It's only 11 days after our target date.

Something about wrangling two trucks, two trailers, and bringing what's needed for the "Team" that takes longer than I imagine it should :-/ It doesn't help that I acquired my trailer a couple weeks ago and had to change tires/wheels, strip the inside, do a bit of insulation (that will get finished later), do a minor build inside . . . so that I can camp in it, and paint it.

So that makes our caravan 2 big trucks, and 2 trailers, a year ago it was half that, . . . and last winter it was two trucks and one trailer . . . , . . . do we see a pattern here?

Both Beasts are still feeding on "wildcrafted" fuel . . . that makes for a lot of "hunting".

The little Draggin' is loaded w/ the back-up fleet for the Rapid Response team that I created, and coordinate now. I'm also in charge of our bike maintainance station, . . . which is my camp.

The first night out we found a spot on the edge of the park. Our goal was only to get away from our Oasis, and get as close to the `Zona line as we could before dark (someday I'll do something about those lights on the Draggin').

That would let us get to the `Zona DMV early enough that we could get out of town before mid-day and put on some miles in the right direction . . . North.

I needed to get a reg on this new trailer I'm pulling, and heading East to the Colorado river (at 400' and triple digits) is the closest office.

Not too many feet away from our rigs that night was a line of "T stakes that had been driven, as a barrier, across the dirt track . . . PARK BOUNDARY. The track was now getting wider at that spot (like anything that gets dammed) . . . enough room to turn around . . . a camp space starting to happen on the edge. It's becoming an un-official trailhead.

Now most will walk from here to the hill size pile of rocks that the track went to before the damming, . . . others won't, they'll make a way around. Of course they may have been here since before the Park was a park and have been driving out here for most of their lives, . . . hard to know.

The next day the Draggin' started a little weak. Watching the gauges on the way to the river caused a bit of concern . . . he didn't seem to be charging.
After some "hoop jumping" and some "paper signing" at the DMV, they gave me a paper tag. ". . . put it in a freezer ziplock and tape it to the rear . . ." RIGHT!
I stored it safely in the map box, and while we were at it we plotted a route, had some food, and got ready for a day of driving.
Firing up the Draggin' brought the sound of a diesel turning over way to slow . . . damn. Two trucks pulling two trailers, and where's my multi-meter? Right . . . not w/ us.
So now the plan changes to " find a good site, to our north but NOT too far from parts stores, to be broke-down".

While here we drop the deck into position.

This is the second deployment of the new deck and we are really liking it! We had it made right before departing on this adventure and are still in the testing phase.

Last summers trip w/ this trailer taught us that you can NOT use the ladder with a trailer attached. Getting in and out involved climbing around on the tongue with the landing gear and air/electric lines. Not an easy thing to do in the night.
Our solution was to design a deck that would fold down from the front of the trailer that we could connect the ladder to. Now it's easy to just step outside and take the ladder to the ground. No longer do we have to risk maiming or death just to get outside, . . . at least not from that.

Today I'll figure out how to bypass the starter relay.

Yesterday morning started with me deciding that I could continue on by just jumping the lil Draggin' off of the She Beast to start it. After that it doesn't need any power from the alt, that's only used by the brake lights, turn signals, and the in-tank fuel pump. I know the injector pump will pull fuel when it's running and can do without the in-tank one.

So we connect the jumpers for a good 10 mins while the She Beast is warming up. The Draggin' fires up, warms up, and we're off.

At some point later in the day I pull into a lot so that we can check the maps. While there I think ". . . that inside bathroom might be a good thing . . .", when I return we do a bit of planning our next stop. Some place that we can be till Mon., that will be the next time the shop are open and we need to harvest some fuel. All decided we climb in and . . . the She Beast doesn't fire, doesn't even turn over! So now we have one that won't start and one that needs to be jumped to start.
~ ~ ~
Time for plan "C".
We recruit "security" to be our flashing amber, fire up the Draggin'(still enough charge for that), hook up the chain to the She Beast, and have a "convoy" around the lot. Once we're on the far side we claim some space for the night.

By the end of the day we had made it out of the developed areas.

Some map staring had given us a lead on what ended up being a rather nice cove on the west side of the river. It was close enough that we could get back into town for some fuel harvesting once the shops opened, and a wonderful relief from the triple digit temps.

We decided to stay for a few nights after doing the "town run" and coming back w/ full tanks.

Water like this is a real gift during a desert summer. It's one of the few rivers that runs all year in either of the two SW deserts.

The morning of our departure we had a visitor, a desert tortoise, wandering calmly among the rigs. After checking out the area it headed back into the dez.

We did prowl the area before settling in, no Raiders, no Homeless, and it seems no Bar Sluts.

As we were headed north a friend of ours was headed south and crossing paths with us.

There was a lake near by and we decided to park-up together for a night or two.