went out with all those north american xj assoc. jeepers yesterday and all in all it was a pretty good time. started off with 20+ of them and one of me... not very good odds and you could smell the bias in the air initially. pretty good guys and actually pretty friendly as well considering there was an enemy in their midsts. one of the guys went to the "yeah, my brother in law had one of those... i guess it did ok" card. went out into the hills south of the rattlesnake in the hopes of seeing some old ghostowns and abandoned mines... saw some of the mines. their trailleader must of had a gps built into his head because i couldnt tell north from south practically the entire day (anybody thats ever been in that area can vouch how disorientating the mountains can be around here)... and he knew all the trails like the back of his hand, and there was more trails than you could shake a stick at. some decent wheeling for the most part, nothing too challanging though. there was a couple of areas that we had to go through that it was basically pointless to even steer... you just get thrown into these deep muddy ruts and stayed there. since im a little narrower than a cherokee, the guy in back of me throught i was going to put it on its side... probably would have but the rut was keeping me right side up. when i was stopped my flip-o-meter was pegged just over the 30 degree and i could reach out the window and touch the ground. i think my son had his first encounter with "pucker factor". didnt get to go through the rattlesnake though... by the time we came out of the hills by eureka it was getting time for me to go home and get ready for a halloween party. i was checking out naxja's site and their staging pictures are funny... all these jeeps lined up and one montero that sticks out like a sore thumb. hum along if you know the tune, "one of these things is not like the other... one of these things does not belong". the only thing that gets me is that when my BEST FREAKING FRIEND wanted to make sure that it was ok for me to go on this little trip blasted me on their site saying things like "pile of rust with a mitsu logo" and "cool enough guy, but questionable taste in 4x's"... ahh, the bitterness of it all. i was good though, i didnt talk any smack and i behaved my self... wish i would have had the time to show them all what a monty could really do. and even better would be a show of force the likes that the jeep crowd can muster... one can dream right? btw carl, if were going to try to do something on new years day we better start planning now. mabey we can even get some of these other locals to go... been so long since any have really posted alls i can remember off the top of my head is racer4 and tycer.
