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2 Years on the Road in the Wee Rover

We spent 2 years traveling in the Wee Rover from Vermont to Florida to the Arctic Ocean (twice) to Baja and the Yucatán Peninsula. It was a trip filled with adventure, fun, frustration, and many many many firsts (but not the lasts). Unfortunately, in the end were chased home by Covid which added a bizzare end to our trip. Overall, it was a life changing experience in more ways than I can write.

This blog was a fantastic way to stay in touch with family and friends and document the trip, but the time has come to close it down. Fear not, this is not the end of our travels. Our adventures are just beginning and while the Wee Rover has moved into retirement our new rig Huddy McBruce is just getting started. To follow our future adventures, please visit our Instagram account under….you got it MacKenzies on the Road.

For now it is farewell, or see you down the road, or tata for now.

The Wee Rover back where she started with a map of her Adventures. Not bad for a vehicle built in 1962.
The Adventures of the Wee Rover.

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Diesel Modification #???

Who knew that diesels don’t produce their own vacuum to help power the brakes. We didn’t!

Our new motor has an added vacuum pump that creates some vacuum…we needed more.

As we drive into La Paz, Baja, we see the big orange Home Depot sign and stop in to get the components to fabricate a DIY vacuum tank!

We broke out the Swiss army knife and drilled a hole for the brass fitting and cemented everything together. We spliced the new DIY storage tank into the brake booster line. And voila lots of extra vacuum to power our brakes!

The Wee Rover is much happier now because after updating the throttle cable in the last blog she just wanted to go, go, go! We wanted to be able to slow her down and brake, brake, brake!!

Now we should be all set for our next adventure!

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One Year

It is really hard to believe we are there already, but today marks the one year anniversary of our teary, excited, scared shitless departure from home. One year of living on the road. One year of adventure, heartache, and learning. One year of every day being new…new vistas, new campgrounds, new friends, new life lessons, new ways to look at everything, especially ourselves and who we are, and what is important. We have become more resilient and more vulnerable at the same time. We have learned more about who we are and where we fit and don’t fit, and where and who we want to be. How can one year accomplish so much…and what will the next year bring?

Some of our favorite highlights from the past year:

One year ago we packed the Wee Rover and left everything we knew behind to start our adventure.
We have camped in amazing places.
Driven as far north as one can to dip our toes in the Arctic Ocean.
Fell in love with British Columbia and the Yukon.
Were lucky enough to see Denali in between the storms.
Witnessed the glaciers.
Said goodbye.
And hello!
And enjoyed spectacular sunsets over the Pacific Ocean.
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Moxie

A visit to the Eugene, Oregon Pioneer Cemetery takes one back to an era of individuals who had more moxie than most of us could ever imagine. These people left everything known to them, their homes, families and friends, to travel across prairies and over mountains, and through Native American and Mormon territories to find a new home. They braved the cold and heat, the wild animals and rushing rivers to create a new life in an unknown place. They didn’t have cell phones or Instagram or even good old snail mail. Most of the time these individuals are forgotten in the dusty corners of history, replaced by movie stars or the latest singing idol. But, today, these individuals stole the show for me. I am humbled by their fortitude and courage.

The cemetery was on a wooded hill. Over time, neglect let Mother Nature slowly reclaim what man had lovingly created. Now a group of local people are slowly restoring the graves and putting up information placards on the town’s founding citizens. What a great way to preserve the past.
Eugene Skinner and his wife Mary were the first known white settlers in the Eugene area. They were from upstate New York and Eugene City, yup you guessed it, is named after him. The original gravestones are laying down in the background, too damaged by time to stand.
The stump grave (to signify a life cut short) of a Woodsmen of the World, a fraternal order.
And the back. These types of gravestones were quite expensive and eventually phased out.
A Vermonter turned Oregonian. I bet his trip to Oregon was a lot more arduous than ours.
The sadest gravestones of all are the children. The infant mortality rate was very high. This little gravestone was all alone. Most likely there were other graves around that have disappeared over time.

Tidbit: Visiting a town’s graveyard can be a treasure trove of information about a town’s past. I should wander through those in my own town back home.

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Silly me…

So, the other day we decided to go for a drive and explore a new area south of Grants Pass. We headed down Route 99 following the Rogue River through an older section of motels and small fishing cabins, an area that spoke of a former time and lifestyle. Today, the motels and cabins are being replaced by RV parks, they are everywhere, I mean everywhere, and amazingly most of them look full. The temperate climate makes it a great place to overwinter, I guess. But, I wander. We are driving and admiring the landscape and architecture when Darrin sees a sign that says Table Rock and says, “Isn’t that where Nancy went hiking? Lets go check it out!” (Nancy being our Grants Pass Airbnb hostest with the mostest.) So I said, “Sure, lets go give it a gander.” Silly me, several hours later we had hiked 5.5 miles round trip to the top of Lower Table Rock. Normally, that would have been a normal hike for us, but a winter in the flatlands of Florida did nothing for my hiking muscles. Never the less, we hiked, it was beautiful and we have a blog to show for it!

Lower Table Rock elevation ahout 2,000ft.
Once you reach the top of Lower Table Rock it is approximately 1 mile across to the lookout over the Rogue River (at one time it was an airstrip!)
You can read about the airstrip here, and some other fun facts.
And all that science stuff on how it was formed is here.
The view of the valley and the Rogue River.
And a look the other way down the river. Notice the lava like rocks (Did you read the science stuff above?)
Reminded us of a mini Devil’s Tower. This is from halfway up the trail.
Upper Table Rock from the top of Lower Table Rock. The easier 1 mile round trip trail is over there, I found out after.

Tidbit: The Lower Table Rock is taller and north of Upper Table Rock which makes absolutely no sense until you learn one is up river and one is down (lower on) the river, the Rogue River, that is. The all important river that brought life sustaining salmon to the native Takelma tribe.

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The unplanned plan…huh?

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” 
― Allen Saunders

Where are you going? What’s your plan? These were questions many people asked before we started out, almost a year ago. My standard answer was that we had no plan, we were tired of trying to plan. We were going to see where the road took us, live from day to day, in the moment. Quite enlightened and new age’ish of me, don’t you think? I thought so, but there was also the reality that we were leaving everything we knew for 2 years, jumping into the unknown, which was exciting, and a bit terrifying, ok a lot terrifying. We did want to let the road lead us, but also the thought of planning the trip as a whole was overwhelming. It was easier to think about driving out of the driveway, getting to Pennsylvania, then to the auto train to Florida, etc. But, if I am honest, there was always a tiny map in the back of my brain. A picture of where the road should take us. The inner workings of the human brain….oye!

Okay, I know get to the point, where are you going with all this rambling? (Lol, the human brain again. You want to know where this is going). The point…we followed the road and it took us to the Yukon and the Arctic Ocean, to Alaska and Denali…all amazing and life changing. We saw glaciers and bears and musk ox, and met interesting people. Not having a plan and following the road was the greatest thing ever! And then the road took us to Oregon for a new engine and Florida to be with Darrin’s mom and now to Eugene, Oregon for transmission work. And the little image in the back of my brain speaks up, “Hey, wait a minute, these weren’t in the plan!” Plan? What plan? We didn’t have a plan…where did that come from? What happened to going with the flow, letting the road show us where to go?

Okay, breathe. After a few hits over the head, we realized that the road is leading us. Where we are is okay. We were able to really be with Darrin’s mom and spend time visiting my parents. We have walked and hiked, and met interesting people. We have seen some cool landscapes and watched a bit of TV. Lately, we have taken naps and slept late, realizing we needed to recupperate from our months of hospitals and hospice in Florida. The bottom line is the road is still there and it is still an unplanned amazing adventure. We are grateful where it has taken us and look forward to where it will take us in the upcoming year, (even if it doesn’t match that little map in the back of my brain:)

Tidbit: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit or There and Back Again
So far we haven’t seen any dragons, but we will keep our ears to the ground and our eyes to the sky. Toodles!

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Diesel Conversion: our new heater!

The image below is our new diesel heater. It is spliced into the Rovers heating system and is set up to produce nice toe toasty warmth without running the motor. In short, we can pull in, pop up the tent, fire up the heater, and be cozy, warm, and dry! No power required, only a bit of diesel. Sweeeeeeeeet!!!!!!!

Eberspaecher – Hydronic S3 Economy heater

Tidbit: Happy wife! Toasty toes!

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Rainy day

Today was a rainy day here in Grants Pass, Oregon, I know very surprising this time of year.

So, we set to organizing our gear to go back in the Wee Rover.

We sorted through this…
organized that…
and charged these doohickeys

And we went for a bimble to put more miles on the motor for the next oil change.

The GPS led us up into this beautiful loop right to…
yup, you guessed another dead end (zoom into the yellow sign).
The map showed it looping around to another road.

So, all in all a very quiet, rainy day here in Grants Pass, Oregon. I think it is time to watch a little MASH and make some ravioli.

Tidbit: Grants Pass, orginally Grant’s Pass, was named after General Ulysses S. Grant and his 1863 victory at Vicksburg. A small stagecoach stop back then, the apostrophe was later dropped as the small town became a bustling railroad community.

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Ewoks of Endor

Yesterday, we spent a chilly day at ReInvent the Wheel working out a few bugs, changing out the break-in oil and hooking up my new diesel heater (no more chilly toes no matter what the season! Thanks to Richard from the Alaskan Ferry who suggested the heater!)

So, today we were back to putting down some more break-in miles for the next oil change. Since the sun was shining, a rare occurance in Oregon this time of year, we decided to head down Rt. 199 to Crescent City, CA, a round trip of 160 miles. We chose this route because it had a nice elevation change and a variety of speed changes. We started in Grants pass at 960ft, went up to the Collier Tunnel through, you guessed it, Collier Mountain at 2,000ft, down the other side to the ocean at 15ft and back to Grants Pass. The Wee Rover and her new motor hummed right along. We only belched out a bit of smoke on the way up to the pass doing 55 in overdrive.

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!
Collier Tunnel was finished in 1963 and saved 3 miles of road, over 100 turns and 5 switchbacks. It turned a Jeep track into a main route from Oregon to the coast.
The Wee Rover isn’t afraid of a little snow. See the tunnel in the background?
The Smith River looks a little chilly, probably only a single dunker.
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I should have taken a video, it was beautiful.

Tidbit: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park also know as Forest Moon of Endor (home of the Ewoks) is where Return of the Jedi was filmed, well the Ewok portion anyway.

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Diesel Conversion, First Drive

Wow! Just Wow!

I didn’t realize just how conditioned I had become to dreading, scoping, planning, and grabbing momentum for every uphill.

The Wee Rover now just wants to pull and pull. Granted we still haven’t put her back together into traveling form so she was very svelte, but Wow! I found myself jabbing the throttle on the hills just to feel her jump forward.

More to follow as we settle in with the new motor.

Next up, 200 miles of breaking in, and her first oil change.

Tidbit: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!