Virginia to Montana (FWC) to Wyoming (YNP) to Michigan (AEV)

[ramblinChet]

That's Big John around 300' away. This "stope" is 600' wide and nearly 200' tall. Around twenty-three million tons of iron ore were mined from here. The men made $0.13 per hour and the only place they could spend it was at the company store. Dozens died here.

 

[ramblinChet]

Drove across the Straits of Mackinac and am now spending a relaxing evening between two Great Lakes in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

 

[ramblinChet]

Natural sinkhole formed when the limestone bedrock caves collapsed underground. This is in Presque Isle County, Michigan.

 

[ramblinChet]

I spent this morning cleaning up my rig and working out the final details with AEV regarding my build. Here is a final shot of her prior to becoming an AEV Prospector.

 

[blacklbzbeauty]

Awesome trip report and pics. Looking forward to seeing your AEV Ram Prospector!!

 

[ramblinChet]

Awesome trip report and pics. Looking forward to seeing your AEV Ram Prospector!!

Thank you for your kind words. My pictures are somewhat random but I see interesting places or things and I stop to learn and enjoy. Our world is so damn amazing and exciting to explore!

And I just can not wait for my AEV RAM Prospector to be completed - this project has been slowly coming together over the past few years and it really picked up around one year ago when I finalized my AEV/FWC/RAM combo.

 

[hiker chick]

Sensational photography and scenery -- thanks for sharing!

 

[FAW3]

Great report thanks!

 

[68camaro]

Ramblinchet....great blog and pictures of trip. I am in Richmond and looking to retire within 2 years. I have been fretting about drives out west since it takes 27 hours to get to Salida CO itself. However, your thread has given me renewed enthusiasm to slow down - smell the roses - and take the back roads

Safe travels....

 

[ramblinChet]

Ramblinchet....great blog and pictures of trip. I am in Richmond and looking to retire within 2 years. I have been fretting about drives out west since it takes 27 hours to get to Salida CO itself. However, your thread has given me renewed enthusiasm to slow down - smell the roses - and take the back roads

Safe travels....

So nice to hear of your plans and yes, I agree, take the backroads and enjoy the adventure. There are so many interesting places to see between here and Colorado!

 

[ramblinChet]

Here is a picture of my completed AEV Prospector:

 

[AggieOE]

What an awesome trip with an even better ending. That thing looks great! And it's already got some miles under her.
What all was done to it to officially make it a Prospector?

 

[ramblinChet]

This is how it all played out.

I knew I was going to order a FWC Grandby and I was also planning to do the AEV Prospector or Prospector XL upgrade. At this point the two operations were entirely separate from each other. Back in December I was in the process of placing my order for the RAM 3500 which would take 3-4 months and the FWC knowing that the delivery would be twelve plus months away so I began calling other FWC dealers around the country to check on their inventory, if another buyer had canceled an order, etc. What I discovered is that FWC Wyoming / Montana had a buyer that might possibly back out of an order that was scheduled to deliver in mid-July. I let the dealer know that if the order did fall through I would like to buy that slot. Several days later I received a call and we finalized the deal. Awesome, now I was scheduled to have a FWC in July.

Then I began considering my AEV upgrade since I would be driving from Virginia to Montana maybe I could stop by AEV on the way out. I quickly decided there were a number of reasons why it would be better for me to drop off my rig with AEV on the way back. First, they would need it for around thirty days and attempting to coordinate everything around a fixed delivery date for the FWC in mid-July was just too problematic. Another issue was if I departed AEV with a deadline to meet out west and had a problem with the the work AEV performed now I would be in a pinch. Truthfully, I did not expect to have any issue at all but I always error on the side of safety.

So now my plan began to come together - I would drive out from Virginia to Montana to have my FWC installed. At that point I would turn back east and head to AEV to drop my rig off and then fly back to Virginia. Gosh, this plan was coming together and was sounding like one heck of a fun trip. But it gets even better. One of my girlfriends who live in the south central US has an adventurous heart so I asked her to join me on this special trip. She jumped at the chance so I then modified my plans to spend additional time out west with her. She truly loves the outdoors and Yellowstone was just around the corner so I surprised her and we ended up there.

The complete AEV Prospector package details are listed on the AEV website. It includes front and rear bumpers, suspension lift, rims and tires, badging, etc.

 

[grogie]

Looked like a fun, first trip! And wow, what a setup! You're going to have so many awesome trips!

 

[WU7X]

Nice writeup and pics. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming!

dale