By the end of 2022, I hadn’t taken a vacation for 3 years. Marta suggested we fly south for Christmas, I raised the ante by contributing my JDM 4×4 SUV. I hadn’t even changed oil in our Pajero for 5 years. We pulled the rear seat and “camperized” in one day.
Measure once, cut thriceI’m a drawing-on-a-napkin builder. Inevitably, I lose the napkin after making a few cuts.Storage goes under these flaps, which will have hinges shortly. Put a mattress on top.Acceptance test passed. Time to load and goOn the way to Murica, we stop at the CuNim christmas party, and I get an award for being willing to sit in a glider and push the stick forward all day. Well, there is a little more to it than that…After a very comfortable night sleeping in the Pajero, -13C at the Claresholm airport, we put the pedal to the metal and head south. Pajero Diesels are slow – 98 horsepower!Keep driving south until the weather improves. About 2200kmAll the way to Zion before the snow fadesThe first of many stops where I ponder – is coolant supposed to be brown? Is changing oil every 5 years really necessary?Gas station in Indian Springs. Watching the drones practice at the AFB across the roadThis gas station knows their customersWith an Alien Brothel behind. Seriously. Turnoff at Armagosa ValleyThe first gravel road. 🙂 Now we can playQuite close to area 51.So many old mines in Nevada. Some still operational, but that’s less interestingWe missed the desertOld flourite mine below with a new gold mine behind.Our species has dug some big holes. I’d never even heard of FlouriteA hard place to live, but they did have a 800 feet deep hole to climb down into every day, so there was a bright sideFauna of Beatty, NVNevada is great. Just go anywhere you wantThese guys are little more suspicious than their town brethrenWe explore mine shafts a little – super interesting but very deadlyWe hear a weird noise and discover a wheel is trying to fall off. Hmm. Note the hastily added spadeOld rail lane. At one point there were three rail lines coming into the Beatty area. Lots of gold. Like bitcoin, but where the proof of work is dynamite and cyanide.That’s no fun. No wonder Sarlacc are endangered.Some art if you’re into that kind of thing
Furnace Creek and Death Valley
Machines, if you’re into that sort of thing. I am! Form follows functionDeath Valley is still smashed up by huge floods, so we head west to Saline ValleyThe washboard is just brutal. Just slow down and relaxLots of interesting places to stop. Box Car CabinJoshua Trees. Waiting for the giant sloth to returnHunter Mountain. Cool how a recent snowstorm deposited ice on these branchesDropping into Saline valley, the bottom of which is just above sea level. This is a big terminal lake with high passes at both ends. Shortly after this photo, we had a jet fighter sneak up on us at low level. Absolutely terrifying and awesomeOld timey Tramway in the Saline Valley over the Inyo mountains.Yeah, let’s build a tram over these mountains 2 miles above us. People were nuts a hundred years agoDistances are huge, especially at 15km/h on smashed up roads.Any fresh water gets your attentionSand Dunes!
High clearance definitely required. We are about 10 hours drive from Asphalt. To be towed to Asphalt is $3000 USDWe could see a weird structure in the desert from hours away. Marta guessed a building, I guessed trees. This is the Saline Valley clothing-optional Warm Springs. As we pulled up, the manager was out raking, wearing only sandals. On the big holidays, there can be up to 400 people here!Pretty large calibre for random brass. Found a few more of these, along with machine gun links. So fell from the sky, probably P-51 mustang in WWII. 50 CalThe ridges are spectacular, and go forever. Massive country. Lots of volcanism to look at. Just behind the Inyo mountains to the west are the Sierra Nevada.Spectacular basin and range geography. Lots of interesting charactersFun to puzzle out how people mined on the cheap. Probably gypsum?We try to drive out over the North Pass, but deep snow in the last couple miles stops us. The manager from the hot springs (now wearing clothes) is ahead of us with a chained up jeep wrangler, and he gives up.No choice but to drive south for 7 hours to the south pass. Saline Valley is a huge trap, a February snowstorm could strand several hundred hot-spring goers for weeks.
12 hours of patient puttering along severe washboard is a little trying. The Burros help to entertain us.We escape Saline Valley in the dark, and wake up the next morning to the stunning views of Mount Whitney, the Sierra Nevada, and the Alabama Hills.Mount Whitney, I thinkI realize we are just below Cerro Gordo, a famous Ghost Town. I’ve been lurking on a youtube channel that is trying to keep this road open, literally the definition of a sisyphean task.They have a deuce-and-a-half. My plow truck, Greta is a bigger tow truck from this vintage
https://highismorebetter.ca/2024/08/27/greta-and-gretchen/Lots of interesting stuff, but I grew up in a ghost town so I’m not impressed by a pile of rusty shovels. We aren’t welcome, and get run off pretty quickly. I wish them luck – Entropy is a harsh mistress.We head to San Diego to visit friends. Marta stops in San Bernardino and hikes a peak. Apparently she trips a sensor, and tribal police show up. It’s pretty easy to convince them not to go chase her down.San Diego. A shower, shave, laundry, good food.Midway aircraft carrier. And plenty of operational aircraft carriers in the harbor. America is insanely powerful.It’s funny how the X-Men franchise chose the SR-71 as a VTOL aircraft based out of a house. Try as I can, that’s beyond my capacity for suspension of disbelief.Shrink-flationSonoran desert in Arizona. This is the first time I’ve encountered aggressively awful cacti. Chollas are widely considered to be in violation of the Geneva convention.I later learn that all Cactus fruit are edible. This is like a cat that wants to be petted, and then immediately bites youHow is it possible to stick to a hiking pole?Sedona is beautiful, and would be a very bad place to get lost. Most places in the world you can get unlosted by going downhill. Wouldn’t work hereMore edible cactus fruit, all covered up with billions of little spikes. Science needs to explain how cows can eat thisGreat place, but very hard to go off trailWe manage an overnight backpacking trip to the plateau above Sedona.Don’t get lost. So we promptly ignore our own advice and head off to make a loop using sketchy poorly marked trails. The risk paid off, which is good because we were running out of water and food and it would have been painful to retrace our steps.My favorite from the trip – the Black Mountains by Laughlin, NevadaThe miners delved too deep and awoke a Balrog. That’s the only logical explanation for this massive steel cage.The scrambling in the Black Mountains is absolutely epic. This hill looks like a honeycombGetting weirdSo much potential for multi-day traversesShadows are getting long, time to boogieFortunately, it’s legal to scramble right up to the end of Civil TwilightSausage timeI want a shower, so we drop down to Laughlin. After a day of rolling the dice with dodgy footholds, let’s go gambling!Marta’s next hobby! Some day we’ll figure out how to automate pressing the buttonOatman on Route 66 is cool – but not our styleLet’s go climb something instead!Sausage consumption is increasing day by dayIs something collecting the Chollas? Perhaps a rat using them as defense?Love these views. In the face of rapidly deteriorating weather, we hit the road for Canada.New Years Eve. Marta wants to party, so we stop in Helena
The Aftermath
Arriving back in Calgary, I get busy doing long overdue maintenance on the Pajero. As soon as I open the radiator cap, coolant starts to drain on the floor. Water pump is done.
May as well do the timing belt at the same time. I discover the balance belt broke on the trip, and magically did not get ingested by the timing belt. So lucky.
The 2.5L diesel goes back together well, except I don’t know that I’m supposed to run the engine for an hour, and then retighten the timing belt. A few months later, the timing belt slips, and the pistons hit the valves.
Is this bad?Unbelievably, damage is minimal. I pull off the head to confirm, but only have to replace a few aluminum caps and the rocker shaft. The 4D56T is a sweet engine.
Our 4 week journey taught us a few things about living out of a car
I want to be able to sit up in bed
Would be nice to be able to access storage without getting out of the vehicle
The drive sucks. I want to leave our 4×4 house on the road, and we would fly back to continue our journey. Tierra del Fuego?
Our garage 6 months later. The age of the Delicas beginsThe Pajero goes to a new home, gets a new set of tires and a polish. Thanks for your good service!
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 