GRBA

Ok, getting close to the present... We left for our current trip this last Monday, September 28th. Before we could leave though we had to get our truck working. Last week we had to test out some new rutbar controller boards (we wanted to have a spare around, but we wanted a spare that worked). Unfortunately when we tested the boards we made a boo boo and connected some wires backwards... not good. After much testing (~8 hours)... we figured out we needed 4 new boards in our rutbar (not the one we were testing in the first place). Those boards were located in Canada though and we were leaving that afternoon for middle of nowhere Nevada. Trust Baker, NV is not a thriving metropolis...

We had to get to Great Basin National Park (Eastern Nevada) by the next day since it was gonna snow on Tuesday night. So we had our friends at Roadware in Canada (current supporter of our truck) overnight our boards to the park. We left Denver about 4pm (after we had troubleshot since 730am). We drove to Grand Junction, CO (13 hour day).

So the next day we got up at 730am, drove from Grand Junction to Baker, NV; got the boards installed around 2pm, collected all of the park by 730pm, ate a quick dinner along the loneliest road in America (US 50). And then drove 2 more hours on an even lonelier road since we didn't see another car for about an hour and 45 minutes on it. We made it to Beaver UT around 1030pm. Then I checked my work, sent my daily emails and was off to bed by 1130pm. A nice 16 hour day for me... But we got the park done.

Here's a map of our drive on Monday and Tuesday...


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Wish I could've spent more than a couple hours at GRBA... but grabbed a couple of pics.
Great Basin NP is dominated by the 13,000 ft Mt Wheeler. Rises above the desert to the East quite magnificently.

Here is a look Eastward onto the Great Basin and the Sevier Desert from about 8500 ft.

Forgot to mention... Beaver, UT high school mascot? You guessed it... Beavers... Yes it's the Beaver Beavers.... classic.

Tulsa and Pathway

As I mentioned before, after GRSM we had to get to Tulsa to discuss the fabrication of our new truck. We decided to drive there since we were heading West with the truck anyway. Not an easy task in a truck with two bad batteries that when slightly over-charged smell badly. I had to change out the batteries a couple of times, switch out the regulator underneath the hood, and basically just deal with a sulfur smell after a while. It wasn't fun, but the truck got to Tulsa and eventually Denver.

Our meeting with the company, Pathway Services, went well. They showed us new trucks and even our truck (stripped out with no computers, makes it look big). It was fun to see the new technology and slightly worrisome as to all the new work flows we're going to have to figure out. But I enjoyed it and look forward to a truck with less problems (nothing could be as bad as this thing).

GRSM summary

So another reason that I've been neglecting my is that football season has begun. College, NFL, and fantasy. I'm in 4 fantasy football leagues, so most of my evenings have been spent reading up on my matchups for the next week. Sad I know... I've also tried to watch my Badgers whenever I can... Tolzien looks good, no?

Again after Blue Ridge, we had Great Smoky Mountains NP. We stayed in Cherokee, NC which is on the Cherokee Reservation, which means Casino! That's the last time I'll use an exclamation point when I describe the Cherokee Casino... it wasn't that great. First of all, no alcohol in the casino. I mean I understand that alcohol and alcoholism are large issues on reservations... at the same time, it's a casino. I figure if you wanted to attract gamblers, you'd want to get them sauced... well I digress.

Another thing about the casino there... no actual cards. Everything was digital on the blackjack tables and the poker tables. It wasn't fun, I mean you can't even touch the cards at most places, but shout... it was lame.

Alright I guess I'd feel differently if I hadn't lost money, but still... I don't recommend the place.

So Great Smokies... Nice park, lots to do, different areas. The only thing that really held us back on the first couple of days was rain and wet roads. The park is almost totally tree covered, so not a lot sun gets down to evaporate the roads.

We had a little more than a week to finish since we were planning on heading to Tulsa on Monday to check out our new truck (pretty exciting); I'll get to it in my next post. Towards the end of the week we were rushing. Then comes Friday morning... systems won't turn on. We figure out that it's one of our power inverters. An inverter basically takes the DC power that the alternators create and convert it to AC power that our computers can use. It's important needless to say. And important stuff isn't usually cheap or easy to find.

We called a place in MN that made the first inverter, explained the situation and told them we needed the inverter yesterday. After a lot of stress over credit cards, connections, remote power buttons, we got the thing Saturday morning in Gatlinburg, TN. Installed it with little problems, and started collecting. We had to drive the truck to Tulsa and be there by Tuesday morning, so we basically had to be done by Sunday afternoon.

After much stress we did it, not the greatest data as some of the roads were still wet. But we could still be there now and not be getting much better data. I think I still have some pics from the park. We saw lots of black bears (probably one a day) and even some elk (I didn't know they lived that far East). I didn't take that many pics though...
Hiked up to this waterfall when we were waiting for our inverter. Relaxed us slightly on a stressful day.
Here's a view from Newfound Gap... basically the NC/TN border. Busy up there, lots of motorcyclists... there was a rally every weekend. (Got old... fast)

So that was GRSM... onto Tulsa then back to Denver (finally out of the South and the East coast). Nice, but getting called a "Yankee" at the casino was the final straw.

BLRI Summary

Ok so it's been a while... I've been working... a lot. Last trip I think I did around 140 hours in 2 weeks. I wasn't collecting the whole time either.... lots of trouble-shooting. I'm gonna try to do a summary of where I've been, what I've seen, and hopefully not hate on my truck too much.

So I'll start with what was the end of Blue Ridge Parkway. Just a reminder Blue Ridge is a 472.820 mile long parkway (trust me on the mileage), that goes from the Southern end of Shenandoah NP to Great Smoky Mountains NP. It's really a pretty drive, but it rains and it rains a lot. We fought the rain almost every day and the days we didn't, we fought the truck.

We had started BLRI on July 24th and we ended on September 5th. It's a big park, but it definitely shouldn't have taken 6.5 weeks. The last 5 days were tough, but we got something done everyday. We flew in on August 31st, picked up the truck from an alternator shop the next day (had to fix the 275amp alternator) and off to work. I think we collected a couple of routes until we started getting an error with our ultra-sonic sensors (give a profile of the road surface - rutting basically). Thought we got it fixed, but didn't get a chance to find out since it started raining.

Next day it came back, fixed it for the day, but we didn't get a lot done since the roads were still wet. Next day we figured out the problem with the rutbar for good (good is relative since we just spent 10 hours troubleshooting it on Friday and Monday). So the next couple of days were trying, but we got BLRI done by Saturday September 5th. Here are a couple of pics that I took from the last days with BLRI.
We had just driven up from Asheville in this pic. We were pretty worried that the roads were gonna be wet, as Asheville was shrouded in clouds. Turned out to be a perfect day for collection above the clouds.
Can't remember the name of this rock, but it's towards the end of BLRI. Kinda reminded me of the Rockier mountains of the West.

So after Blue Ridge came Great Smoky Mountains. 2 things about GRSM... it's the most visited National Park in the system (9 million a year) = lots of dumb drivers and we started collection on a Saturday (of Labor Day weekend). It was tough... and it rained, rained everyday.

BLRI day 11

Boone, NC

Well another eventful couple of days here along the Parkway... the smoke that we saw on Thursday turned out to not be the air conditioner, sorry Winston-Salem Ford Dealer!... we were wrong, you were right. Did get to tour Wake Forest University while they were checking things out though.... nice campus.

The voltages were still dropping... so we still had to figure something out. We trouble-shot all afternoon in Winston-Salem. Eventually we figured out that one of our isolators had gone bad. An isolator basically takes current from an alternator and disperses it evenly to multiple batteries. All the while not allowing current back to the alternator.

Enough technical stuff... it's important basically. When it's not working, we're not working. This of course is happening on a Friday afternoon. And you can't just walk into a local Napa and ask for a 250amp isolator.

We started calling places that we found online to get it shipped overnight. However we couldn't call anywhere on the East coast since it was now about 430pm EDT (too late for FedEx or UPS to go out). Tried the Central time zone... thought we had one, but she called back... too late. Started calling California... found one after a couple of tries. Got it shipped overnight, Saturday arrival (not cheap). But we got it 9am EDT Saturday morning, after ordering it at 530pm EDT on Friday. Amazing what those shipping companies can do these days. And thank you Jared at Buchanan Auto electric in Oakland, CA.

Installed the isolator by 10am and started working. Got a lot done yesterday, most we could've hoped for.

Today was another pretty good collection day. We have all the routes through about MP 289 on the Parkway (goes to 461). So we're making our way. Doesn't look like I'll get to finish it off though, kinda sad about that. I'm heading back to Denver on Tuesday for a little vacation and to celebrate Megan's 30th birthday... Feel free to send her a Happy Birthday message on Thursday

♫

(mmcgrew19@gmail.com).

Had to go through a couple of construction areas today. Got to one with a huge rock slide... see below.

You can see the van in the back for scale... crazy. Don't think that section is gonna be open for a while.

We're staying in Boone, NC... nice town. I mostly like it because it's a small college town, home of the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Well ok, the only reason I'm fond of them is because they pulled off the biggest upset in college football history... beating Michigan in the Big House a couple of years back. Still brings a smile to my face... Town really is nice though, would definitely recommend it for anyone thinking of visiting the area.

Ok, good enough for now. Last day of collection for me tomorrow. Don't think I'll have time to post, but maybe is something cool happens.

BLRI day 8

Hillsville, VA

Well it didn't start out too bad... but it ended with another delay. We were having an average day of collection, good amount of errors, couple of computer restarts... then we started smelling smoke. Then we saw smoke... voltages started dropping.

Pulled over, shut everything off. Van was running fine, belts were ok, smell kinda went away. We decided to drive to a Ford dealer to have them check things out.

Got there and per usual, were a little intimidated by the van. So after talking on the phone with our support and describing the situation, they suggested checking the air conditioning or more specifically the auxiliary air conditioning. We did and that was definitely the culprit. Our condenser has likely gone bad and now we need to find a new one.

So not really sure what we breathed in when the condenser conked out, but it wasn't good.

And I'm still sick... have to pack and get up early tomorrow to drive to Winston-Salem and hopefully get this thing fixed ASAP.

BLRI Day ?

Hillsville, VA

Well I haven't put a post up in a while... been too discouraged. Went back to Denver on 7/31, then back out on the road on 8/10. Long day on Monday too... Had to get up at 3:45 to make my 6:15am flight. I cut it way too close at check-in too. Probably had 1 or 2 minutes before they did the 45 min cutoff. Walked to the gate and walked right onto the plane pretty much.

Flew to Dulles and then caught a flight to Richmond an hour later. Got to Richmond about 2pm local time and then drove 4 hours to Hillsville, VA... Here's map.


View Larger Map

Needless to say it was a long day. And it was like a 100 degrees in Richmond again...

Yesterday we started collecting, but then we got an error with our roughness laser system. The same error for which we had driven to Richmond at the end of our last trip. The same error that we were supposed to have gotten fixed. Frustration is pretty much part of the job description for me.

Turned out to be an issue with one of our timing cards in the roughness computer. We had spares but they didn't work with the cable we had. So we had to get a cable overnighted from Canada to Hillsville. Got this afternoon at about 230pm and started working immediately.

Got a good amount done for only working about 4 hours. Low sun glare only stopped us at about 645pm.

Bad news from today is that I've gotten sick. Head cold, sore throat, achy... Speaking of achy... Saw a sweet poster of Mr. Achy Breaky himself at the restaurant we went to. Wasn't this one, but this one is sweet.

Went and bought some meds today for my sickness. Didn't realize I bought Ibuprofen PM until after I had popped 2 of them at noon. It was a sleepy afternoon, hopefully I'll be able to sleep, but that's not usually an issue for me.

Last thing from today... After I got out of the shower this morning, I noticed I have a message on my mirror which only shows up when it's fogged up. "I'm watching you!" I mean I guess it's kinda freaky, but not really... funny more than anything. Tried to take a photo with of it, but the bathroom fogginess didn't work out so well.