Jeep Night at Mission BBQ

The colors were a great backdrop for the flags.  Apple "clean-up" removed the random cars and patrons to complete what I thought was a cool scene. Mostly just playing around with the new tools, but starting from a really cool and good shot helps.  A full belly from barbecue dinner helps too! ;)

Colors and lights at the car wash

I just thought it made a cool vibe.

Clean plus wet = shiny.

I power-washed of the trail debris from the important joints underneath and ran it through the car wash to keep the mud from causing rust.  It makes my diamond looking rims kind of shiny again.  I have a solution for that… ;)

Enough miles to break my seat rails…

I guess it was time for a replacement.  I bounced down enough trails and stuff that the metal rails that hold up my seat finally fatigued to the point of snapping in half.  So I found this WTB brand model called the Rocket.  It has titanium rails which gives three benefits.  Lighter (don't really care), more flexible (that helps with comfort over all the bumps), and that leads to longer lasting metal reducing the risk of snapping again.  We will see.  So far, I like it quite a lot.  We will see if it holds up.  The nice thing was I could get it on Amazon via next day so Zoe didn't miss more than one ride because of it. 🐶

We photoshopped out Chloe’s face!

Covering it with her ear is all it took…

Looks kinda like a two headed dog…

They were hanging with me while I washed my Jeep :)

Mom makes it a dozen…!

Note I sent to my mom with this pic:

"Mom, Congrats on being my full dozen of successful rides in a row. I figure if I can trust it to take you out into the wilderness, it's good enough. I'm gonna call it done. Now I have a few larger stickers for "hard" or big rides like the whole weekend at the end of October ;)

Thanks again for tagging along."

Her response:

"Aww, glad I could 'help' contribute to a successful ride. I'm still smiling and having fun telling others about it. Makes me feel quite adventuresome! The new badge is perfect! Thanks again for a wonderful day!  Love from your mama! ❤️😊"

She's quite a fun mom!  Always has been.  I remember fondly the coveted "day with mom" as a reward for completing our chores from my childhood!  This is me paying those back❣️

Combining two passions. Lego and off-road. :)

This is cool!

Why not?!

I don't know about you, but my car won't run without electricity… Don't they mean cars that run on electricity can park here?

They removed one of the chargers and the other has a permanent sign saying it's out of service, so I figure these are open now. I'm seeing that more and more by the way.  

Besides that, show me the ordinance that says I can't park here… ;) Sure to create some controversy…

Chloe missing Julie… What a howl!

We made it back out of the wilderness.

We even found enough civilization for mom to get a coke. :) We gassed up at the same pump on the way into and out of the trails.

Good to know this option exists.

Starting with iPhone 14, you could use Satelite for connection to emergency services.  Now in iOS 18 they added text messaging and location sending via satelite.  We didn't have a signal when we finished up and it asked me if I wanted to try the new feature.  It worked great! 

Worth the climb for a nice view like this!

I like when you just start to see the fall colors but still have a decent amount of green left.  

Fun angles from the passenger seat

Mom didn't seem to mind at all.  It was fun to see her try to keep herself upright instead of just leaning with it.  

Mom enjoyed snapping a few pics through the creek

We got deep enough to be thankful for the drain holes in the floor. ;)

Ten minutes in on the easy trail…

This is the only pic we got while we were in the middle of a recovery… You can see me working in the mirror.

Long story short, the Bronco driver went off the trail, up the bank, panicked, then hit the gas and climbed even higher until it rolled over on its side… We were ten minutes into the ride on the easy trail we'd picked just to get everyone warmed up for the day.

Luckily, they were ok, we had what we needed, rigged it to a tow strap up front and a winch through a snatch block at the back, and got it back on all four wheels.  It started back up and we drove it back out.  They were done for the day though.  A bit too much stress by that point.  The driver ended up in the grip of a severe anxiety attack and headed to the ER to get calmed down…

It's a good reminder to start small and work your way up, have the minimum self-recovery gear with you, have a way to communicate with the outside world even without cell coverage, go with a buddy, and keep the guy behind you in your mirror all the time.  The location and manner of the roll-over was a complete surprise.  

Minimum gear: front and rear recovery points, tow strap, two soft shackles, winch, tree saver strap, snatch block, water, communication for the trail and the outside world, fire extinguisher, and a trauma kit.

Ready to meet up!

After Jeep Jam, Mom was ready for a "real" ride.  We headed down towards Vinton county to hit some of the unimproved county roads down there.  We met the other Jeepers (and random Bronco) at Tar Hollow State Park and headed out after the driver meeting.  This was of course after we joked around about each other's rigs, experience and capabilities… It's fun that my mom's willing to give it a try!

Mom shot this pic on the way through Chillicothe.

Pretty field of beans with the hills in the background.

Picking mom up for her next adventure…

I got a coffee on the way and she had THIS cookie for me when I got there.  A nice start to the day!

Last minute adjustments…

Making sure the bolts were tight and in the right place after my love tap from the previous weekend before I head out with my mom last weekend.  I tried it with just the tools I had in the Jeep.  It's good to know you have what you need before you find out you don't out on the trail somewhere…

When you found out, you have been volun-told

If you saw this post a day or two ago, I have no idea why it said ask Andy or Percy. I had typed a whole paragraph and somehow my phone replaced it with that.

I was supposed to say that I unexpectedly got nominated to put together and lead our ride this past weekend. So I used the map, noa little bit of my memory to put together a combination of things I had done before and some new stuff. You can see it on the map below. We’ll see how it goes…

On a walk with the girls 🐶

Seen on YouTube…

The driver was head to say, "This might not be the right line!" Ya think…?!

Just a pretty walk in our yards

Some more badges and stickers for Brutus…

Both are true… We proved that this past weekend when we needed to right a Bronco that had ended up on it's side.  Long story, but the occupants and the Bronco ended up being ok.  They drove it off the trail and home.  There was a good deal of anxiety about the whole process on the part of the driver, but that's understandable… It's been an interesting couple of weekends in a row!

Chloe is a chonky beast…

It's cute how she stretches out. She'd be a big dog if it wasn't for the fact that she's so low to the ground.

Playing around on launch day once again…

The dedicated camera button is intriguing to me… I also like several features of the new Milanese loop!  Pretty sharp.  

One LONG and LOW dog!

Her color is very pretty and matches the wood in our house nicely.  She also blends in with the fall leaves outside nicely, hahahaha.

Extreme close-up Zoe, floor perspective

Fun with .300 Win-Mag, a SHORT barrel, and a random cave…!

It makes for a really nice fireball :-)

Even Chloe’s lips are extra!

Look how much they hang out/off the side of her when viewed from above. :)

Ant lions at our house!

These things remind me of the Sarlacc from Star Wars. They dig these holes then kick sand on the ants that fall into them until they can gobble them up! Pretty frightening little beasts if you ask me!

So excited for Ian and Caroline

It was really fun to be a small part of this process.  I also really enjoyed the lunch date I had with the two of them to meet her.  Praying for you both. 

If you’re gonna hang with me…

…ya better be tough! ;) 

THIS is the kind of pressure washer wand I need!

Hahahahahahaha!

When nobody’s looking…

Looks like Chloe helped herself to the couch when I was gone while Julie was downstairs walking on the treadmill… We put a stop to that pretty quickly… hahahaha.

Funny how she stretches her back legs out behind her…

All respectable again…

As I was pulling back into the garage, I thought this made a cool pic.  All freshened up and ready for trails again for the weekend.

Lighting up the back end

I had to finish the rear half after dark.  Luckily, my rear view trail lights bounced of the barn and lit up the under carriage perfectly.  You can see how nice and clean I got it.  It basically looked just like the front in the previous post before I started.  Hahaha.

I need to clean this mess up…

As much as I like to leave some dirt on Brutus, it's not good for the joints, bearings, seals, etc. So I put my dad's and Julie's grandpa's car ramps to good use.  Also used the cement blocks my dad salvaged from our church remodel back in the mid-seventies…]

I can still remember when my dad made those wooden ramps when we were working on our old cars growing up.  Those are probably mid-seventies era too!  Anyhow, it worked great.  The cement blocks keep the ramps from scooting around while still giving me enough clearance to get soured the front of the Jeep.  

Still can’t get over the size of Chloe’s paws!

What a face!

The question is, would Chloe make a good fire dog?!

A little David and Zoe play time❣️

My Jeep crawling at half a mile an hour…

I was in four-low, first gear and got hard on the brake.  It just crawls along!  Put it in two-high and go 100mph easily and smoothly.  I think I have it built right. ;)

Chloe has an ear hangover…

Jeep Jam Hard trail and highlights short and long version

This one shows just how hard it was to get through the hard trail. I had to be tow strapped back off the boulders twice, and then pulled forward off the one that was rolling around under my rig chasing me down the trail…! Hahaha.

You can also see the cut the young lady sustained when slipping on the final boulder section. We had everything that day…

\

Caution, wide load!

We've taken to calling her baby hippo!  She looks a LOT like one from the back.  I also said she looks like a manatee so we sometimes call her Barbara too… hahahaha.  We love her already.

Bitty on a cat shelf…

Hard trail AND trail guiding…!

That's worth two stickers I think.  One more and I'll have a dozen.  I think I'll wait for my weekend of riding in early November.  It will be my redemption ride back to the Stanton, KY area.  Last time I was there, I came back without an engine… Once I have a dozen round trips without failure, I will call it done for now. :)

Meanwhile back at the ranch…

We have folds and folds of extra ear flaps on Chloe! Hahahaha.

Hard trail conquered, airing back up, heading home.

 Zoe does great on the trails.  She isn’t much help when putting air back in the tires though. ;) The weekend at Jeep Jam was a lot of fun.  I liked this pick showing the hard trail sign laying down.  Makes me feel like I tackled it. ;)

I had a lot of fun in “the hole”

It was deep enough that my Jeep sunk to the point where the top was even with the ground level!

I decided to try “the hole” in boss mode…

Notice the reverse lights and  which way the dirt is falling off the hitch.  I went through this both directions then did it in reverse hear too! 

Beast mode on the rock garden

Brutus handled the Jeep Jam obstacle course with ease.  Our club photographer couldn't believe how it just walked over this like it was a gravel driveway.  I like how you can see the flex. Front wheel stretched out while the rear is all stuffed up at the same time. 

How many Jeeps can you see in this pic?

Message me with your count.  I was having tons of fun trail guiding over the weekend at Jeep Jam.