Wandering the Southwest for Four or Five months of Wheeling.

[Gorilla57]

Well Ted, you’ve really tested the Baja AT tires and they look great. Mine just showed up at Discount and I’m certain I’ve made a good choice buying them. My extreme wheeling days in the JL are done and the Mickey’s will be doing trails like you and Carla. Thanks again for the info you sent me, answering my questions about the tires.

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[wibornz]

I need to do a 15,000 mile review on the Mickey Thompson tires.

 

[wibornz]

Today, we leave the Yuma area, the comfort of a big 5th wheel camper with all the amenities and move into a tent. Said goodbye to jlruinswaz yesterday, and will say goodbye to Gary and his wife this morning as we head east.

The Jeep is packed….like fully packed.

while here in Arizona, my bud Gary bought a very clean diesel truck and he is taking my hog/scooter back to Michigan for me. This greatly helps me and allows me to get farther off the road to camp while taking about 250 pounds off the hitch of the Jeep. Gary will be leaving his motor home here in Arizona and using his diesel truck to flat tow his Jeep back to Michigan during the first week of April.

We have five days to get to Kerrville Texas. 1015 miles away. So we have plenty of time to explore along the way. Superstitious mountain area is on the itinerary for the today; Jeep and camp in that area.

Carla is excited about living out of a tent for the next month or so. Bless her heart. She is a true adventure/jeep girl.

I don’t know many women who in their mid fifties would say, let’s sleep in the back of a Jeep for a month or so and for go the comforts of modern life. It one thing to do it for a couple days, but for an extended time is when 99% of normal women would tap out. She is a trooper.

Mr. Business is tough too. Good thing his bed is portable.

 

[wibornz]

Made it farther than expected. Carla was not feeling well , her neck and back need to be adjusted so we stopped at a chiropractor in the Phoenix area. He was pretty hard on her and made her very sore. She was feeling pain as we headed down a trail in the superstitious mountains, looking for Apache, tears, a type of rock. She still got out and hiked some as she was excited about finding to stones/rocks that she has been trying to find.

The drive back in was nice even had a water crossing that we stopped and had lunch at. Sorry no pic, should have snapped one with the Jeep sitting on the bank of the stream.

The hike was nice but short. Carla was suffering.

We found the Apache Tears in this kind of cave like area.

Link for info on Apache Tears

Carla pushing through the hike.

My attempt at being edgy.

A couple more nice views from the hike.

After getting back to the Jeep Carla took some meds and fell a sleep in the Jeep. I skipped the additional wheeling I had planned and pointed the Jeep east. Might as well put some mikes down while she slept. Only planned to drive about 250 miles today, ended up closer to 350 miles. Found us a nice boondock camp site with a snow covered mountain in the background.

Cooked her dinner and did all the clean up.

Will have to see how she feels in the morning to decide what we do with another glorious day. Hoping there is a beautiful sunrise over the snow capped mountain I can enjoy while drinking coffee.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Trip is looking good, keep the pics coming.
I'll send some positive thoughts Carla's way, hoping she woke up feeling better this morning.

 

[wibornz]

Enjoyed a great cup of coffee this morning from our campsite watching the sunrise, while letting Carla sleep in.

Carla was still sore so we headed to Truth and Consequences New Mexico. It should have been about a four hour drive. A closed road took us 132 miles out of our way.

I thought many would enjoy this pic. I am running seventy plus mph, have a Bestop Sunrider installed on my Jeep and my Apple Watch is reading 65 decibels.

The whole town of Truth and Consciousness was basically shut down. Most of the restaurants and shops were closed. So we headed out to the reservoir at Elephant Butte. And cruised on the beach.

.Even the beach was causing Carla to ache, we decided to skip camping and checked into a Holiday Inn so she could soak in a hot tub.

Tomorrow we head to Roswell Nee Mexico and try to get her into. Chiropractor and look for aliens.

 

[wibornz]

Finally got Carla to a decent chiropractor in Roswell New Mexico.

I was hoping the drive from Truth and Consequences to Roswell would yield some cool stuff, but it was kind of not. The Lincoln Monument and The Billy the Kid grave and visitors center were closed and from what I could see was just hohum. Maybe if it was prime tourist season it would be better. Everything was closed. Even the coffee shop.

Roswell was kind of a cool town, but with it being the off season for tourists, and not all the shops opened it made for a quick visit.

Possible timeline and neat description.

The good thing about off season is less people and better parking. Like right out front of the alien museum.

I need this in my life. If only it would fit in the Jeep.

After leaving Roswell, we headed to Carlsbad with plan of going in the Caverns. I found us a boondock spot next to a lake to camp about an hour north of Carlsbad. Busted out the GoPro for a Timelapse shot of sunset at the lake last night.

When you sleep in the back of a wrangler and wake up to this sunrise, it’s time to get up make coffee and watch the day develop.

Drinking coffee on the edge of a lake watching the sky change does NOT suck. It make some of the sacrifices and challenges of traveling the way we do seem more worth it.

Might make it into Texas by the end of the day.

 

[RudeJeepin]

You went with the Deep Sleep mattress didn't you? What do you think, is it any different than a regular air mattress, other than being custom shaped for the back of the JLU?

 

[wibornz]

You went with the Deep Sleep mattress didn't you? What do you think, is it any different than a regular air mattress, other than being custom shaped for the back of the JLU?

The material is way stronger than a normal air mattress. It is custom fit and this is great. I am 6’4” and my wife is 5’10”. The nice thing with the custom fit is your pillows don’t fall into the footwells or off by the door. The part of the mattress that fills in to the doors give us much more shoulder room and the part that wraps around the center console make it longer than a regular air mattress would be. The deep sleep also comes with a very nice bag that can be used as a backpack. I would 100% buy it over a normal air mattress for the back of a JLU.

 

[wibornz]

Man the week has flown by. We did stop at the Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico on our way to meet up with Cornercanyon. This would have been last Thursday.

We hiked into the Cavern and took the elevator back up. The ride up was 750 of elevation gain. We enjoyed the time there and if you are in the area, it is worth the visit.

We ate lunch in the parking lot at the caverns then pressed our way into Texas trying to get within a few hour drive of Cornercanyon. We had planned to try and camp again, but public land is plentiful in Texas like other western states. There were no campgrounds or places we could boondock. So a hotel it was in the small town of Ozona Texas. A long day. We didn’t get off the road until about 9 pm.

 

[wibornz]

Late Friday afternoon, Carla and I meet up with Cornercanyon for five days of fun.

Friday we did some hiking at the ranch. Carla is a horse girl at heart and has owned her own horses. The ranch had many horses.

Mr Business trying to look like a rabbit as he sneaked up on a horse.

One of the horses stomped at Mr. Business,

but Mr. Business is agile and dodged the horse’s attempts to smash him.

The ranch is beautiful and we had a delightful time.

.

 

[wibornz]

Saturday was a day of hiking at a great Texas State Park.

Pedernales Falls State Park (830) 868-7304 https://maps.app.goo.gl/7uTCwmxP6qYBayXz7?g_st=ic

This is a very popular place and I am lucky that Cornercanyon made a reservation for us to hike there as people were getting turned away as the park was at capacity. We hiked along the river, that was incredibly beautiful.

Let the pics try and do the place justice.

Then a great dinner with Cornercanyon family and a relaxing evening. What a great day.

 

[wibornz]

Sunday through Tuesday morning is The National Shoreline o Padre Island in Texas along theGulf of Mexico. Cornercanyon joins us for camping and general chill time at the beach. I needed this.

We make sure we are above the high tide level and get camp set up.

I have seen Pelicans many times on the wild, but never flying in formation

Cornercanyon was up for some good food at camps

Sunsets are usually spectacular over the dunes.

The next morning breakfast was amazing. A baked egg dish that Carla makes at camp. Eggs, bacon, onion, mushrooms, fresh spinach, various spices, and cheese for the win.

Later in the day the five of us pile in Cornercanyon Rubicon and head another 20 miles father down the shoreline. We stumble upon a washed up tank of some kind

Time flies and we parted ways with Cornercanyon after six days of fun. We are going to travel the Gulf Shore as close as possible as we head East leaving the Sourh West behind.

 

[HydroBlue22]

Sunday through Tuesday morning is The National Shoreline o Padre Island in Texas along theGulf of Mexico. Cornercanyon joins us for camping and general chill time at the beach. I needed this.

We make sure we are above the high tide level and get camp set up.

I have seen Pelicans many times on the wild, but never flying in formation

Cornercanyon was up for some good food at camps

Sunsets are usually spectacular over the dunes.

The next morning breakfast was amazing. A baked egg dish that Carla makes at camp. Eggs, bacon, onion, mushrooms, fresh spinach, various spices, and cheese for the win.

Later in the day the five of us pile in Cornercanyon Rubicon and head another 20 miles father down the shoreline. We stumble upon a washed up tank of some kind

Time flies and we parted ways with Cornercanyon after six days of fun. We are going to travel the Gulf Shore as close as possible as we head East leaving the Sourh West behind.

Padre Island is always fun.
I think that tank was there ~35 years ago when I first went 4 wheeling on the Island!
We were down there last summer around Rockport / Port Aransas area.

 

[wibornz]

Padre Island is always fun.
I think that tank was there ~35 years ago when I first went 4 wheeling on the Island!
We were down there last summer around Rockport / Port Aransas area.

Beautiful Jeep by the way.

I must have missed it last year. We went approximately 50 miles down the beach. We were through Port Aransas yesterday headed to Galveston.

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