Indiana to Moab, first timer...

skrillah

Adventurer
As the title reads, hitting the highways tomorrow afternoon (04/12/13) from Indiana to Moab, Utah. I've lived vicariously through this forum for years now, hoping one day to get out and experience what you Westerners experience daily, and am excited to finally have the time, money, and vehicle to do it. We'll be taking two vehicles from Indiana and meeting up with a friend, for a third in Colorado. We have reservations for campsites along the White Rim Trail on the 16th & 17th, and will be hitting up other sites/trails once we get out there. The long and short of it is as follows:

Total distance: Approx 3k miles

Time allotted: 10 days (not enough)

Vehicle (s):
'04 Tacoma X-Cab TRD 4x4. Mild suspension upgrades, among other things (see signature below).
'01 4runner 4x4 w/ BFG's but mostly stock.
'05 Tacoma TRD Sport 4x4. Mild suspension and tire upgrades.

I'll be updating this thread as we go via iPad. The goal is to keep this more picture heavy, rather than ramblings...the iPad 'keyboard' kind of dictates that anyways. Here's a few pics of my rig to start with, otherwise, see you on the road tomorrow...:smiley_drive:

The '04
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Sleeping & storage
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The '05...
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He will likely be in tailgating mode...as his sleeping platform...
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Scoutn79

Adventurer
You're going to love the White Rim. I really enjoyed that trail, one of my favorites. Which camps have you reserved? One thing I didn't do when I was on it was take enough pictures.
I look forward to your posts and pictures.
Darrell
 

Arlo

Adventurer
You probably will need more crunshed ice to keep the beer cold! :Wow1:

Enjoy the short time.
 

skrillah

Adventurer
We reserved late, but were able to get an Airport site and one at Potato. We will have a GoPro and a digital SLR so we should be covered!

Woodsman, sorry ill miss you, maybe we can meet up for a shorter trip sometime. Or at least a beer.
 
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ywen

Explorer
Love it! looking forward to the trip report... your trip, truck, sleeping setup is so reminisce of my own trip out to Moab from a couple of years ago..

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...oment-3600mi-road-trip?highlight=Chicago+Moab

You're right 10 days is a bit tight.. if you can make it out there with minimum sleep.. that would make up good time. I spent two nights on the road before arriving in Moab.

the taco will struggle climbing over the rockies... them folks in the Mtn West likes to drive fast!
 

skrillah

Adventurer
Love it! looking forward to the trip report... your trip, truck, sleeping setup is so reminisce of my own trip out to Moab from a couple of years ago..

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...oment-3600mi-road-trip?highlight=Chicago+Moab

You're right 10 days is a bit tight.. if you can make it out there with minimum sleep.. that would make up good time. I spent two nights on the road before arriving in Moab.

the taco will struggle climbing over the rockies... them folks in the Mtn West likes to drive fast!

Ywen, amazing pics and looks very similar to what we'll be doing on this trip! Thanks for posting that.
 

Scoutn79

Adventurer
We reserved late, but were able to get an Airport site and one at Potato. We will have a GoPro and a digital SLR so we should be covered!

Woodsman, sorry ill miss you, maybe we can meet up for a shorter trip sometime. Or at least a beer.

Airport and Potato are the two we stayed at as well. If you get a chance, run down Lathrop Canyon just before you get to the Airport camp.
Darrell
 
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RugerTrailer

The Trailer Guy
Love it! looking forward to the trip report... your trip, truck, sleeping setup is so reminisce of my own trip out to Moab from a couple of years ago..

http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...oment-3600mi-road-trip?highlight=Chicago+Moab

You're right 10 days is a bit tight.. if you can make it out there with minimum sleep.. that would make up good time. I spent two nights on the road before arriving in Moab.

the taco will struggle climbing over the rockies... them folks in the Mtn West likes to drive fast!

I enjoyed your trip report !

And we do like to drive fast out here in the rockies :smiley_drive:

Looking forward to pics from this trip.
 

r3run33

Adventurer
keep us posted and the trip and how the camping comes along; planning on doing a summer trip (but issues with the vehicle may push it to next summer) but any info on the trip will be much appreciated
 

skrillah

Adventurer
.

Day 1, Friday, 4/12:

Fairly uneventful, got about 6 hrs on the road and made it to Columbia, MO. No camping this night, after a full day at the office, and 6 hrs drive time, the idea of roughing it wasn't something we weren't keen on. We did get a chance to crack open the cooler and get some beers down before bed though.

Day 2, 4/13:

We got a late start this morning, the beer, Taco Bell, and the forecast aall played a roll. Forecast lows for Moab for the night of our reservations are expected to be in the 20s & 30's. We werent excited to drive across the country to sleep in these conditions but after a call to our buddy in CO, he lit a fire under our rears and we were soon CO bound again.

It's been a long day, roughly 13-14 hrs total road time with stops, but we are in Denver tonight. And yes, hoteling it again...some trip report, I know...

Though, three things I've learned: (1) Kansas is stupid long, which I knew coming in but wow. (2) No matter how hard I tried in Kansas, I can't sing (3) and even the most seemingly comfortable seats, are no match for KS. Yes, I even stopped in Hayes, KS and tried to mend my broken *** with a $10 support pillow. ..didn't work. A few pics...

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ywen

Explorer
From your pic I see the highway you took is also full of those expansion lines.. The route into Denver from NE has the same crap for like 50 miles.. I felt like the taco's frame was gonna snap in half
 

skrillah

Adventurer
Day 3 04/14: After "roughing it" in our hotel room, we hit I-70 West again. Today was the high elevations and mountain passes through CO. Denver was a balmy 40 or so degrees when we got started, though, as we climbed into the elevations the temps dropped pretty rapidly and we were soon into some snow. Apparently, even in CO, not everyone is prepared for snow as we were soon stuck in traffic at 8K elevation and climbing. Even the commercial drivers who at this point were required to chain up were stuck on the uphills with their pants down trying to get their chains on. Needless to say, it was slow going and this stretch took us almost 3 hours to get through.

The start..
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The slow downs begain...
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We hit the Eisenhower tunnel and the roads went to a pretty good snow pack. Probably 2-3 inches thick on a downhill grade of 6-7%. I was moving at a pretty good rate in 4wd and in 2nd gear (brake use and you'd be in the mountain) and getting passed...

This shot was taken farther down towards Vail where traffic thinned and a quick pic was safe...you get the idea...
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To be continued...as internet improves...
 

skrillah

Adventurer
Day 3 Continued:

After we made it through the mountain passes and snow, conditions improved and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. We met up with my buddy in Glenwood Springs, CO and continued our trek into Moab.

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Cool tunnel shot...
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We all stopped so I could get a photo with the sign...typical poser shot. Not sure if you are allowed to do this, but there were other tire tracks so we figured it wouldn't hurt.
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191 into Moab was an awesome road, great drive in.
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Upon arrival, finding a place to use the bathroom was the first stop. The visitor center worked well for this and gave us a chance to to look around some of the shops and stretch our legs. My buddy, Sean in the '05 Taco had forgotten his GoPro back in Glenwood Springs. He realized this after we had gotten off I-70 and were on 191. Not able to do without the camera, he decided to drive all the way back (roughly 3 hours) to get it. At the time, we thought he was a moron, both for forgetting it and then wanting to drive all the way back. We had just spent 3 days driving, so turning around now was hard to fathom. Regardless, he went back, got it, and it turned out to be one of the better bone head moves of the trip (videos to come).

A few shots around town, and of the awesome rides we saw.

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These folks were from Austria. The definitely chose a sweet ride to bring in...
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Nicely built Sportsmobile and Taco camper setup...
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I was amazed at the number of Toyotas around Moab. I was expecting to see more Jeeps, but everywhere I turned, there was a Yota. In this case, count'em...5 Tacos sitting in a row!
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With my buddy still out screwing around looking for the camera. Doug and I decided on getting another hotel for the night. Sean wasn't going to get in until close to midnight, and I was still feeling some effects of supposed altitude sickness (when we sat through the snow storm at near 10k feet), so it seemed like the logical thing to do for the night.

To be continued...
 
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