Sgt. Rock
Member
Just finished our cross-country trip. Nineteen days and 6720 miles…Jersey Shore to Harley Davidson Museum (Milwaukee before the riots) (I couldn’t wait to get back home and take a ride), then to the Badlands National Park and on to Wall, SD to visit Wall Drug…from Wall to Custer State Park, just south of Mount Rushmore, our next stop. From Rushmore to Devil’s Tower via Sturgis (the week before bike week) and spent the night in Gillette, WY. Our next stop was Cody, WY. We could have skipped it, but we weren’t really pressed for time. On to Yellowstone where we stayed one night in a cabin at the Lake Lodge and three nights in a cabin at Old Faithful Lodge (booked a year in advance!)
We left Yellowstone and went to Grand Teton National Park. Spent two nights in Jackson Hole, WY. Onward to Arches N.P., Zion and Bryce Canyon. (Should have scheduled a third day!) The Utah parks were the first stops on the ride home. There was a looong ride to Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park (should have been two days here) to see the cliff dwellings. The ride home from Cortez, CO was three nights and home on day four (about 25 hours driving time).
The 4Runner ran fine. Before we left, I had the front door windows tinted with a 20% tint which was pretty close to the factory tint and really did keep the inside cooler. I only had about 36,000 miles on the original Duelers, but they were near the wear bars, so I got a set of Cooper AT3s. They were quiet and rode well. Found out that my old Radio Shack CB doesn’t transmit anymore but it received OK.
I wanted to be sure that we could sleep in the back f there was a problem with motels anywhere, so I built a platform / storage compartment to level the floor. I removed the back seat seats and used the space for storage. That also gave me enough length to lie down w/o bending my knees (I’m exactly 6’ tall).
Lots of mountain roads…steep climbs (cruise control kicked in and I got to the point that I turned it off when there was a climb). The cruise control basically “floored it” when climbs caused a loss of speed…. wasted a lot of gas! The average MPG was 20.8. The speeds west of NJ go up to 70 mph on the PA Tpk to 75 or 80 in MN, SD, and WY. Nice to cruise at those speeds when you are in open country, but it sure lowers the MPG!
Got home last Thursday. The front was covered with the remains of bugs that were too slow to get out of the way. I planned on cleaning it on Friday, but the bug corpses were actually attracting flies, so I took care of it right away.
Got the ($100.00) oil change today and tires rotated, went thru the car wash, cleaned up the dusty interior and am now back to “normal”.
I’ve had the truck (2011) since Feb. 2012. It just turned 45,000 miles. We drove more in 19 days than I usually drive in 8 months.
THERE ARE A LOT OF BEAUTIFUL PLACES IN OUR COUNTRY…GOD HAS BLESSED AMERICA!
I'll be happy to provide more details if anybody needs help planning their own National Park trip. If you are a senior (over 60) you have to get the lifetime National Park Senior Pass.
We left Yellowstone and went to Grand Teton National Park. Spent two nights in Jackson Hole, WY. Onward to Arches N.P., Zion and Bryce Canyon. (Should have scheduled a third day!) The Utah parks were the first stops on the ride home. There was a looong ride to Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park (should have been two days here) to see the cliff dwellings. The ride home from Cortez, CO was three nights and home on day four (about 25 hours driving time).
The 4Runner ran fine. Before we left, I had the front door windows tinted with a 20% tint which was pretty close to the factory tint and really did keep the inside cooler. I only had about 36,000 miles on the original Duelers, but they were near the wear bars, so I got a set of Cooper AT3s. They were quiet and rode well. Found out that my old Radio Shack CB doesn’t transmit anymore but it received OK.
I wanted to be sure that we could sleep in the back f there was a problem with motels anywhere, so I built a platform / storage compartment to level the floor. I removed the back seat seats and used the space for storage. That also gave me enough length to lie down w/o bending my knees (I’m exactly 6’ tall).
Lots of mountain roads…steep climbs (cruise control kicked in and I got to the point that I turned it off when there was a climb). The cruise control basically “floored it” when climbs caused a loss of speed…. wasted a lot of gas! The average MPG was 20.8. The speeds west of NJ go up to 70 mph on the PA Tpk to 75 or 80 in MN, SD, and WY. Nice to cruise at those speeds when you are in open country, but it sure lowers the MPG!
Got home last Thursday. The front was covered with the remains of bugs that were too slow to get out of the way. I planned on cleaning it on Friday, but the bug corpses were actually attracting flies, so I took care of it right away.
Got the ($100.00) oil change today and tires rotated, went thru the car wash, cleaned up the dusty interior and am now back to “normal”.
I’ve had the truck (2011) since Feb. 2012. It just turned 45,000 miles. We drove more in 19 days than I usually drive in 8 months.
THERE ARE A LOT OF BEAUTIFUL PLACES IN OUR COUNTRY…GOD HAS BLESSED AMERICA!
I'll be happy to provide more details if anybody needs help planning their own National Park trip. If you are a senior (over 60) you have to get the lifetime National Park Senior Pass.
. Been to a few. 
