I knew this day would come eventually, but I was hoping it wouldn’t come for a long time. However, it was only a matter of time till either my back or the Wrangler couldn’t take off roading any longer, and it appears that last Saturday the race ended in a tie with both my back and Wrangler sustaining damage. (Ironical isn’t it—Saturday, March 15th—the Ides of March. Maybe I should change my nickname from Safari to Julius Ceasar!)
Anyway, if you don’t mind a long story—read on.
Ever since elementary school I had a craving to drive a Jeep. That never happened until August 2005, when at the age of 59 I test drove a new Wrangler. Somehow it didn’t “feel” like I thought a Jeep should feel. Then I went to see a car salesman friend of mine at a dealer that had a ’95 red YJ. I test drove it, fell in love with it, and bought it. That was the beginning of family discord, if you know what I mean. Anyway it was strictly a street vehicle all its past life and for the first five months that I owned it.
One day I was at the credit union and saw a guy wearing a Rausch Creek tee shirt. That sparked my interest, so I remembered the web address and checked it out when I went home.
About this same time my granddaughter was attending nursery school with “Big D’s”, Dennis Ebersole’s twins. One thing led to another and I attended my first Jeeps R Us meeting in January 2006, and went on my first trail ride a few days later. I WAS HOOKED!
Since that time I’ve been going to Rausch Creek as often as I could and got caught up in that Jeep acronym—just empty every pocket. Just like every other off roader, I tried to customize my ride with the options that I really wanted and that I could afford. I had it to the point where my trips to Rausch Creek were a good combination of vehicle capability and driver skill—with some occasional driver stupidity thrown in for good measure. My wife could never understand how a man with a bad back could take bumping around over rocks and I couldn’t explain it to her.
As I said in my first paragraph, I knew the day would come when my back or the Jeep would give out, and that occurred on Saturday. But what a great way to go! I was leading a group of mostly BMJA members and I hit some first time trails for me. Trail 1C was new for me, and it was a blast. The one part of trail 4 was new to me (I think), and while on that trail I thought I heard something break with a loud “pinging” noise, but we continued on. And I finally got up the courage to try “Snake Bite” for the first time and that’s where my back started to bother me.
I went to the chiropractor Monday morning, after calling on Sunday. I already had appointments scheduled that day with the rheumatologist for my back and the physical therapist for my neck. The chiropractor described my condition as acute—acute what I don’t know—and wants to see me again before my next regularly scheduled visit. I’ll survive, but the Jeep may not.
I knew that I had lost the bolt out of my front track bar for the third or fourth time and that I had blown a fuse to my brake lights. I took the YJ to Capital Area 4 Wheel Drive Center yesterday and was asked how I possibly drove the vehicle there. Apparently both front wheels are about to fall off with bad wheel bearings, I have a leak in the steering box (which I knew), three of the four leaf springs are either badly bent or broken, there’s some sort of problem with the rear drive shaft, the frame is bent, and the gas tank is badly bent (which I knew). There might be other problems that I didn’t catch. I’m waiting for an estimate from John at Capital Area, but expect the numbers to be “past the point of no return.”
It’s not that I can’t come up with the money to pay for it; it’s just that it probably isn’t practical to do so any longer. I will probably be putting it up for sale and/or parting it out. Watch for further postings. And I probably will not be replacing it, which means that my off-roading days are finished. If I do buy another Wrangler; it will be strictly a street vehicle. I recently purchased a 2005 Jeep Liberty, but have no intentions of wheelin’ that vehicle.
I’ve made many new friends from all over the east coast through my wheelin’ experiences, and I can truly say that the camaraderie has been great and that you have been just as good to me as even my church family. I will probably continue to come to the Jeeps R Us meetings on a somewhat sporadic basis and will try to keep up with everyone else on the JRU, Rausch Creek, Christian Crawlers, BMJA, and other web sites.
Old Jeepers never die—they just meet one too may rocks!
