Mountains of New Mexico coming from Three Rivers;
sunrise in a Texas truck stop lot. |
Day Sailer's true maiden voyage was over to central Florida
and back - a total of 2750 miles, then over into New Mexico for the second
part of the trip. Total was just under 4300 miles and the good ship performed very well. Much of the
traveling & overnighting was cold weather, down to 24 degrees. The
systems worked as they should have and we were comfy inside. Of course at
these temperatures if you lose your heat, you're screwed in ways you're
not when it's, say, 44 degrees. So vigilance & preparation are key. |
Tabasco world headquarters; a religious pilgrimage
of sorts. |
Mechanically it was flawless except for one clattering
hiccup in Louisiana when I thought I collapsed a lifter. After breakfast
on restart it smoothed back out & quieted down. Must have been a speck
in the oil plugging up a passage for a few minutes... was fine the rest of
the trip. As a precaution I drove it in to a well-recommended local shop.
Clean bill of health - temperature never varied, oil pressure never fell,
drive the hell out of it - it's fine. Ok! But that's it. Other than that
it never missed a beat, running up to around 70 on the highway. |
Road scenes... New Mexico |
Gas mileage sucked but that's to be expected; it's often the
price of vehicular self-sufficiency. We averaged in the 9s whether at 55
or 65. Headwinds on the way home took us into the 8s. I'm going to adjust
the secondaries in the carb to hold off a little before they open and give
it fresh plugs, cap & rotor. With two, fully stocked and a full tank
of gas it weighs just under 7000 pounds. Used a quart of oil every 700
miles or so, and that's mainly leaky valve cover gaskets. It seeps a
little tranny & rear end fluid too; not bad though. A drop on the lot
after a few hours. |
Views from two temples ~ a 1916 church way back in
the NM mountains, and Day Sailer somewhere on the highway...
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Inside the only issues were rattly doors which we braced in
the footwells, one blown fuse in the 12v outlet, and a screw coming out of
the passenger's seat armrest. Things loosened up a little after two passes
on Louisiana's highway system, which is like hundreds of miles of badly
maintained old side street joined every 50 feet by expansion joints and
driven over at 65 miles an hour. I'm a vegetarian but if you're not and no
convincing will get you to consider it, please eat more Cajun seafood
because evidently Louisiana needs the money to fund their road work.
Sheesh. |
Camping at Three Rivers, miles in the mountains back
off the road from the petroglyph site. What a view. Spent three days up
there. |
I'm thinking an air dam and the tweaks mentioned (and
keeping it around 60) should get me back into double digits MPG wise.
Ultimately it needs a 4th gear, by a 700R4 trans swap or Gear Vendors
unit, or just a much higher (lower numerically) set of rearend gears. All
big bucks, but all worth a few MPG. I'd really like to see the 13 or 14 I
got out of Blue Moon, my 72 Ford. But it had a smaller front, smaller
engine, smaller carburetor, and simply wouldn't DO seventy. Not worried
about recouping the money, just concerned with my being a pig. But like I
say this can't be done in a Prius, you know? 13's not bad for driving an
efficiency apartment around. But 9? Gotta work on that. |
Hiking Three Rivers. The tiny arrow? That's Day Sailer. The vibe up here
surrounded by the rock paintings, a long-ago people's connection &
communion to That Greater, was intense... and the view beyond cannot be
fully captured.
|
Replaced the tires in Florida. The tires on it were showing
some fatigue after the first leg and I knew some of the rattles was from
one of them slightly out of round. Tread was good but it was time, so on
went four new Falken 10-plies. After being noisy & squirrely (new
tires) they wore in over the first few hundred miles and are GREAT truck
tires. I'm blessed I could swing this, most of my life's first half was spent on
second-hand tires. And 90% of the time I support small independent businesses,
but the tires on the housetruck won't be "local" very often so I
sucked it up & Discount Tired my ride. I now have warranteed tires
& replacement guarantee for 50,000 miles wherever I go. Which eases
the conscience somewhat. |
Scotty Brown's bus ("Scotty's Bus"), Alamogordo NM.
This became a song on the "Day Sailer" album I wrote &
recorded on the trip. Amazes me how moving simple acts of devotion are;
the power there once the fancy stained glass is stripped away. |
One place we visited was Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing
in Ocala, Florida. Another was the Tobasco Sauce plant in Avery Island,
Louisiana. |
An intelligent, educated populace scares the crap
out of politicians... some places, not so scared. |
On the road when it's cold, the heavy double curtain gets
slipped behind the passenger seat. This holds heat in the cab (which heats
mostly by sunshine - a rolling greenhouse effect) and forms what we call
"The Shroud of Tourin'." |
Two offerings ~ one of soul, one of sound. |
The second leg through New Mexico was solo, just the VanDweller
~ Noble Ship of Freedom ~ Highway trifecta. Anytime I hit the highway
and open myself up to the universe and the thin thread that leads from one
situation to another, it becomes some kind of spiritual quest. The "That
Greater than I"-ness bubbles to the surface every time. Perhaps
it's because the road is a sacred place for me, and I feel more sacred and
more connected when I'm on it, between the yesterdays and tomorrows of my
life. It's there I find peace. And I am led to sacred spaces by something
I can't explain. |
Not all step vans are so lucky (deserted town in West
Texas); neither are some vending trailers. Could I have those fries extra
crispy, please? (Kent, TX) |
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Door to the churchhouse in the mountains. |
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Waaay along a flat desert 2-lane in NM there was a
tire standing in a dirt area beside the road. Like a porthole, the view
through it was magic. |
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Sunrise on the road... |
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More to come... |
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PART 8
