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Old 11-15-2011, 12:44 AM #46
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Spotted some Coyotes




We arrived in Zion in the middle of the night, awoke surrounded by huge canyon walls and beautiful CLEAR weather! Something we have been lacking most of the trip.














Spent most of the day hiking around Zion, then headed off to explore more of Southern Utah.

Headed to Bryce Canyon. Amazing Scenery of course.






Bryce Canyon was pretty well snowed out when we got there, Still checked it out.




Spent most of the time running out the overlook then back to the car, was about 30F outside at the time! Too cold for this Florida boy.




From Bryce we headed down another backroad towards Capitol Reef National Park, sun went down and we setup another freezing camp. Awoke in the morning to frost covering the truck once again and dreary cloud cover.


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Old 11-15-2011, 12:46 AM #47
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The beautiful dirt road through Capitol Reef made up for the weather. This is a great drive and there was no one out here but us. We enjoyed taking our time cruising through this beautiful place.
















Eventually the dirt road led us to Glen Canyon National Recreation area, which is home to most of Lake Powell. Similar to Hetch Hetchy in the Sierras, a environmental tragedy took place here where we dammed up the Colorado River and flooded the majestic Glen Canyon to increase water supply to the surrounding area. The created reservoir was named Lake Powell after one of my heroes.








We hit the highway once again and headed towards the 4x4’er mecca. AKA MOAB, UTAH!


Got to Moab in the middle of the night, shacked up in a cheap motel. I thought I had heard some strange noises coming from our trash bag we had been carrying since Grand Canyon. Messed around for a bit with it and didn’t see anything, figured I was just crazy. Next morning Lauren is doing Yoga and hears the same noises coming from the bag. We snatched it up and dumped it into the bathtub to investigate.

HITCHHIKER!


Screaming like little girls and dancing around the room in our underwear trying to catch him but he ended up escaping somewhere in the motel room. Sorry Motel6!
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Old 11-15-2011, 12:46 AM #48
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ow that our adrenaline was pumping it was time to go beat on the truck some. We headed to the “Poison Spider 4x4 Trail” to try our luck and see how far we could make it. Lauren has never been 4wheeling before and was pretty much peeing her pants the entire time as we drove all over this place. The 4Runner with little 31 inch tires and open differentials is still a pretty capable machine.









http://youtu.be/yzfzb9Tzjcs



http://youtu.be/f_T6A-4aWdQ





http://youtu.be/sJFLebowm0s





http://youtu.be/nPaj3VB_0rg

After mashing around in Moab for most of the day we were headed up to Grand Junction, CO. An awesome guy from MarlinCrawler forums had offered to help us fix up a few issues with the truck that we did not have the tools or knowledge to tackle ourselves.











Drove around Colorado National Monument looking for a campspot, eventually found some dirt road that we took, kept getting higher and higher into the mountain. Eventually we were driving through deep snow in the middle of no where, figured we should turn around. Well the rear wheels dropped into a icy rut and we were stuck. 30 minutes of winching later we were turned around and headed back down the road. The Smittybuilt winch is no longer a virgin and it worked like a champ!

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Old 11-15-2011, 12:47 AM #49
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Next morning headed over to Phillip’s shop in Grand Junction. The shops name is Karnage Fabrication, Phillip knows Toyota’s like the back of his hand. He has owned over 50 of them and had ours torn apart and fixed back up in no time. This guy was a lifesaver, The Toyota community is an great group and I feel honored to have met such an awesome guy and his beautiful family. We replaced the oil pan cork gasket with the proper sealant, fixed up a leaky inner shat oil seal, and replaced the failing AUTO hubs with some beefy AISIN manual hubs. Thanks again Phil, you are our hero! And Thanks to Sean and Ace for grabbing some much needed parts. It was great to meet all of you!









Lauren and Phil’s daughter became bestest of friends.


4x4 Fabrication/Arts and Crafts. Karnage Fabrication has it all!


Headed off today for Vail to meet up with one of my dad’s old friends. Speaking of which… I should probably get on the horn and let him know were coming!
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Old 11-15-2011, 01:01 AM #50
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Spent most of the time running out the overlook then back to the car, was about 30F outside at the time! Too cold for this Florida boy.
Then you're in Utah at the wrong time. Come back in August, it'll be 110.
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Old 11-15-2011, 01:35 AM #51
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Awesome thread! You just went though my town Page,AZ not too long ago. Great write up and the pictures are amazing! This is exactly what I've always wanted to do. Look forward to reading about your journey. I've noticed the amazing support that comes with forum communities like this one and I'm always willing to help out. God Speed!
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Old 11-15-2011, 04:17 PM #52
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Those "Accurate" brand indoor/outdoor thermometers can tend to be off by a lot.
So be wary or what they read, i suggest getting a higher quality one is all.

I made the drive down to TruJilo, Peru 7 years ago, Just be safe, carry little cash, As much gas as you can. I hope you are planning to get that 2nd gas can asap.
I am not trying to be a negative nancy but just be careful, the respect for life strongly lowers in South America and Caucasion Americans stand out and are targeted quickly by those criminal types, so think out in detail where you camp and if you are easily seen from the road. Think of how the military chooses their camp locations and you should be OK

Good luck on your trip, take your time and I would suggest teaching your female co-pilot how to drive the truck especially in 4X4 situations. You mentioned she was on her first time offloading with you, and if you got in a situation where you were hurt she would need the skills to be competent using the truck for what it's built for.

Do you have a Hi-lift jack? I do not see it mounted on the exterior as the other 100% of drivers keep them. If you do not have one, you need to buy one like NOW. They can also be used as a winch, you have on up front but what if you needed to pull out the back end or roll the truck, you can use a hi-lift to bring it upright or pull a side of the truck sideways or to a strange angle.

you should also have a big can of wd-40, you would be surprised how useful it can be to loosen tight or locked nuts and washers.

also a shovel is a good thing to have, get a good one with a fiberglass handle, do not get a wood handle cause they are exposed to the elements, split and crack and not as dependable

also a water purifier pumps campers use is a great thing to have, always good to have like 10 lighters, fire is your friend and lighters tend to get lost.

I am a ex-special forces 3 time Iraq war tour veteran and the basics are the things people always get tripped on and multiply simple problems.

You mentioned earlier how you do not listen to nay-sayers, but if you follow that mentality you could really get yourself in a pickle down south. You are going to be quite surprised how simple things are void in those countries, and emergency help doesn't exist like it does in the U.S.

Just some food for thought, and I hope the best for your trip and will check it out for updates, but most importantly enjoy the ride and don't take unnecessary risks and you will have a blast.
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Old 11-15-2011, 04:31 PM #53
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I have actually driven south of the border. Mexico and Belize and I have to say, be really careful and assume the worst is going to happen.

Not to scare you. The roads are horrid. Parts, no existent, in particular on an American vehicle 20 years old. If you were driving a 20 year old french car, maybe. If you axle snaps and you are in Costa Rica, it will be a pain to find a replacement part. My mother was a medical missionary down there, and I would go to visit her often. The thing you start to notice the quickest is the American and Canadian tourists, who wander off the beaten path, and got themselves is very dangerous places. She left Belize in 2007, before the global crash, but even then we noticed a significant rise in crime. Northern and Southern Mexico is to the point I won't even consider going there. Honestly. It is very, very, very bad. Calderon's war on Drugs is going badly. My suggestion to you? Keep enough fuel on you to not stop often in Northern or Southern Mexico.

White people stick out and your ride screams to them "money"...


Last. Be 100% sure on your vehicle. The roads are horrid, the parts impossible to find, and the fuel dirty.

Also. On a more practical note: All the stuff on the outside of your truck will be stolen as soon as possible. Seriously, I know this from experience! It looks pretty, but fuel is fuel, and they will steal it!
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Old 11-23-2011, 06:23 PM #54
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thanks for the advice guys, were pretty well prepared and expect the unexpected. we are following plenty of others doing this trip safe and sound. be aware of your surroundings, dont put yourself in sketchy situations and you should come out OK on the other side.
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Old 11-23-2011, 06:27 PM #55
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With Thanksgiving quickly approaching we had to step our game up. No more dilly dallying! We still have a few obligations to our parental units to uphold and one of them was Thanksgiving dinner in Florida. Unfortunately this means we had to pick up the pace from Colorado to Florida in order to hit our deadline. We missed a lot of great stuff and look forward to coming back someday to revisit lots of sites along the way. Luckily we have lots of friends along the way to stop in and crash for the night. Less camping shots on this post.

Heading out from Moab towards Colorado. We stopped off in Beaver Creek, CO to visit an old friend. Tommy is one of my dads best friends and basically an uncle to me and my brothers. It was great catching up with him and nice to get out of the cold for a bit. Tommy is a wild man, loves deep-sea diving, heli-skiing, dragracing, and basically raising hell. When I was younger he gave me my first job, let me get away with all my shenanigans, and was there to kick my ass when I needed it. A good guy indeed.

Beaver Creek, Nice little ski town. Still needs more snow to get pumping.


Fellow hellraisers


A little further up the mountain, Vail, CO had runs open and people skiing.


From Beaver Creek we stopped in Denver to see another old friend. We all call him Howie, I think his real name is Chris. But he has always been Howie to us. I met Howie back during my brief-stint with college. A lifetime friend and accomplice, how we got away with 1/2 the stuff we pulled I will never know. We stopped in unexpectedly and they were planning to go to a concert that night.

We tagged along planning to buy tickets and join them.

BOO! Sold out!


Oh well, old friends can still party down together; show or no show. We easily scalped his tickets. Howie and his girlfriend Courtney made a $50 profit! Headed across the street to imbibe for a bit….

Came back later to at least try to get a poster… and discovered the box office selling some last minute tickets for $20 a pop! SCORE!





Had a blast at the show, made some new friends at Howie’s local watering hole, had a Taylor Swift karaoke contest (Don’t ask!), and hit the hay.



Woke up hazy the next morning, headed over to the Red Rocks. Red Rocks is a naturally occurring amphitheater in the huge boulders/cliffs outside Denver. It is a beautiful place to see a concert, unfortunately they were closed for the season but you can still mill around the place and check it out.







Scooted down from Denver towards Texas. Stopped for the night and camped on some BLM land just outside of Great Sand Dunes National Park. Courtney had mentioned that we should come here and see the dunes.

Woke up in the AM and checked out the park. If I have not mentioned this yet, if you plan on visiting more than 2 or 3 National Parks a year it is definitely worth picking up an America: The Beautiful” Annual Access pass. I have used this thing at least 20+ times this year, it is a one-time fee of $80 but it gets you into all National/Federal Parks/Monuments/Recreation/Seashore areas. I have saved around $300 in park fees so far this year by getting this pass. You can pick it up at any national park or order it online. It is a painless and quick process. Definitely worth it if you love our nations parks as much as we do.

Great Sand Dunes National Park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America. They have been swept down from the mountains across the San Luis Valley and pushed up against the edge of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range where they have grown and grown for ages.















Found a 4x4 road that took us along the backside of the dunes up into the mountain. Aside from Death Valley this is the only national park I have found that had legit 4x4 roads. We aired down and mashed around in the sand for a while.
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Old 11-23-2011, 06:27 PM #56
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After playing around in the sandbox we headed south again, down into New Mexico, camped out on some more BLM land somewhere near the Texas border. Caught a beautiful sunset then drifted off to sleep in the truck.


Eastbound and down, made it to TEXAS!






Lauren saw her first tumbleweed, it was a beast!


My grandfolks live in a small town near Grandbury, TX. My family has lived on this land since the civil war days. Stopped in for the night to say howdy. There are also lots of fossils and dinosaur artifacts in the area, we went to the state Dinosaur Park to check out some tracks.

Grandpa and I in front of the old stone house my grandma was born in. New roof upgrade obviously.






Dino footprint, unfortunately the river was muddy and we couldn't see most of the prints. Still pretty cool.






We had to hike quite a bit to get out to the footprints through some pretty rugged terrain. My grandparents are almost 80 and did it with no sweat. Its true! Everything is tougher in Texas. Love you guys!

Headed out from there, South bound. We could feel humidity starting to pick up in the air and finally started to shed some layers. Getting closer to home!!!





Stopped somewhere in Davey Crockett National Forest for night and caught another beautiful Texas sunset.


Woke among among the tall lanky southern pines of the forest. It got pretty humid overnite, rained a bit too. I have a big ol’ trucker fan that I need to hook up to help get a nice breeze going for these muggy nights.
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Old 11-23-2011, 06:28 PM #57
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Hit the highway, We were boogying now. Still decided to take the scenic route all through Southern Louisiana along the Gulf Coast. It had been almost 2 years since we have seen her waters.



Caught a ferry to get to the otherside of the canal, met a nice couple on the ferry who have traveled all around California to many of the same places we just came from. Was nice talking to you guys!



Things were starting to get familiar, spanish moss hangs lazily from swamp oaks.


This coastal drive was beautiful, we went through lots of little small towns which sadly had no remains of their original structures. Almost every single structure has been blown away in storms and replaced with mobile/prefabbed homes. I do admire the resilience of the people to return to the decimated area though.

“Cajun Highrise”


Stopped for the night with Lauren’s aunt in New Orleans, had some killer seafood for dinner and hung out with her soccer playing micro-dog, Dixie Deux







Headed out the next morning, cut to Alabama and drove down to Dauphine Island to take another coastal route along the Gulf Coast.











Caught another Ferry from Dauphine Island over to Gulf Shores.


Please make a U-Turn when possible!!








Pressing on through the night, we ran into a horrible thunderstorm, sheets of rain, and huge puddles. YEP, MUST BE…

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Old 11-23-2011, 06:34 PM #58
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Aside from Death Valley this is the only national park I have found that had legit 4x4 roads.
Didn't you spend any time in Canyonlands? Come back to Utah when you have time, we'll drive the White Rim.
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Old 11-23-2011, 06:46 PM #59
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doh! forgot about CanyonLands, Utah was so wild it didnt even seem like a park. Lets do it!
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Old 11-24-2011, 03:44 AM #60
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Any time, brother, just give me a couple months notice so I can get permits.
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