Things I learned about my 1969 Jeep CJ5 Friday.....

6:59 am - Saturday - October 26th - TWW - 42° F, humidity 41%, wind 3 mph out of the west....high, wispy clouds today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were boondocking at Lone Rock on the shores of Lake Powell in southern Utah.....

....we have not been back since then.  It will always be one of our favorite boondock sites.  We were in Page, AZ back in May of 2020 (Wuhan Flu days), and it was closed like a lot of places back then, so we couldn't stay there then.  We hope to return again....we'll see.

I haven't mentioned my 1969 Jeep CJ5 since we arrived at TWW, but it is there, in the garage.  Why haven't I driven it?   Well, quite by accident, the keys for it followed Charles and Phyllis home to Phoenix after they delivered it.  Those keys will be returning to TWW Saturday, so we will be able to drive it for the first time then.  Nevertheless, I spent time Friday checking it over for the first time since I bought it 3 weeks ago.  Some things I learned that I didn't know before....

......the hood has gas shocks to hold it open....these were added by the the guy who restored it 10 years ago....

....it has the extra fuel tank under the driver seat, which was standard on the CJ5, but often gets deleted.....

....the guy did a frame off restoration back then, and had the Buick Dauntless V-6 rebuilt at the factory, and reset the ODO....it has only been driven 2,026 miles since then!  One the biggest surprises was....

....it has a heater....you can see it just to the right of the fuel gauge, and the controls just to the left of the fuel gauge.....it gets cold in Northern Arizona, so I am very happy it came with a heater....this was an option on the CJ5's back then, but not standard. It also has amp meter, a tachometer...

The tachometer is right there in the middle of the picture mounted on the steering column....

.....it has a hitch (above), and the headers have been wrapped with heat tape (below).....

.....in addition to the full doors, it also has the half doors (below)!......

The rest of the gauge cluster.....amp meter, temp, and fuel gauges....and a nice Pioneer stereo with 4 speakers

....finally, it has a 'Jerry Can' already mounted.  The soft top is brand new (well 10 years old, but looks brand new, and the roll cage is a custom job.....much more robust than the factory version.

I spent some time Friday afternoon washing the dust off of it, and she is starting to look pretty....

.....I see Jeep CJ5's on Facebook Marketplace all the time in really rough condition going for what I paid.  Jeep CJ5's in this condition area going for over $10,000, but I paid just $4,500.....and the engine is immaculate.....

....so, what did TLE and I do Friday?  Well, we moved all the tree branches we cut the other day off of the driveway, then raked the driveway, and the front yard.....

Before (above) and after (below)

Before (above), and after (below)

.....we're trying to only 'work' 3-4 hours a day, and TLE is really keeping to that, but I can't just sit around, so I take breaks, and then do more.  One more thing we did was clean out a 330 gallon water tote that came with the property, so we can use it to supplement our 160 gallon fresh water tank.  It took us about an hour to move it, and clean it....

.....this is what the interior looked like when we started to clean it.  It looks like, in its first  life, this tote contained some sort of vegetable oil.  I poured in some diesel fuel to cut the oil, then we added water, and drained it......

.....the we poured in some Dawn detergent, added water, then rolled it over and over to wash all four sides, the floor, and ceiling before repeating the same process of rolling it over and over to clean all the surfaces....

....and finally, after draining out the Dawn, we added bleach, more water, and repeated the aforementioned process.....it came out pretty nice....

.....that was the end of TLE's work day.  After some lunch, I headed out to the Conex to begin organizing it.  It was easy work, and in the shade so the time passed quickly.  Pretty soon it was time for another sunset fire....

....thanks for stopping by!

Rome wasn't built in a day......

6:25 am - Friday - October 25th - TWW -  42° F, humidity 46%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were brewery hopping in Idaho Falls, ID.....Snow Eagle Brewing (1st picture), and Idaho Brewing Company (2nd picture)......

We were up early (before 7 am), and outside by 7:30 'limbing up' the numerous juniper trees in the yard on the driver side of the Newell......

Until I took these pictures this morning I did not realize how much we cut...there will be a lot of good firewood when we're done

,

.....plus we tilted the rear solar panels a little bit higher on the Newell....

.....and moved the solar generating station/solar panels closer to the driveway to get continuous sun all day long.  We were only getting 2-3 hours where we set them up originally....

....around 11:30 am we drove into town to check out the hardware store, the general store, and the laundromat (in case we need to use it in the future), and had lunch at a local hot spot with alfresco dining.....the hardware store, by the way, is really quite adequate.  It is like a small ACE Hardware....they had everything I needed.....

....I know some of you are thinking "Why isn't he telling us what town, and what restaurant?", and I don't blame you for wondering.  We decided a long time ago we would not reveal our exact location this winter in order to protect the privacy of Charles and Phyllis.  If they should decide at a later date that it is okay, then you will be the first to know.

We were back home around 3 pm, and I busied myself with a couple of DIY projects, which included making up a 20 amp cord  to use around our site.  I'll fill you in later for what it will be used.

Around 5:15 pm I got out our portable firepit, and set it up down the driveway for our first sunset fire in ages.  We were treated to another spectacular sunset.....I took a lot pictures, so enjoy them......

The entire sky lit up....looking northeast

....about this point we thought it was over (below).....

.....but then the sky lit up again (below)......

.....we accomplished a lot Thursday, for two old farts, and we need to keep reminding ourselves we're not 19 anymore.  We took a lot of breaks.  We'll be here 6 months, so we don't have to 'build Rome in a day' as they say.

Thanks for stopping by!

All by ourselves.....

6:09 am - Thursday - October 24th - WW - 44° F, humidity 38%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast......there will be crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were enjoying another Oregon coastal sunset at Seal Rock, OR.....

As you know, whenever we change our view, and arrive at our winter destination it takes us a few days to pull all of our stuff out, and set up our site, and this time is no exception.  TLE and I spent the better part of the day emptying a lot of our stuff out of the trailer, and moving it to the two car garage, where a lot of it will remain until we return next winter from LPG&RVR. We've been carrying around a lot of stuff we don't use on a regular basis, but we are too cheap to get a storage unit....lol.  Now we have a place to store some of that stuff, and lighten the trailer load.  That process took most of the day.  Fortunately, we have the use of a couple of 'wagons' to move stuff from the trailer to the garage, which are separated by a 150', or more......

.....TLE pruned some of the juniper trees in the front yard, and we will continue to do that on Thursday.  That was pretty much the extent of what we did Wednesday.  By 4:30 pm we were on the house deck having cocktails....

.....our first night by ourselves in the middle of nowhere.  It is SO quiet here at night!

Charles and Phyllis left around 1 pm to head back to Phoenix for a few days before returning this Saturday.  We're hoping to get more done in the next few days before they return.

Thanks for stopping by!