The RedBurb

[ZooMad75]

Man I know every mile of that drive from Aspen to Walsenburg.

Taking a non-turbo oil burner up to the top of Indy had to be a fun ride. My favorite is the narrow section right out of Aspen where the upper crust don't budge an inch to let a wide squarebody by. It is very scenic going up and down for sure. The rest of the ride down from Leadville to Salida is pretty in that valley. Many trails I've explored around there.

Did you cut the corner off and pull off of hwy 50 and go through Westcliffe to get to Walsenburg or run 50 all the way to I-25 in Pueblo? I suspect you went through Westcliffe as it's a route with much less traffic than 50. Again that's a great drive too.

I love reading about trips through my little neck of the woods as one gets to see it with new eyes. I'm happy the rest of the trip was uneventful and down hill for you too!

 

[ktmoutfront]

If you were doing 20mph at the top of IP, you were doing well.

I rode up Pikes Peak in a 6.2 NA K5. The bicycle we passed at the bottom, passed us at the top. We were in low range to finish the drive up.

 

[ZooMad75]

If you were doing 20mph at the top of IP, you were doing well.

I rode up Pikes Peak in a 6.2 NA K5. The bicycle we passed at the bottom, passed us at the top. We were in low range to finish the drive up.

I've climbed indy with my old '75 with a worn out 350 and a carb and my '91 with the 5.3. Both struggled, but I had not found the problem for the fuel starvation at that time so it stalled out a couple of times going up.

I don't like being "that guy" holding up the people behind me, but I sure was on both those days.

 

[mrk5]

My favorite is the narrow section right out of Aspen where the upper crust don't budge an inch to let a wide squarebody by.

That's what I like about knowing my truck well because I'll not give anymore space than needed so hopefully freaks them out.

 

[AugustDiesel]

The next day proved to be a much less stressful drive. Also, we approached our trip home a bit differently than the trip out. On our way out, we nailed the travel in 3 days: two 13 hour days and one 6 hour day. On the way home, we managed a solid 8 hours each day until we got home. Except for maybe this day. I can’t remember, might have been 10 hours. We had a special destination to reach that day, which meant crossing the entire state of Kansas in one day.

The truck, driver, and family were up to the task. Crossing Kansas was a breeze for this old fossil, and the truck easily traversed the state at an average speed of 80mph and relatively low rpms.

Before we reached our destination, I stopped to fill up and was surprised by my calculated mileage: 26 mpg. I’m still not sure that’s accurate, and there’s something funky going on there, but nonetheless, our host did advise that the entire state of Kansas, from west to east, is one huge downhill ride. So maybe there’s some validity there.

This drive through Kansas was also one of my favorites, mainly for the extremely vast prairie lands and oil fields. I have never seen an oil rig in my life, and they were aplenty throughout the state, as well as the windmills.




Our destination and host for the evening was none other than Shane Stanley, @stan1688, owner of Four By Design.

Shane is an outstanding dude and our friendship started when he reached out to me after the wreck and asked, “Do you think having bumpers on your truck would have reduced the amount of damage? I can help”.

Shane has been a great personal friend ever since and is one of the guys that I depend on, sometimes on a daily basis, when I need expert advice on a project. It was really great to meet him in person, finally.

And, my boys absolutely loved the arcades they got to play at the pizza joint we met at for dinner.



Andy

 

[AugustDiesel]

Man I know every mile of that drive from Aspen to Walsenburg.

Taking a non-turbo oil burner up to the top of Indy had to be a fun ride. My favorite is the narrow section right out of Aspen where the upper crust don't budge an inch to let a wide squarebody by. It is very scenic going up and down for sure. The rest of the ride down from Leadville to Salida is pretty in that valley. Many trails I've explored around there.

Did you cut the corner off and pull off of hwy 50 and go through Westcliffe to get to Walsenburg or run 50 all the way to I-25 in Pueblo? I suspect you went through Westcliffe as it's a route with much less traffic than 50. Again that's a great drive too.

I love reading about trips through my little neck of the woods as one gets to see it with new eyes. I'm happy the rest of the trip was uneventful and down hill for you too!

We stayed off of the interstate and skipped Pueblo. The drive was awesome through Westcliffe.

If you were doing 20mph at the top of IP, you were doing well.

I rode up Pikes Peak in a 6.2 NA K5. The bicycle we passed at the bottom, passed us at the top. We were in low range to finish the drive up.

There were times when I could only go 12mph, for a short distance. Had a similar experience with some bikers and an RV.

I've climbed indy with my old '75 with a worn out 350 and a carb and my '91 with the 5.3. Both struggled, but I had not found the problem for the fuel starvation at that time so it stalled out a couple of times going up.

I don't like being "that guy" holding up the people behind me, but I sure was on both those days.

We were definitely “that guy” lol.

That's what I like about knowing my truck well because I'll not give anymore space than needed so hopefully freaks them out.

Same. Great thing about driving such a huge rig is there’s not much people can do about me being in their way.

 

[stan1688]

We felt the same about finally being able to meet you, your family, and the burb in person. You’ve done, and are continuing to do, great work on it. And thanks for representing FBD out in Moab, too. I can’t wait to see this truck continue and evolve.

 

[AugustDiesel]

Let’s wrap up this trip report, and bring it in for a landing.

There are just three days left in the trip at this point and not too many pictures left to share. From Independence, Kansas, we traveled through a little bit of Missouri - got to take a short trek on Route 66 - then cut across a small corner of Arkansas before we dipped into Tennessee for the night. The hotel we booked for the night near the airport in Memphis turned out to be less than desirable, so we kept on down the road and found a nice spot in Olive Branch, Mississippi.



The next day, we departed Olive Branch and dove straight down into Alabama through Birmingham, Montgomery, and a short drive across the southern edge of Georgia before we dipped into Florida for Tallahassee where my sister lives, which was our resting place for that evening.

Just before reaching Tallahassee though, we made a surprise visit by my parents place to say hello. We had not seen them (and still haven’t had a legit visit) since Christmas 2019 - thanks to the pandemic. My dad is high risk and they had been sheltering in place this whole time. For their safety, we stayed in the truck while they stayed behind their fence, and we talked through the windows. Not ideal, but it was sure good to see their faces. My dad says it was that visit that motivated them to get vaccinated as soon as they could, and we are looking at our first real visit with them very soon.



The next morning, Sunday, September 20, 2020, we departed for our final leg of our journey. There’s just a short 3 hour drive between Tallahassee and our home in Jacksonville, and these 3 hours passed quickly and somewhat wistfully.

And just like most things in life, what started out 16 days earlier as a long road ahead, was over in the blink of an eye, and we were back where we started.



To be honest, it’s really difficult putting into words just how special this trip was. Some might call this a once in a lifetime trip, but for me and my family, we know this isn’t the only time for us. We got to see more of America than I have ever seen in my lifetime, and more than most people ever will see. But what really made this trip truly special was all the people we got to meet along the way. Getting to meet so much of the CK5 brotherhood and other like-minded folks is flat out unforgettable, and we are looking forward to the next trip.

4,640 miles across 13 states in 16 days. That’s an adventure in any man’s book.



Truly, thank you to all of you for all of your support, encouragement, guidance, advice, and - most of all - friendship. These are memories that last a lifetime.



Bring on the next adventure!

Andy

 

[mrk5]

Now you have to make a trip to Oklahoma so you can fill in that void.

 

[Big10]

Now you have to make a trip to Oklahoma so you can fill in that void.

i think i would have went just for the sake of my ocd and seeing this map!

 

[AugustDiesel]

Now you have to make a trip to Oklahoma so you can fill in that void.

i think i would have went just for the sake of my ocd and seeing this map!

Haha, we joked about this quite a bit. Oklahoma got shafted. Haha

 

[campfire]

Excellent work, Good Sir. Trip reports are my favorite part of this forum.

And I like the looking-down-the-road shot.

Gives a sense of what that road is like. So many roads, and I have so little time to see them. I'll just hafta live vicariously through the pictures.

 

[AugustDiesel]

Excellent work, Good Sir. Trip reports are my favorite part of this forum.

And I like the looking-down-the-road shot.

Gives a sense of what that road is like. So many roads, and I have so little time to see them. I'll just hafta live vicariously through the pictures.

Thanks dude. It was an epic trip and exactly the payoff we needed from all the work done and all my family sacrificed while I did the work. We are definitely looking forward to traversing more roads, dirt, and rocks.

 

[AugustDiesel]

Now that the trip report is done, I need to catch up on the work I’ve done on the truck since the trip.

But before I do that, I wanted to share a special bit of news with you all here first, before it goes live on the Gram.

Long story short, I have been into wood working for many years building stuff for friends and family. I’ve always been told I should sell this stuff, but have always been reluctant to do so.

This year that changes. My wife and I have opened our own at-home shop building custom furniture and crafts via wood and metal working. We are at the tail-end of the organization stage, so nothing has been created yet, but I’ll share with you all as these things become reality. We even already have a couple prospects lined up.

The name of the company:

Rusty Cedar & Co., LLC.



BIG THANK YOU to @stan1688 for developing the logos for us! He’s one talented and patient dude .

The idea behind the name and model is to crank out products that utilize both wood working and recently acquired metal working skills.

Here’s a quick run-down on how we chose the name. We wanted something that signified both the wood and metal working, but was also deeply personal to us:

Rusty: This one should be obvious. Metal gets rusty and the truck’s nickname is “Rusty” and it was the truck where I learned metal working. So this was an easy fit.

Cedar: This clearly covers the wood working, but also tips the hat to the faith aspect of it all. Our faith is very important to us and we want to dedicate everything we do to God and let Him direct our paths (hence the scripture quote). “Cedar” has a lot of significance in the Old Testament of the Bible, so this was a sensible choice.

“& Co.”: Not wanting to restrain ourselves to just metal and woodworking, the “& Co.” gives us a bit of flexibility for expansion as new skills are developed.

This is what’s called a “Side Hustle”. In fact, I’ve been calling it a “Side-Side Hustle”. It doesn’t replace my primary employment, and it doesn’t take time away from my family. In fact, one of the rewarding parts about this is that it’s a whole-family affair. My wife does the craft part, I do the furniture part, we both manage, and the boys help out in anyway they can.



These first few steps are just a baby’s first steps, but we are excited about where this might lead.


All of this is, of course, why I bought the suburban in the first place, to be a work truck, and it’s there (save for some power steering issues I expect to have wrapped up this week).

Oh, and here’s some current shots of the suburban. It’s gotten a lot of paint and decals, and I’m going to have the company logo professionally installed on the front doors.



Till next time,

Andy

 

[The_Tomato]

I picked up reading this thread right at the beginning of your GA trip and read straight through from there. Let me tell you, this is one of the most inspiring threads I've ever read and it makes me want to jump under my truck and FIND something to do even though I'm waiting for parts to ship. You sure know how to get a guy fired up about wheeling

 

[AugustDiesel]

I picked up reading this thread right at the beginning of your GA trip and read straight through from there. Let me tell you, this is one of the most inspiring threads I've ever read and it makes me want to jump under my truck and FIND something to do even though I'm waiting for parts to ship. You sure know how to get a guy fired up about wheeling

Thank you for this. Really, this is very appreciated. I can hope for nothing more than to inspire others in their endeavors. I am just a guy who was willing to do the work. If it weren’t for the wealth of knowledge on this board and the quality of Offroad Design - their people and their parts - this build thread wouldn’t be much of anything.

Thank you for reading.

Go, build, and find adventure!


Andy

 

[campfire]

Nice work, man. I'm excited for your side-side gig.

Also, I like the stickers. They are well done. And that's high praise, as I hate stickers on vehicles. I hate them enough that I've even pulled stock badges off of my rigs. But yours are well selected and well placed.

 

[campfire]

You sure know how to get a guy fired up about wheeling

Yes. In fact, I suddenly feel a strong urge to go write up one another installment of my own trip report.

 

[AugustDiesel]

Nice work, man. I'm excited for your side-side gig.

Also, I like the stickers. They are well done. And that's high praise, as I hate stickers on vehicles. I hate them enough that I've even pulled stock badges off of my rigs. But yours are well selected and well placed.

Thank you sir! We are excited about what may come of it.

And a big thank you about the stickers. I’ve had them for a while, just waiting for the right canvas on which to apply them, and I’ve had a good collection from which to pull from.

Admittedly, it got a bit addicting lol.

There a couple more that will be going on, but they have to be custom made and professionally applied.

Yes. In fact, I suddenly feel a strong urge to go write up one another installment of my own trip report.

A doctor friend once told me, “If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen.” - interesting that this was his best advice ...

 

[AugustDiesel]

The suburban is now a company truck

I originally bought the burb to be a work truck and it’s always been a work-on truck instead. Time for that to change. Time to get to work. I love the old-school-company-truck look.



Andy