Box Canyon, Martinez - I'm Talkin' Road Trip...from Hell - Phoenix 04/01

Page updated: 04/23/2001 10:07 AM

I'm Talkin' Road Trip...From Hell! This is Part IV in a four-part series. The story is this: A bunch of Kentucky freaks drove to Colorado, Moab, then Phoenix, and back to Kentucky. All of which somewhere between 7-10 days! Holy cow. I managed to meet them in Phoenix for some fun. Clicking the links below will take you from one day to the next. The same menu is at the bottom of each page. Enjoy! [ Part I \| Part II \| Part III \| Part IV ] This section written by: Al Bsharah Photography: Al Bsharah and Lee Wells
DAY 5 (4/14) - Saturday Box Canyon, part of Martinez and stuff This run was just Tom and Lisa, Head and Ken, Lee and Brooke, myself and Brett. We decided to make it a leisurely day and check out the old mines and things. Very scenic route with some fun obstacles we "bumped" into.
The day started with some repairs to my shackle mount. Pulled the spring eye off the spring and started grinding away at it so Kerry could perform some reconstructive surgery.	In all reality, these repairs happened the same day we were up until 10am. Theoretically, it was the next day for some of us!
Whipped Header's welder out of the 'burb and sparked her up. Better than new...thanks Kerry!	Fried my rotary compressor the day before so I bought a $20 cheapie 12-volt and wired it in. She worked great (after Head figured out why I kept popping a line)
Inside joke. (it's now officially the 14th)	We must have taken 14 (rushed) pictures of signs that said "Florence Junction". Of course, this is the best one we could get. <rolling eyes> Don't bother clicking on it!
Peek-a-boo.
If you look closely, you can see the dork taking this picture!	Is that your finger Ken? Is that a payback by chance?! History: Head's father-in-law (Ken) rode out with him. Well, as they were driving in a few of us happened to be driving in as well. We raced up next to them and I gave Header my traditional welcome finger. Low and behold, Ken was driving and got the brunt of my greeting! Hahaha, first impressions are everything.
	Brett. Way closer than most would like to be! (photographer in mirror and shades)
A couple of great hosts, let me tell ya! Thanks for the hospitality!
	Lots of water on the entire trip, something most of us didn't really expect to see in the desert! Ironically, there was a lot of vegetation and greenery. I guess Phoenix is getting a lot of the rain that San Diego has been getting this year.


	The substitue electric compressor we slapped in there kept blowing the little filler line that came with it. As it turns out the nylon coating is what keeps that rubber from popping and we had cut a portion of it off while modifying. Head figured this out so we recut it to leave enough of the sleeve to keep it from popping. Took us a couple fixes to figure that out <grin>.
	Just a big rock to climb...

	Hmmm...wonder where that green paint came from?
Hmmm...wonder where that orange paint came from?
	Cool scenery...I think Brett's gonna make a panoramic out of some of these.


Trees? I thought we were in the desert!	Poseur.
Busted Poseur.	Entrance to a cave called "The Whore House". We thought it to be a strange name for a cave, until we saw the mattress nearby!
Al coming out of The Whore House. Notice the smile.	Must have been my smile that convinced Head to give it a shot.
	Here are some pictures of an old house built in the 40's. Pretty cool place, too bad it's been trashed by people coming through here.








Teej navigating the garden.	Fun is on the way...doesn't look like much of a line, does it?
Same spot, different angle.
Lee lines up first...




With some minimal rock stacking - he made it through!
	Then it was my turn.


	Got quite a bit of air on that side, so Head and Brett "put a little butt" into it. You won't see two guys holding hands very often! I'm kinda bummed I saw that...
Get the hell outta the way, Cartman!
	Here are some pictures of the old mine.

Ingersol Rand, baby...








The new Warn winch.




DAY 6 (4/15) - Sunday Heading home, assessment of damage
Minorly munched fender	Rocker damage, smashed door hinge holder. Passenger door won't fit. Similar problem on the driver side.
Right rear quarter damage (again), including the soft-top tongue-in-groove rail.	With the windshield down, snapped off the front clip for the soft top on a rock. Won't be running with the top for a while I guess!
Boy am I glad I had these...the were shiny last week.
More gas tank bashings	Both bumpers took a little...
	Header is colliding with the driveshaft.
Fried my rotary compressor so I bought a $20 cheapie 12-volt and wired it in. She worked great (after Head figured out why I kept popping a line)	Ouch.
Shackle mount blew out...
One of my rims is pretty mangled up as well, the edges are caved in towards the tire some. Didn't get a picture of it. (I figured you'd had enough!)	Many....many....many other dents and scratches.