2019’s Last Cookie

Each year of my travels my friend from my home town makes me cookies for my trip.

This year she made me this tub full of her delicious cookies.  So many cookies they should have lasted my whole trip, but something happened.

What happened was that I have been cooking meals for a lot for myself and my friends.  

I share my food and my cookies.  Three here and one there and the large container of cookies slowly went down and down,   Today, after my solo dinner of beef rollups here in the California desert, I ate the last delicious cookie.

Joyce, your cookies were as good as ever and accolades are passed along from all that enjoyed them too. 

Thanks so much!

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Getting Stuck in Sand

The other day on Facebook there was a plea for help from a vandweller who got stuck in an area that I stay from time to time.  I checked the GPS location that they gave and it was in fact very close to my previous camping spots on BLM land.

They had sought help and called a tow truck that when they came were not able to get it out with the truck they brought.  The last post indicated that tow truck driver left for a different vehicle.

By chance I was coming to that area and found a camping spot near where I usually stay.  I walked to the GPS coordinates where the stuck vehicle was and found the spot in the picture below.

It doesn’t look like much but from the marks and the picture from Facebook (unable to locate to share here) it appears to have been a front wheel drive van.  They tried turning around getting their drive wheels off the hard road into the soft sand.  They dug a hole with their main drive tire that they couldn’t get out of.

I never got stuck with my Class B, Prius, or Tacoma/FWC camper.  I drive in a way to avoid getting stuck.

I brought snow/off road chains with me for my Prius front wheels and I bring snow/off road chains for all 4 tires of my Tacoma and will work diligently to never have to use them, but if I do I sure hope they work.

Above is a turn in the road that I would not have driven through.  Too much sand.  I would get out of my vehicle and walk through it to check it out.

Where the vandweller was stuck in the photo above was right around the corner where the road became a dead end.

A quick walk would have shown the soft sand and dead end without a turnaround.

At that point they haven’t gone too far and were on solid ground dirt road, and they could have backed up.

Above is another road that leads to a dead end without a turnaround.  Yet someone else turned around off the hard road surface and appear to have gotten stuck.

Even with my 4x4 I would not drive off in the soft sand.

Here I am parked for the night.  It is hard packed and my wheels have not sunken at all.

But just behind where I stopped on hard packed ground is soft sand.  Yes, I got out and walked the whole area before I settled into my spot.

My Prius could have made it here without a problem.  The key is to not getting stuck is taking your time and do your best no matter what your driving to not get stuck.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Coronado National Memorial - Southern Terminus Of AZ Trail

Today was planned to be a busy day with the Tubac, AZ Festival Of The Arts filirst thing in the am, lunch in Nogales, AZ and finally go see the southern terminus of the Arizona Trail in the Coronado National Monument.

The problem in my plan was that it took a long time to drive east from Nogales through Patagonia and Sierra Vista to get to my destination.

My destination was Montezuma Pass in top of a mountain. 

To the west the Mountains slopecawsy ftom Arizona into Mecico.

I decided to hike towards the Mexican Border knowing I was going to run out of daylight.

I hiked down to this trail in the center of the picture above that trails off to the right.

I had hiked .7 of a mile in and it was still a mile to the Mexican Border.  This trail down the mountain to the AZ Trail terminus was about 1000 ft elevation change that I would have to quickly turn around and climb back to the parking lot.  I just didn’t want yo risk the hike as the sun was low in the sky.  

The road to get out closes at sunset and it is a very steep and windy dirt road that is only 1.5 car widths wide in spots.  This is no place to drive after dark.

In the picture above is the Mexican Border where the valley in the middle meets the small hill.  So the distant mountain is in Mexico.

I was a great day and drive from Tubac, but I now have a long drive back to Tucson for the night.  Above was the route for my day trip.  Google gave this trip 4 hours and 41 minutes.

The scenery from Nogales over to Coronado is first mountains then high grasslands to lower desert before entering Coronado National Monument.

This is my first visit to Coronado, and there are 3 ways to get to Montezuma Pass from the west that would have taken libger due to dirt road conditions.  Those routes will be worth exploring at another time.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Puerto Blanco Drive, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

(Organ Pipe Cactus)

This is my first time taking the Puerto Blanco Drive in Organ Pipe National  Monument even though I have been here at least 5 times.  This 37 mile back country route into the Sonoran Desert starting at the Visitors Center eventually brings you to the Mexican Border where there is only a short fence and Mexican Rt 2 is on the other side.

The route was partially closed from 2006 to 2014 due to concerns of drug trafficking.  Today it is described as a 4x4 Road, but itwas in good, not great condition and a high clearance SUV or crossover wins able to make the entire route provided it was dry, like it was.  My Prius would not have made it.

The reason I had not taken this road last year with my Tacoma’s was that the rangers describe it in a way that I didn’t think it would have been easy for my truck.  In retrospect it was not an issue, provided you plan sufficient time an go slow.

Note that the road is one way from Visitors Center.

Today I drove my friend Joanne’s Jeep, with Joanne, her service dog Cafe, and Susan, both vandwelling friends.

Since I was driving I didn’t take many pictures, but I didn’t mind as it was a fun drive.

Note that our trip was 44.8 miles to do the full round trip and the spring mentioned below, not 37 miles as mentioned in the literature. It also took over 2.5 hours to complete.

Above you can see the bottom of the recorded trip was directly on the boarder of Mecico.

Above is Quitobaquito Springs that is on the border with Mexico and is a bit off the prescribed route.  It is worth seeing how this spring (oasis) exists in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.

Here is the Border Road.  I have been adjacent to the border road a few times on my travels this year.

Above is the border fence with a couple strands of barbed wire running above and below the center post.

On the other side is Mexico and Mexico RT 2 that runs east and west.

Border patrol vehicles are plentiful in the area controlling border crossings.  There is a border control checkpoint about 18 miles north on the road to Organ Pipe and AZ RT 85 and border crossing at Lukeville, AZ.

If you have the chance you should take the ride on Puerto Blanco Drive, but do so once the road and washes are dry unless you have 4x4 vehicle.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

What If Repairs Don’t Let you Stay In Your Vehicle

Yesterday’s blog was about having a 5K mile service on my Tacoma and finding out my oil pan drain hole was stripped and I needed a new oil pan.

This resulted in the service manager telling me;

“We have to keep your Tacoma overnight.  We can have the oil pan overnighted and finish the repair tomorrow..”

And my response:

“I live in my vehicle.  It’s my home.”

Ther service manager actually understood my dilemma and jumped through hoops to find and use a non Toyota part to get me back on the road the same day.

But what if I was at an oil changing service or in a small town where my oil pan replacement was a few days away?

(Picture is a good web search for an oil pan for a V6 Tacoma engine like mine.)

What could I do?  What are my options if this happens to me someday?

1. My first option was to ask the dealer if they had a loaner car.  If so I would have grabbed 2 bags.  One with clean underwear and the other my shaving bag and I would have found a economical hotel for the night.

But the Gem Show was going on and all the hotels were booked out!

(Picture is a Travelocity search of available hotels for the night in question.)

2. My second option would be to see if they had a loaner car and I would grab my trail/bug out backpack with tent, camp mattress, sleeping bag, and other items and would have gone to BLM land in Tucson and camped the night.

3. On to the third choice.  If a loaner car wasn’t available I would have called one or two of my vandwelling friends that were in town to pick me up and bring me to the BLM land and bring me back to the Toyota dealer in the AM.

4. I would toss the backpack on and head out to find a piece of land nearby to sleep on.

I initially felt venerable with the conversation about not having a place to go for the night.  After thinking about my situation, I felt lucky that I had options.  Some vandwellers have very few options if this was to happen.  They may not have had $650+ for repairs.  Many vandwellers use small garages in remote areas and they  may not have the connections to get parts delivered quickly.

Sometimes things turn out in your favor and in my case I lucked out.  It may not be the case the next time, and I know many a vandweller has had to deal with being homeless from their vandweller vehicles

If your vandwelling you need to have a plan to deal with such a situation.  What are your options?

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Do You Know Who Your Service Rep Is? / You Need A Oil Pan

I arrived on Monday at Desert Toyota for a 5K mile service of oil change and tire rotation.  I did not set up an appointment in advance.  This is one of two Toyota dealers in Tucson.  I have been to both, and this one was a bit cheaper in the past.

My first step is to check in.  I parked the car in the service entrance and went inside.  I looked around to make eye contact.  At my regular dealership in Massachusetts I am greeted and checked in without getting out of the car.

After standing a bit looking helpless, I made eye contact with a guy behind a service podium.  I say hi and he asks me who my service rep is.  I say I don’t have one.  Have you been here before?  Yes. But it’s been a year.  He then tells me to get service I need to know who my service rep is.  I’m told to go to a help desk with two woman.

I went to the help desk and I was asked again who my rep is.  I don’t know.  Who made your appointment.  I answer that I’m a walk-in.  Have you been here before?  I answer yes about a year ago.  After some looking they found me in their system, not by name but by my cell number.  That information gave them my service rep as Katrina.  I’m told she had yet to arrive at work.  They called her on the phone and told me she would be in in a bit.  I was told to see Dennis.

So I go see Dennis, who was the guy who sent me to the two woman.  I gave him the story and info about Katrina..  he then directs me to the service manager to be checked in.

I go meet the manager and explained my situation that Katrina is my service rep but she is on her way and I was told you would check me in.  He said he would and did check me in. It took all of a couple minutes.

I’m thinking that this is a very convoluted process to put a customer through!

I was told it would be a couple of hours for my requested service.  So I waited in the waiting room above.

About an hour waiting the service manager came to talk.  He said that the oil plug is stripped out and it can’t be fixed.  He can get another oil pan delivered overnight so I should look for a place to stay the night.  

I explained that my home dealer had told me there was a problem with the oil pan but he fixed it and said it would be ok.  The service manager said what they did was put an oversized oil plug in and the threads in the oil pan they put in came out with the oversized oil plug and shows me the plug with threads stuck to it.

Above is a picture of a V6 Tacoma oil pan from an internet search.

Now I’m in a turmoil.  My camper is my home itellhim and Katrina.  I can’t stay on property with it the manager says as Katrina thought I might be able to..  The Gem show is in town and there are no affordable rooms.  

Above is a search on Travelocity for a room in Tucson for the night.

It was only 9:00 AM and the service manager says to me; “If you don’t mind not having a Toyota oil pan I can get an after market one from a place in Phoenix.”

I said do it!

It took until 4:15 PM to get the part delivered from Phoenix.  My Tacoma was all prepped for assembly when the part came in.  They needed 45 minutes to have the sealant cure.  I was out of the dealership with a $659.59 payment on my VISA about 5:15 PM.




I was given a feedback card but was perplexed about my experience.  There front end customer/service rep thing was terrible.  Their ability to think outside the box to get me going the same day was great.

But, what if?  What if I couldn’t have had my camper fixed the same day and I couldn’t stay with it?  What if there were no rooms in a hotel?  What would I have done?

I had a plan all worked out with contingencies.  You will hear about how I would handle that situation in another blog post.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Trailer Hitch Shackle - Towing/Recovery Option

My Tacoma has a trailer hitch, often called a receiver hitch, as it can be fitted with various trailer towing items based on trailer ball size and trailer weight.  It can also be used for other things.

In fact, I have currently installed in my receiver hitch a step, to make it easier getting in and out of my camper.  It has a square tube with a step on it.

I didn’t carry any other receiver options on my travels until a few weeks ago when I was in San Diego.  I stopped into a Harbour Freight store to buy some things and saw this D- Ring Receiver Hitch.  

With this D-Ring receiver hitch I can attach the tow strap that I carry.  I did this as there are no rear points to connect a tow strap.  I already carry a tow strap, but having a tow strap and not having a place to connect it in the rear of my Tacoma didn’t make much sense.

For about $10.00 for the D-Ring receiver hitch, I can help someone get out from being stuck, but it may be handy for me to get pulled out myself.

This is something I should not look to use but to only keep it in case someone gets stuck. It’s like the snow/off-road chains I carry for all four wheels in case I go to a place that requires chains or if I need them in sand for self recovery..  They are a bit of insurance that I hope I don’t need, but should carry just in-case.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com