I'm just staying in touch with all y'all. I'm the guy who adopted Road Rippers idea of installing 2005 Chrysler Pacifica strut/spring assemblies on my 2005 Dodge Caravan to lift the front end about 4”. Several folks expressed concerns about how such a lift might affect my Caravan's handling. Well... I just returned to SE Arizona from a +5,000 mile road trip touring several western states. My first state was Nevada and Great Basin NP as well as SH50 “The Loneliest Road In America” and also the most boring! Next was Idaho and western Montana touring the Sawtooth Mountain Range and Montana's Bitterroot Mountains. Some beautiful country with lots of winding roads and some very daunting gravel roads that my Caravan took in stride. Finally, the +100 degree heat got to me and I fled across Washington, first to Port Angeles and next a tour of the coast. The 65 degree coastal temps were really wonderful! Just outside of Port Angeles I took a one lane gravel road which I nicknamed the “El Camino de la Muerte” for 18 miles back into a campground located in the Olympic Mountains. It was so beautiful I stayed for several days completely blown away by the beauty of my surroundings. After that it was onwards south along the Washington and Oregon coasts. Unfortunately, I camp in my Caravan and between the state and local governments they've pretty much shut off the Oregon coast to boondocking. Around Bandon Oregon I headed east to Klamath Falls Oregon and took a tour of Crater Lake NP on the way. Several years ago I visited Crater Lake but couldn't drive the rim road because a bunch of selfish entitled bicyclists had commandeered the road, all with the Park Service's blessing! This time the road was open so I toured the lake, but the lodge was so jammed with people I decided to move on. Traveling west on Oregon's SH140 I saw a huge pyrocumulus cloud formation created by the +350,000 acre Bootleg Forest Fire burning underneath it. I finally decided to head home to SE Arizona taking a rout that passed by the North Rim of the Grand Canyon NP. The park was so Jammed with people that I kept moving on. However, I saw the North Rim several years ago so I guess that'll do.

I arrived at my home on Tuesday after putting over 5,000 miles on my lifted Caravan, much of it on steep winding mountain roads, many gravel, and I had no problems controlling the car. So much for all the warnings people had expressed that I'd likely lose control of my lifted Caravan and die. Well I checked the obits this morning and amazingly I'm still alive. Life is good!

Steve