Ocotillo Wells
This was the second year in a row we have headed out to the desert to for Thanksgiving with family, and sand/dirt toys. Thanksgiving 2007 saw us dry camping at Dumont Dunes, and this year we opted for Octotillo Wells (southwest of Salton Sea). This an enormous off road vehicle recreation area. My son and I both have Jeeps (his is a black '89 YJ, and mine is an orange vintage '71 CJ). All systems in my Newell functioned properly, and I was very pleased with the performance of my genset that was run several hours per day.
My CJ spent 20 years rotting in my brother's driveway. Over the course of a year he and I spent around $14,000 restoring the CJ mechanically, with some cosmetic restoration (roll bar, and wheels re-powder coated, new dtires, and new bikini top). Mechanically we had to replace the front axle, all four brake drums, brakes, brake lines, wheel cylinder, reupholster the seats, master cylnder, distributer, transmission, transfer case, radiator, rear differential, locker, steering wheel, carb, machine head, headers, muffler, and both gas tanks. We probably could have spent less by buying a newer "used" Jeep, and upgrading components, however, this was a sentimental project for my brother and I.
We spent 4 days here eating a lot of great Thanksgiving food, and driving around 70 miles offroad....
|