[JONAT-chat] Arizona Sector Report

[Bob]

Mark

Great commentary!  I can hardly wait to see the photos!

Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-chat-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:jonat-chat-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Mark Stephenson
Sent: April 28, 2004 10:15 AM
To: jonat-chat@autox.team.net; JONAT List
Subject: [JONAT-chat] Arizona Sector Report


I hope I don't jinx myself and my long-suffering wife Andrea by
recounting my daily escapades as I do the Arizona Sector of the
JONAT tour. If anyone wants to take the time, they can follow this
on a map.

Prep involved two new hubs and a radiator fix -- someone in the dim
past overtightened the thermostat housing and bent the steel plate
on the radiator side. It's been a weak point. Replaced the lower
radiator hose.

I wanted to get four new 60-spoke painted wires and British Wire
Wheel thought they had them, but when they pulled them off the
shelf, they were chrome. I like body-colored wires, so I'm driving
on the best of my current collection -- 3 54s and a 60.

Day 1 - 200 miles, Phoenix to Holbrook, AZ.

The 120 ran great except for one thing. Because we start at about
1000 ft. elev. and top out at about 7200 before dropping back to
about 5500, there are some long climbs. Phoenix was supposed to top
out in the mid-nineties (F) and because of all the stuff I had to
do to get started, I didn't leave town until about 3:00. The
hottest hour of the day.

Although the engine temps were fluctuation between 90 and 100 with
the stoplights getting out of town, oil pressure was where it is
supposed to be. The problems came in the two low-elevation hot
climbs. The temp maxed at about 100C, but I have a 7 lb. cap, so
was not in danger of exploding. What concerned me was that I was
maintaining 3000 rpm, but the pressure dropped to 35 psi. I'm
hoping the gauge is off because after a cool down for dinner (and a
bone-headed move that required about a half hour of repair) I was
still only running about 45 psi.

I'm running Castrol GTX 20W-50.

I've been under the impression that the filter bypass is supposed
to be set at 50, so there's also the probability that I have a weak
bypass spring.

We'll see what the pressure is cold (like 40F) in the morning.

The bone-headed move? I know my tranny sticks in first gear. I'm
supposed to know not to compression brake in 1st. So I had to go
from dinner to Auto Zone for a bit of oil and what did I do?
Compression brake and stuck the tranny in 1st. Pull the carpet,
pull the gas pedal, pull the seat cushions, pull the tranny tunnel,
pull the tranny cover, and pry the front gear back and tap the back
gear front. Then put it all back together. (Now you know why Andrea
is long suffering.)

Hopefully I've learned my lesson. Anyway we were back on the road
in a half hour and pulled into Holbrook at 8:15.

Tomorrow it's off to Mesa Verde, Colorado via Gallup, New Mexico.

--------------------------------------

Holbrook. AZ to Mesa Verde, CO. - 250 miles

OK, it took me to Mesa Verde. The weather was a lot cooler although I still
suffered from low oil pressure. I bought some oil stabilizer in the hopes
that
would thicken things up, but I overfilled the oil in Payson by about a half
a
quart and it hasn't dropped down yet. Why did I over fill? Because I changed
my oil before I left, and it was so clean that I didn't see the level on the
dip stick. Well, that tells me the engine is running clean and the seals are
tight.

The drive to Mesa Verde was beautiful, although you probably have to be an
Arizonan to appreciate the wide expanses of desolate desert. We headed
across
I-40 to Gallup, NM, then up the Rt. 666, which we discovered was renamed
last
year to 491. Apparently enough people wanted to avoid the mark of the devil
that they decided to rename it. Dopey, if you ask me. Once into Colorado,
the
scenery becomes almost lush, by comparison. A few people in some of the
towns
actually have yards, with grass! Cortez was a pretty town about 6000 ft up,
and the Rockies up over 13,000 ft, in the distance make a great backdrop.

I took a wrong turn heading into town, but that gave us a really nice drive
throut residential Cortez.

Andrea and I debated about whether to try to beat the Denver group to
Durango
and meet them somewhere along the highway, but it was about 4 p.m. and we
figured we'd just beat them to the hotel room.

We made it up the 2000 ft. climb to Mesa Verde and the Far View Lodge
without
incident. The 120 pulled beautifully and didn't seem to suffer any ill
effects
of the high altitude. We drove to the highest point in the park, 8500 ft.,
without a gasp (of the car). I on the other hand, was gasping after climbing
a
couple hundred yards up a slope to our room. My cooling fan was still
cycling
on and off when Dick and Kathy Hile showed up in their Imperial Maroon V12 E
pulling their matching motorcycle trailer. Now Andrea wants one so she can
carry more clothes. In her defense, she did an excellent job of clothes
selection and is maintaining that she brought less than I did.

This really is turning out to be something of a self guided tour as Robert
and
his travelling buddy Steven were nearly three hours behind, according to a
phone call between Kathy and Bob earlier in the afternoon.

We were just about tired of waiting for dinner when I spied a maroon XJ40
pull
into the parking lot below our room. It had to be Robert. We headed down and
saved a table and they joined us shortly. The Far View Lodge menu included
such delicacies as Elk, Buffalo, Trout, cactus dip, fry bread. (Look it up
under Indian Fry Bread or Navajo Fry Bread. It's the bottom layer of Navajo
Tacos.) Dick and I had the Elk in a berry sauce, Robert and Steven the
trout,
Andrea had some encrusted beef thing on a latke, and I can't remember what
Kathy had. It was all delicious -- 5-star haute cuisine. This was the polar
opposite of roughing it. Then everyone had desert which was just as good. (I
almost never order desert, but they made me. ;->). If I thought the walk up
the hill earlier was bad, this one seemed a lot tougher.

Today we are heading out to see the cliff dwellings and other prehistoric
Anasazi ruins. (I have been informed they are now called "Ancestral
Pueblans"
-- right, like I'm going to say that every time I refer to them.) Apparently
on the ranger guided tours we can climb into the actual cliff houses.
Excellent.

I probably won't report tonight, but will report on the trip to Page from a
place where they have high-speed Internet -- Page, AZ -- tomorrow evening.

Mark - AZ SC
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