Working Out Working Through the Winter...

Finally dealt with the electrical gremlin in the truck... I hope... and it didn't cost a dime. With nothing changed, and no total failures to reveal the bad parts I made another small search for phantom loads and found zilch. The alternator continues to produce volts and amps... just like it should... So... I finally surrendered to the simplest fix and replaced the pair of batteries.

Should have just done that passing through back in October. The good thing about buying good batteries or batteries from a good place, I guess, is if they do go bad there's a good warranty. Costco warrantied the batts 100%. All it cost was the time and diesel to run over there.

With the fresh batteries in place the only remaining "symptom"... just an oddly long runtime of the fuel pre-heat grid just stopped. So, apparently, procrastination paid off this time... sort of.

On the "future" front... still whittling on that. The next few months are going to be a task. We're here in Denver and the rig lays in a yard down in Wickenburg. Lots of different bits in play. If it were simple, it'd been long settled.

Our lil' store in Fort Collins is still in the black but lame and requiring some dedicated effort.  If it turns up its toes... game over. So, Heidi is staying here while I run back to the rig.

The possibility of draggin' the rig back here early to spend the summer is there... but... wintering in Colorado... in a worn old rig...

I've spent winters in rigs in this north country... It only works for winter lovers. This buster... is NOT... a winter lover. Been there done that. I've chopped ice to water cows and horses at 15 below. I've fought the drifts to get to the highway...  after fighting hours in the cold to get machinery started.

I've fought the biting cold to feed and pushed herds through near blizzards. Winter holds no mystery or attraction.

All the chores of summer take on a special "patina"... when you're sloggin' through snow drifts, cold and cabin fever after a week of storm...

Pile on there the beating "normal" living inflicts on wandering souls and I'm in deep kimchi. The thought of goin' back to sellin' hardware to the scuttling serfs of soh-sigh-uh-tee... rots my liver.

It's always been a problem. I don't fit normal. Never have. Goin' along to get along in a world that has an active distaste for "different", bunch quitters like me is a bloody chore. It's been a full time job with plenty of overtime since I was big enough to pull on my own boots. Truth is it has always turned my stomach and turns it now.

I used to be able, to some degree, to bow my head, smile and nod... and just move along. Kinda Cowboy Up and get it done. Oh, I kicked and rebelled... but in the end... toed the line like a good lil' cowboy.

That was a stupid thing to do. Might's well just buckled a collar 'round my neck and barked like a dog.

Thing is, the bucket that held that ability to smile and nod and toe that line has been drained. No telling where that boot toe is goin'... if somebody grabs my collar and starts pointin' at some damned line.

I'll brush up in some desert hole until March I guess, bangin' on the keyboard. I've plenty of my own work to get done, and that seems to have promise...

Just Get back to the rig. Pull my belt up another notch. Drop expenses and mileage to just about nuthin'... and work. Get through the skinny time of winter with two or three months of sleepin' and workin'... and see what the spring holds.

The road ain't run and it's a new year comin'.

Just workin' along
Brian

From the Desert to the Front Range

About a 14 hour run in 21 hours... 16 hours on the road... and 'bout five hours trying to catch some sleep. Two hours just south of Santa Fe and another three just below Pueblo.

Fine accommodations too... though at 20 degrees or so... you tend to leave the rig idling.

It rained good and hard the night before I pulled out. I lay there in the dark thinking; "Grrrrrrreat... I'm parked in the Arizona desert clay... maybe 400 yards from clear pavement. This could be fun."

So unable to sleep any longer I was up around 4 after working into the evening to finish my leather "Project"... to get the rig ready to pull out...

Long about 9:30 with the truck in four by... and sliding and wallowing around in the greasy muddy "road" I waddled that quarter mile dragging something close to twenty thousand pounds through the muck and mire of the trail...

With no real issue (but a couple of held breaths) made it to the highway for the quick ten mile run into the yard in Wickenburg where I left the rig... then dieseled up, coffeed up and turned the windshield north for Denver...

*Chasing the storm*

The storm had pretty much passed but even though I was running slow at only maybe 60 mph it was likely I'd catch it. Turned off Hwy 60 onto 74 to make the run across to hit I-17.

Snow was on the schedule for Flagstaff... and the fog just a ways south of Munds Park promised that'd be an accurate prediction...

Was slowed down to 40 just a bit farther when it thickened. I figured this would be a long slow run... but... it just didnt' turn out to be much of a thing...

Yeah it snowed... but not near enough to get much of my attention... and that Old Slow Dodge just kep' on rollin'...

I can't say I was surprised by the traffic... but I remember lots of runs across middle of nowhere northern New Mexico, in past runs, where I was purt near the only vehicle in sight... not any more. One steady line of traffic stretching back over the horizon.

I rolled through the afternoon and early evening chewing on the last of whatever edible was in the refrigerator before I shut it down. Washed down with a few cups of truck stop coffee that diesel rumbled and we kept closing the distance.

But, cross eyed and realizing that pushin' this donkey ain't gonna get me there I drug it off the road into a vibrating, rumbling rest area in the early evening and worked myself into something that resembled a comfortable position to close my eyes for as long as they would.

Well, the thermometer was reading like 22 degrees or some such. Being as how that old truck ain't insulated, it didn't take too awful long for the heat to leak out of the cab... which required firing up that cummins under the hood after about an hour to produce some more of it.

With about two hours of coppin Z's to refresh the spirit I set off in search of another cup of bad truck stop coffee...

That got me to more diesel in Raton and another rest area by Pueblo about three in the A.M. Got three hours there alternating between walks through the brisk early morning to exercise the state's plumbing and nice cozy sleeping, curled under my coat with the diesel rumbling 'bout half the time.

Colorado Springs welcomed me with it's traffic and badly freshly rebuilt roads ;) with Sunshine sparkling on the frosted trees! ... and that got me to the end of the run... with what diesel pesos were in my pocket fully spent... and yet a half tank left in the truck!

To welcome me back... Denver graced me with a half inch or so of snow the first night which reminded me... I don't miss winter. Not even a little bit.

Chilling in Denver... Again.
Brian

Another Day... Slidin' Along in the Desert

The locals drove some cattle past the other evening... Arizona Cowdogs are just a lil' different than you see a lot of other places...

*Arizona Cowdogs come in a Variety of styles*

Take a closer look behind that horse in the center...

Ya'll better have some slow cows... if you're gonna herd 'em with a Dachshund! Must be pretty embarrassing when you have to stop the herd to wait for the dog to catch up! :)

Lot's to get done today. Need to finish up this leather and then get the rig cleaned up, packed up and hitched up ready to park in the storage yard tomorrow morning...

Hmmm... might not be a bad idea to run on in today and make sure I've still got a spot there huh?

Then... tomorrow noon or so I'll start rolling north and into Utah... headed for the front range.

A fella has three options from here; 1. Go across I-40 to the Duke city and north on I-25 over Raton Pass. 2. Cut up across the Res through Cortez, over through Pagosa Springs and climb Wolf Creek Pass or 3. Up through Utah to catch I-70 and across through Grand Junction and over the passes west of Denver.

2 is the shortest, 1 is the longest way and 3, through Utah is the midlength trip. About a hundred miles from shortest to longest... and with a rig that sails about 13 hours if you keep it legal. I used to could do the run in less than 12 hours. ;)

This one, counting maybe a catnap somewhere is likely gonna be more like 16.

I'll have to make a decision at Flagstaff... and then another just north of there if I choose against I-40 and Raton...

This camp is not so picturesque in the daylight. Nothing really to set it apart... at sunrise and sunset is when it seems to come alive... and kinda stand apart.

Daylight is burning and a lazy puncher has a lot to get done on weak ambition... so I better get after it.

Gettin' Ready to Roll
Brian