RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[adventurenali92]

Totally understand, it’s their property and their rules. I wouldn’t be too ******* the employee and you probably handled it well. It’s always better to err on the side of kindness but your rig looks tight well kept. I cringe when I see stuff worse than that at my boat ramp but it’s not with my boat and truck.

Enjoy the summer boat season!

Oh totally…. Catch more flies with honey is how I try to run things haha.

I appreciate the compliments! I wish my paint was in better shape but I’m working on tackling that myself and soon haha. I like having a well kept older rig

 

[adventurenali92]

Well guys hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July! Well those is here in the states at least haha. Sorry to y’all Canadians that the 4th of July is just another regular day….

Anyways it’s been a very interesting week…. Lots to update on.

Got the water pump squared away before my nearly 650 mile road trip from Southern California up to Layton, Utah. Temps have been perfect and not a drop of leaked coolant so that’s been good. Worked a bunch at the beginning of the week. Tuesday was interesting. Worked a few hours and then headed home to finish packing for the road trip and then slew a few hours. Had planned to get on the road at 10pm and drive through the night. Well….. didn’t get to sleep at all since all the final prep took all my attention. Brewed lots of coffee, packed up, and hit the road 11pm Tuesday night. Was hoping to by pass holiday traffic and get nice cool temps to drive the truck. That sorta worked. It was moving well but a lot of traffic from Barstow out to Vegas overnight on the interstate. At 12:30am, so middle of the night going through Baker, CA on the I-15 it was 100 degrees! JEEZUZ!!! I was driving in pj sweat pants and a tank top and all of a sudden I was boiling hot and like the “what the heck why is everything so hot?!?!” Looked up at the ambient temp display in the mirror and saw the 100 degrees and thought “oh that’s why….” So kicked the AC on and it blew nice and cold and cooled the inside of the truck down. Good sign that the coolant was where it needed to be… lol.

No issues driving up, the sunrise over the Utah mountains once I got north of St. George was lovely. Rolled into Layton about 10am Wednesday morning. Cruised at 80 most of the way and still got decent fuel mileage. Not too shabby. Spent Wednesday helping my friends finish getting the house ready for their 4th party. Slept pretty damn good Wednesday night.

 

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Thursday the 4th was quite the fantastic day. Got to cross a bucket list item off and couldn’t be more excited about it. Been watching union Pacific railroad’s social media the last couple weeks as they’ve been sharing videos of their 4-8-8-4 big boy locomotive a ton, locomotive #4014. I absolutely LOVE trains. Been fascinated with them since I was a kid. They announced 4014 would be doing a short west coast tour with all kinds of stops for the public to see it in person. Thought “man I’ve always wanted to see one in operation!” My bro in law’s grandpa ran the railway museum down at the LA county fairgrounds in Pomona for a number of years and when I was a teenager we went several times. The museum has a big boy 4-8-8-4 locomotive and I’d gotten to climb up in it and see it all but of course it’s not operational.

So when I saw that the only California stop for 4014 would be way up in NorCal I was bummed. But then a couple posts mentioned that 4014 would be making stops in Wyoming and Utah this week…. I thought no way I’d get that lucky….. but sure enough the 2 Utah stops coincided with my trip up here for the 4th. As luck would have it, 4014 made a short stop in Morgan utah, which is just 25 minutes from my friends’ place, not too far past snowbasin resort where I’ve been every trip up so I knew a bit of the area! I saw the timing it was gonna be in Morgan on the 4th and said “okay guys I’m making a side adventure up to Morgan for probably an hour or two about mid day” it was worth every minute!!

The reason that 4014 stopped in Morgan was so the the conductor could step off the train and do a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Morgan train depot which officially reopened to the public as a historical site after being able to get it on the historical registry and renovations. It was absolutely awesome. Drove in and parked just north of the depot on the road where pretty much everyone was hanging out and stood about 50 feet from the track and we all got to watch him roll in from the north to the train depot. Made the stop, did the ribbon cutting ceremony, sat for about a half hour and then rolled out. I got to be a whole 10 feet away from the tracks basically on the end of the platform as he rolled out and I’ll tell you witnessing a steam locomotive that weighs in at 1.2 MILLION POUNDS……. Up close and personal was Magical!!! I was just as excited as all the little kids that were there to see it. Hahahahah. I’m just a little kid trapped in an adults body!!! It was an awesome event. I chatted with this friendly gal that even dressed the part, a super cute 1940s flapper style dress, vintage sunglasses, heels and even a parasol. It was all so festive!

 

[adventurenali92]

I know my videos aren’t the best quality but I couldn’t not take video…. The sound of this thing rolling in…… music to my ears lol.

And the roll out:

 

[adventurenali92]

Rest of the 4the spent partying with the homies. Met a few more my friends’ friends and had a great day. Lots of laughter, sunshine, a couple adult bevvies here and there. Not too much though for me since I’m not a big drinker. lol. Inflatable water slide runs. Corn hole. Good food. And Bryce always has tons of fireworks to light off in neighborhood cul-de-sac. Epic fireworks show to finish off the night. We all slept well Thursday night.

 

[adventurenali92]

Brought my detail gear with me and spent Friday giving Kate-Lynn’s new to her bronco sport and Bryce’s 2016 ram 3500 that used to belong to his mom, which is driven many times, the royal detail treatments. Bryce had a harbor freight foam cannon and I liked it so much I went and grabbed one. 35 bucks and works amazing haha. Foam cannons baths, top to bottom clay treatments, and then sealed up with a griot’s garage ceramic infused wax that I’ve been using all summer that works great and is rated to last one year. The rides shined up beautifully. I’m not gonna lie…. I quite enjoy getting to show off my detailing skills when I do their cars and they always appreciate it.

 

[adventurenali92]

Today was a whirlwind day. Kate-Lynn and I took the pups on a short hike all of 10 minutes from the house at a neat little hiking trail/pond area in a little canyon area. Warm sunshine today was perfect for the 2 mile loop with the three dogs they have.

 

[adventurenali92]

Came back to house and had lunch and then we rolled up to Hill Air Force base to their air museum cuz I’d read that they have an SR-71 on display. I’ve seen one in person many times as before I moved to big bear I lived in Moreno Valley 5 minutes from March Air Reserve base. Which is where the SoCal air show happens every year and it’s massive. Went for the first time in a long time last spring. Anyways March air reserve base has a museum with tons of cool aircraft including a blackbird and it’s always fascinated me. Somehow the Hill Air Force Base air museum came yesterday and I was like “oh I’ve been wanting to check it out cuz I read they have an SR-71” and Kate-Lynn was like well let’s go it’s a free museum. So we went after lunch. Great museum with lots interesting displays.

 

[adventurenali92]

And the blackbird of course….
One engine alone for this thing weighs in as much as my whole Denali does!!! D-A-M-N!!!!!!

 

[adventurenali92]

they had this really rad Kaiser Jeep corporation 6x6 fire truck!

 

[adventurenali92]

Spent the late afternoon today detailing Bryce’s 2001 Subaru Impreza GC8 that he pretty much built from the wheels up. Don’t know all the specs on it but I think ite got an STI engine from a 2013 STI. Full custom paint job on it. Fun little car to detail.

But had to go on an adventure tonight I definitely did NOT want to go on….. ooi…. Trucks had an odd rattling noise that I thought may have been coming from one of my brakes. It may well have been making noise before I put new pads in last week, I just hadn’t noticed it until the last few days. I re did all the retainer clips in the brakes but didn’t have time to go further. Well I decided to ask Bryce if he’d check it out for me real quick tonight after we had dinner. I sorta felt a bit bad asking because he had to work all day. He’s an A&P mechanic for skywest, definitely works his keister off. But he’s a gearhead through and through and he’s a dang good mechanic. Knows what he’s doing working on cars AND planes. I fully trust him. Anyways we went for a quick ride around the bock and he knew right away that the noise was coming out of my front passenger side wheel. It actually got WAY worse today. I was like “oh crap…. That’s bad…“

Jacked it up, wheel off, brakes are all good…. Buuuuut turns out I had a bad wheel bearing….. like really bad…. Put a mild groove in my rotor from the play in wheel and caliper movement…. D-A-M-M-I-T……. I replaced that wheel hub only two years ago….. and of course the part I’d bought from autozone only had a one year warranty on it…. So we had to put a new wheel bearing in. Sucks cuz I know thats not how Bryce wanted to spend the evening. But he’s a good guy and because I’m heading home tomorrow his exact words were “I’m not letting you drive out of the driveway like this cuz you won’t make it home….” So we ran over to autozone and thankfully they had a new part in stock and he had the job hammered out in like all of an hour…. I’m thankful for friends that look out for me even if I don’t want to put any extra stress on them. Solved the issue and trucks is ready to roll home tomorrow.

 

[adventurenali92]

Made the trip home today. Left Layton about 8am and had a beautiful drive all the way to St. George. No traffic, 75 degrees all the way with the sunroof open and cruising at 80MPH, clear skies. Listened to the live stream from my home church via YouTube. And then listened to some podcasts. St. George was a bit warmer but totally fine. I was making really great time til I dropped through Vegas. Getting through the strip, south point, and Primm was easy. The backup for state line actually wasn’t too bad at all but the backup of traffic on the other side was horrendous. So many dumb weekend warriors doing stupid things and a huge portion of the drive was bumper to bumper stop and go traffic. It was miserable. It was hot….. 120 degrees in the valleys around baker….. HOLY F*** BALLS!! Truck never once over heated though, trans stayed around 170 which was not bad at all for basically doing 10 miles an hour up several of the grades…. There were quite a few broken down cars on the shoulders from state line up the first grade but there were just so many people that everytime the slow downs happened around those break downs it just haulted traffic for several miles behind. Same thing going into baker. It was not fun doing the last stretch which is supposed to only be a three hour drive from Vegas to big bear. Took closer to 5 for that stretch….. But made it home with no issues. Was paying attention to the trip computer the whole way and didn’t notice til I pulled in the garage that I rolled over 200k right in the last stretch of the drive!! I’m officially part of the 200,000 GMT800 club! Haha.

 

[adventurenali92]

Oil change interval time. Was gonna push it off til the first of the week because work has me going non stop. But my mom called today in a panic…. Her boat is halfway down the mountain in running springs. Needed a new starter after she forgot to put the plug in before launching near the end of last boating season, and the water came up and killed the starter. I guess the shop in running springs was the only place that had a starter for her boat in stock. They were also able to make a piece of plexiglass to replace the one windshield panel that has been broken since our trip out to lake Mojave in June of 2022. Anyways the starter and the windshield is gonna be finished tomorrow but they can’t store it for her over the weekend since they don’t have any storage space and it needs to be picked up ASAP. But she is doing yards sales the next two days and can’t do it. So of course naturally she calls ole faithful “Chase’s towing service”….. I know I know….. be a good son and be helpful cuz she’s done a lot for me…….. just means I don’t get any down time to take care of myself…. I’m exhausted AF….. and really getting sick and tired of being literally EVERYONE’S problem solver and fix it man….. oil change knocked out after work tonight so I don’t have to stress about it while towing the boat. Tomorrow after a full day of a ceramic coating detail, I gotta get new spark plugs in since I’m at that interval mileage too….. cleaned up my air filter when I handled my water pump before the trip ti Utah but pulled it and cleaned and reoiled it up.

 

[adventurenali92]

All finished up and reset the oil life monitor. And I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again….. I absolutely hate the god awful location of the oil filter on these engines. It’s the stupidest design ever and such a PIA….. it fights me….. EVERY…. SINGLE…. TIME… I’m over how much effort it takes to get the damn things in and out….. end rant…. lol on a serious note anybody got a good solution to make filters in and out easier?

 

[adventurenali92]

Finally got time to do spark plugs. I’m not gonna lie…… I swore…. ALOT!!! The drivers side, odd numbered cylinder plugs absolutely sucked. I was constantly slamming my hands into everything in the way on the drivers side. The #8 cylinder on the opposite side of the block was WAY easier than the #1 cylinder….. it was so dang difficult to get my hands in there under the battery fuse and all the other hoses and wire looms running beside the block….. I don’t understand how mechanics do it for a living everyday…. lol

50,000 miles on these plugs. Not terrible I guess but not pretty either haha.

 

[adventurenali92]

Told the gal at autozone just gimme the most expensive option for plugs you have. Ended up with Bosch plugs. Truck fired right up and tech2 showed no misfires so should be good to go.

 

[adventurenali92]

so life has been a trip lately. I’ve managed to make good friends with the general manager of our local autozone. It just so happens that he and his wife go to my church. Really cool dude and very knowledgeable. I was asking him for some advice about replacing a torn CV boot, on the drivers side CV axle, and his suggestion to skip the hassle of taking the entire CV axle shaft out just to have to disassemble it and reassemble with a new boot and just grab a new axle shaft to put in with the boots already installed made so much more sense. So I went that route and glad I did. I was thinking since I had to be in there anyways I may as well replace the drivers side wheel bearing as a preemptive maintenance item. The second benefit to buddy buddy up with the GM of my local autozone is that when I was telling him about the plans and being really annoyed that my first wheel bearing replacement only lasted two years, he said “bring me the bad wheel bearing and I’ll refund it with store credit and we’ll use that to get you another wheel bearing.” So that didn’t cost me extra, and he sold me the axle shaft for a discount too. That helped big time. Replaced the axle shaft and the wheel bearing and got both done on my own fairly easily. I was definitely proud of myself for getting it done without having to ask for help or running into problems.

 

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Getting the new axle shaft in wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be which was a nice surprise.

 

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racking up the miles between work and life

 

[adventurenali92]

Been sitting on 2 quarts of trans fluid to service my transfer case for like 3 weeks now…… transfer case service was WAY overdue….. thanks to a MASSIVE forest fire burning around my mountain right now I had the day off today due to the far west end of the big bear valley being under evacuation orders. Had time to hammer out the transfer case fluid swap and got it handled along with putting fresh chemical resin into my deionized water tanks for my detail setup.
Surprisingly easy to swap fluid in the transfer case out. Got the drain plug back in and filled up. Rolled perfectly fine to the convention center tonight for my dance teach night. The fluid that came out though was pretty icky……