Just a quick update, because it’s been a long time since we’ve written one…

To keep a long story short, we’ve spent the past month getting stuff sorted out on the van. Witt spent a week in Denver getting the rear tank re-welded and the fuel tank selector replaced. Thanks to everyone who let me couch surf during that time! We left Denver on October 22 headed for Salida, where we were going to spend some time with Witt’s parents and get an oil change done on the van. We decided to hang out there so that Quinn could go trick-or-treating, and we packed up and hit the road on November 1, headed west for California where we plan to get our stove fixed and have the company that did our 4×4 conversion look over the front axle and suspension on the van.

Jen, Grammy, and Quinn made Witt a yummy belated-birthday-cake.

Grammy and Quinn make a Quinn-friendly pizza.

We took Quinn for a ride on the Royal Gorge railroad

We were headed out of Salida on our way up Monarch pass when the van started to lose power. The best we could do was 25mph up the hill. We returned to Salida and spent the next week with the van in the shop, replacing the fuel pump and several pipes and hoses associated with the turbo, which the mechanic said were leaking causing the turbo to under-perform. A week later (Saturday Nov 9) we finally left Salida again, only to have the problem re-appear. This time we switched the fuel tank selector to the rear tank, and made it up the pass without a problem. We kept going and stopped in Gunnison (on the west side of the pass) where Witt once again bypassed the fuel tank selector and ran the fuel lines directly to the front tank. Since then we haven’t had any power issues. At this point we’ve decided to forgo the fuel tank selector altogether. We now have a giant 20+ gallon fuel tank in the back of the van whose sole purpose is to power our heater (and stove, assuming we get it working). 20 gallons of diesel would power both of those appliances for something like a year. Whatever.

Quinn makes sure Grammy and Papa’s house is nice and clean before we leave.

Just to complete a stressful day, on the way out of Gunnison on our way to Montrose we were stopped by what was apparently a very bad car accident. After learning that it would be 3 or more hours before the road re-opened, we turned back and camped near Blue Mesa Reservoir. We had the place entirely to ourselves and enjoyed the leftover gumbo that Witt’s mom sent with us.

Cars waiting for the road to open on Highway 50.

Sunset from Blue Mesa Reservoir

Tonight we’re camped near a reservoir above the town of Provo, Utah. There’s a campground here, but it’s closed, so we’re camped in the parking lot. We have a great view looking out over the city!

Provo, Utah at night

In more positive news, we’ve been written up in both Real Family Travel magazine and Overland Journal. The article in Real Family Travel is one that Jennifer and I wrote about our experiences in Denali National Park, and the Overland Journal article is about our volunteer work. Unfortunately both of these publications are by subscription only, but we’re very excited to have our names out there!

We’re now on our way to California, and hope to cross into Mexico by Thanksgiving. That’s a mere two months later than we originally envisioned!