Lake Superior Summer 2021: Valley City to Itasca Lake State Park

 

Lake Superior Summer 2021 Day 2: Theo. Roosevelt Nat'l Park to Valley City

Wind Canyon overlook (Little Missouri River)

By day's end we'd driven across most of North Dakota and the Laurentian Divide. Ludwig hadn't been in the Hudson Bay watershed since 2007.

Even all the way out at Mel Reiman Campground, North of Valley City, we couldn't escape the smoke entirely. That's the Sun a little left of center.

miles 224,940-245,256

Lake Superior Summer 2021 Day 1: Sully Creek State Park

Two Summers ago we had planned on driving Ludwig to Crater Lake and Redwoods and the Oregon coast and Rainier and all that, but there were a lot of fires out that way that year which threatened not only to negatively impact our breathing, but could outright cut us off of primary routes and send us hundreds of miles out of our way. At the last minute we decided to go to the tip of the UP instead.

Some of these pictures are E's.

landscape near Glendive

near Medora ND and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Sully Creek State Park (Theo. R. NP was full)

miles (2)44,533 to (2)44,940

Vigilantes

Vigilante Campground site 6, about 27 miles outside the nation's 6th-least populous and 6th highest state capital, Helena Montana. 

front

rear

Trout Creek

Trout Creek Canyon Trail, an abandoned (it washed out too often) road. As a result, it's not very steep.

goofball, fake chicken, chicken (l to r)

goofball, fake chicken, chicken, M (l to r)

goofball, goofball, fake chicken, chicken (l to r)

Okay.

All cleaned up and ready to go.

On the way back we took a side trip to this dam.

miles (2)44,150 to (2)44,530
map (minus in-town driving)

 

Seatbelt Upgrade, part 2

Remember way back when, the post about changing Ludwig's rear belts from two-point to three-point, in light of the older kid's getting bigger? Last weekend I finally got around to doing the same to the other side.

I was much more hesitant about doing this side because, inconveniently, Westfalia decided that the wardrobe couldn't be an inch shorter to accommodate a three-point belt on that side, and covered up the mounting hole. (What did they do about Westies bound for Sweden, I wonder.)
tl;dr--you have to cut a notch in the wardrobe to mount the seat belt.

Step one, take out the wardrobe. Four screws outside...

...three screws inside. Then wrangle the cabinet out of the way.

There's the exposed bolt hole, and the back side of all your stickers.

Step two, bolt in the upper seat belt mount, the first time anything was bolted in there in the bus's whole life probably!

Use these fiber spacers (meant for oil pan drain plugs) on both sides of the belt mount, because you can't find thin nylon ones like the originals.

Unscrew the front of the armrest and lift it out of the way. Remove the lower seatbelt mount. 

New (to Ludwig) belt coming down.

Boom! Looks good.

This corner had been kind of wiggly. I totally overfixed it with these four brackets.

You can see my pencil marks where the notch is to be cut out. You'll want yours to be bigger because I underestimated the space I'd need when I drew these. Also, pry up the inner birch panel for jigsaw access.

Well, I'm no carpenter so there's my ugly cut. I apologized to Ludwig during the process. He didn't mind, as he understands that function is king.
The entirely unmolested, near-perfect original cabinet--which is a 74/75-only part (I'm pretty sure)--was worth maybe $200, $250 as it was. So rejoice, owners of the one hundred-fifty or so* entirely unmolested, near-perfect original 74/75-only Westfalia wardrobe cabinets still in existence: yours just got more valuable! You're welcome.

Glue the faux-veneer back on, where it peeled away during the sawing.

Installation is the reverse of removal, as they say. Enlist your favorite child's seat installer and test subject to determine the efficacy of your handiwork.

Success! Reward yourself.

*wild-ass guess, probably high