Wandering and Wondering - My little road trip.

Thanks. Im only a third of the way done and looking forward to the next few weeks

 

I am jealous! One day will try and do this myself. I look forward to the updates.

 

Sub'd for more awesome pics, scenery, and stories.

 

This is my favorite picture through page 11. Looks like your trip has been awesome!

 

Alright, since it seems I've been avoiding you guys, I'll throw up the new pics and stories:

No shit, most of the breweries I went to were closed for some damn reason. Someone told me that most of them were closed Sundays and Mondays, but I don't know why. I first tried New Belgium, but nope. I hate AB, so there's no way in hell I was going on their tour (yes they have a brewery in Ft. Collins). I took off down the road to Longmire/Lyons and stopped at Oskar Blues. They had a nice funky, come as you are feel and they always have a magnificent range of beer, including cask pulled... The also hire special needs people to make small crafts that they sell and/or give away at beer fests, which is pretty freaking cool.

Then I went looking for Odell, but had no luck, so I stopped at the Oskar Blues restaurant for lunch. Let me tell you, that place is freaking amazing. I had a super hot waitress who knew a lot about beer. The food was fantastic, and they had beer from all over Colorado. If you get a chance, GO!

Once I stuffed my face, I went to Left Hand, but they were also closed so I said screw it and proceeded to Colorado Springs via Crooked Stave Beer Artisan on Brighton in Denver. I'm not gonna say it was bad, but it was different. They mainly brewed saison (which generally taste like sour mold), but I had a request to pick some up, so I obliged.

After I tried their one IPA, which was surprisingly good, I headed down to Colorado Springs where I was meeting my friends Pat and Megan and their kiddos and cartoonish, gassy, antique dog.

After that fantastic visit, I took off to Pike's Peak, and while it was closed after mile 13, it was still a great drive up (and coast down) the mountain. The cool thing is, on Hwy 24, there is also the Cliff Dwellers monument (more on that shortly) and Garden of the Gods, so I swung by both on my way to I25 S.

The Cliff Dwellers monument, while really cool, is nothing more than a tourist trap. It is a replica of the Cliff Dwellers ACTUAL houses just west of Durango (yes, I'll be going tomorrow on my way to Moab). The guy that owns it just wanted to bring more attention to Colorado Springs.

Garden of the Gods was a really cool park right in the middle of suburbs, and once you figured out to avoid all the kamikaze cyclists and horse tours, it made for an amazing loop.

I then bounced down to Taos, NM, just to say I did, and it turned out to be a wise choice. Not only is Carson National Park beautiful, but just to the NW of Taos, there is the Rio Grande Gorge and Taos Mesa Brewery - So I had to stop.

The gorge was pretty awesome, but it was cold, so I didn't stay long, but the brewery was niiiiiiice and warm and had great frothy brew. They host a lot of good music and you can meet plenty of interesting people there. The quote of the night was "It reminds me of Woodstock. I had backstage tickets and I couldn't even get in." I was trying to make it to Moab tonight, but I just ran out of time since all the roads are bent and twisted and crawling with very large wild animals. I would know as I narrowly avoided hitting an elk. As I came through the back roads, some poor fool decided that he wanted to have a drag race as I passed him, and then he rode my ass with his brights on for about 5 miles. As we rolled around into a desolate road, I flipped on all my lights and he still insisted on tailgrabbing me with his stock, yellowed high beams. I slowed down to about 5 under and moved slightly over to show that he could pass, but he wasn't having it, so I slowed down to about 15 under trying to milk him into passing, but he was an interstate tough guy and knew what would happen to his retinas should he pass in a deserted area. Once we cot into Durango and I was forced to shutting my lights off, he zoomed past, nary to be heard from again....

So now:
Pictures and video if I have the time.







Oskar Blues



















Left Hand Brewery



So I have more pics on my phone that I will post tomorrow, but I'll fast forward to today.





Catamount Reservoir















Top-ish of Pikes Peak WAAAY above the tree line.





I wish Pa Kettle wasn't in this pic.





Still haven't learned my lesson about the Merrills....









Here is the fake place:











Garden of the Gods











Then I came across this veteran's memorial so I had to stop.







Now beer.













Then I stopped because I thought I saw something.



Which pretty much catches you up on the picture side of the house. I'll try to get the videos up, but no promises as I have a pretty early morning and tomorrow is gonna be so freaking bad ass that I can't even put it into words.

 

It is a good one, but there are so many that I like, it's gonna be hard to choose.

 

http://youtu.be/QcEfD6y2k_I

 

What did you think you saw?

 

So, do you have a build thread or anything? It doesn't look like you've done anything crazy, but I'd like to know what bumper that is, what kind of lights and what suspension mods you have done.

Big Foot!

 

http://youtu.be/qdqL8qkuZkw

http://youtu.be/TQRB6bJHijg

http://youtu.be/RKqG4XmL8kA

http://youtu.be/q4zTgGEyAno

 

Lol, I had to stretch because the rest stop at Rio Grande Gorge was closed due to vandalism So I stopped and caught the picture after I was done, However I did almost hit an elk as she crossed the road, and then another, and another, and then a whitetail. I saw probably 20 elk and 10 whitetail. I had some video, but gopro cameras and darkness don't mix.

 

Daaaaamn, loving it so far.. keep it up Mike.

 

I try to take pics at places people might not get to see often or ever. Because then I get to see it too!

 

bad ass looks like a shit ton of fun so far

 

I can't believe I didn't answer the first part.

It came with the billies and eibach spring which gives it a 2.5 in lift, and they stuffed 265 BFGs under there. It also came with the TRD catback exhaust.

When I got back from the 'Stan, I installed a K&N CAI, Spidertrax 1.25 inch spacers, and the Road Armor Bumper with the 4 Dually D2 Flood lights and a 20 in Rigid E series lightbar. The winch is a Warn zeon 8 with spydura cable. The predator tube steps came with the truck from the factory and will be replaced by sliders here soon (maybe my xmans gift to myself) and an ATO bumper, which will, after today, be modified to be a HC if Kase wants the challenge haha. I'm also thinking of putting full skids on and a supercharger, but that's all future mike decisions

 

This is awesome, Thank you for sharing your road trip.

Have you been getting motel rooms along the way ?

Too anyone that has never gone a walkabout { what my friends call my excursions } It is a must, this is a beautiful country, and you meet the most interesting people on your journey.

My last walkabout i covered right around 15,000 miles in a dodge ram diesel 4x4 with a regular old shell on it. In that time i stayed in a motel room for 6 nights, the rest of the time i truck camped and loved every minute of it except when i was way north in Alaska, it was a nit cold sleeping in a truck with a dog. i vowed to myself to one day get my dirty mitts on a Sportsmobile for my future excursions. http://www.sportsmobile.com/4_4x4sports.html

Where are you headed next ?

cheers, and be safe.

 

Thanks, this one would be about that far, but I took the alaska leg out due to an event that i kinda sorta have to go to in early november.

There was a guy today at Mesa Verde who had a sportsman, and i thought how nice it would be to have one of those and the places that it would open up to exploring.

As for my next destination... well, you'll just have to tune in to find out.

 

I really like that front bumper. I think yours is the first I've seen like that. It looks great on the Tacoma.

 

You in Arizona yet mike?

 

The internet is ridiculously slow. I'll post some of the videos first this time:

http://youtu.be/CC034Ef7pxk

http://youtu.be/Bvvi2im1GuI

http://youtu.be/CE-h5qpEV1g

http://youtu.be/W_ZbmgE35QA