Jacques the Rock: August 2016

Sunday, August 21, 2016

2016 Off-Road Adventure - The End

53^rd day (Monday, August 8^th) through 61^st day (Tuesday, August 16^th) Departed Bayfield, Colorado early Monday morning headed toward Marysvale, Utah to participated in the Paiute Trail Jamboree. Drive was fairly easy until I hopped onto Highway 70 headed west. Had head wind for over 120 miles. What should have been a 6-hour drive took me over 8. Got to Marysvale late afternoon.

My friends (AL & Deb) from Georgia were already at the park waiting for me to arrive. We immediately started planning our ride for Tuesday. Plan was to head to Koosharem, Utah through the Fishlike National Forest, have lunch at the only Café’ in town, then head back to Marysvale in time for dinner at 6PM.

Manning Meadows Lake Trail Map to Koosharem

Everything worked out as planned, except the trip back. After lunch we were about 2 miles into the trail back to Marysvale when my RZR 800 started to have some engine issues. I heard a horrific rattling noise, so I shut it down immediately.

I investigated the engine compartment looking for any liquid leakage or damage, having found none, I started it up again, the noise was still there. I figured that I had major engine failure. I had my friend tow me back to Koosharem at the local Mercantile. We decided he and his wife would drive back over the mountains (takes 1 ½ hours), hook up his trailer to his SUV and drive the 60 miles back to Koosharem to pick me up. In all it took 4 hours to get me back to Marysvale.

Wednesday morning I took my machine to a mechanic. Sure enough, I threw a rod. Goes without saying, I’ve had better days. O well “Stuff happens”.

Big decision now is, do I finish up my 82-day Off Road Adventure with a rental machine or just go home early.

I decided that it was time to go home and fix my RZR. Originally the plan was to go to Deadwood, South Dakota and meet up from my friends (Greg & Etta) from Green Bay plus visit my brother (Guy) on my return trip. After talking with Andre’ he convinced me that instead of going home early, I should make the side trip to Columbus, Montana and visit my brother. I took his advice. Thank you “ Little Buddy”, that was good advice

I departed Marysvale mid-day Thursday and headed north to Montana. After driving for approximately 360 mile, I decided to spend the night in Fort Hill, Idaho. I checked out a few RV parks and they were all full, so I figured I would go park in the Fort Hill Casino parking lot. I got lucky; they had one spot left in their RV Park. RV Parks were all full because the Shoshone Indian http://www.shoshonebannocktribes.com/shoshone-bannock-history.html were having their annual festival http://shobanfestival.com/events/ I could hear their drumbeats and chanting into the wee hours of the morning.

My drive to Columbus was uneventful, spend the early morning avoiding thunder and lightening storms. Got lucky, missed them all.

The remainder of the day was enjoyable, great scenery

I finally arrived Columbus Friday (August 12^th) evening around 4PM. Visited with Guy for a while and decided to go have dinner.

Guy runs a service truck and tow truck for a local company.

My 2-½ day visit went something like this:

After dinner he got a call to tow a disabled car to Columbus

Drive to Park city to fix a flat tire on a Motor home

Towed a disabled car that had hit a deer

Towed a stolen vehicle for the sheriff department

Towed a disabled vehicle that we were unable to locate from the previous day.

We would get back home around 1 am each day. I did make one observation, riding my RZR quad in the mountains is much more comfortable then driving in a tow or service truck at 75 miles an hour down Hwy 90.

It was still great seeing my brother; it was one heck of an adventure.

Left Columbus, Montana on Sunday, headed towards Oak Harbor. The drive was easy, so I decided to just drive until I got tired. Once I hit Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, I started looking for night accommodations. After my 3^rd time of pulling of the Hwy and not finding a place to spend the night, I decided to push through to Ellensburg, Washington and parked at a Love’s Truck stop for the night. Long day, I clocked in 675 miles.

August 16^th on the 61^st day of my 2016 Off Road Adventure, I arrived in Oak Harbor, Washington. Following day I took my RZR 800 to the Polaris dealer to have them diagnose the damage to the engine. I was confirmed, "catastrophic failure" non -repairable, so I ordered a new engine. I should be back in business in a few weeks.

To lift my spirits a little, on Saturday I hopped on my Yamaha Road Star motorcycle and took a leisure ride around Whidbey Island. It worked. Beautiful sunny day on the island.

My 2016 Off-Road Adventure was a total success, even though I had to cut it short because of equipment failure. I made new friends, met up with old friends and saw some amazing scenery in 6 different sates.

I want to thank the following folks for making my Adventure exciting and a success:

"The Habitat for Humanities Crew"

Joe and Paula Allen ( Project manager)

Jen, Jackie, Gae, Bill and Bill Eric ( Board member)

Rachel -Green shirt (Exec Director)

"Off road riding friends"

(L to R) Steve, Kathy, Monyeen and Keith (L to R) Debbie,Kristen, Al and Rick

(L to R) Bruce and Kerstin (L to R) Mel and Terri

I want to say Hi to my good friends Greg and Etta from Green Bay; unfortunately I was not able to make it to Deadwood, South Dakota to meet you. I was ready to cook you a salmon dinner. There is always next year. Looking forward to it.

"Thank you all for your acceptance and friendship "

Sunday, August 7, 2016

2016 Off Road Adventure - Habitat for Humanities Build (Bayfield, Colorado)

40^thday (Tuesday, July 26^th) through 52^nd Day (Sunday, August 7^th) My first day on the build. Overwhelmed with excitement I loaded up my bike with my carpenter tools, helmet and lunch and headed to the Habitat for Humanities build at the Fox farm project which was the same location I worked at last year.

It was rewarding to see the completed house I had participated in last year, it was even more rewarding to have the homeowner that we built the home for remembered me and again thanking me.

"Completed 2015 Habitat for Humanities Build"

This years duplex was all framed so I was assigned to wrap the upper level of the duplex to make it moisture proof. Joe (friend from last year) and Bill (first time Care-A-Vanner) were assigned to assist me.

At first glance the task appeared to be fairly simple, well it wasn’t. Standing on scaffolding 15 feet up in the air, unrolling a 45 pound 16 foot wide roll of building wrap all while you are stapling the wrap to the building with the sun bearing down on you, proved to be extremely challenging. Joe (70 +), Bill (80+) and I (65) took on the challenge with enthusiasm. They called me the “young one” for obvious reasons.

"Joe Henrick " "Bill Fleetwood"

"House wrap"

Next assignment for Joe and I was installing siding, wrapping windows and doors on the back wall. We were both glad to have our feet solidly planted on the ground.

Being on the ground didn’t last long for me, my next assignment was working with Doug (Hammer Club Member) to install soffits on the front of the duplex. I got a good work out that day, working above my head. Mission accomplished.

Friday of my last week, we were unable to work at the construction because of rain. I ask a fellow Care-A-Vanners (Jen) if she wanted to go to Durango to work at the ReStore location. We worked all day testing and cleaning various light fixture and multiple microwaves and stoves. Jen was a great asset; she researched the Web to find prices for the items we get ready for sale. Well worth the effort.

Next on my task list was removing the front side scaffolding so the windows could be installed, which was my next assignment. Doug helped me tear apart all of the second level scaffolding. Eric (Hammer club member) Alan (Project manager) and we finished the windows on my last Saturday at work.

On July 21^st we were invited to the Durango Builders Annual social event. This year they were sponsoring a Chilly Cook off. They had approximately 15 different organizations that entered the cook-off. All we had to do is taste the chilly, drink free beer and socialize, O yeh we had to vote for our favorite.

The association also introduced us Care-A-Vanners to the membership and public, and highlighted the fact that we were from all over the US driving around in our RV’s building houses for perfect strangers. Kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.

Sunday July 31^st I decided to treat Paula and Joe to an Alaskan salmon dinner.

On August 1^st, Joe and Paula invited me to join them for a train ride from Durango http://www.coloradoscenicrails.com/trains/durango/history.aspx To Silverton http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/silverton on an old 1881 coal driven engine. Since I love to ride trains it was a no brainer. The train follows the Animas River https://www.durangoutdoors.com/lakes-rivers/animas-river.htm as it winds up the mountain. When I was here last year they had a contaminated-mine-water spillage into the river. The upper area still shows signs of the spill. http://www.denverpost.com/2015/08/06/animas-river-fouled-by-1-million-gallons-of-contaminated-mine-water/

The trip up the mountain takes a little over 3 hours, we decided to take a bus back down the mountain which gave us a total different view. It was an amazing trip. I will let the pictures tell the story.

"We were in one of the Open cars"

"Silverton, Colorado"

On Friday August 5^th, the La Plata county Habitat for Humanities threw us an appreciation dinner at a local BBQ joint. It was great getting together in a social event, you can just imagine the teasing that took place, for some reason it was mostly directed at me. Alan (Project Manager) and Eric (La Plata County Habitat for Humanities Board of Directors member) had saved it up.

" Alan" "Eric"