“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'

A pretty start to day three!

There was a lot of rain overnight, so it was running out everywhere.  

Physics doesn’t always do what you expect…

Looks like I need to figure out how to do some minor body work now… Playing in the river and unexpectedly sliding into rocks leads to dents.  Everything still works fine, I just need to pretty it back up…. Funny that John and I ate at this restaurant both nights.  You nearly had to have 4WD just to get into the parking lot, haha.

2025-03-15 AOP and Coalmont Kilted Trail Guide Jeep Off-road Day 2

 Water, water everywhere ;)

Camo vibe

Johnny, my iPad screen and the woods all match in their color theme. :) He made a great copilot and really enjoyed the trails from there.

John got some good shots of me coming back across

Everybody thought I made it look easy… Notice that chute cut into the rocks in the top pic just off my driver door to the right…?

“Have fun”!

But not too much fun… Our trail guide brought us to these falls where he told us we could play around. :) I started something by being the first one to jump in.

The rain gave us some nice river crossings

My mom described day two as "water, water everywhere!" When she saw my video highlights :)

Great colors on a rainy off-road day!

More cool under carriage shots from John

I would say it's the soft under belly, but that isn't true here.  That's where most of the armor is, haha.

We all took turns climbing up on this rock for a pic!

It is really cool all the places you can go with the right vehicle :)

Top of the world!

On the way by a pretty waterfall

Another couple great views from Sven

It was really pretty rolling down towards this creek and little waterfall.  In the top left, that's the same one from my previous post.

Such a pretty park and ride last weekend!

John got a great shot looking back at the Saturday crew

The level of difficulty along with the rain meant people were dropping fast… We started with 10 on Friday and ended with 4 on Sunday.  The guide knew what we were up for by then and REALLY delivered a great experience!

Great having John along

I like this pic of John out wandering along the trails.  He really enjoyed some of the hiking, taking pics, and helping out along the way both in and out of the Jeeps.  He even ended up in another Jeep along the way why filming us during a river crossing that day. 🤪

Glad we rode in the rain!

The colors popped, the mist and clouds added to the vistas, the sand kept the mud from being an issue, the rain didn't slow us down and petered out after a bit anyhow.  These are some shots from John and from a new friend we made along the way behind us, Sven.

Loaded up and ready to hit the trails from our hotel room

We're headed up into the hills in the background much to John's delight.

Day 2 promises a variety of weather…

Surprisingly several folks begged off the trip since it was gonna be muddy… John and I said, bring it on.  It makes for a more interesting day! It also leaves more fun for the rest of us :) 

2025-03-14 AOP and Coalmont Kilted Trail Guide Jeep Off-road Day 1

Random tree shot from the rear GoPro

I just thought it made a really cool view of the woods and sky!

And THIS was the moment he knew he messed up…

I maintain that if you don't have to winch, you didn't try hard enough!  Notice the tree off my passenger rear corner, the rock off the passenger front, and the boulder on my driver side… I was wedged right in there!  Couldn't get over toward the driver side enough to make it over the rock on the front right.  Winch to the rescue and pulled myself right out.  John says if you can get out on your own power (winch included) you didn't get stuck, hahaha.  I agree. ;) Funny thing, this spot doesn't look like much on the camera, but seemed much more impossible looking in person!

Part human, part monkey…

John just climbed right up there!

Cool perspective from the driver seat

Jeeps in front, Jeeps in back.

We staged this “iPad kid” photo

John brought his Nintendo Swith in case we got stuck out there.  Essentials, hahahaha.  We thought it made a good pic at lunch.  Check out my "flat" tire.  That's just showing the low pressure you run off-road.  It's also the rock I parked on for the flex pics I posted yesterday.

MREs for lunch on the trail…

Nice view of the day one Jeeps

Only two were out of the field of view.  John has a nice vantage point to see what was going on back down the trail :)

A great little max flex sequence!

Setting your Jeep up for off-roading is a balance of tire size, fender clearance, and flexibility to take advantage of both.  When I parked on this rock for lunch, I managed to get the perfect spot to test the flex in both directions.  Driver front is just about touching the inner fender liner (lower left and lower right).  Passenger rear is stuff upped into the fend well.  Check out how close the fender liner is along the wheel (upper left and lower middle).  Note even the tires conform to the rocks giving extra clearance, grip, and comfort!  You can see what the opposite side looks like and how much droop you can get when the other side is stuffed like in the top right pic. It's all working JUST the way I want.   

Good thing I have strong fenders…

…so John can drink his coffee, hahahaha.  It was fun to find a "parking spot" like this rock, and successfully get up onto it to test the flex of my axles. 

Just relaxing for lunch

John and I were sure having a good time on our trip!  You can see it in my face.  Lots of smiles on the inside too❣️