Congelado Chronicles
About a week ago we got back from a two-week drive with our Av through the Southwestern part of the United States. Three things we realized:
-Heated seats are a good thing
-Black Ice on the road is not an urban legend
-The Av is a great cruising vehicle
The first two apply to driving through Colorado. Other states included with our trip were Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, then back to California. The scenery and people were great. What a great country we live in. A few photos follow.
Our trip took us through Las Vegas to Dixie National Forest and FishLake National Forest in Utah. I think it got up to about 40 degrees during the day. Here's Avalanche after 1200 miles of driving and some light off-roading:
And some of the actual Utah scenery:
We headed east though the Green River area, to Grand Junction and to Estes Park, Colorado. Here's a picture of a real Elk next to the sign for the cabin we stayed in. We also saw hundreds of them at the Rocky Mountain National Park:
And a deer eating a plant:
We estimated it would be a 1.5 hour drive from Denver to Pueblo, but it turned into a 5 hour drive thanks to all the black ice. Cars were all over the place! We narrowly averted one accident. That stuff is freaky. We got about a foot of snow on the Av when we pulled over for a little while. The next morning, our Av looked like all the cars from the area. All kinds of grey gunk on the assist steps and wheel wells:
We went through a car wash, left a club brochure on another Av, then headed out to Royal Gorge. The temperature gauge in the Av said it was 15 degrees, but it felt way colder:
We headed through Santa Rosa, Roswell, and Carlsbad New Mexico. We stayed in El Paso, Texas a couple of days -- what a great town! We love H&H car wash and it's little attached restaurant! While in El Paso, we got an oil change from Mission Chevrolet. Really nice guys. Left club brochures on a few Avs.
From there we went back into New Mexico, and high-tailed it through Arizona. Plus we had a little fun in Glamis on our way back to San Diego.
We played slug-Avalanche during the trip. Every time we saw an Av, we got to pop the other person. Since I drove 1/2 the time and my wife drove 1/2, we ended up with a tie (15 Avs a piece). 
This trip was over 4000 miles and the Av handled great the whole time, especially on the slippery stuff. I noticed the rumbling front-end issue when turning (which has been mentioned on this site), and problems with the fuel gauge (which also has been mentioned on this site). Next trip we plan to take a tow-able trailer with us, but this one was a blast!
About a week ago we got back from a two-week drive with our Av through the Southwestern part of the United States. Three things we realized:
-Heated seats are a good thing
-Black Ice on the road is not an urban legend
-The Av is a great cruising vehicle
The first two apply to driving through Colorado. Other states included with our trip were Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, then back to California. The scenery and people were great. What a great country we live in.
A few photos follow.Our trip took us through Las Vegas to Dixie National Forest and FishLake National Forest in Utah. I think it got up to about 40 degrees during the day. Here's Avalanche after 1200 miles of driving and some light off-roading:
And some of the actual Utah scenery:
We headed east though the Green River area, to Grand Junction and to Estes Park, Colorado. Here's a picture of a real Elk next to the sign for the cabin we stayed in. We also saw hundreds of them at the Rocky Mountain National Park:
And a deer eating a plant:
We estimated it would be a 1.5 hour drive from Denver to Pueblo, but it turned into a 5 hour drive thanks to all the black ice. Cars were all over the place! We narrowly averted one accident. That stuff is freaky. We got about a foot of snow on the Av when we pulled over for a little while. The next morning, our Av looked like all the cars from the area. All kinds of grey gunk on the assist steps and wheel wells:
We went through a car wash, left a club brochure on another Av, then headed out to Royal Gorge. The temperature gauge in the Av said it was 15 degrees, but it felt way colder:
We headed through Santa Rosa, Roswell, and Carlsbad New Mexico. We stayed in El Paso, Texas a couple of days -- what a great town! We love H&H car wash and it's little attached restaurant! While in El Paso, we got an oil change from Mission Chevrolet. Really nice guys. Left club brochures on a few Avs.
From there we went back into New Mexico, and high-tailed it through Arizona. Plus we had a little fun in Glamis on our way back to San Diego.
We played slug-Avalanche during the trip. Every time we saw an Av, we got to pop the other person. Since I drove 1/2 the time and my wife drove 1/2, we ended up with a tie (15 Avs a piece). This trip was over 4000 miles and the Av handled great the whole time, especially on the slippery stuff. I noticed the rumbling front-end issue when turning (which has been mentioned on this site), and problems with the fuel gauge (which also has been mentioned on this site). Next trip we plan to take a tow-able trailer with us, but this one was a blast!
I called today, dealer said they will get a report on Monday if it is scheduled this week. I want it by Nov. 31...I want the extra $500 rebate!