - spent most of it playing with Maya and explaining the physics behind raytracing and photon mapping, as well as playing with the little kids - including a jeep rooftop ride up and down the block.

4/14 14:07 PDT

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Day 10 - 4/16

Left MO in the morning, heading towards Mammoth Caverns. I don't know if the Ozarks have electronics yet, but I did find one P-N Junction. Saw the first other M715s of the trip - sitting in a field, sadly. I think the town was Mountain View, and we were heading east on 60 with them on the north side of the road. Saw some construction of a new concrete highway - I haven't seen concrete used in a while! Got to mammoth caverns, found they wanted $17 to park in a campground, so parked on the side of the road instead.

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Day 11 - 4/17

Got up, wandered around a little, then a park ranger stopped by and asked what we were doing parked there. Moved to the visitor center lot, got tickets for the 2 mile tour (of >350 mapped miles). While waiting in the parking lot, someone came over to talk about the jeep - the second person (of the 100 or so who chatted) who knew what it was. Went on the tour, took lots of photos (only a few of which came out well - I should have brought my good camera instead of my pocket one - I expected the caverns to be a lot better lit). We spent the whole time at the very back of the tour, chatting with the keep-people-from-sneaking-off park ranger, which was generally much more interesting than the big crowd of people at the front. We got some tips for other local destinations while getting ready to leave, but missed the turn, and ended up going to TN instead. TN had by far the best MPC (Mullets Per Capita) of any state we went to. Took some back roads (weren't even on the map!) to head back north, and ended up in Virginia. Found a nice quiet spot in the Jefferson National Forest and camped there for the night.

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Day 12 - 4/18

Went through the forest, found lots of rhododendron plants, a pretty creek, and a seemingly self-sufficient little town on the way out. Got on the interstate and headed northeast. Stopped at a gas station to fuel up and add gear oil to the t-case, but when hot, it dumped a pint of blistering hot oil on the ground as soon as the plug was removed. Cleaned up the mess and continued on. While cleaning up the oil, found a slight gas tank leak, small enough to be ignored for a while. Went around DC, up by Baltimore, then into NJ. Got maps at a 7-11 and found our destination. It was too late again to bang on the door, so slept in the jeep.

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Day 13 - 4/19

In NJ. Went to Costco.

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Day 14 - 4/20

In NJ. Started repairs on the gas tank. Chiseled off the remains of two previous patches, finding one covering a few small rust pinholes, the other a large (~3" around or so) mess of cracks and attempted brazing. Wire-brushed the area clean and applied two layers of JB-Weld.

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Day 15 - 4/21

In NJ.

Day 16 - 4/22

In NJ. Pop's b'day.

Day 17 - 4/23

In NJ. Finished gas tank repairs - we'll see how long it holds.

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Day 18 - 4/24

In NJ. Fixed lawn tractor, planted the garden, fixed loose siding, power washed the drive, and other outdoor projects.

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Day 19 - 4/25

In NJ. Went to the boardwalk. Blah!

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Day 20 - 4/26

In NJ. Pressure washed most of the day.

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Day 21 - 4/27

In NJ.

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Day 22 - 4/28

In NJ. Lots more power washing. Such fun.

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Day 23 - 4/29

In NJ.

Day 24 - 4/30

In NJ. Won two M105A2s - pics from GL below.

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Day 25 - 5/1

In NJ.

Day 26 - 5/2

In NJ.

Day 27 - 5/3

In NJ.

Day 28 - 5/4

In NJ. Built a bike.

Day 29 - 5/5

In NJ. Got some photos of flowers in the rain.

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Day 30 - 5/6

In NJ.

Day 31 - 5/7

In NJ.

Day 32 - 5/8

In NJ. Non-rainy pictures of above flowers.

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Day 33 - 5/9

In NJ.

Day 34 - 5/10

In NJ.

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