Todd Duncan Tennyson
Well-known member
Ladies and gentlemen,
the time has come for the final countdown. Two days remain.
Me and Anya have been working way too hard for a long stretch, so we've decided to bug out of So. Oregon for some r&r.
The forest fire smoke here is awful, and it is really bad for the restaurant business as well (nobody comes out.)
We looked into buying an old econoline 250 van and fixing it up, but with all of the red tape and registrations and certificates and the notion of not really knowing if the folks that had it last really took care of it, we opted for the known evil.
I have a 98 Ford expedition. I have walked the walk with her.
taken care of her myself, and am comfortable with the shape she's in.
I yanked the seats out of her, and put up a 120 watt panel system on the rack.
Got a 125 amp hour sealed battery tucked in under a platform board (where the seats used to be.)
Ran 4 Ga wire with a 140 Amp breaker on the hot lead, and punched it into an xantrex 1000 watt true sine wave inverter.
Just for the heck of it, I grounded it to the chassis.
I rounded up a 4 wt 9 ft flyrod, and got half a dozen 7.5 ft leaders tied up and ready.
Got a Jerry can locked to the back of the whole thing with 5 gallons of fuel.
Found my old 20 ga sxs and 3 boxes of cartridges for it (mostly #6.) Might have a few 4s in there too.
Hung my home made chest on the back of the hitch rack and have a gallon of white gas,
a heavy duty tarp,
a restaurant sized powder fire extinguisher. a giant tow strap and a coleman white gas stove.
Got out my DeLorme maps for Or/Id/Wyo
I have a gps, but it only gives me longitude and latitude
So I am going to have to teach Anya how to read the T square based on lat and long and find out where we are at.
I have most of the route committed to memory, but' I'll ask her to help me out some, just so she will be used to how to read a map and use LAT/LONG.
Got a 7 gallon water tank and a few quarts of oil in case the old beast has a gasket go.
Bringing our walkie talkies (say they are good for 35 miles, but in reality, maybe only 3.5 miles.)
I got a box of Parachute adams #16 and some royal coachmen in there too that I tied with Dad 20 years back.
Might have a white wulff in #14 and a few hoppers in #14/#12.
Got my father's ashes in a special box that I am going to let loose on a small stream (his favorite) up near Stanley Idaho.
I made a promise I'd set him free there.
Going to give anya the bear spray for critters and the .357 for people.
I will have my Old 6 Shot GP 100 with Hard casts for bears.
I'd love to take the red dog, but, Yellowstone probably isn't the best place to go with a dog, and he is still getting better from his surgery and twisted knee.
Haven't had to dose him on Rimadyl yet, (seems to be getting better on his own.)
Since we will be camping out of the truck, I decided to buy an 11,000 lb trimax chain which I can lock to the seat anchors. Then I will attach it twice to the pelican box.
I'll throw the sidearms and computers in it if we decide to go for a walk in towns.
After this excursion, I am going to learn a few things.
1.) Is it possible to run a vacuum cleaner 100 miles from nowhere and vacuum up the sage?
2.) Am I really a mechanic?
3.) where to go in Mid Sept for the Big Adventure with My red dog after anya goes back to Thailand.
I hope to be able to send you all photos and a blow by blow of our experience if you are interested.
It'll be great to let loose for a while.
best,
Todd
the time has come for the final countdown. Two days remain.
Me and Anya have been working way too hard for a long stretch, so we've decided to bug out of So. Oregon for some r&r.
The forest fire smoke here is awful, and it is really bad for the restaurant business as well (nobody comes out.)
We looked into buying an old econoline 250 van and fixing it up, but with all of the red tape and registrations and certificates and the notion of not really knowing if the folks that had it last really took care of it, we opted for the known evil.
I have a 98 Ford expedition. I have walked the walk with her.
taken care of her myself, and am comfortable with the shape she's in.
I yanked the seats out of her, and put up a 120 watt panel system on the rack.
Got a 125 amp hour sealed battery tucked in under a platform board (where the seats used to be.)
Ran 4 Ga wire with a 140 Amp breaker on the hot lead, and punched it into an xantrex 1000 watt true sine wave inverter.
Just for the heck of it, I grounded it to the chassis.
I rounded up a 4 wt 9 ft flyrod, and got half a dozen 7.5 ft leaders tied up and ready.
Got a Jerry can locked to the back of the whole thing with 5 gallons of fuel.
Found my old 20 ga sxs and 3 boxes of cartridges for it (mostly #6.) Might have a few 4s in there too.
Hung my home made chest on the back of the hitch rack and have a gallon of white gas,
a heavy duty tarp,
a restaurant sized powder fire extinguisher. a giant tow strap and a coleman white gas stove.
Got out my DeLorme maps for Or/Id/Wyo
I have a gps, but it only gives me longitude and latitude
So I am going to have to teach Anya how to read the T square based on lat and long and find out where we are at.
I have most of the route committed to memory, but' I'll ask her to help me out some, just so she will be used to how to read a map and use LAT/LONG.
Got a 7 gallon water tank and a few quarts of oil in case the old beast has a gasket go.
Bringing our walkie talkies (say they are good for 35 miles, but in reality, maybe only 3.5 miles.)
I got a box of Parachute adams #16 and some royal coachmen in there too that I tied with Dad 20 years back.
Might have a white wulff in #14 and a few hoppers in #14/#12.
Got my father's ashes in a special box that I am going to let loose on a small stream (his favorite) up near Stanley Idaho.
I made a promise I'd set him free there.
Going to give anya the bear spray for critters and the .357 for people.
I will have my Old 6 Shot GP 100 with Hard casts for bears.
I'd love to take the red dog, but, Yellowstone probably isn't the best place to go with a dog, and he is still getting better from his surgery and twisted knee.
Haven't had to dose him on Rimadyl yet, (seems to be getting better on his own.)
Since we will be camping out of the truck, I decided to buy an 11,000 lb trimax chain which I can lock to the seat anchors. Then I will attach it twice to the pelican box.
I'll throw the sidearms and computers in it if we decide to go for a walk in towns.
After this excursion, I am going to learn a few things.
1.) Is it possible to run a vacuum cleaner 100 miles from nowhere and vacuum up the sage?
2.) Am I really a mechanic?
3.) where to go in Mid Sept for the Big Adventure with My red dog after anya goes back to Thailand.
I hope to be able to send you all photos and a blow by blow of our experience if you are interested.
It'll be great to let loose for a while.
best,
Todd