Anatomy Of Our First Cross Country Road Trip!

[Mark77]

We just returned from our first cross country trip, North Dakota to the southwest and decided to share a few thoughts over the coming days (or weeks) in a continuing saga of our first time experiences, observations and lessons learned.

A little background. I just retired from a 43 year career driving big trucks. My wife still is working (for a while anyway) to keep us in health insurance! She was able to get a month off to make the trip a reality.

The first order of business and our first stop was to be Quartzsite for the Circling of the Montana’s, largely because of my frequent visits to this site and wanting to connect with some of the others who visit here as well. I also wanted to see the big RV show, and other local attractions.

We left on a Tuesday morning in -14˚ temperatures looking forward to warmer weather. In tow behind the Montana was our Segway OHV on a trailer. That fact we will revisit later.

One thing I soon realized… I had inflated all of my RV tires to 77 PSI (allowing some room for heat increasing pressure). They were at 65 before I inflated them. Within 25 miles, even in the sub 0 weather, the RV tires (per Tire Minder) were at 90 PSI! The next available exit ramp, I was out there letting air out of the tires to get them back to 80 PSI. 1 lesson learned.

The rest of the first leg of the journey was nothing more than 2 fuel stops and 500 miles later we found ourselves in Bellville, KS. close to 11:00 PM. It was about 14˚ above there, and we didn’t want to sleep in the RV, so we found a motel on the west end of town and pulled in. There were remnants of a snow storm there and I ended up getting stuck in some un-removed snow in the parking lot because of my inability to back up around a corner and stay on cleared area’s. Thankfully I have a 4WD truck and I was able to get myself out in about 5 minutes, 5 feet forward then 4 feet backward then repeat.

We checked into the flee bag motel and after we got the room warmed up from 50˚ to sleeping temperature we had a pretty good night sleep.

The second day of travel got us to Albuquerque, NM. That was supposed to end somewhere less than the 700 miles I drove that day, but wherever that was I wasn’t tired of driving yet and decided to press on. We had planned on stopping at a Loves to sleep, but when we got in there about 10:30 PM there was no parking left. Wife started looking online and found Nomadland about 4 miles back east of where we were. We called and Dan and his wife could not have been more kind and got us set up on the phone and 30 minutes later we found ourselves in a very nice overnight stay, in a secure area with full hookups. It only got down to 30˚ that night. We kept warm with the fireplace heater in the Monte and got a great nights sleep.

The next morning I got up, de-winterized the RV, pulled in to the wash bay with complimentary wash tokens Dan gave me and washed the whole rig. Back on the road after saying our goodbyes and heading west on I40.

Gets a little more dramatic on Day 3 of travel! I will continue this later on, maybe tomorrow! Lots more excitement to come!

Attachments: Leaving ND (Elevator in background) and 2 at Nomadland in Albuquerque, NM

 

[twindman]

Looking at the last picture, I can see why you had problems backing up!! LOL
I have trouble without the third vehicle!! By the way, I live in MEsa, and it got clear down to 30 degrees one night. I froze!!!

 

[scottandsusan]

Nice looking road train. Ha ha
The first two days sound like things are going well.
I'm looking forward to hearing about day 3 and the rest of the trip.

I see you're from Fargo. I work for Cummins in new engine development for class 8 trucks. We typically send trucks to Fargo for winter testing. I think we have three up there right now.

 

[DutchmenSport]

Sounds like you are 1) learning a lot! 2) having a lot of fun! What a great travel plan.

Keep posting here with your updates. It's all interesting.

Happy and safe travels!

 

[Mark77]

By the way, I live in MEsa, and it got clear down to 30 degrees one night. I froze!!!

It got down to -22˚ here last night! Third trailer was not the issue backing up when I was stuck. It was the 12" of snow pack that messed me up. I had to keep packing it down a foot at a time to get myself back on to good pavement.

I see you're from Fargo. I work for Cummins in new engine development for class 8 trucks. We typically send trucks to Fargo for winter testing. I think we have three up there right now.

Love my 6.7 Cummins in my Ram. I drove L10's, M11's, N14's and ISX's for many many miles. Still have a lot of N14's on the farm!

Sounds like you are 1) learning a lot! 2) having a lot of fun! What a great travel plan.

Keep posting here with your updates. It's all interesting.

Not so much fun driving... Too much like what I retired from, but enjoyed the rest of the trip for sure.

Might take me a week or so to get to the end but I'll keep working on it!

 

[Mark77]

Continued...

Leaving Albuquerque we continued west towards Holbrook AZ. I 40 is a nice scenic drive for a ND couple and we enjoyed the views. Got fuel in Holbrook and headed further west, actually starting southwest on AZ 377. Any of you who have drove that highway knows it is a narrow road, not much for shoulders and limited passing opportunities. I normally am not a real fast driver, but I did set the cruise at the 65 MPH limit on this 2 lane road. I soon had traffic building behind me, one of which was a pretty aggressive semi truck driver. I gave him a couple of opportunities to pass me by slowing down where visibility of oncoming traffic was good (remember I drove one of those trucks for 43 years) but he never took the chance so I quit doing that. A few miles down the road he pulled out to pass me and had plenty of room, but for whatever reason when his trailer tires were right in line with my drivers door he very aggressively moved over, forcing me off the road! Wife panicked, but I have had a lot of people do stupid things around me before so it was kind of business as usual for me. Even with no shoulders I got it slowed down and got the rig back on the road, and thankfully kept the shiny side up. Only my right side had got off into the brush. I can still see the Segway trailer in the camera monitor going nuts back there, and I can see the face of the driver looking in his right mirror at me. He knew what he did. The only reason I can think of for him doing that to me was that I had slowed to let him around me on a couple of other occasions and he must have taken that for me screwing with him and was going to teach me a lesson. In any case, he was an Amazon contract driver of foreign decent and those guys had a reputation in the trucking industry almost as bad as Swift and JBHunt drivers. My wife, after regaining her composure got out her good camera and using the zoom lens, and me trying to catch up to him reaching 80 MPH briefly, she got a picture of the back of the trailer with all of the identification and I will report it to Amazon at some time so maybe (probably not) they can check into it.

As soon as we got to a stop and right turn at AZ 260 where it was safe to pull over, I got out and checked the rig over. Everything seemed OK, and nothing really moved inside the camper so we proceeded on towards Payson.

We got to Payson as it was getting dark and needed to pull in somewhere for a nature call. Wife went into the camper and I got out to do another walk around and check everything over. When I got to the right side of the camper I noticed the lower step going into the camper was really close to the ground… about 3” lower than normal. Further examination found the the spring straps on the rear axle between the equalizer and the rear spring had failed and the spring eye was riding on the bottom of the frame of the trailer. Maybe a result of my off road trip some 100+ miles back? In any case, nothing I could do in Payson at 7:30 in the evening and I had pulled it for some time anyway, so being aware of what was going on I decided I would head for Mesa and deal with it there where I have a good friend and someone who would know where to get parts. We pulled into my friends park at 9:30, got the train broke down and got parked for the night.

The next morning Vern ran me over to Straight Line Suspension and we got the needed parts and some spare parts “just in case”. The owner at Straight Line is a great guy. I highly recommend them if you are ever in need of anything on that order in Mesa.

Back to Vern’s house, we jacked up the camper and in about an hour had the initial problem fixed as well as a couple of other suspect looking straps and bolts and we were soon on our way to Quartzsite for the big Montana circle!

More later…

Pics… Damaged straps (more on that later), Straps removed noting the area on the frame where the spring eye had settled for some 200 miles, and new straps and bolts.

 

[twindman]

You probably drove right by my house at the edge of town if you took the Saguaro lake road a few miles out of town. Question: Isn't Mesa way out of the way to Quartzite?
Oh, and I think I had my rig axles aligned at StraightLine a few years ago. Not sure it that was the place or not.
Anyway, welcome to AZ!

 

[scottz]

Mark, when you get a chance, you should replace those stock spring shackles with the heavy duty versions and wet bolts. The remaining stock shackles will break at some point.

Morryde link (they can help you get the correct kit): https://morryde.com/products/heavy-duty-shackle-kit/

There are a bunch of options on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=morryde+shackles&i=automotive&crid=24A44YGGSOG5N&sprefix=morryde+shackles%2Cautomotive%2C178

I think these are the ones you need: https://www.amazon.com/MORryde-213-3008-UO12-021-Equaflex-Shackles/dp/B007HRICOA?crid=24A44YGGSOG5N&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.y3NS92McBD0VuReVFsDheOOCxLX8ou1J0B0cqaxfazKol0urwHQwW203Nrg4DQK6Vnzb5NvIY-CuQYMi63wAD5H2TmoNnqKu2xa6Iky5E1208jWO2W-OKYcBzI5cN9Ft0FYZ1u1VaLdRkFM2DWtUTjIvRm5AUkFT-h_JSF4loKkO0PiWMXuWALzmvcAtFOn8IrtjRV3JdXvPvR_NeGYzMpLtSK2WxsWo0hkQYZv7eYGRgrZiDtJYvFwSbQvYYceCuvfl57__QUooZp-1oRcpXlro5ozt_Lrw_YQt6Ii51VgzgFzffg2J_5mha-Iizp2fcQ-8QhyI_gKaEt7dOeJ7Xji5MZKx8yl7K2d_bPH2KjY.8ADnR05sUVsTcoeDa9b8d8X6DGNJiQfWE6Qx4s33llI&dib_tag=se&keywords=morryde%2Bshackles&qid=1739469022&s=automotive&sprefix=morryde%2Bshackles%2Cautomotive%2C178&sr=1-6&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.9fe8cbfa-bf43-43d1-a707-3f4e65a4b666&th=1

Or, call Michael at Performance Trailer Brakes, 405-626-7009. I think he stocks just the plates; price might be good.

 

[RMcNeal]

I just rebuilt mine. Ordered parts from Lippert. The wetbolt and shackle kit is
https://www.lippert.com/tandem-axle...d=260&indexName=gwp_d2c_prod_lippert_products
and the bushings are
https://www.lippert.com/bronze-bush...=8661&indexName=gwp_d2c_prod_lippert_products
You'll probably need the equalizer too. I found the Road Armor cheapest at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XDNHVN...JBJI0OISD&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

 

[Mark77]

Mark, when you get a chance, you should replace those stock spring shackles with the heavy duty versions and wet bolts. The remaining stock shackles will break at some point.

You're getting ahead of me Scott!

 

[Mark77]

On to Quartzsite....

We left our friends place the next afternoon headed west to Quartzsite and what should have been an easy drive day. Traffic in Phoenix was terrible, but likely typical so we had to deal with a lot of stop and go. I like to stay in the middle lanes of traffic so I don’t have to deal with merging traffic. Almost out of the city and traffic starting to move a little faster, I felt something funny and there was a jerking feeling in my suspension! Looking in my mirrors, and simultaneously hearing my co-driver yell “The Segway!” I looked at the rear monitor and saw my utility trailer had come unhooked and was trying to get away! I immediately slowed down from 50 MPH and turned on my turn signals to get off the road. I had to cross 2 lanes of traffic to my right to get on the shoulder. Traffic recognized my issue and let me get over. I ended up on the shoulder of the road right next to an entrance ramp.

Lesson learned here… do NOT skimp on safety chains! I used 3/8 chain and locking hooks and they were not stretched or damaged during this incident. Also, I built this trailer for the purpose of hauling this side by side and made the decision to put electric brakes on it. Friends gave me a little crap for spending the extra money on such a small trailer, even though it is legally required on a 3500# capacity trailer, but I have a slightly smaller version I built 20 years ago without brakes. Imaging stopping in a hurry without brakes on that trailer. It would have been slamming into the back of the Montana! As it was, it never touched it.

After getting stopped, I went back and discovered the welds had failed on my 4” drop drawbar. The tube was still in the receiver, but the drop portion was still in the trailer hitch dragging on the ground. This was a factory built drawbar, but had a few years and miles on it, though never used for what I would consider heavy loads. It was a hollow tube, and closed examination showed not a lot of weld in the first place. I had to wonder if my prior trip off road courtesy of the Amazon driver had started the problem, but that wasn’t going to make any difference now.

I stood there contemplating my next move. I had to find a drawbar and get it re-attached. Looking at my surroundings I noticed a truck up-fitter right across the entrance ramp, only 2 guard rails, 2 - 3’ fences on either side of a drain ditch, and a 7’ chain link fence between me and the frontage road. Emblazoned on the front of the building it said “PHX Car Truck and UTV, and more importantly a phone number! I called the number and after getting over a language hurtle and a couple of techs, I had soon arranged a meeting at the fence! I took what was left of my drawbar to the fence (Scaling steep ditches, guardrails and fences on the way) and showed the guy what I needed. He told me to hang on and went back into the store to look. 5 minutes later he told me he had one, but it was a little bigger and was $150. I was not in a position to negotiate much on the price, so one more trip back to the store he came back with a box with a pretty fancy, and really heavy adjustable drawbar with one of those 3 ball hitches, 1-7/8”, 2” and 2-5/16”. All adjusted with pins. Way more than I needed, but it would get me on the road. Thankfully my wife had the cash, and after jacking the trailer back up, making some adjustments for the longer drawbar (safety chains) and getting re-attached we were back on the road. No real damage done. My wife and I are Christian believers and we have to believe that we were being watched over in both situations we had dealt with thus far… Of course bad things happened, be we were staying safe and given the resources to repair and move on! The guys from PHX Truck could not have been more helpful in what had to be the strangest sale they ever made!

Back on the road heading west was uneventful. It was obvious we would not make it to Q before dark, so an hour out I called Scott (scottz). Even though we had never camped in the desert before, my pea sized little brain figured out we might not find the group in the middle of the desert at night during a big event like the RV show! Later I proved it was hard enough to find the group in the daylight after we had made a couple of trips to Quartzsite and Parker! Scott and a few other (who I could not see over the cell call) advised me to come in from the north because of construction in town and gave me good instructions to go through Bouse. Scott told me to drive 15 miles south on Plomosa Rd and call him and he would meet me on the side of the road and guide us in. I made that call and thats exactly what happened! He and others guided me right into the circle and got us parked! Out of respect for everyone else we stayed hooked up that night and since the campfire had long gone out, we retired for the evening.

More later…!

Pictures... Only have a couple. Wife took a picture of me working with the PHX Truck guys to get the drawbar.

 

[scottz]

I just rebuilt mine. Ordered parts from Lippert. The wetbolt and shackle kit is
https://www.lippert.com/tandem-axle...d=260&indexName=gwp_d2c_prod_lippert_products
and the bushings are
https://www.lippert.com/bronze-bush...=8661&indexName=gwp_d2c_prod_lippert_products
You'll probably need the equalizer too. I found the Road Armor cheapest at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XDNHVN...JBJI0OISD&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

Keep in mind there are multiple suspension systems (standard, LRE, SRE, etc.) out there and they don't all take the same parts.

 

[scottz]

Love the story. We've all been there; these things happen. My trip to AK a few years ago was like this; daily drama. My trip last year was uneventful.

 

[RMcNeal]

Keep in mind there are multiple suspension systems (standard, LRE, SRE, etc.) out there and they don't all take the same parts.

This is true. Good point.
The parts I listed are for the Road Armor suspension that originally came on my unit. The equalizer is the Blue Road Armor, but as I understand it, the Yellow is the same part just in an aftermarket option, not OEM.

 

[Mark77]

The next morning we woke up after a very peaceful nights sleep. First on the agenda for me was to get the Segway UTV unloaded and get unhooked from the Monte. Almost immediately after stepping outside and taking in my surroundings in the desert for the first time in daylight… Folks were coming over from elsewhere in the circle, introducing themselves and welcoming us. We were filled in on important upcoming events with the group… very important times like happy hour, and the Sunday pot luck. We were advised not to go into Quartzsite on the weekend because of crowds, so we opted instead to go to Parker and stock up on some of the groceries we needed since we had just come out of freezing weather and we only packed dry goods before we left home. $400 in groceries later (I never go grocery shopping so I guess I didn’t know the costs involved) we headed off to our next adventure which was to be the Desert Bar.

We made it to the road going out there, but after only a mile or so my bride was uncomfortable with all of the jerking and jarring in my 3/4 ton truck with 80 PSI in the tires and still 30 PSI in the unladen air bags. Really, no suspension at all! Rather than go through all of that, I turned around opting to visit with the UTV if we had the opportunity later. (That never happened so we missed it). Maybe next time.

We got back to the circle in time for our first happy hour. There were plenty of hors d’oeuvres and even more great conversation with people I had never met before, except maybe a thought or two passed back and fourth in threads on these pages. Everyone was so nice and I shared a lot of stories about my experiences and listened as others shared theirs. I am an extroverted guy, so I was right in my element. I love to visit and there was plenty of that to do!

I cannot remember what all we did on Sunday morning. I know we planned to go for a ride on our UTV but it was not cooperating (operator error figured out later) but it got close to 3:00 when the group pot luck was ready to convene. I asked someone what we should bring because I didn’t want to double up on anything. I was told bring whatever you want to bring. I asked “What if everyone brings potato salad?”
I was answered… “Then were going to eat a lot of potato salad!” Prior to the meal, there was a remembrance of members who were no longer with us. I thought that was very appropriate and a nice tribute to those people. It tells you something about the group you are gathering with. Like all pot lucks, everyone had more than they should to eat and there was plenty left over!

Sometime in the last 2 days Scott and Alta presented up with our name tag badges. Not sure if Alta made them or someone else, but they were are way cool and we will keep them in the rig as long as we own it! Thank you!

On Monday we finally went to the big tent in Quartzsite.

More on that in the next installment… Stay tuned!

Photos: Badges provided by Scott and Alta (Last name redacted), Night pic my wife took while we were in the circle.

 

[Carl n Susan]

The name badges are normally prepared by Jack Lyons, There were two badges. One had the pictures from one of the large Circles at Q. The other was from the first Circle with just five RVs. You two should each have both pictures badges.

 

[Mark77]

The name badges are normally prepared by Jack Lyons, There were two badges. One had the pictures from one of the large Circles at Q. The other was from the first Circle with just five RVs. You two should each have both pictures badges.

Thanks for clarifying Carl. Those are the two we have, and they’re different on the back side, but I don’t have that picture now and it’s 10 below 0 out there now so it might he a while before I check it!

It was a pleasure meeting you sir!

(We came home too soon!)

 

[scottandsusan]

Sounds like quite an adventure Mark. Thankful you all made it safely. That's the important thing. Once I retire we'd like to attend some of these rallies. They look like fun.
Looking forward to "the rest of the story"

 

[Mark77]

Monday was our day to go to Quartzsite. We got to town by 9:00 AM, found a place to park fairly close to the entrance to the big tent and went in to figure out what we needed but just didn’t know it. On my list of things to research was battery and solar options and a new couch (theater seat). Everything else was just looking.

The atmosphere in the tent, as well as the vendors reminded me of the Mesa Market we had been to a few years ago, only a little more RV related. There was a lot of stuff there (how do you haul a full size hot tub in an RV) that I didn’t think needed to be there, but there usually was a line of people willing to look. I passed on the massage chairs and the tens units (I hate electric shocks of any kind) and tried to stay focused on the RV related products. That went sideways when my wife found a massager of some kind she figured she needed. Then I had to go into my dealing mode! As it was, there was another couple there from Sioux Falls, SD… my home town and closed to ND relatively speaking. Our wives both wanted one of these $250 machines and the two husbands went to work. We fed off each other and got him to take $100 off two of them or both of us would walk away. Sell 2, or sell none. It worked! I drifted a little off track here, but I absolutely love to haggle!

Now that we had the massager out of the way, on to more important things. I found a smoking deal on a 200 AH LiPo battery ($550) and I wish I would have bought 2. Now I want another one and the same seller is $1150 and I cannot get him to sell me another one at the Quartzsite price. I bought a Bauer door lock, combination and bluetooth because we have wanted one found they had the best lock for us at a great price compared to their competition.

Now getting to something Scott “scottz” mentioned a few posts back…

Walking the perimeter outside of the fence we stumbled on the Mor-Ride tent. On display right out in front was a table with a sign that showed “The most common RV suspension failure” with parts and pieces on the table that looked like what I had seen in Mesa when Vern and I fixed what had broken on my Montana. I knew that 90% of that same suspension was still on the RV and was well on it’s way to failure and I still had 3000 miles to go to get home. After speaking with a More-Ride rep who was not the haggling type… I walked away with an All Trek equalizer set and all new shackle links, brass bushings and wet bolts. The links are 1/2” thick! They told me that with proper maintenance it would be the last parts of that kind I would ever buy for that RV. I agree… the junk the RV shipped with lasted 20 years and I don’t know how many miles. More on this later.

We wandered around some of the new Montana’s near the entrance to the tent and they were pretty cool, but we are not in the market at this point so it was more of a curiosity thing. We had some lunch at a food truck that had 5 star restaurant prices, but it was good food and we were hungry! One last stop, backtracking a little bit I went back and bought a collapsible wagon I had seen so that we could get everything back to the truck that we went there not to buy!

On the way out of town we went over to RV Lifesstyles on the advice of Larry and Debbie “drifty1” in the market for an LP heater. They were gracious enough at the rally to show me the solar / Lithium setup and gave Katy and I a tour of their LUX 5’er. While we were in there I saw a stand alone RV heater and when I questioned him about not using his furnace he explained how inefficient RV furnaces are and these heaters are a lot less expensive to operate in cool weather. I am aware of the need for the RV furnace in extreme cold because of the plumbing, but in 30˚ weather during the desert nighttime it looked like a good investment. We found a heater there and brought it home. We actually used it only 1 evening on the trip largely because I did not have a CO detector in the RV and I did not want to wake up dead… and because of the lack of proper LP plumbing to make it easy, but this is something we will implement into future road trips. We did learn on this trip that the RV furnace will chew up a 30# LP tank in no time. Not so much the cost of re-filling the tank, but more to do with convenience.

All said, we left Quartzsite about $1500 poorer than we were when we got there, but that’s what it’s all about, right? It was a good experience but quite frankly… aside from the great people I met in the circle, one I do not have to experience again. To summarize, the Montana rally for sure made the trip, but I can go to other RV shows closer or go to Amazon in my living room for the same kinds of deals and in many cases less expensive. I never did find a sofa!

Next time… Heading north to Pahrump!

Pics: Mor Ride display at the tent, Mor Ride parts purchased, HearthRite heater we bought.

 

[Mark77]

Tuesday morning we started getting to leave Quartzsite. got everything loaded up and said goodby to some of our new found friends and we hit the road. Stopped at RV Pit Stop in Parker and took care of water and waste but they were out of LP because of the RV show rush so we pressed on. Great place by the way! We drove without any more incidents toward Lake Havasu City. About 30 minutes out I called a high school friend who lives there and asked him if he and his wife wanted to meet for coffee. He was surprised to hear from me. I had not told him of this trip as I was not sure of we would have time to stop, but as it was we did. We had a nice visit, and he invited us to mooch camp in his front yard. There was just enough room for our train! We did unhook and went down to London Bridge to see it at night. Pretty cool site and my wife took another 100 pictures. The next morning we had a very nice visit and friend Jeff and his wife and I did some horse trading. He had a normal 4” drop hitch with a 2” ball and a solid bar to that went in the receiver. I wanted it so I could get away from the 40# of un-needed adjustable hitch and get the trailer closer to the RV again so my safety chains would work better again. I gave him a 3 year old deep cycle battery I didn’t need to carry around anymore (since I bought the LiPo4 battery). Went down to see the bridge once again in the daylight, it was for sure more impressive at night, went back to Jeffs and got hooked up, said our goodbyes and were on our way. We probably have not seen each other in 15 years. Can’t believe how old people in my past have gotten while I stay the same !

On the way to Pahrump we had to go thru Las Vegas. More city traffic and confusion. Thought we could do it without drama, but I took the wrong exit and soon was heading into down town. Siri wanted me to turn around! She obviously had not idea what I was driving!

I took an exit to turn around, but the re-entry ramp was not accessible with that left turn going back the other way, so I was in trouble. I had to find somewhere to change direction but where! I went about 3 blocks to another light and looking either way at that intersection I saw some warehouses off to my right… so a right turn and one more light found me in the parking lot of a loading dock of an abandoned warehouse. Lots of room and I knew I could get out of there. Got out of the truck so wife could use the camper facilities and looked around. I was in the shadows of Cesars Palace and not too far from Trump Tower. I could have walked to either in about 5 minutes. Still not sure exactly where I was, but I must have been on the back size of the strip somewhere? A security guard patrol soon showed up and asked what we were doing. Wife told her that I had made a wrong turn and we were just turning around. She was very understanding and told us to take our time and good luck. I suppose pulling in there with an RV we looked suspicious.

We got my brother in law Eddie (from Pahrump) on the phone and seeing where we were by my wife sharing our location from her phone on google, he told us it was a piece of cake to get out of there and told me where I screwed up a few miles back. In any case we had turn by turn directions from Eddie getting us out of Vegas and on our way to his place, an easy 70 miles away. He is a truck driver and goes into Vegas from time to time so he knew what I could handle.

The rest of the trip to Pahrump went without issue and we got to Ed’s place before dark and got set up for more mooch docking. He had supper waiting for us and even an adult beverage… or two! Nice to visit with he and his family again. Had been a few years since we last saw them. Probably was a funeral back in Minnesota. Sad it takes milestone , sometimes tragic family events to get everyone together, but I guess it happens when we all get spread out.

The next morning I had one thing I wanted to get done for sure before I had any more fun. That was to install my new suspension components I had purchased from More-Ride at the show in Quartzsite. I had all of the tools, just needed the place I could do it without getting in trouble for jacking it up and taking the wheels off. It took Ed and I about 90 minutes to do the right side, but only an hour to do the left. Learned some tricks getting the springs lined back up to get the bolts in. By the time we got everything cleaned up it was close to 4:00 so we just sat around and visited and consumed more beverages. I think we may have gone and re-filled LP tanks for Ed and I. DO NOT go into Pahrump needing LP. It is $5 / gallon there. I filled an 11# tank I had that they should not have filled, but they did anyway. (no OPD valve). That will come into play later on in my story.

Finally the next day we got to use our Segway UTV! I had pulled it over 2000 miles and all I had done was unload and load it thus far. 5 of us got in and went out into the desert. We did see some burro’s but we could not get close to them. They were pretty skittish. We had to take one of our party back home to run some errands and the rest of us headed a different direction, up into the mountains! That was fun! Nothing really all that challenging, but we did get a scream or two out of my wife dealing with a few steep climbs and descents. That is what we bought that machine to do, but we always found ourselves with other things to do, with other people who for whatever reason liked us being there and kept us busy doing other things. We were out about 3 hours and put a whopping 30 miles on the machine!

We spent 3-1/2 days there and had to move on because of things we had to get back south for that were scheduled, largely on our behalf. We got everything hooked up on Sunday morning and headed back south. I chose Sunday to avoid Vegas traffic and me not getting lost again! Oh... and there was a winter storm warning starting at 4PM through the Spring Mountain range between Pahrump and Vegas. I later found out that a winter storm warning in Nevada is different than the winter storm warnings I am used to in North Dakota.

Next… Heading to Yuma via Quartzsite.