Cyberhorn The Dragon

sounds like ya found a winner mark

Redeth005

I guess anything is better then that Big Bear gas station air compressor lol.
Rock lights are looking great Mark. I like it. Have a great trip to Nevada and Arizona.

Waterbottom

Looking good as always..
Oh I finally beat you to a replacement part, I put my battery tie down in over a month ago. haha
Keep up the fast and clean work.

aviator

Holy smoke Mark you been busy....

habanero

OBA, rock lights, mmmmmmm, yummy. Chef's cooking up something good.

aviator

yeah but with all that truck work I fear his skills in the kitchen are slipping... hav'nt seen any new food porn/recipes in a while...

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Hahaha, .....I figured that would be said, eventually, paul! Lol......

Thanks guys.... EVERY mod recently has come in handy in the last week! LOVING the XK Glow, AZ OB2 w/5gal kit..... 20" light bar.... 4Xi bumper.... interior lighting, 73BTU Pioneer and more......

Had a great time with family, cruisin the highways with mom, and four wheeling with my nephew!

Nothing but good pics coming!

84 yota dude

Can't wait!

Red Wagon

Nice work Chef. I have to do something about my battery situation. The stock tie down does not keep my optima battery in place well. I lost a power steering pump that way.

Ill see if Wild West can do something when I go in next week neck get the LT kit installed. Should be down your way in about a month.

Hopefully Ill get lucky and be around for one of your trips which I would love to crash. It would be pretty rad to see your truck in person as well.

Redeth005

Hi Mark So i see you're back now! how about some awesome wheeling shots now since you've deprived me over the pleasure of seeing the newest releases of your truck porn! lol jk Glad you had fun man.

DUDE Seriously let me know when you are coming down. I'd love to meet you too! Heck even head out on a day offroad trip or something. Telling ya man Your rig is one of my favorite 2nd gen's on yotatech. i must see that sexy beast of a truck lol

Red Wagon

For sure Red, it would be a fun day wheeling trip for sure.

I bought a new DSLR camera, not had an SLR since 2001. I forgot how much I loved photography. We can get some Yotatech group shots.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

As many know, I just got back from taking my mother to her 63rd high school reunion. It was an credibly fun trip! First of all, my mother is a lot of fun to travel with... She never complains, and she's always so accommodating as far as, "Do whatever you want honey!", regarding music, etc. I can do whatever I want all the time..., so I always like to make sure she has something she can enjoy. Last time we went, I had 60 hours of Golden radio hour that I was playing for her most of the way. Those are actually quite hilarious/spooky, etc., Jack Benny, Red Skelton, George Burns, the black museum, The Lone Ranger, and I never get tired of them... This time, I decided to download Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, narrated by Will Patton. What a great time we had, hearing this most of the way there and back( she sleeps a lot on the road, probably catching up, in part... But, she really got into the characters). It's based, in part, on charactersrelated to the the Overlook Hotel in The Shining....

Beautiful day, most of the way... Did have to flick on the air conditioning a couple of times, and it worked flawlessly!...






.....

Checked into the Colorado Belle around 2 p.m., four and a half hour drive later.

.....

Friend of my moms came down from Kingman, Arizona, and stayed with her throughout her visit in Laughlin, sharing a room as well. These two were in elementary school together, 75 YEARS AGO!.....



....

Got my mom a scooter, not because I don't want to push her around..., but rather, because I want her to have some freedom and try new things. Holy mackerel did she get used to that fast and really enjoyed being able to get around on her own without having to hold up the crowd and so forth. She would have had to have walked around four and a half miles from what I calculated on the scooter odometer. Her friend isn't even better shape than her as far as endurance, and by the second night, she stayed in the hotel room for the dinner because she couldn't handle walking anymore.( I offered to get her a scooter, right from day one, but she absolutely refused :shrug: )....

Go mama go!....



.......

Very clean and spacious room to myself, with a view of the pool and jacuzzi that have a bar. I spent about an hour and a half in that jacuzzi after 2 days of walking... Ahhhhhhhhh! Pretty nice room for 27$ a night!(real cheap if you plan/reserve far enough ahead)...Lol...





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I gotta say, I always enjoy conversing with my elders, but this was just an absolutely fantastic time! Here, we arrived at the dinner within 2 hours checking in, and see if you found this as amazing as I did... 52 of the classmates out of a two classes, with a total of 75 people ( two different graduating classes show up for this party. My moms class had something like 40) , all 80 years old or older, showed up and took part but the first dinner! Some of them traveling quite a ways, I just absolutely was mind blown by how incredibly high against the odds that number was. Talk about a group of people who took good care of themselves!......





















This dude, Don May, was my moms first boyfriend, and they were childhood sweethearts until the day she left for college, in Iowa, where she met my father.... She broke the poor guy's heart!.....



Here they ^^^ are, moms 16th bday party!.....>>>



The Guy on the left in the next pic? Moms HS Junior Prom date!.....



At Prom.....>>>





^^^^^ This lady, with mom, 64 YEARS AGO, on a trip to the beach!....>>>





^^^^^ The woman on the bottom left, and my mom, bottom right?.....AT 16, made the paper for a new fleet of aircraft at the local airfield! Hehe....>>>







Moms Graduating Class......



.....

( That night, after the dinner, we cruised around and went and saw a live cover band, played some blackjack, and then we headed back to the room where I jacked my laptop into their TV, popped in classic movie I surprised them with I brought along that they'd been talking about for months and really wanting to watch, and I quickly backed out of the room let them have a great time watching the movie, chatting it up and reminiscing about story after story after story! They had an unbelievably great time together, I'm so happy for my mom! ) .......

Got up early and grabbed some coffee down at Krispy Kreme in the lobby.... Headed out to the boardwalk outside of the Colorado Belle to take a couple photos. Absolutely perfect day at around 76 degrees...





.......

That next day, they hooked up with a few friends from the group and did a little running around some shopping, and then they took some time with around 30 other people to go through photos and just hang out and have cocktails in the room of the organizer of the reunion.







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Later that night, after I got back from taking a swim in the river( I basically swam about 2 miles, just basically floating with the current and swimming here and there, got out at Harrahs casino and took a shuttle back )..... That night they had a second dinner, where as I mentioned before her friend stayed behind, and again, what an awesome time talking with people such as this SeaBees Member!....



http://www.seabeesmuseum.com/History.html

.......

We had lunch with the guest that stayed in her room and her son, where I had an excellent time talking and an excellent lunch to go along with it, at The Pints - Brewery Bar and Grill...... Shortly after, they said their goodbyes and we took off towards Lake Havasu... Again, what a beautiful day! Didn't even need the air conditioning once, and I was able to take the i-95 south on the Arizona side all the way down to Laughlin in around an hour and 10 minutes.....

First night there, we met up and had a great dinner...... We headed back over to my Pops house and had a great time talking, then basically headed home to crash out at the Dunes Resort, Lake Havasu City.... Just on a side note, I highly recommend this place. It's probably not the fanciest, because you can stay at the heat for the nautical, other on the River Resort.. For almost all of those are so extremely loud up until 2:30-3am in the morning... I just can't handle that crap anymore, especially after driving all day. Lol ... If you want a nice room, with a separate bedroom, large bathroom, kitchen with refrigerator and stove and microwave, large TVs with DVD player... All for under $100 a night. Well there you go! we are staying there over the Thanksgiving holiday as well. I cannot handle the budget motels during holidays because they are extremely loud as well. People literally rage in there until the police show up. It doesn't matter even if its a good one like Extended Stay America or something of the sort..... Some of the people visiting for Thanksgiving?... Well, let's just say that they are not only there to play Parcheesi with family and sit by the fire out on the patio. Lol. They rage!

View from our patio....



Bedroom....



Living room...





........

Got a good nights sleep and then met up with them for breakfast at IHOP. I was pleasantly surprised to see my middle step brother, Chuck, and his wife were joining us for breakfast!



Silly Pops! Lol>>>







......

We headed back to my dads house, and very shortly after, I took my nephew Mikey out for some wheeling!......

























Couple videos.... Not great, but its all I got. My nephew has one from his camera that he's going to send me, I will update this post with the when I get it...




....

It was a total blast, and I find it quite amusing how many people are interested in my truck. I kinda tripped out, because every time we would climb a hill or hit some nasty crags, there was usually someone around there that would start filming. The funniest point was when we were leaving, we came down this really steep hill, after going up it, and I noticed this German couple were taking pictures... Dude was so funny... Because telling his wife to take pictures on standing underneath the truck where I had it all propped up on a mound. She was cracking up, and then she told me, "He loves these trucks, but where we live they will not allow him to make it so high or big tires!".... POOR DUDE! Lol...


.....

We headed back and had a great time just hanging out as a family, having dinner and then my dad crash early... I wasn't going to be bummed out about it, so I took my mom outside and we started a fire and made smores! ..... My Mom and Mama Sue joined me and Mikey and we said around and had a good talk on our last night there....




Mikey's dog, Paris,.... Hahaha...


....

My other stepbrother Rob hung out for a bit as well.... Great to see him!...


...

My father, Susie, brother Chuck and his wife were all leaving by 11 a.m. To go to a wedding in Laughlin... So we decided we should just head out and have some breakfast and then get on the road......

Beautiful and smooth drive home with absolutely no traffic, heading back into Los Angeles County around 6 p.m.? Absolutely unreal!....( We took off from Havasu at 2pm, and even after stopping for gas and Dairy Queen to get my mom a dipped cone... We made it back home by 7 p.m.! Not bad for 309 miles! )....

Hate driving into the sun, but it had is moments. ....







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I gotta say, the truck performed beautifully, but I really am feeling that "ITCH" towards getting a more powerful motor going(at least the plans).

Fantastic time!

.....

Sorry it took me so long, .... But I'm dealing with some scares with one of my daughters, and this has been a very extremely busy last couple days, including having to add this in the schedule: Full brake job on the rear of my youngest daughters Accord....



..........

More trips coming soon, and I plan to keep that pace! I'm sure a lot of this post is not interesting to some people, but I just wanted to share, because I had such a wonderful time with my mom, my family at my fathers and all sounds great alumni of my mothers... They were so much fun to get to know!

Redeth005

Nice update Mark. Looks like your mom had a blast. And hey is that the same nephew that always goes offroading with ya when you go to havasu? If it is then dang you can tell he's gotten much bigger! Glad you guys had fun man.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Thanks, Richard. It was an excellent time for both of us, but more importantly... Who knows how many times she will get to see these friends? She had such a blast, and I have planned a couple other trips where I will be taking her up to Pleasanton, near Fresno, to visit a friend of hers for a few days. That friend can't travel, and when she does its for medical stuff... She's doing okay but she can't fly.... And that drive is pretty hard on her and her husband. I'm hoping that when I go up there I can drop her off and take a trip 2 some beautiful areas up there, maybe camp and wheel, and hopefully I can meet up with Philbert, who lives in Pleasanton!

You are spot on.... My nephew Mike has grown like a weed since the last time I saw him a few months ago... He is nearly my height at 13 years old! Lol. As you can see in the pictures is dad, my step brother Rob, is pretty tall. Mike will probably be around 6'3"!

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Done with my daughters rear brakes... They were 20 percent past specs allowed!

$15 to turn each rotor, and they were $22 each new with my discount... I bet you can guess which way I went? Lol....

Cyberhorn The Dragon

juuust a bit thin on them old things good lookin new though

Grego92

iTrader: (4)

Nice trip Mark! thanks for sharing!

Dang, these guys are all over 80?! That one guy toward the bottom in the light green striped polo shirt, flat top, glasses....looks like a stud for 80! he's looking like 65 or something!



And those Honda brakes, man I gotta tell you, I've changed two Accords and two civics, 98'/96'/04'/05'....all of them had warped rotors for some reason. Kinda weird.

RAD4Runner

Great trip and reunion, Mark. And whatta flex!
Yes, Honda's are notorious for warped rotors (our 88 Prelude, especially), but we've been lucky with our 2001 Civic.

Yes, Grego, that gent must be a Marine

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

It's spic and span now! More importantly, SAFE!

Greg, Ray, I'm really glad it people can enjoy that trip with me!

And, u are right, as far as the rotor on the passenger rear, not only was it warped, but under .29", ...specs are .39"! YIKES! The 2003 CRV warped the pad backing plates, one time, very weird... Never happen again. But the rotors and brakes have been phenomenal on that thing! 130,000 miles and not one single repair beyond maintenance.

As far as old Chip Oswood..... I believe he was a Marine LT in Korea. He doesn't look bad for an old dude with cancer, does he?

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Mark- do you have rear bumpstops? If not you might wanna install them sooner than later.
I have a tweeked rear main leaf I will need to replace soon. 6 years of wheeling that way wasn't one of my better ideas..