Last Tour Before Summer Gig, With A Twist
Capitol Reef
May 17, 2023
Chief, our truck, had been getting in on the touring action the last couple of trips so today we switched over to Pepe knowing we were not going to be getting off the pavement. We got an early start from our base camp in Thompson Springs, UT and breezed in to Capitol Reef by 9:00 am, 111 miles later.
My opening statement may be a little misleading. Capitol Reef appears to be small if you are sticking to paved roads as we are. But if you have an off-highway vehicle or really good knees there are more than 377 square miles to explore, all of it rugged. But our time is short today, we have to get back to base camp and start getting in travel mode for our leg north to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, our gig for the summer.
Sticking to the pavement and seeing an abbreviated portion of the park did not leaving us feeling short-changed on "oohhs", "aahhs" and "wows". Capitol Reef is a beautiful place and while bustling it was not crowded. No timed entry and relatively easy parking at points of interest.
We made our obligatory stop at the visitor center and got the passport book stamped as well as a sew-on patch for the travel blanket.
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| This feature is right across from the Visitor Center. Aptly named The Castle. |
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| This park is popular with the bicycle crowd. They were everywhere. |
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| It was a great view but if you look closely at the bottom right corner you can see the pavement end and a dirt road begin. We're going to break our plan and go off-pavement. |
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| The road might as well have been paved. It was in excellent shape and the drive was beautiful. |
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| There was more to be seen by getting out of the car. Spring was well underway in this canyon. |
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| Sure, the big draw to these Utah parks are their grand vistas. But there is plenty of beauty to be seen in the diminutive too. |
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| In ancient times this must have been a doozy of a river. Now it is a flash flood spectacle. |
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| The sedimentary layering is impressive, eons of deposits. |
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| This layering captured both Cyndee's and my attention. Each layer was so fine and delicate appearing, as if it were a flaky pastry. |
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| A little perspective of scale. That little blue spot is Cyndee. |
A most enjoyable day but it was time to get back to base camp and start prepping for our 225 mile leg to the Red Canyon Visitor Center of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Pepe, Cyndee's 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe, had been a factor in enjoying the day, always a comfortable ride while only sipping fuel.
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| Pepe |
It was white-knuckle off and on. We could get a good head of steam going downhill and not be so noticeably slower than the traffic around us. But getting up the next hill made the veins in my neck stick out. And that is the way it stayed until we limped into Green River, UT. There we consulted with two different garages and were given the same sickening news.
Keep in mind that the reason the news was such a shock is because Cyndee researched cars for MONTHS before she decided on the make and model she wanted. Nowhere, at any time, was there ever a mention of what we had just heard, twice in 90 minutes.
So what did we hear? We were told without hesitation by two separate mechanics that we had hit a limit on mileage for our particular motor. It seems it had developed a reputation for giving up at approximately 100,000 miles. We had just passed 90,000 on our way up from Texas to Utah. Diagnostic check confirmed that a major malfunction was unfolding as evidenced by compressed air/exhaust escaping from the oil filler tube when the cap was removed. Again, in both cases, we were told that it would be more expensive to fix the engine than to put a new one in, at a cost of at least $7K. Plus, finding a new engine may take weeks or even months because they were in shortage. I asked the second mechanic if he could reset the engine fault code and clear the limp home mode. He could and he did. We motored on to Thompson Springs, there were some rapid decisions and actions to be done.
This is where being a full-timer has unwanted adventure. We had less than 24 hours to dispose of one vehicle and acquire another. All the while being in a remote area. I suppose that there are those that do that but we're not one of them. We ponder, research, ponder some more and then shop for a bargain. This takes time, lots of time. Time we don't have now.
Cyndee hit the keyboard as soon as we stepped in the rig. She spent a long night trying to find something that met our needs and close enough that we could complete the purchase the next day. Happily she found some possibilities. All we had to do was get to Grand Junction, Colorado, about an hour east of us first thing in the morning.
I was dreading the process. I have no love lost for dealerships and their sales people. I thought the day was going to be miserable dealing with both. But we watched the sun rise as we drove to Grand Junction and rolled into Western Slope Automotive as their first victims, uh customers of the day. Boy, what a surprise, the used car dealer we were contacted by actually listened to what we were looking for and he knew his inventory and was able to get us narrowed down to three choices in a matter of minutes. Cyndee and I spent what seemed to us a rushed few minutes looking over the three choices. One didn't have the needed tow package and we settled on one of the other two to take on a test drive.
The salesman tossed us the keys and described a circuit to drive that would take about 15 minutes. It included city blocks, a section of interstate and a construction zone with rough, tore up road. We took turns driving the circuit and both of us concluded we had found the right vehicle. Me more than Cyndee. She didn't appreciate the larger displacement engine and its commensurate acceleration as much as I. Now came the hard part, writing the check. We had to take money earmarked for a litany of projects and other future spending but it is necessary.
On the morning of May 18th we were happy as clams with our Pepe. By 4:00pm on May 19th Pepe was history and there was a new vehicle in our stable.
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| There it is, the replacement. 2022 Ford Edge |
As soon as we arrived back at base camp I had to get to work getting the hitch set up and connecting the trailer for tomorrows drive through steep mountain grades and a multitude of sharp switchbacks.
Look out Flaming Gorge, here we come.
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