What haven’t I ever had a set of these before now?!

I learned what a set of transfer punches was back in my early days helping in the shop.  I never had much use for them myself.  Fast forward and I do a little bit of fab and sheet metal between my Jeep and stuff around the house hobbies.  I found myself wishing I had a set.  $13 at Harbor Frieght and I have something that works great for the few times a year I need them.  But when you need them you really need them!  For example, marking the center for all the holes in the panels I was mounting on my jeep.  Find the one that fits the hole size of the panel, slip it in, give it a tap, and you have a mark to show you exactly where to drill for the bolt hole.  These are 3/32 up to 1/2 an inch in 1/64 increments.  Simply brilliant.  

At least we don’t take ourselves too seriously…?!

This is my former boss, and the guy that hired me at work.  He's a VP of Sales now, and this was his Wizard of Oz themed costume for our annual employee meeting.  He had to present to the whole company like this…!

Just enough evidence

Ok, I think I can see how this is about right.  I got most of the dent out, this covers a lot of it, and will help reduce the chances of future damage.  It also leaves just enough evidence to give my Jeep character and remind me to be careful.  When your wife suggests Jeep upgrades, don't question her hahahaha.  

POV: our seats from the ice

We sit in front of the P in SitglerSupply. :)

My favorite Zamboni drviver❣️

I got the ice all to myself!

Actually, Julie and I got the chance to go on a behind the scenes tour of the arena and how them control all the temperature as well as make and maintain the ice.  It was way more interesting and involved than I imagined.  We got to walk out on it, see and sit on the Zamboni's and learn that the hardest part is overcoming the 40 MILLION BTU that our bodies give off trying to melt the ice at any given game!

Reinforced and ready to go!

Skins along the running board and reinforced rock sliders.  That should help keep me off the doors.  Jewels says I should armor the doors too.  I guess she knows how I roll… Whaddya think?

I also like how the light shines through the rock sliders onto the floor.  It makes a cool pattern.  

Demo Ranch retirement sale

People queued up for days ahead of time.  Here was the line when the doors opened.  I'm gonna miss his content but wish him the best!  Glad Matt's going out on top!

I have no idea what I’m doing…

…but I'm reasonably happy with how this turned out.  If you go back and look at the before pics, it's a big improvement. I managed to get most of the door and some of the running board back in shape and it works really nicely.  Now I'll cover some of it up, and add some protection to keep it from happening again… Learning…

Emergency repair…

After zillions of miles, and more than a couple decades, Julie's treadmill finally imploded.  She called me down, and I realized I could probably fix it on the fly.  I just needed to get the roller back into place.  So I would have to employ a clamp as a pusher AND the all important piece of scrap iron pipe that Andy gave me as a souvenir from his work.  It came in handy and worked perfectly!  All I needed to do was add a washer to reinforce the failed plastic and get the belt back into adjustment.  She finished her workout and it's still going strong a couple weeks later. :)

Rally Alley at the Cyclones! AND Weiner dog races!

Julie and I signed up for Rally Alley

They let us down under the stands to be part of welcoming the Cyclone's team onto the ice.  We got right up at the front where we could see the ice and the players well.  It was just a different and fun way to enjoy the pre-game show and hype. It's fun enjoying the spectacle with my girl!

This army man rolls around the dash of my Jeep

It's fun to see the various places he ends up and the poses he strikes.  Here, he's on high alert near Andy's apartments, hahahaha.

I bought these for Julie when we met Alton Brown

We were browsing in the bookstore and I saw these.  I love the way they catch the light.  They look especially good when the sun hits Julie's hair too❣️

Plans are being made…!

Looks like I will be heading out west for some wheelin' in April next year.  I'll be headed out to the town Matt from Matt's Off-road Recovery lives and does most of his work, then on to Moab.  These are some shots from some of the previous trips with this group.  I plan to drive out and camp along the way.  Isaac and I have plans to connect along the way as well. I figured I better give it a shot while I can.  I'll be saving my $$$ all year. 

Lotsa red!

I have to say, all that Milwaukee stuff plays together nicely, holds up, is well designed, and seems to have the extra power and durability you sometimes need in the trades!

New shelves for the corner spot :)

Nice work pajamas dude 🤪

Another van project with Andy

He figured out another place to build some packout into his truck.  So we spent some time together over the weekend figuring it out and making it happen!  I think he just wanted an excuse to drive a stick shift again, hahahaha.

It works nicely again! Just needed a hammer and crowbar.

 Closes, seals, maybe even better than before ;)

Remember the notch in the rocks on the waterfall?!

Well, physics won and pushed me into that notch in the rocks I pointed out… So off I went to figure out how to take the door apart, get some access from behind, and pound & pull it back into shape.  You could still close the door, but it took some effort and there were gaps all along the top.  Fingers crossed, I can make it good enough.  I guess I am adding Rube Goldberg body work to my Jeep skills… Right pic shows the "improvement" after I beat on it a bit.  Going for return of function first, haha.

My used GoPro came with a remote

Now I can start and stop both Jeep camera views at the same time with one button.  It should be fun to play around with.

I might have sampled Julie’s roasted pecans…

…a little to close to their coming out of the oven! It kind of melted my plastic cup!

My next Jeep project…

So, you might have seen my doors don't like bouncing off rocks too much.  I'm going to try to gain some access from behind and bang it back into shape a bit. My plan is to get it functioning smoothly again, then re-paint it to keep rust away.  I'm sure you'll still see it a little bit.  It would be wrong to remove all the character from trails…

A nice walk during lunch a few days back

The pond is nice and full this time of year :)

At least we don’t take our annual report too seriously!

I mounted my doors to my camper…

I've been trying to find a way to easily carry my doors along on a trip, but be able to have them off the Jeep if I wanted.  Maybe for some of the trip, or when going between parks.  I came up with this idea to use the hinges and wondered if they would still fit on my camper.  It worked PERFECTLY! Now I have more options on a trip!  I can even use the latch part to “lock” them on.  I will use a cable lock through the window frames for extra safety and security.

Laura sent me this!

Pretty funny and about right!

VIP day at Boston Stoker :!

A nice touch.

Correcting my handwriting misspellings…

While taking sermon notes, I spelled difficult wrong by mistake and my iPad corrected it in a version of my own handwriting… Crazy AI stuff going on here…🤪

Being there early paid off!

Alton Brown showed up 25 minutes before hand and we suddenly got to meet him for a few minutes.  He signed Julie's copy of his latest book (that she was reading while we waiting in line).  We were the first ones, and got out of there before the huge line had built up, so we had time to get back home, and enjoy the evening together still.  She credits him with all her food science knowledge and being able to create all the great dishes she concocts. So he's my food hero too! Hahaha.

“You look like the kind of people that can hold a line”

If you've gonna meet your food hero, you better get there early.  We created the line.  It wasn't long before it looped all through the store, and THAT was just the group with the latter A and B…

The staff came up to Julie and said, "You look like the kind of people that can hold a line"?! "Don't let anyone past you or let them make another line, hahaha.

My lovely wife on the way to meet her food hero!

Of course, I had to pause to appreciate the architecture :)

Do YOU have a cat rectangle?!

I wonder if they'd make a good pillow? Hahaha. Pepper and Bitty enjoy a good snuggle sometimes.  

Stumbled across this graphic

It's really cool that we saw both of these from two of our favorite spots in the country❣️

2025-03-15 AOP and Coalmont Kilted Trail Guide Jeep Off-road Day 3

 Ok, you’ve reached the end of my chronicles of the offf-road trip I took with John.  We had a great time.  Here you can see the last day which started out with amazing views and precise driving. Then the day continued to get better and we ended with a wild climb back up to the parking lot.  I have to say, the Kilted Trail Guide hit it out of the park! Way to go Jeff Foley and Jackie Lee! Looking forward to next time!

Everyone was thirsty!

The Jeep, me, John!

John captured this shot as we headed for home

John and I had such a great weekend together!

Just fun to catch up, enjoy the views, and each other's company.  Here we're headed back out of the park.  The Kilted Trail Guide, had one last fun climb in store for us to finish off the weekend perfectly!

What comes down must go back up

Here I'm climbing back up the falls. 

Going over the falls…

…This was as much I wanna tip (middle pic)!! The bottom pic shows what it looked like from the rear facing POV.

Proof that my flex isn’t just for show?

Thinking back to the day one lunch shot where I was shoring that you could flex the front one direction to max and the rear the opposite direction, you might have wondered when that would happen of why you'd need it.  Here you can see a couple pics a few seconds apart.  Not only do you flex the max in each axle, but in the first shot it's maxed out one way, and in the second it's maxed out the other way.  Quite a lot of off camber tipping in the first shot, but that flex allows you to keep all four wheels in contact with the ground and keeps you stable through the obstacle.  If you didn't have that flex you could roll over.  

It’s fun when we all start trying different random obstacles.

Amazing views on a beautiful day 3!

Lucky for you, we are at the end of the last day, so you don't have to put up with my pics for very many more days…

John got this pic of me crossing the river

Heard over the radio from the trail guide…

"…OK David, go play if you want?!"

Climbing back up the other side of the valley

What a pretty view on the edge of the hills.  It was nice to see all the maintenance the park had done to keep the trails in good shape in spite of the rain.  

Where’s Waldo?

After the climbing, we got to enjoy another waterfall. This time, John sat on the tree that had fallen over it.  In the top pic, you can see a little bit of him peaking out from behind a tree.  In the bottom one, he took a selfie while sitting there.

Can you find John?!

He jumped right in to help by climbing up the hill to anc hour our Jeeps to a tree so we could make the muddy, slippery, hairpin turn without sliding into the creek.  He loved it, and everyone wa thankful to have him along!

Wide angle capturing Johnny capturing it

It was a pretty and cool waterfall to run over in our Jeep.

An amazing start to day three of our trip

We went right across this waterfall.  We got a good look up (left), and down (right) it.

I like to see my rig being out to good use!

A little dirt, a little work and a lot of fun!

A little bit later…

…and we were looking back on that little plateau where we had just lined up our Jeeps for a pic.

Dropping like flies…?!

By day three, we were down to only four rigs (from 10).  We started off with a nice pic of the group overlooking this valley where we would spend the day wheelin'