Last night gifted us an amazing sunset—brilliant streaks of color lit up the sky in every direction. We soaked it in, a perfect sendoff for another day on the road.
We were up early this morning, around 5:10 AM. Gayla had a 6 AM video conference with her team back on the East Coast. While she was on her call, I dove into some research on the interwebs, following up on a few lingering parts issues for Clifford.
By 8:30 AM, Gayla had wrapped up her meetings, and we were packed and ready to roll. We pointed Clifford north on McKinnon Road and began making our way toward Green River, Wyoming. The landscape out there is stark and beautiful in its own way—barren, open, and vast. We made a few short stops just to take it all in.
Eventually, we cruised into Rock Springs, Wyoming. We had a short list of errands to knock out in town. First stop: Auto Recyclers just east of Rock Springs. We’d been chasing down a specialty high steer arm for Clifford. It wasn’t something the dealership could get, and NAPA had no luck either. But we’d heard this salvage yard might be our best shot.
Sure enough, I ended up talking to John, the owner—super knowledgeable and friendly. The kind of guy who knows off-road rigs inside and out. Believe it or not, he took the part we needed off his personal 4×4 just to help us out. That kind of generosity is rare, and we were beyond grateful.
After that, we headed back into Rock Springs for a resupply run—groceries, drinking water, and a few tools from Harbor Freight to help with the repair.
I had scouted a potential overnight spot about seven miles southeast of town off Wyoming 430. When we pulled in, there was already a Class A RV parked there, and a small SUV had joined shortly after. We found a spot, leveled out, and got to work.
We dove straight into replacing the upper high steer arm on Clifford’s passenger side. It came off surprisingly quickly. After some close inspection and side-by-side comparisons, the used part was a perfect match in all the ways that counted—bolt pattern, tie rod end taper, and general fit.
While I had everything apart, I checked the kingpin spring and got things lined back up. Did a quick parking lot alignment, then took Clifford for a test drive back into town. Everything held up just fine.
We rolled back into our camp spot outside Rock Springs at 9:30 PM—tired, dusty, but feeling accomplished.
Miles driven today: 138.79
Total miles: 1965.15
GPS Coordinates: 41.4723, -109.1556
