Big Blue's Arkansas Adventure - 2024

[Gary Lewis]

As some of you know, I've had an interest in taking Big Blue on some of the back country roads in Arkansas's Ozark & Boston mountains for some time, so Janey and I took off Tuesday and got back today.  The plan was to follow the tracks laid down by Susan & Bill Dragoo in Susan's article in Expedition Portal, but that quickly became more than we anticipated.

In the screenshot below you can see the black line that represents our route to the adventure, and it 180 miles long, and the red line is then our track which started in the back woods and is 477 miles. (@Nothing Special What else do you see?)  So the total trip was 657 miles long.

But the real adventure started when we got to Susan's route.  In the screenshot below I've put an X across the road where her alternating red & turquoise route went because that road was closed.  So we went down to where the red circle is and took off on Forest Service Road 1776 to meet up with Susan's route.  Man, was that a mistake!

Turns out that FSR 1776 is just barely wide enough for Big Blue, and that's with the mirrors folded in.  We had limbs going down the sides of the truck leaving pinstripes most of the way.  One limb removed the F of F250 off the RF fender.  Another pulled the RF wheelwell molding loose, but it went back on.  And many limbs smacked us in the face.

In many places downed trees have been cut so that there is just enough clearance to get through, and in one case I misjudged and didn't give the left step bar enough room, which flattened the aluminum tubing and bent it in.  And, with the mirrors folded in I couldn't see behind us and backed into a tree limb which shattered the DS taillight.

But I have no excuse for driving up on a downed log.  It was laying long-ways in the path and I drove over it - and got stuck.  The U-bolts holding the RF springs on dug into the trunks and by the time I got stopped they weren't coming out so I couldn't back up.  We tried to pull the log out from under the truck with the winch by placing a snatch block on a tree ahead, but even with chocks under the front wheels and the rears locked with the park brake it just slid the truck and the log.

So I tried the hi-lift jack on the front bumper and all that did was to tweak the bumper.  

In the end I used a hydraulic bottle jack to raise the RF wheel high enough to get the bolts out of the log and placed rocks under the wheel and behind it.  Then I drove off backwards and it worked.

At the end of FSR 1776 we did meet up with Susan's track and the road was suddenly quite easy.  But by then we were done as it was late in the day and we'd been battling limbs, and logs, and narrow cuts for what seemed like most of the day.  So we headed for Ozark, AR where we could get a motel room as it was the nearest town.

The next morning we decided that we'd had enough "adventure" and took easy roads to Oark, Boxley, Ponca, and then up to Eureka Springs for the night.  But the drive was beautiful!  Where the day before we were up close and personal with the trees, on this day we could see off into the distances many times with trees of many colors shining brightly.

In Eureka we spent the night in the Crescent Hotel and enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the sun come up and sipping coffee.  And from there we hit two quilt stores and the outlet malls in Branson and another quilt store in Springfield.  Ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Springfield named Gilardi's, and hit the hay in a Holiday Inn Express, thankful for the conveniences.

[Gary Lewis]

So that leads me to issues & learnings with Big Blue.  First, let's just say "he" can do it - if his driver does his part.  We went places Janey didn't think we could, and did it easily.  And, when the going got tough we had the tools with which to get out of the situation.  So Big Blue is quite capable - maybe more so than his typical driver.

However, we did have or observe a few problems.  I'll list the ones that were caused by things on this trip, but have included a longer list in Big Blue's Transformation.

• Step Bar: I ruined the driver's side step bar by getting it into a downed tree on the side of the trail.  I will need to replace it, but am not sure how I want to do that.
   
• Front Bumper: The Warn bumper is tweaked 'cause I put the hi-lift jack on it and I'll need to straighten it.
   
• Taillight: I broke out the DS taillight by backing into a tree limb.
   
• Wheel Well Trim: The RF wheel well trim must have been caught by a limb and it was pulled loose.  I put it back, sorta, but need to figure out how to do it properly.
   
• F250 Emblem: The F was broken off the F250 emblem, so I'll need to replace that.

[ckuske]

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

As some of you know, I've had an interest in taking Big Blue on some of the back country roads in Arkansas's Ozark & Boston mountains for some time, so Janey and I took off Tuesday and got back today.  The plan was to follow the tracks laid down by Susan & Bill Dragoo in Susan's article in Expedition Portal, but that quickly became more than we anticipated.

In the screenshot below you can see the black line that represents our route to the adventure, and it 180 miles long, and the red line is then our track which started in the back woods and is 477 miles. (@Nothing Special What else do you see?)  So the total trip was 657 miles long.

But the real adventure started when we got to Susan's route.  In the screenshot below I've put an X across the road where her alternating red & turquoise route went because that road was closed.  So we went down to where the red circle is and took off on Forest Service Road 1776 to meet up with Susan's route.  Man, was that a mistake!

Turns out that FSR 1776 is just barely wide enough for Big Blue, and that's with the mirrors folded in.  We had limbs going down the sides of the truck leaving pinstripes most of the way.  One limb removed the F of F250 off the RF fender.  Another pulled the RF wheelwell molding loose, but it went back on.  And many limbs smacked us in the face.

In many places downed trees have been cut so that there is just enough clearance to get through, and in one case I misjudged and didn't give the left step bar enough room, which flattened the aluminum tubing and bent it in.  And, with the mirrors folded in I couldn't see behind us and backed into a tree limb which shattered the DS taillight.

But I have no excuse for driving up on a downed log.  It was laying long-ways in the path and I drove over it - and got stuck.  The U-bolts holding the RF springs on dug into the trunks and by the time I got stopped they weren't coming out so I couldn't back up.  We tried to pull the log out from under the truck with the winch by placing a snatch block on a tree ahead, but even with chocks under the front wheels and the rears locked with the park brake it just slid the truck and the log.

So I tried the hi-lift jack on the front bumper and all that did was to tweak the bumper.  

In the end I used a hydraulic bottle jack to raise the RF wheel high enough to get the bolts out of the log and placed rocks under the wheel and behind it.  Then I drove off backwards and it worked.

At the end of FSR 1776 we did meet up with Susan's track and the road was suddenly quite easy.  But by then we were done as it was late in the day and we'd been battling limbs, and logs, and narrow cuts for what seemed like most of the day.  So we headed for Ozark, AR where we could get a motel room as it was the nearest town.

The next morning we decided that we'd had enough "adventure" and took easy roads to Oark, Boxley, Ponca, and then up to Eureka Springs for the night.  But the drive was beautiful!  Where the day before we were up close and personal with the trees, on this day we could see off into the distances many times with trees of many colors shining brightly.

In Eureka we spent the night in the Crescent Hotel and enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the sun come up and sipping coffee.  And from there we hit two quilt stores and the outlet malls in Branson and another quilt store in Springfield.  Ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Springfield named Gilardi's, and hit the hay in a Holiday Inn Express, thankful for the conveniences.

Sounds like a great trip, minus the issues you had.  But, the issues were encountered doing something you set out to do - to have an adventure!   I hope you can get things straightened up and repaired quickly.

I see you went through Springfield - that's where my maternal grandmother and her family was from although I'm sure its a lot different there now then when they moved to California in the early 40's...  My great-grandfather ran a market in town, and I think (I was young so I never thought to ask the tough questions unfortunately) they left because he extended credit to everyone when they couldn't afford food due to the depression etc, and it caught up with them and they went under.  Sorry for the history lesson there, but those sorts of stories are always interesting to me in the right context.

[Gary Lewis]

It was a great trip, Chris.  We had more adventure than we planned for, but we got through them.  However, Janey was right to question us doing that at our age and by ourselves.  It was late in the afternoon when we got stuck, and I was watching the sun sink towards the nearby hills quite rapidly.

I was sure that the winch would pull the log out, and spent quite a bit of time setting up for that.  So when it didn't work we didn't have many strikes left before dark.  So there was some worry that we'd sleep in the truck - in the middle of nowhere in the woods.

However, we did get out and changed our plans to make it an easier trip than we thought and it became quite fun.

As for your great grandparents, it sounds like they were the kind of people I hope I'd be in that situation.  Tough times, but I'll bet they would have done it all over again if they'd had to.  

[Nothing Special]

3 hours ago, Gary Lewis said:

.... (@Nothing Special What else do you see?)....

I see you went pretty close to a place called SMOOR, which looks to be very close to Southern Missouri Off Road Ranch (SMORR)!

(and I'll have to come back to this when I have more time)

[BigBrother-84]

18 hours ago, Gary Lewis said:

However, Janey was right to question us doing that at our age and by ourselves.

BTW, how's Janey?

We had lot of details about Big Blue, some clues about yourself, but what about the Copilot?  Not the Microsoft's one, talking  about your best buddy. 

[Gary Lewis]

10 minutes ago, BigBrother-84 said:

BTW, how's Janey?

We had lot of details about Big Blue, some clues about yourself, but what about the Copilot?  Not the Microsoft's one, talking  about your best buddy. 

Janey is doing well, thanks for asking.  But she'd had all the adventure she wanted after the first afternoon, so I'm glad we backed off the plans to follow the other person's tracks.  We wound up having a very good time - in spite of the problems we encountered.  Or, maybe I should say the dumb decisions I made.  

We were just checking the height of the step bars and discussing whether or not to raise them.  But, as she pointed out, it wasn't the height of the step bars that gave us problems, but the fact the the log was taller than the front axle clearance on the truck.  So raising the step bars wouldn't have helped us and it would make it much more difficult to get in and out.  We'll take being able to get in over being able to clear things, so the steps will stay where they are.