The Been's first Christmas Tree

That's right, I said Christmas.

Mom's jaunt to Mormon Rocks

Took mom up to Mormon Rocks on Monday. The plan was to rappel the "bunny slopes" but after the trek from the west side (RR workers were in my usual parking spot), Mom was a bit apprehensive about sliding down a rope. I worked out though because I forgot the rope. It was a nice day either way.

Zion, again

Took mom and sis to Zion for their inaugural visit. It was a quick trip (3 days) but there was time to drag them up to Angels Landing. Later, mom, sis and I put a way a pitcher of some local apricot heffewizen. Oh man, it was a good trip.

El Chupicabra

This mythical creature showed up in the backyard recently.

More Wind and Fire

Hen I posted, Wal-Mart on the south side of 215 fwy and the Starbucks strip mall where both closed. The fire had jump the 215 and both north and south bound traffic had been stopped. The 15 fwy through Cajon pass is also shut down. According the Forest Service IC they may get an air unit into Arrowhead before sundown. The Incident commander said if they can get a helicopter, they might have a chance at stopping the Grass Fire. It's still windy and expected to remain so through the night.

It's Fire Season!

Remember 03? Well, it's a repeat. After 3 days in the wind tunnel, we finally got our fires. Is John Schlesinger planning a visit?

Mojave Road

We tackled the old Mojave Road this weekend. We picked up the trail outside of Needles and finished at Afton Canyon. All in all, a great time and incident free, almost. Somewhere during the last 10 miles, J.W. hydro locked his Dodge Ram in a water crossing. He stalled out in 3 1/2 feet of water with a locked up motor. After towing him out, we put the truck on an incline and drained 5 gallons of water from the exhaust. When we tried the motor, nothing. It was still locked up. When we pulled the the throttle body off, we saw that the intake manifold had about a gallon of water in it! We used a combination of siphoning and a Coleman mattress pump to suck out the water. Next, we pulled all the plugs, breaking one, and prayed. The motor cranked over and shot water out each spark plug port. After some drying and a jump start, we got the truck running albeit badly. We finished the trail and nursed J.W.s truck back to Barstow on 7 cylinders. Quite an adventure indeed. It helped that we were well prepared and had enough technical know how to get out of the jam. We are theorizing that when J.W. started crossing, he went too fast and flooded the intake. To make matters worse, when he backed of the throttle, back pressure sucked water in tho the exhaust and past the catalytic converter. Could have been worse though. More pics when Blogger gets their act together.