Land Rover – Page 7 – MacKenzies on the Road

June 12, 2018

Trains, trains, and well…more trains

A train every 6 minutes.

Can you imagine a town where a train goes right through the center of it every 6 minutes? How do they get any sleep?

Newcastle, WY is, well was, such a town. I had no idea that Wyoming was coal country, and oil country, but that is a different story.

In 1887, the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad stretching its way across the continental US reached Nebraska and realized it was too expensive to bring the coal needed to run their engines from the east. If they were going to continue west, they needed a new source.

Coal had been reported in eastern Wyoming. The railroad investigated and the Cambria mine, and town, was founded. The railroad stretched its line west running a spur up to the mine. The junction of the main line and the spur came to be the town of Newcastle, WY.

For the next 40 years the coal from the Cambria Mine flowed down the tracks and through Newcastle. In 1928, the mine finally petered out, but not the coal industry. To the west large resources of coal were found right near the surface. These mines are the largest producers of coal in the US. This coal is still transported via train right through Newcastle.

Today, I am sitting on the hill above Newcastle, which happens to be the town cemetery and a beautiful spot to write, watching a coal train snake through town like a mythical monster from a Viking saga, Darrin counts 135 cars full of coal.

The trains don’t run every 6 minutes anymore, but they do run back and forth almost every 15 minutes or so, day and night.

Now that’s a lot of coal!

And it just keeps coming, 135 coal cars.

Car after car…one way full of coal and the otherway empty going back for a refill.

June 11, 2018

The Unflatness

Many year ago, my brother and I drove across country. He had just finished at the Air Force Academy in Colorado and needed to quickly relocate with his car to an east coast post and I had a few days off before starting my summer job. We jumped on the highway in his little 2 seat sports car and made a quick job of it, stopping briefly at a few sights. I could now brag that I had ‘driven cross country, right?

Boy was I wrong.

Traveling on the highway did not give me a true sense of the areas I had traveled across. I did not see the subtle changes every area had to offer.
Traveling slowly on the backroads in the Rover with the windows open (our version of ac) has given me a whole new appreciation for the land we have crossed. It is definitely not flat, although if you look across the horizon at times it certainly seemed so. And the tornado warnings made it seem like we were quite exposed.

The trip from Florida to South Dakota has included rolling hills, sharp winding gorges, rollercoasters (see previous post) and long slow ups and ups and ups with very few actual flat areas.

The countryside has included corn fields, soybean fields, other fields growing I know not what, large open spaces fenced for cattle, and large expanses of horse country. We constantly remark on how the landscape can change in 150 miles (our chosen daily limit in our putt, putt vehicle).

While at times the trip has been challenging, the heat, the long days, the many miles, learning to live on the road (that is a whole other post or two!) I feel very lucky to have travelled the backroads and had the chance to experience all that we have, so far.

Did we see it all? No way. We could spend months or even years in each area and still have much to learn. I at least feel that I have a flavor of the many landscapes and what they have to offer and a new appreciation for their unflatness. Perhaps on our return trip in a few years, we will see or experience even more or find a state that really is flat!

261st Avenue! Not another road or a building in sight!

June 6, 2018

Black Hills Storm

Storms in the Black Hills can be quite intense. With all the flat prairie land to the west and south, the storms can build up some steam to run into the hills. The outcome is amazing storms that are intense and fast moving. Last night a storm skirted around us, just barely skimming our nicely sheltered camping spot and allowing for some great pictures.

A little hale mixed in for good measure!

June 6, 2018

ARB Awnings

As you can probably tell from the pictures, we designed and made most of our stuff because it allowed us to customize and because honestly it was cheaper. We did, however, purchase a few things because there was no way we could improve on the quality and design. ARB makes quality products that can’t be beat. (http://arbusa.com)

We purchased two awnings from them. The first larger awning is on the side of our Land Rover and the second, smaller awning, is on the back. They are incredibly easy to put up and stow away, they are free standing and so far incredibly rugged, we have been out in some pretty good storms. And, our favorite feature is ARB’s use of keder strips, which allows us to add our own ‘touches’ to the awnings.

The large ARB awning on the side of the Land Rover.

The smaller ARB awning attached to the back of our Land Rover. It protects our kitchen from the elements.

Keder strip attachment spot on the side of the Land Rover and the collapsable woodstove tucked behind the extra fuel tank (black bag just barely visible).

Being from the north where the Mayflies can drive you crazy and the mosquitoes and horseflies can be big enough to carry you away, we had to have a screen room. We set to designing and sewing using the keder strips to attach it to the ARB awning and the Land Rover. We ended up with a completely enclosed area that is large enough for the two of us to hang-out in and cook, and it keeps the bugs out of our vehicle and tent.

Our rig set-up above the Suwannee River. The screen room is attached to the back awning.

Being true northerners, we couldn’t leave home without a woodstove. So again, we set to designing and sewing, and again used the keder strips to attach it to the ARB awning and the Land Rover. This ‘winter room’, as we call it, allows us to camp in at least three seasons.

The 3 season room attached to the back awning with the woodstove going in Ponca SP.

All of these extra additions stuff into sacks and store in our ‘junk drawer’, the red box on the back door of the Land Rover (we’ll blog about that later).

The screen room and 3 season room all stuff into these bags.

Thank you ARB for such quality products! We will write another blog later highlighting some of the other items we also purchased from ARB.

June 5, 2018

No sleepwalking tonight!

After four wonderful nights at our camping spot in the Black Hills, we decided it was time to go to town. We were running low on a few essential items like toilet paper and Oreos😁 So, we got out the wash bucket, heated up the last of our water and cleaned ourselves up, we felt like the old trappers going to Rendevous, packed our stuff and headed to Custer, SD to stock up.

We hit all the important spots in town: we wandered the aisles of the grocery store choosing our staples and treats for the next week, snuck into a state park to refill our 5 gallon water jugs, sat outside the town library for free wifi so we could pay bills, order some things off the internet to pick-up at a later post office and reload books onto our tablets, treated ourselves at the local bakery, and hit the nearest lake for a swim with the fisherman, who were not at all thrilled to have us there.

Now to the most important part of our day, choosing a new camping spot. As you can tell by the map in the previous post there is a lot to choose from. We wanted to stay close to Custer because we wanted to visit Jewel Cave, but we wanted to be far enough up in the hills to ‘get away’. We chose our area, drove up in, and scouted for about an hour until we found the right spot. While we were scouting we noticed a few dug holes in the area, since this was gold country, we decided someone must be trying their luck. We thought nothing more of it, set-up, cooked supper and went for our nightly ramble.

As it turns out, we are camped right in the middle of the original Black Hills Gold Rush area where in 1874 Col. George Armstrong Custer, the same who would die shortly at the Battle of Little Bighorn, found gold in the French Creek River (near where we took the afore mentioned swim). During our ramble around our camping area we found at least a dozen old mines and another dozen shallow pits (no mom, we didn’t get too close).

We spent the evening reading about the gold rush and learned it was a very small, quick gold rush with the biggest impact being the Lakota’s loss of land to miners and the future battles it created between the new nation and the Lakota people.

We also tried to imagine what the miners life was like living in these hills. While the scenery is beautiful, living here year round in a tent or shack and working through the rock by hand must have been a very hard existence. I wonder how many actually found gold?

So, tonight we sleep in this beautiful spot amongst the shadows of the past. How cool is that?

P.S. If we don’t come home, we found gold is them thar hills! If not, perhaps we’ll try our luck in the Yukon!

One of the many mines we found. It looks as though they walked away yesterday and might come back any minute to resume digging.

Darrin standing next to a medium one for scale.

I can’t fathom digging through some of this stuff by hand. The old miners had greater moxie than me and I’ve dug my fair share of ditches and post holes.

June 4, 2018

Dispersed Camping

All National Forests, Bureau of Land Management, select Wildlife Management Areas, and a few other lands have what is called dispersed camping. This means that you can camp on the lands free of charge, if you don’t count the taxes we pay. Each have their own rules to follow, but they are minimal and the camping is awesome, if you are okay with shitting in the woods. There are no toilets, no showers and no drinking water. You have to pack in everything and pack it out.

Tonight we are camping in the Black Hills National Forest in SD. When we entered the forest, we stopped at the ranger station and picked up their detailed maps showing all the places we could drive in and camp. We picked an area on our route, drove in a mile or so (the road is what we would call a class 4 or maybe even a class 5 road at home – 4 wheel drive highly recommended), picked an amazing spot, set-up, turned on the Grateful Dead and cooked dinner.

Viola, a great place to spend a few days and the best part is there isn’t a soul in sight, just trees and hopefully some wildlife.

Pick-up a park map. All the dots are camping spots!

Find the road you want to camp on. They are all marked with these little posts.

June 1, 2018

Rover Repair #3

We’ve had a periodic problem with the fuel system on the Rover. When the system is hot and we stop, restarting, usually on a steep uphill, the fuel line gets an air bubble in it that causes the Rover to be starved of fuel, which like all of us when we are starved, makes us cranky, and in the Rovers case makes her buck like a bronco. We have been a able to avoid stalling by quickly changing the gas to the opposite tank.

Today, we (the proverbial we, which actually means Darrin) are trying for a more lasting solution. Because the metal gas filter sits next to the engine, it gets really hot. We think because of this heat it is causing some expanding, contraction and boiling of the fuel as it heads to the carburetor, thus adding a few air bubbles where they shouldn’t be.

Darrin’s solution is to raid my pantry and insulate the gas filter with a peach can and a soup can. The peach can provides an air gap and the soup can lets air in when the fan turns on. This will hopefully avoid the contracting, heating and air bubbles. (Darrin’s version is much more technical with words like induction, and such. I put it into non-engineering human speak!)

Fingers crossed it works because when the Rover gets cranky, Darrin gets cranky😎

All ready for assembly. Soup can, peach can, fuel filter, tinfoil and duct tape.

May 31, 2018

Peeping Tatunka in the Badlands

Last night, as usual, I had to pee in the middle of the night. I unzipped the tent, we were sleeping in the ground tent because if you’ve been to the Badlands you know the wind blows, I mean really blows, I mean hold the tent down or you’re going to parasail to Wyoming blows!

Well anyways, back to my bladder, so I unzipped the tent and crawled out, pulled down my shorts and started to pee when I heard a snort! I looked up and 15 feet away was a huge buffalo watching me pee. What was I to do? They had been roaming in and out of our primitive camping area for 2 days and seemed pretty docile. Should I finish peeing? He seemed calm, but wouldn’t stop staring at me, the perv. What’s a lady to do?

Of course, I finished peeing! Wished him a good night and crawled back into my sleeping bag😁

The buffalo spent the days on the hillside around our camp and wandered down to the camp at dusk to spend the night with us. Last night we had 10 hunker down with us.

May 30, 2018

Laundry, showers and DQ, ohhhhh my

Today, we are taking a day off and going to the big city. Wall, SD, that is. A motel, showers and laundry are on the top of the list, closely followed by a visit to Dairy Queen.

We have been camping in the Rover for almost a month, and are due for a ‘cleaning up’ and some ‘treats’! Since they are predicting severe storms in the area, perhaps it’s not a good night to be sleeping in a rooftop tent.

We found a great little place online, The Sunshine Inn. John, the owner, treated us like we were family. We highly recommend staying here if you ever find yourself in Wall, SD.

The Sunshine Inn in Wall, SD. Our home away from the tent for a few nights.

John, the owner of the Sunshine Inn. Thanks John for everything!

First stop, after showers was the laundry mat.

Quickly followed by our first trip to Dairy Queen, yes, I said first…we don’t have Dairy Queen at home, so this was a highly anticipated treat!

Yes, that crazy eyed DQ inhaler is Darrin! A very happy boy😁

All cleaned up and fortified, we ventured into the tourist world of Wall Drugstore, the main attraction in the town, and the other stores on the mini main street. We wandered through stores, buying absolutely nothing…really, where would we put it. We spent the majority of our time looking at all if the old pictures. There were walls and walls of them, very cool. And watching people.

The little tourist area around Wall Drug. I love the grain silos at the end.

That evening the predicted storm arrived. We stayed out on the balcony as long as we could with some fellow travelers watching it advance across the plains. It was really cool to see it start so far away and slowly make its way towards us. We definitely don’t get that in the northeast. And then it poured! And the wind blew! And the rain went sideways. It was a very grand storm, definitely not a night to be sleeping in the rooftop tent!

The poor little Rover weathered the storm quite well, only a few minor leaks.

Another night of storms arrived, so we ended up staying 2 nights…quite a luxury!

Time to get back on the road!

May 27, 2018

Valentine City Park, NE

The small towns in northern Nebraska, as we understand it, have town parks that allow travelers and transient farm workers a place to stay. They are often just a few sites, most with drinking water, some with power and bathrooms, others with pit toilets.

We checked a few out on our way across Nebraska and found a really nice one in Valentine. It was clean, had flush toilets and even a nice brook. All for a donation.

The people were friendly, and their dogs of course. We even met the town cop as he did his rounds.

While we stayed here there were 5 tenters, an RV, a teardrop trailer, a traveling motorcyle group in another 8 tents, and a girl scout troop on a road trip (1 of the leaders thought Darrin looked like a young Kenny Rogers – he has been singing The Gambler ever since).

A great way to spend a few very, and I mean 100 degrees very, hot days.

We also saw the coolest vehicle, besides our Rover, in Nebraska.

A Volkswagen kit made into a trike. Very cool!

On to the mountains of South Dakota , and fingers crossed, some cooler weather.