I'd always imagined that Mauna Kea would be inside Volcanoes National Park. Not only is it not, but it's not even part of the park. @mrs.turbodb knew this already. Having researched and planned all of our volcano visiting in a single sitting - overlooking the Pacific Ocean as it crashed against the shoreline outside our apartment - we'd learned that visiting Mauna Kea wasn't as easy as simply driving from sea level to the top of this 13,796 behemoth. In order to get there, we'd have to abide by the following rules: We'd need to stop for 30 minutes at…
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Whereas @mrs.turbodb was most looking forward to being in the ocean while we were in the tropics, I was most looking forward to seeing an active volcano. Actually, I suppose I was conceptually interested in that, but I hadn't fully thought through two key elements: (1) where to go to see said active volcano and (2) whether there was actually an active volcano. Turns out, (1) is a problem when the answer to (2) is "there isn't one." I so sad. Still, even if we couldn't see some fiery hot lava blasting into the night sky, or cascading into the…
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We've gotten quite accustomed to flying to kick off a trip. That sounds rather elitist, but I assure you it is anything but; usually we're flying Spirit Airlines for something on the order of the cost of a single tank of gas. Roundtrip. That wasn't something we were going to risk for a little more than five hours over the Pacific Ocean, so at 10:00am on Christmas morning, we lifted into the air on one of Alaska's newest planes. It was just before 2:00pm local time when we landed to sunny skies and the most pleasant 75°F temperature a Pacific…
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December 31, 2023. Another year in the books. Unlike previous years, there weren't any big changes to the way I planned for trips or the gear that I brought along. Rather, it was a year of small tweaks, with most of my energy going towards exploring and enjoying myself in the outdoors. Taken with the Rig Reviews, this series of posts give a good sense of what's working and what's not with the setup. So, without further ado, let's dig into what's on and in the truck at the end of 2023! Additions for 2023 are marked in red. Items…
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December 28, 2023. It's been quite a while - eight months to the day - since the last Rig Review, making this only the second review of 2023. That's just pure lazy on my part, but I'll plead "no way to work on the truck since it's been in Las Vegas" most of that time ...and move on with my fingers in my ears and a la-la-la escaping my lips, as though that were the real reason. With that in mind, let's get down to it, because there is a lot to cover. This Rig Review is the result of…
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That's not right. And it's also not good!
TL;DR - The welds on the CBI tire carrier failed on the trail. Once I realized that my welds on it hadn't failed, but those from CBI had, I laughed at the entire situation.
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Out with the old, in with the new.
TL;DR - The linear clutch pedal spring I installed is working great. Everyone with a torsion spring on their clutch pedal should do this proactively.
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Just to remind everyone where we left off - we'd found the perfect camp site, with one minor caveat: it was located about 25 feet from a rather deep, Tacoma-sized, hole in the ground. With no barriers. "If you get up during the night to pee, do it on the driver side of the truck," The main shaft of the Bonanza King Framed by enormous lumber, this is one of the most impressive shafts in the preserve. It plunges down 600 straight feet, then continues as a winze for another 200 feet. When the shaft encountered a new ore body,…
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After cleaning up after dinner and getting the tent deployed, it was still only 6:15pm, too early - even for us - to hit the sack for the night. It was, rather, the perfect time for me to be reminded of what we had in store for the morning; the trail description I'd neglected to re-read prior to planning the trek. Whipping out what we lovingly refer to as the Mojave Preserve bible - @mrs.turbodb was happy to oblige: From its head near the highest point in the Granite Mountains to its mouth, Budweiser Canyon climbs about 2,800 feet in…
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There was no way Mike @Digiratus, Zane @Speedytech7, and I were going to run the entirety of the East Mojave Heritage Trail when we set out to do it at the end of November. At something more than 700 miles long - not including the nearby side-adventures that I added for our enjoyment - it might seem like a Backcountry Discovery Route, but the roads are significantly slower and more technical, and the percentage of on-dirt miles is significantly larger. Frankly, these two things make it easily twice the length of a BDR, not to mention the fact that we…
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I don't know if it was the coldest night of the trip from an absolute perspective, but when I climbed out of my tent, it was the only morning I found the rainfly - and the cab of the Tacoma - covered in a layer of frost. Luckily, as the final full day of our trip, we'd decided that no matter where we were, it was where we were going to cook our shared breakfast. And that meant we'd have a couple extra hours for our tents to defrost. While I waited for Mike @Digiratus and Zane @Speedytech7 to wake…
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Camped at 2,250 feet above sea level, the entirety of the night was quite a bit warmer than the previous two evenings at more than 5,500 feet, and it was so nice to open up all the windows and doors on the tent so that whenever I'd wake up through the night, I can take a quick glance at the surroundings and admire them under the moonlight. Morning brought more clouds than on previous mornings, but with a clear eastern horizon, more clouds just meant more color! After three days of doing it, getting out of camp early was now…
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We lucked out with a windless night along our ridge on the eastern edge of the Clark Mountains. Hoping that out orientation would allow for some nice color at sunrise, I was up early to try and find the best angle from which to capture the splendor we were lucky enough to call home for a night. Framed by Clark Mountain, there was just a hint of color in the sky. Mike @Digiratus and Zane @Speedytech7 weren't far behind, and as I was wrapping up the morning photo session of their best-gen trucks, they were boiling water for coffee and…
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It's been another great year to be out exploring! It was a bit tougher to get out for much of the year - I haven't mentioned it anywhere, but my main task this year was a kitchen remodel for @mrs.turbodb. An nine-month project that started with building the cabinets, we consistently progressed through a down-to-the-studs demolition, load-bearing-wall-removal, replumbing, rewiring (bye bye knob and tube), and then rebuilding everything from there. I'm not a fan of hiring work out, so only the granite countertops were done by someone else. Still, I was quite happy to have still gotten out on a…
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There aren't many nights that I close up all the windows and doors on my tent, as - especially when there is a full moon as there was on this night - I enjoy being able to gaze out on the surroundings if I wake up in the middle of the night. But parked under the watchful gaze of Easter Island Rock, with temperatures in the my-feet-are-numb range and a 10mph breeze blowing through camp, I zipped everything up tight, inserted my earplugs, and hoped for the best. It worked, and I was nice and toasty when my alarm -…
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Prologue For the first time in five years, the "annual" TacomaWorld trip has morphed into two trips. I suppose, technically, I should call it a trip-and-a-half, given the debacle that became Half a Trip in Montana, but I prefer to see the glass always full (there's always something in there) so we're just going to call it two. The timing of the second trip - in December - clearly ruled out anything up north, so returning to Montana for redemption would just have to wait until next year. Plus, given the unexpectedly good time that we had in Death Valley…
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TL;DR - currently I have 12V LED strip lighting in my tent and it works great. However, I want to update the lighting to use 5v, so I can power it from a (more versatile) USB port, rather than using a 12v receptacle.
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These are 17x7.5" double five-spoke from an early 2000s Sequoia. With 4.5" backspacing, they are perfect for a 1st gen Tacoma.
TL;DR - I'm done with 16" wheels and the limited tire selection they offer. My next set of tires (and therefore wheels) will be 17".
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I do miss my avocados, but these always hit the spot.
TL;DR - with trips to Las Vegas now taking place via plane, it's much harder to bring avocados (compared to packing them securely and driving them from home). Becuase I refuse to eat tacos or burritos without guacamole, I had to find an alternative. Chicken Tender wraps have fit the bill fantastically.
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There are more powerful chargers out there, but at least for now, this one seems perfect.
TL;DR - I found a compact, 65W USB A/C charger that can be used for my laptop, camera, drone, flashlight, phone, and just about anything else, and it charges faster than the dedicated chargers for those devices. Fantasticly amazing.
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