RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

willinnashville said:

Definitely looks like a fun adventure!

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Has been for sure!

deleted double post.

Despite the spring weather the mammoth lakes mountains were still snow capped and really pretty. I always enjoy those views out the windows as I head out of the town area onto the highway.

Got home Sunday afternoon and back to the work week grind. Crazy busy with detail work this week and next which is good. 595 miles round trip to mammoth and back on the truck.

Been a busy couple of months. After my mammoth trip late April, had to head out to Vermont for a funeral for my grandpa. Gramps passed in February, after nearly 10 years of living with late stage Parkinson’s disease and some mild dementia issues affecting his short term memory. I miss him a lot but I know that he knew the good Lord, and he shone in heaven with my Grammy and no longer in pain. I’m taking a lot of solace in that fact. Funeral trip was rough. Fast paced. I was only there for 6 days and every day was drama filled and exhausting with my family. But I love em and that’s just how these things go.

The return trip flying was an absolute nightmare. Tons of delays because of all the tornadoes that were hitting the Midwest that second week of may. Left the Nali at my aunt and uncle’s house in Anaheim hills which saved me on parking costs. But southwest had to delay my second connecting flight home way late. Ended up being an absolute sheet show with the airline getting home and my checked suitcase landing nearly 5 hours behind me. I HATE LAX…. But it felt good to get home and be back in my Nali to roll back up the mountain and get back to work. After sitting in Anaheim for 6 days he started right up like he always does to get that work done.

Been detailing non stop since I got home. Trucks got 198k on him now.

Boat haul day was finally here at the beginning of the week for our long time family friend. So I rolled down at the crack of dawn to right near Anaheim hills where my family is, to pick the boat up. Grabbed a before the haul shot at the station i stopped into to air up the trailer tires and fill the boat with fuel before the mountain. Hate having to put so much wear and tear on my poor beast but he just handles it so well and looks good doing it. He just pulls and pulls and pulls….. amazes me how strong the LQ4 6.0 engine really is and I don’t regret buying it one bit.

Absolutely hate the socal freeways now….. but I managed to survive with the boat. lol. This is the 91 freeway going at just about the edge of Orange County, and riverside county. When i was born we lived in the riverside area before moving up to the mountains, and drove this freeway all the time going back and forth to visit my aunt and uncle in Anaheim hills so I know this whole area and stretches of freeways like the back of my hand.

Little view of the mountain highways for you guys. I love highway 38, it’s Ana dbislitet gorgeous drive scenery wise, there’s a couple little areas where it’s tight corners that are windy, but over all it’s got big long, properly banked corners that when unloaded, I cruise through pretty quick and the Denali takes the highway like a champ. He did pretty well with the grades. No overheating issues with the engine or the trans. Made sure all my fluids were topped off before the drive and I cleaned up my air filter Sunday night to give the engine good fresh clean air. The airlift bags I bought a few years back, off of @ivin74 have proved the be absolutely priceless and one of the best mods I’ve done to the truck now that I gotta tow the sea ray and and down the mountain. Oh and the nearly new Z55 shocks he sold me as well not too long after the airlift bags, have held up flawlessly. Between the good working Z55 rear air setup and the airframe bags the truck is just so dang comfy and stable.

Got the boat up to my house to get her detailed about 1:30 Monday afternoon. About two ish hours behind schedule. I like being able to work from home on occasion now that I have a garage to keep all the gear in when it can’t be in the back of the Denali. It’s a great spot to work out of.

The drain plug was not the correct one, a non brass plug, so it rusted into the drain slot threads. Couldn’t start the pressure washing and detailing of the boat with the drain plug still in. I couldn’t get it out on my own and had to take it into town for help getting it out, which put me behind by another hour. Monday ended up being a nearly 16 hour day by the time I finished the detail work and dropped her at our friends house to await the launch day.

Not too shabby for a truck with 198k on the odometer!

Interesting thing about our lake is that the majority of people who have a boat slip to keep their boats in the water all summer are rented docks via one of the 4 marinas on the lake. Some of the big lake side homes have their own docks as part of the property but compared to how many docks are on the water that’s a small percentage. However at the Marina that this boat goes to people can actually buy a slip and it’s owned as real estate. They call them dockaminiums. That’s how our friend is setup. She had the opportunity to buy the slip I believe back in 2018 through a friend who’s a real estate agent that offered to sell the dock for its owner. So our friend owns the slip and now after the big storms we had two winters ago, the lake is full enough to have all the docks back inside the jetty that creates their little harbor. It’s pretty nice and since the docks are all back inside the jetty they all have power going to them so we no longer have to keep a generator in the dock box to power the lift that the boat sits on up out of the water when we’re not using her.

However the thing I absolutely hate about this morning is that using their launch ramp to launch and recover the boats means a Marina employee HAS to back the tow vehicle and trailer on the ramp as their insurance doesn’t allow for Marina customers to do it. A handful of the guys that have been there a long time know what they’re doing, have good experience with boats and trailers and are generally pretty good with me as I’ve gotten to know them. So launching and recovering is usually pretty simple. Last summer I went to the public ramp on the east end since it was finally back open with the full lake. I launched it entirely on my own with no help and no issues. But the hard part about that is that once the boat is in I then have to find someone to give me a ride back across town from the marina to the public ramp to pick my Denali back up with the trailer. Not a big deal last summer as a close friend was in town that I hadn’t seen in person for quite sometime, and hung out with me while I did the boat stuff and then ferried me back to the truck. And she got a boat ride out of it which is never a bad thing haha.


Today that plan was a no go because I didn’t have time to find someone to help with a ride back to the public ramp. The Marina knew I was coming and I was the only one launching at that time so there was no waiting which was nice. But a new employee who i had never met before today was put on the launch. And it was pretty clear he was very inexperienced with maneuvering trucks and trailers. It took him like three tries to get the boat lined up with the ramp properly. Which I don’t have an issue with. I get it. I’ve been there. But on try number two, he damn near backed the trailer off the ramp, into a gangway that leads over to the fuel dock that floats beside the ramp….. I had to give him the “hey you need to be more careful with my truck and the trailer…. Hitting things is not cool….” Speech. I was very polite about it though and he was incredibly apologetic and then took his time on the third attempt and we got her into the water. It’s a somewhat weird area where the launch ramp is at this particular marina. But I know my skills and could have had it down and off loaded in one shot….. lol. Ok ok I know I’m bragging a bit…… but I’ve spent a crap ton of time perfecting my trailering skills and I’m kinda proud of it haha.


At any rate it was kinda cool to be in the baot while the Marina guy was maneuvering back and forth and getting to listen my engine and exhaust setup from behind the truck. I’m always driving it so I never get to hear what it sounds like while it’s actually working. At the second failed attempt and pulling away from the fuel dock gangway, he had to mash the throttle to go up the ramp and realign, and I was like “dammmmnnnn….. my truck sounds good right now powering this boat around….” I should have videos that as that would have been a great sound clip video. Only though to snap a quick photo though.

But it’s all done and the boat is in the water now ready for summer. Got to take her for a quick little spin to ensure everything was running right. Which it absolutely was. She got up and went with no issues. So that was fun to chill on the boat for a lil bit and take in the lake sights.