My very best pal invited me on an outing today. He is a Jeep guy, he has three of them. His idea of a swell time is to spend 4 or 5 hours having his bones shaken by driving on the most primitive, god-awful trails you have ever seen. Plus he spends thousands of dollars equipping and maintaining these money pits. I know his thinking was that if he could get me in his Jeep, I would be hooked and want one myself. My idea was and remains, there is no chance of that happening. I wasn't totally enthusiastic about the idea of joining him, but he wanted me to go and he has invited me a zillion times, so I went.
The day began in the community of Catalina, Arizona, 20 or so miles north of Tucson. We headed out and soon discovered this guy and his very stuck Jeep. He evidently believed he could climb up this rock. He managed to get his wheels headed up the rock and slid backwards, leaving him stuck in this position. It looks as if he should be able to back down to the ground, but his back bumper wedged on a big rock, making movement impossible. My pal attached his winch to the front of the Jeep and with some help the guy got up to the top.
Later on the trail we came to this drop off. Driving a Jeep off this ledge is some sort of badge of honor for Jeep guys. I got out to take photos to be used at the coroner's inquest.
These are some additional pictures from the trip.
Off-road enthusiasts are often criticized by the environmental crowd for damaging the ecology and sometimes with good reason. A lot of off-road motorcyclists and dunebuggy guys tear up the landscape willy-nilly, but these Jeep club guys seemed very environmentally conscious. This trail winds 20 miles through the mountains and is only accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles. The trail is maintained by the forest service and a Jeep club. In 20 miles of driving I didn't see a single piece of litter. It was amazing. The trail cuts through this pristine area and not a thing is disturbed outside the little road. These people are very careful to take care of the land.
This is near the end of the trail and although it seems like we are headed up a steep hill, My friend actually fell into a gully, leaving us looking straight upward, with the front wheels 4 feet in the air. Every time my friend took his foot off the brake pedal, the Jeep rolled back and to the side and the front end got higher. Since we are both old and fat, escape was impossible. Fortunately, another fellow with us put enough pressure on the front of the Jeep to get the wheels back in contact with terra firma and allowed us to back out.
We emerged in the town of Oracle, Arizona, safe and sound.
This was a tiring day and slow going most of the time, but it was fun. I'm glad I went.
Merle.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it.
Tag:
Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
My very best pal invited me on an outing today. He is a Jeep guy, he has three of them. His idea of a swell time is to spend 4 or 5 hours having his bones shaken by driving on the most primitive, god-awful trails you have ever seen. Plus he spends thousands of dollars equipping and maintaining these money pits. I know his thinking was that if he could get me in his Jeep, I would be hooked and want one myself. My idea was and remains, there is no chance of that happening. I wasn't totally enthusiastic about the idea of joining him, but he wanted me to go and he has invited me a zillion times, so I went.
The day began in the community of Catalina, Arizona, 20 or so miles north of Tucson. We headed out and soon discovered this guy and his very stuck Jeep. He evidently believed he could climb up this rock. He managed to get his wheels headed up the rock and slid backwards, leaving him stuck in this position. It looks as if he should be able to back down to the ground, but his back bumper wedged on a big rock, making movement impossible. My pal attached his winch to the front of the Jeep and with some help the guy got up to the top.
Later on the trail we came to this drop off. Driving a Jeep off this ledge is some sort of badge of honor for Jeep guys. I got out to take photos to be used at the coroner's inquest.
These are some additional pictures from the trip.
Off-road enthusiasts are often criticized by the environmental crowd for damaging the ecology and sometimes with good reason. A lot of off-road motorcyclists and dunebuggy guys tear up the landscape willy-nilly, but these Jeep club guys seemed very environmentally conscious. This trail winds 20 miles through the mountains and is only accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles. The trail is maintained by the forest service and a Jeep club. In 20 miles of driving I didn't see a single piece of litter. It was amazing. The trail cuts through this pristine area and not a thing is disturbed outside the little road. These people are very careful to take care of the land.
This is near the end of the trail and although it seems like we are headed up a steep hill, My friend actually fell into a gully, leaving us looking straight upward, with the front wheels 4 feet in the air. Every time my friend took his foot off the brake pedal, the Jeep rolled back and to the side and the front end got higher. Since we are both old and fat, escape was impossible. Fortunately, another fellow with us put enough pressure on the front of the Jeep to get the wheels back in contact with terra firma and allowed us to back out.
We emerged in the town of Oracle, Arizona, safe and sound.
This was a tiring day and slow going most of the time, but it was fun. I'm glad I went.
Merle.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong and sometimes just full of it.
Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor
3 comments:
Good story! I linked to it and told my own (much duller) jeep story as an intro in my blog entry today.
Merle Sneed,
HOLY COW!
Hoping you make it home safe,
NCN
This comment is part of my 100 Comments Series over at No Credit Needed.
Argggghhh...I got vertigo just lookin' at some of those pictures. Have to say, looks like major fun.
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