Damn that was a set of unfortunate events. I guess, in a while, you'll look back and laugh (hopefully).

Like Surf4Runner said, we had a pretty uneventful run home. I hit 115mph across one of flats when the jet starting doing banked turns and vertical climbs - Sam and I were gawking out the window and thinking how cool it would be to be in the cockpit over DV. I think my average gas mileage was 9mph until we got out of DV.

Thanks to those who led at various times and sorry you couldn't make it Ryan.

Cheers
Mark

 

Dean, wow! That is some kind of adventure, I hope you didn't get any other damage. I am glad that you at least had Tim along with you, that would have been terrible to endure by yourself. We had fun wheeling with you and look forward to your pics.

 

\
You can see the whole set I took here:

http://www.scottiac.com/coppermine/t...lbum=10&page=1

I'll pick a few out for here in a bit.

 

Scottiac, nice pics! Hopefully next time I can do more hiking, that top part of Darwin Falls looks awesome! I think I am going to have to trade some pics with you from our trip up that overlook.

 

Ken, are you holding out on more pics or is that all you took? I am enjoying the pics from the hikes your group did. That Steele pass looks like alot of fun also.

 

The way my trip started out, I probably would have had something catastrophic happen if I had made part of the trip! The vehicles seem to have taken a more severe beating this year compared to last year when the only time I saw somebody's truck being worked on was Ken's MAF in Furnace Creek the 2nd to last day.

 

Jeeze Dean, that sucks. Let us know how it turns out. If you need any help I'm sure Geoff lend a hand.

 

My Fototime.com account expires in another week and I plan to move my photos elsewhere. I have a little over 200 photos from DV to share as soon as I get a new hosting site setup.

Scott--great pics, thanks for sharing!

 

How generous of me. He is right though, let me know if any wrenching is planned.

 

Hello everyone. We just got back(Gig Harbor, Washington) last night, from Death Valley. We had a wonderful time while we were there. It was great to meet the folks from YotaTech. I will get my images posted in the next day or two.

 

Hi Brian, glad we were able to meet and sorry we did not get a chance to chat a little longer.

Where else did you stop on your roadtrip?

 

I spent about six hours cleaning up the 4Runner yesterday. Those cheesy rubber inserts I installed inbetween the rock rails kept the paint chips on the body to a minimum. However there is almost NO paint left on the legs of the rock rails; there were two coats of primer and 4-5 coats of paint on there at one time! My 2-month old shocks have zero paint left on the leading edges.

DV also killed my battery. Installed an Exide Orbital (same as Optima) that will hopefully handle the vibration a little better.

Anyone else "find" anything after the trip? Dump out your airfilter and you will have a free souvenier...

 

Thanks for the offer, Geoff. I think everything's "under control". The truck is safely recovering in my garage. However, I think my P/S pump has developed a leak and may need to be replaced soon...

 

Brian, it was great to meet you and your father. Too bad we didn't get to spend more time together.

Ken, hopefully Sat. the 4runner will get a good going over and I will let you know. I do know that my driverside spindle bushing needs to be greased again, the cv started knocking on the last day. Sounds just like the noise the idler arm makes when the bushings are shot.

 

Can anyone post the recipe for the potatoe mash we had on Saturday night. I haven't stopped thinking about it. That was good stuff. I know the girls told me on Sat. night but I forgot it all.

Thx
Mark

 

When I was packing for the trip, I specifically remembered to bring MAF cleaner with me because I remembered Bruce cleaning your MAF sensor in Furnace Creek....

 

For anyone that is interested in the fully annotated, more detail than you could ever care about, trip write up I did (for my own failing memory), you can check out:

http://www.scottiac.com/TripReports/DeathValley2007.htm

Someday I'll make it pretty, and incorporate pictures and all, but for now, I just wanted to get it all down.

Unfortunately, it doesn't contain the potato recipe. You'll have to ask Audrey for that!

 

Scott, excellent trip report! Audrey bought me a leather-bound book to keep a log of places we visit--would it be cheating to print your trip report and paste it into my book? I hope you think that's funny, because I am going to be in big trouble for even thinking it...

But alas, Mark might save me on this one when I go to her and tell her that Yotatech was raving about her mashed potatoes. If she's still talking to me after this post, I will have a recipe for you.

I should mention that Julie was a great sport on this trip too. She put up with our "shop talk" and somehow she managed to make it through a whole week without walking home. Perhaps next time she will be driving that FJ that she described in detail at the campground Monday night.

 

Sounds like another awesome trip to DV!!!!!!!! Awesome pics guys.

My friends saw a bunch of you guys in Goler Wash going through the pass.... They were in a blue Montero loaded up with 4 people.

 

from Audrey:

5 large russet potatoes
~1/3 c. butter
1/2-3/4 c. soy milk
1-2 tbs chopped garlic
salt and pepper to taste



Cut the recipe down for non-Yotatech sized crowds.