Ah, Thanksgiving! A wonderful time of year to eat some really good food and have a long weekend in the desert. As per our normal tradition, we went to Chris' parents house for a wonderful meal with trailer and Lemon Joy in tow. After eating way too much, laughing till our sides hurt, and just enjoying every one's company, we loaded up two kids, two yorkies, and some excellent leftovers and headed towards Moab in a snowstorm. Thankfully, the roads weren't terrible, in fact, it only took us an hour longer than normal. After unpacking what seemed like our entire house, Chris tarped Lemon Joy in the rain and we all went to bed praying for sunshine. We woke up to clouds, but no more rain! YeeHaw!!
We headed out to the Gemini Bridges parking lot and met up with some friends from Salt Lake: the CarlPlus Family, Chadrick and Chelsea, and Mr. Officially Awesome himself, Cody (who happens to be Brendon's idol). :) With the clouds breaking up and the sun peeking out, off we rallied to Rusty Nail.
My "winter wheeling" look. Notice all the mud? That's what 40 inch tires do with mud puddles. Also, the towel on my lap is because our harnesses were soaked from the drive in the night before!
Miss Addison, Carl and Mandy's 2 year old
Carson, Carl and Mandy's 4 year old who is an absolute hoot!
The ever fashionable rock crawling Yorkie: Roxanna Kyndall
Another downside to Moab mud, is that it doesn't like to clean out of your tires.
My two favorite girls right there!!
Miss Moo and Ted
I hate the obstacle called "No Left Turn" so the kids and I always walk Rusty Nail. It took the rigs awhile to catch up with us, so B and I took that opportunity to take a nap in the warm desert sunshine.
Ted used her time for some tree climbing.
Slick Rock Punks baby!!
No, I'm not really that fat, I'm just warm! :)
Day Two: Area BFE and it's still muddy
Look at those tires. It's hard to find any gription when one's lugs are full of slimy mud.
Lyssie and her lizard friend on LockJaw
It was a beautiful day!
This is Carl and his nearly stock 4-Runner. Now for those of you who know what elitist jerks we are when it comes to rock crawling, you're probably wondering why we're out with a nearly stock rig. Well, Carl was a competitor for years and has built a bunch of buggies. This is his family rig and he makes that little Toyota do amazing things! Plus, Carl is just hilarious!
Awwww, my first time on Helldorado's GateKeeper!
My uber-enthusiastic co-pilot
Do you like Brendon's "safe" place for his gum?
Chadrick is such a poser!! :p
Chad on the hateful V Crack on Green Day. He was unable to recover from this position so he got strapped up from here.
Now, call me crazy, but I was pretty sure I knew the line on the V Crack. This may be a good time to mention that this particular obstacle has kicked Chris' bahookie
numerous times. In fact, it was exactly one year ago on this day, that he got LJ so horrifically stuck in the crack, it took us TWO hours to extract her.
Here's Lemon Joy up to her normal shenanigans. She loves falling into the crack.
Cody is an excellent spotter and is actually the one who spotted Chris into oblivion last Thanksgiving!
I had Chris take off the hood because every time she would roll onto her passenger side, the fender would mash into the hood.
I was SOOOOO close!
Okay, so maybe not
that close....
And she nails the line!!
Yes, I'm clapping for myself here. I still can't believe I made that!
Roxy, the fearless co-pilot
Sunday dawned bright and sunny again. The weather really was fabulous all weekend, with the daytime highs being around 55 degrees! You cannot ask for better weather in November. Carl and Mandy broke a longfield on Saturday so they headed for home first thing Sunday morning. Cody and his crew were taking the scenic, dirt road tour back to Salt Lake, so it was down to us and the Chad's. Back out to BFE we went and got Chad on Britney Spears. He nailed the first two obstacles, but the third wall is nearly impassable. In fact, we don't know anyone who has driven it. Chad gave it a noble effort, but between the mud and cool air, ole Britney wasn't going down without a fight.
Chris is a very trusting fellow!
Such a valiant effort!! Next time......
When the sun went behind the clouds, Sophie got cold!
Alyssa's lean-to for her and Ted, in case we didn't make if off of Britney!
Look! It's a two-headed Yorkie!
And here is my carnage for the weekend! Well, I actually broke a u joint on the rear driveshaft, but this was much more traumatic! I was trying to slide my front end over this rock to line myself up. What I didn't see was a hateful little stump there that just took my tire right off the bead.
Looks painful, doesn't it?
With a little high-lift jack magic and our cheap-o air compresser, Chris was able to re-seat the bead and we were back in business in under an hour. After a glorious night run out in BFE, we headed to Zax's for dinner and were home by 1:00 that morning!
I was asked why we always go to Moab for Thanksgiving. It's really quite simple actually. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all that we're thankful for: our family, health, an old, hand-me-down Ford that is loved beyond all reason, and good friends......and what better way to celebrate than being together doing what we love the most?
Happy Thanksgiving!!
