Podi boost gauge install

I finally got around to installing the boost gauge that my wife got for me back in 2011... yes, before I even had the car :) Dealing with electrical and interior stuff always scares me off so I wasn't too eager to do the install.

The Podi gauge is an electronic stepper gauge with a separate sender unit. The one I have uses a white face with a red needle and is a very good color match for the cluster. It can be cycled between either a white or red face with either a red or orange needle. It also has playback and warning features. Pretty nice!

I used the 034 boost tap on the post-throttle body MAP/temp sensor as seen here from a picture by Marty.


And then I ran the vacuum line around to the back of the airbox and mounted the sender to the airbox itself.


This area gets pretty toasty so I wrapped the filter and sender with some reflective heat wrap. I swear I've added like 5lbs of this stuff to the car now :)


I ran the wire from the sender thru the firewall at the series of grommets next to the brake booster. This pic is of the firewall, brake booster just on the left. The top cable was already present, the boost sender is on the left.


And this pops out just over the brake pedal. To orient you that's the brake pedal lever on the right and the purple bit in the upper left is the OBD port.


This tool is freaking awesome for getting wires thru the grommet without getting snagged or caught up on anything. It's a Thexton wire insertion tool, available on Amazon.


So that covers getting the mechanical bits setup and the sender wire into the car. I chose to install the gauge in the center vent. Using a nylon trim tool you can pry the gauge out from the dash. It's got some serrated edge things on it to keep it in place but just get it out a bit and you'll be able to get your fingers behind it and pull it the rest of the way out. You'll also want to get the vent to the left out as well to get some additional space with pulling wires through.

I used a 10gauge wire inserted thru the vent and was able to poke it down thru a gap between the dash and center console. Once that was fished thru we were able to pull the wire all the way across to the fusebox on the back side of the lower dash without needing to drop the lower dash.

My fabricator was able to pull some plastic conduit thru which did make things a bit tougher, if you're just pulling wire it'll be much easier. Here you can see the conduit running down under some large sensor/controller and then across the lower dash under the steering wheel.




For the Podi gauge the sender has three wires, switched power, ground and data. The gauge itself has 4 wires that are used; switched power, constant power, ground and data. We chose to run the sender wire up to the back of the gauge where those connections were made and then run wires back to the fuse box, that way all of the splices were at the back of the gauge.
Here's a pic I found from another writeup that shows this splicing required. Again, this shows the ground from the gauge joined with the sender, switched power from the gauge with the sender, the yellow wire is constant power from the fuse box and then the orange and white are the data connection.


At the fuse box end I used the add-a-circuit adapters for both connections. This is from before we started and shows where my radar detector is wired into a blank location that provides switched power. The blanks next to the 20amp fuse on the same row provide constant power.


To mount the gauge into the vent pod I used an Osir O-pod adapter. This is a really nice part and snaps directly into the vent trim ring for a secure fit. The Podi gauge did sit a bit tall in the adapter so my fabricator took about 1/8" off of the rim of the adapter so that the gauge sits flush.

Getting the vent pod apart takes a bit and is easier to do with a second set of hands. I didn't get any pictures of this but there's a writeup on Fourtitude with some good pics.

That's about all there is to it. Once the wiring is all done hook up the sender and gauge and make sure it all works before buttoning it all up.

Tufar

Our last long driving day of the trip was also our last planned scenic day. Mono Lake is just a short drive up the highway from Bishop so we intended to stop there on the way out since we both had seen so many pictures from the lake and I've driven past a couple times but had never stopped. We had considered a stop in nearby Bodie, a huge ghost town just north of the lake but it's easily a full day to do it any sort of justice so that will have to wait for a return visit (with more appropriate wheel/tire combo apparently).

Mono Lake is famous for it's iconic Tufa Towers which are columns of deposits left behind when the water level receded. They're calcified and freestanding and give a very alien landscape appearance. We headed to the south tufa formation and got to drive down another well graded gravel road to the visitor center. After hiking through the formations there we headed over to Navy Beach which was down a slightly less maintained, single lane, gravel road where we got to chase a jack rabbit for a bit. Some of the Tufas at Navy Beach were made of sand and had a much different appearance and these are apparently very fragile too. This beach provided a great spot to get panoramic pictures with the lake and tufas in the foreground and the mountains in the background.

Back in the car we still had about 450 more miles to drive and it was already about noon. We made our way back into Nevada for a bit and stopped for lunch in Carson City, where we saw a TTS convertible. Not many TT sightings since we had left TT-West the week before. Carson City to Susanville isn't especially interesting but from Susanville to Ashland we were going through Lassen National Forest which I've always loved. This takes you through dense forest with some volcanic scenery mixed in. As Russ put it though, as you continue driving it feels like someone is adding highway ahead of you and that you'll never make it to I-5. It didn't help that this was heavily patrolled by the CHP and we were getting sporadic laser hits from someplace too. We did finally get to I-5 and made the last 70 or so miles up the highway back to Oregon and landed in Ashland,

We wandered down the street from our Best Western to the Ashland Springs Hotel, where we had stayed for TT-West way back in 2007 on my last sabbatical, and had another excellent meal even though it was the last one served for the night since we got in so late. I have to say that I'll miss being able to walk from the hotel down to a restaurant and back. At home we can walk to a Mongolian or Thai place and that's really about it.

Ashland was our last real vacation day as our next stop would be home. We started the next morning off with a coffee stop in nearby Talent with Russ and then it was back on I-5 for the familiar slog through traffic back to Portland. Although it was probably our shortest driving day of the trip I think it felt like the longest. Some day we'll have to find a more scenic way to bypass the interstate back to home.

All told we traveled 3800 miles across 6 states and consumed 145 gallons of gas. I've got about 1200 pictures to go through and several videos so that should keep me busy until the next trip in July :)

Ghost Towns, Brothels and Vegas

From Flagstaff we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Bishop on the California/Nevada border with no scenic stops planned to break things up. We started back out on I-40 and made good time getting to Kingman and I'm glad we didn't end up staying there, Flagstaff was much nicer :) At Kingman we turned northwest and headed towards Vegas. We passed by the Hoover Dam but did not stop and the way the road is configured now you just get to see a glimpse of Lake Mead but not the Dam itself. In Vegas we tracked down a California/Nevada staple for lunch, In-n-Out! I had been to one before but this was Danielle's first visit so we ordered up a couple double-doubles with fries. I think I prefer the burgers to Five Guys but Five Guys has better fries.

From Vegas we had a long death march up 95 with occasional scenic views such as the Shady Lady Brothel, seriously. I tried to pass the time on 95 as quickly as possible when the traffic cooperated while Danielle played Plants vs Zombies. Eventually we got to Hwy266 which I assured Danielle was a short cut that I had possibly taken before and I was pretty sure was not going to turn into a gravel road. It turned out to be a great short cut with the scenery changing from desert scrub brush with Joshua Tree looking cacti with the Sierras building in the background. Along the way we drove past the ruins of the mining town in Palmetto, originally settled in 1866 and having been revived a few times later to fail quickly each time. We pulled in and wandered around taking pictures and met a gentleman from Fresno who was doing a ghost town loop of the area which sounds like a lot of fun actually.

After our unexpected scenic stop of the day we got back on the road towards Bishop and eventually turned off onto Hwy168 and that's where things got more fun. There are two tight and twisty passes on the road and the whole thing is up and down through dips with camber changes all over the place, sometimes at the top of a hill mid-corner! Danielle filmed most of this on the iPhone and viewing it will probably require Dramamine :)

It took a bit of searching for our hotel in Bishop, the Creekside Inn, mostly because it didn't seem like there was a creek anywhere in town. Eventually we found it right there on Main Street and got checked in. Just down the road from the hotel was the Whiskey Creek restaurant where we were again treated to an excellent meal followed by an epic white Russian Tiramisu. We had a long day planned for our final real driving day so it was once again early to bed for an early start.

Someplace new

Lots of friends have told me I should visit Sedona but I've never quite made it to that part of Arizona in any of my past trips. This time we had a full day to check out Sedona, the local parks and take a drive to a ghost town.

I had been advised that the state highway down to Sedona was a much better option than just taking the interstate so we started the day back on highway 89, which we had already covered many miles on back in Utah. The drive takes you through a dense forest, through an epic twisty mountain pass (driven at Miss Daisy speeds due to traffic) and then as you emerge on the other side you start to get back to red rock and more open vistas. Sedona itself is split into the olde town up north and then a much larger more recent development further west. We stopped in the old section for some lunch prior to heading out for our hikes. Once again urbanspoon, or maybe it's Apple maps, failed us by recommending a restaurant that was supposed to be right where we parked but instead was located all the way in new Sedona. No matter, we wandered down the street and found the Cowboy Club. We decided on a trio of appetizers for lunch instead of a full meal; prickly pear cactus fries, rattlesnake skewers and nachos. Everything was fantastic and the rattlesnake really did kind of taste like chicken, but better I think. We'll have to see if the local Whole Foods ever stocks it :) We stopped short of ordering dessert and headed out for our scenic point of the day, the Red Rock State Park and Cathedral Rock.

The part doesn't have any seriously long hikes, just a few trails to wander through the woods by the stream to get some good pictures of the formations. We did hike in the stream for a bit although it was really only ankle deep so not quite like the Narrows. We had heard that there was a local Vortex although I didn't really notice anything, we need to visit the Oregon vortex for comparison. What we did find though were lots and lots of stacked rock cairns. Usually you'll find a few of these along a trail to mark the route but here they were everywhere, fields full of them, on tops of trees, even hanging from trees... it was a bit creepy and maybe if we were hiking at dusk it might have had a Blair Witch vibe to it. I managed to build a couple of my own stacks and I'd like to think it was my own balancing skill and not the vortex that was holding them up.

Our next stop of the day was the ghost town of Jerome, although really this was just a drive-thru and not a stop since our real destination was the stretch of Hwy89A that connects Flagstaff with Prescott. Predictably we got stuck behind slow traffic on the way south but once we got turned around on the far side we had a pretty good run with no traffic and when we did catch up to two cars they both were kind enough to let us pass and continue at our own pace, which was maybe a bit more rapid than they were moving :) This is an exception stretch of road though. It climbs back up to Jerome hanging off the side of the mountain and following the contours the whole way. Every turn you make has you looking past the guardrail and straight off into space since you're overlooking the valley below the whole time. Eventually you come around the final turn and you're suddenly back in Jerome. Jerome is a neat place although we didn't really stop to explore. It's an old mining town built at the top of the mountain and the entire town is built amid the switchbacks with lots of elevation between each street.

It seemed like there were some good restaurants in town but we decided to head back down Sedona for dinner. This time we ended up at Sound Bites and were able to sit on the terrace and enjoy the sunset, and some live music, while we ate. On the walk back to the car we stopped off first for some prickly pear ice cream and finally at a chocolate shop where we loaded up on fudge, homemade peanut butter cups and cherry cordials. Our drive back up to Flagstaff was again fairly spirited as we attempted to keep up with someone who must have had some local knowledge as he was flying! I decided against trying to keep up with his SUV (!) and we enjoyed a more leisurely pace the rest of the way back to the hotel in Flagstaff.

Change of plans

So since we had funky water at the hotel in Chinle we revised our plans and so we needed to see all of Canyon de Chelley in one day and then make our way all the way over to Flagstaff, about halfway across Arizona. Since there's only one short hike in the park this seemed like a pretty easy day.

We headed in to the park and straight to the south scenic drive and the White House ruins hike. Canyon de Chelley is all Navajo lands and not a full on national park. The scenic viewpoints along the canyon rim are all within the national park but the valley floor is all protected land, with the exception of the White House ruins hike. This would be a pretty similar hike to the Cassidy Arch trail from Capitol Reef except it starts at the top and heads down to the valley below and leaves you with a nice climb for the hike out :) We made it down pretty quickly, yay gravity, with plenty of stops for pictures along the way as the scenery changes as you descend and make your way across the canyon walls. Then it's just a short walk to the ruins which are tucked in under a huge sheer wall. The ruins are fenced off so you can't get too close but someone has kindly located rocks along the fence at strategic locations so that it's easier to get pictures over the fence. The sky was pretty overcast so I didn't take too many pictures and well, not much has changed since the last time I visited anyway :)

The hike back seemed much longer as we made our way back up to the top. The skies had cleared enough for it to start to get hot but not enough to get us clear blue skies for pictures. We took it fairly easy and eventually got back to the car a bit winded but ready to see the rest of the park. We headed all the way in to the end of the loop drive to see the Spider Rock formation, named after the Spider Woman legend. From there we worked our way back to the visitor center stopping at overlooks to get pictures of the valley below and often with ruins way across the other side of the canyon. Next up was the north loop which I had not seen on my previous trip. We hit all of the viewpoints there and there were much better views of the ruins below although you're at least 500ft up so you can't get up close and personal. I think next time we're in the neighborhood we'll do one of the guided tours of the valley so that we can see more.

After packing back up we headed out of Chinle, south towards I-40. This would be the first time we were back on dual carriageway since the start of the trip but we were looking forward to being able to cover ground quickly. This was a pretty short drive, just 3hrs but since we got a late start we stopped at Denny's for dinner in Holbrook, seriously one of the friendliest places on the trip. The rest of the drive we were able to enjoy the sunset which helped pass the time since there's not much else to see on I-40 :) We got checked into the hotel, conveniently located for the next drive, and crashed for the night.

New old places

My last time at Capitol Reef I had seen the start of the Cassidy Arch trail but decided against it because of the nearly 1000ft elevation gain. This time though, as we were deciding which hikes to do Danielle suggested we give it a shot.

The hike starts from a parking lot down the Grand Wash and heads up a steep trail over slick rock and broken rock formations. This is my favorite kind of trail because in many places there isn't a well defined trail so you can kind of pick your own way through and it feels a bit more like canyoneering. There are amazing views down into the valley as you ascend and wind your way down the trail, the views changing and opening up new angles below. There are also varied and interesting rock formations and details along the trail itself so we of course stopped for lots of pictures.

Eventually we rounded a bend and could finally see the arch itself perched out on the corner of the canyon, overlooking the road to the Grand Wash 500+ ft below. Up ahead of us was a group with climbing gear and as we got to the arch they were getting setup to rappel down into the pit below the arch. We sat and watched  a few go down and I tried to lean over the edge and see down to the bottom but I never could. We took a few final pictures and had a light snack and then headed back as it was starting to get cloudy.

After the hike we took the scenic drive down to the end of the paved section and got pictures of the various rock formations along the way. We finished our visit with a couple of root beers and a peach cobbler at the general store.

That was all just the first part of the day. On the way out of the park we stopped off to see some of the petroglyphs along Hwy24. They really do look like aliens. From there we traveled on to Hwy95 which would take us the rest of the way to Chinle, AZ. Hwy95 cuts through the Glen Canyon scenic area after a long drive across a fairly boring trek. The Glen Canyon bit was awesome though, We were able to make up a ton of time carving through the quicker bends that arced back and forth through the canyon. We emerged on the other side and traversed a forested mesa where we cruised with virtually no other traffic. Eventually we dropped down into Blanding where we had dinner at a combination gas station/convenience store/bowling alley/A&W. Really.

The last 120 miles into Chinle went by quickly and we settled in to the hotel shortly after sunset. As we were unpacking we discovered our water was brown and a call to the front desk confirmed that was pretty much just the way it was in town. Our original plan was to spend two nights in Chinle but we quickly reevaluated that and decided that spending two nights in Flagstaff would solve a couple of problems, it would get us some cleaner water and give us more time to spend in Sedona. I rebooked the hotels and we hit the bed ready to hike Canyon de Chelley in the morning.

Bonus park day

Our original plan for our last day in Zion was to hike a bit in the morning and then head to Capitol Reef with enough time to catch the sunset. Since we were both a bit worn out from The Narrows while we decided to head out of town early instead of hiking. We did get to have a bit more fun in the Mt Carmel tunnel on the way out and maybe there are a few more 5 cylinder fans out there now :-)

Since we had some extra time and since it was on the way we decided to stop at Ruby's Inn outside of Bryce for lunch and then do a quick tour of the park. Ruby's is always an interesting place to visit and they had a pretty decent buffet lunch too. The park was very crowded and the rangers were closing viewpoints as the parking lots filled up. We did manage to get in to Sunset Point and Fairyland. We hadn't figured on hiking much so just did a quick walk down the paths to get some pictures. Still though, it was nice to get back to see the Hoodoos.

Leaving Bryce we continued on Hwy12 through Escalante and the Dixie National Forest where we drove through alpine passes as the red rocks gave way to aspens. As we got closer to Torrey we ended up in a pack of sport bikes and got to play with them through the twisties for several miles on the way down Hwy12. I think they were surprised that they weren't able to pull away from us and we got several thumbs ups as we pulled in to town. It was a very entertaining end to the drive.

We checked in to the Best Western in town, again with fantastic canyon views from our balcony and then went to get food. We were using UrbanSpoon for recommendations and had picked out the Rim Rock restaurant. After heading towards town we decided we should call them and it turns out they were right across the street from the hotel, yay technology! We ate outside with views of the canyon with the early evening sun and the food was outstanding too.

We headed into the park and eventually found the Sunset Point trail I had been to last time and settled in to take pictures. Even after the sun had slipped below the horizon we were still able to get some pictures on the way back to the car. We capped off the day with a return trip to the Rim Rock for some apple pie desserts.