tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77779432024-03-07T02:10:32.749-07:00UtahredrockJim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07924614013702786163noreply@blogger.comBlogger425125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-37483755725542212802022-05-15T23:39:00.012-06:002024-02-25T10:23:25.708-07:00A lunar eclipse<p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am feeling insanely lucky. I got my RV situated late this afternoon on the edge of Utah's Little Grand Canyon in a northern section of the San Rafael Swell. I was sitting looking out at the canyon as the sun was setting. Suddenly the moon edged over the horizon, dead ahead, rising from the opposite canyon rim. </span></p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was cool enough, but the lunar eclipse was just starting! As I type it's almost a complete eclipse and the moon is glowing red. It's just stunning. </span></p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Utah never fails to deliver . . . but this is really over the top.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF7i5mvtzGEHR7SNAkwb11au2lwpE_w8M7SbqNa92wC7rSwoxIbBy-4s1DpwvWBdMV7nULk_f6tKsGjrBNLtPKBQwN5kwQJqEYTfP6pH0dtOMWBujPKvijHZTzM7uvXhEOcFDRkBfeYIZ6q0REVhD1rcuMga0cFpD518PMXwVBAOpeJFoz-A/s1794/jack%20and%20moon.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1794" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF7i5mvtzGEHR7SNAkwb11au2lwpE_w8M7SbqNa92wC7rSwoxIbBy-4s1DpwvWBdMV7nULk_f6tKsGjrBNLtPKBQwN5kwQJqEYTfP6pH0dtOMWBujPKvijHZTzM7uvXhEOcFDRkBfeYIZ6q0REVhD1rcuMga0cFpD518PMXwVBAOpeJFoz-A/w321-h400/jack%20and%20moon.jpeg" width="321" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfA1xRXGZgLr5E1l_OlZEmictrV0rjFQOVbzB6u2xcGqbu8E4kS6MXYyln3cIeU3SeJaO-ojPfmKW96woUHFPvAAwmQS9x1bOHyND5fgT60H4J2fyz65QIKL7KoLNLFxOlRE-HQhugRA1x_gW-D6_MALvg4z1Tn8Zzd0eKgDtZt-RcyERbsghwQ/s1558/IMG_6689.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1244" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfA1xRXGZgLr5E1l_OlZEmictrV0rjFQOVbzB6u2xcGqbu8E4kS6MXYyln3cIeU3SeJaO-ojPfmKW96woUHFPvAAwmQS9x1bOHyND5fgT60H4J2fyz65QIKL7KoLNLFxOlRE-HQhugRA1x_gW-D6_MALvg4z1Tn8Zzd0eKgDtZt-RcyERbsghwQ/w320-h400/IMG_6689.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDZPhKXmyyP6O2ZD8BY5r8SYbh-wjJMspaTttT8kHpKysIWsLZo1E_WoNMX6x-AXlCHV808aQI9KS4hoVZzulIh6m2S2YHxxlizC_GgXdKcD8wwZs0y-Ycl78TAPDQj7uh9doXBXMt8inyzZJcdtBmS4UFhlPpI1bAMU5sAv6Xpu8uflFlHs3Lw/s2016/IMG_6707.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDZPhKXmyyP6O2ZD8BY5r8SYbh-wjJMspaTttT8kHpKysIWsLZo1E_WoNMX6x-AXlCHV808aQI9KS4hoVZzulIh6m2S2YHxxlizC_GgXdKcD8wwZs0y-Ycl78TAPDQj7uh9doXBXMt8inyzZJcdtBmS4UFhlPpI1bAMU5sAv6Xpu8uflFlHs3Lw/w563-h422/IMG_6707.jpg" width="563" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-55643911718173686322021-08-18T22:31:00.012-06:002022-07-05T07:39:33.835-06:00 Kerouac’s On the Road<p>I’ve explored America, my country.</p><p>My explorations on my own started in the 1980s and continue to this day. I say “on my own” to differentiate from the travels with my family in the 1970s and early 1980s which too are part of my journeys.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjinpiD2vl9Xdx01TcNHV9j9RXKdw1FeJXb0nxPj9JW-PGmkkidPN8i5yXGmwn4EsXvE9UKgT1eiT8llpT2o0o-LXlw3JMqhoNpSqXkjX2uKB-0RsFMPLgJIso4nAtx9Pz4TF5C3g/s648/Screen+Shot+2021-08-18+at+10.47.52+PM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="from the cover of On the Road with image of Jack Kerouac and Neal C" border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="552" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjinpiD2vl9Xdx01TcNHV9j9RXKdw1FeJXb0nxPj9JW-PGmkkidPN8i5yXGmwn4EsXvE9UKgT1eiT8llpT2o0o-LXlw3JMqhoNpSqXkjX2uKB-0RsFMPLgJIso4nAtx9Pz4TF5C3g/w273-h320/Screen+Shot+2021-08-18+at+10.47.52+PM.png" width="273" /></a></div><p></p><div><div>I’ve been to 46 states and have criss-crossed the continent: east to west and north to south. I’ve strayed into both Canada and Mexico too, along the highways, byways, and freeways of these three North American countries. I’ve flown around the country quite a bit as well, but it’s the more than three dozen months I’ve been on the road myself that resonate presently.</div><div><br /></div><div>And somehow I’d never read Jack Kerouac’s signature 1957 novel, <i>On the Road</i>--until this week. </div><p>I’ve been aware of it for decades, but having not read it, it had no overt influence on my extensive wanderings.</p><p><i>On the Road </i>chronicles Kerouac’s travels with his gang of friends from 1947 to 1950. In some ways it’s a love letter to and about his friend Neal Cassady who appears as Dean Moriarty in the book. All of the names were changed and the book is sold as fiction though it’s very much based on real life events.</p><p>I was so wanting to love this book and I so didn’t. And yet, I am glad to have finally read it as it’s considered one of the great American novels and my own life has been driven by the impulses that drove Kerouac and his friends--to see new places, meet new people, and seek adventures. </p><p>Yet all in all, my adventures are somewhat tame compared to those of Kerouac and company. </p><p>The men whore around--with Cassady/Moriarty in particular leaving babies in his wake with multiple women. Kerouac shacks up with a young Mexican mother for a short period and then summarily moves on leaving her only with the memories of their short affair. The book is wildly politically incorrect from a 2021 perspective--though that aspect alone wasn’t why I didn’t like it. </p><p>It was probably the seediness that rubbed me the wrong way--yet that’s what the book is so the fact that I don’t like that aspect of it says as much or more about me than the book. But the junkies and criminals that were Kerouac's friends, and the madness of Cassady/Moriarty . . . ugh. And it was relentless. </p><p>Some things I did like:</p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kerouac’s narrative style--it still feels fresh today, 64 years after it was published</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The descriptions of traveling in America in the late 1940s, pre-interstate highways and on a shoestring budget</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The joie de vivre of it, even though it’s seedy and sad, it is meant to be a celebration of an enthusiasm for life and that comes through in a way that defines and carries the narrative</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a love letter to America, flaws and all</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was two-thirds through Joyce Johnson’s memoir </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Minor Characters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, when I set it aside to dive into </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Road. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll be finishing Johnson’s book for sure. She dated Kerouac in 1957, the year <i>On the Road</i> was released and she knew a lot of the main characters. Her book's title is in reference to herself, as she, and all of the women then, were minor characters for the men who led the Beat movement. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her book sparked me into a mini-self education into Kerouac and his Beat writer friends who created a literary counter-culture movement in the 1950s. I was truly appalled to find out that two of these luminaries are actual murderers: William Burroughs who shot his wife in the head, killing her instantly and served no time for it, and Lucien Carr who stabbed David Kammerer to death and got only two years because it was allegedly done to stop Kammerer’s homosexual advances on Carr. On top of that Burroughs is a junkie (which he was quite open about and heavily informed his writing--it also seems to have contributed to his murder of his wife). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had heard of these people before but hadn’t ever taken a deep dive into them and their worlds. Between finishing </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Road </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and reading Johnson’s memoir, combined with lots of internet searches to get more of the background of the Beat gang, it’s maybe not a deep dive, but it’s been an interesting swim. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the Road</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has many memorable descriptive gems of people, places, and broadly the human condition. Also, countercultures are important to the overall well being of the broader culture. These contribute to making this book an important part of the canon of American literature. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am glad to have finally read Kerouac’s book, even if it was somewhat darker than I was expecting. And I do recommend that people go on the road themselves to expand their understanding of the world beyond their own backyards--whether or not they read <i>On the Road. </i></span></p><br /></div>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-81905926575681169072020-12-28T13:03:00.022-07:002020-12-29T10:12:41.769-07:00 Early Pandemic, Off to New York<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was late Friday night, March 27. I was two weeks into the lockdown and home alone in my beloved house in Salt Lake City’s Avenues neighborhood. I was laying on my far too expensive couch, a mid-century modern piece that I had no business buying some four years earlier. But I love the couch. My couch-potatoism was in full mode when an idea began to take shape.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-2b34626f-7fff-1f8e-39fb-19089a4d6c2f"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The uncertainty of the pandemic--which I took seriously from at least March 1 (this is going to be bad I thought)--stretched before me as a long void. We’d only been working from home those couple of weeks but it was clear it would be months more. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did not want to spend the next undetermined amount of time holed up by myself in my house, no matter how much I loved the place, in my bones that felt like a bad plan. It occurred to me I'd be better off going to New York to be at my sister’s farm where I could be with family and animals and in a beautiful spot in the country. She had plenty of space.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went to bed and the next morning I tested my idea by contacting people, including my new boss. He had no problem with me working remotely from another location. Most everyone in my family thought it made sense to head east. I spoke with a few other friends to test the idea on them. They all said: Go! It was important to me to have some sort of reality check because it was a bold move in a strange time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At about 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 28, after loading my truck, my pup Jack and I got in and pulled out of the driveway. I remember distinctly looking in the rear view mirror and thinking “I may never see that house again.” It was just that stage of the pandemic where uncertainty was so, so high. My 19th century house had just survived SLC’s 5.7 earthquake ten days earlier. Even at that point the aftershocks just kept coming. None were big, but they were big enough to feel. There would be more to come soon regarding my house, but that was still in the future. Jack and I pushed on, heading east on Second Avenue.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I reached out by phone to a handful of other work colleagues, one of whom clearly thought I was crazy--though she didn’t exactly say so. Hours later another friend demanded I turn around and come back. But no, I was off and going, with determination. This was what I needed to do. I felt grounded in that decision. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At my first fuel stop in western Nebraska I stood alone on the giant fuel plaza with a system of gloves so I didn’t touch any public surfaces. A public announcement, echoing across the empty plaza, encouraged people to wash their hands. It was very Stephen King-like. There was something of a feeling that the world was ending and we were all unwittingly along for the ride. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darkness settled over our route on Interstate-80 but I pushed on with Jack, my loyal companion snoozing in his bed in the back of the cab of the truck. We drove till about 2 a.m. Central Time, 1 Mountain, or 12 hours since leaving Salt Lake. We made it to a Walmart parking lot in Lincoln, Nebraska. Walmarts are known as places in the RV world where you can spend a night in their expansive parking lots. We didn’t have an RV so I got in back on the bed I’d built for my dogs (I built it originally for Jake, my previous dog). I couldn’t stretch out, but I could lay down. Somehow Jack found a place next to me. He’s huge so it was quite a sight. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhgMP09VMpb4XDWK5eVL0uCn-knxloDfo1xUQP6Jvmgfel5vh8778kIkuvMmvOzaYoGeLQtR3TbY7UpHVtFbjeDpjCgHkTaI4W8ZvxHsgYxu_OTe0KlCZvdSp3gbt3X9hZ1zw3UQ/s2016/ohio.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhgMP09VMpb4XDWK5eVL0uCn-knxloDfo1xUQP6Jvmgfel5vh8778kIkuvMmvOzaYoGeLQtR3TbY7UpHVtFbjeDpjCgHkTaI4W8ZvxHsgYxu_OTe0KlCZvdSp3gbt3X9hZ1zw3UQ/s320/ohio.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arriving in Ohio, March 29, 2020. </td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got about four hours of sleep before I was awake again and back on the road between 5 and 6 a.m. we pressed on and arrived at my mom’s in Ohio at 9 p.m. that Sunday night. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It had been a strange journey. Few cars were on the roads, mostly just trucks. The world had shut down and I felt like a refugee. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That week was a wonderful week with my mom and I worked remotely from Ohio till Friday morning. On April 3 Jack and I did the final push to New York, only eight or nine hours further down the road.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-DjIVGS-Tu_jMXuJtjhfGKn2kO7cOphn1R5_nhU_y4SIkmXJEk3S0MFQDNjTl0uHKBEwENbUoNGOa5LnCiXCHluHieVP0KptU_P67ac62YyM2NQXySc2eyDuQGbSFD22gZlDQg/s1528/balyl.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-DjIVGS-Tu_jMXuJtjhfGKn2kO7cOphn1R5_nhU_y4SIkmXJEk3S0MFQDNjTl0uHKBEwENbUoNGOa5LnCiXCHluHieVP0KptU_P67ac62YyM2NQXySc2eyDuQGbSFD22gZlDQg/s320/balyl.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking in Ohio w my mom on the right, a family friend, & pups.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'd made it from Salt Lake to eastern New York without touching many public surfaces at all. I’ll leave some of the details out of this accounting, but it wasn’t all that hard. It would be harder for a woman for sure. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heading east to be with family was the best thing I could have done. I am an introvert but didn’t and don’t want to face these pandemic days alone. Many people don’t have anything like the options I have and I am damned lucky. But none of it’s been easy, even for me. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am far more COVID careful than nearly everyone I've been around this year, and also painfully aware that that hardly ensures I won’t get it or help spread it. COVID won’t kill all of us, but it has and will kill far too many, and it’s disrupting our world as much as I feared it would back in March. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But life will go on and onward we all must go. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBzTKqp4FBLJQtYFcITLKlQVk9bEj7kf4Zd4nm0z1qvz4GHdmkPWJCXavbJJk-gHERX2XDxLtzMHyiPZPT-GOu7JVyTYd3ubWdeup4dopKEHx2YqotrJcwC4384-5gWVsm3E-FQ/s1546/NY.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1546" data-original-width="1546" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBzTKqp4FBLJQtYFcITLKlQVk9bEj7kf4Zd4nm0z1qvz4GHdmkPWJCXavbJJk-gHERX2XDxLtzMHyiPZPT-GOu7JVyTYd3ubWdeup4dopKEHx2YqotrJcwC4384-5gWVsm3E-FQ/s320/NY.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Few people were seeking out New York at this point: April 3, 2020. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-66720174614881323672020-12-24T13:11:00.034-07:002023-01-16T13:04:05.995-07:00 2020--The Good Things of My Year<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDmSyf7IL7yMVZ4z96SAnQg3PCWRh7Se1qkFve-N2m_mbwFAZwGH3etPwqmS0epbLg10y2FnjLZ55gM3YYJoj9CmsFL6X6Eu0SszMPu_GZZ4_5NDGH_rz664hITkAABAbPNpWBdA/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1539" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDmSyf7IL7yMVZ4z96SAnQg3PCWRh7Se1qkFve-N2m_mbwFAZwGH3etPwqmS0epbLg10y2FnjLZ55gM3YYJoj9CmsFL6X6Eu0SszMPu_GZZ4_5NDGH_rz664hITkAABAbPNpWBdA/" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Utah's Dead Horse Point</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This has been a hell of a year, and . . . not a good one, yet much good has happened and all in all I've been beyond fortunate and lucky. <p></p><p>So with gratitude here are 2020 highlights, focusing on the positive, I . . . . </p><p></p><ul><li>Got to spend a ton of time with my beloved puppy, Jack Powell</li><li>Sold my house before a bigger earthquake came! (We had a 5.7 quake in March)</li><li>Started full-time RVing again on July 11, something that's been on my mind more in recent years. And I love it! (I previously full-timed from 2007-2009) </li><li>Still have my job at the amazing Natural History Museum of Utah working mostly remotely since March</li><li>Spent a lot of time with family, including:</li><ul><li>A brief visit with my sister Elise when she came to Utah in early March</li><li>A five day visit with my mom in my hometown in Ohio in the early days of the pandemic</li><li>A month-long visit with my sister Cari on her farm in New York in April--the highlight of my year</li><li>About four weeks in Minneapolis and mostly in Wisconsin at my brother's lake cabin--including some time with him (he was gone more than he was there during my time there)</li></ul><li>Had the privilege of riding horses when at Cari's for the whole month of April in a stunningly gorgeous part of our country including Listo, my favorite horse that's now living</li><li>Found a place to live in my RVs (old and new-to-me) for two months in Heber City, near Park City, thanks to my friend Darla</li><li>Bought the RV I've been wanting for a year, slightly used and at a great price, at a time when they're almost impossible to find</li><li>Sold my previous RV, the CampLite, to some dear friends </li><li>Reconnected with my Xscaper friends in October and have been with them ever since--Xscapers is a group of RVers and a beyond amazing community of people</li><li>Mostly maintained my sanity with a few difficult moments</li><li>Though I lost my friend Steve, I was able to remotely attend his funeral service and it reminded me not only how amazing he was, but how special life is</li><li>Served on the Executive Committee of Visit Salt Lake where I've been a board member for about five years, needless to say in a difficult and strange year.</li><li>Witnessed the election of my friend Mark Kelly to the U.S. Senate! He's a rock star. </li><li>Have not got coronavirus yet . . . and am hopeful I won't before I can get the vaccine</li><li>Am thrilled that we have a vaccine! #yeahScience!</li><li>Got an unbelievably killer solar setup on my new-to-me RV that allows me to live comfortably off grid, and I have been off grid since mid-October!</li></ul><div>I greeted 2020 at an Xscapers New Year's event near Quartzsite, Arizona. I will bid the year farewell at an unofficial and unsanctioned Xscapers gathering about 50 miles to the east and an unimaginable year away from where the decade started for me a mere 12 months ago. </div><div><br /></div><div>While this post focuses on the positive--and I certainly have much to be grateful for--it was also a tough year. </div><div><br /></div><div>These are difficult times, but in a tip of the hat to the spirit of a slogan attributed to another difficult time, it's important to keep calm and carry on. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sending love from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona,</div><div><br /></div><div>Jim and Jack<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0950ZDwXkQa26rJFrhDQIFDElLha6CXtqbbWaNMNw_vDt073dDTp-eLW0z-UngM9-cCoH0I3iJNP4yy1MdH_qpiaKgAzZNyFrJvEhmkbnGl2CEn2UUT2be6GiJpjZKNViX5J-qw/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0950ZDwXkQa26rJFrhDQIFDElLha6CXtqbbWaNMNw_vDt073dDTp-eLW0z-UngM9-cCoH0I3iJNP4yy1MdH_qpiaKgAzZNyFrJvEhmkbnGl2CEn2UUT2be6GiJpjZKNViX5J-qw/w320-h240/jab+solar+II.jpg" title="My new solar setup." width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new solar setup. Thx Andrew Pullen!</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Learn more about <a href="https://xscapers.com/" target="_blank">Xscapers here</a>. </div><p></p>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-75779527783016629332019-10-01T21:19:00.001-06:002022-05-20T08:57:38.852-06:00Moonrise Over Bear Lake<b>For Elyse Fink Jones</b><br />
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I opened my eyes and saw the moon. It was late, or early . . . about 1 am. Instantly I felt her spirit, and it was strong. My cousin, Elyse Jones, had died less than three days earlier. The moon, which was rising over Bear Lake in northern Utah, connected me to her.<br />
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Elyse was my mom’s first cousin, making her my first cousin once removed. In 1985, Elyse’s uncle, and my mom’s father, died. His name was John Lammert Morley and he was the patriarch of my family. He was the first of the three siblings in his family to go. His sister, Elise Morley Fink, was a favorite aunt of my mom’s and by extension of mine (his other sister Tony, was another favorite aunt!). When John died, Elise encouraged my mom, Adelle, and her daughter Elyse, to start spending more time together and to get to know one another better. And they did, building a connection between the two branches of our family.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9cSaX8x9JUDsuoquS5dJkaU2beolcbURWXAFlfPPYjbo001sUCQRzO68dAQIZIVv-Wa0OY6sZHQsVtxh4zvIISURzNuegq0yOpIx1jyClTtkguBLiu__npmTf4cg3Q3hkkwiQA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-10-01+at+8.56.08+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="384" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9cSaX8x9JUDsuoquS5dJkaU2beolcbURWXAFlfPPYjbo001sUCQRzO68dAQIZIVv-Wa0OY6sZHQsVtxh4zvIISURzNuegq0yOpIx1jyClTtkguBLiu__npmTf4cg3Q3hkkwiQA/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-10-01+at+8.56.08+PM.png" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elyse Jones</td></tr>
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Adelle and Elyse began spending a week together every year at a sort of women’s retreat, a place called the Kerr House in Grand Rapids, Ohio, near Toledo. It was something of a mini-spa but with a dedication to wellness through exercise and nutrition. For women of the midwest in those days it was a progressive place, though I am not sure they would have used that word. Year after year they met there and their friendship blossomed. They also visited each other’s homes. Elyse lived near Detroit, Adelle lived outside of Mansfield, Ohio. They also vacationed together in Florida in the winter and at Elyse’s cottage on Lake Huron, in Canada, in the summer. Especially on the Canadian trips, my mom got to know many friends and other relatives of Elyse’s.<br />
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Their special bond came as they both graduated past their respective many years of married life--each getting divorced in the early 1990s.<br />
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I knew Elyse as a gentle soul, a kind matriarch for her family. She had four children. I got to know her son Peter in the 1990s when he and I both lived in the Baltimore-Washington area. He was a successful entrepreneur. When I met him he’d recently sold a business, a computer consulting company I believe, and seemed to be doing well, not just financially, but in being very engaged with life. He and his wife Mary Ann had moved to Maryland from Texas (if I recall correctly). Peter died suddenly of a heart attack about 15 years ago. His brother Christopher also died around that time of the same cause--taking away two of Elyse’s four adult children.<br />
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That had to be brutal for her.<br />
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As I stared at the moon, rising over Bear Lake, I felt Elyse’s presence and thought of her life. I also thought of my friends Jay and Mark who died in 1988. These two died a stupid death. We were on an 80-day wilderness trip together and it was about day 72. We were in the town of Joshua Tree, California, in the Mojave Desert, taking a break from rock climbing in the nearby Joshua Tree National Monument.<br />
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A bunch of us were drinking beer. When it was time to go, Jay and Mark had the brilliant idea that they’d steal a truck. Apparently after drinking more and going for a drunken joy ride, they wrapped the truck around a Joshua Tree, making their deaths both stupid and poetic. Having spent 72 days with these guys it was a traumatic event for me, the first deaths of peers that really touched me. Ever since then, seeing the moon often reconnects me with them as well as others who have left this world.<br />
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With some moisture in my eye, light from the moon appeared to be coming at me as a collection of crossing laser beams, going straight to my heart. As I lay there, I felt energized by Elyse, Jay, Mark, and others.<br />
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I’m grateful I had the chance to know her. This past Sunday at her service on the shore of Lake Saint Clair, just north of Detroit, I had the privilege of getting to know her a little better and meeting her friends and family, including her two surviving children--my second cousins--one of whom I met for the first time.<br />
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I also had the honor of helping my mom get to the service from Ohio. At 81, my mom’s in great shape overall, but she was in pretty rough shape this past weekend. I think she was shaken by the loss of her cousin and she’d messed up her back that week, putting her in about the most pain I’ve ever seen her in. So I am glad I was able to get to Ohio and help her get to Michigan, to properly say goodbye to Elyse.<br />
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The moon became muted by some clouds, but Elyse’s presence remained strong that night at Bear Lake, and it will live on in the hearts of the many people whose lives she touched.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLzEbXfTQZWe9_II2GR2-0z1sqOghtVr9WLUT0CpgakrMd2JZ3Zah-v1kja1NS4ozDXjlx7YeINK3Qp5WC9iyMe9OBesOFZszGVy7cmQrWVvtN7egPSolU2-7qxQIzvSBUfj-I3w/s1600/bear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1600" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLzEbXfTQZWe9_II2GR2-0z1sqOghtVr9WLUT0CpgakrMd2JZ3Zah-v1kja1NS4ozDXjlx7YeINK3Qp5WC9iyMe9OBesOFZszGVy7cmQrWVvtN7egPSolU2-7qxQIzvSBUfj-I3w/s400/bear.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bear Lake, Utah</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.grossepointenews.com/articles/elyse-fink-jones/" target="_blank">Read more about Elyse here</a>.<br />
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PS--I also visited Utah for the first time on that 1988 trip--a trip that changed the course of my life. That summer, on a visit to Michigan, I shared with Elyse Jones, Elise Fink, and Ann (Elyse's daughter in law), my slides from my great western adventure. The images from Utah's redrock country got the most buzz that day.Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-79416322879253280372019-07-08T10:30:00.001-06:002024-02-25T10:34:00.403-07:00Xscapers! 2019<p> From my second Xscapers convergence. My in to a fantastic group of people.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9prHXDdpJ92wLUHPhyaVtCuJi8FEJHh66Q1WxvSR61aJI75A3LvExj0vhVfyt4BmUyHBxqjnmypeLEL8M9mAbwtY9woYwAGxRH4l2aRppwxtCklVAos0yjrSCbZ14oH3oLOsNJX_yQiLxduS7XHLa37W7G7VQ18Ayk6M-XCMDc1FBGBbhj1OpA/s2016/IMG_2621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9prHXDdpJ92wLUHPhyaVtCuJi8FEJHh66Q1WxvSR61aJI75A3LvExj0vhVfyt4BmUyHBxqjnmypeLEL8M9mAbwtY9woYwAGxRH4l2aRppwxtCklVAos0yjrSCbZ14oH3oLOsNJX_yQiLxduS7XHLa37W7G7VQ18Ayk6M-XCMDc1FBGBbhj1OpA/w300-h400/IMG_2621.jpg" title="Jack was six months old." width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-shWHAAvmEOXLltrDAoUL0hUw7lVzNuHHi8gSYQjK1LU_AV7KZOxZ46EBjskkrxomnR4X91sndIQzibV1ZI-T4YJ0POYNiQKyekpILi-7p10tVOUwdpMovKKOusNS4n7iRggWWd2ieupdePnGRH2UgbWAw0CER1DMvOZHTz6Ow7WEUuXmpTUvlQ/s1708/IMG_2623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1282" data-original-width="1708" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-shWHAAvmEOXLltrDAoUL0hUw7lVzNuHHi8gSYQjK1LU_AV7KZOxZ46EBjskkrxomnR4X91sndIQzibV1ZI-T4YJ0POYNiQKyekpILi-7p10tVOUwdpMovKKOusNS4n7iRggWWd2ieupdePnGRH2UgbWAw0CER1DMvOZHTz6Ow7WEUuXmpTUvlQ/w400-h300/IMG_2623.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo_6N-4YC6NpPEGLLfi7xDIi-MrtQfaYa4dXzsIbaZvJ9spbryklGvBYRYt2JstVFnoHRDvu0ffLMK4bvM5ZnpIMMHrlD06pj_TO6vco1D26ugLIBSfCUgCvgryKpsojW6qiQm1iExag8nLfjVGiuelR26kiJAqLoviU5ZaZcBxKhtKQG2TqpfyA/s1512/IMG_2629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo_6N-4YC6NpPEGLLfi7xDIi-MrtQfaYa4dXzsIbaZvJ9spbryklGvBYRYt2JstVFnoHRDvu0ffLMK4bvM5ZnpIMMHrlD06pj_TO6vco1D26ugLIBSfCUgCvgryKpsojW6qiQm1iExag8nLfjVGiuelR26kiJAqLoviU5ZaZcBxKhtKQG2TqpfyA/w400-h400/IMG_2629.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZzeYGhJJru-jqpZLyC_DuMFFgU3zXlAATzwxQH0JdDMh5MatZ_RhAbnJf9K4UD6HMg1N6Z2BSwgIYHBoigQSwKtSM_MYTYZAyLZ5BY8bQfNpC8DJWCJvJghr9mzqERtbq-xMdBl149PctsH66aJjJliPhiclEvy4gxRLWsEwOyFLOun3l_xLEw/s1832/IMG_2633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="1832" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZzeYGhJJru-jqpZLyC_DuMFFgU3zXlAATzwxQH0JdDMh5MatZ_RhAbnJf9K4UD6HMg1N6Z2BSwgIYHBoigQSwKtSM_MYTYZAyLZ5BY8bQfNpC8DJWCJvJghr9mzqERtbq-xMdBl149PctsH66aJjJliPhiclEvy4gxRLWsEwOyFLOun3l_xLEw/w400-h300/IMG_2633.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKZfM7vupZOfG40jtdAI5yAq6w51KOmd9kKqA8ElpUOPmXtFSJCpigPmO7rMTkMUCB40PXwUe9KjD9-bZV5Ru1puJtEmC_0pCgawd0e0ylN8lSK1WsGnxAa0tioX0IQzvzP7ZvWMguqw9IPcUBOJU_D1SALPAXS_TmNw2o2SgwnKzd-SPkM9kKw/s1902/IMG_2658.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="1902" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKZfM7vupZOfG40jtdAI5yAq6w51KOmd9kKqA8ElpUOPmXtFSJCpigPmO7rMTkMUCB40PXwUe9KjD9-bZV5Ru1puJtEmC_0pCgawd0e0ylN8lSK1WsGnxAa0tioX0IQzvzP7ZvWMguqw9IPcUBOJU_D1SALPAXS_TmNw2o2SgwnKzd-SPkM9kKw/w400-h291/IMG_2658.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-76095177287233494072018-03-04T16:36:00.003-07:002018-03-04T19:49:41.634-07:00March snow storm on Antelope IslandA big storm was forecast, and based on the forecast I was going to be able to get to Antelope Island ahead of the storm, be there for it, and drive home the next day after it passed.<br />
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One of my main motivations in going was to test my new truck as a tow vehicle. It did great! So much nicer to pull with than the Tundra and almost double the miles per gallon too.<br />
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I took cross country skis, hoping to ski along the lake. The snow stuck to my skis and they were useless, so I hiked out to the lake in my cross country ski boots.<br />
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What I love about the Great Salt Lake is its other-worldly beauty. Highlights of the overnight in photos:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthKXBQHtZadHgTujcWwn7LqetzSu9vAM16SiF4jlVUiikj849hfZKBMW-YXJixsrp49jbqS7-6JR2zAJGL9oR40E3JqB1MFZzAgY-I680A1Jat38vURecLAkZydf8DswNWdF7MA/s1600/1+gsl+favorite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgthKXBQHtZadHgTujcWwn7LqetzSu9vAM16SiF4jlVUiikj849hfZKBMW-YXJixsrp49jbqS7-6JR2zAJGL9oR40E3JqB1MFZzAgY-I680A1Jat38vURecLAkZydf8DswNWdF7MA/s640/1+gsl+favorite.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love this photo looking west over the Great Salt Lake as the storm approached. I used an iPhone and no filter. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj7e6-VHZBdVgpLUhcZu3g-9uWAEDVaNveSvJdE3pFZSARtsaxNhgug-j8FGQtIJ0VGCfRjYGYlCX5TOEYA-3KxvX0ELk1_MbKbl6S5zvyKflMatbuhMif39DmVmWhmSckqfyRg/s1600/2+gsl+sat+eve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1450" data-original-width="1350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj7e6-VHZBdVgpLUhcZu3g-9uWAEDVaNveSvJdE3pFZSARtsaxNhgug-j8FGQtIJ0VGCfRjYGYlCX5TOEYA-3KxvX0ELk1_MbKbl6S5zvyKflMatbuhMif39DmVmWhmSckqfyRg/s400/2+gsl+sat+eve.jpg" width="371" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also before the storm. The color of the lake was eery and beautiful. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkm6mKj7_REiy8tUeI7ZI8ib_gVmylmColsr-kjZrpjvYskAHdmmKuNq0J0PeLZFafUelihmcsBpzKCiiyQKWod1cPH6i6KVgJo9Tp1st9KRXHYpG7EfWGczI_HiMFL0u93CS0Q/s1600/3+buffalo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="946" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpkm6mKj7_REiy8tUeI7ZI8ib_gVmylmColsr-kjZrpjvYskAHdmmKuNq0J0PeLZFafUelihmcsBpzKCiiyQKWod1cPH6i6KVgJo9Tp1st9KRXHYpG7EfWGczI_HiMFL0u93CS0Q/s400/3+buffalo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buffalo literally right out the door of my RV. They were no more than 200 yards away. All of these are iphone photos, at least you can see what they are. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdC408ku0VJ0h0Y_gRDIyZOG_n-cfTyStMA2A11jI_SCrRAjLkyKva3joQZTe9-vNqWe6sYTDpkcU5UND73f1RQLAW-_gLPYebVAtx_xcetPVM6v1aN9yYchZk4BEft2uegaqMVw/s1600/4+jake+sleeping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1588" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdC408ku0VJ0h0Y_gRDIyZOG_n-cfTyStMA2A11jI_SCrRAjLkyKva3joQZTe9-vNqWe6sYTDpkcU5UND73f1RQLAW-_gLPYebVAtx_xcetPVM6v1aN9yYchZk4BEft2uegaqMVw/s320/4+jake+sleeping.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jake did the hike with me Saturday evening, when I took the first two photos on top of this post. The poor boy is getting old and I probably pushed him too hard, though he was happy to be out. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnJZQaIEO9MIE2m8g-A4jpvSO0_R0IGzvcOGJYGhX3yuplU2nJxYwzRIyvT3bAyTFSo_avUKSqgnUSI046tmsqaiqQ23oZJjjpcAVQ9ar0Eowq2P30E8Cjo8Tt4l-yJmkU-Qjiw/s1600/4b+toward+end+of+storm+in+morning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBnJZQaIEO9MIE2m8g-A4jpvSO0_R0IGzvcOGJYGhX3yuplU2nJxYwzRIyvT3bAyTFSo_avUKSqgnUSI046tmsqaiqQ23oZJjjpcAVQ9ar0Eowq2P30E8Cjo8Tt4l-yJmkU-Qjiw/s400/4b+toward+end+of+storm+in+morning.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunday morning toward the end of the storm. The snow transformed the landscape. I'd say we got about six inches. This spot was wind blown. </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhsKH8vJeerLxRtTFJQY_4yIXxWGwbds5LUyfbNJ7CqYYC-LytcD2H6q3djZNQpCjxDQ5RW-wfOwo460NWin8lJncoTFgONK-_5-japO9EidCBskajf1lvxt0nilH4S4PcJ1rDw/s1600/4c+rig+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1088" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJhsKH8vJeerLxRtTFJQY_4yIXxWGwbds5LUyfbNJ7CqYYC-LytcD2H6q3djZNQpCjxDQ5RW-wfOwo460NWin8lJncoTFgONK-_5-japO9EidCBskajf1lvxt0nilH4S4PcJ1rDw/s400/4c+rig+snow.jpg" width="340" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhP2lrTJ4EqNwPXFuC6-Fx7xMkoDJAaKtjWA9ihAttjiPu0w-UTYlVIw_CeKZikY7Lir4Up1xkHEM8LqHrroUZ6eisN6a55_ysCUDIwnSfnddGrNWdoYfYtd8y25CYZjYVvda0g/s1600/5a+beach+view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYhP2lrTJ4EqNwPXFuC6-Fx7xMkoDJAaKtjWA9ihAttjiPu0w-UTYlVIw_CeKZikY7Lir4Up1xkHEM8LqHrroUZ6eisN6a55_ysCUDIwnSfnddGrNWdoYfYtd8y25CYZjYVvda0g/s400/5a+beach+view.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winter beach camping, Utah style. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWSVOkEdsYockQa5IFrjeH7clMpH_bvFO-qcOi9ol2XCwYtXAryu902cTPLigdYMi8fhPRiJ8uQo-JkcATeVDTFiiDvmKRJLlf-UJNubwrWx3QKf7mOdKg2Q_bb83mUGuu6mHYQ/s1600/5b+beach+w+jake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWSVOkEdsYockQa5IFrjeH7clMpH_bvFO-qcOi9ol2XCwYtXAryu902cTPLigdYMi8fhPRiJ8uQo-JkcATeVDTFiiDvmKRJLlf-UJNubwrWx3QKf7mOdKg2Q_bb83mUGuu6mHYQ/s400/5b+beach+w+jake.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Jake in the frame. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJP1p6gfViyQIFSIvu_6mxPwHiqLuDNK3PvPClff1JQ1a0vtOBzNlMQg3ja5oJeqvlEe84Vs7J55oYjoCWPzDSTTtYRAzbuD33X00le3hYlWbVMoZReU57tgBAtOQREoOS7wrVyQ/s1600/7sun+snow+late+morning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="1304" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJP1p6gfViyQIFSIvu_6mxPwHiqLuDNK3PvPClff1JQ1a0vtOBzNlMQg3ja5oJeqvlEe84Vs7J55oYjoCWPzDSTTtYRAzbuD33X00le3hYlWbVMoZReU57tgBAtOQREoOS7wrVyQ/s400/7sun+snow+late+morning.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About to head home. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1FDbSU2t-mQQNKAF45FxtC08ZXEhv2Iq1Vs7kg13wxZKZg_n-A_cuoTJ52EGl2yTvtsxHh7W99tQM-r3u3ZEZAAUKn3RTcEPTVO70PFnHXm8UBqDYoMDfpJ2mJhsXnWJgoxixNQ/s1600/8+airstream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1308" data-original-width="1600" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1FDbSU2t-mQQNKAF45FxtC08ZXEhv2Iq1Vs7kg13wxZKZg_n-A_cuoTJ52EGl2yTvtsxHh7W99tQM-r3u3ZEZAAUKn3RTcEPTVO70PFnHXm8UBqDYoMDfpJ2mJhsXnWJgoxixNQ/s400/8+airstream.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I sold my Airstream, but it's still in my driveway. Even more snow at my house. I shoveled for a good 90 minutes, the most I've had to shovel all winter. It was a wet snow too. Glad I got it up while it was still fresh. </td></tr>
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-76181931095584483582018-03-01T06:45:00.000-07:002018-03-04T20:02:10.231-07:00Report: The Missing 2018 Ram 1500 EcoDiesels Are ComingOr are they?<br />
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As of today, March 1, the 2018 Ram 1500 EcoDiesels are missing in action and there is a lot of contradictory information about their status.<br />
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Two days ago, auto journalist Tim Esterdahl heard from his contact at Ram who said there are "no issues with the EPA. The 2018 EcoDiesel is certified. They just haven’t hit dealer lots due to the production mix at the factory."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQw8_UO8hK_Su7VuFhTaz99Xi_ov3nNavsdTX9dQEKYLtaGaWGh4eZK1mnV344Kr1vwnogEsej4FAYPVPNRS29oMP6SXz9FHtj0Wt52qONrTxTyAtF2yqWYvMpoXk74CzO5WbjA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-02-28+at+4.40.20+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="325" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQw8_UO8hK_Su7VuFhTaz99Xi_ov3nNavsdTX9dQEKYLtaGaWGh4eZK1mnV344Kr1vwnogEsej4FAYPVPNRS29oMP6SXz9FHtj0Wt52qONrTxTyAtF2yqWYvMpoXk74CzO5WbjA/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-02-28+at+4.40.20+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where have the diesels gone?</td></tr>
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Ram told TFLTruck in a story posted on January 22 that that the Ram EcoDiesel “is [available] as a 2017 model year truck. It’s sold alongside current 2018 gas-powered trucks.” In the same story they said that the 2019 updated version of the Ram will have an EcoDiesel available sometime in calendar year 2019--which is later than when other 2019 Rams will be available. The TFL article doesn’t specifically mention 2018 models.<br />
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Last October, Automotive News reported that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA--Ram’s parent corporation) had not yet received certification from the EPA for the 2018 EcoDiesels.<br />
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This week I did a search online. A few dealers in the country had 2018 EcoDiesels listed as available, but when I contacted them, they didn’t actually have them. Also, most of these listings were clearly using stock photos--with some dealers using the same photo for each supposed listing. When I asked my Utah dealer where the 2018s were, they simply replied, “we haven’t got them yet.” Fair enough, but will they ever?<br />
<br />
In 2017 there was a sales hold on this model while FCA/Ram went through a recertification process with the EPA, who had issued a Notice of Violation of the Clean Air Act in early January that year. The EPA gave Ram permission to sell the 2017 model year again in late July. There are a healthy number of 2017 EcoDiesels still available today, and dealers seem to be getting aggressive with discounts.<br />
<br />
On forums people report that they were able to order a 2018--as late as late January of 2018--although some of their orders were subsequently cancelled. One guy who ordered one says he was told it’s been made but shipped to storage pending EPA approval. That contradicts what Esterdahl was told by Ram, but seems more believable to me.<br />
<br />
It’s possible that Ram manufactured as many as they could through the end of 2017 and they have a pause in place while the 2017 inventory clears, and or they get the 2018 certified. Yet one source of mine insisted that “it’s common knowledge that there will be no 2018 EcoDiesel.”<br />
<br />
The unresolved battle with the EPA regarding emissions no doubt is the source of this mystery of the 2018 diesels. I wrote more about the emissions issue <a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/02/ram-1500-ecodiesel-timeline-working-post.html">in a separate post</a>.<br />
<br />
Tim Esterdahl’s new information from Ram is interesting, but it would be nice if there was something definitive from FCA/Ram. If there is no 2018 model year that could impact resale value of this innovative truck. The Ram Trucks website provides no option to add a diesel engine to 2018 Rams.<br />
<br />
So where are those 2018 Ram EcoDiesels?<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Sources </span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20171007/OEM11/171009849/17-diesel-rams-are-finally-on-dealer-lots" target="_blank">'17 diesel Rams are finally on dealer lots, Automotive News, October 7, 2017</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/01/faq-2019-ram-1500-regular-cab-3-liter-ecodiesel-v6/" target="_blank">Ask TFLTruck: Current Generation 2019 RAM 1500 regular cab and what's up with the EcoDiesel V6?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ram1500diesel.com/forum/forum.php" target="_blank">The Ram 1500 Diesel Forum</a> This is a public site, but most people post anonymously, which is why I didn't quote anyone by name (even screen name)</li>
<li>Auto Journalist Tim Esterdahl--Special thanks to Esterdahl for reaching out to Ram and letting me quote him. For more truck news follow Tim at his website <a href="https://pickuptrucktalk.com/">https://pickuptrucktalk.com</a>. Also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxO2h83kcVBaLFjjCLer3AA" target="_blank">subscribe to his channel on YouTube</a>, he's near a threshold there and could use more subscribers. </li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>What do you know?</b></span><br />
<br />
If you have any information on the 2018 EDs, please leave a comment!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>Read my <a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/02/ram-1500-ecodiesel-timeline-working-post.html">History of the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel here</a>.</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>3/2 Update v3</b></span><br />
<br />
Yesterday, it looks like just after I posted this, Jared Balfour wrote a post with additional info on the 2018 EcoDiesels that confirms their existence. He also discusses the 2019s.<br />
<br />
Today Balfour received confirmation from Ram that the 2018 diesels are EPA certified! Jared has a high degree of confidence that this is the case. Hopefully this will be the final word on certification. I guess the 2018s are unlikely to be released until the 2017s are mostly sold.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://5thgenrams.com/fca-stockpiling-2018-ram-1500-ecodiesels/" target="_blank">Click here to read Balfour's story.</a> </b><br />
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Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-83843565102367091522018-02-26T21:39:00.000-07:002018-02-26T23:16:34.286-07:00Kanab, Balloons, Zion, and more!Had a fun trip to southern Utah two weekends ago. Made it a five day affair with my new CampLite RV! Here are some highlights:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOb7JdsAV8FmGZo8x4_yBthfHxiPp7r2ylEAPVHaXSq0TvWHtvzqNZbcBF5HxobngHBvVT94LFemBa7KzEcV_UqPd_6-XtqPpNAxMKMKpfG3UYEkUcNJiF6Z46gOi1FQBIy3kWSA/s1600/jake+best.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="359" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOb7JdsAV8FmGZo8x4_yBthfHxiPp7r2ylEAPVHaXSq0TvWHtvzqNZbcBF5HxobngHBvVT94LFemBa7KzEcV_UqPd_6-XtqPpNAxMKMKpfG3UYEkUcNJiF6Z46gOi1FQBIy3kWSA/s640/jake+best.PNG" width="356" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favorite photo from the trip. My pup, Jacob Kanab Powell--aged 13.5, at Coral Pink Sand Dunes. #stunning</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuEy4FyiavL-hVsN9pGVojXnuqRH8vt-_iqYJnXnG8y9Z7ZxNdvS0PtM5q4ImVYC8Osfc_oa8R_np8OaEiWbvonwDK3EDbbazdeqqKL4g1D2p1Rd5TIXY7ii2w_rz6Lumr3cCQLw/s1600/balloon+happy+close.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuEy4FyiavL-hVsN9pGVojXnuqRH8vt-_iqYJnXnG8y9Z7ZxNdvS0PtM5q4ImVYC8Osfc_oa8R_np8OaEiWbvonwDK3EDbbazdeqqKL4g1D2p1Rd5TIXY7ii2w_rz6Lumr3cCQLw/s320/balloon+happy+close.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kanab Balloons and Tunes Festival was my first balloon festival ever. It was amazing. I really didn't know what to expect. Love this happy balloon. </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKon1VnYnBhdL1-rdtHrbznY3l88kPgAy3AfPivEm1rIp_DaBdWaX4lG8b3I58CBz0cvFijVQ6wJlZ7-Ic0izsbGJVFsc2vDueUUqDtbVLmii0m0imNsm4fnWq24uim6Z4pysiKg/s1600/balloon+morning+w+flame.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKon1VnYnBhdL1-rdtHrbznY3l88kPgAy3AfPivEm1rIp_DaBdWaX4lG8b3I58CBz0cvFijVQ6wJlZ7-Ic0izsbGJVFsc2vDueUUqDtbVLmii0m0imNsm4fnWq24uim6Z4pysiKg/s400/balloon+morning+w+flame.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Check out that flame. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e_wogHsYYyFvgVqvixO8nK_youhk0EVwjNylJrsXvxDmjHf__lKn82rs-nwXjjH075rSvzhqNYALuBx9ZUJa4cRr15BG5GdxbkdwRlxLG_VFuT6o8wGOPsPxiPuR6awpnEM9Tw/s1600/balloon+day+owl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1035" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e_wogHsYYyFvgVqvixO8nK_youhk0EVwjNylJrsXvxDmjHf__lKn82rs-nwXjjH075rSvzhqNYALuBx9ZUJa4cRr15BG5GdxbkdwRlxLG_VFuT6o8wGOPsPxiPuR6awpnEM9Tw/s400/balloon+day+owl.jpg" width="368" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So cool. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJwO4pFd1-FlknHFpSpKM5EkJAtx57dwbk75Y_ts0CdP2hSflpPM3ZWuUwd-mCVzNiqFLVIwLmOQKCDutklLORQPvMTSnlqlo58dE502fxyLFTdBPZQEuBJMbvsAMlL8v3bBXpg/s640/balloon+night.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="480" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They shut down US 89, the main highway through Kanab, lined up around 20 balloons and had the "light in." Pure magic. </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJwO4pFd1-FlknHFpSpKM5EkJAtx57dwbk75Y_ts0CdP2hSflpPM3ZWuUwd-mCVzNiqFLVIwLmOQKCDutklLORQPvMTSnlqlo58dE502fxyLFTdBPZQEuBJMbvsAMlL8v3bBXpg/s1600/balloon+night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My rig just east of Bryce on the way down. The Tundra was good looking, but not so good at pulling. I traded it in at the end of the week when I came home.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnphLE13QMSbYz6cuEn0GZklOlsOdv2F5lRfPfpAt05t4PYSTc14LVLWeu1VVj8vdn8VS4nLOPltEqsJDTGGoirbMlRpFlxWGGTJGItVqcpJQfBFkoEkSGATG_jzP9kqNLHxqd2Q/s640/jake+sand.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="480" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another of Jake and Coral Pink Sand Dunes. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlBfwVfc0XevW3M-0EraEvv-Nl7MLt_18eay2Tg0IT470bvr0sicS2dkaUE-xLbgqmlV_GR3-8Cwlg91YHPN1V9msCt5mIjigMZQldWsOJU9HT8_KXTy-4tyRjHSEcYPal7BKug/s1600/jake+sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="526" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKlBfwVfc0XevW3M-0EraEvv-Nl7MLt_18eay2Tg0IT470bvr0sicS2dkaUE-xLbgqmlV_GR3-8Cwlg91YHPN1V9msCt5mIjigMZQldWsOJU9HT8_KXTy-4tyRjHSEcYPal7BKug/s640/jake+sunset.jpg" width="526" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My superstar boy just before sunset. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uA-xBiE0WMRmzzZZXl43e6t318sGmFNYEVXzX2f0pCDuWluzsg_5LfNAT95E7XHjsUnVqzq8RTTSR4bj6MMZPOP07Rn_F6IlrJdjMX3v9KVbI6zwJ2QK0990ARAOatvr_xeyyQ/s1600/pippa+and+k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-uA-xBiE0WMRmzzZZXl43e6t318sGmFNYEVXzX2f0pCDuWluzsg_5LfNAT95E7XHjsUnVqzq8RTTSR4bj6MMZPOP07Rn_F6IlrJdjMX3v9KVbI6zwJ2QK0990ARAOatvr_xeyyQ/s400/pippa+and+k.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mis amigos with their new fixer upper.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7YzlEPHKcY5PPUMSsI8x3IRvkXRc2AEBDct0YVBdsvMYOhffLdrdeBYufJ8s9UBWq6LC3kYnRHJ14d0SEEmNdotHeRo-2j8Xsvvlf_Rny_hP6wa4ZEn0vtXTuWbb9tWD6l9yGQ/s1600/set+jim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="962" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7YzlEPHKcY5PPUMSsI8x3IRvkXRc2AEBDct0YVBdsvMYOhffLdrdeBYufJ8s9UBWq6LC3kYnRHJ14d0SEEmNdotHeRo-2j8Xsvvlf_Rny_hP6wa4ZEn0vtXTuWbb9tWD6l9yGQ/s400/set+jim.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Striking a pose. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JBwR513rDMqy_d8AM-JAffrMq49oOxy_OGbhQz_m6M5YHQv3wFihkbGEeANhcB4S1DT0esec5MjPWFPw9Mbrvs8OvRAG3SzEGzhr0vY2Al-Gjl1fH0STqqSyObw-TuVk4VcYMw/s1600/set+pippa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_JBwR513rDMqy_d8AM-JAffrMq49oOxy_OGbhQz_m6M5YHQv3wFihkbGEeANhcB4S1DT0esec5MjPWFPw9Mbrvs8OvRAG3SzEGzhr0vY2Al-Gjl1fH0STqqSyObw-TuVk4VcYMw/s400/set+pippa.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pippa!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFjM4mev3109GacAOU9mzCwQX1vMD2PgfawgKqXG-cm7g59zs7iaUKkmXZ0i3FFcAEshsy8Na1MNU34gjO72dFEBAo64htfI_cvhBDgMDX5kKDy3ay1mZ4Bmj6RZPhC2e72Lqmw/s1600/coddi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFjM4mev3109GacAOU9mzCwQX1vMD2PgfawgKqXG-cm7g59zs7iaUKkmXZ0i3FFcAEshsy8Na1MNU34gjO72dFEBAo64htfI_cvhBDgMDX5kKDy3ay1mZ4Bmj6RZPhC2e72Lqmw/s400/coddi.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The famous--in my world--Coddiwompler! Look up coddiwomple, cool word. This trailer is actually slick on the inside after a major rebuild. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg132wM5I3TVfzON5tPH3frh-sUMFwf7zTmwe5xybzQG2rQaDzWPX40Kt3DamxwgXc3aDBjquYqsnUl2pgoYuQqe98sc5f6iWXLv7fxjOUv4EaE8r6fthtVOzPyI76luBblbrP-lg/s1600/z+mouth+of+narrows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg132wM5I3TVfzON5tPH3frh-sUMFwf7zTmwe5xybzQG2rQaDzWPX40Kt3DamxwgXc3aDBjquYqsnUl2pgoYuQqe98sc5f6iWXLv7fxjOUv4EaE8r6fthtVOzPyI76luBblbrP-lg/s640/z+mouth+of+narrows.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zion at the gates of the Narrows. Doesn't get much better than this. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOgI5qo3_JfG6a1vjREpfh-pGTP28Kw-BfGIcpwPQY0AlhPgvXQ7Q3om6yH0JdTs2U8roSV0JAoetSb-Inqk1jyW9MqPqc65F8AtM2PXeDF8pD5nr2fYNLgKPcnPZ0hiCRFzM0w/s1600/z+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOgI5qo3_JfG6a1vjREpfh-pGTP28Kw-BfGIcpwPQY0AlhPgvXQ7Q3om6yH0JdTs2U8roSV0JAoetSb-Inqk1jyW9MqPqc65F8AtM2PXeDF8pD5nr2fYNLgKPcnPZ0hiCRFzM0w/s400/z+snow.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zion and snow. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY0AwVtNGm6XLkNMUB2cCP2tUivePzFkBTOr4Ao8SxnNznf6fQ5j-FbDvWzeXr8wrsqo-ZLMC31G16M7KRfP_JZSLPEaISYX_AAq4fv5F1S3YQaurfgltlO3fpBbxN1ZPngG-Vw/s1600/zion+camp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="640" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY0AwVtNGm6XLkNMUB2cCP2tUivePzFkBTOr4Ao8SxnNznf6fQ5j-FbDvWzeXr8wrsqo-ZLMC31G16M7KRfP_JZSLPEaISYX_AAq4fv5F1S3YQaurfgltlO3fpBbxN1ZPngG-Vw/s400/zion+camp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My magical little camper, Jake, and Zion. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Here's to a winter RV getaway in the most amazing state in the nation.<br />
<br />
Make it this far? Leave a comment . . . thoughts . . . favorite trips . . . favorite RVs . . .<br />
<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-49587445830913878082018-02-25T13:40:00.003-07:002018-03-01T21:34:24.978-07:00History of the Ram 1500 EcoDieselTwo days ago I replaced my 2013 Tundra with a 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. I am loving my new truck. It's so much more comfortable to drive than the Tundra and a lot zippier too.<br />
<br />
The Ram EcoDiesel is the first half-ton diesel pickup available in the United States since the 1978-79 Dodge D100 and D200. Ram's truck includes a 3.0-liter V-6 EcoDiesel engine made in Italy by VM Motori, a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) subsidiary. Chrysler itself has been part of FCA since 2014 (though Fiat began its relationship with Chrysler in 2009--including their initial investment).<br />
<br />
The truck has been available since early 2014.<br />
<br />
Diesels appeal to me because they are better at pulling trailers (more torque) and they get much better fuel economy than gasoline powered trucks.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Engine</b></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIcL6pAmGMMp7ac7A51AAkCdYFyV0JeL-97tquuE7AXD-Eg-Z4LeAeUYt4_EAgcbqwLTXwa5DNaeaMi8UQKXOWGR7XYc1hTVBBv0PJbFb8txAUGir5EzX7qTEkql-0GkGGoEWKA/s1600/Ramchryslerlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIcL6pAmGMMp7ac7A51AAkCdYFyV0JeL-97tquuE7AXD-Eg-Z4LeAeUYt4_EAgcbqwLTXwa5DNaeaMi8UQKXOWGR7XYc1hTVBBv0PJbFb8txAUGir5EzX7qTEkql-0GkGGoEWKA/s200/Ramchryslerlogo.png" width="185" /></a>The EcoDiesel engine makes this truck unique. Why it took Detroit 36 years to offer another light-duty diesel truck is something I don’t understand. The EcoDiesel has its roots in a partnership between VM Motori and GM. GM wanted a diesel engine for a European Cadillac they hoped to offer. The bankruptcy of GM in 2009 ended the budding partnership with VM Motori.<br />
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With its new relationship with Fiat, Chrysler/Ram picked up where GM left off and worked with Motori to develop what became branded as the EcoDiesel engine. By 2013 they were previewing the engine at auto shows ahead of its 2014 debut. Despite its long-standing relationship with Cummins, Cummins didn’t have an engine appropriate for a light duty truck--although they would have one by 2016 available through Nissan.<br />
<br />
Fiat/Motori’s newly developed engine is built on a compacted graphite iron block. This is a strong material that allowed them to reduce the size of the block, also reducing the weight of the engine. Another innovation is the dual overhead camshaft design. This is the first diesel engine to use this technology (it's long been available in gas engines). The engine is rated to tow 8,000 to 9,200 pounds (based on the configuration) and delivers the best fuel economy of any full-sized pickup truck.<br />
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The new EcoDiesel engine has had a higher failure rate than most engines. It is likely that there has been at least a 3% failure rate in the first few model years (2014-2016). FCA replaces these failed engines (unless there is strong evidence that it wasn't properly maintained). The drivetrain on these trucks comes with a 100,000 mile warranty and most of the failures seem to be happening at 20,000 miles or less. The auto press doesn't seem to have covered this story much but you can read about it on <a href="http://www.ram1500diesel.com/forum/ram-1500-diesel-mechanical/8564-eco-diesel-engine-failures.html" target="_blank">this online forum for the 1500 Ram EcoDiesel</a>.<br />
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On the positive side, on the same forum linked to above, there are no reports of 2017 Ram EcoDiesels failing yet (as of 2/27/18). <a href="http://www.ram1500diesel.com/forum/ram-1500-diesel-general-discussion/51953-how-many-2017-engine-failures.html" target="_blank">Read the thread on how 2017s are doing here</a>.<br />
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Despite what sounds like one possible very bad problem, through all of my online reading most owners seem to be very happy with this truck, but it seems clear that it's no Toyota Tundra regarding reliability. That was something I knew and took into consideration before my trade. Though there was plenty I didn't know.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Ram EcoDiesel Timeline and conflict with the EPA</span></b><br />
<ul>
<li><b style="font-weight: bold;">February 2014</b>--Ram EcoDiesel goes on sale with strong initial orders.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Circa March 2014</b>--EcoDiesels begin arriving, and hitting the streets.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>2015 and 2016</b>--Sales continue with new model years arriving at dealer lots. More than 100,000 Ram EcoDiesels sold by the end of 2016.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>January 12, 2017</b>--EPA and California regulators issue a "Notice of Violation" against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Ram's parent corporation, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act due to changes to vehicle software allowing excessive (and illegal) levels of nitrogen oxides into the air.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>January 2017</b>--FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne "disputes any resemblance to VW’s Dieselgate scandal because nothing in FCA’s diesel calibration distinguishes between a test cycle and normal driving conditions," which was the case with VW. “This is a huge difference because there has never been an intention on the part of FCA to create conditions that are designed to defeat the testing process,” Marchionne said. <a href="http://wardsauto.com/ideaxchange/while-trump-s-epa-fiddles-fca-diesel-problem-burns">More at Wards Auto</a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>2017 Sales Hold</b>--during 2017 sales of new EcoDiesels were put on hold. I am not sure when the sales hold began, but likely shortly after the January 12 notice from the EPA. It's not clear if any 2017s were delivered in late 2016 or very early 2017, but if they were, it was likely not many. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>July 28, 2017</b>--EPA and California regulators approve 2017 EcoDiesels to go on sale. But approval is not granted for 2018 models.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Late September 2017</b>--2017 EcoDiesels begin showing up at dealer lots according to <a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20171007/OEM11/171009849/17-diesel-rams-are-finally-on-dealer-lots">Automotive News</a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>December 2017</b>--<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/u-s-said-to-seek-major-fines-recalls-in-fiat-diesel-settlement">From Bloomberg</a>: "Fiat Chrysler has acknowledged in a term sheet the company submitted to the government lawyers, the need for a settlement to include civil penalties, an emissions fix for the diesel vehicles and environmental mitigation efforts, the letter said. The automaker proposed committing to projects to promote low- or zero-emissions “mobility projects” in the December term sheet, which the Justice Department said regulators would be willing to consider."</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>December 31, 2017?</b>--FCA ends production of 2017 year EcoDiesels? Just a guess.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>January 27, 2018</b>--U.S. Justice Department gives FCA a settlement offer. FCA would need to pay a substantial but unspecified civil penalty and recall and fix 104,000 vehicles, mostly Ram 1500 with EcoDiesel engines. The fix involves a software update. Importantly, given the recent VW situation, there is not talk of buying back these vehicles. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>January/February 2018</b>--Based on posts in online forums dealers were initially taking orders for 2018 Ram EcoDiesels, but then stopped. The status of the 2018 model year is unknown and it appears that no 2018s exist or at least have been released. Currently a large number of new 2017s remain available via Ram dealers, many of these were manufactured late last year mostly so they haven't been sitting all that long yet (you can check the manufacture date inside the door). If you like this truck, this is a good time to buy since dealers are always motivated to get rid of last year's model. Based on my browsing online you should be able to get at least 33% off of MSRP. One California dealer was being even more aggressive</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>February 27, 2018</b> <b>Update</b>--Today auto journalist Tim Esterdahl heard from his contact at Ram who said there are "no issues with the EPA. The 2018 EcoDiesel is certified. They just haven’t hit dealer lots due to the production mix at the factory." There is a lot of mixed information out there about the 2018s, <a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/03/report-missing-2018-ram-1500-ecodiesels.html">I'll be writing a separate post about them</a>. Thanks to Tim for this update. I told him I am a little skeptical, but who knows? I am just passing on what he was told. Go to his website at <a href="https://pickuptrucktalk.com/">https://pickuptrucktalk.com</a> and follow him for truck news. Also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxO2h83kcVBaLFjjCLer3AA" target="_blank">subscribe to his channel on YouTube</a>, he's near a threshold there and needs more subscribers. </li>
</ul>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Diesel and the rest of the American Big Three</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>Ram, GM, and Ford have offered heavier duty diesels for years. These trucks are the work horses of our times--3/4 ton and larger. They are also expensive, starting at $45,000 to $50,000 these days, with $60k to $75k+ being common. They also hold their resale value as they tend to last for hundreds of thousands of miles if cared for properly. Half-ton trucks and smaller offer another story.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7vy0yhjNA7L8N4DI_URPftBrGqzVjjAO6dzY35Xk_iNtqVHDEu52LLjOcIhqPBdO4UR_hFZA2tIiKbJk_z0nNG6Jfwr1KFFpqVx3lfCHVcIeaUrIzm5s2JsQoqYVbDxs7DxpRWA/s1600/detroit_big_three_auto_logos_510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="510" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7vy0yhjNA7L8N4DI_URPftBrGqzVjjAO6dzY35Xk_iNtqVHDEu52LLjOcIhqPBdO4UR_hFZA2tIiKbJk_z0nNG6Jfwr1KFFpqVx3lfCHVcIeaUrIzm5s2JsQoqYVbDxs7DxpRWA/s320/detroit_big_three_auto_logos_510.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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After years of talk, Ford is expected to join the half-ton diesel market circa April of 2018 with a diesel option on their F-150.<br />
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GM's play in this space began with their 2016 model year. They introduced the mid-sized Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups, offering what's branded as a Duramax diesel. These engines are made in Thailand. The 2019 Silverado 1500 and its GMC twin will be available with a new Duramax diesel, GM announced in January of 2018. I don't believe a release date has been announced and new diesel trucks are often delayed as Ford has demonstrated.<br />
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Honorable mention to Nissan who joined this light duty diesel market in the 2016 model year, successfully getting a brand new Cummins diesel in their half-ton pickup. This was something of a coup for them.<br />
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With the price of fuel at historic lows (when adjusting for inflation) demand for diesels is likely to remain soft, but there are many of us who love them for many reasons in addition to fuel economy.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A final personal note</span></b><br />
<br />
My EcoDiesel is the third diesel I've owned:<br />
<ul>
<li>2006 Ram 2500 with a Cummins engine, excellent for pulling a 25-foot Airstream I had 10 years ago</li>
<li>2012 VW Jetta TDI--I loved this car but sold it back to VW under the terms of their settlement offer mandated as a result of their blatant cheating</li>
<li>Now my 2015 Ram EcoDiesel</li>
</ul>
<div>
Having gone through what I did with my Jetta, all of the EPA-related issues Ram/FCA is dealing with aren't especially alarming (VW took good care of us). FCA CEO's comment about how this is different than what VW did resonates with me. FCA made modifications for performance, which they failed to get approved, that's a world away from designing a vehicle to behave differently while being tested. For me the advantages of diesel are big enough that I am willing to jump on this boat and see where it takes me. I was not fully aware of all of this when I made my purchase, but oh well. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Goodbye Tundra. Toyota Tundras have a reputation as being long-lasting reliable trucks, though not flashy. Toyota gets dinged in the automotive press for not staying up with the times, but Toyota loyalists like the simplicity of the Tundras. As for me, I just wasn't feeling it after I bought my new travel trailer which was lighter but much less aerodynamic than the vintage Airstream I had last year. Getting 8 mpgs when towing last week was the final straw. The Tundra's engine always felt unusually revvy to me too--it was something I just didn't get used to I guess. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Despite not knowing much of what I've learned, and written about here, I remain happy with my purchase. Of course it's early days still . . . here's to my new truck being a good one!</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4YI2HRvrBBf9o2ws-kS5bj1uOJyhRUgPHi6mal4DPbrl20di82HsBmwIOvqO7ltu9cWcGSPlIt7lOu4cVMeIMAoKo0RYDpQmwcUDhjzNYwTd2gubia8Z-HX6A0jR8CJLWQfq_A/s1600/photo+%252888%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1164" data-original-width="1600" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4YI2HRvrBBf9o2ws-kS5bj1uOJyhRUgPHi6mal4DPbrl20di82HsBmwIOvqO7ltu9cWcGSPlIt7lOu4cVMeIMAoKo0RYDpQmwcUDhjzNYwTd2gubia8Z-HX6A0jR8CJLWQfq_A/s400/photo+%252888%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My now rejected Tundra in the foreground with my new Ram EcoDiesel, photographed this past Friday evening at Larry H. Miller in Bountiful, Utah. The Tundra is a good truck, it just wasn't the truck I wanted any more with its awful mileage and revvy engine. It's powerful enough to tow my little travel trailer, but it felt like it was straining to me and the 8 mpgs it was delivering was just not acceptable. My truck is also my daily vehicle. The smaller Ram with its better mileage won me over. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-size: large;">External Links--More on Light Duty Diesels</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Read about the predicted future of diesel <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2018/02/20/us-auto-market-diesels-safe-haven/345991002/">in this Detroit Free Press article</a> from February 20, 2018. One of its key points is that diesel in the U.S. isn't going away any time soon, though diesel is under threat, especially in Europe, as a result of the VW cheating scandal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">More on the previous light-duty diesel: <a href="http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-case-of-the-very-rare-1978-dodge-diesel-pickup-and-the-non-existent-diesel-van/" target="_blank">Automotive History: The Case Of The Very Rare 1978 Dodge Diesel Pickup And The Missing Diesel Van</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">To go more in-depth on the EcoDiesel engine read <a href="http://www.enginelabs.com/engine-tech/engine/an-inside-look-at-the-ram-1500-3-0l-ecodiesel/" target="_blank">An Inside Look At The Ram 1500 3.0L EcoDiesel</a> from Engine Labs.</span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Cummins Hub also has more detail on the engine, <a href="http://www.cumminshub.com/ecodiesel.html">see Ram EcoDiesel Specs</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
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<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>If you have any corrections, additional relevant information, </b><br />
<b>or something good to say--please leave a comment!</b></div>
</div>
Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-7359336152369923652018-02-14T23:47:00.002-07:002018-02-16T00:30:00.454-07:00February on Antelope Island<i>Photos from my first outing in my new CampLite travel trailer. </i><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAh45t52-ObYJzb6GJxk0K2bRuW1xU7CyU4RY7Lf59OBCCTuMlrB-doQCJq1xnOVYmJPgRkdp0RXw-z0jl3Xqh18eopL7SY1cjLC72acDDGXdjOPs6OSLQE7FUUmpVW8chOjxMg/s1600/buf+rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAh45t52-ObYJzb6GJxk0K2bRuW1xU7CyU4RY7Lf59OBCCTuMlrB-doQCJq1xnOVYmJPgRkdp0RXw-z0jl3Xqh18eopL7SY1cjLC72acDDGXdjOPs6OSLQE7FUUmpVW8chOjxMg/s400/buf+rock.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Buffalo Rock," because it looked like a buffalo from a distance. Was neither a buffalo, nor a rock. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimMPrZfbDvGV0JdiZ_ALmRsHwWPsnig_pA3EExDxUn-X8tY_FPadlTgHqYZcdieH93E8VvE0309TN-T1bZtphk2IIFpljKjIc9c60_QgJGQwhKasSPuimGDiqsv7MyokHnQLTD_g/s1600/coyote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1250" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimMPrZfbDvGV0JdiZ_ALmRsHwWPsnig_pA3EExDxUn-X8tY_FPadlTgHqYZcdieH93E8VvE0309TN-T1bZtphk2IIFpljKjIc9c60_QgJGQwhKasSPuimGDiqsv7MyokHnQLTD_g/s400/coyote.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coyote. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKq3uRjSk8t8wM8SWtYk8brFrfEfJzd2pb1wo57dHod-qRIAU6lNFhx0janEf24znsDu4OhiTW4m2cI_exprAFcGvqs1zehpsa892LKsWvosbERgThTKcn6eCHzivtwkHoS0Y1JQ/s1600/cl+outing+w+buf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="992" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKq3uRjSk8t8wM8SWtYk8brFrfEfJzd2pb1wo57dHod-qRIAU6lNFhx0janEf24znsDu4OhiTW4m2cI_exprAFcGvqs1zehpsa892LKsWvosbERgThTKcn6eCHzivtwkHoS0Y1JQ/s400/cl+outing+w+buf.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buffalo. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCKxdveYYp-MGkZt7HywrcaznS9MHLSkrB2mnvTIsmmTB9HdhuVlYDDv8gNhXfE9JvjSe9vr_XMPXsuJYm0N7m8SPr14SJlEOicfNeGJRWsKcetuuyE7NeLndhe8omWh8fP80Lnw/s400/gsl.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Great Salt Lake. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jake!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tundra and road. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new rig! Wasatch Mountains in distance. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset two. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CampLite by Livin Lite. Lovin it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/02/sleeping-with-buffalo.html">How did everything work on this first outing? Scroll down or click here if you aren't on the main blog. </a></span></div>
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-62946096186641376102018-02-11T19:23:00.003-07:002018-02-25T22:17:44.468-07:00Sleeping with Buffalo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great Salt Sunset. </td></tr>
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Last night, with my pup Jake, I took my new CampLite 11FK travel trailer out for its first spin. We went to Antelope Island State Park, in the Great Salt Lake.<br />
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Having only had vintage Airstreams before, and being new to this trailer anyway, I wanted to begin to break it in and learn what I could.<br />
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Here's what I found:<br />
<ol>
<li>It doesn’t pull like an Airstream. There was wind on the way up and my lord . . . my poor V8 Tundra acted like it was going to die. This is a 2,400 pound (dry weight, and it was dry) trailer, but the added profile vs. my Airstream was markedly noticeable. On the way back, without wind, it felt like a 2,400 pound trailer--meaning I barely noticed it. I needed to ease up on speed with the wind, probably staying in the 55-60 mph range, rather than attempting to go 70, which was the speed limit. Of course, it's probably a good idea to stay at 65 max anyway. With my Airstream it was truly effortless to pull and I felt comfortable going 70, not that that was smart! For the record a smaller vehicle can definitely pull this CampLite . . . just adjust your driving if there's wind!</li>
<li>It’s small! I wanted a small trailer and I got one. It’s big enough for how I will use it and overall I am happy with the size, but it will require a daytime configuration and a nighttime one. I knew that conceptually, but it was different to experience it. </li>
<li>The USB ports didn’t work. Apparently they aren’t wired to run off of the 12 volt system as they were in my vintage Airstream (an improvement I made to it). That was a bummer as my iPhone is also my camera. I trickle charged it off the Tundra. </li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2uQI7gch_g5-nfGVaeojhQ7esIe2xoXZAte0LHpM_V1jPza6YS806G9KKW5tuylUtcwp9xh7VPyOtYI96b2Fo5Ro7ycgmg10Vkx_dGtU3lX91SkKK7k-9KQ0jcre3xGJ6JtMxtQ/s1600/jake+in+cl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="1600" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2uQI7gch_g5-nfGVaeojhQ7esIe2xoXZAte0LHpM_V1jPza6YS806G9KKW5tuylUtcwp9xh7VPyOtYI96b2Fo5Ro7ycgmg10Vkx_dGtU3lX91SkKK7k-9KQ0jcre3xGJ6JtMxtQ/s320/jake+in+cl.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Jake with his new trailer.</td></tr>
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<li>The furnace worked well! It got down to about 30 degrees outside and felt cold out there, but toasty inside. </li>
<li>Sunshine works! Once the sun came up the trailer was warm without the furnace. It was still in the thirties out there. That’s another thing you sort of know from [real] camping, but the difference was night and day. : )</li>
<li>The refrigerator worked well--first time. </li>
<li>Ditto for the stovetop. </li>
<li>Batteries held up fine, as you would expect for one night. </li>
<li>My trailer is stumpy! Seeing it parked in the campground (which was at about 15% occupancy) it looked so small and stumplike. </li>
<li>There's a serious dearth of places to sit things down like your phone or a drink. It only has the kitchen counter, which is at the front, and the main table, which I didn't have set up as a table. I recognized this already and brought a stool to set things on, but using it that point really stood out. I might have to have my friends at <a href="https://campereparadise.com/" target="_blank">Camper Reparadise</a> add some additional shelving and/or a mini counter top. </li>
<li>I liked it! </li>
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After the sun set, I reread my friend Rich Luhr’s <i>Newbies Guide to Airstreaming</i>. Rich created and publishes Airstream Life, a magazine. His newbies guide is great and applies to most any RV. Filled with wisdom, tips, and advice. I highly recommend this book to any RVer who feels anything less than expert. <a href="https://store.airstreamlife.com/products/newbies-guide-to-airstreaming" target="_blank">You can buy it here</a>.<br />
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It was a fun outing. Jake enjoyed it too. He’s getting old. : (<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFR4iK3xypVomgZwOSiIUdFZepKbfrR1ZzJ_Vu1YfEi4uZHss4IE0BQt2ylJvqVW9XMoEOcC4fxWJuiZTGDDTMMoziUweSIkkzW49hHDnedOQe_6jgVYqulJcwNnXpCJScV8XZw/s1600/cl+at+GSL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="1280" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFR4iK3xypVomgZwOSiIUdFZepKbfrR1ZzJ_Vu1YfEi4uZHss4IE0BQt2ylJvqVW9XMoEOcC4fxWJuiZTGDDTMMoziUweSIkkzW49hHDnedOQe_6jgVYqulJcwNnXpCJScV8XZw/s400/cl+at+GSL.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As we arrived on Antelope Island. Great Salt Lake and Wasatch Mountains beyond us.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The buffalo of Antelope Island. I was actually pretty close . . . which isn't smart. I had to zoom in via cropping. This was the best my iPhone could do given how close I was willing to go.<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/02/thor-industries-airstream-and-livin-lite.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2018/02/thor-industries-airstream-and-livin-lite.html" target="_blank">Click here to read how I went from being an Airstream-only guy to buying a CampLite. </a></span></td></tr>
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Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-55929605750897168332018-02-09T20:26:00.000-07:002018-02-16T01:18:20.012-07:00A review of 10 small, modern travel trailers This is a review of different RVs that I looked at or that stood out for me after I recently opened my mind to travel trailers that aren’t Airstreams. I also became open to getting a new or newer RV (vs. one that's 40+ years old). I love vintage Airstreams, and have owned three of them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luna by inTech.</td></tr>
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I am interested in smaller trailers, 20 feet or less, with an emphasis on less. Lightweight is important, but I also lean to a trailer I can stand up in with full amenities: AC, full bathroom, kitchen, etc. Some of the brands I discuss offer bigger floor plans too. Also included are some you can't stand up in but stood out as appealing options.<br />
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<u>The Five Standouts</u></h2>
<b>1. CampLite by Livin Lite</b>--This one captured me. I bought a 2018 CampLite 11FK. <a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/" target="_blank">Visit my main blog</a> and scroll down for recent posts on this trailer. The main attraction: the all aluminum frame, including the chassis, and no wood floor or wood anywhere. Steel rusts and wood rots.<br />
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The CampLite trailer offers a nice blend of utilitarian and solid, but with nice finishes too. The finishes and the overall look are things that KZ/Thor got right, even as they began to drift away from Livin Lite founder Scott Tuttle’s original vision. Livin Lite is a subsidiary of industry giant Thor (the number one RV manufacturer based on market share) and they are managed by KZ, another Thor subsidiary.<br />
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Tuttle sold to Thor in 2013 and left in 2015. While I was interested in the smallest 2018 CampLite, I liked the other floor plans too and for people in the market for a larger trailer (not 5th wheel large--though CampLite did make 5th wheels for a couple of years), this is a great product: built to last with nice designs/finishes.<br />
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Legacy RV in SLC is the Utah dealer.<br />
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<b>2. Lance Campers</b>--This is a brand I was completely oblivious to prior to this latest investigatory phase. Their 1575 model would be the one for me. It’s at the big end of what I was considering. Lance also has many larger travel trailers for people looking for something bigger, but still in the category of what the industry classifies as lightweight. They are further along the spectrum toward luxury--not so far down it as modern Airstreams, but further than CampLites. The biggest drawback I see to the Lances is that their tastes in decorating leave something to be desired both inside and out. What is it with so many RVs that have graphics that a fifth grade boy would likely find cool? This is a matter of opinion and the quality of these trailers far outweighs my lack of enthusiasm for their decor--which could be changed.<br />
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With Lance you'll get a very high quality trailer. While it would be half the price of a similar sized/year Airstream it was much more than I was going to spend this go around.<br />
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I checked these out at Terry's RV in SLC and was impressed.<br />
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<i>I found the next three to be very appealing, but smaller than what I wanted--other than the 400 . . . .</i><br />
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<b>3. T@B</b>--It was the desire to see a T@B that led me down the slippery slope toward buying a new trailer. I find this brand very appealing. They offer a modern take on a retro design. I’ve been so focused on vintage for so long and right now I am leaning toward contemporary, cleaner looks, and amenities. T@B fit that bill well.<br />
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Their new model 400 is sharp. The 400 is a bigger trailer than they’ve offered previously. The asking price of $32,000 for the new 400 is well above what I was willing to pay. Here at Parris RV in Salt Lake they had one 400 and they claimed that they would only get that one for the whole year. Whether that’s true or not, it didn’t make negotiating seem likely.<br />
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If you're interested in something you can pull without a truck, check out the smaller T@Bs and even smaller T@Gs built by the same company.<br />
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<b>4. Moby1 Expedition Trailers</b>--These are a different class of RV, lacking many of the amenities. They look damn cool, and they’re made right here in Utah. They are beautifully designed teardrop trailers created to go into the backcountry. Of course you can also use them in tamer settings too--like RV campsites. I have to see one in person!<br />
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One thing that's appealing about the Moby1s is they are made by a small company with a passion for craftsmanship.<br />
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<b>5. Luna by inTech</b>--Livin Lite founder Scott Tuttle works at inTech now. Luna is a new product. It’s small--as in too small for standing--but it looks very cool. It’s one of the rare RVs built on an aluminum chassis. I can’t wait to see one in person.<br />
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<b><u>The Middling Three</u></b></h2>
<b>6. </b><b>Rockwood Geo-Pro</b>--The T@B drew me to an RV dealer but it was the Geo-Pro that really shoved me down the slippery slope toward making a purchase. The Geo-Pro 14FK has an identical floor plan as my CampLite. I dissed this trailer somewhat in my previous post but I just went back and read about it again, and think it’s probably decent. It’s cheaper by $3k to $9k compared to mine (depending on your negotiating skills), so a few of the finishes/features I liked I paid for. One big difference is my CampLite has an aluminum chassis.<br />
<br />
After some of my research I am still gun shy of Forest River (Rockwood’s parent company) since they paid a $35 million settlement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration less than three years ago for shoddy work and not honoring their warranties. The Geo-Pro also lacked any under-belly, which I found shocking after being a long-time Airstreamer. That was a detail that made it reek of being cheap, though the rest of it seemed good for what you were paying. I did love the size of the 14FK and even some of the bigger floor plans.<br />
<br />
<i>The next group are similar in quality, size, etc., and are also in what I am calling the Middling Group. My focus was on the smaller floor plans that are available. These are what the industry would consider small and lightweight, but all were bigger, more like a regular RV than what I wanted, and good but not outstanding quality. They're also less expensive than my standouts.</i><br />
<br />
<b>7. </b><b>Gulfstream’s Vintage Cruiser and Vista Cruiser</b>--These trailers have aluminum framing though they are built on a steel chassis (like almost all trailers other than Livin Lites, VRV, Luna--and maybe a few others). The sales guy said they have wood framing in the roof, so I am not sure about the structure. The vintage look is fun (I guess I am not completely ready to give it up). The Vista Cruiser is the same trailer as the Vintage Cruiser, minus the vintage look. I don’t like the interior design of the Vistas at all.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Riverside Retro</b>--If I am in a retro mood, I LOVE the looks of these--though I consider them average in quality.<br />
<h2>
<b><u>The Loser</u></b></h2>
<b>9. Sonic Lite by Venture RV</b>--This trailer is everything I hate about RVs. Stick and tin construction built on a wood floor. Off-gassing from God knows what. Venture RV is a sister company to Livin Lite, which is the main reason I wanted to check this product out. On the other hand, if your budget is small, this trailer will probably last 10-15 years if you keep it covered when not using it.<br />
<br />
Venture RV, Livin Lite, and Airstream are all Thor subsidiaries.<br />
<br />
There are a LOT of trailers like this one. Wood frame construction. Cheap. But still useable even if its landfill bound before it should be.<br />
<h2>
<b><u>Eagerly Anticipated</u></b></h2>
<b>10. Airstream Nest</b>--When I decided to sell my latest Airstream, a 1962 Safari, my thought was I'd wait a few years then find a used Nest. The Nest is a new product by Airstream due out this spring. It's a smaller fiberglass trailer and looks like it will be cool. It also probably won't be cheap, though hopefully cheaper than other Airstreams!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicP2K6npWGgI-ka3YdjYh3DjH2t7pW0tifXYss_9nsM-3WoUT047D17_vESmnYU5WAFhSNM1912M1tTG3UjGUpR35SZNwuD6ysMNYMeXf5AkoOmENx0Ua0kiwJSDo7KEGf0Vjzg/s1600/nest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="1600" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiicP2K6npWGgI-ka3YdjYh3DjH2t7pW0tifXYss_9nsM-3WoUT047D17_vESmnYU5WAFhSNM1912M1tTG3UjGUpR35SZNwuD6ysMNYMeXf5AkoOmENx0Ua0kiwJSDo7KEGf0Vjzg/s400/nest.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nest, by Airstream </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2>
<b><br /><u>Closing thoughts</u></b></h2>
Even before I recently saw a video where Scott Tuttle, the founder of Livin Lite, called his trailers “generational campers,” meaning they are designed to last for generations, I already got that. The design that was the foundation of that aspiration spoke clearly to me.<br />
<br />
Of course I consider traditional aluminum-bodied Airstreams in the high-end quality category despite knowing their design flaws, namely steel frames and wood floors. Anyone in the vintage Airstream community can tell you how bad those are in the long haul, almost guaranteeing rotten floors and rusted frames. But "long haul" is longer than most people think of when buying an RV. I am referencing 15-20 years plus. Even I am unlikely to own any one trailer that long. Since any RV can leak . . . the materials they are made of really matter. My attraction to CampLite is clearly heavily informed by being so immersed in vintage Airstreams for so long.<br />
<br />
Other than the Nest, I left Airstream's smaller trailers off the list. They are great trailers, just substantially more expensive. They make the T@Bs and Lances seem downright affordable. Also, my purpose here is to look beyond Airstream since that's all I've ever had.<br />
<br />
I stand with quality workmanship as much as I possibly can, and as much as I can possibly afford. When it comes time to resell your RV, you’ll benefit by that philosophy too. Not to mention minor details like the benefits to the environment of products that last long and are recyclable/reusable. I haven’t written about that last point but my all-aluminum CampLite is 90% plus recyclable.<br />
<br />
Happy RV shopping and/or dreaming . . . . from someone who knows just enough to be dangerous.<br />
<br />
I am looking forward to going to the RV show here in SLC a week from now, though I’ll also be somewhat rushed as I will be getting on the road for a long weekend in my new CampLite.<br />
<h2>
<u>Postscript--A comment on price</u></h2>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.135px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The prices of these new trailers ranged from as low as $15k ish for the Sonic by Venture RV or the smaller ones including Moby1 and T@Gs. At the higher end, prices were in the low to even mid $30s. Prices are extremely variable even for the same model. Dealers tend to list prices that have a ton of room for negotiating. The best "reality check" in my opinion is to look up particular models on RV trader. Both dealers (for new) and individuals list RVs there. That way you can see the range of what's being asked for the same trailer. When I went to buy I told them I needed to pay at the low end of the range based on my RV Trader research and they quickly agreed. If you are buying new you can save 20 to 40% off of MSRP by doing your homework and being willing to walk away. Often dealers will already have discounted from MSRP in their price, so don't always expect to save 20-40% from the posted price. Some trailers are in higher demand and dealers will be less willing to come down on those, but they'll pretty much always come down some. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.135px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Definitely consider used too. </span></div>
Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-39032056113415466212018-02-07T22:43:00.000-07:002018-02-13T21:26:38.374-07:00Thor Industries, Airstream, and Livin LiteI've been a little obsessed with Airstreams since at least 2007 when I bought the 1973 Airstream that I full-timed in for 2.5 years. Since then I've owned three vintage Airstreams including the 1962 Airstream Safari I bought last year and just sold. I sold it because I'd maxed out what I could put into it and it still needed more work. It's an amazing trailer and it has a new owner who will continue with improvements and ensure it has additional life.<br />
<br />
The aesthetic of an Airstream with its airplane-like aluminum body is the main appeal. But living in mine ten years ago also introduced me to a community of people who I fell in love with. The vintage crowd especially were a cool group, but I also became friends with owners of newer Airstreams.<br />
<br />
When I decided to sell my latest Airstream I wasn't planning to get another RV, but over the last two weeks I fell down the slippery slope.<br />
<br />
Before talking about my new trailer (yep, I bought a new one--and I mean brand new), I want to discuss Thor Industries. Thor is a company that was created in 1980 when Wade Thompson and Peter Orthwein purchased what at the time was an ailing Airstream from Beatrice Foods (which was a big conglomerate in the 1960s and 1970s). Airstream has its roots in the 1920s but officially opened in 1931. It's the only surviving brand of hundreds of travel trailer companies that existed before World War II. Under Thor, in the early 1980s, Airstream quickly returned to profitability.<br />
<br />
And Thor itself began its rise to becoming the world's largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles. Thor took over that number one spot in the early 2000s after many acquisitions and savvy management of its growing list of subsidiaries. Today Thor dominates the RV market with 48% market share when all of its brands are added up. The number two company is called Forest River, they have 34% market share as of 2017.<br />
<br />
I was not only infatuated with Airstreams, I was both an Airstream enthusiast and a snob. After selling my latest Airstream I ventured down to Parris RV, an SOB dealer (some other brand is what we Airstreamers call all other RVs) in Salt Lake. While there I had an epiphany. For the amount of money I had in my vintage Airstream, which I LOVED, I could have had a brand new RV. Now part of me probably knew that, but until very recently I wouldn't consider another brand unless it was some cool other vintage trailer.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8XWBG7p7MBwdt5GsXarHHXn2I8AC-USIYafPbCraxCPez_zlcRC3mUCupZjZorlPTpknPlU4HFJ0W-Uh6ensF7Rrg6we_xQlIzjiqAb3aipOAZmug8c8VjnY5Enx6J_bnujvpQ/s1600/tab.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="748" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb8XWBG7p7MBwdt5GsXarHHXn2I8AC-USIYafPbCraxCPez_zlcRC3mUCupZjZorlPTpknPlU4HFJ0W-Uh6ensF7Rrg6we_xQlIzjiqAb3aipOAZmug8c8VjnY5Enx6J_bnujvpQ/s320/tab.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A T@B. Like Airstreams (and me), made in Ohio!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I browsed the lot at Parris RV and found myself liking much of what I saw. It was T@B (Tab) trailers that drew me to that particular dealer--plus it was close to my house. But they had other brands that caught my eye. I loved the look of the Riverside Retro series--though I wasn't sure about the quality of the Riverside products. There are so many cheap RVs. With many brands you just can feel the bad or questionable quality when you step inside. (Riversides may be fine, but I wasn't feeling it).<br />
<br />
The T@Bs were cool--they seemed very well built, but were very small. There was one T@B that was bigger (still small in the RV world but big for T@Bs) that I liked, but it was too expensive. At the end of the day I was intrigued by the Rockwood Geo-Pro. They came in a 14 foot floor plan that I liked and were very affordable. The Geo-Pro was cool, but as with the Riverside retros I was suspicious of its quality--though at that price . . . of course that's why so many cheap RVs are built and sold--because they can be made cheaply, in every sense of the word.<br />
<br />
So I came home and started scouring the Internet. At this point I knew I was basically a goner. I'd probably be buying something.<br />
<br />
I found out Rockwood was a Forest River brand and that Forest River settled with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for $35 million in 2015 for their shoddy work. After learning that, I was even more dubious of the quality of the very cute Geo-Pro. It may or may not be a solid product, but . . .<br />
<br />
The RV industry is big so I figured there must be something out there that was a good product, given the price range I'd settled on. I didn't want or need a big trailer. My online search continued. I looked at the new teardrops. I considered the Minnie line by Winnebago. I considered some cool and very rugged little trailers like the Moby1 line, which is made here in Utah. As cool as the Moby1 looked, and it looks like quality too, it was just too small. I wanted small, just not that small.<br />
<br />
So I went back to the mother ship--Thor. They own Airstream so I figured maybe one of their other brands would be worthy and in the size and budget of my search. And then I found it via Thor's website . . .<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Livin Lite.</span></div>
<br />
This is a brand I'd never heard of. I clicked through to Livin Lite's website from Thor's and it didn't take me too long to become smitten. Livin Lite makes all aluminum trailers, including the chassis! Even Airstreams have steel chassis and Airstreams are infamous for having rusted out chassis. Coming from the vintage world I was well aware of that problem (though I'd never dealt with it myself luckily, I have seen a number of horrifying Airstream chassis that were severely rusted out). Airstreams are also built on a wood floor, which rots. I did deal with some floor rot in my 1973 Airstream.<br />
<br />
Livin Lite eliminated both steel and wood from their trailers creating what the founder called a "generational trailer," one that was designed to last for generations. I kept reading and looking online. Livin Lite seemed like a small company but one with a damned good product. I searched for the Utah dealer--Legacy RV.<br />
<br />
My visit to Parris RV was on Saturday, January 27. On Tuesday, January 30 I stopped by Legacy to see Livin Lite's CampLite product. By the end of that day I'd signed the contract to buy a CampLite trailer.<br />
<br />
This Airstreamer had fallen off the wagon!<br />
<br />
Now back to Thor . . . and another division of theirs called KZ. I didn't know this on January 30, but it turns out KZ manages Livin Lite. Both companies are Thor subsidiaries.<br />
<br />
As many people do when making a purchase like this, I kept researching and learning all that I could. I wasn't taking delivery until Saturday, February 3.<br />
<br />
Late at night on February 2, I stumbled across some disturbing messages. There's a company-hosted online forum for Livin Lite products and a post dated February 1 was titled "Is Livin Lite really going out of business."<br />
<br />
What?!?!<br />
<br />
On the verge of making this purchase this was disturbing. Even worse, I found a Facebook owner's group where dealers were confirming this rumor. It turns out that around January 31 or February 1 dealers were notified by KZ that Livin Lite was being shut down.<br />
<br />
Arrghhh.<br />
<br />
Now I know many people spend a lot longer than I did doing their homework on these types of purchases, but I'd taken a pretty deep dive and was sold on the CampLite/Livin Lite products. Also with my background with Airstreams I knew a little bit about RVs (enough to be dangerous).<br />
<br />
So I went to Legacy a little early the next day to see what they knew. They confirmed they'd received a similar message. It seemed like they weren't sure what it all meant. Would CampLite (a Livin Lite brand) continue under KZ? Legacy's owner thought they might, but if they did KZ would do away with the aluminum chassis (and maybe more aluminum) because they were too expensive to produce. Though it was the aluminum chassis and frame that was one of the main things that differentiated Livin Lite to begin with!<br />
<br />
I decided I didn't care. I liked the trailer I picked out. I wasn't worried about the warranty. If Livin Lite was to go away I was still buying a Thor product and Thor isn't going away any time soon.<br />
<br />
So I took delivery.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4aq4ZrtAPUm1TKNvswr1LizNzTNKze6R_mRIsmM194qSeJWqNJHGG2tfau_dSZmwZcqD8OtlZQFaRB1i3MCoB57FvV5maU75CkrT6UEl956vNobdPcSQtlz-bOMWpYg46llMhQQ/s1600/camplite+w+truck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1011" data-original-width="1600" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4aq4ZrtAPUm1TKNvswr1LizNzTNKze6R_mRIsmM194qSeJWqNJHGG2tfau_dSZmwZcqD8OtlZQFaRB1i3MCoB57FvV5maU75CkrT6UEl956vNobdPcSQtlz-bOMWpYg46llMhQQ/s320/camplite+w+truck.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new CampLite by Livin Lite! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But now my research kicked up a notch. I occasionally write and edit articles on Wikipedia. By Sunday night, February 4, I'd finished a substantial first draft of my new article on Livin Lite the company. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livin_Lite_RV" target="_blank">You can see the new article on Livin Lite here</a>.<br />
<br />
I proceeded this week to contact KZ and Thor executives by email, to respectfully ask them what's up. I heard back from a senior Thor executive who assured me my warranty would be honored (which, again, I wasn't worried about).<br />
<br />
Here's what he wrote:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<i>As the management oversight group for Livin’Lite, KZ will continue to produce Livin’ Lite trailers as orders are received. However, since they are not a fully mature product line, they will be batch run into the early summer. At that time, final decisions will be made to the future designs of the product. Although Livin’Lite is experiencing a transition in the products offered, rest assured that all warranties on all Livin’ Lite products are and will continue to be honored for their full terms, the same as any other brands we produce.<u></u><u></u></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<i>Thanks again for purchasing a CampLite and welcome to the KZ family. </i></div>
<br />
I pressed him on the question of what was happening and he said:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">no final decision has been made."</span></i><br />
<br />
I didn't know I was joining the KZ family, but I found out soon enough! Hope it's as good as Livin Lite.<br />
<br />
I'll write and post more on my new trailer later. I am excited about it.<br />
<br />
To wrap this post up, here's the Thor family of companies as they stand today. If Thor wasn't the entity that saved Airstream I never would have found Livin Lite at all. I do hope Livin Lite's product lines continue. And don't miss the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livin_Lite_RV" target="_blank">Livin Lite Wikipedia article I wrote</a> to learn more about the very cool, if endangered, company that made my new trailer.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RVaDftUcXvKAgdlQcvEzq4JkXNIyUAqRYeffXvdJhAl7vGbK_c00ScktoxO9OPUC401ZLVhyTMW_D-cVF5LfyHcCXYrGjTaXDD52CHZLlEkHBhL7tP-z2KLvGyDpSdVAz7Gpzw/s1600/thor+cos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="1054" height="361.8" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RVaDftUcXvKAgdlQcvEzq4JkXNIyUAqRYeffXvdJhAl7vGbK_c00ScktoxO9OPUC401ZLVhyTMW_D-cVF5LfyHcCXYrGjTaXDD52CHZLlEkHBhL7tP-z2KLvGyDpSdVAz7Gpzw/s640/thor+cos.png" width="489.6" /></a></div>
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-47972069570723074362018-01-31T22:47:00.003-07:002022-09-13T11:01:53.502-06:00My latest Airstream, updatesSome major happenings since July:<br />
<ul>
<li>Picked up my Airstream from Camper Reparadise mid-July</li>
<li>Two local trips in the Wasatch Mountains in mid to late July, including five nights at one of my all-time favorite RV campsites, which will remain unnamed here</li>
<li>An Airstream trip to Stanley, Idaho to see my sister, nephew, and Lisa (a friend)</li>
<li>Another to Casper, Wyoming for the solar eclipse where I had a world-class boondocking spot. The eclipse was damn cool. We were in the path of totality. </li>
<li>A reconnecting trip with the Airstream community when I went to Mesa Verde National Park for a Four Corners Unit rally of the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (the Airstream club) over Labor Day</li>
<li>Then I lost my Airstreaming steam, I think that was my last trip of the year</li>
<li>Did some fun other travel, both personal and work--especially New York and L.A.</li>
<li>Had a not-so-great trip to Canada over the Christmas to New Year holiday, crazy cold and other things. It was my first time to Banff. It was -40 F many nights and subzero until the last two days when it peeked above zero. No Airstream on that trip. </li>
<li>And . . . decided to sell my Airstream!</li>
</ul>
<div>
I love it, but it still needs work and I hit my limit on putting money into it. It looks like I've found a nice new home for it! Sure hope so. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And the coolest thing of all . . . in October I helped rescue a tyrannosaur! <a href="https://nhmu.utah.edu/blog/2017/tyrannosaur" target="_blank">Read more about that here</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqrfRHGuQCc-wniGX6fo89mmRREjQuLg4CUgWIwopMHFLi3-iGDxriesyJrFOHp9IldHvRxVpvV09LzNgP8yVnXQwPqeq3XT0J3OPOLOfjj6PXWCh7PNJ-ZHfmEzYhiP1cBwt-WQ/s1600/airstream+final+2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqrfRHGuQCc-wniGX6fo89mmRREjQuLg4CUgWIwopMHFLi3-iGDxriesyJrFOHp9IldHvRxVpvV09LzNgP8yVnXQwPqeq3XT0J3OPOLOfjj6PXWCh7PNJ-ZHfmEzYhiP1cBwt-WQ/s400/airstream+final+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final shot of my 1962 Airstream Safari. It's headed to a new home. Our time together ended up being brief, but I loved it. It was also an important step for me toward the road of becoming a recovering Airstreamer. I still love them, but my fixation is maybe a bit more healthy now. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-64125948462199339262018-01-31T20:52:00.000-07:002018-02-01T22:52:52.595-07:00Bryce and the Tyrannosaur rescue mission--October<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7wO4DFkUjN7-p5uQu9uNxVSxRbKgkrGbfmqyxD6cBJGufjdnXV79LCnouXuN1qxWn3_z1aXNr-ORTboy7kMDtpvDncALN95QWDBxOqkI8p1ve-jEKZLWOd0T6xWMRSAVbl9apgg/s1600/bryce.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7wO4DFkUjN7-p5uQu9uNxVSxRbKgkrGbfmqyxD6cBJGufjdnXV79LCnouXuN1qxWn3_z1aXNr-ORTboy7kMDtpvDncALN95QWDBxOqkI8p1ve-jEKZLWOd0T6xWMRSAVbl9apgg/s320/bryce.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bryce Canyon! Or maybe near there . . . definitely Bryce formation. #stunning</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me in the quarry where we recovered the most complete tyrannosaur ever found in the southwestern U.S. at Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM8H4NtxK7pqTVpa3sOBhNt7WKEaFbO3siol0UtM9Ya8ySZGR4JP3ytPhz6pflDFRH-Fss2APD897d9dOTQXcvV3wCCtkn6SrrUbE75P7ErnO6WFMal5uampYWuCXMJqZLDeeoQ/s1600/t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1280" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsM8H4NtxK7pqTVpa3sOBhNt7WKEaFbO3siol0UtM9Ya8ySZGR4JP3ytPhz6pflDFRH-Fss2APD897d9dOTQXcvV3wCCtkn6SrrUbE75P7ErnO6WFMal5uampYWuCXMJqZLDeeoQ/s320/t.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from November (ish). The head of the tyrannosaur as NHMU preparators began to extract it from the rock matrix. </td></tr>
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<br />Again, <a href="https://nhmu.utah.edu/blog/2017/tyrannosaur" target="_blank">read more about the tyrannosaur rescue operation here</a>.Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-86940200142542124212018-01-31T17:11:00.000-07:002018-02-15T00:19:45.836-07:00Getting out with the AirstreamThe last of my January catch up posts.<br />
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These are all images from the first two outings in my 1962 Airstream. Both were in the Wasatch Mountains, not far from my house and featuring my boy Jake.<br />
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-84871398376634508842017-07-05T13:52:00.000-06:002017-07-05T13:54:06.696-06:00Scenes from the Airstream rehabConsidering I have a hard enough time doing lower skill tasks like painting my house (just had a rough go of it this past weekend), and considering that my time is limited, I am having pros do most of the rehab work on my 1962 Airstream Safari.<br />
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Here are some scenes from the shop, <a href="http://campereparadise.com/wp/" target="_blank">Camper Reparadise, in Salt Lake City</a>:<br />
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<b>The glamour shot</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F0-iI9IVOigW2o5wNLSbO1Nszkz-v4smdc1ORGcbjfElUd5rVZXJKG_rNjMeEtb_bA00CTA9xlgXuiErwKmAF1VRpiNn22Dsk2y10uatFWwLIQGRCx8hkHpJDV5I_vSlsK7L2A/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252831%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F0-iI9IVOigW2o5wNLSbO1Nszkz-v4smdc1ORGcbjfElUd5rVZXJKG_rNjMeEtb_bA00CTA9xlgXuiErwKmAF1VRpiNn22Dsk2y10uatFWwLIQGRCx8hkHpJDV5I_vSlsK7L2A/s400/FullSizeRender+%252831%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<b>New seven-prong connector and cord</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipZpvLf5crCINjuSyJ7KoVgJ1RPRT01Td4xiZXlzg2gBoskxVksHe4jeD-d-VpYksRFrQAM6NDPxD0yx0BSgsD6ZsyJ1txTsFDYj0tU7b8JdbgNi5P3nfI4UYIkK8yD14oWP8uyA/s1600/a+new+wire.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipZpvLf5crCINjuSyJ7KoVgJ1RPRT01Td4xiZXlzg2gBoskxVksHe4jeD-d-VpYksRFrQAM6NDPxD0yx0BSgsD6ZsyJ1txTsFDYj0tU7b8JdbgNi5P3nfI4UYIkK8yD14oWP8uyA/s320/a+new+wire.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXM1_4bzRPmJ7tRCoUScz04uCr3K1oYbYJRzaA-9w6w7C0o0dbYamvvO3QuZiErN4Hvjc-pABklsyVcA8TQ9ijougIpHrL-Lx7zLNjsRlB7a756BdBsKdB_HVTwpBVMl3KPvP2Q/s1600/a+7+prong+.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXM1_4bzRPmJ7tRCoUScz04uCr3K1oYbYJRzaA-9w6w7C0o0dbYamvvO3QuZiErN4Hvjc-pABklsyVcA8TQ9ijougIpHrL-Lx7zLNjsRlB7a756BdBsKdB_HVTwpBVMl3KPvP2Q/s320/a+7+prong+.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<b>Astradome and Fanstastic Vent via Vintage Trailer Supply</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhw2ceIrx0ZLLI5fSx65J8iXg7Gm75SYDZddIt9kebyMAugIQO3AdWjx3CV6gqn6CdLD8b95yOShhWH9u0T_EuUNowCw435AW72JXTvTJ9jnUUfjpmY5TT6OxW2FRTh2G2eZQ8aQ/s1600/IMG_8656.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhw2ceIrx0ZLLI5fSx65J8iXg7Gm75SYDZddIt9kebyMAugIQO3AdWjx3CV6gqn6CdLD8b95yOShhWH9u0T_EuUNowCw435AW72JXTvTJ9jnUUfjpmY5TT6OxW2FRTh2G2eZQ8aQ/s320/IMG_8656.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZmOOVfmTwUFqOcXjm4fNpzpQcYPNTQwCfOFrViI-JkRcpsJs-sbN3LzWd6UTAWFhqU2gc0pWIT-htMvHeiUtgdLp3O2YZOPacZNk7hujlfXptWFwqEn9w6HBTRpNfwoiMM0k6Og/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252832%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZmOOVfmTwUFqOcXjm4fNpzpQcYPNTQwCfOFrViI-JkRcpsJs-sbN3LzWd6UTAWFhqU2gc0pWIT-htMvHeiUtgdLp3O2YZOPacZNk7hujlfXptWFwqEn9w6HBTRpNfwoiMM0k6Og/s320/FullSizeRender+%252832%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
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<b>Belly pan recreated and installed after the new axle was in place</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOuMDJR_ZzaA55WJmAwdeEZDIqG4EAFwgUiibGZvpt5_3BwurtgpmlIdg-Rc2dxR6ScMIeWposguKhUAPpqCeGpkF31nKsTPiD1XonLgeVmpQ1P0YdLvVNbTj4sHTAAkbERaxtA/s1600/IMG_8583.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOuMDJR_ZzaA55WJmAwdeEZDIqG4EAFwgUiibGZvpt5_3BwurtgpmlIdg-Rc2dxR6ScMIeWposguKhUAPpqCeGpkF31nKsTPiD1XonLgeVmpQ1P0YdLvVNbTj4sHTAAkbERaxtA/s400/IMG_8583.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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<b>Some of the underside repairs</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKSz-BN6N0f5alqzV-wenOYPoyGTdTX21TOSkKwY2WJ7RtuI2rXTOzLngkhJhjRJadVhLrxJac2AJ9y8Bg9h_0GtJEYc1V9CFnr8wwajGP_F11x9KC3708SEaS1NMa4IVei14dQ/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252830%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKSz-BN6N0f5alqzV-wenOYPoyGTdTX21TOSkKwY2WJ7RtuI2rXTOzLngkhJhjRJadVhLrxJac2AJ9y8Bg9h_0GtJEYc1V9CFnr8wwajGP_F11x9KC3708SEaS1NMa4IVei14dQ/s400/FullSizeRender+%252830%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I1WwhiO0CfEGBA_PpEMCgp0X88k5TBbcJbYkCtRQ7J__F1snY2s-zquMK_sgZtR-lPk7yR4KyK9o25nzL1ax8I1keXGl70nVx_EakXJCJ90KfIfFGEfwxyzLhD3ro2zM0PW6Ng/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252833%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I1WwhiO0CfEGBA_PpEMCgp0X88k5TBbcJbYkCtRQ7J__F1snY2s-zquMK_sgZtR-lPk7yR4KyK9o25nzL1ax8I1keXGl70nVx_EakXJCJ90KfIfFGEfwxyzLhD3ro2zM0PW6Ng/s400/FullSizeRender+%252833%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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Next up, 12 volt electrical system getting overhauled. Hope to have this back by July 14.<br />
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-3830485631686281532017-06-24T13:48:00.000-06:002017-06-26T21:09:11.157-06:00New axle and Colin Hyde's hypnotic mannerTen years ago in Georgia, I met a guy named Colin Hyde. I was standing there with my 1973 Airstream lined up with the other vintage Airstream people, minding my own business. We were prepping to caravan in to the 50th annual Wally Byam Caravan Club International's meetup. Many hundreds of Airstreams converge each year at different locations for this event. They still do it today. This year's will be in Michigan.<br />
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The next thing I know, as I stood waiting in line, Colin is laying on the ground inspecting the underside of my trailer. He informed me that I needed new axles.<br />
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It had never occurred to me that it was an issue. I was living full-time in my Airstream and had more than 4,000 miles on my trailer by that point and hadn't noticed anything amiss as I rolled down America's highways and byways. And yet meeting this guy Colin, he almost immediately convinced me I needed new ones and before I knew it I had driven to his shop in Plattsburgh, New York--way up north, not far from Montreal.<br />
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I got my axles replaced.<br />
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There was something hypnotizing about Colin's manner. I never doubted him.<br />
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In production year 1961, Wally Byam, the founder of Airstream switched all new Airstreams to torsion axles. He did this after leading a caravan across Africa from Capetown to Cairo. Prior to '61, Airstreams had leaf spring axles which I am familiar with from farm equipment my family has had over the years.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leaf spring axle.</td></tr>
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Leaf spring axles date back hundreds of years and are still used today in some heavy trucks, SUVs, and a variety of vehicles and trailers--though not too often in modern travel trailers. </div>
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During the 1959 Capetown to Cairo caravan, Wally Byam had torsion axles on his Airstream. This was experimental technology for Wally and Airstream though torsion axles date back to at least the 1930s. Wally had no problems on that epic 1959 trip, whereas many of the other people in the caravan had all sorts of problems with fractures and breakdowns in their leaf spring axles. Hence the switch for 1961. </div>
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My new-to-me 1962 Airstream Safari had its original torsion axle. With the Colin-embedded-in-me fear of old axles, a new axle was high on my list for my newly acquired trailer. But why?</div>
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Torsion axles provide the suspension for the trailer (most Airstreams also use shock absorbers to reduce bounce). When you buy any old trailer the old axles often still work, but they don't work as they were designed. With no suspension left in the axles you drag your trailer around and it feels every bump and gets bounced all over the road. For Airstreams, rivets can--and do--pop out. The body can become separated from the frame. Appliances and built-in furniture take a beating. All of this is really, really bad for a trailer. The worst case though is axle failure including a wheel flying off--which is especially bad on a single axle trailer like my 1962 Airstream Safari. In the case of my Safari, when I first brought it home it bottomed out on my not very steep driveway because the arms in the torsion system had collapsed. </div>
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So a new axle was coming my way. Here's my original axle which we had to cut off since it was welded on. On later models the axles were bolted on which meant much less work in switching them out. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YfRwUKaOYOH050X7sCGelAT0jNQFDgQ4DoDOzm-yyDo31FkqSjk7aO4MNtlkQOk6WAoHJZJlO-kFmDO_BY-mLc0ZJSjtEieU67Oi_v9rxwUnQIeylOiwuXeZcRSbfHPJM_oBoA/s1600/old+axle+61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1122" data-original-width="1522" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YfRwUKaOYOH050X7sCGelAT0jNQFDgQ4DoDOzm-yyDo31FkqSjk7aO4MNtlkQOk6WAoHJZJlO-kFmDO_BY-mLc0ZJSjtEieU67Oi_v9rxwUnQIeylOiwuXeZcRSbfHPJM_oBoA/s400/old+axle+61.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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For Airstream and other vintage trailer people who want to read more about this, <a href="http://www.inlandrv.com/articles/dura-torque-axle-92001.html" target="_blank">check this article out by Andy Rogozinski</a>. I am borrowing this image from Andy's article because it illustrates what failed on my original axle:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMdSwLogK6IyJQ90L9Q4qPaHlQy9pUntHRt24pmRFcpquC1LWxenonkuAu-lHXHLjo5b7oBdUinLgiyYXAHB6KHRWllTB3RSCHSSObCwpYhYl9par2G40rVWQZ4CSuXNYhyphenhyphendDTA/s1600/dura-torque-drawing2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="117" data-original-width="585" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMdSwLogK6IyJQ90L9Q4qPaHlQy9pUntHRt24pmRFcpquC1LWxenonkuAu-lHXHLjo5b7oBdUinLgiyYXAHB6KHRWllTB3RSCHSSObCwpYhYl9par2G40rVWQZ4CSuXNYhyphenhyphendDTA/s400/dura-torque-drawing2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And another photo of my now retired axle:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFSTPiwdgN6Bu9q7x4v0pCVNL8KRj2h91Mpc4eVIyaOld_GONp3lXugvpsZi7tQJfJpc0yl48NgghhWkRxgQ0HDdxwiZnzNQaBx56YSkEegOlsvrLB8cPkzsqDs1aTc3MKd_1r5g/s1600/old+axle+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFSTPiwdgN6Bu9q7x4v0pCVNL8KRj2h91Mpc4eVIyaOld_GONp3lXugvpsZi7tQJfJpc0yl48NgghhWkRxgQ0HDdxwiZnzNQaBx56YSkEegOlsvrLB8cPkzsqDs1aTc3MKd_1r5g/s400/old+axle+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As you can see I'd attained the negative angle on my torsion arm. As a result my trailer rode lower and had no suspension. </div>
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Here's my new axle, just before we welded it on:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCpYlsKZUwI6o0nNYrpckepX8HF3A8fjLokmlreQK3doWp7ZCJqXTIRP3yCw80jU-Na95Oi7bAWZpA6mPi5fSq9smArsTL4rwn2o9-QraNnEl_kKbnTLuZwIdhN8aWwyEU7sA2-g/s1600/new+axle+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCpYlsKZUwI6o0nNYrpckepX8HF3A8fjLokmlreQK3doWp7ZCJqXTIRP3yCw80jU-Na95Oi7bAWZpA6mPi5fSq9smArsTL4rwn2o9-QraNnEl_kKbnTLuZwIdhN8aWwyEU7sA2-g/s400/new+axle+2017.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's now got a positive angle again which you can see will raise the trailer and give it suspension. With this system each tire has independent suspension and the trailer enjoys a smooth ride. </div>
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So thank you Colin for putting me under your spell and making me a believer in the value of updating my axle. Thanks to my new amigos at <a href="http://campereparadise.com/wp/" target="_blank">Camper Reparadise here in Salt Lake City</a> for doing the hard work of removing my old welded-on axle and installing a new one. A special shoutout to Airstream/vintage-trailer enthusiast and Chad of Camper Reparadise who cut off the old axle. Thanks too to Evan for welding on the new one. </div>
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You can <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shinymetalschad/" target="_blank">follow Chad here on Instagram</a>, he's a true craftsman who loves his work and does an excellent job of showing his work in photos. </div>
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/camper_reparadise/" target="_blank">Click here to follow Camper Reparadise on Instagram</a> (they do amazing work!). </div>
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If you are back east, <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/colinhydetrailerrestorations.com/home/" target="_blank">look up my friend Colin Hyde</a> who you can also <a href="http://www.thevap.com/" target="_blank">listen to and get tons of great vintage trailer advice from on the Vintage Airstream Podcast (the VAP)</a>. There, you too can experience his mesmerizing voice!</div>
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I didn't attempt to explain why torsion axles don't last--it has to do with the rubber used in them. Andy discusses that in more detail (see link above). One thing Andy doesn't come out and say in his article is that all torsion axles are at or near the end of their life after about 20 years. That doesn't mean they'll outright fail, but they are no longer performing as designed and your trailer will pay the price if you drive with older axles. </div>
Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-69771225203275281992017-06-01T08:38:00.000-06:002017-06-02T09:41:51.062-06:00Airstream production in the early 1970s<a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2017/05/boom-times-for-airstream-and-entire-us.html" target="_blank">My May 28 blog post</a>, and an accompanying Air Forums post this past weekend yielded some answers about the historic Airstream production numbers that I was curious about.<br />
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Joe Peplinski, the historian for the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI), responded with information regarding production in the early 1970s. Airstream was producing a total of 175 trailers per week (in Ohio and California), or about 8,750 per year based on a 50 week production schedule. These are his estimates, not official numbers, but I suspect they put us very much in the ballpark of Airstream production circa 1971.<br />
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That's substantially more than are being produced in the current boom. It seems like Airstream must be producing 3,500 to 4,000 trailers this year (my estimate based on the sources I found for my previous post, and consistent with what I was told at the Idaho dealer last Saturday).<br />
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Joe's information came from interviewing two longtime Airstream employees for "Airstream Plant Tour Guides," an article he wrote for <a href="http://wbcci.org/component/jdownloads/send/90-2016/756-blue-beret-march-2016" target="_blank"><i>Blue Beret, </i>March 2016</a>. If you follow that link scroll to page 21. <i>Blue Beret </i>is WBBCI's monthly magazine.<br />
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Thanks Joe for this information! This still leaves the 1950s and 1960s as a big void regarding the production numbers I'd love to see. Peplinski makes reference to 1980s production numbers in his <i>Blue Beret</i> article too.<br />
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It would also be great to see yearly totals for Airstream's full history. It's fun to piece together what we can all the same.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPy-5JTfttsL08BSK88KxPXZByGXrwmZCopP1mVc83CI6mxssdrlzUW7KJQVLU6TjFCqAOoyi2LwFMs-V8-WD4HK6jzQuLWh1PTTCQMmH2GqZ7usVl1I91dCTgKm2NlFw9SD7zQQ/s1600/nevada+2007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPy-5JTfttsL08BSK88KxPXZByGXrwmZCopP1mVc83CI6mxssdrlzUW7KJQVLU6TjFCqAOoyi2LwFMs-V8-WD4HK6jzQuLWh1PTTCQMmH2GqZ7usVl1I91dCTgKm2NlFw9SD7zQQ/s1600/nevada+2007.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My 1973 Airstream Trade Wind, photographed in Nevada. December 2007. </td></tr>
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<br />Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-34219997533108861012017-05-28T00:16:00.002-06:002017-06-01T13:55:16.015-06:00Boom times for Airstream and the entire U.S. RV IndustryToday my mom, sister, nephew, and I stopped by Idaho Airstream in Caldwell, Idaho near my sister's ranch. We had fun looking at the new Airstreams--which are awesome! They are also expensive. I asked the sales guy about hitches as I am trying to pick a hitch for my new vintage Airstream.<br />
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One number he mentioned stuck with me. He said Airstream will manufacture about 3,400 trailers this year.<br />
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3,400!! That's all?<br />
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Really?<br />
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The number sounded low so I did some quick and dirty research.<br />
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The first number I found online was from 2.5 years ago when they were said to be producing 50 Airstreams per week which would be 2,600/year. Source: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/airstream-cant-keep-up-with-demand-for-iconic-silver-trailers/2015/01/01/fecb5210-8d41-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html?utm_term=.78e85eff3ed2" target="_blank">Washington Post, "Airstream can’t keep up with demand for iconic silver trailers," January 1, 2015</a>.<br />
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The same article said they are on track to increase production by 50%, but didn't give a timeline. <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2016/04/28/exclusive-airstream-planning-more-major-growth.html" target="_blank">An April 2016 Dayton Business Journal article</a> said they were up to 72 trailers per week and on track for 77 by the end of 2016. That's all consistent, and even ahead of the the 3,400 number I heard today.<br />
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These would likely be their highest numbers since at least 1979-1980!<br />
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"That's all?" wasn't the right reaction. These are boom times!!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENffMiC5iL9bQqLOGok-l0TEL_N-B7VUIx_Ufb9je2BUw0h8PQnFeHfK8ZfozG6ty-9n-Ib0eBHWfJGyMv4w7svv8rOE3LHo-sqZiufGUaNZDs4BOhom1V5dYg8WP-yTOi49v7A/s1600/2017+intl+serenity+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhENffMiC5iL9bQqLOGok-l0TEL_N-B7VUIx_Ufb9je2BUw0h8PQnFeHfK8ZfozG6ty-9n-Ib0eBHWfJGyMv4w7svv8rOE3LHo-sqZiufGUaNZDs4BOhom1V5dYg8WP-yTOi49v7A/s400/2017+intl+serenity+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo, from the Airstream website, is the 2017 International Serenity, it was our favorite today.</td></tr>
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I am curious how many they were producing per year from about 1955 to 1978.<br />
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After reading the history of Airstream it was likely 1974-75 when sales really began to plummet during the 1970s because of the OPEC induced spike in gas prices that shocked the whole economy.<br />
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I've heard from a few sources, including Colin Hyde on the <a href="http://www.thevap.com/" target="_blank">Vintage Airstream Podcast (The VAP), </a>that Airstream is in the midst of a big expansion. You can read more about it in the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2016/11/16/airstream-plans-new-3-5-million-expansion.html" target="_blank">Dayton Business Journal, November 2016</a>.<br />
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In 2016, U.S. RV shipments totaled 430,691 units. These are big numbers! This was a gain of 15.1% over the previous year and the biggest year in 40 years according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA). That number is for all RVs including travel trailers and all motorhomes. Source: <a href="http://www.rvia.org/?ESID=indicators" target="_blank">RVIA, April 2017</a>. Here is another <a href="http://www.rvia.org/?ESID=histglance" target="_blank">RVIA link with some historical data</a>, but it only goes back to 1978!<br />
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2016 was also the best year ever for Airstream's parent company Thor. Thor was founded in 1980, the <i>worst</i> year in the RV industry in 40 years. The company began when it's founders acquired Airstream in a fire sale deal from Beatrice who owned Airstream since December of 1967. Since 1980 Thor has grown to become the largest company in the RV industry by acquiring and growing a variety of different RV brands.<br />
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Source of Thor's 2016 results: <a href="http://ir.thorindustries.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Thor-Announces-Record-Results-for-Fourth-Quarter-and-Fiscal-2016/default.aspx" target="_blank">"Thor Announces Record Results for Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2016."</a><br />
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The industry is highly cyclical and we here we are in the midst of a historic boom. Of course booms don't last, but we can enjoy it while it's here. More RVs for Americans! For better and worse. I've grown to love RVing and especially Airstreaming.<br />
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<b>May 30 postscript: </b>I am catching up on past issues of <a href="https://airstreamlife.com/" target="_blank">Airstream Life</a>, today the Winter 2016 issue arrived. In it, Publisher Rich Luhr wrote: "Airstream is blowing out sales records every year--and this is the fifth year in a row . . . . the Airstream community is getting stronger. I doubt if it has been so healthy and enthusiastic since the 1970s. The Wally Byam Caravaner Club International (WBCCI) is gaining members again. . . ." Of course Rich is more in tune with the Airstream world than I am, so it's not surprising he scooped me on this observation. His letter was titled <i>It's a Great Time to be an Airstreamer.</i> Of course I couldn't agree more!<br />
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It would still be nice to see actual numbers from Airstream, especially historical ones.<br />
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<i>Posted from Kuna, Idaho</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.utahredrock.com/2017/06/airstream-production-in-early-1970s.html" target="_blank">Update: Read my June 1 post with information on production circa 1971. </a></span>Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05750950685298514941noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-29763570761155817362017-05-15T19:12:00.001-06:002024-02-25T09:10:32.238-07:00Airstream Calling . . .I am--almost--back in the market for my next travel trailer, and it will likely be . . .<br />
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I'm headed toward my next RV. <br />
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This past weekend I came very close to buying a cool 1954 canned ham. The guy was asking $4,000. I had him down below that, but realized, I wanted something bigger.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitMJvH5oyx94Ak5A1-pDI2onLcyyBd-lO4Wje0ANzSPmDEGVAUdLxKcijpPJRGPCnxTVJEWz_iPti33ysYfEgEAUnJ4JcnkyLyBuO9OVwnn9JcPxjzibVMnnzn_o8Ti1HLGdxC/s1600/canned+ham.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitMJvH5oyx94Ak5A1-pDI2onLcyyBd-lO4Wje0ANzSPmDEGVAUdLxKcijpPJRGPCnxTVJEWz_iPti33ysYfEgEAUnJ4JcnkyLyBuO9OVwnn9JcPxjzibVMnnzn_o8Ti1HLGdxC/s320/canned+ham.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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My delay will mean waiting longer, but that's OK. I am now focused on a new vehicle. Currently I own a Volkswagen TDI (their dirty/cheating diesels) and a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500. I am likely to sell both of those to buy a Chevy Colorado with Duramax.<br />
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I've resubscribed to <a href="https://airstreamlife.com/">Airstream Life</a> and hope to have my new trailer no later than next March. Time will tell.Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07924614013702786163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-29710121674790807432013-06-19T20:41:00.000-06:002013-06-20T10:11:02.278-06:00A Wild West Long... Drive... HomeI like to get in a car and go. Just go. It is a somewhat infamous trait of mine among people who have known me long.<br />
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This habit began the first time I had the opportunity. I was 22, just out of college, with a little extra money and a good used Subaru (thanks MJ). I suppose it was a latent though burning inner wanderlust that was simply waiting for the tools. So I toured America. Who wouldn't want to do this? From Ohio I went north to Minneapolis, then followed the Mississippi south to Memphis before cutting over to south central Alabama. East to Tampa, Florida. North to Virginia Beach, Washington, D.C. and from there? Why San Francisco of course! On that D.C. to SF leg in the summer of 1988 was the first time I drove across Highway 50 in Utah and Nevada, America’s loneliest highway. Bernard and I retraced a short segment of that route two days earlier.<br />
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Now, 25 years later, about to depart Great Basin National Park, my traveling companion was full of surprises. Bernard had previously crucified me for taking unnecessary or “illogical” road trips—traveling too far for too little time he said. My retort “it was all the time I had,” referring to one of the many roadtrips I took when I met him two years ago. Here we were, in sync regarding how to drive home. We agreed to take the long way and explore some very remote locales.<br />
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As we left the park we took one last look at the “road art” built into the barbed-wire fences bordering each side of the highway. These are humorous and quirky displays, including Bob and Barb Wire, an alien in a wheelchair, and my favorite: “Grate Basin.” At the Border Inn, situated one yard over the border on the Nevada side—where laws are more liberal for gambling and alcohol—we filled up on fuel before heading out into no man’s country.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Road art. </td></tr>
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The route was along the dirt Gandy Road, running north on the Utah side, parallel and within miles of the Nevada border. Our next stop would be Gandy Warm Springs, but before we got there we passed Eskdale. We wouldn’t have known about this Old Testament commune if it hadn’t been for our stop at the Airstream two days earlier. Airstreamers always have the best info.<br />
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A Mormon convert who was quickly excommunicated for having his own conversations with God, Maurice Glendenning (born 1891) founded the Aaronic Order in 1942. We saw the Aaronic settlement, Eskdale, off to the east. The little Old Testament-loving town is a long-surviving commune, something that is rare since most experiments in communal living don’t survive long. Glendenning died in 1969 but his religious order continues, and apparently the community is as strong as ever, nearly 50 years later. Somewhere between 200 and 400 people live in this commune, and there are approximately 1,000 active Aaronites.<br />
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We arrived at our magical warm springs located at the base of a rocky outcrop of a mountain that rises a mere 300 feet or so above the desert around it near the "town" of Gandy, Utah. In the Basin and Range country this sole little mountain was an oddity. The 82 degree water from the springs nourishes a little desert oasis with ferns, dragonflies, and crystal clear water. This became our lunch spot. We lounged around for about an hour.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZAVhG0HtTAXEWfiRd04WwrVoKOtdJTaCyP9-nneMm6IJmz-azdTZ8bwee1zuA1pbBPnTXfYjl_Od5topXEwOCsuLsw5mUvRZu7hfDofbVEhILYRztisH3t2U8JHy-65IZkFuNA/s1600/a+springs+1143846503_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZAVhG0HtTAXEWfiRd04WwrVoKOtdJTaCyP9-nneMm6IJmz-azdTZ8bwee1zuA1pbBPnTXfYjl_Od5topXEwOCsuLsw5mUvRZu7hfDofbVEhILYRztisH3t2U8JHy-65IZkFuNA/s320/a+springs+1143846503_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gandy Warm Springs, Utah. </td></tr>
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Our Airstreaming friends recommended <i>Great Basin National Park</i>, a guide book by Gretchen Baker. True to the recommendation, the book was filled with interesting stories about locals from the area. I read many of these to Bernard as we continued northward. We passed through little “towns” where you were lucky to see more than one building, though people still lived in these remote locations. We read about a 1918 showdown between neighbors over wandering cattle where men were shot and killed—though the killer somehow escaped justice. An outcast of the Jesse James gang lived along our route, spending the waning years of his life in hiding in a fortress he built in the Deep Creek Mountains. And we read stories of the Pony Express days.<br />
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A stone building not big enough to call a shed, really more of an outside closet, stood along the road we took up into a canyon that came out of the Deep Creek Mountains. This picturesque little stone building was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s as a shed for gunpowder. I don’t know if it was to blow out the crazy terraces the CCC put into mountainsides throughout the West, or just to supply gunpowder for guns, but it stands proud three quarters of a century after it was constructed in the wilderness. Its tiny roof is gone, but the wooden roof rafters remain.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CCC gunpowder building at the Deep Creek Mountains (not visible), Utah. </td></tr>
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Bernard and I agreed the canyon would be a wonderful place to camp with a small group of friends. With white granite, the Deep Creek Mountains are unique among Utah’s many mountain ranges. They're pretty.<br />
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Continuing up the Gandy Road we passed the long abandoned CCC camp where 100 men once lived and worked. Then we came to Callao, one of the stops along the Pony Express. Gretchen Baker is correct in her guide, calling this the most handsome settlement in the region. People still live in this little isolated town, but as many homesteads have been abandoned as there are that remain occupied.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An abandoned house in Callao, Utah. Photo by BVG. </td></tr>
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North of Callao is Gold Hill, a once productive mining town whose last heyday ended with the end of World War II. Like Callao there was a combination of abandoned buildings and some that are still occupied, though the occupied properties in Gold Hill seemed more run down, and therefore seemed a little scarier to those of us just passing through. Presumably this was a home for people living remotely who don’t want to be bothered by tourists--or so I imagined. The most interesting building in town is the roofless old general store. Bernard was not impressed and refused to stop. I wasn’t too far off from this instinct and didn’t object.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Along the Gandy Road at Callao. Gold Hill is to the right (north). The Deep Creek Mountains are on the horizon. </td></tr>
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The town is known for producing gold, copper, arsenic, and tungsten and was quite productive from 1871 to about 1945. It's one of a seemingly endless number of mining towns in the American West--many (most?) long ago abandoned. I know that Alta, Utah, for example, was once a booming mine town with thousands of people living there. Hard to believe since today, even with its world famous skiing, there are only a few hundred year round residents.<br />
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Gold Hill is home to the second Airstream we saw on the trip, one from the early to mid 1970s, the same vintage as my former aluminum home. It’s possible nobody has used this Gold Hill Airstream since the seventies too.<br />
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The final stop came outside of Gold Hill, about eight miles before we hit pavement again (the entire route since the Border Inn was on a dirt road). I brought a cantaloupe and wanted to crack it open before we headed home. The fruit was very cold from sitting in the melting ice of my cooler. We stopped in a grove of Pinyon-Juniper and ate a few pieces.<br />
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After the cantaloupe stop it was time for some driving that even I could agree was boring. We crossed back in to Nevada to connect with the first stretch of paved road in half a day and the final leg of the northbound journey. Then it was onto long stretches of I-80 between Wendover and Salt Lake that were straight and straighter. We cruised through the blinding white light emanating from the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bernard was kind enough to let me read to him from one of my favorite novels, Wallace Stegner’s <i>Angle of Repose</i>. He was restless and tired of the drive. Meanwhile I was happy as a clam--spoiled by having someone drive me, a rarity.<br />
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We arrived at my house around 7PM after this road tour of a still very wild part of the American West. It was a day of doing what I love to do: Exploring and going. Just going.<br />
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Don't miss part one of this post: <a href="http://azredrock.blogspot.com/2013/06/unplugging-in-great-basin.html">Unplugging in the Great Basin</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-17962080505069036972013-06-18T08:06:00.000-06:002013-06-20T09:34:26.175-06:00Unplugging in the Great BasinIt was time to unplug for a few days. No Facebook. No telephone. No texts. No emails. Not even a place to charge. No, we exchanged our modern world for a few days of true recharging in the American West.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome to the Great Basin.</td></tr>
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My friend Bernard and I drove west last Friday into the forbidding landscape of the Great Basin. This is the largest area in North America with no outlet to the sea. Salt Lake City is on the eastern edge and Reno is on the west. The Great Basin stretches north-south from southern Idaho to below the southernmost point in Nevada to California in the area that includes Palm Springs. In most of its wide open expanses there are few people or roads.<br />
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Our primary destination: Great Basin National Park. The park is just south of Highway 50, “the loneliest highway in America,” and ten or so miles west of the Utah/Nevada border. It is one of the least visited national parks in the U.S.<br />
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John McPhee's book <i>Basin and Range</i> beautifully discusses this unique region. The topography undulates with one mountain range after another, all running north-south, each separated by valleys or "basins." It's dry country.<br />
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Pulling into our campground at an elevation of 7,500 feet we were greeted with a pleasant sight: a 1999 Airstream Bambi. We found a campsite situated next to a rushing mountain stream and surrounded by Aspens. After setting up camp, eating, watching and terrorizing (but not hurting) a giant beetle, we ventured out to begin our explorations. The Airstream was stop number one. Owned by a Salt Lake City couple who married in 1974, and honeymooned at the park (at that time it was called Lehman Caves National Monument), they graciously allowed us to tour their aluminum home away from home. Bernard was underimpressed, but all it needed was an interior remodel.<br />
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We drove to a trailhead at 10,000 feet to do a four mile hike to a Bristlecone Pine grove. These trees are the oldest living organisms in the world, with some individuals standing for 5,000 years. This predates not only Ancient Rome but also Ancient Greece, and even the Egyptian pyramids! Shaped by wind erosion, they are gnarled into crazy shapes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bristlecone Pine. Photo by BVG. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My best preppy-rugged outdoorsman look. </td></tr>
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Dinner, campfire, sleep.</div>
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Saturday we woke, chilled to the bone, and anxiously awaited the arrival of sunlight in camp. It came and the chill faded. Temps had dropped to 37 degrees Fahrenheit overnight.</div>
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Our hike for the day began at 10,160 feet, near the trailhead of the evening before. In front of us: a 2,900 foot ascent up Nevada's second highest peak--Mount Wheeler. I did fine until we hit a certain pitch, then the elevation and my poor conditioning conspired to slow me down. But I plugged along and though it was tough (there were even gale force winds along the way) I loved being on the mountain. We had the summit to ourselves with views for at least 75 miles in all directions, and for whatever reason the wind wasn't bad on top. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching the summit of Wheeler Peak, Nevada. Photo by BVG. </td></tr>
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On the way down, my weak left ankle betrayed me, it popped and I went down, body-slamming the jagged rocks on the trail. I landed on my left side and writhed around in pain for a few minutes. This happens too much, though it was the first time in at least six months. I had to press on, so after the initial pain began to subside that's what I did. I gimped on down the mountain, though most of the pain was over in the first five minutes. When I took my shoe off at the bottom and stepped on it again the pain went back up temporarily but with some ibuprofen it didn't affect the trip beyond my dramatics when I first went down. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the ascent with Wheeler Peak above us. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bernard at the summit. </td></tr>
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The summit hike was my favorite outing, though there was still much to see. After the hike we showered in camp with Bernard's solar shower, then headed in to town to check out the local bar. It was, as he aptly put it, a "one-horse town." Baker, Nevada owes most of its existence to revenues generated from the national park. One gas station, a multi-denominational church, two bars, the park visitor center and maybe a dozen houses--that was the whole town. </div>
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Some guy had a snake in hand and he was blocking the entrance to the Silver Jack Inn (and bar) where we wanted to go. I skirted around him, went inside and got my beer. The building seemed to be vintage 1920s--certainly pre-WWII. It was a funky little place. And quiet. </div>
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Back to camp, dinner, another campfire, and bed. It was much warmer the second night and we both slept better as a result.</div>
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After breakfast and breaking down our campsite, we went to Lehman Caves and did a 90 minute tour of an amazing limestone cavern (it's one cave despite its plural name). This was easily the best cave tour of my life, though I've only done a few.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The most iconic formation in the cave, part "shield" part curtains. Shields occur in only a small portion of caves around the world. Photo by BVG. </td></tr>
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It was a mellow weekend and just what the doctor ordered. The West maintains its spell over me thirty years after I first visited. It's a great place to live, and an even greater place to unplug from the modern world.<br />
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Part two from the trip: <a href="http://azredrock.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-wild-west-long-drive-home.html">A Wild West Long... Drive... Home</a>.<br />
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All photos by BVG except for the one of him.Jim Breitingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07924614013702786163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7777943.post-72051097021016067452012-11-26T18:28:00.004-07:002012-12-10T21:43:41.188-07:00Jim Bierly: A giant moves on<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We lost a good one. Jim Bierly, a giant in my life and a
friend of my family’s from before the time I was born, died yesterday at 87.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jim fought in World War II, came home to Ohio and ran a
manufacturing business. His daughter will carry on as head of the
business. He had four kids.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For twenty years, on every single trip I’ve made to my
hometown in Ohio, I’ve seen Jim and his wife Karen. Every trip. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was one of those guys that you just liked. Solid,
good-hearted, dependable. He was always there. He lived in an old Ohio
farmhouse that he remodeled 10-15 years ago. I remember going there in the
early seventies as a small kid for parties. In particular I remember going
sledding there with at least a dozen other kids, I was one of the youngest at
that scene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Four or five years ago, when I went home for Christmas, my
mom and I spent Christmas Eve with Jim and Karen and a couple of other people.
It was a cold night, but nice out. We all headed outside with our drinks and
had a huge bonfire. It was one of my best Christmas Eve’s ever. I can still
smell the smoke. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do you describe a person in a few words? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was his time to go, but it’s so hard to believe. He was
just always there. For years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can hear his voice in my head, but I can’t find words to
describe it. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Tonight my mom described him as one of her favorite men. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His first wife, Helen, died of cancer when I was young. She
and I share the same birthday. This may have been before or after my dad died,
I don’t remember, it was around the same time--probably after, circa 1972. She
was the first person I knew who knew that she was dying. She was an amazing
woman too. I remember her strong spirit and her positive energy. Jim also had
that positive energy. He wasn’t a pushover kind of a guy, but his kindness is
what I’ll remember the most. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
Jim's body started to give out on him a few years ago, but his mind and spirit remained strong until the end.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jim’s wife Karen is also a great friend and is an equally
large presence in my life. My heart breaks for her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jim was a giant. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goodbye my friend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1