I just got back from Barstow yesterday. I had won the bid on a M1008 on March 19th. I drove from my house at Seiad Valley to Alturas, where my parents live. My father and I left from Alturas Monday morning at 4:30 am.
Since it was Memorial Day we hoped to avoid alot of travelers headed back down south. We went down to Lone Pine and headed out towards Death Valley. We took some pictures of Death Valley then turned back to Panamint Valley. We drove south through Panamint Valley, through Trona, and rejoined Hwy 395 near Red Mountain.
We made a side trip to Edwards Air Force base and photographed some planes there. We also saw an aircraft junkyard in Mojave with some military planes in it. F-4 Phantom, F-18 Hornet, F-111 Aardvark, A-7 Corsair II, and an odd helicopter inside. There was also tons of parts laying around, including a pair of large jet engines lying in the dirt.
We found a spot off the freeway to spend the night and tried to get some sleep. Where we parked we could see Interstate 15 off in the distance, with all the traffic heading back into LA it looked like a yellow worm all night.
We woke up way too early the next morning and rounded up everything we needed ( or thought we needed) then went to pick up the truck. Our plan was to hook up a tow bar to the front of the truck where the lifting shackles are and drive away. I disconnected the rear drive shaft and unlocked the steering column. There was a set of keys laying on the floorboard that had an ignition key and a key for the pad lock on it. My dad saw an old SeaBee truck in the yard and took a picture. We ended up leaving Barstow around noon and pulled into my parents driveway just before midnight. Temperatures ranged from 77 down to 38 degrees. Beautiful sunshine to almost snow in the rain. With all the side trips we did, we drove more than 1800 miles total.
Since it was Memorial Day we hoped to avoid alot of travelers headed back down south. We went down to Lone Pine and headed out towards Death Valley. We took some pictures of Death Valley then turned back to Panamint Valley. We drove south through Panamint Valley, through Trona, and rejoined Hwy 395 near Red Mountain.
We made a side trip to Edwards Air Force base and photographed some planes there. We also saw an aircraft junkyard in Mojave with some military planes in it. F-4 Phantom, F-18 Hornet, F-111 Aardvark, A-7 Corsair II, and an odd helicopter inside. There was also tons of parts laying around, including a pair of large jet engines lying in the dirt.
We found a spot off the freeway to spend the night and tried to get some sleep. Where we parked we could see Interstate 15 off in the distance, with all the traffic heading back into LA it looked like a yellow worm all night.
We woke up way too early the next morning and rounded up everything we needed ( or thought we needed) then went to pick up the truck. Our plan was to hook up a tow bar to the front of the truck where the lifting shackles are and drive away. I disconnected the rear drive shaft and unlocked the steering column. There was a set of keys laying on the floorboard that had an ignition key and a key for the pad lock on it. My dad saw an old SeaBee truck in the yard and took a picture. We ended up leaving Barstow around noon and pulled into my parents driveway just before midnight. Temperatures ranged from 77 down to 38 degrees. Beautiful sunshine to almost snow in the rain. With all the side trips we did, we drove more than 1800 miles total.
