Moab Car Show

The Moab Car Show featured an eclectic collection of classic and highly customized vehicles. Here's a small sampling of the ones I found interesting...

Stormy almost traded his Jeep Rubicon for this Buick rock crawler

It appears the owner could not make up his mind as to what he wanted

The perfect vehicle for clearing out those pesky "trail pluggers" ahead of you

Way too many gear shifters

Tusher Tunnel / 3D / Spring Canyon

Jack led a caravan of four jeeps over "3D" to the Tusher Tunnel and then Spring Canyon...

Intrepid explorers

Light at the end of the tunnel

Stormy testing the limits of the Rubicon

View from 3D overlook

Spring Canyon

Here's a five minute video of the drive down the canyon...

Mineral Road Switchbacks

We drove BLM 129 (Mineral Road) from Highway 313 (Canyonlands Road) to the Colorado River. The views from the switchbacks going down the mesa are impressive...

Fruit Bowl

A while back, I came across an awesome 4K drone video of slack liners walking across the Fruit Bowl, so we drove the jeeps out there to see it first hand. Unfortunately, the site was empty and the lines had been removed but the scenery was still great...

Corona Arch Trail

We hiked 1.5 miles back to the Corona Arch, a massive 140 foot tall rock formation. The weather was just perfect; mild temperatures and a cloudless sky...

That's Bowtie Arch (left) & Corona Arch (right) in the background

Michele & Sunny training for Mount Everest

Years ago, a pilot named Tim Martin flew his airplane through this arch
(click here to see him flying)

Long Canyon

Here's a video clip Sunny shot last Tuesday of us coming down Long Canyon. The highlight of the trail is driving under a humongous rock that fell across the road some years ago...

Hells Gate

Here's a video of Preston and Greg climbing Hells Gate, an optional obstacle on Hells Revenge...

Who says there are no "real men" left

Update: Greg & Merry's video of an old man in a RZR 900 XC coming up Hells Gate...

Wings @ Moab Brewery

Once again, our group takes advantage of 25 cent wings at the Moab Brewery...

Gooseneck State Park

Much to our surprise and delight, Preston & Lois, Cory & Cheryl and Greg & Merry from the Arizonian RV Park were already at Gooseneck State Park in southeast Utah when we arrived. A great time was had getting caught up in the afternoon and then sitting in front of a log fire and star gazing that night.

These are professional RVers, do not try this at home

View from my RV

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde is huge. It protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings...

Cascade Canyon

Sunny, Stormy and I took the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad up to Cascade Canyon and back. I had originally wanted to do the Soaring Tree Top Adventures, a series of 27 different zip lines that range from 56 to 1,400 feet in length but it was not open for the season as was the ride to Silverton. We had a perfect weather day which made for great photos and videos...

Very Large Array

If you saw the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster, then you have seen the Very Large Array (VLA), a group of huge radio telescopes about 50 miles west of Socorro, NM. Fortunately, I had my friends, Sunny & Stormy Weathers, with me to explain the highly technical aspects of the VLA and related equipment...

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the trip was a fly-by from ET and friends...

Yuma Territorial Prison

If today's prisoners think they have it tough, they should have spent some time at the Yuma Territorial Prison when it was operational. The extremely small cells housing multiple inmates with only a bucket for sanitation must have been insufferable in the heat of summer...

Although the prisoners called it the "Hell Hole", ironically, the citizens of Yuma called it the "Country Club on the Colorado" as the prison had more modern amenities than most homes in town. Click on photos to enlarge.

Here's a photo of a typical cell block...

However, for those inmates that broke the rules, there were "dark cells" which allowed no light in at all and were pitch black. Now, if that was not bad enough, rumor has it that the guards would occasionally toss in a rattlesnake or scorpion. Yikes!

Lastly, the phrase "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" must have had this woman in mind...

Boondocking

Camping in the desert is surprisingly peaceful and relaxing. I am staying overnight in the BLM's La Posa area south of Quartzsite. My nearest neighbor is maybe a half mile away and the only sounds, other than my snoring, are the wind and an occasional airplane. If it was not for that restraining order from the American Society for the Prevention of Blindness, I could have run naked through the cactus (there's a mental image that's going to haunt you for a while). Here's the view through the RV's rear window...

Another reason for staying here is the opportunity to see how well my two Honda generators hooked up in parallel run an air conditioner. I bought a Honda EU2000i Companion back in the early 2000s for my trip to Alaska. Even when I had the Fuzion toyhauler which had its own generator, I would use the Honda at night to run the TV and charge the battery because it was so much quieter and sips gas. However, 2000 watts is not enough for a 15,000 BTU AC which I understand needs 3500 watts so I purchased a regular Honda EU2000i. By running both units with Honda's parallel cabling, I now get 4000 watts which I am happy to report runs the AC just fine...