Summer 2018, Day 13: Tire Upgrade and Radiator Repair

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Ben

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at Paramotor City:

I tried flying, but the wind kept shifting directions which foiled my launch attempts:

In the afternoon we relocated to the Chabad of Albuquerque:

I drove over to a building shared by a tire shop and a radiator shop, which was convenient as I upgraded our other two RV tires and our spare, one of which failed yesterday, to 14-ply tires so they now match the other two we upgraded a few days ago. While that was being done, the radiator shop replaced a leaking coolant hose on the truck that’s been causing us trouble for the past few days:

Back at the RV, Trish and the kids got ready for Shabbos:

Good Shabbos from Albuquerque, New Mexico!

Summer 2018, Day 12: Palo Duro Canyon

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Ben

Pre-dawn in Canyon, Texas:

The homemade cowling on my WiFi antenna has encountered one too many low-hanging branches, so I went into Walmart to buy a replacement:

We also tore the roof membrane on our RV when upgrading our tires yesterday:

All fixed:

We visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park outside of Canyon, Texas:

View from the rim:

We checked out the visitor center:

We drove the truck down into the canyon. At 10am, it was already over 100 degrees:

We continued west into New Mexico:

We checked out the abandoned border town of Glenrio:

Old Route 66:

Continuing west in 100+ degree temperatures, we blew a tire:

The blow-out tore the Coroplast bottom of the RV. I stitched up the bottom of the RV with nylon cable ties:

We continued west to our overnight location, Paramotor City outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. See the alternating yellow line on the trip map for today’s drive.

Summer 2018, Day 11: Tire Upgrade

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Ben

We drove west, stopping at Walker Tire in Guthrie, Oklahoma to replace the RV tire with the bubble from a few days back:

The folks at Walker Tire suggested we upgrade the RV to 14-ply tires from our current 10-ply tires. We did the switch on the rear axle since it seems to carry more weight than the front axle.

We continued west into Texas:

We overnighted at the Walmart of Canyon, Texas. See the alternating yellow line on the trip map for today’s drive

Summer 2018, Day 10: Oklahoma’s Motorcycle Island

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Ben

We spent the day exploring Motorcycle Island outside of Tulsa. It’s another hot and humid day in this part of the country:

We had intermittent rain that served up ample slippery mud:

M and I drove all the way around the island:

We all wiped out a few times, but neither riders nor bikes received significant damage.

Towards sunset we went for a swim in the lake. The water was only 5 feet deep, and it was warm as soup:

A great dinner rounded off the day:

Tomorrow we’ll load up the motorcycles and hit the road!

Summer 2018, Day 9: Ozark NSR, Wilson’s Creek NB, Pea Ridge NMP, Walmart Museum

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Ben

We started our day by visiting Ozark National Scenic Riverways:

We drove down to visit Big Spring:

Big Spring releases over 3,400 gallons per second. The flow dissolves 175 tons of limestone per day, which colors the water blue-green:

Back at the RV, I discovered a bubble in one of the RV tires:

I swapped in the spare:

We continued west to Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield:

The site preserves the failed attempt of the Confederacy to secure Missouri for the South:

After the failure at Wilson’s Creek, Southern forces retreated to Arkansas, where they were finally defeated at our next stop, Pea Ridge National Military Park: