Salt Lake City

Well, after 3,500 miles, the Wanderbus broke down. We're currently on an extended stay in Portland, Oregon, while we wait for it to be fixed. We'll tell you more about that in a bit. First, a story about cold weather.

We left Moab on a hot, sunny day. Our next stop would be Salt Lake City, Utah. I have always been curious about what the city looked like since I hear its praise from tons of people back East, many of whom are avid/fanatical skiers.

The ride through the mountains proved to be ever colder. The temperature in the first 100 miles dropped by more than 15 degrees. After winding up the mountain roads to about 6,000 feet we encountered snow flakes and a mild storm. I was driving, still in my shorts and t-shirt. The heat was still disconnected from the summer's RV conversion, and frankly, I never expected to get snow on our trip. At least I was praying for it not to snow. I personally like snow, but our oil pump does not like pumping oil the consistency of lard. Was this going to be the end of our trip north? Thankfully we had just enough fuel to arrive within the city limits of Salt Lake City, and just in time. Snow started dumping from the sky and we bundled up to keep warm. First things first, we need a heater. I got back in the driver's seat and we drove to Lowe's to purchase a Mr. Buddy Heater. $170 later we were warm again and parked for the night in a Walmart just south of the city.

Amanda had the great idea to find some hot springs in the area. We did some research online to find the closest spot. It was only a few miles north and offered us the opportunity to drive through part of the city. Being Sunday, it was more like a ghost town. One thing I was surprised to learn is that the epicenter of the city the the Mormon Temple. All roads start from that point, meaning the numbered roads go up from there. I still don't claim to understand the street system in Salt Lake. Even the GPS had a hard time finding its way. Fortunately we made it out again.

The hot spring was in a small park to the north and looked more like a hot sewer drain. It was surrounded by razors and toothpaste tubes. A lady bathing her feet tried to entice us to take a dip. More like taking a dip in used bath water, I'll pass. Since we were still in the area we decided to go to the "cool" area of town. We drove back through the ghost town but saw nothing much except a Mexican restaurant. Much to my surprise, their waste oil was still liquid. This was our chance to fill up the tank. We were both relieved, since we knew that Boise, Idaho, our next major stop, was just outside of the winter storm and would be a much easier place to find "liquid gold".

Later, we drove north to Antelope Island, an island state park right in the middle of Great Salt Lake. Antelope Island is the home to free range bison. The smell of the lake reminded us both of the ocean air. Since the sun had already set, we waited to explore until the morning.

The island by daylight was barren, void of most anything except some hares and bison. We climbed a nearby hill and were able to see a full 360 panorama of the area. It was completely surrounded by snow capped mountains and uninviting sparkling blue water. Any previous thoughts we had of kayaking were wiped away. We were not prepared for freezing temperatures, especially not in the desert.

Time to head to warmer climates.

Come on....just 60 more miles

I am no stranger to tow trucks and breaking down. All of my vehicles have been at least ten years old, and my oldest is 29. I have ceased to get anxious at the sound of cop cars, because all of my experience with police has been positive. Sirens are more of a welcoming sound, it lets me know that crazy drivers are going to keep their urges at bay.

This is the first time however that the bus has broken down. My big question was why. As soon as the big engine groaned to a stop I had already put the wheels into work to get her running, but the big question was, is it even possible? I hurriedly put on my work cloths and had Amanda pull out the tool box. She pulled out her phone and started dialing for tow assistance. I rushed to get out the new diesel fuel filter. Diesel sprayed everywhere, covering me and the engine with oily goo. Fifteen minutes later I was back in the cab trying to breath life back into the engine, but still no luck. The police were hurrying along the process as much as possible, and informed us that a tow was imminent if Good Sams Club was unable to find a tow truck driver.

I kept working away hoping that I would run into luck and not have the large and expensive vehicle towed and worked on. I was wondering to myself if the cold weather had somehow caused the grease to congeal leaving the lines like a fast food victims arteries. No way I would find out now on this hill where the bus was broken down. The Fall day was at least a pleasant temperature a easy to be outside working on a steel vehicle.

After a 45 minute ordeal, the truck came. Doug our driver was a kind soul, and very helpful. We got the truck loaded and headed off to the Cummings diesel repair shop in Portland Maine. Once the truck was unloaded the shop foreman realized that they couldn't do anything for us because we needed to go to the international dealer. This may have been an error on my part, since the engine we had was not a Cummings, but rather a International DT466, the workhorse of many vehicle that help keep our country running on petroleum.

The next morning another tow truck came and towed us to our next repair shop. Five days later our RV is still broken and the shop still does not know when they will look at it. I would highly recommend not going to the Brattain International Dealer in Portland Oregon. It is horrid to be stuck anywhere, but even more so when the repair shop keeps telling you it will get looked at, and they are down several guys. Who hasn't hear that story before. The only thing worse would be the news that the vehicle work cost about as much to fix as it was worth.

Arches

For those of you who have never had the time to spend in the desert, we highly recommend it. Nothing compares the glowing canyon walls at sunset, the wave-like dunes and the majestic desert vegetation that thrives in such an inhospitable climate. It is not hard to imagine how a desert may have once been an ocean floor. Like an ocean floor, it is sparse of life and not someplace you would go without adequate equipment. Walking through a canyon can be a breathtaking experience. Sand squishes between your toes and light bounces all around, casting shadows and rainbows of earth tones. Moab, Utah, is the most gorgeous place we have stopped so far. Arches National Park is absolutely breathtaking. We highly recommend visiting and taking a hike on one of the primitive trails. Be sure to allow extra time for those of you not familiar with walking in the sand. Our little 6 mile hike took us an hour extra, getting us to the trail head well after dark with the moon high up in the sky. We meandered through the well lit canyon without a flashlight. The moonlight danced around us and cast large shadows on the sandy floor. At eight o'clock we arrived at our little home, our sun shower still warm from the bright desert sun. We hung the shower from the bus doors and set up a makeshift showering area. The wind whipped around us and the warmth of the shower had little effect in the strong gusts. We hurried inside to take off the chill and put on some warmer clothes. The bus' warmth was comforting and kept the wildness of the surroundings at bay. After super we crawled into bed, tired from the day's adventures.

Vapor caves, canyon, metallic intestine

It may be hard to imagine a higway as being beautiful, or at least I did. I-70, as we have come to find out, has some of the best scenery imaginable. The drive from Denver to Grand Junction, CO, was spectacular. Snow covered peaks and canyons abound. You can truly see a reflection of the American West today with all of the traces of mining towns and scars on the landscape from decades ago. I can see how the temptation was there for many to make it big in the land of mammoth and somewhat almost surreal landscape. Its beauty masks the fierceness of its winters. Fortunately for us we were able to see the beautiful side on our trip, especially with our stop to Glenwood Springs.

Glenwood Springs is not a town that would come up in normal conversation such as Vail, Aspen or Breckenridge, but it is one that I surely will remeber. When driving west on 70 you arrive at White River Park just before reaching Glenwood Springs. This part of the highway goes through the enormous Glenwood Canyon that literally swallows a vehicle whole. After emerging you arrive at the town, home to the U.S.' only natural vapor caves. It's a dark, natural, underground steam room, with mineral deposits on the walls and an earthy odor that takes a couple of minutes to get used to. We sat, sweated, came up for air in the spa's solarium, and repeated.

After the caves, we took a bike ride through the canyon along the river, and we got to see bighorn sheep up close, and went through a highway overpass that was like being in a metallic intestine. By night we headed to Grand Junction, our last stop in Colorado, and had a parking lot sleepover, before moving on to Moab, UT.

Boulder, CO

We're enjoying this week in the Boulder area. One of the more memorable things was the stop we made on the way, though, in Grinnell, KS, population 286. We spent the night parked out in cornfields--real, non-stop cornfields this time--and in the morning we attracted a lot of attention when we took photos of their "downtown", which was one sleepy street. Brad from the feed mill at Frontier Ag offered to show us how soybean is processed into cattle feed, so we got an awesome lesson (on video).

We had a productive meeting once in Boulder with Sustainable Flooring, who have an existing relationship with Panda Paddles, to explore new possibilities for the product. We gave them a tour of the bus and they got to see what their beautiful cork tile flooring looks like in a school bus.

The past several days have been spent hiking and checking out the area. Bill, Justin's stepdad, visited before heading to Utah with Justin's mom, and he and Justin mountain biked. Justin and I liked hiking in Eldorado State Park, south of Boulder, as well as in Rocky Mountain National Park, where we got a little snow shower today at the top of Estes cone. It was 11,000 feet, small in comparison but enough to keep me winded.