My trip report west.

[David_Luebke@domain.elided]

       My trip out west went well.  I?ve been back quite some time
       now,  it took me a month almost to catch up reading the digest.
       My itinerary was drive from Minneapolis to Ft. Collins in one
       day then head for leadville and eventual camping in Utah, near
       Moab.  Unfortunately, I left the scout at home mostly due to
       the long drive on the 1st leg of the trip.  Really could of
       used it on the road to the campsite, which was near Cisco.
       Suppose to be a two wheel drive road, but I hit the bottom of
       my home constructed trailer hitch/ bike rack many time on where
       the road had been washed out  by heavy rains.  I did get in
       lots of off road riding, but it was all done on my mountain
       bike.

       Now for the sort of important  what trucks did I see and were
       for sale.   One promising older pickup 2w drive was sighted at
       a gas station or hardware store.   It was inside a fence
       outside the store.   I could not tell the year, but it had the
       big IH symbol on the front grill.  Much surface rust, but
       looked like a good restoration project.   It had to  be of the
       40 ? 50 ?s  style.  I just don?t know the older trucks that
       well, it was a  smaller size step side,  in comparison to the
       60 ?70 style.   I had planned on stopping on the way back to
       Minneapolis, but the 900 mile drive sucks and I was not that
       interested in the vehicle.  It?s located right in the town of
       Mission, SD on state route 83.   I also looked at a 69
       travel-all in Leadville, CO .   Hey it?s only $375, it?s
       located in an apartment building lot on 3rd street,  around the
       500 to 600 block.   One interesting thing was it had AWD
       marking.   Does that mean it?s a single speed transfer case?
       Would you have a low 4 wheel drive range on the transfer case?
       Would like to hear how that worked, i.e. AWD and single speed
       TX case.   Did not really look very close at it,  but it?s a
       project vehicle.  I wanted to hook up with some local
       digesters, but I did not give enough notice to pull it off.
       Hopefully my next trip out.

       By the way I think I did meet Willy C ?s sister, at a birthday
       party   for  Ryer??, he runs the Ski cooper Yurt.   One of the
       people there had fresh blue fin tuna, They grilled it and it
       was very good.   Not ever experienced Elk steak?s I can?t make
       a comparison, but I work with lots of deer hunters and have had
       deer meat.   I would take a blue  fin tuna over deer any day,
       but that?s me.  So it?s taken me over  a month to catch up
       reading  the 2 weeks of  digest when I was away.   Willy , I
       still need to answer your most latest off line note which I
       plan I doing.

       So over all I had a great trip, and did miss my scout when I
       got out west, 2 wheel drive just doesn?t hack it on dirt roads.