Anne and Byron's 2013 winter trip

[Byron Kinnaman]

I thought I’d share some of the good and not so good about our winter trip this year.
We headed for Death Valley December 27th and arrived on the 28th.
We stayed at Sun Set campground. Some of the good things we did, visited Rhyolite Ghost town just inside NV from Death Valley. We drove Titus Canyon, both were great experiences.

From there we went to Katherine Landing near Bullhead City, AZ. As we pulled in the campground the wheels and brakes on the trailer were a squealing, not a good sign. Felt the hubs, they were quite hot. Set the trailer up and headed for town to try and find a shop that can repack the bearings, etc. Note, I had the bearings packed and brakes adjusted just before we left Oregon. I found a shop and the price was quite good. Got that done. Next thing the charge controller on solar panel quit and no battery charge. I jumpered around controller and monitored the charge manually. Now to find a replacement. Again luck was with me a solar provider in town could get a new one. Price a bit high, but at least I not longer had to watch the charge on the battery.

From here we went to Benson, AZ to visit the Kartchner Caverns. What a neat place. The warmest place so far on this trip was inside the caverns.

Up to Apache Junction we next. Met up with Dave and Paula Brown. Very nice couple. We spent one day running around in the hills with his Jeep Lifted Rubicon. The next day it was off the Musical Instrument Museum. There were three couples that went on the visit. After 5 to 6 hours exploring the displays we were ready to get off our feet. Dave and Paula took us to the Organ Stop Pizza Parlor. Here we found the worlds largest Wurlitzer Theater Organ and a real master player. I recommend both for anybody that close to Phoenix, AZ. It was worth the trip.

A quick stop at Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is AZ. Interesting Petroglyphs.

Next stop Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I believe this to be the greenest desert in the country. Some flowers were blooming. We took the Ajo Mountain Loop road again, I didn’t break the truck this time. What a pretty piece of desert. Along the Mexican border (up to 100 miles from the border) the border patrol has check point like you hear about in the middle east. They stop you sometimes ask a lot of “none their business” questions, like where coming from?, where you going?, is this your truck?, is it registered to you?, etc. etc. I was very tempted to answer “where are you going” with Why. There’s a very place called Why just a few miles from one the check points.

Back to Katherine Landing we went next. We took a trip to Oatman, AZ for a bit of birthday shopping. Found what we needed for a daughter’s birthday and some postcards. Hung around long enough to see part the “high noon gun fight”, and watch the burros wander through town.

Next stop was Las Vegas Bay campground on Lake Mead. Visits were to the Mob Museum, the Pin Ball Museum, and Shelby Cobra car factory and museum. All were very interesting.

This is about the time we discovered March not a good month to be traveling in some parts of the country. It’s spring break time and it gets kind of wild, both at Las Vegas Bay and Death Valley where we went next. Las Vegas Bay wasn’t much of a surprise that it wild being less than 20 miles from Las Vegas and Henderson, but Death Valley? I guess it’s close enough to southern California. That’s when we decided it was enough and headed for home.

You can read more details at trips.kinnamans.net if you’re interested.

[deryk]

Sounds like a nice adventure!

[honda03842]

Byron and Anne,

Sounds like a marvelous trip. Titus Canyon is a neat ride and Dave and Paula are truly nice people. Safe Travels/

[cpaharley2008]

Did you ever figure out the bearing issue, wasn't done originally, perhaps?

[ericw]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

[...]Organ Stop Pizza Parlor. Here we found the worlds largest Wurlitzer Theater Organ and a real master player. I recommend both for anybody that close to Phoenix, AZ. It was worth the trip. [...]

We did a few of the things on your trip and we would second that we loved the Wurlitzer. We went there as a family. Grandparents, kids, and grandchildren all loved it.

[Evergreengirl]

Thanks for the nice report. I think Death Valley is my all time favorite national park! We are in Beatty, NV at the moment, just a hop, skip and a jump from there (and Rhyolite, of course), but must give it a pass this time as we need to keep moving north towards home. I've always wanted to see Organ Pipe and your report encourages me to make sure we get to it soon. I agree those border control guys and gals can be very annoying, but it doesn't pay to get snarky with them. We too discovered that it's a pain to be out traveling during spring break. Busy everywhere and hard to find good campsites at times.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Did you ever figure out the bearing issue, wasn't done originally, perhaps?

It appears that two things caused heat and noise done by the guy that packed the bearings and adjusted brakes just before we left. The crown nut on the hub was bit too tight, the brakes were adjusted too tight. The combination caused things to heat up more than normal and eventually make noise. I kind of figured that and the guys that redid the job in Bullhead City confirmed it.

I'm glad I make a habit of feeling the hubs when ever I stop so I know what's normal and what's not. I had done that earlier in the day and thought they were a bit warmer than they should be. I only gone about 50 miles at the time. 200 miles later both sides were hot. The fact that both sides were hot was a clue that the hubs and/or brakes weren't properly adjusted.