Heading South for the Winter

Finally able to escape the still covered with snow landscape of the cesspool that is the Metro Denver area.

In the last few days, as I had the VRRV at home to prepare, I did get a few things ready on her for this trip.

The sand ramps have been repositioned from the top of the VRRV to the rear bumper; where they serve as support for the new telescoping ladder:

I made sure the ladder doesn't block the viewing of the right brake light/turn signal of course.

The above move caused me to move the storage bag for the gazebo to the front of the VRRV, just aft of the front cargo rack for Yagi, my TW200.

I found where the oil leak was coming from on Yagi.  The gasket for the left side crankcase cover had torn you see.  I suspect it was damaged when the engine was taken apart to replace the cylinder/head in Nevada.

As I didn't have a replacement gasket handy, I cleaned the surfaces off and applied some gasket making sealant for now.  A short test ride has revealed no further leaking from this cover.  I've ordered a new gasket of course and will replace it at the next oil change unless my temporary fix doesn't last long.

The above repair of course led to an oil change on Yagi since removing the crankcase cover leads to all the engine oil coming out.  A bit early since she wasn't due for a change till 22,000 miles but oh well.

I've also ordered replacement sprockets and chain for Yagi, as the teeth on the sprockets are showing enough wear to merit replacement.  Hopefully they're on hand when I next have to remove that crankcase cover; since that's involved in order to access the front sprocket!

Anyways, I hit the road today, leaving shortly before 8:30 AM and crossing into New Mexico 4 hours later.  I arrived at the Storrie Lake State Park near Las Vegas, NM and was at my campsite for the night by 3 PM.

It was in the low 30s by now so my time outside was limited.  Here's a look at the conditions on the South Loop.

Storrie Lake

The Class C in front of Umarang was the only

one in the south loop besides her at the time of the photo.

Sunset was pretty good tonight, and you can see another camper showed up for the night.