Pronstar’s CA adventure

[Sam7sf]

@pronstar What you should have done is to have Mrs. Pronstar drive while you chronicle the trip.

Have a wife drive? We want him alive sir.

 

[Grumps21]

Headed to SoCa so my mom, who isn’t in the best of health, can meet Rowdy, her youngest grandbaby, for the first time.

We’re packing up the family truckster for our latest adventure…yup, I’m doing this damn drive again, despite swearing “never again” the last time.

Last time was me, Mrs P, both (full-size) in-laws and one baby. This time there’s no in-laws, but we’re adding a baby and our au pair who is thankfully petite.

Oh, and I’m picking up a small boat in Temple and dragging it with us to help a buddy out…it’ll offset our AirBnB costs for the trip. I’m currently planning on driving thru the hill country to an overnight in El Paso, to make the drive a bit more pleasant.

Friday night is a reunion for the dance studio Mrs P used to own. Saturday thru Monday will be in and around Orange County with family.

Then off to San Diego for a few days…Stetson my oldest is bananas for animals and Sesame Street, so we will be at the Sesame Street theme park (who knew that’s a thing?), the San Diego zoo, then we will head home.

Not sure how much time I’ll have to post, but I’ll do my darndest.

Pray for us, I’m gonna need it

Praying for you bro. Armless in CA is a risky venture

 

[Grumps21]

Aren't you concerned that the in-laws will burn down the place while you're gone?

I see this merging with the in law thread.

 

[Vaquero]

Are we there yet?

 

[Vaquero]

El Paso is a long way from here.
I bet he's got toothpicks holding his eyes open.

 

[Grumps21]

@pronstar What you should have done is to have Mrs. Pronstar drive while you chronicle the trip.

No offense here, but thats kind of nerdy. Just saying. I get the intent tho…

 

[Grumps21]

Are we there yet?

Almost, and Dad would say. That always = at least 3 or 4 hours

 

[candcallen]

El Paso is a long way from here.
I bet he's got toothpicks holding his eyes open.

He don't need no stinking toothpicks. He's got little kids and they are probably screaming like crazy right now.

Don't give in to the temptation to drug them or they will be wide awake when you gotta sleep.

Oh memories.

 

[pronstar]

Dang, how many months are you going to be gone?

That’s just my wife’s shoes

 

[pronstar]

Aren't you concerned that the in-laws will burn down the place while you're gone?

Yes that’s a daily concern

 

[pronstar]

Please tell me you remembered your flask.

No flask..,.but I did remember noise-cancelling headphones. Worth their weight in gold for the drive

 

[pronstar]

@pronstar What you should have done is to have Mrs. Pronstar drive while you chronicle the trip.

I’m not sure what is worse…me as a passenger or Mrs P’s driving

 

[pronstar]

Are we there yet?

Just woke up…we got here at 11p.
All told we were 2 hours behind schedule

12 hours to our place for the next few days.
Hoping to be outta here by 9am

Literally emptied out everything from the boat and truck when we got here. Because El Paso

I gotta spend the morning packing everything back up…but at least we have stuff to pack.

 

[pronstar]

Boat is right around 5k lbs, plus all the cargo we brought. So we we’re heavy.

First heavy-ish tow with the Suburban.
Factory tow mode is absolutely worthless, very quickly learned I had to manually shift otherwise it hunted waaaaay too much and got hot.

These LA/LT motors need to rev, was happy around 3-4k rpm…which equates to 3rd or 4th gear on the highway to hold 70-75-ish.

You never really notice the grades until towing…I was in 3rd quite a bit. But the motor was happy and temps were cool.

Averaging 9mpg.

Here’s a pic of the rig.
You can see we are packed pretty tight in there

 

[popsgarland]

Your Suburban doesn't have the tow/haul mode? Or is that just on their trucks?

 

[Eastexasrick]

You still have a few transmission roasting, brake rotor warping grades to go, and you are going to love the Blythe grade.

Good luck, be careful, God Speed.

 

[pronstar]

Your Suburban doesn't have the tow/haul mode? Or is that just on their trucks?

It does, and it’s worthless.

 

[popsgarland]

It does, and it’s worthless.

I use mine when pulling a load. Never had any issues with it.

Be careful. Don't want to see you post that your stuck in some town having a new
motor or transmission installed.

 

[pronstar]

I use mine when pulling a load. Never had any issues with it.

Be careful. Don't want to see you post that your stuck in some town having a new
motor or transmission installed.

Big part of the problem is 3.08.gears.
Too tall for these trucks when loaded-up.

I’d much rather have 3.73, truck would have been much happier.

 

[Brains]

Yeah tow/haul on the 'berbs is tuned for 500 lb. garden trailers and jet skis, not actual towing

You're doing better than the time I put a tow bar on a Firebird and drug a tetris loaded 5x8 U-haul single axle across the country.