Jeeping Across America - Wanderings Of The West

[NFRs2000NYC]

Well, it was that time of year again....a year of craziness with two kids, work, and general daily life required us to regain our sanity...so after much debating, a road trip was in order. I had a new Jeep that hasn't been properly broken in yet (4500 miles on the clock in 15 months) and an outdoor itch that I have been unable to scratch for quite some time.

The plan was, I would leave NJ on Sunday, and my wife would fly to Denver and meet me there on Wednesday. I left myself an extra day in case I run into foul weather on my journey west, but as it will turn out, it isn't me that will need the extra time.

Sunday afternoon, the day I am supposed to leave....I get an email from United that my wife's flight is cancelled. The Snowpocalypse that is supposed to hit the NE monday night into tuesday is going to affect all the flights into wednesday, so they cancelled it. I called United, and they stick her on the next flight, which is thursday. I checked the forecast for the remainder of that week and see more snow in the forecast....I tell the wife that she can take a chance on flying out thursday but by doing that, her insurance policy (me) wont be here and she would have to wait for yet another flight out, wasting valuable vacation time. After a bit of deliberation, she decides the smarter move is to drive out with me, as we would get there the same time as the flight would (or earlier.)

So, having a partner for the drive out, I began loading the jeep up...since the last time I did one of these, I have bought a cargo shelf, which allows me to keep stuff off the floor, and with careful packing, one can have a super comfortable bed for 1. The wife didn't enjoy the 42 hour drive last time sitting in a near upright position, so I wanted to make damn sure that I had a very comfortable place for us to sleep when we take turns driving. I have received a bunch of PMs last time about my packing and such, so I tried to take some pics and videos of it.....

The road and trail kit has tree straps, fuses, winch remote, transfer case linkage thingies, D rings, and things of that nature.

Food bin has 90% of the stuff for food cooking and cleaning.

All literature on where Im going

Dried/Canned food and cooking hardware

All tools except my socket set

Chairs and an arctic sleeping bag

Quick vid I made of the sleeping setup...sorry it was a bit dark, but I think you get the idea....

More to come.......

 

[GreggNY]

Subscribed...

 

[HoosierWolf]

Looking forward to the updates :thumb:

 

[MaxPower]

When are you expecting to hit KC? If I'm free id be interested in showing you some good bbq for lunch or dinner

 

[budmanm3]

When are you expecting to hit KC? If I'm free id be interested in showing you some good bbq for lunch or dinner

If im not mistaken I think the trip is already completed.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

When are you expecting to hit KC? If I'm free id be interested in showing you some good bbq for lunch or dinner

I appreciate the offer brother, but I am already home. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to stop on my journey. I am hoping my trip in the fall will give me more time to stop on the way and enjoy some sites. Also, unlike this thread, I will try and do what Eddie does and post live as the trip is happening so that any opportunities with local members can be seized. :thumb:

 

[jeeeep]

nice packing :thumb:

What cargo shelf is that?

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

nice packing :thumb:

What cargo shelf is that?

Ace cargo shelf. Nice unit, would recommend.

 

[Jackal01]

So you're already done with the trip?

 

[Canvas JK]

For some reason National Lampoon's Vacation keeps coming to mind.

Have a blast and keep us all posted. Use the Roadside America App to find cool places to stop.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

So we left at around 11pm to stay ahead of any weather that we may run into, and away from as much traffic as possible. Since it was a workday for my wife and I was off, she would sleep the night while I drove, for a 10-12 hour shift. Usually this brings us into Ohio, Pennsylvania is a lot longer than it looks.

Normally, I don't really have a hard time with a long drive like this, but this one wore me out. I was driving into a horrible headwind/crosswind which required A LOT of attention and constant steering input (but nothing like my return trip that I'll talk about later) and I was only able to do about 65mph comfortably, otherwise, the Jeep would get pushed around too easily, making the situation unsafe....the downsides of driving a barn.

After a long night of battling the wind (and having my MPG murdered into the 13s) I was starving, and just like my previous trips, a stop at my favorite roadside breakfast places was in order....

After we loaded up on 6700 calories a piece, we once again hit the road, only the wife to take a short leg to let me catch a few zzz's.

Shortly after getting back on to the highway, we came upon a wreck where we couldn't really tell WTF happened....

And just like the other trips, the wife brought us into Indiana...

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

So you're already done with the trip?

Yes sir. I made a thread during the trip asking about death valley, but that was it. Due to our time constraints, I wasn't able to stop in too many places in between, but on my next trip, I'd love to post live so that I can meet up for some grub with some WOLifers. :thumb:

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

For some reason National Lampoon's Vacation keeps coming to mind.

Have a blast and keep us all posted. Use the Roadside America App to find cool places to stop.

Just wait..... :cheesy::cheesy::cheesy:

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

After lunch, the wife and I swapped seats again and I took over into Illinois and into the evening sunset.

It was a most welcome sight to see the temps, even at night have crawled their way up.....unseasonably high I was told....We went from freezing to Florida weather in a very short amount of time...

As usual, driving through kansas at night was quite a lonely experience. Howard Stern on Sirius, wife sleeping in the back, and the howl of the wind outside.

By the time the sun came up, I have gotten us to the rockies...and now became the fun job of climbing vail pass, which if some of you remember from my previous thread, was a big chore with my last Jeep with 3.21 gears and 33s. This one has 4.10s and 35s.

 

[Jackal01]

Yes sir. I made a thread during the trip asking about death valley, but that was it. Due to our time constraints, I wasn't able to stop in too many places in between, but on my next trip, I'd love to post live so that I can meet up for some grub with some WOLifers. :thumb:

I was just confused. Not complaining! :yup:

Anxious to see the photos and story!

 

[UGAdudeoo7]

Subscribed. Really enjoying this trip. Vicariously of course.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

Our plan for this trip was to stop in Colorado for a few days to soak in some hot springs and relax for a few days, then pack it up and keep it moving, since most Colorado trails are closed in the winter. Having said that, we actually didn't plan anything after Colorado. I didn't book any hotels, didn't even have any idea where we were going to go...I tossed up New Mexico, Utah, etc, but for now, we just wanted to get to our destination in Colorado, which was Glenwood Springs.

Driving up Vail pass the snow begin to show, but hardly anything major....we were surprised (and sort of disappointed) considering we left snow storms and bitter cold back home...we were hoping for a proper colorado winter...

But alas, it was not to be. Talking to some of the locals, it has been one of the mildest winters in ages, temps were VERY warm and no good snow in sight. Local businesses were getting killed because of lack of snow.

Prius? Who the hell needs a prius!

This FedEx driver was absolutely batsh!t crazy. He was trying to hit every apex going lane to lane and was doing a solid 80mph...I kept the hell away from him.

Finally, after around 34 hours of driving, we have arrived at our destination....Glenwood Springs Lodge.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

Now one of my favorite things to do is to soak in hot water in freezing temps while it's snowing, but the day we arrived, it was 65 degrees, which I thought was a bit ridiculous since I was sitting at 8800 feet on top of a rocky mountain and I just got in from sea level NJ that was 5 below. Crazy, but whatever, time to soak off some stiff limbs. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend this place....Glenwood Springs Lodge...the pool is divided into 2....the main pool is 405 feet long by 100 feet wide, and is just a hair over 1 million gallons and it sits at 94 degrees F year round. The second pool is smaller and is only 100 feet long and 100 feet wide, but it is a toasty 104F. The water has over 15 different minerals, leaving your skin oh so soft. While the SOURCE of the water does smell of sulfur (when you are walking to the pool), by the time the water reaches the pool most of the SOx is up in the air already and the pool doesn't smell at all. My wife is very sensitive to sulfur smells, so if she was good, everyone is good. If you have a hard time convincing the wife to take a road trip, this place is a fantastic bullet for your ammo stockpile in convincing her, along with the spa.

Since we were only in Colorado for a few days, we wanted to do two things....check out some caves and snowmobile. The first day the snow sucked, and snowmobiling is expensive, so I decided to take my chances and wait for better weather the following day, so we decided to take a cave tour at glenwood caverns.

The caverns are on the side/top of a mountain, which also has a fairly dope "roller coaster" (more like a sled coaster that you control the speed.....fun) so you need to take a gondola up there....

Now the caverns are broken up into 2 parts, the upper, and the lower. THe tours are about 50 minutes each and are spread out so that you can catch both without having to wait the hour...IMHO, if you are ever here, skip the upper, it's fairly boring, and Im a huge cave nut.

The cave system has a very interesting story, and like a bastard child, has been passed around owner to owner for the longest time, until recently when a private owner decided to excavate and develop the land.

The Upper system is kinda boring, without too many cool formations, and it's very tight in there. On top of that, they are crazy about you touching or scraping the rock inside, so they made me leave my camera bag in a storage locker. I took my SLR inside, but the pics are bleh so I didn't even bother with them, so iphone pics it is.

The lower system is far more impressive, with much larger rooms, MUCH bigger formations, and far more grandiose.

After the tours, we decided to head back, take another soak, and go to dinner....

Can you find the jeep

Back at the hotel, the temps dropped, and now the steam from the pools can be seen....

Very nice after a day of hiking.

We ate dinner at juicy lucy's steakhouse...

Elk wrapped in filo...barely edible. Elk was murdered, ground to a pulp and mixed with a mushroom paste that obliterated any flavor it had left, and the entire thing was overcooked.

I had a T bone because I figured it was safe...and it was...it was ok.

Wife played it safe as well, and just got a steamed lobster.

After dinner we went back to the room and called it a night, for tomorrow it would be snow mobiling time and then we depart Colorado.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

Our last day in Colorado was a lucky one...while it was nasty and raining at the hotel, up on the mountains it snowed all night, and dumped a nice amount of fresh powder, so we grabbed our gear and headed up to go snowmobiling. Now, my wife has never done it, so I was hoping it would be ideal conditions for a first timer, but luckily for her, conditions were pristine. Now only did we all get first dibs on fresh snow, but the scenery was jawdropping going through the woods and up/down the mountain.


So getting here was fun, as the roads were slick

You couldn't have asked for more ideal conditions....pure winter wonderland.

Our guide stopping to see if anyone wanted a pee break (entire tour we booked was 60 miles long, which goes by quickly because you're having so much fun.) which I gladly took. Luckily our group was my wife and I and a family of 8 and they were all cool, and good riders, so we kept a great pace.

I absolutely love these trees. The guide told me what they were called, but I forgot....their burnt copper color is gorgeous against the pristine white backdrop.

After about 25 miles, he took us out to a flat area, and let everyone go bananas for around 30 minutes, lots of fun. People basically went as fast as they had the balls to. Most machines topped out at 60mph, mine had a hybrid track on it so I could hit around 70, while the guide could hit over 100mph.

Snow was waist deep near the summit.

After a full day of snowmobiling, we went back to the hotel, took a nice soak, then went to dinner...where we would stuff our faces and talk about where we are going to go tomorrow....

Dinner was at a place called "Smoke" which was a modern bbq place. Based on what we had, it was ok.

Bacon wrapped shrimp (tasted like bacon but thats it, slaw was good)

Smoked Wings (far to vinegary for my taste but cooked VERY well)

A rack of ribs that my wife forgot to take a pic of (nothing to write home about)
A crock of mac and cheese that was bland as hell

And this german chocolate browning which was incredible.

During dinner, and a long discussion, we decided to trek into Utah, and my wife would do me a favor and let me go to Moab.... so with that bombshell, we went back to the room, and back to bed, because tomorrow, Moab in the new Jeep.

 

[NFRs2000NYC]

So, having an awesome wife and getting my official Moab pass, we get up at the crack of dawn and head out....

The scenery changes dramatically as you leave colorado...

Another bonus of having a Jeep...nearly impossible to get caught speeding, the most I did was around 87 or so on the flats.

Views in every direction...

Time to say goodbye to my favorite state...

And hello to my second favorite

You guys don't even know the excitement I feel in my fizzy bits when this comes into my view....

We grabbed lunch at the side of the colorado river, and I decided to break the jeep's virginity and anoint it with the red mud of Moab, so I took a canyon road to our hotel...

It rained for the last two days so things were quite muddy. After we checked into the hotel, I drove down to my favorite carwash (I know Moab inside out) and got cleaned up for the adventures tomorrow.