New ride

I have found a way that my Sweetums can enjoy at least some of the stuff I see out in the desert. Well, actually she found it. On a recent trip to visit her sisters in Texas, she saw the Polaris Ranger 400 recently purchased by the husband of one of her sisters. She was hooked. We looked at them for a couple of months and decided on getting the Ranger Crew 800. I picked it up Friday and we went riding at The Rolls (near Four Peaks) yesterday.

Sweetums in the Ranger Crew 800.

It seats 6. I'm going to have to learn to be sociable so we'll have friends to take with us.

It was raining when I got up yesterday morning and I didn't think we would be able to go riding, but it cleared up a little. The remaining clouds made for some interesting pictures. Everybody says the rain shouldn't stop me. I could put the top on, but I just don't like driving with rain hitting me in the face.

Stewart Mountain

I got the half windshield and I'm glad I did. It keeps the wind off but doesn't obstruct the view. People I had talked to about the ride said it was very smooth. It is smoother than the truck but I still don't think I would describe it as "smooth". Maybe if I went fast enough we wouldn't feel all those little bumps. I started to drive along a road that goes into the middle of the Four Peaks Wilderness but it was very rough. I turned around before going very far because I was getting tired of being jostled. We had been riding for a long time by then. It was also getting late and I wanted to get back to the truck before it got too dark.

Four Peaks. No snow.

It was a beautiful day. In the middle is the road into the Four Peaks Wilderness.

The only problem so far is storage. I thought I would be able put it on the trailer in the garage. That didn't work, though. The trailer is bigger than the one I used to have in there, so I can't put the motorcycles where I used to, so they take up a spot where I used to have a car. So we used to be able to put two cars in the garage but now we can't put any. We typically have about 5 and as many as 7 cars at the house. Our neighborhood has a silly "safety" rule about not leaving cars parked in the street, even though the streets were made wide enough to accommodate cars parked on both sides and a firetruck down the middle.

Looking back from the road in the wilderness. The clearing in the low spot is Cottonwood Campground.

I was impressed with how the Ranger seemed to be able to go anywhere. It went up some pretty steep spots and I never heard a tire slip. I'm going to be able to drive along all those roads where I had to turn back before.

2010_12_18