We started Day 33 with a morning of sharing a happy family breakfast. While eating breakfast that morning we looked out the window to see a police officer giving us a ticket on our windshield. Bill knew him, so he headed outside to see what was wrong. It turns out we had parked our vehicle in the wrong direction on the street (for power plugin purposes) and he was just giving us a warning ticket; so no fine. We appreciated the kindness, yet were still a bit surprised that it took till the 3rd day for anyone to notice.
Afterwards Mic and Grace presented Laura with birthday gifts, and Grace proceeded to braid Laura’s hair for her. (Oh by the way- if everything has gone right, the day I’m publishing this, today is Laura’s Birthday!)
Post Birthday celebration Grace and Laura went and had tea in The Ohana, and I showed Mic what Megaman was all about. (Seriously, he had never heard of him!) After some mellow family time though, the road was beckoning.
We were on the road from Gunnison to Denver, and after a bit our first notable challenge of the drive was Monarch Mountain. It was a huge climb and white knuckled decent over the impressive summit, but afterwards we were rewarded with some of the most beautiful rocky canyons we had seen yet. Chasing along the Arkansas River we had moment after moment of pure awe, being surrounded by the impressive canyon walls as we drove.
We decided to lay over for the night in Colorado Springs, at a very impressive Bass Pro Shop. Here I began another chore list of repairs that needed addressed.
It began with our new air conditioning. Our vents stopped blowing air, and I frantically researched how to keep Laura out of the hot box in the morning. I opened up the blower motor, cleaned the vent, and found it still operational. The Air Conditioning Evaporator inside the dash was covered in ice though, so after a lot of spelunking and research I hoped that it was just a freeze up (from our high altitude of Monarch Mountian) that would melt; or I would be back at it in the morning.
The next Morning of Day 34 I was back at it. Luckily waiting for the air conditioner evaporator to melt had worked and we had moving cold air again! When we had opened the hood we had found another problem that had luckily, thus far, not created a bigger issue. A negative cable running from the fuse panel to the battery had rubbed itself open on the edge of the air horn bell! Look in the picture at how the electricity melted the bell in a fashion where it almost look cut out. I immediately fixed the wiring, moved the air horn back, and tied the wires so they could not make contact with the bell in the future.
Also, the airhorn had stopped working on us in Twin Falls. We had shut the vehicle off and as we walked across a parking lot the horn let out a pathetic little mini “toot” before stopping operation. I had vowed to it figure out later, and now was that time. So I chased all the wiring and grounding under the hood to no avail, eventually I opened up the steering column and found that the horn connection was worn and not making contact. I eventually, after lots of testing, added two washers as spacers behind the grounding plate- allowing the ground connection to make contact. We had an air horn again! Good thing too, because we had needed it a few times already since it had gone out.
I still had one last project on the back burner- since the day before the parking brake was no longer pulling out at the handle- so I was going to have to figure out that one sooner than later.
Once our chore list was done, we ate some food and got back on the road to Denver, so we could get to Laura’s brother Jordan’s home. We immediately received the warmest greetings from Jordan and Melissa. Jordan is a die hard Toyota Fanatic, and extremely mechanically knowledgeable about them, so immediately he was enthralled with our little home. When he saw what had happened to the air horn, he immediately hooked us up with some trim edging to help further protect it in the future. During the tour I noticed a rip in our Gaco work, so I was going to have to find some Gaco products in the area to patch it up. Personally, I think it was the trees I scraped her up against at Swayses Beach.
Needless to say, we stayed up late that night and all got to know each other. A little lubrication mixed with so many great senses of humor led to a wonderful, and extremely late, night.
Day 35- A very slow day that still contained some progress. We achingly took our time rolling, but eventually I was investigating what was going on with the parking brake. I chased the cable underneath, took all the assemblies apart under the dash, and eventually Jordan and I found the issue. Climbing Monarch mountain had taken it’s toll, and the temp gauge on The Ohana had gotten the highest I had yet seen it. When this happened, the parking brake cable sheathing, though wrapped in a heat blanket, and rested against the exhaust and fused the cable to the sheathing so it couldn’t move.
After Jordan and I tried to revive the cable, we decided it was going to take a new one. We drove around to the different auto parts stores to find none readily available. So Laura and I opted that we were going to have to go hunt the salvage yards the next day. So by the end of the day we decided we would be staying another day or two in Denver.
That evening Laura and I went for a walk in the sweet park right next to Jordan’s house. We noticed the local rabbit was enjoying the shade of our parked Ohana quite often now, which was super cute.
We decided during our walk, since it was the 4th of July, that we should check out any local fireworks in the area. We asked if Jordon or Melissa would like to come too, but they declined. Jordan did let me borrow his sweet Tacoma though; so that night we were headed to the closest firework display.
When we got to the park area we were hoping to land at we were lost in a sea of city traffic. We couldn’t find a spot to land so we eventually drifted through some residential neighborhoods and got a little lost. When we found an open spot we pulled in and started attempting to wander towards the park. Before even getting close we found a rolling hill in the middle of the city, and chose to sit at the top.
As the lights faded we found ourselves surrounded by fireworks.
Not only were we close to and able to watch the show going on at the park we had hoped for, but we realized that these shows were going on all over the city of Denver- and we were literally surrounded by 360 degrees of fireworks all around us. It was overwhelmingly magical, and nothing I would have ever expected.
The experience was a massive one for me, seeing how in our small town there is only one yearly fireworks show, privately funded, and in the freezing middle of winter. Sitting in the warm summer night seeing this was so epic!
That night, as we went to our bed, we looked up at the moon from Jordan’s driveway and listened to continuing cracks and pops of fireworks from all across the city. Luckily, we slept through popping and whizzing just fine that night. 💤
On Day 36- Jordan and Melissa were both working this day, so we were going to have to take The Ohana to go on our quest for parts.
Sorry to disrupt the rabbits shady spot, Laura and I unhooked The Ohana from her plug in and were off into Denver to try for some salvage yards. It was a loooooong day… The roads in Denver were horrible, with many parts stores being closed. One yard we went to, that was closed, was right in downtown Denver, and some of the street murals in the area were amazing.
Eventually we found a place that was open called Yoda Jims. The parts weren’t cheap, but they were there and available. I bought a matching parking brake and a fan shroud for our radiator.
After we found our auto parts we were headed to a local roofing store to buy and try out a new Gaco product to us; Gaco patch. Finally Gaco was offering a stronger version of their product, and in a smaller size than a gallon. Laura and happily bought the patch so we could fix the damage in our water proof coating.
That evening when we got home, I p ut a patch coat on the damaged spot on The Ohana. I got the parking brake cable mostly installed, and that night Jordan helped me get it tightened down. We also had to do some customization to get the radiator fan shroud to fit. I cut the opening for the fan large along one side and the bottom, and Jordan rifled through his random bolt collection until we found the parts we needed to get it mounted.
With a successful day under our belts, we decided we would get some more work done in the morning before we once again hit the road.
Geoff Murphy 7/9/2022- Happy Birthday Laura! I Love You Honey!
I was impressed with fireworks here too. We found a high spot where we could watch the town fireworks and discovered we had fireworks all around us almost as good as the ones the fire department sponsored.
Glad you both got to experience it too! It really made the 4th an amazing day!