Having mailed my vote in early, tracked it and verified that it was counted, I find myself free of obligations on Election Day. Now I need refuge from the battering of vicious and confusing rhetoric spewing from every piece of electronic equipment that I own, so I head to the desert.
My friends and I break the tether of cell and cable service to spend our day crawling over rocks in peaceful bliss. In addition to the usual crowd from the park, Rob, Carol and their friends Jeff and Kay tag along with us today. Rob and Carol volunteered with me in Florida and Carol bravely agrees to be my co-pilot on this ride. I sure have a blast and appreciate her calm as I work us over what I call “terrible hill.” I hate it when I hear things under the Jeep crashing into rocks!
Charity Ride Gone Awry
Most local cities celebrate Veteran’s Day over this weekend. Jane suggests that we join a local Charity Off Road Ride for a fun Saturday. Even though making the early start time means no snoozing for me, I arrive in time to join a hundred or so other Jeeps, side by sides and motorcycles for this adventure. What I do not expect is the surprise adventure that Leymen and I add to the ride for the vehicles in line behind us.
The ride begins with a parade through town which we do not want to join. Unfortunately we find ourselves unexpectedly leading the Jeep lineup leaving the staging area. As we exit the lot, we can see that we need to turn left to join the parade. Instead we turn right to head for the off road ride. Our followers can’t see the parade end which turned left, so they obediently follow to the right. As we hit the main road, I notice a long line of Jeeps behind us… oops!
Some Who Wander ARE Lost!
After a few minutes, I observe what appears to be synchronized u-turns in my rear view mirror. I guess someone figures it out. One 2-door ride however stays tenaciously on my bumper. When we reach our air down spot he is still with me. I fear he is going to have a few choice words to share with us. Instead he admits that he has no idea were he is and clings to me in hopes we can tell him.
Jane and I envision a simple ride along the border on this brilliantly sunny day. Instead we wind up straddling deep ditches between scratchy bushes again. I have a death grip on my steering wheel trying to stay upright. To add to my distress, there is a red Jeep almost in my back seat on every obstacle. When we finally pull over and he can pass, he won’t! Seems we are the only ones who actually know where we are. Everyone else is determined not to lose us and wind up lost themselves!!
The fact that this blog came out makes me think that you made it through the ride with a lot of NEW trail blazers behind you. Hope they all enjoyed the ride. :>) U need to write a book girl. Keep up the good work and look forward to the next one. GOD BLESS
JD
Jim
We did and the whole day was great fun. As long as I can follow experts like Jane and Leyman, I would do it again!
I always seem to get a chuckle from your blog updates no matter how dire your situation seems to be. Keep up the good work!
Well obviously, I like to over dramatize. That ride was actually fun, but I was glad that Jane and Leyman were leading or I would have probably been lost too!
Poor baby I hope things get better for you Hoping you will head this way I would love to see you.
also hope things clear up so your Mother and I can make plans to visit each other.If I had known it was going to be so long before we could travel I would not have given my pets away so soon.
I truly miss them. They were a lot of company and gave me so much love. Take care of you
know I love you. Aunt Jannette
Sorry if I mislead you – things are good here. Hope you and Mom can get together soon!
Like others mentioned could have been that bad, you are still pounding the keyboard.
Seeing some examples of tricked out Jeeps, made me cringe, dangerous mechanisms, one free admonition; Be extremely wary of any vehicle with extended fat tires and the body way above. This combination makes for a very unstable device with high center of mass and 4 springs to the ground. Adding speed just makes them in a disaster waiting to happen. They are fine at low crawling speeds, not highway speeds.
You don’t have to worry about me “tricking out” my jeep. It will do more than I have nerve enough to attempt with the stock Rubicon package. Thanks for your concern though. I do enjoy getting out and taking in the sights where others rarely get to go 🙂