We arrived at our campsite down in the Swell Wednesday evening expecting at least a couple of people to be there already, but we ended up being alone until Thursday afternoon. I woke up Thursday morning with a headache that lasted all day, so we didn't do any geocaching until late afternoon, and we only found one cache that was fairly close to camp. The couple who showed up Thursday stayed holed up in their trailer all evening, even when I started a fire and we roasted some marshmallows, so we might as well have been alone.

Friday, we woke up to rain. It rained all day, but it did finally clear up after dark. Despite the weather, we had to do some geocaching since we'd missed doing it Thursday. I'd already found all the easy geocaches in the area earlier in the year, and it took a lot of driving to find four that day. The first three were a relatively short distance off the main road, but the last one was at the Lucky Strike Mine. The drive to the mine was about five miles in the bottom of a wash, and the going was slow. It seemed like an excruciatingly long drive, but in reality it only took about 40 minutes. I think it seemed so bad because we were worried about flash flooding with all the rain that was coming down, but I never once saw any running water. The area around the mine was interesting, but we didn't stick around to explore. The scenery along the way was just amazing, but the gloomy lighting didn't make for great pictures.

Our little excursion lasted most of the day, long enough that we had to stop and eat lunch along the way. By the time we returned to camp, there were a lot of people there. We were especially happy to see that somebody else had brought their kids, so our kids had somebody to occupy their time, rather than fighting with each other all weekend. That night, standing around the campfire in the rain, was great (especially listening to the coyotes howling and yipping). I made some new friends, and got to know some acquaintances a little better.

By Saturday morning, the storm clouds were gone, but there was a heavy blanket of fog on the ground. As the fog burned away after sunrise, the Wickiup poked out of it and made for some good pictures. We had a potluck breakfast, consisting of sourdough pancakes, and my favorite, eggs and fresh salsa. After eating, we drove around and visited Dutchman Arch and an area filled with petrified trees, then found two more caches. We made it back in time for lunch, and a few more people had showed up by then. We just sat around camp for the rest of the day and visited with everybody. Dinner was potluck as well, and there were some excellent dutch oven cooks there.

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, we didn't want to leave. If it wasn't for Halloween we would have stayed, but we needed time to get the truck and trailer unloaded so we could carve pumpkins, go trick-or-treating, and all that stuff you do when you have kids.

I'd never camped for so long at once, and in such cold and wet weather, but it was the best time I've ever had camping. There's already talk of another geocaching event next year in the Fishlake area southwest of here, and I know I won't have any problems talking Traci into staying there for a long time. She didn't think this weekend was going to be any fun, but the people were so great that she felt right at home.

I'm glad that I have today to recover, because I've got a lot of projects waiting for me at work and I didn't really want to dive in after such a busy weekend. I've also got a few things around the house to take care of, like raking leaves and winterizing the camp trailer, so I'll be busy most of the week. Since I'm sure we won't go camping again this year, I probably won't be driving the truck much for awhile. I need to replace the truck's serpentine belt soon because it's frayed along one edge. I bought a new one already (fifty freaking bucks!) just in case we had a problem on our camping trip, but now that the truck will be parked for a long time, I can replace it when I have time.

After I bought my truck, the first time I connected the wiring plug from my trailer into the truck, the right turn/stop lights on the trailer wouldn't come on even though those lights on the truck worked. The first thing I checked was the fuse box, but the fuse for turn/stop was just fine. I tested the plug receptacle on the truck and figured out that it was a problem with the truck's wiring (not surprising since all my trailer lights had worked when I towed with my old F-150). I monkeyed around with the plug and wiring, but couldn't figure anything out, so I just left it alone. I never towed the trailer very far from home anyway, so I wasn't too worried about it.

Today, I was determined to get the lights working since I'm going to pull the trailer 200 miles round-trip next week, and a lot of that will be on the interstate. After spending an hour and a half lying on the ground under my truck, tearing apart the trailer wiring plug, and tracing wires all over the chassis, I realized something: Ford sucks. I gave up again because I just couldn't find any problems, but I decided to search this forum to see if anybody else had had the same problem. It turns out that Ford hid another fuse box under the hood. That's not somewhere I would have looked, especially considering there's already a fuse box under the dash. Oh well, live and learn--I simply replaced a blown 15-amp fuse and I'm good to go. I'm just glad that now I've got working lights on the trailer, so I'm no longer worried that somebody will rear-end me on the highway.

I replenished the firewood pile behind my garage today, but I plan on taking most of it with me camping next week. I drove out to a dirt road off Airport Road, and found a stretch along the road where they'd dug it up for a gas line running to all the gas wells. There was mostly juniper that they'd dozed over to clear space for the line, but every once in a while I'd come across some pinyon pine, which is exactly what I wanted. I didn't cut much wood up there because the chain on my chainsaw was extremely dull--I've had it for five and a half years without ever sharpening it or replacing the chain. It was so bad that it was burning through logs more than it was cutting them. I didn't want to make another trip up there, so I loaded up as many of the larger branches and logs as I could find, then went home and dropped them off in my back yard. After buying a new chain, I swapped it out and started cutting. It was like cutting butter--I don't remember it ever cutting that quickly, but I'm sure it did when it was new.

Our camping trip will last five days and four nights, which will be the longest I've ever camped all at once. I'm pretty bummed because Sam and Mark aren't able to go now. Most of the other people who'll be camped there are just acquaintances, and I'm sure there'll be others who I don't know at all, so hopefully it won't be too strange hanging out with them for that long.

Strange...I've been to Wal-Mart and Kmart, and they're both out of two items that I want: a 5-gallon diesel fuel can, and marshmallow Peeps. I can maybe understand being out of fuel cans, but Peeps? It's almost Halloween, and everybody seems to be out of them. It's bad enough that I often have to drive to several stores to find the best deal on something I'm planning on buying, but having to drive all over town just to find a store that has a common, everyday item in stock is ridiculous.

I bought an inverter yesterday so I can use my laptop in my truck, and it's simply stupid that I didn't do it sooner. It works quite nicely though, and it was surprisingly inexpensive. I went on a short drive today with my GPS hooked up to the computer to make sure the tracking works. Now, I'm wondering what else I can plug in for next week's trip, but that would sort of defeat the whole purpose of camping. I used to want a generator to bring camping, but the more time I've had to think about it, the less I want one. However, it would be nice to be able to use my battery charger, because there have been occasions where the battery in the trailer died and left us without the use of the water pump and lights.

I bought a pair of laptops ten months ago, and I'm finally getting around to using mine. Traci has been using hers as her primary computer since then, but mine has been collecting dust on a filing cabinet in the basement. It took me seeing John's laptop and GPS in action last week to finally get me off my ass, so I've finally installed the software I need to get mine running.

I'll just be using ExpertGPS (for now), which means I'll have to know where I'm going in advance and download all the maps for that area before I leave home. While I'm on the road, though, I'll be able to track my position on the 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 USGS topo maps. Hopefully it'll make it easier to find as many geocaches as possible next week while we're camped down in the San Rafael Swell, but there's always the possibility that it will complicate things beyond belief.

I dropped my camera pretty hard on some rocks today. Considering the huge dent it left in the top of the camera, it's a wonder that it still works. I thought about sending it to Canon for repair, but apparently they have a flat repair charge of over $100, and it just didn't seem worth it for a $400 camera. I was mostly worried about the gap between the top of the body and the back, just above the LCD. I know a lot of dust and grit would have gotten in there, but I sort of bent it back into shape. I suppose I feel the same way about the camera as I would if the fender got bashed in on my car. It's still a nice and functional camera, but with a blemish that somehow makes it seem lesser than before.

The problem with my truck is apparently just a bad battery. The passenger-side battery has a manufacture date of 11/04, but the driver-side battery appears to be the original Motorcraft battery that came with the truck in '96. Price Autoplex only sells Interstate batteries, and the one for my truck was $100, so I just paid them the $30 diagnostic charge and I'll take care of the battery myself. I've bought two Wal-Mart batteries in the past, and haven't had any problems with them, and that's what I plan on buying this time.

Update @ 8:54pm: I thought I'd update this post rather than create a new one. I just got done replacing the battery, cost me $60 for a new EverStart Maxx. For some reason, there's this nagging doubt in my mind that it'll fix the problem. I'm taking bets on how long it'll take before the truck dies again and leaves me stranded somewhere. I'm guessing it'll be sometime next Thursday, when I'm supposed to leave for our camping trip in the Swell.

Driving around on a lonely dirt road isn't exactly a situation in which you'd expect to run into an old friend, but it happened to me today. I was bummin' around on the roads running out to all the new gas wells between here and Kenilworth, and I passed Enrique going the opposite direction. We both turned our trucks around and stopped in the middle of the road to catch up for a few minutes before turning back around and continuing the way we were going. He definitely wasn't someone I'd have expected to bump into up there. I guess it takes a certain kind of weirdo to be driving around alone on Wood Hill. Oh wait.

It took me 15 minutes to get my truck started this afternoon. I had to jump-start it again, and hopefully it'll still have enough juice in the morning to start one last time. I have an appointment at Price Autoplex, where I'll have them at least figure out what's wrong, and possibly fix it if the price is right. I'm just afraid that they'll tell me it's something like the alternator, so I'll have it replaced, but the problem will persist and it'll turn out being something else.

I spent today placing caches in the San Rafael Swell with a sheriff's deputy from Sanpete County. I met John (and his dog, Sabrina) at 8:00am just off I-70 near the Wickiup, then hopped in his Grand Cherokee and we took off. We drove all over the place, including the worst jeep trail I've ever been on--good thing he apparently doesn't mind beating up on his Jeep. Between the two of us we placed nine caches and saw a lot of country. I love that area, and I'm looking forward to spending four days camping there in a couple of weeks. We'll be camped at a good central location for finding a lot of other caches that I've wanted to find for quite some time.

On my way down this morning, I took US-6 because it was faster, but on my way home I took SR-10 just so I could check out the other side of I-70. I wanted to completely avoid towing my trailer up or down Spotted Wolf Canyon for the upcoming camping trip. It's so steep and winding that there are several runaway truck ramps, and a big pull-off at the top for trucks to pull over to check their brakes. After checking out I-70 between the Wickiup and SR-10, however, I've decided that it would be a waste of time taking that route on the way to our campsite. It's not quite as steep, and definitely not as winding, but the much longer drive would eat too much fuel. Unfortunately, I'll still have to drive home that way to avoid burning up my brakes.

Other than today, things have been rather blah around here. For once, I don't really have any projects going on--that's not to say I don't have any projects I should be doing. A couple of weeks ago, I was getting antsy to be doing something, and now I'm ready to kick back and do absolutely nothing.

It's been a long three days. Feels like a week. Halfway through Wednesday, I started feeling sick. I wasn't surprised, since Michael and Bradley had both been sick and puked more than a few times this week. I took a short nap on my lunch break, and right when I was ready to go back to work, we got a phone call. Some guy had run across Traci's dad near Ferron Reservoir (25 miles from the nearest pavement), where he'd gotten his truck and camp trailer stuck in the snow. Snow! So this guy drove to where he had service on his phone and called here. I was the only one with a truck who could help him out, so I let my manager know what was going on, and he said, "Get out of here and go help!" So I did.

Not surprisingly, by the time I got some gear packed (boots, gloves, granola bars, water, etc.), and grabbed her dad's tire chains from his garage, and fueled up my truck, and drove all the way to Ferron, then hit the dirt road and hauled ass up to Ferron Reservoir, wouldn't you know it--help had already come along. He wasn't there anymore, and somehow he'd dropped his trailer off and taken another road back to town without passing me. Traci called me after I'd passed Skyline Drive and had cell service again to let me know that he was already halfway back to Price. Somebody had stopped for him and just happened to have a set of four tire chains that fit his tires. Just my luck.

After getting home, I just wanted to crash. I took a hot bath, puked, took some Nyquil, and went to bed. I woke up once after my fever broke and I was sweating profusely, then I tossed and turned all night after that.

Yesterday, I'd already scheduled to take the day off from work so Traci and I could drive to Provo for some Xmas shopping, and even though I wasn't feeling great, we went anyway--I didn't want to waste my vacation day. It didn't turn out too badly, except that we got a really late start. I ate the first meal I'd had in the past 29 hours at Sconecutter--at least I picked a good place to eat. We bought a treadmill at Sears, and even though the trunk in the Taurus is pretty cavernous (you can fit at least three or four adults in there), the treadmill box wouldn't fit. Literally, all I needed was another inch or two! As much as I hate driving, we ended up driving home with an empty trunk, and got back after dark. Then I had to make up the three hours of work that I missed on Wednesday, but it passed quickly because not only was I busy, but Traci stayed at her mom's with the kids for a bit.

When I got off work today, I scooped Michael up and we headed out the door for another trip to Provo, this time in the truck so we could pick up the treadmill. But the truck wouldn't start. The starter turned over, very slowly at first, then it stopped turning altogether. I gave it a jump start with the Taurus, but that was after having to read the damn owner's manual to figure out which battery to connect the jumper cables to! I just hoped that if I didn't turn the truck off until we got home again that I'd be safe. Michael took a pretty long nap on the way to Provo, and I wish I could have done the same. We got stopped for 25 minutes because of an accident that blocked both lanes of travel at the top of Price Canyon. We made it to Sears, got the treadmill, and headed home. We stopped at the Tucker rest area so Michael could pee in the bushes (because there was a group of about 20 boy scouts using the restrooms there), then we found a geocache that I've been wanting to find for awhile. I took a chance and shut the truck down, and luckily it started right up when we were ready to leave.

And now that I'm home, I can finally relax a bit. Well, except that I've got to find out what's wrong with my truck. The Ford dealer is probably best equipped to track down the problem quickly, but they're also the best equipped to rape me up the asshole (you know how those dealers are, always raping assholes such as myself). I think I'll give this one a stab on my own, though. I can at least rule out things like corroded battery cables or a short that's causing a drain. If I can't find anything like that, I'll probably take it to a parts store for a battery/alternator test, but from what I've heard, even those aren't always conclusive (but they're free!).

I really expected to sit around the house doing nothing today, but somebody placed a new geocache in Huntington Canyon. Since I'd been wanting to go for a drive and take some pictures of the fall colors near Scofield anyway, I decided the cache was a good enough excuse to get out. I took the Energy Loop Scenic Byway starting at Huntington, then worked my way through Eccles Canyon to Scofield. I got some decent pictures, but it would have been much better had it not been so overcast. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds for about a half hour near sunset, and I managed to take ten pictures that I liked. I actually took 72 pictures, and I tried messing with the exposure and aperture on my camera to get better pictures with the poor lighting, but honestly I still don't understand quite how it works.

I almost hit a deer between Scofield and US-6, and I only missed it by an inch or two. It was a nice little spike, and luckily he stopped short while trying to cross the road in front of me. I was doing 55 MPH, and he was also going pretty fast in a line perpendicular to the road, and I think he even bucked up on his hind legs while trying to keep from hitting my car. I didn't see where he went after that, but I had to pull over to let my heart slow down a bit. I got out of the car just to make sure he hadn't hit the rear-end with his horns when his front legs dropped back to the ground.

I've used less than half of my allotted vacation at work so far, and there's only a quarter of the year left, so I'm going to start taking days off at random just to use them up. I think I'll make plans for a few hikes, some xmas shopping, fixing my garage roof, and a few other odds and ends that I'd like to do before winter is here.

My website was briefly mentioned in a Salt Lake Tribune article today, but the article focused primarily on blogging about work--and more specifically, the lovely Heather Armstrong. Anyway, back to the important part:

    Speaking of fun, other Utah bloggers just want to make readers laugh, from the dry, self-deprecating humor of Dennis Udink (http://www.udink.org), to the crudity of the self-described "online locker room" of The Dude Blog (http://www.thedudeblog.com).
    "My real name is Dennis Udink," he says, allowing the moniker has attracted a modest, loyal following for his postings on everything from hiking and backcountry exploration to repairing his travel trailer.
    "I get a feeling of community from the people who link to my blog," Udink says. "It's like a world separate from my real life, but I've nonetheless made some close friends . . . people whom I've never met face-to-face."
    While Udink is likely an acquired blog-reading taste, The Dude Blog is intentionally in your face, its wide-ranging, R-rated discussions (parents take note) that are quite earthy about life, pop culture, movies, television and politics.

I woke up at noon today. I'm not sure how I'm going to spend the rest of the day, but I'm sure it'll be productive. Yesterday, I spent all of two hours putting the cover on the evaporative cooler and changing the filters in the furnace. Besides that, I think I just watched tv all day.

I've got some money burning a hole in my pocket since I sold the Mazda on Sunday. I really should use some of that money to get my '87 Subaru running--that car could make an excellent cachemobile. I'm only into it a total of about $350, and I'm sure another $100-$200 could get it on the road. Then I would have something that gets better gas mileage than my truck, and sadly, it's probably more maneuverable off-road. If I managed to get it fixed, I'm sure I'd spend more time chasing after the geocaches further away from home. I've already cleared a 20-mile radius from home, so all future caching adventures will require a short road trip.