All posts by Last Great Road Trip (LGRT)

When we started planning for the Baja off road adventure we know we would need some serious lighting if we were going to explore the desert at night. Not wanting to take any chances we looked at a lot of manufactures’ lighting systems. After months of painstaking analysis and research, reading through magazines (looking at pictures), going through forums, stopping at 4×4 shops and talking to anyone who would listen, we decided to go with Baja Designs’ Soltek setup.

We choose these lights for their crystal clear optics, high quality electronic components, no-tool adjustments and a mounting system that isolates vibration. They also weep testosterone on the pages of Hula Betty’s magazine.

Need more information… How about our PDF write-up over on ISSUU on installing off-road lights to go along with the video.

Even more information… Must read, step by step Toyota Bulletins:

Another little tidbit that is handy to refer to is a relay diagram when you’re trying to remember all the different wires going from here to there. This is a nice reference:

If you still need MORE… drop us a comment with your question and let us know if you like the format and what we can add to help others when it comes to off road light selection and installation.

everything else

Brilliance Is Just Staying One Step Ahead

June 14, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) Leave a comment

Every once in a while an idea comes a long that is brilliant. The idea is usually not revolutionary… but evolutionary, simple and elegant. The brilliance is in seeing what we take for granted everyday and raise it to a new level. Issuu.com is one of these brilliant ideas. Take a simple PDF which is already a good thing and a staple in document sharing. NOW… make it feel like a real magazine that you can hold in your hands, hear the pages turn and see the reflection of overhead lights bounce off the pages… Now you have something.

If you are looking for the obscure, hard to find or foreign rag try Issuu. These guys have made Internet publication very good and so simple. Look for Hula Betty to start publishing articles about Last Great Road Trip in Issuu.com soon. In the mean time check out a few of these.

Celebrate Our Differences and Diversity

Road Trip For The Soul

June 4, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) 2 Comments

There are many derogatory and hurtful words in our language. I’m sure any number of them come to mind. If you need help starting this list, let me refer you to my sister-in-law who can start you off in a couple of different languages.

Now look through your mental Rolodex for words that embrace the ideas and skills needed to live together peacefully. This list takes some time. Even Google is not much help. Try “celebrate diversity” and you may find the Internet leaves you wanting. What is a socially conscious web surfer to do…

First relax, take a big cleansing breath and count to ten. Now type www. tolerance.org. What you find is a site dedicated to fighting hate and promoting tolerance. As a major portal for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating communities that value diversity, tolerance.org offers you a seemingly endless set of resources. Some of these resources include:

10 ways to fight hate
101 Tools for Tolerance
Kits and handbooks

There is even a section that teaches writing without bias.

If you’re feeling very secure in your dedication to tolerance follow their link to Project Implicit. Scientific studies have demonstrated that even when people consciously commit to diversity, “mental residue” in our subconscious may still harbor negative prejudices that need to be stomped out. Project Implicit is a Harvard research project that is designed to expose the hidden biases so you can over come these unconscious hurdles. The Harvard study allows you to use the test in demonstration mode or commit to participating in the study and furthering their research program.

As we travel our road of life, all of us need to find words that express our individual celebration of diversity. Join the Speak Up! campaign and begin your own road trip to take a stand against everyday bigotry. A road trip for the soul goes beyond any marked road to where all forms of bigotry and discrimination are left behind, replace by peace and understanding.

In the News

Number 47 With A Bullet

May 14, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) Leave a comment

TravelHacker, the thinly veiled corporate airline credit card blog, written by Christina Laun, choose Last Great Road Trip as one of the 100 best travel journal blogs on the web. And if you are counting, that is top 100 out of 1,620,000 “travel journal blog” entries, give or take a couple of hundred thousand.

The TravelHacker put us in the “Road Less Traveled”, a category covering travels to the far reaches of the globe or taking to the road for unusual reasons. Journals in the road less traveled category are for travelers like us who have taken some unusual trips all over the world. I like that!

It is nice to be picked for anything other than last for dodge ball so feel free to send the TravelHacker a comment about her choice of the 100 best travel journals.

Overland & Trails

Tahuya Trails and New Friends

May 5, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) 2 Comments

Looking through the forums I read “Novice Tahuya Run Saturday May 3rd”.

Here was an opportunity to wheel off-road right in my own back yard. More exciting was an opportunity to make some friends who enjoy wheeling. We have a number of expedition type wheeling adventures under out belt, but need a little more technical trail experience. With that in mind, we set off for the Tahuya trail meetup. A number of folks showed up for the run, some in FJ Cruisers and others in Jeeps. These folks traveled from Edmond, Olympia and everything in between to try out the trails.

This was a novice run led by Laurence and John. There was never any pressure to try a trail you felt uncomfortable on or force a bad line rather than backing up and trying again. We also had the opportunity to watch the more experienced folks work more difficult lines including this short video of Laurence guiding John up and down a tight little incline.

Celebrate Our Differences and Diversity

Harsher Punishment for Parole Violators, Stan… and World Peace

April 30, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) Leave a comment

We all want to make the world a better place, although few us find the time to live those convictions out as fully as we would like. At Last Great Road Trip we try to fight hate, promote tolerance and encourage the celebration of diversity. We attempt this through donations, blog entries and interviews with others. But a couple of local guys are going the extra mile.

If you listen to morning radio you probably tune in for pithy, sharp tonged caller abuse, biting humor and political sarcasm. And HEY, I’m right there with you on my daily commute. However if you have been paying attention lately you’ve notice some compassion sneaking into the air waves. Local radio guys Bob and Arik, from the Bob Rivers show on KZOK 102.5 FM are currently in Senegal working with World Vision. These guys are contributing their talents to connect listeners with the kids of Senegal who need our help. One way to get involved in Bob and Arik’s excellent adventure is by sponsoring a child through Wold Vision. While Bob and crew are working to make the world a better place in a very public way, each of us can make a private and just as big a difference to a child by contacting World Vision .

Adventures come in all shapes and sizes. What is important, is that you follow your own trail and do what you can to make a positive contribution to the world along the way.

How To Modification Info

Keeping the Vision Clear

April 28, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) Leave a comment

Everyone asks… How do you like the rig… How did it perform on your arctic circle adventure?

Our answer… IT IS Great. The only thing we would fix… The windshield! The windshield picked up a number of star cracks which in the cold weather this winter turned to crack across the length of the windshield. And we finally decided to fix it.

Read the posts on the FJ Cruiser forums about windshields, lower right side, I’ll wait.

What you find is that you should buy stock in glass, your going to replace a few. This is our frst windshield replacement so we took it down to the local glass guys at The Autoglass Clinic to see what it takes.

Turns out, the easy part is putting the windshield in. The hard part is getting all the little bits of molding and covers pulled without leaving a mark. Once the bits are off, pulling the old glass and replacing it with the new windshield is quick and easy.

When it was all said and done the guys made it look easy and did a great job. They even offer a slice of pizza for being the first FJ these guys changed out. Another bonus that came for hanging around with these guys was understanding what comes apart and how. This new found knowledge will be come in handy as we take on installing the Soltek 8″ LaPaz HID lights that just arrived from Baja Designs. But that is another story.

2011 Baja Mexico

Danger is My Middle Name

April 25, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) 2 Comments

Off-road adventures are filled with dangers. Mechanical breakdowns, lost in the cold and wet, broken bones, hypothermia and heat exposure are all real dangers. We prepare for these risk with spare parts, extra water and clothing, first aid kits, communication equipment, maps and a host of recovery equipment.

We don’t usually prepare for drug gangs, kidnapping or violent criminal activities. However, this is exactly the situation in north Mexico. Unfortunately the LA Times story Border drug violence sparks travel alert for Mexico reported “The U.S. State Department in Mexico issued a travel alert yesterday, prompted by drug violence in the north of Mexico.”

This drug war presents a danger beyond the usual off-road adventure risks and has us watching the Department of State Travel site for the latest information. So we sit and we worry if this will escalate into a situation that keeps us from traveling the Baja. It’s not like we’re going to Mexico for spring break!

gear review

Baja Designs Joins in Supporting The Adventure

April 19, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) 1 Comment

We are very pleased to have Baja Designs as the newest sponsor of our off-road adventures.

When we went looking for auxiliary off-road lights for the rig, we spent a great deal of time researching the various technologies, available products and the companies behind those products. What we found from painstakingly analyzing our off-road lighting needs and asking for input from a number of experts is that Baja Designs has been developing top quality high-end aftermarket lighting systems for the off-road race industry for 14 years. Baja Designs also offers a 3 year warranty on their Soltek Fuego 4″ and LaPaz 8″ lights. These guys stand behind their products. Legendary quality lights, warranty protection, crystal clear optics, one-of-a-kind tool free aiming system and guys that know the Baja like the back of their hand, oh yeah these lights are for us.

When we contacted Chris Chapman at Baja Designs, asking for assistance and sponsorship support we were ecstatic to hear that they would help us out. These are the same guys who are the official sponsors for the American Honda’s off-road team; we are in good company.

Over the coming weeks look for how to install off-road lights as we discuss the lighting basics and mount our two Fuego 4″ HID Lights on our Rig’s bull bar and four 8″ Soltek HID Lights on the roof.

trail talk

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall…

April 13, 2008 Last Great Road Trip (LGRT) Leave a comment

Everyone knows the old joke… A tourist pulls up to a man on the corner and asks: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The man on the corner says “Practice… practice… practice”

That is good advise and especially important when you are stuck on the trail. This is not the time to unwrap your shinny equipment for the first time and try to figure out how to use it. More than likely when you get stuck it will be dark, rainy and muddy or sandy, glaringly hot and windy (isn’t that what you went out to find). Stuck in these conditions is exactly what recovery equipment was designed for and when used correctly, will make easy work of a tough situation.

One of the most versatile and low cost pieces of off-road adventure recovery equipment is the hi-lift jack by the Bloomfield Manufacturing Company. The hi-lift jack can be used to lift or pull a rig out of the mud. It can be used to break a tire bead or push a panel into place. The hi-lift jack can even be used to change a tire. However, it can also put the rig into an unstable and unsafe position if the directions and safety instructions are not followed.

If you understand and practice how to use the hi-lift jack properly it can be one of the best pieces of recovery equipment you have with you on the trail.

Overland Adventures and Off-Road