The Best Breve Latte You've Ever Had...And Me : A Summer Sojourn

[WILDHOBO]

Yeah, it's a nice little brew pub and the food is good. They had a seasonal beer I hadn't had before, Mexican Logger, and it was very tasty. So I had 3 of them, lol!!

I haven’t had that one either. I’m a big fan of their sour.

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[RudeJeepin]

Looks like a good time, fantastic photos.
My boys and I stopped by the Gearhead store, we nearly got lost in there. Easily could spend a mint in there.
I'll keep the Backcountry Experience in mind if we ever end up in Durango.
The Shaggy Coo looks interesting also. I want this saw blade.

Would be perfect for us, it has a Wrangler for my wife and a Gladiator (kinda) for me. Glad we're not there, $200 is more than I'd want to spend, but it would be hard not to.

Thanks for the pictures and ideas, keep them coming.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Looks like a good time, fantastic photos.
My boys and I stopped by the Gearhead store, we nearly got lost in there. Easily could spend a mint in there.
I'll keep the Backcountry Experience in mind if we ever end up in Durango.
The Shaggy Coo looks interesting also. I want this saw blade.

Would be perfect for us, it has a Wrangler for my wife and a Gladiator (kinda) for me. Glad we're not there, $200 is more than I'd want to spend, but it would be hard not to.

Thanks for the pictures and ideas, keep them coming.

I’ve never been in gear head. Now I must avoid it.

 

[HooliganActual]

My boys and I stopped by the Gearhead store, we nearly got lost in there. Easily could spend a mint in there.

I’ve never been in gear head. Now I must avoid it.

Yeah, the place in dangerous. While the Shaggy Coo is like a casino for me, GearHeads is like the d@mn IRS. Someone meets me at the door, takes my wallet from me and holds it at the counter.

It was funny because I had to show the guy working there that while they had the Gränsfors Bruk axe line, what they were missing is the brilliant sharpening stone that Gränsfors Bruk also sells. So of course I had to go dig mine out and bring it in to show them. I offered to trade it for an axe but they weren’t interested.

I also helped one of the associates show another customer how to open a Partner Steel stove because they couldn’t figure it out. At that point I became a Partner Steel Sales Rep and convinced the guy that was the stove he needed. Partner Steel stoves are made in Pocatello, ID where I used to live and all the outfitters and guides swear by them. Mine has been ticking for years.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Yeah, the place in dangerous. While the Shaggy Coo is like a casino for me, GearHeads is like the d@mn IRS. Someone meets me at the door, takes my wallet from me and holds it at the counter.

It was funny because I had to show the guy working there that while they had the Gränsfors Bruk axe line, what they were missing is the brilliant sharpening stone that Gränsfors Bruk also sells. So of course I had to go dig mine out and bring it in to show them. I offered to trade it for an axe but they weren’t interested.

I also helped one of the associates show another customer how to open a Partner Steel stove because they couldn’t figure it out. At that point I became a Partner Steel Sales Rep and convinced the guy that was the stove he needed. Partner Steel stoves are made in Pocatello, ID where I used to live and all the outfitters and guides swear by them. Mine has been ticking for years.

We absolutely love our partner stove. It’s always put away with the caps protecting the lines. We must have waited 6 months to get it, and it was well worth the wait. We have the cast iron skillet for our 18” two burner as well. No issues making some nice thick ribeyes on it.

 

[HooliganActual]

We absolutely love our partner stove. It’s always put away with the caps protecting the lines. We must have waited 6 months to get it, and it was well worth the wait. We have the cast iron skillet for our 18” two burner as well. No issues making some nice thick ribeyes on it.

I use their big griddle at home. I cook everything on it. I prefer using the Partner Steel griddle over my Lodge cast iron skillets and that’s damn near blasphemous!! Lol

 

[HooliganActual]

So here's the next installment...

After some hotel time in Durango, we decided to head out to Bolam Pass. Before I start that tale I should point out a little secret to those with significant others that haven't figured this out yet. My wife loves camping and even wheels her own 2018 JKUR; but in order to ensure that she doesn't get overwhelmed with weeks of "roughing it", a little detour to some shops and/or a hotel in the middle of it all goes a long way towards her good will. Personally, I don't mind dropping a hotel in here and there as I traveled for work before I retired, earned lifetime titanium status or some such nonsense and have more reward points with Marriott than I can shake a stick at.

Anyways, the last time we came up to the Colorado mountains, we were able to do Engineer Pass, the Alpine Loop, Imogene Pass, Ophis Pass and a couple of others, but the one that was still closed was Bolam. Previously, we had driven up one side to the snow and then drove around to the other side to the snow and then walked the difference. However, we saw that it was open and decided that would be a great place to go and camp over the 4th of July.

We headed up to the Purgatory Resort and drove behind it on Hermosa Road and then up to the Pass. Every dispersed campsite was taken (July 3rd was probably the wrong day to be looking for campsites but then we started out with no agenda). We got to the top and it was beautiful:

There were plenty of places to camp and the temps were perfect!! Remember those rain storms we had been avoiding? Well they made it perfect for the mosquitos too. I'm surprised the picture above isn't blocked by the thick swarms that were everywhere.

We weren't feeling it so we set out for somewhere else to camp.

Does this pic make anyone want a Coors beer? It should, it's Wilson Peak just outside of Telluride. This shot was taken at the trailhead for the Last Dollar Road.

The mosquitos were absolutely miserable everywhere we went. Even one of the FS Rangers we talked to said they had gotten particularly bad over the last week or so because of the rain. But you know where the mosquitos weren't bad at all?

The campsite we were at back in the Manti-La Sal NF!!! So we headed back over the mountain to find our previous campsite was unoccupied and I managed to finish reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Hurin. My wife read something on her kindle but I am old school and still love an actual book in my hands.

It was a little windy so I wound up staking out my awning because I didn't want any drama from parts failing or breaking. (That's foreshadowing for those that didn't catch it.)

Even the Prickly Pears were happy and blossoming

We spent several days here but we were starting to catch up to a timeline that we couldn't avoid: my wife's parents had rented an AirBNB in San Diego for a week and her siblings and their families were coming in from around the country; eventually we had to break camp and head that way. We could have taken the most direct route there, through Phoenix but decided to make the drive fun. Our plan was to head northwest from Moab to catch I-80 and then run down the Pacific Coast Highway to get to San Diego.

We broke camp and started back down FR4622 and I immediately noticed that my steering wheel was all cattywampus. Sure enough, the recently replaced drag link's lock nuts had backed off and the drag link had spun coming up 4.4 Road from Gateway, CO. I pulled over and got things set back in order.

We rolled down FR4622 and onto Castle Valley Road for another look at my favorite rock structure in the Moab region. For the third time in this sojourn, I present Castleton Tower and the Rectory

When we got to the intersection of Castle Valley Road and U-128 (which runs along the Colorado River), I heard a big clunk when braking for the stop. The wife took this lovely pic while a fresh new hell was unfolding...

It turns out the drag link lock nuts weren't the only thing that loosened up on 4.4 Road. I lost the lower brake caliper adapter bolt on the passenger side and the clunk I heard was the brake assembly around when I braked for the stop.

Unfortunately there are no "action" pics for this whole next interlude but ultimately I had to pull the wheel, remove the upper caliper adapter bolt and cobble up a spacer to hold the brake pads apart. I used a couple of all-velcro Speed Straps to hang the caliper assembly from the lower control arm so that I could "limp" into Moab.

Calling around, I couldn't find the correct bolt but found out that a JK/JKU caliper adapter bolt is similar but about a half inch shorter

It will work but it is only a temp fix. The real fix is to get the correct bolt as soon as possible, which I eventually did. If you ever wanted to know what a $30 bolt looks like, here you go:

It's rather unremarkable.

Well, I found the JKU bolt at the Napa parts store and the parking lot of the State Liquor Store next door was flat and had a big shade tree. I fought and cursed and rejoiced my way through getting the calipers spread apart so that I could get the assembly re-installed. I did wind up having to walk back over to Napa to buy a big C-clamp to compress the pistons. Eventually, I got it all back together and we were back on the road with only about a 3 hour delay. Ugh!!

After having taken that big ol' tire/wheel combo off twice, I thank heavens that I always carry a Krazy Beaver shovel. If you've never heard of using a shovel to put a big tire on, you need to watch this video:


I've known this trick forever but in that Moab heat, I was grateful that putting the tire on was probably the easiest part of the whole evolution.

So now we are finally back on the road headed to SLC and then across Nevada to California. Stay tuned...

 

[HooliganActual]

Fair warning: this final installment of my tale is all paved road driving and sightseeing with no crawling or bending and breaking of stuff.

From Moab, we made our way to Salt Lake City and hopped on I-80 to head to California.

There was a lot of driving...

But we did see the Bonneville Salt Flats:

We had planned on staying at a proper campground just outside of Wells, NV at a place called Angel Lake Dam. The place is absolutely beautiful:

The little recreation area/campground is just beyond where you lose site of the road in this pic. There's a little lake from the run off and about 20 or so developed campsites, but , OMG, the wind was unreal. It was probably 30 mph sustained and it was like that on the entire drive from SLC to Wells. When I opened up the back of the Gladiator, the wind blew my roll of paper towels right off the holder and I had to chase it halfway down the mountain:

Look at the trailing unfurled paper towels, LOL

We did not want to spend the night fighting the wind so we headed further down the highway to Elko, NV and stayed in a hotel. Nothing exciting about this next pic but it was a perspective of the Jeep I had not seen before:

The next day we arose bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and headed down the road again. My wife had never been over Donner Pass before and the traffic was atrocious taking us 3 hours to go from the Pass itself down to Sacramento. Here's an interesting side note: Back in the early '80's when I was stationed in Idaho, I drove back to my folks place in Napa, Ca for Christmas one year and had to drive over Donner Pass in a blizzard. They literally closed the road about 15 Minutes after I left Reno; however, my trusty 1981 CJ7 with chains made it over but it took about 6 hours because I could not see a darn thing!!!

That night we drove into Napa, Ca and had dinner with my folks. We took off the next morning planning to head down to the Bay Area and catch the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) just south of San Francisco. I spent many years in the Bay Area (High School in Napa, stationed at NAS Alameda) so I'm no stranger to the place, but my wife has never driven the PCH and only seen the crazy coastline views on TV or in the movies; so this was going to be fun for her.

We stopped in Half Moon Bay and dipped our toes in the Pacific

Then we landed in Monterey for the night and had dinner at the Old Fisherman's Wharf:

The next day we woke up to the typical fog in the area and could barely see 20 feet ahead of us. As we tooled down the PCH, we were in the fog, out of the fog, above the fog:

After driving down the PCH to below Big Sur, there was a road sign that informed us that the road was closed 13 miles ahead due to a rockslide. So we had to back track to find a road that would get us around that section. The closest "detour" was all the way back in Monterey...we got to drive everything we had driven already...AGAIN!!

Well, we cut across to the Central Valley and got to drive through hours of farmland until we got back to the PCH in San Luis Obispo

I had to chuckle as we followed this truck for a little while in San Luis Obispo

Outflow Technicians!!! I love it!!! and they have a great slogan too. It's hard to read in the pic but it says "A flush is better than a full house"...LOL

We finally got into San Diego and, you know the saying "everything a hammer sees looks like a nail", well all I see is a paved trail with lots of obstacles!!!

We spent time with the wife's family and then headed back to PHX. All told, we did 2754 miles and had a blast. I told my wife that I am not even going to total up how much we spent in gas because it would probably give me a heart attack. Here's a pic of our track that I recorded on my Garmin Tread XL - Overland; technically it's a picture of the tracks synced from my device to the Garmin website but the website screen captures better than a pic of the tracks on the device. Don't mind all of the random waypoints all over as I could not get them to hide.

Once home, I set about restocking all the supplies we used and properly fixing the things that needed fixing. My tie rod wandered a little more, so I properly cleaned up and set the drag link and tie rod lock nuts now that I had the correct tools. I changed the oil/oil filter. Replaced the brake caliper adapter bolt. Now I'm trying to determine why my "Service ESS Sytem" light came on.

We had a blast and I thank you for indulging my story. As I said when I started this thread, I wanted to share some joy coming from Jeep and the Jeep Gladiator as opposed to a lot of the unhappiness we see/feel with many of the threads here. I hope you've had as much fun reading this as I had sharing it with you.

Cheers

 

[Jteakus]

Great trip, I'm jealous.

 

[WestwallNF104A]

Every so often someone starts a thread and comments that there are too many "negative" threads; while most here realize that the forum does attract a lot of Jeep or Parts complaints threads, why is my Jeep broken threads, and just some general snarking when opinions differ, it is sort of the nature of the interwebz.

Well, I don't want to bog down the "What Did You Do With Your Gladiator Thread?" and I'm not sure I'd call this a Trip Report, so my hope is to post this In the General Topics Section and that the mods will allow it to reside here. I'm going to post a bunch of pictures and share some stories over the next day or so and, if the mods allow it to stay here, then it will float to the surface for several days and maybe folks can get a smile and remember that the forum isn't always about "the last Jeep you will ever own."

I'm also going to tag @WILDHOBO @RudeJeepin @chorky @azmojave @Rusty PW @NotSo Bright White @Charles 236 and @Hootbro since they reacted to the brief post I made in the "What Did You Do To Your Gladiator Today?" thread and figured they might like to know that I'm telling a bit more than a condensed version here...

With all that said, I'm retired and my wife is an Assistant Principal having several weeks off over the summer; so we tend to get away from the Arizona heat and head up into the mountains and wander around with no agenda other than to move up and down in elevation in order to regulate the temperature and avoid the rain. This is truly an extended camping trip (Overlanding?) with no intent for hardcore wheeling (we both have Wranglers for that).

So let's start with some Zion night sky. Zion gets a little busy for my preference so we tend to hang out in the Dixie National Forest just north of there and about halfway to Bryce Canyon. Supposedly, Zion has some of the least light pollution in all of the US:

We swept through Monument Valley and I'll let you google pics of there but we "swept" through so that we could head up the Moki Dugway (been there so many times I didn't take pictures) and we made our way out to Muley Point. Muley Point sits on the canyon rim north of Monument Valley and gives you a great view of Monument Valley that isn't typically seen:

The canyon rim is a pretty neat feature:

It is being eroded and undercut and these big blocks fall off:

And off course I'll throw in an obligatory camp shot:

Next we will drop back down the Moki Dugway and cruise through the Valley of the Gods

Muley Point is one of my favorite places on Earth!

 

[James H]

Great write-up and pictures! Thank you for sharing.

 

[HooliganActual]

DITTO!

@HooliganActual
Anywhere outside of Wells, NV is better than inside. That town is horrible. It’s sad when the nicest place in town is a truckstop LOL

Yeah, there is a really nice and new Maverik on the west end of town, right of the interstate. It's "Adventure's First Stop"

 

[BourbonRunner]

Great write up and such a cool road trip! Thanks for sharing.

Ms BourbonRunner and I fell in love with Half Moon Bay last year at the end of our 12 days traipsing through California. We got an AirBnB a block off Main Street and walked to dinner at Fattoria e Mare. (Had a great cacio e pepe) Really great little town and looking forward to going back in the near future.

 

[wachuko]

Here for the latte

 

[HooliganActual]

But where did you get the latte? I swear by breves.

Here for the latte

While the title of the thread was a play on a line from the song Drops of Jupiter, I will say that The Cowboy Coffee in Telluride makes a delightful latte and I always buy a bag of their beans when I’m in Telluride.

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