The Ford Barn - The 7° Road Trip

It was a dark and freezing night as we pulled into the little railroad town of Milford, Utah. Freezing I say. Freezing.

OK, lets start back at the beginning.

After struggling for a month with that strange noise that began during our last Nevadaho road trip and finally replacing everything between the transmission and the tires to fix it I was ready for another road trip - just a short overnighter to test everything out and "get away" for a night with wife and Pepe (Chihuahua).

One of our favorite getaways in the coldest of winter is Milford, Utah, three hours south of us and someplace no one ever goes if they don't absolutely have to. So that was our destination.

At the last minute I gave Betsy a call (94 year old friend) and she was ready to drop everything to go and did.

We picked her up and headed down I-15 until we got to Santaquin where we turned west up over the mountain to the little mining ghost town of Eureka. Here's the windy mountain road just before Eureka:

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We'd just had over a foot of snow this week for Christmas so this was definitely a winter trip - cold but beautiful.

In Eureka we got a couple of quaint shots of a couple of the old buildings left over from the boom town days of silver and gold mining:

A quaint abandoned home:

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The old city hall, fire station, and sheriff's office:

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OK, it may not be a totally empty ghost town but its 2010 population of 669 is only 17% of its high in 1920 of 3,908. For more on this most interesting mining ghost town click here: http://www.eurekautah.org/

From there we headed southwest toward Delta. I asked Betsy if she ever enjoyed watching maps as a kid to keep track of where she was on road trips and she said, "Oh, absolutely. I was always glued to a map." So, we cranked up Microsoft Streets and Trips on the laptop that was hooked up to a GPS sensor on the roof and she was in heaven watching us go down the road on the screen.

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Before we got to Delta we got into some real heavy fog that made the driving a little more "white knuckle."

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Just west of Delta we turned south for the 70 mile stretch of nothing headed for Milford.

I, once again, brought along my indoor/outdoor thermometer from home and duct taped the outdoor sensor behind the front grill. Took a peek at it driving through the fog and was surprised to see that the outside temperature was a mere 7° F! Notice that the humidity was 95% out there. It totally coated the car with ice including the spot light I needed to use later to see down the road further. Inside it was nice and toasty warm at 72° with the fresh air heater keeping the windows unfogged.

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That 7° was the lowest temperature we had on the trip.

After a while the fog cleared off and a full moon came over the mountains east of us and lit up a whole spider web of contrails I thought was pretty cool.

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It was such a warm wonderful welcome to finally see the lights of Milford in the distance and arrive at the edge of town to the quaint holiday greeting stretched across the road. We drove most every street in Milford that night looking at all of the quaint little old houses decorated in the old fashioned way with old fashioned Christmas lights. It was such a joy to behold when it seems we see fewer and fewer Christmas lights on houses any more.

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Milford is a bit of a ghost town itself having hit its highest population of 1,673 in 1950 when the railroad station and switching yard took a lot more manpower than it does now. During the next 50 years it's population dwindled to just over 1,000 until one of the biggest hog operations in the country was built there when the population took another boom to 1,400 in 2011. It still has a lot of abandoned storefronts on its main street.

We like to stay in the "dive" motel there although there was a new one built there a few years back to service the railroad crews that change there. We got a real surprise when we went into our room and there was a sign on the typical heat pump under the window that it was broken - plug in the little space heater and use it. So, what else were we to do?

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Took me back to the days when I would take my boys camping every month all year 'round including the coldest of winter. We didn't huddle around that thing very long before we dove into bed. By morning that little heater had heated the room up to a balmy 62°! (Can you find Pepe? Oh yeah, Betsy had a working heat pump in her room, thank goodness.)

In the morning I wondered if "Old Henry" would start. I'm afraid he's gotten a little thin skinned since we remodeled his room and heated it a year ago so he never has to start below 60°. In the morning it was 16° outside and all he would do is groan a little. Wouldn't even turn over. Probably had to do with the effect of the cold on the battery and the S.A.E. 40 oil I use in him that must have been like molasses. Wife and I pushed up and down the road trying to start him before we gave up, I walked over to the gas station and caught these railroad guys gassing up their truck and asked them to come and jump us. This picture is of me explaining how the driver had to just touch his battery post with the cable clamp long enough for me to start when I was ready because of the difference in voltages. (The "dive" motel is just to the right of the restaurant. Betsy's room is the door and window you can see. Our refridgeroom was next to the right of hers.)

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Then we drove a short distance to Penny's Diner next to the new motel for breakfast. I decided I'd leave the engine idling with the heater on to warm it up inside while we were eating. I could remove the key from the ignition without turning it off then lock the door leaving Pepe inside where it would soon warm up. I also put my pillow in front of the radiator to help it really heat up. Halfway through breakfast I checked to make sure the pillow wasn't causing it to overheat. The engine temperature was higher than the 160° thermostats but only 180° so I went back in to enjoy breakfast.

When I came out I was surprised to discover that the engine was no longer idling. It was not running at all!!?? I got in to start it and the battery was totally dead - just clicked the starter a little and nothing else. I realized that when I left it idling with the heater fan on full it was not idling fast enough to charge the battery which was already a bit low so it eventually drained it so completely that it wouldn't even fire the spark plugs and quit.

The only person available to jump us this time was the little waitress in the diner who came out and pulled her big pickup next to Old Henry and said, "I'll just let you do it since I know nothing about it." I then had to patiently educate her how she had to clamp the battery cable onto her battery post when I gave the signal and wiggle it a little to get contact. She seemed a bit hesitant but was willing to try. I felt bad for her because, of course, when she was doing all that it was sparking and scaring her good. But she did good and we got it going again. (Wife was inside with Betsy during this ordeal. Wanted to shoot myself after we left for not taking another picture of the second battery jump within an hour!!)

Snapped a couple of shots of Milford's main street before we left:

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The old abandoned Hotel Milford built in 1913.

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On our way to the freeway from Milford we saw off in the distance what looked like wannabe cowboys on ATV's herding cows. As we stopped and watched they herded them right across the road and over to a corral. Pretty funny.

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Eventually we got to Beaver where we stopped at the cheese factory for some ice cream and spotted the quaint old County Court House there.

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Then onto the freeway headed north for home. Stopped at historic Cove Fort for a shot. (More info here: http://www.covefort.com/)

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Then in another hour we were at Fillmore, once the capital of the Territory of Utah before it was moved to Salt Lake City. They even began construction of the capitol building. This is just one wing of what was to be a much larger building. It is now a very interesting museum with the legislative meeting room on the top floor preserved as it was originally. Learn more here: http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/territorial-statehouse

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Not long after getting back on the freeway from Fillmore I looked down and saw that my generator was no longer charging. My headlights, which I had on for added visibility, and heater fan were discharging the battery.
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I quickly shut off the lights and heater and we carried on down the road with only the coil drawing on the battery remembering that at the end of our Route 66 trip we drove our last 250 miles without any generator and we only had 100 miles to go on this trip so I wasn't too worried. Sat there driving thinking about what it could be - bad regulator, loose wire somewhere - for about 20 miles when suddenly it started charging again. Good news. No worries - at least until it happens again. (Hate intermittent electrical problems.)

Another hour and we approached Mt. Nebo at the foot of which my wife, her father, and grandfather were born and raised in Nephi.

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In another hour we were just a block from our home at the foot of Mt. Timpanogos. Those are our poplar trees reaching up in front of the mountain.

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So, lesson learned from this trip:

Next time I'll take some kind of a heater and battery charger to hook up at the motel to keep the engine warm and battery charged to start in that cold of temperature.

Other than that, it was a great quick overnight trip with good people and dog in spite of the occasional surprise that just made it more of an adventure all 'round. Total distance 367 miles.

Prior road trips:

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511