In 1985 we took our first trip to Yellowstone with Adam and Amy. Here we are at Sage Creek Campground in the Badlands of South Dakota (free). We pitched a tent among the bison who you see in this PIC coming to get their breakfast of Fruit Loops!
This is a lovely walk called the Cliff Walk. I'm reading from a brochure as we stop at each number on the walk. It was a kinda cool day in 1985 in mid-June. Today it was hot and we took the Cliff walk in the evening.
We've found another walk we like to take called the Notch trail. We still miss our kids every time we visit the West. But here are the two of us still enjoying the Badlands and our Western trips.
Part of the Notch walk is going up the ladder!
Looks like a great spot..It is so nice that you got away...Just got our new Taylor Coach trailer, 1750lbs...want to get a 6 cyl vehicle. Looked at a 2012 Escape. Does your Escape have a transmission cooler? I research the tow vehicles on line before we go looking.
ReplyDeleteThe new 2.0L 4cyl (the largest engine now with 247HP) Escape is a very capable tow vehicle, much better than the 2006 V6 Escape it replaced. Marco weighs right on 3000lb and the new Escape does fine with it. The term “transmission cooler” has little meaning with the new 6 speed transmission because the transmission is actually water cooled instead of with a separate air-cooled fluid radiator. In other words, the main radiator (which is kind of huge) does it all. This is a turbocharged direct injected gasoline fired engine so there is also a large intercooler in front of the radiator which cools the intake air after it’s having been compressed in the turbo. The car tells you when to change it’s oil with a chime and a message on the dashboard screen. So far that has been at 10,000mi and at 20,000mi. Electric power steering so there are no more pumps, belts, lines, coolers and fluid. Four wheel disk brakes. The transmission automatically downshifts when you apply the brakes going downhill (similar to “Tow-Haul”). The shift selector has button on the side which permits you to select a gear manually and keep it in that gear. I messed with that when we first got the car but have decided the car is smarter than me and knows the optimum gear. On one occasion I simply floored it on a long mountain grade which it then proceeded to fly up. After several miles a chime sounded and the dashboard readout informed me that the car was cutting horsepower out put to prevent overheating. That was that.
ReplyDeleteLew