Days 14 and 15: Price to Pocatello to Livingston

The trip's final two days were its most boring in terms of sightseeing--all but the first 70 or so miles was a retrace of the trip there, and we'd planned no major activities. But they made up for it by being the most exciting in the air-cooled-Volkswagen-mechanicking sense.

Soldier Summit

After a night in Price we planned to get to Idaho Falls for our last stop. This fierce headwind (note the flags) all day did a number on our mileage.

But how much of a number, exactly? We couldn't really know since Ludwig's gas gauge has two modes: inaccurate and non-functional. That's usually okay though, we just determined our fill-ups by the miles traveled since the last fill-up and a conservative estimate of Ludwig's mileage.

This works unless you fight a headwind, lower your mpg beyond your conservative estimate, and run out of gas. Which is what happened, just short of Pocatello's Southernmost exit.

We called AAA for a tow truck to bring us a couple gallons, keeping in mind that something else might be wrong. I mean, I tried to figure out what else the problem could be but it really seemed to be just plain running out of gas. Melissa hoofed it to a gas station about 1/2 mile away to buy a can and some gas as well, since the wrecker was taking so long to arrive.

The wrecker and Melissa showed up at about the same time but none of the gas worked. I asked the driver to tow us 300 yards to the gas station. He let us ride in Ludwig during the tow, surely a violation of his company's insurance.

It wasn't as harrowing as all that.

I thought maybe the carburetors weren't primed, which, if you don't remember how to jump the safety relay and prime them that way (I didn't), requires getting at them from above, itself requiring the removal of all the sleeping bags and blankets and suitcases and everything out of the back. The idea of dumping all our gear alongside the interstate wasn't appealing, hence the tow.

The priming worked and Ludwig fired up. In fact, he fired up a little too enthusiastically, with a huge backfire, thanks to my unintentional over-priming. At this point darkness had fallen, so we retreated to Pocatello's Holiday Inn Express.

Montana! That's the second-longest stretch, by about 12 hours, we've been out of Montana since we moved here in 2006. (The other time was in Ludwig too.)

All the next day, the last day, Ludwig ran like garbage. Well, that's not totally correct. He idled well, ran cool, and if you could get him up to speed, sped along just fine. But pulling away from stops and climbing up even the slightest grades, he was a dog. To me, that pointed to the loss of his vacuum advance, which the previous evening's big backfire might've destroyed.

We soldiered on, Ludwig soldiered on.

The poor running made the last day a long, anxious struggle, but we did make it, including up the alley to our driveway which I suspect was the steepest grade of the whole trip. 

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Day 13: Arches

Landscape Arch, the Park's longest and fifth-longest in the world.

The Fiery Furnace

Delicate Arch, from about a half-mile away. The angle is accurate.

That's Pine Tree Arch with me and the Smaller One.

Me, crossing my eyes, next to Tunnel Arch. Notice also that non-vertical arch to its left.

Double Arch, probably the favorite of the family as a whole.

Sometimes when we're driving around a park, we let E sit in front. She took this picture and the next two from the passenger seat.

Wait, is that burning rubber smell coming from a car in front of us? Maybe, except there's no car in front of us. Pull over.

That bolt is one of two that holds the alternator in place. It's not supposed to stick out, let alone contact the belt (yes, Ludwig's engine--indeed, any* air-cooled VW engine--has only one belt).

green=belt and its direction of travel (3,000 rpm or more, at speed)

yellow=alternator bolt sticking out

red=where the burning rubber smell came from

The nut at the other end of that bolt had liberated itself, probably a couple days before when we noticed some rattling at idle. (I'd 'fixed' that rattle by smacking the passenger-side heat exchanger with my fist.) We scoured the car for a non-critical 13mm nut we could press into service, settling on the nut that holds the positive battery clamp tight. 

After some frustrating tightening, I realized my mistake: that nut is actually a 1/2" nut, the positive battery clamp being some American-made universal assembly. Now, for our purposes 1/2" does indeed equal 13mm, but the thread pitch was SAE, not metric and all we ended up doing was cross-threading the American nut onto the Kraut bolt.

But hey! The nut was secure in place--being cross-threaded and all--and it limited the loose bolt's travel enough that it couldn't contact the belt any more. C'mon Ludwig, you can do it--it only has to last another 700 miles. (Spoiler: it did.)

Bye bye, Arches National Park.

Book Cliffs on the way to the night's stop in Price.

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*Some 1970s air-cooled Volkswagen were originally outfitted with more than one belt, but the extra belts were to run smog pumps and air conditioners (!), frivolous garbage that any self-respecting owner-operator should kick to the curb forthwith. These engines have better things to do than deal with that shit.

Hovenweep to Arches, including Bonus State Colorado (Day 12)

Melissa took a conference call in her office for the morning, the Hovenweep National Monument campground. There was one other camper there.

Eroded Boulder House was everyone's favorite, I think.

Sometimes a kid will just not put on her coat.

From Hovenweep to the Arches National Park campground (our next stop), it was either 143 miles via Utah, or 144 miles via Colorado. Naturally we took the Colorado route. Why wouldn't we?

The whole area is pretty remote, remote enough that Colorado didn't put up a 'Welcome to Colorful Colorado' sign. Since Canyon of the Ancients National Monument's Western border is coterminous with the Utah-Colorado border, a cattle guard and this sign were our only immediate assurance we'd actually entered the Centennial State.

Just a few miles into Colorado Melissa spotted a turn for "Painted Hand". The road didn't look too terrible.

It turned out it was a pleasant, easy hike to this ruined tower which we could see from where we parked.

The Smaller One did her pre-hike stretches, as she'd seen some dude doing at the Grand Canyon the day before. Actually, that dude was doing it at the edge of a cliff, to scare his wife it looked like. She thought it was hilarious to imitate him.

In this ruin there were shelves and windows.

Some kids climb one way...

...some kids climb another way. This was the super-awesome way I climbed up and down that rock. Okay, maybe not super-awesome.

That's Shiprock, in New Mexico. It really is.

With that view of Shiprock, Ludwig has now been within sight of the one Western state he has yet to visit.

Just past Canyons of the Ancients, the sudden appearance of plowed fields like you'd see in Nebraska puzzled me.

The explanation was our proximity to Dove Creek Colorado, the pinto bean capital of the world.

Then back into Utah.

This is Church Rock, outside of Monticello Utah.

Ludwig was getting really messy on the inside by this point. Also, why isn't E wearing her seatbelt?

Wilson Arch

Some cool rock.

Our picture with the Arches National Park sign, and my elbow hurts 'cause I bonked it on the thing where we were filling up the water bottles. I think.

The Three Penguins

Balanced Rock. Sooo cool.

Looking back through the Park to the La Sal Mountains.

Arches doesn't take campsite reservations off-season. The month before I called and asked, "what're our chances of getting a spot if we show up on a Wednesday in early February?" The ranger replied, "Oh, as long as it's not 60 degrees and sunny that day, you'll be fine." 

Guess what the weather was like the day we arrived. We got one of the last five spots; the other four filled within an hour of our arrival.

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