BeeBee's Build Journey

[J.Ferreira]

One thing that is driving me wild on this trip is how good my fuel economy has gotten. I went from anywhere between 14-16 L/100km (16.7 - 16.8 mpg) to now I'm at 12.1L/100km (19.4 mpg).

I used to think because I had 4.88 gearing was the reason why I had shitty mileage, turns out that was wrong. It was the hilly/mountainous the region I live in was fucking with my fuel efficiency. Either way, I'm not going to be spending anywhere near as much as I originally had thought I was going to be spending on gas for this road trip, which is wild to me.

Gotta keep in mind too, the beginning part of the trip going east is generally downhill till you get to the flat lands of the midwest.

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[americonium]

It's all downhill to New Jersey. Plus, you have the wind at your back.

 

[Warped]

Let me know if you want that free highlift.

 

[M_Pluto]

Let me know if you want that free highlift.

Yes! I most definitely do! I'll be in touch Saturday night to make arrangements to pick it up!

 

[M_Pluto]

Gotta keep in mind too, the beginning part of the trip going east is generally downhill till you get to the flat lands of the midwest.

Actually it was when we were going through Wyoming and Nebraska (aka flatlands) that the fuel efficiency got so good.

It's all downhill to New Jersey. Plus, you have the wind at your back.

Weirdly enough if there's been any wind, it's always been a crosswind. No tailwinds in sight.

 

[TheBirdie72]

So where are you now Carmen Sandiego?

 

[M_Pluto]

Currently

So where are you now Carmen Sandiego?

Currently Iowa City. Got a hotel room that we pulled into around 01:30. It was raining last night in the area, and when looking up info on the campsite we had previously chosen at random (it was just off of the i-80 and it was around the rough marker we set for the distance goal for the day) had almost entirely one start reviews (I've legit never heard of a campsite that had mostly one star reviews before). Tried looking for an alternative in the area that didn't add an extra hour to the drive with no success so we booked a travelodge instead.

Hoping to get on the road before 14:00 today, which is when we hit the road yesterday. Our delay was partly because we slept in, and partly because as we were breaking camp yesterday morning someone decided to roll in something dead and rotting. After attempting a whore's bath vis a vis a shit ton of wet wipes, we realized that she needed a bath. Closest showers were at a Love's about 45 mins away. Almost an hour wait for the showers and 3 intense washes later, the smell was mostly gone. Might try again later today as there is a gas station next door to the hotel that had a self serve dog wash.

???????? we can get gone from here by 11:00. Would be nice to finish today before midnight.....

 

[americonium]

So if you left Iowa City by eleven, that would put you somewhere in Ohio. If you are, you're seven more hours from Trenton. Unless the traffic in Harrisburg is worse than it was this morning.

 

[TheBirdie72]

I tracked your route so far! ?

 

[M_Pluto]

Lol, I'd have to check the trip I started when I left home to know how many kms we've gone, but home ->NJ ≈ 5,000 kms (3,100 make believe units) and am now down to 1,400kms (~870 make believe units). We are going to see how much of a push we can do through the night to make up for lost time today (we are currently in Champaign, IL..... Had I not been a dunders this morning we would be an hour or two out from Pittsburgh....). Still feeling pretty fresh at the moment, but we will see how long it lasts. We have about another 12/13 hours of solid driving/travel time left. We are hoping to make it to NJ by tomorrow afternoon/early evening..... But I'm not going to say any more because I don't want to jinx it.

 

[M_Pluto]

Time for an update on the the Great Road Trip of 2023™. I haven't been able to update or write anything here since Thursday as I've been either too tired/sleeping or driving to be able to update.

Friday: It started off okay, we slept the night in a Travelodge, woke up a bit late, but got onto the road with the goal set for getting to Pittsburgh area by the end of the day. Best laid intentions and plans all brought that plan to shit when my ADHD brain decided to put my wallet down on the driver's side rear fender and forget it there when we were gassing up the jeep for the day ahead. It was not until about 3 – 3.5 hours later when we pulled over for our next gas stop that we noticed the absence of my wallet. Thank all the gods old and new that I make plans for myself to be able to find lost items when I forget them somewhere in that inside my wallet resided an AirTag. Upon looking up the last known location of it, it was somewhere (presumably) on the side of the highway 10 minutes outside of Iowa City (quite remarkable it managed to stay on for so long if you think about it). Thus we were immediately required to turn around and retrieve my wallet, costing us 6 hours of our travel time that day. Again, thanking all the gods old and new, we did manage to find my wallet in the grass that was between the two sides of the highway. AirTags for the fucking win.

Disaster and crisis averted, we turned around and my co-pilot and I decided that the lost time was quite the hitch in the giddy up. In an attempt to make up for lost time we decided to simply drive as late as we could through the night (preferably all night if possible) to be able to make our original goal of arriving in NJ by mid-day Saturday.

Fun fact: insomnia in some cases can be a super power, I managed to make the drive through the night until we got to Columbus, wherein my co-pilot who slept through the night to keep fresh took over and completed the remainder of the trip to NJ.

Somehow by miracle arriving on time and as scheduled, we said hi to @19 JLUR Bright Whit3 and he immediately got to work installing my shiny new metalcloak skids that I had gotten shipped to him. The original plan had been for him to install the entire lift, but due to changes in his schedule with his crotch goblin being back in school, he could no longer do so much in such a short period, so it had been decided that he would just install the skid plates as they would take up the most space in the Jeep and the coils, trackbars, sway bar links, shocks, and bumpstops would take up less room and be easier to pack into BeeBee. Skids are installed now and the Peace of mind they give me now is amazing. The gold zinc plating under BeeBee is also pretty kick ass.

Though the jackass called BeeBee a low rider. She is still a baby beast!!! Of course she is still short! She needs a bit more time to turn into her full beastiness. (Also, until the 4" lift and 37s are on, my 159cm (5'2") frame will be thankful for the shorter climb in).

Mid day Sunday after having a quiet morning and taking the time to repack/reorganize our gear in the Jeep, we managed to make everything fit, despite the Jeep previously seemingly to be full (when we started out, it was fairly questionable if we could fit everything and we were debating steeling a hitch rack from The Jackass). What can I say? I'm the daughter of a master tetris packer. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the before and after, but it was pretty impressive.

After departure from NJ we headed to Maryland to meed up with @Warped as he was kindly and generously giving me a highline jack to have in case of emergency. From there we travelled to Uwharrie to meet up with @americonium to do some wheeling the following day (aka today).

Two trails were done : Wolf's Den & Dickey Bell. Wolf's Den was more or less just a mild, easy back road. The gatekeeper was a fair bit of fun, BeeBee took a couple of new bumps and bruises, with the most severe one being along her stock Rubi rails. That one there will need a bit of paint to keep the rust away upon return at home. [future update after getting home: paint was not needed, there was just that much caked on dirt]

We're spending the night in Uwharrie again, at the hunting campground and our current plans are to head down to Memphis, hopefully check out some bbq and maybe even some music along the way. From there we go to D'Lo MI, then to Moab, Seattle, and finally home.

I'll edit this tomorrow to add some more pictures and some time lapse videos I took from being on the trail today, but my battery on my phone is running low and I'm tired enough to want to just turn in for the night.

 

[americonium]

Today's track.

 

[TheBirdie72]

Today's track.

Tomorrow’s track.

 

[blnewt]

Maybe it's time for this Jayne

 

[M_Pluto]

Tomorrow’s track.

So far this is our route, with a rough estimate of how far we've traveled so far.

​

We'll be in Moab until tomorrow morning, and then start the return home tomorrow with a big push..... we are unlikely to make the return in one day, but I think the goal is to make it to Seattle or as close to as possible. We may even end up driving through the night, but I'm not too sure on that.

My pictures haven't gotten around to syncing with my computer, so I can't quite properly update everything from Uwharrie, other than to say we stopped at a place called D'Lo water park (for any of ya'll who've seen Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, this is where they shot the scene with the sirens) and made a fun stop there for Savannah Hel, the Southern Belle as it was home for her. She was very excited to be back home. From there it was just a lot of driving to get to Moab, with a quick stop at the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, LA as well as stopped at the site of their final ambush.

Arrived in Moab the night before last did a run on Fins & Things (remembered to properly check in this time so I can send in for my badge), and then drove up to Porcupine Rim (thankfully there was no snow for me to get stuck in this time....., IYKYK). Not too sure about what we will do today, there was some discussion about doing a run on Hell's Revenge today, but I'm a little wary about doing it alone, and while my co-pilot could act as a spotter, she isn't super experienced with it, so it's probably best left for another day. This won't be my last trip down to Moab, and I'll be back. More pictures & videos from Uwharrie, D'lo, as well as Fins & Things to come (whenever my computer gets around to syncing them from my phone, as I'm not super keen on trying to upload them from my phone at the moment.

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