Intro + road trip pics

New owner of a '21 Lunar Rock Pro. Had the truck for a few weeks now but haven't gotten around to doing an intro. It's 108 degrees outside, so good chance to stay inside.

I'm a former owner of an '03 Tacoma extra cab. Did a bunch of mods including Donahoe coil-overs in front (remember those?) with Deaver/Bilstein combo in back. Loved that truck and its stick-shift, but as wife and family came along in life, I haven't owned a truck since. Due to a change in work situation and no more commute, I sold the Tesla and went for this Tundra.

Set my sights on a Lunar Rock Double Cab a few months back. Knew it was a long shot. Wanted the double...compared to my old extra cab taco the double cab is very spacious. Don't need the extra room the crewmax offers, but do anticipate using the extra bed space. Anyway, there aren't very many Lunar Rock double cabs out there, but I got lucky and found a situation where someone reserved one then backed out (they decided they need a crew max). The only issue...I'm in Oregon and the truck was at a dealership in Minnesota. Decided to fly out, pick it up and do a road trip back.



Had it all planned to meet my older brother out in Minnesota, then trade off driving duties. He and I grew up exploring back roads in a little 1990 2wd Toyota pickup. We don't see each other much anymore, so this was a great chance to catch up with him. He has a 2011 Tundra of his own.

Night before the trip, he calls me with bad news. His kid was about to go to a camp and had to take a covid test. Tested positive (with zero symptoms) so the family had to quarantine. He couldn't come. We were both very disappointed, but I had to go pick up the truck and decided to proceed on my own.


Pickup at the dealership went smoothly. I had never been to Minnesota, but the guys at the dealership told me it was best to get out of town as quickly as possible to avoid the Minneapolis traffic. Compared to my old Taco and the Tesla I had been driving, this thing felt pretty big at first but I quickly adapted.


I hightailed it out of Minn. before the heavy traffic hit and quickly settled into the drive headed into North Dakota. Not too much variety on this part of the drive, but I didn't mind it at all. Probably grinning ear to ear the whole way as I was falling in love with the truck.


Picked up more than a few bugs along the way. Killed me to know that my front end paint would never be the same but what else could I do.


Destination the first night was Jamestown ND. Cute little town with a buffalo museum. Finally got a chance to take a glamour shot outside of the hotel. Cruised the Walmart here...def good people watching spot.


Along the way I had to get gas a few times. New experience after driving a fully electric car for the past 5 years. Saw a whole lot of small town scenes, with a few like this one may have been a covid fatality.


Got an early start the next day and finally hit some variety in the scenery around Teddy Roosevelt state park and the Badlands area. Had to flip a U-turn when I passed an off-ramp that turned into dirt about 20 yards off the freeway.


Was quickly rewarded by this decision with some fun dirt roads and great views of the area. Even found a few washes with some mud. Tested out 4-HI to make sure it worked...yup.


The area turned out to be pretty fun and was a great way to break up the long straight drive. REALLY missed my brother for this part, he would have loved it. There was a turn-off a few miles off the paved road with a sign indicated a petrified forrest was ahead. Wished I had more time to explore more. Pretended to be Ivan Stewart around a few of the bends but didn't want to slide off the road since I was alone so didn't get too crazy.


Hit the 600 mile mark out there too. It was a tad hot.


Back on the road I crossed over into Montana. Nice to see the max speed limit was a little higher, although I quickly noticed the gas mileage take a dive.


Montana is beautiful, this was my first visit and these shots don't capture a fraction of what I saw but I was on a schedule and alone, so I couldn't stop anywhere I wanted. I see why people are moving to this state.


First sight of rain on the trip as I arrived in Billings. Stayed the night in Billings, which just happened to be the right distance between stops. Having stayed there now, I wouldn't do it again. Not much there, not a nice place.


Back on the road the next day greeted by more nice scenery.


Never know what you'll find in a rest stop bathroom.


Waiting area at the Missoula airport to pick up my buddy. At the last minute he agreed to fly out to help with the 2nd half of the trip, after learning my brother couldn't come.


Terrain started to change as we got closer to the Rocky Mountains.


Last night of the trip we stopped near Richland, WA. Found a nice fish place called Anthony's and enjoyed some great local wine and a decent sunset. By this point I was starting to feel the long drive, and ready to get home to see my family.


Didn't take too many pictures the rest of the trip since I was in "get home" mode, but we did stop off at Multnomah falls. Such a pretty area of Oregon, driving along the river bordering Washington.


Finally home. This picture is actually significant in that I wasn't sure the truck would fit in the garage. I had measured and knew it would be tight, but it's not so bad. I would love an auto-folding mirror on the driver side but oh well.

Long trip but very enjoyable, love the truck and got to see a bunch of the country I hadn't explored before. 1800 miles total. Happy to be a new owner and enjoying the forum so far. If you made it this far I'm sorry for the rambling. Hope you enjoyed the trip.

 

Don't apologize, loved the pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

Welcome from MA
Beautiful truck and cool story, great pics

 

Pretty awesome trip. Glad you took pictures. Enjoy your truck!! Great choice.

 

Welcome from SoCal. Nice post!

 

Excellent intro! Welcome from Colorado. Formerly from Drain, Orygun

 

Welcome from NY.

 

That was great! I could use a trip like that. That last shot of the waterfall is Bitchin, first thing that jumped out about it is the lower half looks like a wolf howling. Thanks for sharing your trip.

 

Thank you!

Funny thing was, after driving almost 2k miles in 4 days, I was working the next week but my head was still out on the road. Love to explore and haven't done nearly enough over the past 1.5 yrs.

 

Fantastic intro! I though I went a long way to get my Tundra, but 6 hours is nothing compared to your trip!

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)!

 

Welcome from Ohio. Great photos

 

Welcome! Thanks for sharing.

 

‘Bout fuhking time you formally introduced yourself! That DC is purdy…makes me miss mine a little, but I also really like my huge back seat. I’ve driven that route (and the southern route on I-90) many times in my life. You nailed Billings (IMHO). We’ve worked there on most of the refineries and I’d just as soon never go back there. Great Falls on the other hand…it has it’s moments. My parents are now in Sanders County near Thompson Falls.

We’re going to have to have a PNW LR meet-up one of these days. There’s a lot of us in the area but I’ve only ever seen one other in person (and it was on my private road).

 

Welcome, great pics

 

I'm in, let's do it!

 

Something I forgot to comment on in the original post...adaptive cruise control was extremely useful for this distance. I would go an hour or two without touching the gas or brake. This helped a lot with the mental/physical fatigue of driving and enabled me to do the 7-8 hour driving days back to back without any issue.

Coming from a Tesla with autopilot, I was a little worried about the step down in technology, but honestly you don't really need autopilot (adaptive cruise + steering). A good adaptive cruise (only) system covers most of what you need for the long hauls. (Apple CarPlay bridges the other major tech gap)

I will comment that the Toyota adaptive cruise isn't quite as good as others I've tried (Tesla & Volvo). When you're in the fast lane and you come up on a semi in the slow (right) lane, the truck will hesitate a little as if it's scared to squeeze by the semi. It's not terrible, but annoying because you lose momentum. Just a nitpick, overall the feature was a lifesaver for this long trip.

 

I appreciate the tech comparisons/review. I am getting a '21 CM SR5 Barcelona Red delivered in two weeks. Hopefully a future software update will smooth out the ACC on the Tundra.

 

Epic first post. Welcome.

 

After a few more long trips I’m pretty happy with it. Handles 98% of the situations smoothly, and the other few you get used to. All the different manufacturers systems have little quirks too. Feels a lot more mature than Where Tesla was at 5 years ago when I got my last car.