Leaving tomorrow

Well, I’m leaving a few days later than I wanted to, but not later than I need to. I have to drop my freight shipment off in Seattle on the 24th by 5 PM, which means leaving tomorrow at noon I will have five full days to get there. Here to Seattle is 750 miles farther than here to El Paso using my planned route, so I anticipate getting to Seattle Sunday morning at the latest, based on my usual road trip average speed.

In Seattle I’ll probably rest for a day, get a hotel somewhere nearby, whatever. Do some laundry. Buy some supplies. Get some Canadian money somewhere near the border for a bad exchange rate. You know, good stuff like that.

After Seattle it’s north to Dawson Creek, the start of the ALCAN highway. From Seattle, I’ll have seven or eight days to get to Alaska. That’s a leisurely 300 miles a day. I don’t really want to get there much sooner, because what’s the point? My cabin isn’t free until the 1st anyway. There’s tons of stuff to see on the way.

It seems one of my consistent flaws is trying to shove too much stuff into too little time. I had over two months to be sure everything was good to go, but I focused so much on my car that I waited too long to take care of everything else, and now I’m unprepared. I’m going to just wing the trip, other than the specific road plan, because I never took the time to really plan anything more than the route.

I do work better under time pressure, though, so I have trouble concentrating when I have ample time to get something done, most of the time. Not good.

Anyway, I’ll be glad to get out of here. It’s been miserably humid and hot for a week and today, spontaneously rainy. The house doesn’t have A/C, so it’s 85 downstairs and probably north of 90 in the upstairs room I’m in now. In Fairbanks, it’s in the sixties and rainy. I love sixties and rainy. I can’t wait to get there. The rain will have stopped but it will be low sixties and dry–perfect weather.

If you’re wondering, my total trip is 5238 miles according to Google Maps. That’s more than twice as far as I’ve ever driven in one trip. Looking at the world view it is a significant way around the globe. Pretty cool.

I’m going to take lots of pictures. Hopefully I’ll find someplace with free internet and post at least once on the way.

The life.

I just listened to Heinlein’s Glory Road on my MP3 player,  a book I owned at one point and apparently never read.

If you’ve never read it, this won’t be too much of a spoiler.

The last third of the book, after the hero has killed his dragons and won his prize, he is left discontent and feeling useless. He tries a normal life away from the riches he has won, trying to return to his old life, but that too falls flat. The reason is, he no longer fits in his old life, and as a professional hero, working 9-5 is no more satisfying than being waited on hand and foot. The book ends with him soon to begin another trip down Glory Road.

I understand that very well.

I’m no hero, and I certainly never faced the sort of courage-wilting challenges the hero of Glory Road faced, but I was drastically changed by my time in Iraq. The title of this post, the life, is what I mean by the experience of facing real danger regularly, going through each door knowing you might be in a fight for your life in the blink of an eye, and starting to really love the flavor it adds to everything. That’s why many combat soldiers go into SWAT: they want to keep living the life, and still go home to dinner with their families.

I remember one mission we went on early in the tour, wintertime probably, when we were out for most of the day. Probably just a presence patrol, but I don’t really remember the mission; what I remember is getting into the DFAC and eating dinner and thinking it was the best food I’d ever tasted in my whole life. To date I’ve never tasted food so good. It was just typical DFAC food, but the circumstances made it absolutely delicious.

I don’t want to sound like I’m a war junkie or something, but I suppose the best way to put it is you savor life a hell of a lot more when your odds of losing it go way up. Life ends, no matter what, so you’d better make the now count.

As I finished Glory Road, I found myself wishing I had my own new glory road to start down. I guess you could say moving to Alaska is an adventure, but somehow it doesn’t feel like that to me. Rather than a relief from monotony, I’m super stressed about everything involved with it. I hope as the trip goes on, and especially once I settle down there, I will feel excited again.

Then again, this is exactly how I felt right before deployment. I was tired and stressed and put too much shit off until the end. While I was there, I had times when I loved it, but mostly I just wanted to go home. When I got home, I realized that I would rather be back in Iraq running combat missions than deal with the bullshit garrison life.

Is this what life is, always wishing for something past that you remember as better than it was, simply because it was different? The grass is always greener on the side of the fence you just hopped over, or even a few fields back?

Once again, with feeling:

The Bill of Rights does not grant any individual rights whatsoever. It simply affirms the most important of innate human rights.

If I recall correctly, there was much debate over including the BoR at all, because some of the founders thought it would be too limiting if interpreted as granting the enumerated rights (which would then become privileges, by definition).

Hamilton: “I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”

If our illustrious government added Amendment 28 to the Constitution, saying that no US citizen could own a firearm, practice religion outside of his home, or refuse to provide evidence against himself in the court of law, it would mean nothing more than our government is happy to put down on paper the evidence of their tyrannical designs.

That’s opposed to the practice of simply ignoring the Constitution commonly used today.

I’m getting more and more annoyed at people using the Second Amendment as the sole basis for their pro-RKBA argument. It is self defeating, and it comes across as weak-willed–the argument is then made on the enemy’s turf.

I am a free man. I have the RIGHT to freely practice any religion I choose, to own and carry arms to defend myself from any aggressor, to refuse to house soldiers in my home, to be secure in my person, house, papers, effects, and vehicles………. You get the point.

I have rights because I am free. That is the beginning and the end of the matter. I do not need a piece of paper enumerating my rights to be morally justified in fighting for them.

Stop using the Second Amendment as a crutch in the argument over rights; it is useful, to be sure, but not in the argument over the existence of rights. It is useful only in determining whether new laws fall within the boundaries set by the US Constitution, and if they infringe upon our rights.

…

…

I’m going through all my shit, sorting it into piles of things I want to take with me, stuff I want to put in storage, and stuff I want to get rid of.

I was looking through my books and I started feeling ill at the thought of leaving them all behind, with no idea if I’d be able to bring them up eventually. I think it says something bad about me that it bothers me more to leave my books than every living person I know.

Then I started thinking: Well, I probably won’t have time to read much anyway. Which made things worse, because is that what life becomes? My parents barely read while they were working. I never felt any lack of desire to read when I was busting my ass overseas, no matter how tired I was, so maybe they just don’t have the same appetite for books that I do. That’s probably true, actually; my sister and I both read rather crazy amounts of books and have our whole lives.

It sucks looking back and thinking that if I’d known I wanted to move to Alaska, I would have done so many things differently. Life doesn’t work like that, and I think it will be worth it, but it’s hard to just pick up and leave.

Alaska, you’d better be worth it.

Color me unimpressed

With my roof rack tire mount, that is.

The baseplate setup is fine, and securing plate thing works well enough, even if it is awkward as hell without practically climbing on my roof–too much friction, see, it requires lots of leverage. No, the thing that bothers me the most is the so-called locking system.

It’s this chintzy little chain (welded to the baseplate) that I could probably break with my leatherman, and it’s a pain in the ass to use. I can’t really explain why without pictures… well, I’ll try. The plate on the top of the wheel with a piece of all-thread screws into the baseplate, clamping the tire against the roof rack. The chain is supposed to come up through the top plate and lock to the all-thread turn handle thing. The chain is impossible to fish out once the plate is on, and if you’re turning the plate with the chain through the little hole, it’s going to bind. Maybe I could do something more complicated in clamping down the tire, but fuck that.

I’ll be using a different system. I’m going to get a loop of 3/16 inch steel cable and lock the wheel directly to the roof rack through a few of the holes. It’s a hell of a lot harder to cut than that crappy little chain, I can use any size padlock I want wherever I want, and it won’t cost me more than about 15 bucks.

Oh, and I should mention that I had to buy new 3/8″ bolts because the ones that came with it were too short. How the hell do you make a mistake like that…?

All in all, the rack is pretty cool, but the accessories are pretty fucking expensive when you have to buy new bolts and work out new locking systems and shit like that. I’m going to make any new accessories I want later on, once I buy a welder, rather than waste money on halfass designs.

Cats…

I looked out the window this afternoon and I saw all four neighborhood cats hanging out in or around my XJ, which had its windows open. The tabby was just sitting in the driver’s side rear window, looking at me. The rest scattered when I opened the blinds.

Why did they have their weekly evil plan meeting in my Jeep? Who knows. Frickin cats, they love hanging out in our driveway under the vehicles, for the sole purpose of annoying my dogs.

I don’t mind cats, but having had cats puke in my old Taurus when I left the tailgate up working on my system–on my favorite woodworking book, no less–well, I’m not too keen on letting them use it as a conference room. I have enough work to do without cleaning up cat fluids, mmk?

Jeep followup

The XJ is running well. I took it for a longer, higher speed cruise to see how it would behave and I’m happy. I didn’t notice any transmission fluid leaks, for one, and two I think the engine will run hot enough on its own without a restrictor.

I need to use my code reader live data app to confirm this, but I think the engine is sitting around 180 to 190 degrees at speed and not falling much more than that. If so, that shouldn’t be too cold to keep the ECU in the warmup cycle running rich, and shouldn’t be cold enough to allow excessive wear. Basically I need the engine running above 180 degrees at speed, but under 220 in stop and go traffic.

Wind noise is noticeable and the Jeep doesn’t feel like it wants to go particularly fast anymore. I used to cruise at 75 mph comfortably, and it seems like 60-65 is the more likely cruising speed with the roof rack, higher lift and heavier tires. I hope I can maintain at least 17 mpg highway…

The transmission is acting fine. It is showing no signs of slippage, which I was pretty worried about when the fluid that came out of it was black as oil. The same dark brown/black ATF came out of my transfer case. Uncool. It didn’t smell burnt, but black fluid is never a good sign.

Steering is starting to feel more normal again. I think I just had to get used to the quirks of the XJ.

All in all, like I said, I’m happy. I still have body and electrical work to do on it, and I need to drive it about another 300 miles before I’ll be ready to tackle a trip to Alaska with confidence, but I wouldn’t worry too much if I had to leave tomorrow.

Weight

I just realized my M1A Sage chassis alone weighs about as much as my loaded Armalite AR-180B. It’s close, whichever way, and the loaded M1A in the Sage chassis probably weighs 75% more than the Armalite.

I don’t have any particular point. I love the way the M1A feels in the Sage chassis; it is awesome to shoot in all positions, especially with a red dot because of the adjustable cheek piece, and muzzle jump is significantly reduced with the extra weight. I just thought it crazy how heavy the stock alone is.

I love my AR-180B too, btw. It’s rugged, reliable, and precise. It takes AR-15 lower parts and STANAG mags. As a light defensive weapon against two legged vermin, it is freaking awesome. There’s a reason I kept the AR-180B over the Rock River Entry Tactical I sold to a friend. Too bad I can’t take it with me to Alaska.

XJ = running. What a relief.

I was pretty nervous yesterday before I started up my motor for the first time in about six weeks. At one point I had the engine bay almost entirely stripped, so it wasn’t a given that it would work flawlessly on the first try.

Since my Jeep couldn’t resist messing with me, it started lightly smoking immediately on startup, and I had to think ‘oh great, an exhaust leak’. But… it didn’t smell like exhaust, it smelled like coolant. Turns out, it was coolant on the block burning off. Thanks for the scare, Jeep.

My steering still isn’t quite centered. It’s impossible to do it by eye, so each time I take it out for a drive, I adjust the drag link a little more. I was unable to fix my toe-in, which is about 1/16 inch greater than it should be, because the tie rod collar bolts are frozen. Not a big deal, and actually I’m not certain my measurements were accurate. If my steering gives me any trouble I’ll take it to the shop for a real alignment.

Basically I’m working out little issues one by one. I think my block heater is leaking a little bit, but it’s hard to tell. If it is, the leak is small and not worrisome.

The Jeep feels strange, like the steering is harder than normal, and the engine sounds different. The steering doesn’t feel bad, really, and is explainable simply because I’m turning heavier/larger tires than before and the other vehicles I have been driving (1999 Toyota Sienna and 1997 Ford F-150) have much lighter steering than the Jeep to begin with.

As for the engine, well, it sounds completely different without the clutch fan. The electric fans are much quieter than the clutch fan, and run less often–I found the clutch fan would engage pretty much all the time and it was loud as hell, while the electric fans only come on when the temperature rises to 217 degrees. It takes a while to get that warm sitting still, and just driving at 25 mph keeps the engine around 200 degrees now. I removed the A/C condenser in front of the radiator, and installed a high flow water pump, thermostat housing, and thermostat. I’m actually wondering if the engine will run too cool on the highway… I might need to install a restrictor in the upper radiator hose to keep the temperature up around 200 degrees.

The only thing I’m really concerned about is the fact that my transmission cooler seems to have shitty flare fittings that don’t quite seal. After my first couple drives, I had transmission fluid sprayed on my steering components and front axle from the fittings. I tightened them up as much as I can, but haven’t driven enough to be convinced of their integrity. Maybe they need to go through a few heating cycles…? I dunno, but I don’t want to be adding a pint of ATF every five hundred miles on the way to Alaska. If I have to, I’ll put some thread sealer on them… even though the whole freaking point of a flare fitting is that the threads aren’t SUPPOSED to be sealing the connection.

Oh, the other possibility on the transmission cooler is the hard line joints might be leaking. That would be fucking awesome. Buy a tranmission cooler two years ago, finally get it on after leaving it in the packaging this whole time, only to find out it’s a piece of junk. Man, that would be awesome. I’m not angry or panicking yet, but it’s irritating how many fluid leaks I have to worry about.

I haven’t taken it above about 50 mph so far. Tonight I’ll probably go for a ride on the highway up to 70 or so to see if I’m getting any driveline vibes at speed, or if it’s just my tires and suspension I’m feeling. I’d better not be… guess who doesn’t want to fuck around with his rear suspension anymore?

All in all I’m happy with my progress. I had a lot of setbacks on this project, and I’m happy to find that at the very least, it will get me to Alaska in one piece.

Sustainability

As in, lack of.

I think it is utterly foolish to follow the path the current administration wants to lead us down in pretty much every respect, from government health care to cap and trade to <insert loony leftist plot here>. However, I find myself at peace with their leadership, clearly not because I think it is good, but because every plan they have is unsustainable and will either drive America into ruin if left standing, or be repealed at a later date.

Not only that, but I’m just no longer worried about asking permission to live my life the way I want to anymore. I realized over the weekend that I simply do not care whether my government agrees with me when it comes to my inalienable rights. They are not granted by anyone, but innate. A few quotes kept rolling around in my head this weekend after I was utterly unsuccessful in explaining my philosophy and worries to members of my extended family.

Number one is from Firefly, Mal speaking to Inara: You think following the rules will buy you a nice life, even if the rules make you a slave.

Number two is from the movie The Kingdom, when the FBI director is speaking to the AG: You know, [General] Westmoreland made all of us officers write our own obituaries during Tet, when we thought the Cong were going to end it all right there. And once we clued into the fact that life is finite, the thought of losing it… didn’t scare us anymore. The end comes no matter what. The only thing that matters is how do you want to go out: on your feet or on your knees?

… Get it?

Now, since nobody that knows me will read this, a random visitor might conclude that I’m a nutcase about to head for the bell tower with my 30-06. Not a chance, bud. I’ve written here before that my moral code is very simple: don’t hurt anyone else, who isn’t planning, or actively trying, to hurt you first. Unfortunately, few people in my state and federal governments are happy with that; they instead need to control more aspects of our daily lives, all under the guise of protecting us–from terrorists, from evil corporations, from ourselves.

I’m moving to Alaska, where I may stay for the rest of my life. I realized the other day, while reading a forum thread about discrete rifle carry bags, just how much of a cultural difference there is between NY or even TX and AK. I was thinking about the neat ideas the posters were presenting when I realized, hey, why the hell do I need to have a discrete carry bag? I’ll be in freakin Alaska!

I can carry however I want with no permit. Walking with a slung rifle or shotgun is normal up there, because you’re a hell of a lot closer to nature and all its irate beasties than most other places in the world. There are more gun shops in the city of Fairbanks than in the entire city of El Paso, despite Fairbanks having a population of perhaps 4% of that of El Paso. People like me are just… normal.

The gun culture is only one piece of the puzzle, but I honestly feel like I’m moving somewhere I belong. I’m glad I have that option, as most people don’t–jobs, families, and finances tie them down. So don’t think I’m some nutjob; unlike all of the people on the left who cried they would move to Europe or Canada if Bush won in 2004 (and broke their word), I’m actually going to move somewhere I feel I belong, rather than stay where I’m clearly not wanted.

Let me say this: dark times are ahead. America is rotting from within, and we are on the cusp of losing everything. I predict that within my lifetime–well within, assuming a normal life span–America as we know it, already a crumbling facade of what it once was, will cease to exist.

We had a republic, if we could keep it. Turns out we couldn’t.

III