Moab 2019
|
Day 1 of Moab 2019 - Drive to Moab I have two general routes to choose from - full Interstate or state highway. Interstate takes about seven hours with highway taking about ten hours. Today will be the blue line for Interstate. It offered up two twenty to thirty minute backups - the first for a one car accident near Idaho Springs and another for construction near Dillon / Copper Mountain. Once I was past them, it was un-restricted. A gas stop near Parachute had another car asking for a push back to the fuel pump. The car had recent transmission work and the automatic shift selector would only position into neutral or drive - no reverse or park. The motorist and kids were on the way to Montrose and this fuel fill would get them home. The jeep's motor is tired. It can burn a bit of oil - especially when pushed (that freeway riding). While it burns oil, it has been quite good with not dripping oil - until several months back when it started a small drip from the rear main seal area - one dime sized drip. This fuel stop shocked me as where I parked at the pump it dumped out a six inch diameter oil puddle. It had me considering - should I abandon the trip and head home. Dipstick oil level, full at Fort Collins was now at the low mark. Would this larger amount of oil near the clutch find the clutch getting slippery and not working as proper? In the end, I figured I had many miles before it becomes serious. Tom's MG-B on a drive from California to Illinois consumed oil by the case (over 24 quarts). The clutch on it survived and worked as desired until about 100 miles from home where Dad and I detoured to the flat and easy Rock River route instead of a more hilly I-39 freeway route. This Moab trip would put far fewer miles than the cross country MG-B trip. While the dipstick went from full to low on this first Interstate segment, the trip finished with it getting home to Fort Collins with the dipstick at mid-level with no fills in between. The jeep just doesn't like to be pushed. The first picture for the trip is one of an accident. The last will be somewhat the same. |
| Tall peak is the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnel with the second peak Vail Pass |
| Idaho Springs delay. `wonder what the cause was. |
