Good for Walt! He got the idea....perhaps more than ever as retirement looms ahead and is almost (ok, you got me...) even more appealing than the open road. But the open road sure does beckon! And speaking of that, here is yet another year's ramblings.
The way out, aka the fool and his fuel
Found some nice out-of-the-way campgrounds and roads on the "open road". One evening, by a lake in Kansas, there was this splash as a huge beaver finished cutting down a tree and hastily retreated in the lake.
On the way through Kansas the RV was not happy emitting copious amounts of white smoke via the exhaust and a significant lack of power…..like only 20 mph going up 3% grades. (I know, a surprise.....yes there are 3% grades in Kansas!) After some deliberation, changed the fuel filter and that “seemed” to solve the problem.
The open road.....
Siebert, CO, on a perfect spring morning.
Where else can you have an RV park in the middle of town next to the owner's house? The RV water supply was shut off so in the morning he ran a hose from his house to the RV so it could be watered up.
How purty is it?
I got slimed!
Made it through Denver OK but had a miserable time going up the hill to the Eisenhower tunnel. The only saving grace is that those behind me were more miserable than me as at one point 5 mph was all that could be done! Same problem with smoke and power. Wound up in Dillon (near the Dam Brewery ) where I removed another filter, the water separator filter and sheeeat, it was full of the nastiest brown slime I’ve seen. YUCH! In 10 years never had bacteria grow in the diesel tank. This fall I topped up somewhere and got "infected" diesel. Need to get more filters and some biocide to kill the bacteria. It’s so thick that it is even causing the fuel sensor to stick and misread. Once home, the tank may have to be removed and completely cleaned. Either way it sounds like this shit needs to be scraped off the sides and bottom of the tank. Yet another project but hopefully I should be able to make it out and back home. And if not, well, I can telecommute for one more month then just stay here.
The "Pre-Safari"
Arrived at Horsethief campground, 25 miles from Moab, with the caravan. Fortunately for my mental health, the campground was open. Apparently if the Washington wankers had not agreed on a budget, the BLM bureaucrats would have ordered all of their campgrounds to be closed and chained shut. That would not have made me happy. But all is well. Kitt, the campground host from previous years and his wife are still here and are as entertaining as ever.
A perfect campsite.
And a perfect sunset........
This is a great place to camp - except for the other campers. It's a large campground with no services which keeps a lot of people away. YESSSS! There are about 60 sites, well spaced, over many acres. But the herding instinct among campers seems to have run amuck here. After landing and selecting a site far away from the other four campers here, over the next few days there were on the average six or so other units that elected to set up within a space or two of Camp Dave, with the other 5+ sites, far away, empty! Even the generator did not discourage these people who apparently need people. Tim hit the nail on the head when he said "I think people camp near you because of your warm, friendly, welcoming personality." But it's still an awesome place and could easily stay here a long time, despite the other people.
The obligatory view from Dead Horse Point always has to be included. The Potash Road, traveled later in the day, is below.
And of course there is always Shafer Trail, a cool set of switchbacks that takes you down about 1500'. Note the vehicle and the person gawking at the scenery.
Ya see everything out here. This guy was in a Crown Vic with the Interceptor package and was driving on Fins'n'Things as well as Baby Lion's Back. He did great until this little spot where he spun the wet tires a "wee bit". He opened the door and his two dogs bailed and ran like hell. He did comment his bike was worth more than the car. Now that's entertainment.
At Arches, the balanced rock with the La Sals in the background is always an attention getter.
A highlight was running the Mashed Potato trail for the first time. This one beckons to be run again in the next few weeks with a few other folks in attendance. It'll be an eye opener for sure and probably quite entertaining.
The license plate reads "Queensland - The Sunshine State". One sees a lot of strange things out here. This one stayed at Horsethief a few days.
Sunsets are always special but this was was even more so after some storm clouds had passed. Monitor and Merrimac Buttes, 15 miles away, shine in the late afternoon sun
Not having an evening fire is like a day without sunshine.....huh??????
This was on the Crystal Geyser route on the way to White Wash Sand Dunes. Miles and miles of sand road and whoop-te-doos allowed for a more than adequate test of the suspension and bump stops.
This is just to show it's not all fun. There is work involved trying to ascend some of the hills en route.
But this is soooo nice and sooooooooo much fun!
Idiots! WTF! Restoration area.....in the middle of sand and clay hills??? What the hell are they restoring? Rocks??? Bureaucrats that haven't a clue probably put up this sign thinking they are saving the world from nasty vehicles that are devastating our planet's rocks. And by the way, this is out 30 miles from anywhere on a very seldom used trail.
The goal for the day were the red-orange White Wash Sand Dunes. What's in a name? Go figure! Had never been here before and spent a lot of time playing. This is a MUST to come back to but certainly need more than one vehicle. This dune for example is easily 3x the height of the Jeep. One can get stuck easily (proved that already) but worse, one could come sailing over the dunes at a whopping 5 mph and flip on one's side (have not proved that ....yet). This was so awesome. One of the trip's highlights....and it's an area open to OHV users. That is until some idiot complains about the tire marks in the sand that will get covered each time the wind blows.
And another short journey was to end the of Mineral Point, 10 miles straight west of Horsethief. This is a view of the Green River from a seldom used trail. Some time when there are people around I want to go stand on the overhang and have them take a photo. "If ya ain't livin' on the edge, you're takin' up too much space"!
What does one do for an encore after being at the top of Mineral Canyon Point? One drives to the bottom. This is a partial view of the Mineral Bottom Road switchbacks taking one down perhaps 1600' to the Green River. This road washed out last fall and had to be rebuilt. It was just opened two weeks ago. Here's the story.
There is a road (aka trail) at the bottom that goes up Mineral Canyon for many miles. Sadly there was an evil "Restoration area - No Vehicles Allowed" sign posted. However, I was unsure if the sign meant the road to the left, the road to the right, neither, or both. Being unsure and not wanting to violate any stupid closures, I HAD to assume it meant both as the sign's placement was "incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial". It would have been a marvelous, challenging, exciting, twisty, convoluted, fun trail but of course I had to obey the sign. What great fun!
But that evening it was time to do the annual pre-Easter Jeep Safari Jeep inspection. Of course this could not be done at home, it can only be done a few days before the Safari and out in the middle of nowhere. The drag link end that goes to the Pitman arm (for non gear-heads: "the thing that makes the steering work") was loose as a goose. I had a replacement with me and was going to swap it out when I noticed that the apparatus the drag link attached to, the Pitman arm, had a large and exceedingly disturbing crack that continued through at least 60% of the arm. It had surprisingly reached the end of its useful life span.
Now this is some serious feces. I've never seen anything like this before. If the Pitman arm breaks, one completely loses all steering and one is then proverbially screwed. So now a change of plans requires movement of the caravan into Moab, a dismount of the Jeep from the trailer, a drive to the 4x4 store, acquisition of a new Pitman arm, replacement of said arm and then multiple adult beverages to make it all better.
Success! The repairs were complete. LaSal Dave called and joined in pre-running Hell's Revenge. Bob (a different Bob) also joined as well as Dieter and his crew, including Markus, the Liechtenstein lawyer. Before leaving for the trail, LaSal Dave had me look at his loose steering and sure enough, it was loose. There was a loose nut (in the steering assembly, not behind the wheel) and once tightened to the required 800 ft-lbs (here's to Doc!) we were on our way. Oh, did I mention that about 10:30 AM when stopping by Dieter's abode, he insisted (and who am I to turn him down?) we have a pre-Safari toast with home-brew 2002 Plum Brandy Schnapps. MMMMM. Plum Schnapps good!
It has to be afternoon somewhere. L to R: Gerlinda, Marcus (the Liechtenstein lawyer), Dieter, and Rolf.
No idea what this says other than it's 9 years old and REALLY good!
Hell's Revenge was fun and for the first time in many moons we did Hell's Gate, and "interesting" descent as well as ascent. We finished the trail about 6 PM, just in time for "the" obligatory ATB (After Trail Beer). But alas, we could not stay for another beer as we needed to get down to the Sunset Grill for an evening meal.
While there, Captain Gary called. He was my gunner on Moab Rim the last couple years and will be joining us for the next two weeks of four wheeling merriment.
LaSal Dave is spotting Dieter up Hell's Gate. Doesn't look like much but sure does get one's attention! Rolling back is not an option.
The "car wash" is another fun obstacle on Hell's Revenge.
High Dive.....this time I didn't lay it on its side.
Marcus did excellent - as did everyone!
Off the trail at 7 PM. In the Brewery at 7:15 PM. Out of the Brewery at 10 PM. Back here at 10:15. Get this drivel done. Shower, go to bed, get up tomorrow at 7:30, fix some things on folk's Jeeps, go wheeling, have some ATBs (After Trail Beers), do more drivel, shower, etc. Repeat as often as one can over the next two weeks. Life's good!
Tomorrow is a pre-run of Rose Garden with the Dieter & friends, Cap'n Gary, and Jim and Daisy joining us for the fun.
High Dive, with a most appreciative peanut gallery (looked like 3 families and a lot of kids) watching and applauding. Very nice people. Quite cool!
Saturday, April 16 - Pre-run Rose Garden
Today the Safari officially begins and, as mentioned, we pre-run Rose Garden which Dieter will lead in a few days. But the craziness has begun. For example, the day before yesterday: the Schnapps to start the week, a full day on Hell's Revenge then 30 minutes to freshen up and then eat. The next day was to get a group together for the pre-run of Behind the Rocks. Finished that at 7 PM and got a table for 10 at the Brewery. LaSal Dave joined. Jim and Daisy and Ralph and Germain joined. So now we are 14 or 15, who knows?? Our bar waiter was running out of patience as we were ordering more beer than he could bring! Not sure how much we downed but it was sufficient. But you know, you can't get drunk on Utah beer.......hardly.
Camp Dave in the morning. This is our staging area. The owner of the campground came by and admonished the folks to park elsewhere as traffic was allegedly being blocked. Life is difficult.
"The" hill climb. We all did well!
En route to "the" hill via Onion Creek
More of "the" hill.
At the top of the hill, there is a delightful shelf road 1000' above the valley floor. Our group of 5 Jeeps is circled.
Today was the first day warm enough to go topless (the Jeep, that is). Yes, for those interested, I now have a helluva sunburn. Time to deposit something soothing on my seriously unhappy outer covering. It's been a hoot so far and shall continue to be a hoot for the next week. But wait...there's more! The following week the M&M crew arrives (hopefully well stocked with underwear) and if I'm not dead by then, perhaps there will be more entertaining stories as I take Mark (who is not terribly happy with heights) on some of the damndest, highest, steepest, most miserable shelf roads I can find...............naw....just kidding, I wouldn't do that, would I ????
The saga continues.
Sunday, April 17 - Lead Hell's Revenge
A Moab first! But first......it's 10 PM and just got back from Pasta Jay's with "and Company". Nice meal. Tomorrow we will all be together on Cliff Hanger.
We had a '51 Willys on the trail that conquered all the obstacles. Most impressive!
A few ran Hell's Gate, including this Hummer who put on quite a show. They had to sign off the trail to do this as our BLM permit did not include this obstacle. It's a LONG ways down and really steep!
We do not do the Escalator on the Safari trail. This non-Safari guy is boxed in and waiting for his buddy to drive to the top, via the access, trail, to winch him out.
"Don't look, Ethel......."
After losing part of his bumper and tweaking his sheet metal, he finally made it up Potato Salad. The peanut gallery cheered wildly.
Once back at Camp Dave, rehydration was required so a "number" of Mike's Hard lemonades were in order, consumed of course in glasses that were previously placed in the freezer earlier in the day so they would be nice and cold. The Mike's stuff must have been a sleeping potion as shortly thereafter I crashed for a half hour.
But then the fun started. Cap'n Gary and Dina stopped by. We had some laughs over a few photos I'd taken of him earlier in the week (Yes, he did have his clothes on!) They left. Then Jason and Tina (the professional card dealers from Vegas) showed up and we had a great chat for some time. Then I headed over to "and Company" at Slickrock for a couple Margaritas and we finally left for Pasta Jay's, a beer, and supper. So here endeth the day's events. I'm doing better.....got 30 minutes of rest today during the standard 16 hour "work" day.
Monday, April 18 - Cliff Hanger: A good day until.....
We knew going into it this would be a fun trail on a cloudy day. We were hoping the storms would come in after we got done with the trail. Jim, Steve, Tim and Dallas (the "and Company" crew), as well as Jason and Tina were on this trail along with others we had wheeled with in the past. Brad and Rhoda led it and were quite patient as there were a number of obstacles that took a lot of time.
The second obstacle was a rock climb of about 3 -4 feet. It took some strapping and a lot of time to get everyone through it. With us was a Range Rover with stock tires. We laughed. But the driver did pretty darn well. After a number of tries the driver got wedged in pretty tight. This required not only strapping but lifting the front end of the Rover about 4 -5 " to clear the rock. It also required driving forward with some gusto and not reverse as was actually done. Ooops.
We did eventually extricate him but the indiscreet application of reverse (with some gusto) caused a few scratches and some other "minor" damage. The driver took it all in stride and did exceptionally well the rest of the day.
"And Company" member, Steve, is preparing to strap the Rover out of his pickle.
Afterwards the left rear bumper and tail light were in some distress. The driver quickly applied an application of black duct tape and proceeded on his way. I was impressed.
The rest of the day was uneventful, for the most part. This is called Cliff Hanger for a reason.
While there were some very high pucker factor obstacles, we all did well....kinda.
Photos do not do it justice.
The entry hill from the country road on the way down in the morning. That afternoon this same hill required some ascending skills(which sadly I lacked).
As we safely returned from the day's trail ride, about 4 PM, all went well but Jim, dammit, made the comment about no one breaking. This unfortunate utterance was made about 5 minutes before I attempted to ascend the hill in a most non-standard fashion. That surprised no one but quickly became mighty entertaining when half way up there was this loud SNAP! I had torpedoed the yoke on the rear differential.
A trail band aid was applied by removal of the rear drive shaft. After being sheepishly strapped up the hill (by TWO Jeeps, Tim and Steve), I proceeded into town in four wheel drive, but with only the front wheels pulling. A new part was nowhere to be found but one was located off a used differential at the 4x4 Outpost.
Next was a mad dash back to Camp Dave. One neighbor had a similar dilemma and was wrenching on his Jeep and let me use some of his Harbor Freight tools to press a new u-joint into the drive shaft. Next the defective yoke was removed, the new one installed, and by 6:45 it was done.
This catastrophic failure was obviously due to a bad casting of the yoke. My driving skills (or lack thereof) would have nothing to do with this part reaching the end of its useful life span!
At 7 PM there was a safety meeting for trail leaders and helpers and I needed to be there. But by now the sky was black as the ace of spades, the wind was coming and the top was still off the Jeep. Fortunately Jason stopped by and helped me get the top on, the tools picked up, and the area secured just as the 45 mph winds came in along with the 35 drops of rain. I was 20 minutes late for the meeting but got there just the same.
There now seems to be a vibration that was not present before this destructive testing of the yoke so will check that while leading Moab Rim tomorrow. It just keeps getting better and better! 
Tuesday, April 19 - Lead Moab Rim
Another day - another trail! This time there were 44 signed up. As we met for the morning lineup it looked like a rainy day but but the sky cleared and the day became clear and beautiful. Gary, Dena, and Bob were the gunners and with their help we got the show on the road, which included a contingent of Jeeps from Discount Tire. The surprise was the 4 wheel drive vans from Quigley's in Pennsylvania. Behemoths they were, but they did remarkably well. There was no breakage, no rollovers and a fun time was had by all.
The Colorado River from 1/4 the way up the Rim trail.
This 6-wheeler has been here before and is quite the sight to see. It performed flawlessly as it crawled up and down the rocks.
Here's perhaps 20% of the crew at the top, just before lunch.
The 4x4 vans were awesome. While they tried to climb the sand hill, they were just too heavy.
A C20 Chevy 4x4 van on Moab Rim. Never thought I'd ever see that either! A week of firsts.
While on the trail, I heard yet more noise and felt a vibration from the Jeep. Gary assisted me in diagnosing the problem. When under load, the pinion angle at the differential was too great for the drive shaft and that's what led to yesterday's failure and the vibration. Turns out the damnable rubber control arm bushings (that hold the pinion at the correct angle) that I bought and installed just 2700 miles ago were totally scrunched. This time it was not operator error. ARG! This has to be fixed before running anything else or I'll nail the yoke again.
So what does one do after such an expert diagnosis? One goes with one's three trail helpers to the Brewery to discuss the situation over some libations. That helped. By the time we had finished a number of pitchers of Scorpion Pale Ale I was getting in the full Dave mode, not happy about the workmanship of the errant rubber bushings.
But then we had a chance for a free meal courtesy of Quadratec, a supplier of 4WD parts. This was held at the high school's sports field and there were hundreds of people there. As I was in line for food and whined, bitched, moaned, and groaned about my experience with the steenkin' bushings, someone two tables away heard my plight (not a difficult feat). He was from Daystar, a vendor at the 4x4 show this week and told me they have polyurethane replacements for the steenkin' rubber bushings. Tomorrow I shall take them up on their generous offer and spend probably most of the day replacing the bushings. I sure hope they have the right size. I'll be a a happy camper (again) if I get these replaced.
And now it's the end of the day. I'm tired, but it's a good tired....one of being outside, getting some exercise, and helping 44 drivers up and down Moab Rim without any incidents. This is fun....most enjoyable.
Wednesday, April 20 - A Day of Repairs - It was a good day until the end......
9 PM. Sitting at Camp Dave trying to get the smell of dog shit out of my nostrils. Not an easy thing to do! But more on that later. I'm forcing myself to drink a number of Mike's Hard beverages and am getting to the point where I don't really care what I smell (or smell like). Can't type either.
It was a loooooong day of repairs. I started at 8 and didn't get finished until after 6, with no lunch break. Despite the long hours (no paid overtime mind you!) it was a very good day as far as repairs went. 8 AM I was up at Spanish Trail Arena , the epicenter of the Safari and also the vendor show. My new found friends from Daystar had just pulled in with their large truck full of goodies for the 4x4 show. They recognized me and from somewhere in the bowels of their truck they tossed me a box of bushings. Dave was now a happy camper. I mentioned that since they weren't set up yet, I'd be back later to pay them and they said "Forget it, just put one of our bumper stickers on your Jeep". Now Dave was a most happy camper. How nice of them! Thanks guys!
Thenceforth I scurried back to the camp and proceeded to dismantle the Jeep, removing the sadly errant POS bushings that fell apart after 2700 miles and cost me a rear yoke. AMF Rubicon Express!
All this took a lot of time. There were some operator errors that had to be corrected but all in all it was a successful bushing replacement. There were a lot of little kinks and issues that just killed a lot of time but nothing was destroyed and no animals were hurt in the process. The sun was out for part of the day and I was wearing a Black Hills Four Wheeler heavy long sleeved sweatshirt.....my standard on-the-trail work shirt. It got very hot very fast but about 2 PM a few clouds came in and saved me from dehydration and heat exhaustion! This was not necessarily easy work....requiring air wrenches, sawsalls, grinders, and most useful of all, a BFH (which also reached the end of its useful life span when the Chinese head separated from the Chinese handle and landed many feet away). Ooops.
One of the four rubber bushings that had reached the end of a very short life span. This is unacceptable!!
Dave's garage. This stuff was scattered here from about 9 AM until after 6 PM, much to the dismay of the campground owner who drove by many times - without waving as he usually does. Ooops again!
But I persevered and about 5 PM the bushings were done, just in time for "help' to show up in the form of Jim and Daisy. In the process of a final check, I noticed the front drive shaft u-joint was loose. Damn! I started to replace that also, much easier here than on a trail! But while working on it Jim mentioned he also had some issues with his control arms and sure enough, he has a similar malady to mine. He'd parked in front of the RV in the grass, on MY side, and I crawled under to confirm the diagnosis. On exiting, it became obvious that while under his Jeep I had been wallowing in some dog shit that some $%^&**())^%$# dog deposited on MY side and quite recently!!!!
While I'm sure Jim found this most amusing, he was not willing to laugh too much as I quickly went into the "full Dave" mode. Y'all can only imagine! The day had gone so well. I was so pleased. Now I smelled like shit. I laid on my back, on the ground, twisting and turning trying to rub the crap off my shirt as I still needed to wear it to finish the u-joint. This only increased the odor and forced the odor into the shirt I had underneath and also into my shoulder --- hence me still smelling a faint odor even after a lengthy and very soapy shower! Jim felt poorly about this and quickly exited but before leaving he left me an apple. Huh? An apple? WTF? I just don't get it! But it did make me laugh. Perhaps that was the intent. California humor I guess.
I proceeded to lie on the trailer underneath the Jeep with my smelly shirt on the floor of the trailer. Poor trailer. It may also be quite odiferous now. Then someone came over to help me finish the u-joint job and quickly commented about "that awful smell"! That helped. I reverted to full Dave mode again using my extensive repertoire of words with 4 letters or more describing the tragic event....and also describing what I'd like to do to that (expletive deleted) dog. Of course this was all done in a rather loud voice so those near me with dogs could hear my concern over what might happen to their dogs should they elect to relieve themselves anywhere near me. I think a number of dogs were promptly recalled to the safety of their abodes during my rant.
But the u-joint got installed. The clothing involved got put in a washer and Dave then went to town for a pizza to pick up and bring back. On the return, the Daystar folks had a large gathering outside the Sunset Grill at the bottom of the hill - a shuttle was there to run them to the top. I wanted to thank the head honcho for saving me from writing even more bad things about Rubicon Express (RIP) by Daystar providing me with new, improved, bushings! As I thanked him, he then invited me to the Sunset Grill for a quite fancy dinner with him and his contingency. Sonofabitch. I had my pizza on the seat. That could have waited. But the clothes in the washer needed my attention so I was unable to acquiesce to his request. So now this (expletive deleted - again!) dog and its owner cost me a meal at the Sunset Grill..... ARG!!!!
This now required so many more Mike's to sooth my shattered nerves that I placed an emergency email to Mark, of the M&M crew, to bring along another supply for next week as I am working on depleting my remaining supply.
Purty. The view from the RV. This does not do it justice!
But all ended well. The Jeep is done and we'll do Mashed Potatoes tomorrow with Jason and his family and the "and Company" crew. Mike settled me down. The pizza was good (not as good as what I would have had for free at the Grill had that dog not shit on MY side). But all is still well with the world and I'm once again mellow - though I still have a faint smell of that nasty dog shit. And sunset on the LaSals reminded me once again what a great time this has been (dog shit notwithstanding) and what gorgeous country this is!
As Walter Kronite would say, "Good night - and a good tomorrow!"
Thursday, April 21 - Mashed Potatoes - oooo oooo oooo oooo.
Here is an addendum or two. About 9 PM last night there was a vehicle outside the RV running roughly then stopped. Next thing, there is this older couple (I have to be careful about saying that - they may have been younger than me but they just looked older!) attempting to push their Jeep. After stalling they were trying, unsuccessfully, to get it moved to their campsite in the other (expensive!) section of the campground. Being the nice guy I am (ha ha ha), I went out and offered to strap them to their site. We got them where they wanted to be. Asked if he would be on a Safari trail, he indicated no, he just comes down here over the Safari week to run trails but stated that often times the trails are full of Safari Jeeps!! In talking about further options to get the Jeep going the owner told me, "my mechanic will be here to fix it tonight!" . Hmmm. OK.
Then, unable to sleep last night because of a rather achy body, it dawned on me that the 3D trail is being run today by the Safari and we need to use part of that to get to Mashed Potatoes. At our 9 AM pow-wow here we'll make a decision and perhaps run Flat Iron instead. Who knows? Stay tuned...the only constant is change!
This is our group of 6 Jeeps in the middle of the trail near the edge with a large canyon ahead of us.
Looking down off the edge in the photo to the left, one can see the trail at the bottom of the canyon with a number of Jeeps.
There's this "tub", a depression in the sandstone that was begging to be driven. The only caveat is that it's only about 20' from the edge of the cliff. Fearless Steve made an effort and descended into the tub on three wheels.
At the bottom of the deep tub there was ample water. He made the whole thing look so easy!
This was Steve's day! After descending from the rim we took a drive in a canyon and wound up in a puddle of very sandy water. Steve did great throwing rooster tails while buried in the muck.
The interior of his Jeep was covered with muddy, sticky sand. Sadly so was his cell phone. "It'll dry off, Steve, and you can use an air gun to blow the sand out of it!''
Friday, April 22 - Flat Iron Mesa (backwards)
This was a good day (for some of us.) Our same crew as yesterday got out of town early and drove the 25 miles to the trailhead on a beautiful sunny morning. This trail has a nasty spot where one must drive around a point, off camber, with an initial 20' drop off only inches from the wheels and then perhaps a 200' one on the second bounce. We all made it, but with some trepidation.
Easter Egg Hill was next in a few hundred yards but some club members had just stacked rocks in preparation for tomorrow's Big Saturday run and the climb was easy. We were careful to not dislodge the rocks and we also left a few of our own to help with traction on this very sandy obstacle.
"No Fear" Steve, in the line of fire. He's down about 20' from where we drive. Note the rubber on the rock to the left. The tire has to go there and on the other side it's down! No room for error.
Tim, in his new Rubi. I snapped this right after the nasty and asked how he liked the obstacle. His terse reply: "I'm scared shitless." Note the "expert" composition of this photo with the photographer reflected in Jim's sunglasses.
Later the intrepid trail leader missed the turn to another set of obstacles and took the bypass instead. After lunch we drove back to the turn and tackled the 3 or 4 shelves as we climbed up the side of the hill. Here they are on the correct access road.
Camera angles make all the difference. Here's Steve ready to climb a shelf. From the top and from the driver's view it looks, and is, "interesting."
Here's Jason as he climbed up the same shelf and it doesn't look nearly that bad. His JK, with the military tires and rims, was awesome and performed flawlessly. Great job! Dana 60s and power steering assist would have made this vehicle even more awesome. (Tina, take note!)
On one of the climbs Tim punched a large gash in his tire. He quickly replaced the 35" tire with a 33" spare and we were ready to go. Given the tire diameter difference, 4WD with automatic lockers would not work so we headed back to town. Tim went to get a replacement tire and some of us headed to the vendor show.
This was one of their larger vendor shows. What is shown here is about 20% of the total. Amazing! The stage has the prizes for tonight. At one point I heard they had perhaps $200,000 worth of door prizes. Me? I don't like the 3 hour drawing and the crowds so I give my ticket to LaSal Dave and head back to Camp Dave for munchies and beer.
So you think you had a bad day!
For the second time in a few days someone's Jeep stalled near me. This time right in front of the RV. Must be my magnetic personality that's causing all this. So here's a photo out the front window of the RV while Nation's Towing is loading this guy's Jeep to take into town for repair. The guy had worked on the electrical problem all day to no avail and threw in the towel.
This week has gone by faster than any other I can remember!!!! It's gone!!! Gary and Dena left yesterday. Jim and Daisy left today. Dieter and some of his contingent will be here for another week. The "and Company" crew is leaving tomorrow.
It's worth mentioning that Jim got a new set of Cooper tires for his newly purchased Rubi while here in Moab. He's very pleased and they've been Moab proven now. Tim, needing one new tire, also wound up getting a whole new set for his Cherokee. Hmm......maybe that gash in the tire was.....oh, never mind!! Moab thanks you both for your business and continued support! And Dave thanks the Omaha crew who, for three times this trip got out their propane powered grill and cooked burgers and dogs for our group. A most excellent tradition these guys have!
Tomorrow is Big Saturday then a brief respite before the M&M crew arrive sometime Sunday. That gives me 4-5 hours Sunday to rest and recoup before starting all over again. I love it!
Postscript:
9 PM. The phone rings. It's Jason and Tina outside seeing if I'm "decent." Of course I haven't ever been decent but that's another story. They stopped by to say goodbye and drop off a t-shirt to commemorate our journey on Cliffhanger. That's so cool! Then Steve stopped by with a DVD and photos of the week's adventure. Also very cool. I wanted to preview and get some of the photos online but the DVD didn't get filled with all the photos. I'll get them from him once he's back home. He did have a couple of me getting double strapped to get me up the exit at Cliff Hanger. Those photos will be here someday.
Thanks folks! It was so nice of y'all to do this! WOW!
Big smile and made a perfect ending to a perfect day!
This has been one of the quietest Safaris in a long time - a noticeable lack of sirens! Even Big Saturday seemed a little subdued. Out of the 40 vehicles registered for Behind the Rocks, only 22 showed. But they were great! All but one finished the entire trail, which is unusual. There were a couple breakdowns but that's small compared to other years.
I took some ribbing from some of the other officials in the morning when I put the top up on the Jeep. That was one of the better things I did that day. It looked like rain and rain it did! By 9 AM we were all set and on the way to the trail head in the rain. We even held the trail head driver's meeting via radio due to the rain. But by about 10 AM the rain stopped and while the rest of the day was cloudy, it was quite pleasant.
The view down Main Street just before the 1500+ rigs took off for the 30 trails being run today. The police block off both ends of town for 20 minutes while we get our groups out of town headed to the right trails. Most impressive..
The first major obstacle is Hi-Dive. It looks worse that it is.
Dave, from Colorado (one of the many Daves on the trail), descending Hi-Dive. A weld broke on his front trac-bar but by the time we got all vehicles down the hill and then back up via Up-Chuck, he and his other Colorado buddies had it all welded back in place. The Colorado guys are great - they've been on my trails a number of times and are a lot of fun as well as exceedingly self sufficient.
Up-Chuck immediately follows Hi-Dive. It doesn't look that bad but this one causes more problems and breakage than does Hi-Dive. We got some great photo-ops on this one!
Another Dave, also from the Colorado crew, got a little bit off the line and went sideways. No harm. No foul. We winched him back and away he went.
AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! I hope he rides his stuff better than he drives!
Once off the trail, when cell service was available, I got this message from "Corey Markovich" of the "World Championship Hill climb Racing Team, Corey Markovich #223" (motorcycles and snow mobiles). He was very apologetic about driving his over-length trailer past the RV, making a turn, and nailing my mirror, which also nailed the front plastic stone shield and windshield. Interestingly enough, he blamed his wife who was allegedly spotting.
OK, give the guy a break. He wants to not turn this in to his insurance. I fully understand. My initial take was that this is a couple grand worth of damage as Country Coach is belly up and I already know how hard (and expensive) it is to get replacement parts. But in talking to him he immediately balked thinking the damage was way less than $1000. He and I did not agree. I'd been on the trail now for about 11 hours and was tired and very pissed. Telling him that, I suggested we wait until the morrow to see where this would all lead once I cooled down.
But....after some immediate web research it looked like a replacement custom mirror is about $800 or more. I know......but that's what it is! The company that makes the front shield is also belly up. Now days they use a 3M product applied directly to the front of the RV. That means the 12 holes in the body for the old plexiglas mounting would need to be filled, the front repainted and the transparent 3M product applied. Of course online there are no labor charges listed, but looks like the going cost for just the 3M stuff is about $1800. So now it's up to $2600 without labor, which means the total could easily be well over $4000 with all the body work needed. (Postscript: The quote I got from Camping World a week later is over TWICE that!!!!)
Based on his reluctance to discuss the cost earlier in the evening and his insistence that he or his buddies could perhaps "find a mirror that might work", I decided to not take any chances, even though he might have all the best intentions of paying me, and call the police and file a report. Corey was pissed and when he had to give the cop the information, told me that he found my action "offensive!" "Offensive!!!!" , I retorted, "f*****g up my motor home was offensive!!!" I thought he'd be fair about it as he sounded so apologetic but the more I see, the more this smells. The officer took my driver's license, ran it, and it came back clean. Surprise!! He ran this dude's and when he had the results, he asked the results be sent to his vehicle's terminal instead. Is there something that I wasn't supposed to know about? Enquiring minds, ya know!
(April 24+).
