Ultimate McVenture 2012 - Day 5

  Waking up in a Motel6 is quite different than the beauty of America we are used to from this trip. But the first showers are with it.
  The jog across Wisconsin is along Lake Superior. We of course had to stop and pickup some cheese curds, Joel actually bought about 4 pounds of them. We took a slight detour to get our DED in WI in; up to the lake. On the way we spotted 6 bald eagles, we were on an Indian reservation. Here we also noticed the rear shock mount broke from my "perfect" welding job, its making the ride a little bouncier.
  Once we hit the UP of Michigan we knew we had to stop for a pasty. No road engine block burritos this day. In fact, since the last batch got slightly oil contaminated, we UN-spokinly wrote them off. Joel asked a local where to go and we found Joe's in Ironwood. "The place that made pasties famous", great road food! We found them again for dinner.
  The colors on the trees are amazing, so glad we made this trip! Then, we got pulled over by a statie! I pulled over and asked why, I found myself explaining the who trip, who owns the Jeep, why we have cameras mounted to it, he then said the old blue version of the MI plate is not acceptable. I had switched while in CO because they don't know the difference there. After all the explanations were drove off without issues.
  We only had 3 hours to go to make it to the McDaniel lodge in Boyne Falls! We made it to the Mackinaw bridge just after dusk. We finally broke the 100 miles per tank, and have yet to tap into the 10 gal reserve.
  I charted a dirt course on Holms road to get our DED in on the LP of Michigan.
5 days and 1850  miles
We made it!
Day 6 will be us getting down to Bros, kegs & hogs weekend!

Ultimate McVenture 2012 - Day 4

  We found a field just inside of Minnesota, lucky no one cared. The local coyotes did wake us up, they sounded like a stadium crowd they were so loud. It was a pretty chilly night!
We started the day topping off the oil and coolant. The Scrambler sure is pulling through great! We have clocked about 1200 miles now. With no major problems. Joel and I are both pleasantly surprised (as I'm sure the rest of you are) we have not had any major problems.
  We headed back to US212 and were planning on some breakfast and office working session. We drove into Willmar, MN. Driving down main street we asked out the window of  Jeep a man where to grab some breakfast and got some unspecific directions to Frida's Cafe. It was a classic little family diner with some great breakfast!
 Over breakfast (or some other time) we decided to head for Duluth (my mom's birthplace :-) but before the journey we decided we should check the transfer case fluid levels, as it always has some drips everytime we stop. We found that it was practically full still, yay!
  We stopped in St. Cloud to pick up some local micro brews (Third Street Brewhouse: Lost Trout Brown and Bitter Neighbor Black IPA, both good). We saw a motley crew hanging outside a tattoo parlor, after using Micky-D's wifi for some office work, and got some extensive directions from one of the artists; who was also very excited to tell us of Third Street from his home town of Cold-x, MN)
 We continued on US23, such a beautiful drive with large fall colored trees over hanging the 2 lane highway. The Scrambler loves 2 lane America!
 We stopped Fitgers brewery for some decent beers and dinner. Then went to Superior, WI looking for a cheap bed, but ended up back in Duluth at the Motel 6... yay showers!

Ultimate McVenture 2012 - Day 3

We are actually heading East!

  A slow start today due to polishing off the growler, but beautiful sunrise over the Black Hills.
  We headed north to Deadwood and Saloon 10 where Wild Bill was shot dead.Good bloodymarys! Used some wifi to answer some emails, vpn in to get some files and made a call to get Windchill working again. we also got a great tip on a great burger at Lewies outside of Lead, SD
  Since we spent a lot of time sight seeing and getting our DED (dirt every day) we changed the route some. Instead of heading north to just about Canada to US2, we took US212 across South Dakota and into our 5th state Minnesota! We drove into the night, only 11 or so... So glad I installed the HID and LED Offroad lights Joel sent!
  We put on 450 miles today so we are over half way there! Only about 16 more hours to Boyne. The 10mpg is holding true.we thought we were going to have to break out one of the 5 gallon gas cans we are carrying when the engine started to sputter, but we lucked out with a gas station.
  We both spent some of our road time getting work done on the laptops. Joel was running some  Pro/E even. I was quite jealous he was able to use his Verizon connection to borrow a license, while I was without a signal on my T-mobile.
  We found a SD brew, Crow Peak with a IPA similar to ModusHopporandi, yum.

Ultimate McVenture 2012 - Day 2

Day 2
We woke in the field and headed to Agate fossil bed national monument. Apparently they found a bunch of bones there, but took them all out of the ground so there weren't any to like at. But it did lead us to the dirt road we took up to SD.

We found the Needles highway  US87, to make our way to mount Rushmore. on the way down the needles pass we had our first Jeep issue.

Those of you who know the Scrambler are familiar with the clutch problems I've had with it. I redesigned it a couple years back and eliminated the plastic bushings. So, I was driving and saw, out of the corner of my eye, the clutch pedal drop to the floor, then come back up. I went to press it and nothing but air! We were going down hill fast!
I went to press it again and it would not budge. I was able to slip the Jeep out of gear and get safely off the road. We found the spring was gone, likely broken from fatigue. 10 minutes later we were back on the road with the use of a bungee and an 11mm socket to complete the clutch linkage.

We then headed to Crazy horse and Mount Rushmore, pretty neat to see but we opted for the drive by view vs paying to walk up to them.

The Black hills are awesome, reminds me a lot the Rockies near Evergreen. Beetle kill and all.

We put on about fifty miles of dirt driving in them, nothing needing 4wd. We did hike up to a fire lookout while looking for a suitable camping spot, we got the tent up just before dark and put down a growler of New Belgium Super IPA.
Another 250 miles on the odometer.
Yeah , it is taking a awhile to get there, but we have all week!

Ultimate McVenture 2012 - day 1

After a quick stop at New Belgium to fuel up... See pic... Our dirt route out of Colorado,  through the Prairie reserve near Fort Collins ended at a chained gate only a few miles from WY. This cost some time to get back to 25. Oh well, we still got some dirt in.

This also gave us a chance to break for some engine manifold burritos, yum! while we rerouted.

The Scrambler is just as happy at  45 on dirt as 60 on highway. No problems so far, a slight drip from the transfer case.

We took 85 up into Nebraska heading toward the Agate fossil bed national monument. About 15 miles south we found a dirt road out into the open range where we pitched a tent for the night.

We put about 250 miles in. 45 average moving time.

Day 2 begins! Black hills SD!

Running hot?

Not too happy with reading on the thermostat.
Glad we brought that duct tape.

UM on the road!