We found a great place for dinner

The Cellar was essentially the basement of this strip mall. However, it was both pretty and yummy! Great service, and really well done food. 

My team

These are my peers at work along with my manager and his boss.  We had a fun time having lunch, golf, and dinner into the evening.

But THIS is more true than I want to admit, haha!

Everybody landed in the swamp…

…except me 🤪 We decided I would lay up on the left for safety.  That strategy paid off well, we pulled ahead of the other team on this second to last hole.  I even managed to get a good chip AND drain a long putt to save par for this hole.

Kind of a crazy cart path…

…it was almost like off-roading there for a bit, haha.

My manager is from Ireland

He had a great head cover for his clubs.  He was heard to say, "When this little guy comes off, you really have no idea where the ball is going to go" 🤪

It is nice to leave your work behind for an afternoon sometimes!

Let’s PlayHard!

After our business meeting earlier this week, we headed to the golf with our boss and his boss too❣️ Cognex doesn't take themselves too seriously.  The teams were picked and we headed out for an 18 hole scramble.  It's a good thing it was a scramble… I need all the help I can get.

Brings back memories

This was the heyday of my selling career.  I liked this poster hanging on the wall at HQ.  I got to enjoy a visit earlier this week. 

Just an average break room at work :)

It's pretty cool that they have these game rooms scattered around the campus of Cognex.  I always make sure I spend a little time to enjoy one while I'm there. 

Appropriate shoes for my visit to HQ

It was fun to wear the Cognex themed shoes Julie got me.  My colleagues were jealous. 

Perfect evening

I was checking into the hotel and enjoying the evening temperatures.  I did notice some storm clouds building on the horizon.  You can see them past the bottom of the flag pole.

Conflicting clouds.

It looked stormy and nice at the same time on the way home Wednesday.

Turn up the volume to hear hummingbird chatter

I had a nice little road trip earlier this week…

You know it will be a long day when this is ONE of the steps in the directions from your map…

Monday morning view :)

It was one of those days when I enjoyed both the sunrise AND the sunset while traveling…

All cleaned up, touched up, fixed up…

…and ready for the next adventure.  Jeep Jam, here we come. What a pretty day!

Successful taser battery rebuild…

It powered up my old Taser, but it's throwing an error.  They have to be connected to their programming software every once in a while and it's been too long…. Fun experiment anyhow…

Julie sent me the picture on the left…

She asked, "What did you do?!" I would say I got a little close to the garage wall when parking with my giant mud tires… Don't worry, I fixed it right up with a little paint. ;)

Putting my Jeep away for the night

Of course you know I like my blue lights…

“Nothing to do today”

Oh the memories of these water games…

I found this one on a desk in the offices at church this past Sunday.  I remember ring toss, basketball, some kind of hungry hippo, etc.  I don't remember this one.  It had a card you could slide into the back and make different games.  I imagine you could play games like tic tac toe too.  Fun.

Another trip to the park with Zoe…

And of course, I thought this made a cool pic of my Jeep.  You'l just have to believe me that Zoe was in the back seat haha.

More sunset reflections

Sunset test ride

After replacing the valves in my wheel, I needed to get some road time to prove it would hold air properly.  I liked seeing the sunset in the side view mirror.  

Julie’s been buying me Jeep badges again…

For some reason, she thought a hippy Sasquatch wearing a flag was just the ticket…?!  Fitting I guess. 🤪

Somebody explain to me how this kind of thing happens…?!

First try, iron sights, free standing, 25 yards

I was pretty happy with those results. :) It was fun to play around with inventory item number 1 at the range.

Kickin‘ it old school.

I had to pass the time while Julie and I were working at the range on Saturday.  

I was trying to revive an old taser…

the battery was dead, and they aren't made any more, so I took one apart to see if I could rebuild it.  It looks promising…

Itty Bitty found a new spot she likes.

You might not even see her if you didn't know she was there.

The end of the day of mowing

My mower was complaining…

It didn't want to run or mow right.  Turns out it expects the blades to be somewhat balanced… I hit a stump while mowing, and ended up breaking one of my old blades.  It made quite a racket and felt like a crazy ride until I could've get the mower shut down.

The good news is I had a spare.  Even better news, I had the idea to use my impact wrench to change it out.  Quick, easy, and effective.  Beats using a wrench and clamp for sure!

Probably the cleanest it will be…

These wheels don't look so big until you take them off the Jeep and you realize how much space they take up out of context.  I think it was the valve stems that were leaking, but I wanted to be sure.  I considered rolling it into the house and submerging the WHOLE thing in the bathtub…?! Julie reminded me that was a dumb idea. 🤪 So I replaced the valves and so far it seems to be holding…

The cheese is further melting while waiting for her walk…

Chloe's really enjoy going walking with Zoe and me these days.  She comes running when she thinks she hears me making "walking sounds" at lunch.  If she's a little early, or I take a little too long to get ready, she goes into her melted cheese pose, hahahaha.

These seemed like they would be better than they were…

I had a sample, meh.  I liked the colors in the packaging though.  

Doesn’t everyone bathe their wheels…?!

Actually, this one developed a leak.  Something like 5 PSI a day.  Problem is, I can't see, feel, or hear anything.  I tried leak detector fluid too.  So, off it comes and in the tank it goes.  Even in soapy water and with half of it submerged at a time, I don't see a leak.  I'm guessing it's the bead lock ring area and that it needs to be rolling under the weight of the Jeep to lose air?  I replaced the valves, it has held for 24 hours.  I'll leave it sit another day, then drive it around.  If it loses air then, the only thing I have left to try is dismounting the beadlock side, giving it a good clean, and then re-torquing the 24 bolts… Fingers crossed…🤞🏻

Julie is raising prehistoric monsters!

It's been a while since we've had triops, but we have them again.  They're fun to watch grow.

Quite a contrast in MPG…

I averaged over 35 mils per gallon in the Crosstrek for my Chicago trip this past week.  My Jeep is more like 14 on the road and 12 if I include a day of off-roading.  Funny thing is I'm excited about how much better those numbers on my Jeep are after changing plugs and stuff hahahaha!

Sunset reflected in my Subaru :)

Nice sunset view of the barn :)

2025-08-16 Stillwell Stompers August Club Ride. Jeep Off-Roading Fun

What a great ride. I tired to get more of the rest of the group and less of me. I also opted out of a couple of the crazy options like waterfall and fubar. Those ended in winches for everybody but Mike, including a blown differential too. Glad I opted out, They were fun to watch for sure! I probably should have tried broken shoulder, but that was first thing in the day so I was still taking it “easy”. I did try to finesse through the obstacles instead of using all the power of my rig. It helped me learn more about routes and seeing them. I managed the samurai exit of rock quarry without any lockers on… For whatever reason, upper ravine gave me more trouble than usual. That’s the fun of it, conditions and luck change to keep it interesting. Looking forward to the next one. 

All mine…

I made my last payment.  It's got 105,000 miles on it and still great.  We've been really happy with our Subarus.  I haven't had a single repair outside of normal maintenance items in more than 300,000 miles across four vehicles.

All cleaned up and ready for road miles again

Zoe is photobombing me while I clean my Jeep, haha.

Chloe being goofy in the yard

The dogs get all excited to come out with me when I am working outside.  They were both enjoying watching me from the shade as I worked on my ramps and cleaned my Jeep.  

What’s going on underneath?

Some of you have asked about what all's going on under my Jeep.  This is about the best shot I can get.  You can see all the dirt I need to clean for sure.  Of interest and import is the beefed up steering, heavy duty bumper, adjustable control arms, reinforced axle housings, bigger brakes, differential armor, beefed up drive shafts, full skid plates over the transmission, transfer case, gas tank and evap canister, and rock rails.  Those are the highlights. 

You can see lots of places where these components have done their job and taken the hits.  

Some of that came on it, some I've had to add myself.  Now, time to clean it up.  

Time to give it a wash.

Too many back to back weekends in August so I hadn't be able to.  Good news is that places I went weren't very muddy.  He'll be looking good again in less than an hour :)

Finally happy with how I’m using my ramps…

I reinforced them a bit and also figured out I have enough clearance to put them behind the front tire and back up onto them.  It lets me align them perfectly, and see what's going on as I run up them.  4-low and lockers mean I can climb all the way up so I don't need to lower and raise the ramp either.  When I want to do the rear, I just rotate the ramp 180º, but it in front of the rear wheel, and drive right up.  Getting about 15" off the ground with these cheap (free) Amazon ramps that my neighbor fixed up for me.  Makes it easier to see underneath to get all the important parts cleaned up.

A good pose and pic of the great, fluffy Pepper

Luckily we had more winches and buddies to help out.

They helped get him back "grounded" while he winched 

Another one I opted out of…

…Notice he has two wheels without any weight on them… Even with a winch attached.

I've done this one before, It's called the Water Fall.  I even had it in one of my videos from the Stompers back in April if I remember right.  We all ended up winching at the top, and didn't get into anything like this kind of a position thankfully.  It's gotten dug out and has a lot more undercut now.  That's why most of us passed on it.

Yeah, I’m not coming up that ravine…

I opted to watch from above as they climbed it.  It was quite a challenge with a couple breakages.  Glad I was just helping with all the winching…