First sign of adventure came while stopping at a light in Rock Springs Wyoming, roughly 3 hours from Ogden. Unreliable Ronda stalled. I got her going again after a minute of desperate key turning, but she was struggling and clanging badly when I rolled her into a gas station. Popping the hood revealed smoke, or more accurately, steam, coolant boiling out of the reservoir and a couple missing belts...yikes!
I called around and found a tow truck and a garage that would work on her, then busted to the local airport to get a rental car. Shocker I know, I couldn't believe Rock Springs had an airport either. I drove all n ight to Ogden, slept on my buddy Bryan's floor, got up, banged out my interview and drove back to get Ronda. Thankfully, when I got to Rock Springs she was already to go...$400 later of course! Ouch!
All I could think as this point was how less stressful it was never driving Ronda anywhere and climbing in Ten Sleep=(
Back on the road again I drove till about 11pm, apparently the tail lights on Ronda don't work anymore, or so the state trooper informed me. The nice lady cop escorted me to, probably her favorite store, walmart where I ended up staying the night...of course, because it's a well light parking lot I completely forgot that I had my lights on and got to give Ronda a jump come the next morning.
Several more days of intense scary Ronda driving ensue, the main starter battery in Ronda died, dead, as in no longer holding a charge ever. It drained the spare marine battery the first day as well, so I had to disconnect my solar panel setup and get the 60 lbs battery from that and give myself a jump, gah! So much time wasted and so much driving to do!
One last stop over in St. Louis for carpet cleaner...damn you Mondo...and I got the guide book for the Red same day, energy levels spiked pretty damn hard! There are soooo many freaking climbs in the Red I can barely wait to get on it!
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| Mondo, just a little spent from doing nothing |
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