Paradise 2 Pavement


Update #1:

The update isn't going to be too exciting because I'm not really site-seeing; just driving through to Colorado. Okay so day one the passenger side brakes weren't releasing so that kind of was like a dagger in the heart to almost get going and have that happen. Going through all the emotions of leaving and **** was a hell of a lot easier the second day in a row though lol. Luckily it happened right by the guy that did all the welding for me so he helped me out. I stopped by the scrap yard by his house too and weighed it, 10,000 lbs on the dot.

But after that we were off. The dog does really well in the van. After about 3 hours or so though he gets a bit antsy. My days basically revolve around him. Wake up, do my morning stuff, find a dog park, put down some miles, eat dinner, find a place to park for the night, walk him, pass out. I hate pictures of myself so you won't see many of these.

So the first dog park we went to was his normal one in cocoa beach. He was a bit cautious that all the other dogs were white.

Off to Georgia..

I stayed at my friends house close to Valdosta for the night.

Onward to the panhandle. I've never been there and I'm born and raised in FL so I wanted to check it out. Most of the drive was like this. Driving on the weekends is nice.

They have a ron jons. They're ****ing everywhere!

Made it to PCB and found a beachfront bar that had a dog park on the beach in front of it. Pretty cool.

That night I stayed at the dave and busters parking lot across the street. Pro tip, while bars are a good place to park at because they are open late, they are also extremely loud lol. One person even rubbed the side of the van near where my head was at and woke me up. I hear bass pro shops allow you to sleep there so I might try something like that next time.

On the road westward.. Leaving Florida.

You can't really see it, but that's the Mississippi sign.

New Orleans.

Went to the blind pelican for some oysters and beer. Now I'm at a friend of the family's house in denham springs. It's currently pouring. The van was pulling to the left a bit and there was this rubbing type noise when i went over a bump on the highway that keeps happening. Yet it stops when I slow down so every time I stop to check it, i can't isolate where it's coming from. It usually happens randomly, but when I go over a dip. Kind of the same feeling/sound like the plastic wheel wells that get caught in the tire. I looked around and nothing looks like it's close to rubbing. Maybe a bearing somewhere? I got an alignment today in denham springs and they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary or replicate the issue on a test drive. It's pretty ****ty out right now, but moving over. I'm going to try to get to Houston today.

You guys can follow me on spotwalla. You can adjust the timeframe to see it from the beginning by clicking on the pull down next to the title at the top left.


Update #2: Houston, Austin, Dallas

So I left Denham Springs and started making my way West. Leaving Louisiana was pretty nerve-wracking. I got the alignment done, but the issue only got worse. It went from just a rubbing noise to a full steering wheel shake. It was starting to happen more frequently too. All of the roads leading out of Louisiana were narrow bridges and had no shoulders to pull off. When the wheel would shake, slowing down to check it out made it stop. :\ All the roads looked like this..

Made it to Texas

Stopped in Houston for the night. RZFD met me out for a drink and was gracious enough to let me crash at his place. Tigua's first night on his new bed.

I proceeded to Austin. The first stop was Red Bud Isle to let the dog roam. I've been finding that dog parks are a great way to meet locals and get information on where/what to do. Hit Rainey st, Wilker Park, and some other places.

Of course he found the mud holes...

Longhorns stadium

I heard that McKinney Falls was pretty cool so I sprung the $20 for the campsite to chill for a night. Showers, campfire and I got to reorganize the van a bit, which was much needed. The upper falls were closed but the lower ones were running.

After Austin I went to Dallas.

Went to Gas Monkey Garage, I wanted to check out their 4x4 van. Of course there was a ton of people and no one allowed back there. I went to the Gas Monkey bar too for lunch. Afterwards I went to Bass Pro and spent all my money.

Then I went to this place Mutts cantina. What a ****show lol. Way too much going on and everyone was drinking. Really cool concept, just horrible execution. And tigua almost got in a fight. Then on the way out some ladies dog just snapped and bit him as we were walking by. Tigua wasn't even looking at the dog, he was straight focused on the gate. The lady was just like, oo sorry... I don't understand why you would bring your dog that you can't control to some place that's that high stress with 40+ dogs.

Then I went to Truck City

Met up with Thanh and a few other forum members and headed out for Oklahoma City in the morning.

So that's it. I'm in OKC right now. I'll be here a couple days chilling at a friends house. Then I'll make the trek to Colorado. I don't think there's much out between the two so the updates aren't going to be anything significant.


Expedition Leader
Nice update on your trip. Not a fan of dog parks or anywhere with other dogs. Always worry my dogs might catch something.

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replaced the brake caliper and it hasn't occurred again. I'm still not 100% sure that was the fix because I still feel kind of a grittiness through the pedal. Like what a bearing would feel like. When I get to Pueblo, I'm going to get a storage unit and shed some weight. Hopefully then I'll be able to really get into it and see what's up.


Just got done with reading your build thread and I must say that I am pretty jealous. I love 4x4 converted vans but wife thinks they look "sketchy".


Update #3: West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado

After leaving my buddies place in Oklahoma City I started heading out west towards Amarillo.

I ended up staying at Palo Duro Canyon for the night. It was my first time going to a canyon before. What an amazing place.

After Amarillo I started going north a bit. My plan was to go to Pueblo and drop off all of my summer stuff to shed some weight. The drive out there was pretty generic. I tried taking pics of the incoming mountains but the gopro isn't exactly the best camera for far away stuff.

This ****ing guy carrying this house at like 65+ mph. **** was falling off of it and he was hitting poles on the side of the road lol. I wish I would've got a video. He was coming up that road whether you moved or not.

First glimpse of "snow"

Made it to Colorado

So I stop in Pueblo and get a storage unit. I drop the bike and go to take the lock off of it and bam!

Luckily it was just enough to stick a flathead in it and get it open. Avoided that headache. After getting rid of some weight I went to Colorado Springs to some awesome dog park with a stream and everything.

On the way to Denver... Pike's Peak

And saw this awesomeness yesterday.

So that's it. It's going to be pretty slow for a while. I plan on staying in the area and finally use the Epic Pass. I have friends flying in next month to Salt Lake City so I'll probably just hit a few mountains here to scope em out, then head out west to Utah for a bit.