(Joe-in-Mesa took this video and most definitely earned his ride in the Tour Jeep)

After 3200+ miles of driving over the last 9 days we finally arrived home on Tuesday. Yes, we are tired and exhausted. It has been a LONG three days.

After Saturday’s rescue by Joe and Jan, we loaded the Tour Jeep onto Joe’s trailer and renewed our trek north, but within twenty miles we realized the brakes on his trailer still weren’t working well for us. After testing out some different truck towing modifications (more gain, more effort). We decided it was time to go to Joe’s place and see if we could make the other trailer work better.

Joe, meanwhile, had towed the trailer back to his house. Along the way his truck alerted him to a brake fault. So, it wasn’t us that was having a problem.

By the time we reached his house Saturday night, we were tired and frustrated. Two trailers weren’t working correctly, a heavy jeep needed to be Brough home, and the future weather forecast meant we needed to get home by Wednesday or risk the passes getting bad again. Thankfully, we had Jan and Joe to share some drinks, eat some food. and forget about life for a while.

On Sunday morning, Joe and I tackled the trailer issues. Our first task was to debug the running light issues. Why were some lights working and some not? After trial and error we learned it was a combination of grounding and loose wires. It was a big win when we got all the lights working!

While completing that task, we discovered the trailer wasn’t wired correctly for either of our trucks. That’s when we both learned that 7 blade plug-ins have at least two different wiring options (there could be more, but I haven’t deep dived on the topic). So, rewiring the trailer for OUR trucks, helped solve additional issues.

Once all that was done, the trailer brakes worked correctly. By Sunday’s sunset, we’d completed the work and done a half-hour test of the trailer (with FC aboard) around Phoenix.

Monday at 5am we left for Salt Lake. It was a long, somewhat nerve wracking drive given what happened on Saturday. Thankfully, things went smoothly despite encountering rain, snow, and some hail. We arrived just at sunset to and an-all-too-short visit with my sons.

Tuesday morning, again at 5am, we hit the road again. This time we were less worried about the trailer and more worried about the weather, as we had at least six passes to summit. At about 6:30am we reached Snowville, where we ran into fog an 0 degree temps.

The moon was bright at 7am, while the world around us was frigid!

I wondered just how long of a day it was going to be, but once the sun broke over the mountains, the temps improved, as did the road conditions. It was smooth sailing after that.

We must thank Jesse and Andrea for their “most excellent” hospitality and their support for buying the Tour Jeep. And, we can’t thank Joe and Jan enough for their incredible selflessness in coming to our aid, entertaining us, boosting our moral some, and helping us get the trailer road-worthy again. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Unsure if there will be updates on Thursday morning or not, but Friday for sure.