Roadtrip pictures

[bp71k5]

One of the reasons the primer in my cab and bed wasn't able to dry was because I took the memorial day weekend to drive up to Walla Walla, Wa to visit Chefbear. I offered to take the hardtop he wasn't going to use off his hands.

Bear in mind, most of these were taken with one hand on a camera phone at freeway speed.

This is Mount Shasta off I5 in northern CA.


Same mountain on one of my many many stops to get gas.


This was a small town in Oregon off highway 97 somewhere north of Klameth Falls. After driving for a long time, I was getting really nervous about finding gas and finally came upon this place with some cool bikes out front. The attendant chick even commented that my truck was cool and she really liked the 3/4 ton axles. She said she had a 75 k5. (Sorry, no pics of her.)


This is the Columbia river on the border of WA and OR. Pretty cool seeing this huge river appear after driving for so long through little tiny towns.


Columbia river again. I got out and climbed up the hill a bit to get a picture of the hydro electric dam and the windmills on the hill. I also didn't notice the sign until now. Still haven't reached the rocks yet.

 

[bigblock72]

That is some neat country, I love the Columbia river area. I was there in 2007 and can't wait to go back. The Klamath Falls area is pretty cool especially north up to Crater Lake. I think I could see myself disappearing up in that area when I retire.


Were you wearing shoes in any of these pictures??

 

[bp71k5]

This is the hardtop after a while of extracting spiders, a bit of sweating, and locating some C-clamps to hold it on since the mounting hole pattern on the bed portion was different than mine. The front and rear clips fit ok. It included a gun rack, some NRA stickers and even a windage wing.



This is a parking lot shot of the hotel in Walla Walla. After staying at a couple motel 6's, it was a particular treat staying in an amazing hotel suite and enjoying spectacular wine and dinner at the chef's table with his family. That alone made the trip worthwhile even if it didn't include a top for my K5.


Another shot of the Columbia on the way back. Really beautiful.


Another river at a rest stop where I stopped to pee. Oddly enough some guy walk by out of the blue and says, "Cool truck, did you install those 3/4 ton axles?"


One interesting trip event that I should have taken pictures of but didn't was a little while after I got over the Ca border, I kept finding a few ants crawling around on my legs and shirt. I knew the top had some ants on it when we installed it, but figured they'd go away after some driving.

After flicking ants off my leg for a half hour, I turned around to see if I could see where they were coming from and just about freaked. They were crawling EVERYWHERE! It was like a sea of ants in the back of my truck. There was a nest or two in the top and I guess the CA heat caused them to start looking for other shelter and food. The wind was blowing them back from the drivers window and a few would land on me every few minutes.

I had to stop at a gas station that had a car wash and used the vacuum for a while to try sucking them all out. That just seemed to make them mad, and so I found a safeway that had bug spray and spent a half hour in the parking lot battling them in the 100 degree weather. A homeless lady even came by and asked if I needed help.

I'm back home now. It was a fun roadtrip even with the little stow-aways. The new dana60 3/4 ton axle did just fine the entire trip except for when I got to the border check the attendant said I was still in 4wd and he could see my stub axles turning. Then he said, "Those 3/4 ton axles are pretty cool." It turns out my drivers side locking hub keeps trying to lock after driving a while. I gotta try and fix that since I noticed a 1 mpg improvement after I taped it up to prevent it from engaging.

Anyway, much thanks to Chefbear and his family for the great food, hospitality, and truck parts.

 

[bp71k5]

Were you wearing shoes in any of these pictures??

Ha! While finish welding up the floor pan, I was walking (barefoot again) inside the bed to get to the passenger floor to finish some grinding and forgot that I left a couple panel clamps installed (the ones with sharp wing nuts on top).

Once I was able to hobble into the house on one foot, bandage myself up, decide I didn't need stitches, and finally clean up the trail of blood, I decided that shoes are mandatory tools that need to be included in my garage activities. I had to wear shoes the entire trip to keep the bandage in place.

I'll save bare feet for the beach.

 

[Yukon Jack]

What, the homeless lady didn't notice the 3/4 ton axles????

 

[sponsoredbydad]

That area sure looks great. And that story about the ants LOL. Yea what up with that homeless lady how could she not notice

 

[bp71k5]

I should say she may not have been homeless, but I assumed that since she was walking around asking for money. She obviously thought I was pretty distraught since she only asked for some cash after I told her I'd be ok. That made my ant problem feel a little less large.

 

[bigbadchev84]

Thats awesome, great pictures too! I wish i could have made it up to meet you. How many mpg did you average? I got 15.3 on my wheeling trip, that was hiway and wheeling, I was really impressed! I had my buddy set his trip meter on his speddo that was calibrated.

 

[bp71k5]

No problem. Bear said you are a big help and I can understand why if the compensation package is so tasty.

I was getting 11 at best and down to 9 with the hub partially locked. I do know I have a tuning problem with the TBI computer.

 

[ChefBear]

Good to meet you!

It was great to have Brian come up and haul off the Spider Ranch/Ant Farm out of the backyard. I spent today clearing out that spot and moving the wood pile and construction began on a new clubhouse, swing, slide princess castle thingy for the girls. Now that the ants are gone!

Sorry we didn't have time to go curbflexing, it would have been a blast. How's the wife like the bowl?

 

[Moody]

Cool pics.....I've made that trip at least a dozen times over the years as I used to live in Redding, CA and drove up to Yakima, WA (where I live now). In fact I towed my blazer down to CA when I first bought it, and then towed it back to Washington two years later. That little town you saw the bikes in ( I forget the name) is a cool little place. I also stop there for a rest stop and they have a little park in town to rest a while. Brings backs lots of memories!

 

[bp71k5]

How's the wife like the bowl?

She thinks it's pretty cool, although she was asking what kind of wood it was. I forgot if you told me, but it kinda looks like mahogany. Now we have to find something to put on it.

I did get to do a little 4x4 in 2wd on the freeway after i missed an exit. the next one was 11 miles does the road so I got to wheel through about 20 feet of grass in the center divide. No wheeling on big stuff like curbs though.

That little town you saw the bikes in ( I forget the name) is a cool little place. I also stop there for a rest stop and they have a little park in town to rest a while.

Yes, that's the place. I remember because I stopped by the parks restroom because the gas station one had "just broken" according to the guy working there.