The Story Of A Cummins Suburban (Lots Of Pics)

[ryanroo]

i believe there are photos of the drivetrain mounts int he first few pages of the build

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Coboyle04

What did you do in place of the old crossmember/engine mounts....can you post some pictures

The engine crossmember is shown in the first few pics in this thread. It's big, it's ugly, but it's functional.

Originally Posted by Coboyle04

also some pics and descriptions of your motor mounts, trans mount, and t-case mount

thanks

The mounts I am running currently are shown a page or two back. Trans mount is stock GM. No t/case mount.

I'm curious as to why you are asking?? Are you having issues with yours?? If so, what are you running for mounts on yours??

Originally Posted by ryanroo

i believe there are photos of the drivetrain mounts int he first few pages of the build

Yeah, most everything is detailed in here somewhere. Not necessarily in a logical order, but contained within nonetheless.

[6lcummins]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

The engine crossmember is shown in the first few pics in this thread. It's big, it's ugly, but it's functional.



The mounts I am running currently are shown a page or two back. Trans mount is stock GM. No t/case mount.

I'm curious as to why you are asking?? Are you having issues with yours?? If so, what are you running for mounts on yours??



Yeah, most everything is detailed in here somewhere. Not necessarily in a logical order, but contained within nonetheless.

The Search Thread feature comes to mind, but then again I'm not really patient and willing to wait for people to respond.

[mosesburb]

So we left the Berkeley Pit and I noticed an old Great Northern Railroad roundhouse across the road. It has been converted to a normal building and all evidence of its railroad heritage ahs been removed. No turntable, but it was still cool.

Roundhouse with a gratuitous truck pic:



There are many headframes remaing around the area. Just up the road we came upon this nice setup:



The red building is the winch house. The flat, narrow window toward the upper back of the building is where the hoist cable would enter/exit the building. The cable would run out over the two sheave towers on its way up to the top of the headframe. It would go over a sheave and proceed downward from there where it would be used to raise/lower men and material and ore buckets--big ones. Once the ore buckets cleared the top of the shaft, the bucket would catch on a stop/hook mechanism, the cable would be slacked and the ore bucket would tip to one side (typically toward the vertical side of the headframe) and dump its contents into a hopper where it would remain until a transport vehicle (a ore car on a train or a conveyor belt) was available to accept the ore and transport it to its first destination which is the mill building.

We went under the shelter structure and found ourselves on the north end of the old downtown area. There are tons and tons of cool old buildings in this area. On the side of one building we found a sculpture of a hard rock miner made of old mining equipment parts. This thing is way cool. I spent a fair bit of time checking it out/admiring it. Obviously a lot of work went into this:



The facial detail was amazing:



Another gratuitous truck shot by the building with the sculpture on it:



One of the many cool old buildings down town:



I really like the old sign work painted on old buildings. Not a whole lot of this remains in AZ as the sun is so brutal to coatings here, but several remain on buildings here: This place has booths for ladies. High class establishment.



Now anyone who has been riding along on our adventures here may recall that my favorite town in AZ is Jerome. Jerome was a mining town. It really came to be when a senator from Montana came to town and got things moving in a big-time fashion. That senator was William Clark. He came from Butte. In our wanderings we came across this:



Kind of ironic that I end up wandering around a town in Montana where the fortunes were made that allowed Jerome to be fully developed in to the mining power-house that it was.

We kept wandering and came across another headframe and winch house. This one was set up with walking paths so you could navigate your way around the different places. We checked out the headframe and wandered up by the winch house. The doors were locked and the windows were so high up that we couldn't get a good look inside. My boy noticed some of the windows to th basement were broken out. I stuck my arm in with the camera and popped several shot off in each broken window to see what was in there. One area was a locker room, complete with lockers and an old pair of Levis on the ground. Another was just miscellaneous junk. Another window held the electrical distribution equipment. This was really neat. I wish I would have ahd a real flashlight with me, but the camera got some good pics.



We left there in the truck and continued wandering. We made lots and lots of turns, just seeing what was over here or up there. It was getting later and the sun was going down. The road we were on was getting narrower and narrower and we were very much in an old residential area. The road got narrower and we came to an intersection. What to do?? We are lost at this point. No idea where we are. No idea how to get back to where we were. I had taken the navigation computer up to the room when we did our load-in. We decided we needed to turn around and try to get back into town where I could figure out how to get back to where we need to be. Where are we going?? No idea as I have no idea where we are. I got us turned around and navigated old-school by pulling up to an intersection and looking at the road to see which direction has more use and then turning that way. It took a half-dozen intersections to get to a sign that had a road I recognized on it. We made it!! In 20/20 hindsighht, both my wife and I had phones with nav programs in them that could have been used to lead us out of the situation, but, meh, we did it without them.

On our way back through town we came upon this sight way up on top of the mountain overlooking the Continental Pit: The bright white thing is a statue of Jesus overlooking the mines:



Pretty amazing sight with clouds everywhere except right there.

We made our way back to the room for hopefully a good night of sleep.

[hgs_notes]

You found some interesting things during your sight seeing. Love the miner sculpture. Butte is a pretty neat town, but I haven't spent much time there to really see it. Thanks for sharing.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

You found some interesting things during your sight seeing. Love the miner sculpture. Butte is a pretty neat town, but I haven't spent much time there to really see it. Thanks for sharing.

It really is. If we would have known about it prior to arrival, we would have stayed in one of the old hotels downtown. Lots of neat little shops and bars/restaurants etc. Looks like it would be a cool place to wander walkabout. By the time we got to that area it was getting a little late, so we just did the vehicle tour thing.

BTW, I love your miscellaneous thread. I have tons of pic like that that I have wondered what to do with as they don't seem to fit in this thread (or any other for that matter), but are cool enough to share. Tons of neat stuff to see out there when you travel for whatever reason. They seem even better when you can get paid to see them.

[mosesburb]

So we got up the next morning and went back over the hill into Butte to pick up some Starbucks (again, not for me). I had to do some repairs to the truck so I found a cheezy auto parts chain store to buy some parts. The rain we traveled in yesterday had informed me that my 6 month old wiper blades were no longer effective in removing rain from the windshield. It would seem wiper blades would last indefinitely in an area that gets no rain (like PHX), but the sun is what kills them. Now six months is not normal, they usually last longer than that, but I'm a little too far away to try to warranty them. Anyways, I buy some wiper blades and use my Leatherman to aid in the installation (first vehicular repair of the trip). So the truck has wiper blades that work, my wife has some form of coffee, we're good to go. Let's roll!!

So we hit the road to try to make our destination for yesterday. This leads us west out of Butte through some beautiful country. One thing that I liked about the route we took through Idaho and Montana is there are great rolling hills, mountains, valleys, praries and they are not obscured with dense forests. Now I do realize it was just the areas we were in, but it sure makes for some spectacular views.

A cool old barn next to the highway just past Anaconda:



So we get through Missoula and head north on US93 (again). After a while we come upon Flathead Lake:



This thing is large. It is the largest freshwater lake in the United States west of the Mississippi River. It was formed in the Rocky Mountain trench which was cut by a glacier. It has something like 190sq/mi of surface area. When traveling around it, it seems to go on forever.

Now, our destination for the day is Glacier National Park (GNP). The issue that confronts us at this point is that it is raining in GNP this day. Now I am not afraid of some rain, but heading into an unknown area, in the rain, to camp, is not rating real high on the likely-success-o-meter. Ugh. What to do?? Now if we were already there with camp already set up, some rain would be a non-issue, but I really don't like setting up camp in the rain if I can avoid it because in order to flip the truck from travel to camp mode, most everything from the back has to go to the front and bedding has to be setup etc. Not fun to do in the rain especially when it almost has to be done outside the truck.

We rolled into Kalispell and weighed our options and decided we'd wait out the rain in Kalispell, get a room for the night, and head into Glacier tomorrow after the rain clears out. So we found a room, did our load-in and went into town to check the place out. We got some lunch (a little late) and did some wandering around. Found some neat places and came back into town for some dinner. We went back to the room and got a good night's sleep. We woke up in the morning to, yep, you guessed it, rain. More rain. Ugh. Well, we can't bag a whole day because of rain so we pressed on. We did our load out, found some mom-n-pop coffee joint and we were on our way.

A little while later we found ourselves here:



Ironically, I had been running with the guy getting the ticket a for several miles, but he put the moves on a slower vehicle that I didn't feel like passing, just in time to be seen by the sheriff. So we got into the park and took a quick spin up to the north through an area that burned recently. We checked a couple spots out then headed back down and went through one of the visitor centers. We then took some pictures at Lake McDonald before heading up Going To The Sun Road (GTTSR). Now GTTSR is rarely open before the middle/end of June due to the heavy snows that must be cleared at higher elevations. I had been keeping tabs on the plowing status while on our way up to Glacier and found that it had opened two days before we got there. Woo-Hoo!! Something went right for a change!! Well, yes, it did, but it is still raining. Lake McDonald is another long lake. It has to be somewhere between 30-35mi long. After passing it we found McDonald Creek, a tributary waterway to the lake. Lots of water flowing down the creek:



This is one of the red shuttle buses manufactured by White Motor Company back in the 1930's that ferry people along GTTSR:



(Information about the buses from a Ford Press Release) Ford Motor Company’s leadership in alternative fuel vehicles is being put to use to restore one of the oldest traditions in America’s National Parks. After 18 months of renovation, Ford will deliver Glacier National Park's famous fleet of Red Buses back to the park in Montana on June 8.

The fleet of 33 Red Buses now runs on clean-burning LPG (propane) and is 93 percent cleaner than the original buses that were introduced in the park back in the 1930s.

Over time, the buses became part of the fabric of Glacier’s lore. The canvas-topped 17-passenger buses carried sightseers back and forth across the Continental Divide for over six decades. Then, in 1999, concerns about vehicle fatigue forced the Red Buses into retirement.

As part of its commitment as a Proud Partner of America’s National Parks, Ford undertook the task of refurbishing the buses back in 2000. TDM of Livonia, Mich., was contracted to work with Ford engineers and perform the restoration.

“Restoring the Red Buses has been a bigger challenge than any of us imagined, but it has also been a labor of love to those involved,” said Bruce Gordon, director of Ford’s Alternative Fuel Vehicles. “We worked diligently to maintain the historic integrity of the buses and applied Ford’s and TDM's expertise in alternative fuel vehicles and safety.”

Key changes made to the Red Buses include:
Powertrain/Fuel System – The original carbureted gasoline engine was removed and replaced with a new fuel-injected 5.4L bi-fuel engine, capable of running on either gasoline or LPG (propane). An all-new exhaust system also was provided.
Chassis – The original chassis was removed and replaced with an E-450 chassis modified to fit the Red Bus body.
Brakes – The brake system was replaced with a production 4-wheel disc ABS system.
Windows and Lights – All windows were replaced with safety glass and external lights were replaced or repaired and brought up to current standards.

Along with the new technology, extreme care was taken to maintain the charm and historic integrity of the buses. Technology and safety were key, but comfort also was important. Examples include:

Body – The original body of the Red Bus was carefully removed from the chassis. Damaged areas were repaired, cleaned and repainted in the original color scheme. New sheet metal or fiberglass components were blended into the vehicle where needed, such as the fender wells and the rear door. In addition, all the door latches were replaced and the plywood floors were replaced with composite aluminum sheeting.
Seating – All passenger and driver seats were refurbished with new comfortable fire-retardant material. New padding was added to the handrails on the seat backs.
Running Boards – Running boards were replaced, but remain consistent with the original design.
Ornamentation – When possible, original ornamentation was refurbished. When replacement was needed, it was done with component designs consistent with the original.

In addition, Ford added new public address systems to all the buses, and retained the original vehicle numbering system.

Ford also is committed to supporting infrastructure for Alternative Fuel Vehicles. As part of the Red Bus project, Ford helped fund two LPG fueling stations at the park. One is located at West Glacier and will be used primarily to fuel the Red Bus, while the second is located in East Glacier. Both stations will be available for use by other propane vehicles as well.

“The Red Bus project is Ford's premiere project as a Proud Partner of America's National Parks,” said Gordon. “We want to provide innovative transportation and environmental solutions that enable visitors to enjoy National Parks, as well as preserve their beauty.”

There is no shortage of Kodak moments in this park:



This is what we were dealing with in traversing the park in the rain:



Tons of beautiful scenery obscured by tons of clouds. Now this issue can be viewed as both good and bad. Good, in that the colors are ridiculously lush with contrast because of the rain, and bad that they are often obscured by clouds. That nets us with a big woo-hoo, immediately followed by a big D'oh!!

We are traveling through an enormous glacial valley with several hanging valleys along the upper edges of it, but the hanging valleys are obscured by clouds. D'oh!!





Still lots of scenery to absorb:



There are many waterfalls on the route:





More scenery with the ever-present cloud cover:



More spectacular scenery (wonder what's hiding behind those clouds....)



In this pic we are next to the weeping wall (not in the pic--its water flowing down the wall next to the road) with the three arches off to the 1 o'clock area. The three arches were constructed to deal with one of the MANY obstacles involved in building a road through this terrain.



So we go up and up and up some more. It looks like it is getting colder up her--and right about now we can't see jack because we are IN the clouds. Swell.



Little bit of snow left on the ground up here:



So it's all down hill after this (literally). As we pass Saint Mary Lake the rain lets up.

At one of the many turnouts along Saint Mary Lake looking back up the hill: (one can almost make out the HD DIY front diff cover I installed while doing all of my steering work/upgrades--almost...)



We get down to the Saint Mary Lake visitor center and plan our next move. Any move we make involves leaving the park and re-entering from another point.

On our way our of the park I stop for a gratuitous truck pic: (I forget the exact number, but I *think* we are about 30ish miles from the Canadian border at this point)



So in the end, we traveled 1350 miles to visit a park that I have been looking forward to seeing for over twenty years and having most of it covered in clouds. Beautiful scenery?? Definitely, but only seeing the lower half of it and knowing what we were missing above it was a little more than disappointing. Obviously there is nothing we could do about it. It is just part of rolling the dice while traveling. Sometimes you hit a home run, sometimes it's just a single. I think we scored a single with two strikes and two outs.

So, where do we go from here?? Do we do the south route around the lower end of the park?? Do we head up to the Many Glacier entrance and take another swing at it?? Do we bag it all together?? Hmm, we'll have to ponder this for a moment and get back with you later....

[84chevyguyid]

We did Glacier years ago but I cant remember anything about it any more. The cloud stuff reminds me of a trip to the dakotas, got a mile or two from mount rushmore and the sunshine turned to fog, never did get to see it. One of these days I guess. Ever been over Beartooth Pass? Thats an amazing drive. Which way are you headed to get home?

[hgs_notes]

I've probably been to Yellowstone 10 times at least since it's along the way to visit the in-laws, but never have been to glacier. Looks like a great place though. And your story of woe about the rain reminds me of when I was in Alaska and was driving past Mt McKinley. All I saw was the base of it. Never did see hardly any of the highest mountain in north America. Completely shrouded in clouds the entire time I was there.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 84chevyguyid

We did Glacier years ago but I cant remember anything about it any more. The cloud stuff reminds me of a trip to the dakotas, got a mile or two from mount rushmore and the sunshine turned to fog, never did get to see it. One of these days I guess. Ever been over Beartooth Pass? Thats an amazing drive. Which way are you headed to get home?

Have not been over Beartooth Pass. I bet it is cool though. I have found that when roads that look like a bunch of Z's and W's on a map, they usually have some good scenery (for the passengers to view....).

At this point we are at our first of three planned stops (and who knows after that), so we are nowhere near going home yet.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I've probably been to Yellowstone 10 times at least since it's along the way to visit the in-laws, but never have been to glacier. Looks like a great place though. And your story of woe about the rain reminds me of when I was in Alaska and was driving past Mt McKinley. All I saw was the base of it. Never did see hardly any of the highest mountain in north America. Completely shrouded in clouds the entire time I was there.

I understand that situation completely. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend Glacier--especially when it is not raining.

[1leglance]

Great pics and I like the Ford blurb you tossed in on those red buses....I remember looking them over when we were in Glacier but knowing some new/old history is an added bonus.

Looking forward to the rest of the story...

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Looking forward to the rest of the story...

Just get comfy and settle in. It could take awhile.

[1leglance]

Funny thing is I see Nick pretty regularly as he is the mentor on my burb build...so I get the condensed version of these trips but I have to wait like everyone else to actually see any pics

[gerfunken]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Funny thing is I see Nick pretty regularly as he is the mentor on my burb build...so I get the condensed version of these trips but I have to wait like everyone else to actually see any pics

I hate to say this, but I'm reminded of being a kid and waiting patiently for my granddad to tell me stories of his youth. Story telling is a lost art for most of us, but Nick really does like to weave a tale, and is really good at it. That, and the whole "cliffhanger" approach to giving us a day-a-week recap of his adventures.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Great pics and I like the Ford blurb you tossed in on those red buses....I remember looking them over when we were in Glacier but knowing some new/old history is an added bonus.

Obviously it would have been a lot easier (and cheaper) for Ford to just donate a bunch of airport shuttle bus type pieces of **** to the park, but maintaining the historical aspect of the buses was a VERY cool move on their part. I recalled reading about them back when they returned them to the park, so I thought it would be good to include in the story. The buses by themselves are cool, but once the backstory is known, they take on a new level of coolness.

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Just get comfy and settle in. It could take awhile.

That is very likely. I think we are on day five now.

Originally Posted by 1leglance

Funny thing is I see Nick pretty regularly as he is the mentor on my burb build...so I get the condensed version of these trips but I have to wait like everyone else to actually see any pics

Says the guy who takes pics and doesn't post any of them....

Originally Posted by gerfunken

I hate to say this, but I'm reminded of being a kid and waiting patiently for my granddad to tell me stories of his youth. Story telling is a lost art for most of us, but Nick really does like to weave a tale, and is really good at it. That, and the whole "cliffhanger" approach to giving us a day-a-week recap of his adventures.

Thanks!!

The melodramatic pause is not necessarily engineered into the story telling process as it is more of a result of the amount of time it takes to sort the pics, choose what to upload, load the pics, decide where to end the story for the day (for continuity purposes), compose the story while *trying* to keep it concise (I have lost my ability to type very quickly), add pics where appropriate, proof read, proof read again, maybe one more time (notice I still have some typos in the posts--grammatical errors are minimal, but evidently ahd and hte is a word according to my spellcheck??), then finally hit the 'Submit Reply' button. Start to finish usually runs 1-2 hrs per post. Ridiculous, I know, but I enjoy seeing other peoples pics, so I think it is only fair to share mine with the people on the site, so some ridiculous time investment is worth it to me. I could just do a shotgun post of the pics, but I find that much is lost when going through a post and seeing a boat-load of cool pics with no information whatsoever about what the pics are or why they were taken.

Hopefully I will have a chance this weekend to get some more going here. Tomorrow is not looking so good, but maybe Sunday or Monday?? The next couple are going to be real doozies.

[Coboyle04]

not neccesarrily having issues....just some excess vibration. I heard some people using hyrdaulic mounts.

[jbclassix]

Sometime I would like to pick your brain about running a mildly tuned VE Cummins in MY Suburban... I'm starting to sway that way more and more since my Dodge is literally falling apart, and I cannot find a 6.5L that is in as nice shape as my old 96 was.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Coboyle04

not neccesarrily having issues....just some excess vibration. I heard some people using hyrdaulic mounts.

Nope, not hydraulic, but the mounts I have are quite a bit nicer than the OE Dodge mounts I originally used. Very nice pieces. What mounts are you running in yours??

Originally Posted by jbclassix

Sometime I would like to pick your brain about running a mildly tuned VE Cummins in MY Suburban... I'm starting to sway that way more and more since my Dodge is literally falling apart, and I cannot find a 6.5L that is in as nice shape as my old 96 was.

The pickins are rather slim, but feel free.

[mosesburb]

So we have to decide what to do now. We looked back to from where we came and the clouds are still dark and ominous (and leaking water). We were going to do the south route that skirts the southern edge of the park and end up back by Kalispell, but we already knew what we were going to net by doing that. The clouds to the northwest looked just as ominous, so heading up to the Many Glaciers entrance was another non-starter for us. Well, it looks like the best option is to cut our losses and head on down the road. To say it was disappointing would be quite an understatement, but we can't start crying just yet. So we pull out a map and get to looking at the best possible option for a destination and we settle on Helena MT. So we point the truck in the general direction, spool up the turbo and away we go.

Bye, bye, Glacier <sniff>



Big Sky country. Definitely. It is rather amazing how so much of nothing can be so beautiful:



I think someone had to use the can so we found ourselves in the thriving metropolis of Dutton, MT. Kind of a neat little(!!) town. They even had an F104 on a stick in the school yard. Can't be all bad. I decided to fuel while we were there so we found the CO-OP (kind of hard to miss) and filled the truck and drained the passengers:



The Mighty Missouri River: (Well, not so mighty yet, but it ends up being really big down stream)



Not something you see everyday:



So we got into Helena and found a room. Did our load-in and went to find something to eat. Found some dinner and decided to top off the truck so we could make our next destination without having to stop for fuel. While fueling a couple young locals with a later model Dodge/Cummins were fueling on the other side of the pump. They recognized something was not right about this orange Suburban next to them and struck up a conversation. They enjoyed the tour of the truck and were amazed that we had driven it from Phoenix via Glacier. I pointed out the AZ plate on it and they believed me, but were still quite surprised that we would drive an old truck that distance.

So we got back to the room and got a mediocre night's sleep. We got up in the morning and hit a Starbucks (not for me) and we were on the road heading south. Our destination for the day was:



Yep, Jellystone National Park. When we entered I asked the ranger at the station which campground (no open range camping allowed) would have the highest probability of having sites available. He told me which one and we pretty much bee-lined it for that campground. Camp sites in the park are either first-come or reserved months in advance depending on the campground. We didn't make reservations in February, so we were rolling the dice on a site in a first-come campground. We got up to the campground and wandered around and finally(!!) found a site. We paid our money and took the ticket to mark our site. We briefly spoke with our neighbors and then headed back out into the park to see what we could see.

We hit the Norris Geyser Basin first. There are a ton of neat features in this area. This is Emerald Spring:



Some nice generic scenery:





The color of the algae or bacteria in the water is determined by the temperature and mineral content of the water. A single stream may be orange in one location , brown in another, green in yet another and so on.

This pic looks like it could be a satellite photo of a region, but is actually about six feet below the camera:





The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone:



This stream is fed by a large waterfall, but from our vantage point I wasn't able to get a very good picture of it.

On our way back to camp we came upon a local resident:



We made it back to camp and had a nice dinner. We hung out with our neighbors who were from Canada (eh). They had a son who was about the same age as our boy so they wandered around and played well into the evening. It was a real nice time for a campground camp.

Our camp:



So here we are, deep in the confines of Yellowstone. Stay tuned to see if we make it to our third destination or just decide to go home instead. It could be fun??

[1leglance]

If it wasn't for all the crazy numbers of tourist I would have enjoyed Yellowstone way more...but we only lasted a day due to the madness.
Great looking campsite by the way.

[justcuz]

Beautiful pictures and trip report. Can't wait for the rest, also glad to hear wipers have been your only problem so far.

[mosesburb]

So we got up the next morning and packed up camp. This was the first time using the new window coverings version 2.0 I had my mom make up for us. The first set she made with an off-white canvas (almost denim) material. While they worked great for general privacy and insulation (very important when camping in cooler/cold weather), they let any ambient light from outside in and any light from inside the truck at night, out. Also, they were very noticeable from outside the truck being white. This go around I had acquired some black colored blackout material. A thin piece of this material allows almost no light to shine through. She put this on a black backing material and sewed in a bunch of rare-earth magnets (not as easy as it sounds) around the perimeter. The result was spectacular!! There is no light passing into or out of the truck. Waking up in the morning finds only small slivers of light shining into the truck allowing sleep past the crack of dawn and total privacy. Also, with the rear windows tinted, the black material is hardly noticeable through those windows and only slightly noticeable in the non-tinted front windows. Win, win, win.

So we packed up camp, chatted with our Canuckistanian neighbors for a bit and headed out. We hit several points of interest around the park. While traveling we came upon another local resident:



These guys are amazing. They can be found almost anywhere in the park including standing in the middle of a boiling hot sulfur mud spring area. That is one thing about the park that pictures can not convey is how much the park can stink. Sulfur gas is a byproduct of volcanic activity (Yellowstone is a massive caldera), thus everywhere you go where there is geo-thermal activity, there is the ever-present sulfur gas. At times it is so strong it can take your breath away. After a while a person can get somewhat used to it, but it is still there.

So we wandered around and down and found ourselves along with a billion other people at the Old Faithful Geyser. It is impressive and we had to see it so we could say we saw it, but the mess of people is almost more hassle than it is worth.



So here we are at our second of three planned stops on our vacation. Our third stop is Grand Teton National Park. It is connected to the south border of Yellowstone. We are planning to drop down into Teton and camp there for the night. At this point, the delay leaving home is coming back to bite us little bit. I was hoping to be where we are a day earlier (Thursday). This is the weekend before the short work week of the fourth of July so traffic is already starting to get nuts. Teton used the same method of camping as Yellowstone, so to find out if you get a spot requires you to drive around and hope to find a spot. It's early afternoon at this point so if we drop down into Teton and don't find a camp site, we will have to leave the park to find a spot in the surrounding forest or a room in Jackson. The other issue is where we are planning on going next (decided last night) is going to require us to re-enter Yellowstone and travel through a significant chunk of it to get out on the latitude we want to run to our next destination. This does not sound like fun considering the traffic we are dealing with right now on a Friday, much less a Saturday. We decide at this point to bag Teton for another time and head out of Yellowstone. The route we take out of Yellowstone takes us around Yellowstone Lake. Beautiful.



So we get out of the park and head down the hill into Cody, Wyoming. We find a mom-n-pop hotel and get a room--the most expensive room thus far. I ask the lady why a room in the middle of nowhere is more expensive than a room in the middle of somewhere. I learn that Cody draws many people in for their nightly rodeo, it is the home of the Wild Bill Cody museum and is the gateway to Yellowstone. Ok. So I ask the lady for a mom-n-pop restaurant recommendation and she says that Cassie's is a great place. Cool. We do a couple loads of laundry in their posh laundry room (washing machine sitting outside the office) and after that we head over to Cassie's. It turns out Cassie's is a honky tonk bar/restaurant. They had live bluegrass music too!! Come to find out the guy who runs the kitchen is a third generation butcher and his grandma makes the desserts. The waitress told us all the beef comes from twenty miles down the road. Oooh, this is getting better and better!! I don't think I have ever seen steaks this thick in a restaurant anywhere ever. Unfortunately, I'm not in a steak kind of mood. I figure I can't go wrong with a cheeseburger. I was right. Very right. I have consumed hundreds or probably thousands of burgers in my time, but if this wasn't the best it has got to be in the top three. Fantastic. While we were eating I noticed something interesting. There were probably 20 or so dudes out dancing with ladies on the dance floor and I pointed out to my wife that none of them had a cell phone on them. Kind of odd in this day and age, but cell service was so spotty in the area, a cell phone would probably be of little use anyways. I got a piece of grandma's cheesecake to go. The thing was about 2.5" thick and tasted fantastic!! It's probably a good thing I don't live there. I'd be broke and fat from eating there every day. Good stuff.

So we get up the next morning, do our load out and head into town to get some coffee (not for me) from a mom-n-pop coffee house. While she is inside I check the vitals and tire pressures to find everything is good. She comes out and were rolling. Shortly after leaving Cody, we come across something you don't see everyday--a B24 performing engine runups before takeoff. Hmmpf, didn't see that coming:



Further down the road we see this sign:



While seemingly interesting, I didn't really feel like heading off into the vast unknown to check it out, so I grabbed a shot while ripping down the road:



Not too long after that we find ourselves in:



We soon came across something that we had seen a few times before, but the purpose of the process evades me:



Cut gouges in the road surface, install green bar and cover with concrete. As labor intensive as it is, it has to have a vital purpose, but damned if I could figure it out. Maybe anti-heaving device?? Dunno.

So stay tuned for our South Dakota adventures when our tale continues.

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by 1leglance

If it wasn't for all the crazy numbers of tourist I would have enjoyed Yellowstone way more...but we only lasted a day due to the madness.
Great looking campsite by the way.

It was a real nice campsite for a campground (yuck). Yep, the madness is what convinced us to bag Teton and head down the road. We didn't want to, but it was getting straight-up crazy there.

Originally Posted by justcuz

Beautiful pictures and trip report. Can't wait for the rest, also glad to hear wipers have been your only problem so far.

Thanks. We are about 2,000 miles into the trip at this point and the only major repair has been the wiper blades. I like it!! Hopefully our luck holds out......

[spacedebris]

Originally Posted by mosesburb

Cut gouges in the road surface, install green bar and cover with concrete. As labor intensive as it is, it has to have a vital purpose, but damned if I could figure it out. Maybe anti-heaving device?? Dunno.

So stay tuned for our South Dakota adventures when our tale continues.

Those are installed on the expansion joints in the concrete for two purposes.

1. they help when freezing and keeping one concrete section lifting more than another causing a bump/lip in cold weather. That way car/trucks dont prematurely wear the road and cause pot holes, Same thing with the road snow plows.

2. They help support the joints when heavy Simi's drive over also preventing the weight of the trucks from tipping and lifting the sections.

[lowrollin70gmc]

Originally Posted by spacedebris

Those are installed on the expansion joints in the concrete for two purposes.

1. they help when freezing and keeping one concrete section lifting more than another causing a bump/lip in cold weather. That way car/trucks dont prematurely wear the road and cause pot holes, Same thing with the road snow plows.

2. They help support the joints when heavy Semi's drive over also preventing the weight of the trucks from tipping and lifting the sections.

Bingo, with the temperature changes in this part of the country they're necessary. Lows of -20 to highs of 105-110 is a lot to ask of concrete. The plows will also run 40 mph plus down the highway so any bump in the road is going to get hammered and destroy the concrete or the cutting edge.