Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

Well here we are at Riverside RV Park in rainy and cold Whistler, BC.

Looking over the last 12 days it's amazing that we've covered over 3500 miles (that's over 5600km for those who don't work in imperial units).

I'd love to know how much cash we spent on gas, but GE's internet service centre is down. Maybe that's a good thing...

So yesterday we drove through Seattle. It was certainly (at least to me) the most Melbourne-ish place we've been through - there were smaller cars, and David Phung was there by the side of the road. Weird.


One of the first signs that we are nearing Canadia....


Is it only me who finds this name funny?


Logs glorious logs.... At this point we've crossed the border and are greeted by a traditional river dance from native Canadian logs.


Little did I know that this sign would herald the start of a slow 2nd gear crawl in the Turd.

Mind you, after all the worrying about how it would deal with the mountains the giant Chevy 454 just ate em up. I think the temperature of the earth got about 0.5 degrees hotter, but....


Oooh!! Whistler!!


This is what happens to you when you drive an armchair for 2 weeks straight.

Fletch would be proud of me.


Woohoo Whistler Village!!!!!


More of Whistler Village. Note other Jeep in the foreground...


Well this is the mountain. There's already snow on it! Hopefully this year is gonna be a cracker!


Some of the village was out to see the giant turd driving down the road.


Ahh autumn in the snow.


And here, in the wilderness of British Columbia is the nesting place of the giant speckled turd.


So far all is good. A few winter bits and pieces are on their way so we don't die, or have a giant poopsicle hanging out the side of the motor home. Other than that today we're being very lazy. It's kind of strange not having to drive anywhere (although we have been to the hardware store).

Well that's about it for now. Next update soon!

EDIT: Before I forget - a few days ago we said farewell to an old friend, Ben & Rose's dog Buddy. Good hunting young pup, we won't forget you.

Cascade Locks, Oregon

Well this morning we set out to make it to Washington. No we did not make it.

We're in a beautiful setting though, here at Cascade Locks in Oregon.

I thought it was about time I checked some fluids in the turd. Oil - Low. Transmission Fluid - Low. Power Steering Fluid - Low. Man did I shit myself. Put in the required fluids, and spent the rest of the freaking day paranoid about the turd exploding.

Anyway.

Seems my reputation preceded me!


This was like the grown up version of the turd and the camo jeep.....


Uh... some water.


This is the John Day Dam. You can read about it here! There was a great shot of water pouring out of it. But someone missed it. I forgot to mention that all photos the last few days are not courtesy of me. I'm the one driving :)


Cool shot of a barge eh?


This is nearing Cascade Locks......


So we're SO CLOSE you can TASTE the snow. The turd has developed a leak in its grey water piping. Ripper. Was going to get underneath it and try to seal it up, but it's raining. No thanks.

Tomorrow we'll stop at Camping World to get some bits and pieces...... and then our last stop outside of Canada!! It's 8pm. Sadly I am absolutely rooted, so will be going to bed shortly.

G'night!

Idaho, land of the ... gem?

Uh... allegedly Idaho is known as the "gem state" due to its "abundance of natural resources.

Dunno where the fuck they hide them though, cause there was a whole lot o' nuttin' yesterday.

If you want 400 acres of land you can buy it though....


Or perhaps a giant cowboy is more to your liking?


Ahh land...


Ahh cows....


Ahh sky....


So we're somewhere here according to Google Maps (South Smeed Parkway) but looks like the images are more than 2 years old..

Anyway time to get going.

Coalville, UT

Another day, another 400 miles.

So a lovely sunset in Kansas (2 days ago).


To fog on the road in the morning yesterday...


To SNOW?!! Yep this morning at Cheyenne it started frickin SNOWING. I was outside tending to the turd, wondering why my hands were numb with the cold, when THIS started.... flakes nearly as big as your palm.


Ahh but it didn't end there did it. We started the turd up to warm it up. No dramas.... but then, it wouldn't go under throttle. A mild panic, some calls, and some pumping of throttle to loosen possibly/probably frozen/jammed linkage, and the beast was rolling.....

So some of the sights on our morning's ascent up 8000+ feet....
(Note: if you're ever planning on doing this, put 91 octane in the tank. Trust me)



But from that, to this!


Here's a shot of Marimokkori, our mascot from Hokkaido... he's riding up front to bring us luck.


So this is what we've been seeing through Wyoming and Utah



And finally, approaching our current location - Coalville, UT.....


This evening I caulked the leaky vent on the roof, and the leaky window on the side near the bed.

We then cooked some Angus steakburgers on the lil' Weber.
Man they were good. Who woulda known they were frozen just a few minutes previously.

Oh it's 21:33. Nearly time for bed. Why did we do this? Because we promised you a Mercedes BENZ!!!!!!! Grr there's a set of VERY annoying ads for the new C-Class Benz here. It needs to die.

Tomorrow we head for Idaho. Land of the potato.

We're around 1000 miles short of Whistler now, and have driven around 2500.

Rockin.

Cheyenne, WY

Well here we are close to the famous "set" of Stargate SG-1 - the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain complex.

Actually I'm only guessing that we're near here, but we're certainly near Cheyenne.

It's 06:45 at the moment - we're going to try and get going a bit earlier as we're going to be crossing the mountains and I imagine it's going to take longer, and be slower going.

Sorry no pics today, the window that leaked and made the bedsheets wet occupied a bit of time last night.

Grr.

We're still in Kansas, Toto!!

Tonight we're coming to you live from Oakley, Kansas. First a few pics so you don't get bored...

Of course, thanks to Blogger, they are all backwards. Never mind.

This is the sky this morning - the clouds were awesome....




I'm guessing these are water pumps or something?? Anyone who can tell us gets a prize.


Kansas is called the Sunflower State - so ... here's some sunflowers!


I believe this is Turkey Red Wheat - something else Kansas is famous for.


This is the view from the cockpit this morning. Let me tell you it wasn't helped by the fact the WINDSCREEN WIPERS WERE NOT WORKING!!!!!


A house. Y'all.


Here are some horses. The significance of which will become apparent shortly.


Now THIS is a sign we are familiar with. Yesterday at around 3pm, the turd decided to break down, in the middle of frickin' nowheresville, Kansas....



A quick diagnosis by Bohannan Motorsport indicated that it was probably the ignition coil. We rang for a tow, just in case, and I didn't go for the parts - as we were told the truck was 45 minutes away.

To cut a LONG story short (insurance sent the people to the wrong place, our local mobile phone died, and many other challenges), 8 hours later we were still looking at the horses and the sign. No parts, no truck, no love. We finally got a tow around 10:45pm, and were 50 miles back the wrong way.

This morning we were sleeping in the turd outside the mechanics. They looked at the turd, and after an hour or two and USD275 - it turned out to be the coil. ARGH!!!

Bah. Anyway. Yesterday sucked.

This is from St. Louis I believe.








Now who's this handsome guy in the pilot's seat?


The lord was with us. Or was that the sun. I'm not sure.


Tomorrow is Colorado. Wish us luck.

Update coming soon...... with pix!

There's no place like home.......there's no place like home.

Click your red shiny shoes together three times and you would be in Kansas too, like us. Well almost. We are in Kansas city on the Missouri side of the border. Let me tell you, there is F**K all in the state of Missouri.. Just grass, some grain and a barn or too if you're lucky. You know the scenery is dull when you find yourselves asking, 'is that the truck that passed us earlier'?

We've driven across three states today, starting in Kentucky, Illinois - (Hello St Louis!) and finally Missouri, off to Kansas (state) tomorrow and if we are lucky we'll make it to Colorado by the evening.

A few problems with our vehicles today. The brake buddy drained the Jeep's battery and we still can't start it (will try again in the morning) Air con #2 in the motorhome isn't working but we're hoping it's because we're resting on an angle in the rv park. The bathroom skylight is falling out of the roof so every time we hit a bump, bits of ceiling fall out.

Highlights were the burnt out truck that caused a minor accident, the St Louis downtown area and getting upgraded to a full hook up site at the rv park for free.

That is all, luv Kat

On the road - Day 1 and 2

Well finally everything was done, and with many butterflies in my stomach we set off from Pembroke Pines....

Driving the turd, and towing the Jeep sure was a challenge - not helped by the fairly high winds which make the whole arrangement swerve. I'd read online that the trick was to not over-correct, and I'm glad I had read that, otherwise I swear something bad might have happened. Maybe not, but you never know.

A tip for anyone doing this - when large trucks pass you, they push you quite hard away from their slipstream, and you need to time a little turn in as they are about to pass....

We only left the house at around 2pm, and there was no way were were going to make it to Brunswick (an accident where a truck's rear wheels had fallen off didn't help either) - so we stopped at Saint Augustine instead.

About 2 hours away from Saint Augustine, the fuckin' generator stopped because the amount of fuel in the tank went below 1/4. This morning it refused to start up again. Not sure what that's all about but it will require further investigation.

By then it was dark, and we had to unhook the Jeep because I made a bad turn and had to back the turd up. Grrr...

A quick meal, a shower and an argument later, we hit the sack.


This morning we got up at 7:30 and managed to get on the road by 10, including a quick stop for $200 worth of fuel....

Today was kind of uneventful, but ... long. I'm really REALLY tired at this point. We're about 20 miles south of Atlanta, GA at a place called McDonough. It's kind of quiet, and a bit weird. Oh well.

I think we've caught up a few miles from our couple of days delay, but am a bit worried that we'll have to slow the pace down, but I think we'll figure that out tomorrow...

Anyway.. tomorrow we're going to aim to get close to St. Louis. From where we are now, there's around 2900 miles to go, which means we'd have to do over 400 miles per day to get there by Sunday. I'm thinking we'll be a couple of days late.....

Until next thrilling update. We'll try to take some pictures too......

Edit: Click here to see where we are tonight...

Imminent Departure

Well folks, it's VERY nearly time to leave.

Just a quick repair to the fresh water supply hose, some gas, and we're off.

So I guess no more updates for a bit.

If you want to ring us, our new mobile number is: Plus One Nine Five Four Three Zero Five Zero Eight Seven Two.

Wish us luck troops.

Out.

Gakky Gak Gak!

So this morning I got new brake lines manufactured. They're fuckin' heaps more badass than those Skyjacker pieces of shit, and tested to 3000psi. FUCK YEAH.

Anyway.

So we didn't make it today. You know. Shit happens. Tomorrow morning we're leaving!

I will post our new USA mobile number shortly.

Off to the drags!

Laterz.

Ahh for fucks sake...

It's been another long week.

We're repainted the entire Jeep, fitted carpet, blah blah blah.

We finally sorted out the ignition issues yesterday.

All was progressing well for our departure tomorrow (yes another day late).

Until this evening, when we discovered one of the brand new brake lines we installed has somehow gotten crushed....

There's $90 of frickin' braided Skyjacker brake lines up in smoke. Ripper.

Fingers crossed we can get another set tomorrow morning and get them fitted and get out of here. Wish us luck.

Out.