Here we go Loopty Loop, Here we go Loopty La - the Davis Loop

You got to be KIDDING! It's already past Labor Day. The year is flying by.

We took a break and hauled the camper down to Fort Davis, Tx to meet Marvin & Jeannie Burrows for a weekend of fun and relaxation. We took off about Friday at noon after dealing with UPS all morning. I had ordered a new fifth wheel hitch, a trailer mate,

and it was supposed to be delivered Friday before the end of the day. Checking UPS's website the tracking number showed that it was still in Albuquerque. It didn't show it ever leaving but it had arrived there Thursday evening. I called UPS Friday morning to make sure if it had arrived or not. At first they had not unloaded the truck and said they'd call me back. The UPS lady called me back about 10:30am and told me that it hadn't been on the truck so it would be Tuesday before it would be delivered. Well, that was a relief because I didn't want it to sit on my porch all weekend if we left before it was delivered.

So, we got everything together and packed. Ran the few errands we needed to take care of and left for Fort Davis about noon. We decided we'd go to Arkansas Junction and have lunch at Monty's Grill. They don't seem to be quite as busy as they used to be but their food is still very good. Patsi and I split a green chile cheeseburger and an order of fries.Got to visit with some old friends, Skip and Joe Dunn. I think we finally got on the road about 1:30 or so. I had played with the computer on my truck and was running another program than I ordinarily run for towing. It pulled a little better and got a little better mileage. I think my computer readout showed 13.7 mpg. Normally it is around 11.5 mpg. So, I think the tinkering with the settings was worth it.

We arrived at Macmillen RV park in Fort Davis about 5:30 pm. Still plenty of daylight to set up and relax a little. We checked to see if the wifi worked ok and it was working really good. I check my email and wouldn't you know it...UPS delivered my hitch in front of my garage at 2:21pm. I was fit to be tied. I was going to call them but we didn't have cell service. Plus I didn't have a clue as to who to call at the moment. I finally cooled off some and Patsi suggested we drive to Alpine and see if we might happen to get a signal there. So we drove to Alpine but no signal there either. But they did have a grocery store that sold wine, so we bought a couple of bottles of wine. And they had a pay phone outside. When is the last time you used a pay phone?? It's the first time I've used one in many years. I wasn't even sure if they still had pay phones.

Anyway I gave my good friend, J D Clayton a call. He has a pickup with a tommy lift and asked if he could do me a BIG favor. He said he'd take care of it....and he did. A BIG Thank You to you, JD. I really appreciate it.

Drove back to Fort Davis and visited with some of our camping neighbors til Marv and Jeannie arrived. Marvin had to work til 3:00 or so and they didn't get in til 10pm CDT.

Saturday morning we went to Alpine for the Balloon Fiesta. It wasn't quite on the same level as the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta as they only had 10 balloons and 2 ultralights. They launched the 2 ultralights and 2 balloons made it up. It wasn't very windy but I think the breeze was blowing in the wrong direction and would take them over some hostile territory of a less than friendly rancher.

Me with the girls - Marv had to take the pic.

 Patsi, Jeannie, & Marvin

 Marvin, Patsi, Jeannie

 Balloons with ultralight in background

 Utralight coming in for landing

We ate lunch at a place called McGoo's right across from McDonalds. It was nearly noon but we all had breakfast. I had Huevos Rancheros and they were good. Not quite as good as the New Mexican huevos rancheros with the fantastic green chile sauce that you can only find in northern and southern NM. But, all in all it was a very good breakfast at lunch. Went shopping at a few places in Alpine and bought a few odds and ends.

Drove back to Fort Davis to the campground. We cut one of the watermelons that we brought and chowed down on it. After getting up early and traveling to Alpine we were tired out so, Patsi and I took a nap. I think Marvin and Jeannie did a few things to their motorhome, cleaning and rearranging, etc. We grilled some chicken, burgers, and hot dogs and had a great dinner. Jeannie had made some carrot cake cookies that were out of this world good.

We did the Star Party at the McDonald Observatory about 18 miles west of Fort Davis. A real nice drive from the campground to the observatory.

Sundial Court - Entrance to the gift shop

It was a night after a full moon so the stars weren't exceptionally bright but we got to view Saturn, M11, M7, M17, and the moon. The moon view was really spectacular.

There were about 400+ people at the star party. 

I'm sure it would be a lot nicer with a smaller group.

 Marv & Jeannie's motorhome, our camper & PU in background

 Our campsite

Good level camp spots

The surrounding country was very green due to some recent rains. But the rains also brought a great crop of goatheads. The campground and everywhere else we went had an enormous amount of goatheads growing. We had to be very careful not to track them into the campers. It isn't much fun to step on a sticker barefooted walking around in the camper.

Sunday we drove into town to have breakfast with Marvin while Jeannie was at mass. We had breakfast at The Drugstore, a historical building and business in Fort Davis. Later after breakfast and mass we drove to Marfa to go to the USO Gun Show and Marfa Lights Festival. Marvin drooled over a few guns while the ladies waited outside. the Marfa Lights Festival was really diminished from the years we were vendors here. I couldn't believe how few vendors they had. I guess the economy has really affected the vending business. Sure glad we aren't doing it anymore. It was a lot of work. On the way back we drove the Davis Loop, a 74 mile loop through the Davis Mountains. A very scenic drive. If you get a chance to travel it, I would highly recommend it.

Labor Day....Monday....Break camp, pack up and head back to the homestead and the HEAT! It was a 102 degrees when we got to Pecos. Marvin and Jeannie stopped at Balmorhea State Park to check out the pool. It is the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool, which covers 1.75 acres and stays at 72–76 degrees year round. The pool is open daily. Fed by San Solomon Springs, 22 – 28 million gallons of water flow through it each day. At 25 feet deep, and with a capacity of more than 3.5 million gallons, the water in the pool is replenished 7-9 times daily. Now that's a lot of water. We didn't stop because we'd been there and I wanted to get back and try out the new 5th wheel hitch before it got dark.

JD brought the hitch by shortly after we got back home. I had already removed the old hitch so all I had to do was unpack and install it. Patsi and I took a short drive out on the Plains highway because the road is really rough. The difference was really amazing. It now feels more like your just riding in a pickup instead of a bone jarring truck pulling a trailer. It should be easier on the 5h wheel also, a lot smoother ride.

Well, it sure has been hot and it was really hard to get back in the grove. Yesterday I reorganized the possum belly on the 5th wheel so it should be a little easier to find things. Worked on the old van today trying to get the body off. I did get the front end removed so I'll be able to remove the engine and tranny fairly easy now.

I'll leave the center section for an extension of the 41 Chevy COE cab. The rest of the body I'll remove. I'll save the back end with the doors to reattach to the extension part. Right now I just need to get the frame ready so I can move it out of the shop. I want to get started back on the New Mexi-Can and I need more room in the shop. I've got to rebuild all the windows and I have to have room to spread them out and take them apart.

So, until next time......

Overthehump

You can never get enough of what you don’t really need.

Cool, Refreshing Colorado Mountains...

Cool

Colorado

Cool

Colorado


Cool

Colorado - Kind of cools a person down after a long hot dry summer in the high desert plains of NM. After a very hot May and June being pretty hot, the first part of July wasn't really too bad. But it sure was nice to get up to Colorado into the mountains where it was a very nice 70+ degrees during the day and low 50's at night.

Patsi's family reunion was the 28th so we loaded up and headed out on the 27th to meet her cousin Donna and her husband, Kirk at their property near Hartsel, Co. We pulled our camper and 4 wheelers up there to camp out and have a little relaxin' time.

Here's our camp.

Kirk relaxing in front of their T@b camper. A really neat little camper

Donna waiting on breakfast.

Beautiful view

We got the trailer parked and set up Friday the 27th and decided to go into Denver to stay and Kirk and Donna's house so we wouldn't have so far to drive the next morning to Fort Collins for the reunion. We had made a big pot of asado for the reunion and went off and left it in the camper when we left for Denver. So, we had more than enough food for the week after the reunion.

The reunion was very nice and we had a great visit with everyone that was there and as usual there was more than enough food. So it wasn't too bad that we forgot the asado.

Saturday evening we drove back to the campsite. It was still daylight as we passed through Manitou Springs where the fire had ravaged the hillside right up to the edge of town and the highway. If the fire had jumped the highway, many businesses would have been demolished. Some of the properties on the north side of the highway were not so lucky. A few were saved though.

It was raining as we drove back to camp and it rained every afternoon that we were there. Monday evening it rained so hard we were wondering if we were going to be washed off the side of the mountain. The next day we visited with the neighbor across the street, who just happened to be from Roswell, NM, and he said it had rained only 1.75". From the sounds on the roof of the camper and the length of time it rained, I would have sworn it was in excess of 3". But it did rain hard enough in Manitou Springs for them to have a mud slide and ended up with 5' of mud on the highway. Luckily they got it all cleared off by the time we went into town Wednesday evening for a night of BBQ and Bluegrass at a local restaurant in Colorado City.

Harry Harada, Patsi and Donna's cousin, came up Tuesday morning with his Vista Cruiser and bulldogs to camp out a day or two. So, we sort of had a Harada campout reunion for a couple of days. 

This is Harry and Bubba. Babe is out of the pic to the right, guess she was being camera shy. I thought I got some pictures of Babe but somehow I must have missed her. Bubba is 80 lbs large and Babe ain't far behind. But Bubba is the largest of the two. Harry has a handful.

Our camp with Harry's Vista Cruiser set up.

Getting ready for the 1st annual Harada Fishing Tournament!

We arrived a short time after they had started fishing to take pictures and Donna was already through fishing. She'd already caught her limit of 2. Kirk and Harry still fishing hard, but not having much luck.

Harry looking for that big one!

And the Winner Was.....

Drum roll.........DONNA!!!! She ended up catching her limit and catching the biggest one. I think by the time they got them all dressed out they were at least 24". LOL Not sure if Kirk or Harry caught the other one. My memory has lapsed since then. All kidding aside they were a pretty good size and they were awfully good for dinner that evening. Nothing better than fresh rainbow trout.

The area we were camped in is called Wildwood Recreation area. It is a development that has been around for 30 years or so. We looked at some property there and seriously considered buying a lot. The only down side is that it is 10 hours away. The area is beautiful and peaceful. Lots of great views, fishing on the property and also nearby at Spinney and 11 mile reservoirs (both within 15-20 minutes away). They also have RV spots with hookups, a dump station, and restrooms with showers for dry campers. It is also backed up to the national forest with miles of forest roads and trails to explore on 4 wheelers or jeeps. Very beautiful and nice area.

This is one of the lots (4 acres) that we looked at. It had some trees plus plenty of level areas for camping or building.

Another 2 acre lot for sale.

Good view from one of the lots we liked.

Getting ready to ride again.

This piece only had one tree but had some very nice views.

Headed to the national forest to do some exploring.

Group picture. Stump was our tripod.

Nice little camping area just inside the national forest. We had a picnic there one afternoon. Very neat area with large rocks and nice trees.

Drove into Colorado City for BBQ & bluegrass music Wednesday night. Drove past the mudslide area in Manitou Springs. They did have the highway all cleaned off. If they get a lot of rain they'll probably have some more problems with mud slides. We got to the Front Range BBQ restaurant and it was packed. I guess more people had the same idea we had for BBQ & bluegrass and after a wait of about 45 minutes we got a table, but it wasn't out in the courtyard where the music was. But, we didn't really care at that point because we were just hungry. We did get to listen to some music after dinner.

Thursday we packed up and drove up to Denver to stay at the Jefferson county fairgrounds. The campground at the fairgrounds were packed. We thought they were having something really big, but it turned out that a lot of people use this RV campground for a base camp. It is really conveniently located on the northwest side of Denver and is convenient for things to do in the city or in the nearby mountains. The only downside of the campground is they don't have sewer hookups. Once you get full you have to go to the dump station. Luckily we weren't staying that long so we just dumped our tanks on our way out.

They were having a RV sale on the grounds. We looked at some toy haulers but couldn't come to the conclusion that a toy hauler was the way to go.

As you recall my grinder died a week or so ago so I went to Harbor Freight and bought some tools and supplies I needed. I ended up buying 4 cheap grinders to replace my one old one. If they last for a while I'll just throw them away when one goes bad. Hopefully they'll last a little while.

Friday we went to Kirk and Donna's house for dinner where Kirk served up the most delicious filet mignon with roasted corn on the cob and salad. Fantastic dinner and great evening.

Stacey and Keri Harada, Harry's daughters had invited us to come to The Fort in Morrison, Co, Saturday for a surprise birthday dinner for her dad. It was an super unique place, a replica of the historical adobe fort at Bent, Co, a fur trading post on the Santa Fe Trail. They must have kept the dinner very secret because Harry was surprised to see us and everyone else they'd invited. We had a great dinner and a fantastic visit with family again. It was a honor to have been invited to this celebration of Harry's 71st birthday. 

We had 10 marvelous days of visiting with Patsi's relatives, at the reunion, camping with Kirk, Donna & Harry and then also more visits while we were in Denver. And to top off the end of the trip we spent a night in Albuquerque and got to visit with Patsi's brother Stan and his wife Suki.

Thanks to Kirk and Donna for inviting us up to camp on their property and for their hospitality. Thanks to Stacey and Keri for inviting us to celebrate their dad's birthday.

A fantastic vacation....

Until next time....

Overthehump

The Day My Grinder Died

I've been working on the 4954 Suburbillac (that's actually a 1949 Chevy Suburban with a 1954 front fenders and grill, a 1970 Cadillac sub frame grafted underneath, and a 500 cubic inch Cadillac powerplant), therefore I call it a 4954 Suburbillac. Been working on the fenders and rear doors. The rear fenders are getting extended out 3" and the rear doors have some dents I've been trying to beat out. I found out that I'm definitely not very good at body work. Hopefully I can get everything looking half way decent with my limited skills.

 I've also got a 1988 1 ton Dodge Van in the shop that I'm dismantling so I can use the front clip and frame for the 1941 Chevy COE that we're building to pull the New Mexi-Can Streamline trailer. I have to stretch the frame on the Dodge but haven't figured out the exact dimensions yet. I'm planning on using part of the van body to build a sleeper cab onto the 41 COE, if I can get it to look like it fits. This is probably going to take more expertise than I have at the moment, but I'm going to give it a try. Wish me luck!

I haven't done a lot to the trailer this summer since it has been so hot outside. I did finally get the belly pan cut out from underneath the frame. There was plenty of dirt and dust, wadded up fiberglass insulation, along with several rat's nest that had been built underneath the floor over the years. You might say it was pretty gross and really dirty. I'm glad that part is out of the way. I still have to drop the old black water tank, but thankfully everything that was left in the old tank has finally dried up and hopefully it won't but such a mess when I get ready to cut the brackets out.

Anyway, back to the death of my grinder. I've really put this little 4 1/2" grinder through the mill here lately, not to mention that it's about 10+ years old anyway. So you might say I've got my moneys worth out of it. But I was beginning to cut a 1 inch bolt and the grinder started shuttering and making all sorts of racket, so I shut it down. I tried it later and it seemed to have smoothed out but as soon as I started to apply some pressure to the grinding wheel it began to holler at me again.

Yesterday I took it apart to check it out. It was easy to get apart but it took me about 5 tries to get everything in the right order to get it put back together. I cleaned it up and added new grease but one of the bearings is shot, so it is still dead. No resurrection at this time. Maybe later if I get ambitious and decide to replace the bearing.

So, it's off to Harbor Freight to get some more grinders. This time I'll buy 3-4 so I can have different wheels on each grinder and maybe have a backup to jump in if one of them quits prematurely. I priced the grinders at Harbor Freight and you can buy one as cheap as $20 and the expensive one is $40. I think my Dewalt that I bought a few years ago cost somewhere around $100 bucks?? I checked on the net for parts. Can't get a bearing, at least not from Dewalt. You have to buy the whole gearcase assembly and it is $51.97 + shipping and tax. What a deal! I think I'll just buy some new grinders and let the old one fade away to grinder heaven.

I've had a few people comment on our nice looking Suburban. I assume that some are looking at the picture at the top of the blog and they think that this is my finished product (below).

Sorry, this one is not ours. I hope ours turns out looking this nice and it is something I'll strive for, but unfortunately ours is not even close to this as of now. Hopefully it will be but I've got a lot of work to do before it be even close to this.

Here is another one that someone did a very nice job on.

I don't think I'd go for the low rider effect, but the guy did a good job on the restoration. So, I still have a lot of elbow grease to put into the restoring/rebuilding of ours. 

And......at the moment this is what ours looks like:

This is a far cry from a vehicle that has been finished by the pros and with an unlimited budget such as this one:

Hopefully in the future our 4954 Suburbillac will remotely resemble the ones pictured above that are in their finished states. But at the present I'm still working on ours and have a long way to go. Not to mention the other projects I'm still working on....1968 Streamline travel trailer, 1941 Chevy COE and my shop which I'm constantly upgrading and changing.

Throw in a vacation or two and it really slows a person down as far as making a lot of progress. And we just recently had a 10 day trip to Fort Collins, Colorado for Patsi's family reunion. I'll write about this trip in a separate post. 

So....Until next time.

Overthehump

Organization, planning, and other stuff.

Been a while since I've posted here, but Patsi or I haven't been sittin' on our behinds. Patsi has been busy with her Stampin' Up stuff, making cards and having classes, plus working in the garden, yard and flower beds.

I've been busy trying to get the shop organized, which I think is a never ending job. But, I did get it cleaned out, straightened up and had room enough to get my old project from many, many moons ago moved from my old shop to the new shop. That is to say, I got the Suburbillac, a 1949 Chevy Suburban that I grafted a front & rear clip from a 1970 Cadillac with a 500 cubic inch motor, moved into the shop. The old suburban had been crunched in the left front and I didn't have another fender to replace it so I used fenders, hood and grill from an old 1954 Chevy PU. So now I guess you would say it is a 4954 Suburbillac, or at least that's what I'll call it. The picture above on the blog template is a 1954 Suburban that one rodder had built. I thought he did really nice job and it kind of gave me an idea of how we'd like ours to turn out.

So, now I'm presently working on the New Mexi-Can, the Suburbillac, and sort of gathering stuff for the 41 Chevy COE build. I think I have most of the stuff (or at least the big major pieces) that I'll need for the COE build, but I still have time to change my mind or change directions.

It took me nearly a whole week to get the shop cleaned up, rearranged and organized so I could work. It still isn't the best but it's a whole lot better than it was. Everything that was in the middle got put up and stashed somewhere out of the way, so I got the middle cleaned out. That allows me to have the suburbillac in the middle of the shop and I can still park my pickup and Patsi can park her car, or we can leave my PU out and move the New Mexi-Can inside or start on the COE. For right now we'll just keep parking the PU in the shop.

Above you can see the old suburban project. Yep, there's still a lot of work to do. Yep, I enjoy it. When I get tired or bored working on a project I have plenty others to interest me and take up my time. The 1954 grill (the two toned primer job) was smashed in pretty good on the middle nose piece. I had to hammer it out and re work it. I'm sure it could have been done more professionally, but with my limited knowledge of body work, I think it turned out OK. 

Ok, you body working professionals out there don't give me a hard time with my technique. This doesn't look very pretty right now, but it did turn out pretty good for an amateur (check out the 1st 2 pics). I wish I could have found my camera earlier and taken pics before I started, because the nose was totally smashed in about 2". I got it hammered out and pretty much the basic original shape. I had a tube of body filler that I used first and later found that the body putty that you mix is much easier to work with.

The nose piece wasn't the only piece that was dented up. The only piece I didn't have to work on is the top piece with Chevrolet stamped into it. Pretty fortunate there because I don't know if I could have handled trying to get the letters back into shape. LOL

I've still got plenty of body work to do. The passenger side fender needs some work for some owees that it got somewhere along the line. And the back doors (as pictured below) will need some major attention.

Also widening the rear fenders about 3". Was going to use 71 Caddy tail lights, but haven't made up my mind if I really like those. 

The passenger side door has the most damage of the two doors. But they both have a fairly big dent where they either backed into something or was rear ended by some driver not paying attention to what they were doing. From the looks of the damage I would guess they backed into something since it didn't really crunch the whole rear end.

Besides working on the shop reorganization, the suburbillac, I also taped out the New Mexi-Can dimensions onto the shop floor so I could play around with floor plan scenarios. 

Here I have the bed , shower (on the left), and toilet (on the right) laid out with the bed in the rear and the bathroom/shower over the axles. Originally the bathroom was in the rear. Some of the purist will give me a hard time about not going back with original, but we're rebuilding this to use, for us and we want it functional and useful for us. So, it won't be going back to original condition. 

Counter with sink (left top), stove (top right) and storage/closet (lower left), and frig (lower right) is over and forward of the front tire of the dual axles.

Nice shot of the toe of my boot. LOL

 

This is the front of the trailer where the sofa/fold out bed will be. Not sure if we'll use a fold out bed or not but it's an idea we can work with. We might just go with a built in sofa with some storage drawers underneath.

The above two shots are different views from the front of the trailer. We think this layout will work best for us.

That's about it as far as an update goes. I've still got plenty of work to do and often wonder if I'll ever get through with it all? But, as they say, the journey is the fun part, not the destination. So in the meanwhile I'm enjoying the journey. It keeps me busy, with things I like to dream about, work on and generally have a good time.

Gotta go for now, crawl back into my den and see what I can get done today. 

Sooo, until next time............

Have a great day.

Overthehump