It was a tough day today, but not for the usual reasons. The 15 mile climb up Sherman Pass went fine. The trouble was the 25 mile descent down the other side. At the Pass, I told Alea and Cary to go on to Kettle Falls, since I should have been able to get there in an hour or less. I was overly optimistic in thinking that as I descended I would soon pass an elevation where the air temperature was considerably warmer. That didn't happen, so it was a cold, miserable descent, with numb hands and nearly numb feet (I was at least smart enough to put plastic bags over my socks to block the wind and cold). I probably expended about the same effort on that coast downhill as I had on the ride up to Washington Pass on Sunday. I'll know better in the future to hedge my bets and wear tights, though even that likely would not have been enough to keep me warm today, as in addition to the cold temps the wind was blowing west against me. The wind was a blessing on the ascent, but an added curse on the descent.
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| Arriving at Sherman Pass, none the worse for wear. |
We haven't yet decided on a destination for tomorrow, but there is a good chance we'll be near Ione or just beyond. Finding a campsite on a Friday or Saturday can be a challenge during the summer, but I suspect we are far enough from popular destinations that we'll be able to find a place to park ourselves for the night. But time will tell.
So it's looking like our two weeks with Cary will end up being the substitute for the shake out cruise that we had originally envisioned for June. We've been working out a few minor kinks along the way, and are slowly figuring out our best cycling strategies, based upon terrain, weather, weekends, etc. But we continue to get things more finely tuned, and as a result I suspect we'll have a bit more time to enjoy more of the sights along our route in the coming days.
Our First Impressions of Loraine
When we special ordered our van back in January, we didn't even have a chance to take one out for a test drive. And the big decision was whether to go with the 2.5l engine originally developed by Mazda that is said to run practically forever, or the newer 1.6l EcoBoost engine that Ford had rolled out a few years ago (one of their first engines designed as a turbocharged engine from the ground up, rather than an existing engine with a bolt-on turbocharger). The latter cost $800 more, but did have marginally better horsepower, torque and gas mileage. We had also heard that the torque was available at a much lower engine RPM and had a much broader power range than is typical with most engines, and that seemed to be worth the gamble.
Right now we are definitely thinking we made the right choice. We had Loraine on cruise control through Oregon's Blue Mountains and were amazed at the performance. With our speed set at 65 mph the tach registered 2,000 rpm. If the hill got steep it would downshift, but the tach only jumped up to 2,700 rpm! With such small rpm jumps the shifting is incredibly smooth, and a big change from our Mazda CX-5, where the torque was all at the high end of the rpm range. Even our 2001 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab with supercharged V6 was almost violent when it downshifted on a really steep hill. And we love the way that, when we cancel the cruise control and then resume our previous speed, it gently gets back up to speed, no matter how much we've slowed down. Too many other cars I've driven are programmed to race back to full cruising speed, which generally isn't a pleasant experience.
The cargo box also seems to be working out well. In addition to our drawer pedestal, we've been able to store our generator, grill, camp chairs, water cooler, shade structure, THREE bikes, a half dozen pairs of shoes (in a repurposed over the door shoe organizer) and lots of other gear. With all that in there, there's not a lot of extra room left over, but it's great to have everything stowed inside - secure and out of sight.
One option that came on the van that we ended up with (and not with the one that we had special ordered) was the oversized side mirrors. The big advantage there is a small blind spot mirror at the bottom of both mirrors - something that is a huge benefit since there are no sliding door windows (our van is so packed that we wouldn't be able to see out those windows if we did have them). Those lower mirrors take a lot of the anxiety out of figuring out if the coast is clear to change lanes or make a turn.
We also opted for the rubber front floor covering (not just the mats, but the whole floor area). If you have a dog, carpet only works if it matches your dog's fur, so for us, having an option other than the standard dog fur magnet is a nice feature. We had also hoped to have Katzkin leather seat covers made to replace the factory cloth seats, but everything came together too late to make that happen (or perhaps not - the dealer called today to say that the leather kit had arrived, though obviously we aren't headed back to Boise any time soon to have it installed...).
Another great thing about Loraine is how little heat gain there is in the interior compared to our previous vehicles. That is primarily due to the lack of side and rear windows, and to a lesser extent to the white color (our yellow Frontier would get pretty hot, with windows all around and a sunroof). The vinyl graphics may also help, since they are laminated to block UV rays. With the front windows cracked open and a 12 volt fan blowing air in the back, Lana has no problem staying cool if we stop briefly to get resupplied.
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