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Hawkrod 'RoadKill' Cross Country Trip 2022

OK, so a lot has happened the last few days. we have been without WIFI and good coverage. Tonight we are in Monticello Utah, and we are staying in a motel, so I finally have some WIFI!

Here is another couple of shots from Navaho Lake. Nice spot to camp, and we had a great view.
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Here was our setup - of course with a shot of the old RoadKill Runner!
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Watching the sunset from our camp site.
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From there we drove to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Two main points here. 1) Getting there requires driving on some really bad dirt roads that beat the living heck out of the car. If anything was not fully tightened down, it would come loose! We have some awesome videos Barry took of the back wheel of the car while we were driving - I'll have to figure out how to post them. (2) Chaco Canyon was way cool.
Here is the DIRTY and DUSTY car. Since we kept the windows open (no A/C), the inside is just as bad as the outside!
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Chaco Canyon was built by the Native Americans between about 900-1250. Seriously cool engineering and construction skills. Here are a few shots to give you the idea. The bottom line is this is a really cool place to visit.
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This was a community gathering spot. Originally it had a roof over it.
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This is the one town in Chaco Canyon (there are several others).
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Overall, a place that is tough to get to, but well worth the trek. We also did a 4 mile hike up to set of ruins on the mesa. Again, super nice!
 
OK, great, so we have Chaco Canyon under our belt and we get beat to heck driving back out. But the car survives the drive out and we then start heading towards Mesa Verde in Colorado.

...well, the electronic ignition module had other ideas. It failed in a manner that made me believe we had vapor lock. We have had vapor lock whenever we start the car back up, as the fuel boils away and we need to crank the starter. But other than that, it runs well. In this case, it started "sputtering", caught again, and then died. We tried start gas and other things, but it would not start back up. Finally I checked spark and we had none. Hmmm. Different problem.
Here is the module:
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Maybe the heat (90+ degrees) plus the rough roads made the rest of the insulation come out. It died about 40 miles after we left Chaco Canyon.

Luckily, I had a spare with me, so we got that on and were back on the road to Mesa Verde, Colorado...

We did Mesa Verde today. We could not get any guided tours, but viewing the dwellings of the ancient Native Americans was cool. A couple of pictures.
Here is a major dwelling under a rock overhang. The dwellings are built into the rock!
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Here is another.
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Some text if you can read it - relates to the picture above.
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Another dwelling we could actually walk through - many need guided tours which we could not get.
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Here is a partially rebuilt model to show what the roofs over some more basic dwellings looked like. But even these had special vents and other features that made them pretty advanced.
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Tonight we stopped in Monticello, Utah. We are going to try to get in to Arches National Park (requires a pass) as well as Canyonlands.

Warning: The next couple of days are likely to be without much cell phone coverage, certainly no WIFI! We will update when we can.

Thanks for following along!
 
HawkRod this trip thread is fantastic and being able to follow along with you is priceless. The Runner is getting a thorough workout under all types of driving conditions and you are making some great memories along the way. Thank you for your efforts to post updates and lots of great pictures as your journey continues.
:xscuseless:
:lowdown: :lowdown: :lowdown: :luvplace: :thankyou: :thankyou: :thankyou: :steering::rofl:
 
Sounds like the ac died so that Hawk & Barry can "touch nature" (dirt dust etc...) as it was intended, like the frontier folks on horseback & covered wagons back in the day. Stories they shall pass onto the grandkids, embellished just a bit of course!! ENJOY THE JOURNEY, CHERISH THE GOOD & BAD, it's "ROAD RUNNER ROADKILL" ! !
 
Just in case you didn't think of it - SEE IF YOU CAN PICK UP ANOTHER SPARE...
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
I don't know Hawk personally, but his personality trait would be that he has a spare (for the spare he just used), along with at least 2 ballast resistors. It is either that or he has located every available one within 250 miles at NAPA online.
:D
Hawk, tell me I'm wrong.
You guys are living the dream!
 
Just in case you didn't think of it - SEE IF YOU CAN PICK UP ANOTHER SPARE...

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
I don't know Hawk personally, but his personality trait would be that he has a spare (for the spare he just used), along with at least 2 ballast resistors. It is either that or he has located every available one within 250 miles at NAPA online.
:D
Hawk, tell me I'm wrong.
You guys are living the dream!
I had two spares with me - now down to one! :D:rolleyes::p

I have zero spares for the ballast resistor, but I could give a crap about that - I'll just bypass it if it gives me an issue... :luvplace:
 
OK folks. Today we visited Arches National Park in Utah. This is definitely one of the top 5 parks I have ever been to. It ranks up there with Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.

Just WOW!

I'm sure pictures don't do it justice, but here are some from today:
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The 'ol jalopy doesn't look so bad in this shot!!!
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So you don't miss the arch in this shot! :rolleyes:
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More pictures to come next post...
 
Here are some more shots of Arches National Park.

I know - ANOTHER one with the car in it - this is a car forum after all!
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Tomorrow we will be heading to Canyonlands National Park and then camping (we stayed in a hotel 2 nights in a row with WIFI :eek: ). So as I have said before, updates may be spotty, but we will do them when we can.

I hope you are enjoying the posts and pictures!
 
Here are some more shots of Arches National Park.

I know - ANOTHER one with the car in it - this is a car forum after all!
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Tomorrow we will be heading to Canyonlands National Park and then camping (we stayed in a hotel 2 nights in a row with WIFI :eek: ). So as I have said before, updates may be spotty, but we will do them when we can.

I hope you are enjoying the posts and pictures!

Great pictures and yes this is a mopar car forum…..:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :xscuseless:
:luvplace: :steering: :thankyou: :thankyou: :thankyou: :rofl:
 
I got too old, but not too many years ago I wanted to ride my scoot to MOAB and party for a few days....... NEAT little town
 
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