My Other Ride: The Bomber

I saw the advertisement for The Bomber in our local Holloman Bookoo website. Holloman Bookoo is like Craigslist but more local. There may be other BooKoo sites but I haven’t searched for them because the stuff for sale is too far away. This story gets a bit complicated but I was searching for a drive train to scavenge for Brumby, my Jeep YJ.

The Bomber, a half-ton 1990 4X4 GMC Suburban, had 3:73 axles, a running throttle-body fuel-injected small-block engine and was the last year of the solid front axle Suburbans. 1989 and 1990 were odd years for Suburbans because the rest of GM’s truck line changed body styles in 1988. For some reason the Suburban didn’t make the cut and soldiered on with the classic Square Body until joining the rest of the gang in 1991. Except for logos, the Chevy and GMC versions are pretty much exactly alike.

The Bomber’s half-ton, six-lug front axle is GM’s take on a Dana 44. I watched a Dirt Every Day video that said 1989/1990 models received axle shaft upgrades and were maybe a bit better than the D44. All this was good news for Brumby because the transmission had lost a gear and the little YJ desperately needed more power.

The Bomber’s owner wanted $1800. I drove the big beast around and offered him $1500. It was too easy; did I leave money on the table? CT (my wife) was a little unsure about my plan to strip out the Bomber for a pie-in-the-sky plan to boost the Jeep’s power. The worst time to plan an engine-axle swap is when you have no place to work and are trying to find a house to live in so I put the ménage on the back burner and busied myself with the mundane tasks of life.

The old GMC ran well and I started using it to haul materials. The thing had crazy stiff springs on the rear axle: I could load 2 tons without the axle bottoming out. The 350 small-block, while no powerhouse, could pull the grade to my house without exploding into bits. The door sticker says “Built Flint Tough” and they mean it. The added advantage of a low-range transfer case and four-wheel drive meant I could haul a 10,00 pound, concrete mixer with a yard and a half of mud up Tinfiny’s steep, slippery driveway.

The Bomber came with a custom paint job that could not have been more out of place. It was shocking. CT recommended I cover over the Starsky & Hutch themed wagon if I ever wanted her to ride in the thing. It took less than a quart of BBQ black to roll over the offending stripes. Not that it looks good now, but at least people run away slower.

Shod with smallish but almost new 31” tires, the bomber looked a little cheesy in the tire division. Bigger, 33” tires that would fill the wheel wells were ordered from Wal-Mart. Just like that the Bomber’s value doubled. I put the 31” tires on Brumby the Jeep. Remember the Jeep? The reason I bought the Bomber?

The thing is, a Suburban is handy as hell to have around. I can load it up with bags of concrete or building materials and everything stays dry. We went camping in the beast; there’s over 8 feet of room for bedding if you fold the seats down. The body is dented but rust free. I use the ‘Burb for garbage dump runs and to scare people.

I’ve grown attached to the Bomber. You’ll hear no more talk of swapping drive trains. In fact a whole new list of projects has been created. I need to remove all the interior plastic and rugs from the passenger doors rearward because it’s too hard to keep clean. I want the cargo area bare metal so I can hose it out. The stupid wooden overhead console has to go because I keep hitting my head on the edge. Then the automatic transmission needs to be swapped out for a 4-speed manual. I can’t stand automatics. It’ll need a decent paint job at some point and a roof rack with one of those tents on top.

Worst of all I’m still on the lookout for a V-8 drive train to swap into the Jeep.


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Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest National Park, east of Flagstaff. It’s an awesome destination.

Sue and I recently completed a 2700-mile road trip in the Subie.   The idea was to drive a grand circle through the Southwest, with the apex of our trip being a visit with Joe Gresh at the Tinfiny Ranch in New Mexico.  I asked Joe what to see on the way out and back, and wow, did he have a great list.  Old Arjiu had a number of outstanding recommendations, one of which was the Petrified Forest in Arizona.  Petrified Forest National Park straddles I-40 (which was mostly built over old Route 66) and it was easy to get to.

The place sounded cool.  I’d never seen a petrified forest (or even a tree, for that matter).  I remembered being fascinated by dinosaurs and all things prehistoric when I was kid, and the concept of a petrified forest sure fit in that slot.

The Petrified Forest…wow.  As soon as Gresh mentioned the place, it became a bucket list item.  I had to see it.  We had to stop.

An abandoned car on what used to be Route 66.

Like I mentioned above, I-40 is mostly built over what used to be old US Route 66, and when you travel through Arizona, you see a lot of kitsch pertaining to The Mother Road.    The sun was in just the perfect location to bring out the best of my polarizer on the 16-35 Nikon lens when we stopped by an old abandoned automobile you see in the photo above.  There was a preserved stretch of Route 66 immediately behind it.   In that photo above, it looks like it was a deserted area.  Trust me on this: It was anything but.  There were tourists taking photos at that spot from Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Brazil, and more, and I can tell you from reading the body language they were all having a good time.  So were we.   We all took turns getting out of each other’s way as we took pictures.  It was fun.

We drove a little further down the road and came upon the area you see below.  This part of the National Park is called the Painted Desert, for obvious reasons…

The Painted Desert in central Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. The colors really are this dramatic. This stop was a grand suggestion from Uncle Joe Gresh.

I was struck by just how beautiful the Petrified Forest National Park was, and then it hit me…I had driven this stretch if I-40 on many motorcycle rides several times before, and it never occurred to me to stop.   Folks, take it from me:   Don’t make that mistake.  Although not as well known as other flagship US National Parks (Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.), the Petrified Forest is a real gem.

Another view of the Painted Desert. It really is this dramatic.
Yet another perspective on the Painted Desert. This is good stuff, folks.

There’s only one road that meanders through the Petrified Forest National Park, with numerous strategically-located viewing stops along its length.   We hit nearly every one.

One such stop was Newspaper Rock.  We thought it would be a rock formation that looked like a newspaper, but it wasn’t that at all.  It was a collection of petroglyphs deep in a canyon.  The newspaper moniker was related to the idea that early Native Americans communicated with and left messages for each other here.   Fortunately, I had my 70-300 lens, and that allowed the reach I needed to get good images…

Cool stuff. Very early Native American newsprint.
The people who created these petroglyphs lived here about a thousand years ago. They predate the Native American tribes we know of.

While we were admiring the petroglyphs, a couple of crows landed nearby.  By that time I had already put the wide angle lens back on the Nikon, and I wanted to see just how close I could get before the crows flew away.  The big black birds were cool until Sue and I were about 4 feet away, and then they took off.  They were huge.  We actually heard the wind they created flapping their wings.

An old crow in the Petrified Forest National Park. It was a big bird.

The scenery and the roads were stark and colorful.  We stopped and I grabbed this photo of Sue and the Subie…

Sue and the Subie. My Outback was perfect for this kind of road trip. Over a distance of 2705.6 miles, the Subaru averaged 28.3 mpg. That included stints in the mountains, dirt roads, city driving, and many 75mph+ freeway stints.

You might be wondering…what about the petrified trees?  Where were they?

Well, we saw those, too…

Petrified trees. They are really cool. You can’t take them out of the Park, but once you leave the Park, there are souvenir stores selling things like this.
More petrified logs. As I understand it, over the millenia the wood leaches out and is replaced by silica until, oila, a petrified tree remains. It’s pretty cool stuff and this was the first time I’d ever seen it.

This was a great destination.  We exited I-40 on the eastern edge of the Petrified Forest and followed the road through the Park all the way to the western edge.   From there, you pick up an Arizona country road and follow it west for roughly 20 miles to Holbrooke, where you can get back on I-40.  Good times and a great destination.  You might want to add it to your list of places to see.  It’s worth a trip to Arizona all by itself, and it’s certainly worth a stop if you are passing through Arizona on Interstate 40.

A note from Peter…

We had a nice note from our good buddy Peter today, an ardent ADV rider, Norton fan, and fellow Mesa Verde enthusiast…

Joe, I enjoyed your post about Mesa Verde today. A few years ago Sara and I spent the night there and toured the ruins. We agree, photos don’t give the appropriate scale. Our guide made the whole place seem alive! With that said, there are at least two notable things about Dolores. First, they have a pretty decent motel right on the main drag. It’s owned by a Swede (cannot remember his name) and about 4 blocks away they have a good brew pub. Second, just outside of town you’ll find Colorado Norton Works.   Matt Rambo (another Swede) is the owner. He has a very small shop that, as I recall, lacks any kind of sign. Inside you will find a motorcycle shop that closely resembles an operating theater, it’s that spotless. Matt will take your Norton and totally rebuild it from the frame up. The end product is absolutely beautiful and improved in so many ways I cannot remember them all. Matt and John Snead (owns a CNC machine shop in Jacksonville, FL) have also designed an improved electric start system for Nortons. I mention all this because you owe it to yourself to visit the shop, meet Matt, and drool over his rolling jewelry. You’ll love it!

Matt and John are both friends of mine. I have visited Matt’s shop three times and even stayed at his house on one trip.

Peter

Thanks for taking the time to write and convey your thoughts, Peter.  I had heard of Colorado Norton Works from Gerry Edwards, another good friend.  He spoke of them in reverential terms.

For those of you who don’t know, Dolores is a nice little Colorado town just up the road from Mesa Verde.   When my good buddy Marty and I rode the Three Flags Rally in 2005 and visited Mesa Verde (my first time there), we rode along the Dolores River into the town of Dolores.  It was pouring rain that day, but we had decent weather during our earlier stop at Mesa Verde.

Somewhere in New Mexico, with good buddy Marty on the 2005 Three Flags Rally. One of these days I’ll post more photos from that trip here on the ExhaustNotes blog. It was one hell of a ride!

Ride safe, Peter, and again, thanks for your note!

Mesa Verde, Colorado…

Sue and I stopped at interesting spots on our way home from Tinfiny Ranch earlier this month, and one of them was Mesa Verde National Park.   I first went there on the 2005 Three Flags Rally with my buddy Marty.  On that visit, Marty and I were only there for a quick stop, and I knew it was a place that needed more time.

At the Mesa Verde National Park entrance. It would be another 1000-ft climb and 14 miles of glorious twisties to get to the good stuff.

Mesa Verde is just outside of Cortez, in southwestern Colorado.  It’s a great little town.

The whole idea behind Mesa Verde National Park is that Native Americans lived in advanced cliff dwellings about a thousand years ago.  It’s real Indiana Jones stuff.

A shot I showed on Facebook a week or so ago. Folks told me it looked fake, and I needed a photo with some people in it to give a sense of scale.
As requested.

The place was amazing.  We were up on a huge mesa looking down into dramatic canyons, and these dwellings were built into overhangs and crevasses in the canyon walls…

The Tower structure. Several of these little villages had a tower like the one you see in this photo. Maybe the chiefs lived there?
Another hamlet.
A view from across the canyon at another set of dwellings, this time with my 70-300 lens. All of the other photos were with a 24-120 lens.

While we were there, we met a nice young guy named Tom, a Canadian artist traveling through the US on a motorcycle…

Captain Tom…
Tom’s ride, a rented Honda Africa Twin.

Tom was an interesting man and a world traveler.  He gave his card to us and I visited Tom’s website.   He’s been to many of the same spots Sue and I have visited, including Turkey (one of the world’s best-kept tourist destination secrets) and southeast Asia (another best-kept secret).  You should take a peek at Tom’s site; it’s awesome.

Cool stuff, to be sure.   One last Mesa Verde photo today, folks…my signature selfie…

In the painted bumper of my blue Subie…

When we were planning this trip, I asked Gobi (that’s Joe Gresh) what he recommended on the ride back to California. One of his suggestions was the Petrified Forest in Arizona.   That’s next, folks.   Stay tuned!

New Mexico!

Photo ops abound in New Mexico. They have at least four different license plate themes. It’s cool.

Wow, we are enjoying our travels here in the Land of Enchantment.   Every where we’ve been, the roads have been awesome and the photo ops have been amazing.

Yesterday we were up near the Colorado border in the little town of Aztec, New Mexico, and we came across a National Park Service Native American ruins site.  I never heard of Aztec, I certainly never heard of the ruins there, and the roads were amazing.  We stopped for a few photos, and then it was on to Colorado.

A kiva, a large multipurpose room. It was cool.
A storm on the horizon…
As we viewed the ruins, thunder boomed. It added to the mood. It was a great stop. Sometimes the unplanned ones are the best.
The view through an ancient Native American door.

Mesa Verde is coming up next, but that’s a topic for another blog.

More cool stuff…it seems my friend Dan the K is planning a trip to the northwest territories on his 250cc RX3, I invited myself along, and Dan told me that’s great.   It looks like Gresh may ride with us for at least part of the run, too.   All adventure motorcycle tours are great; I believe the ones on 250cc bikes are even more so.   We’ll include you in the planning for this ride, and you’ll be able to read all about it on the ExhaustNotes.us blog.

Stay tuned!