Upon sight of such an apparatus, Plan C immediately went into effect: drink some Jagermeister at 5° F. By now, Plan A was a distant memory. A good time was had by all. We had a few beers, some Jagermeister and I managed to find my way back to the RV ...... eventually.

One such example. Only one.

Now the next day was to be an easy one as Jeff was driving out from Illinois and would meet up with us to celebrate his 50th birthday. Well, needless to say, the next day did start slow and easy.

After breakfast I took off to drive around on my own, got on a road under construction, and proceeded to get rather stuck in the clay-based muck and mire. 4WD and lockers - what more could one ask for - well actually - getting out of there before the cops caught me! It would have been rather embarrassing to call Clint or one of his buddies and ask them to winch me out of a mud puddle in Omaha! .... Or to call and ask for bail....

Later that day Jeff drove in. We met at the UPRR Museum, toured that, drove back to Camp Clint and proceeded to verify the Jagermeister was still at prime temperature. It was. So was the beer. Steve's Jeep was there, with 30 minutes on the new engine. There were a number of hood ornaments laying (or lying) around the shop that we strategically placed on Steve's Jeep. We were going to drill holes and mount them permanently but Clint didn't want to waste good ornaments!

3 hours later, we headed out to the Crescent Moon, a German Bier Hall to celebrate Jeff's birthday....after the drag race that took place in the parking lot......but that's another story!

The beer was good - very good. We all eventually wound up drinking Warsteiner from 2 liter glass vessels shaped like boots. A rather bizarre set of rules seemed to accompany said drinking but somehow we managed to work our way through! Jeff lived through the ordeal and we got back in one piece. All in all, a great, great day! Thanks Clint, Dallas, Steve, Gary, Tim, Jim, Clint's employees (another story) and a rather confused taxi driver.

Head 'em up and move 'em out the next morning. Jeff took off ahead of me so I took another leisurely drive from Omaha to near Denver. Plan A: Stay at Brush, CO, for the night. Oops, got there too early. Plan B: Stay at Camp Cummins, closer to Denver. Hmm. Still a little early. Plan C: Drive through the Rockies yet today. But the weather report sucked. Snow and all sorts of bad stuff going on up there. Called my concierge service and verified that tonight might not be the night to cross the Rockies. Back to Plan B. Later that night I heard that I-70 was closed for some time due to storm related accidents. Good move staying here. I wonder what the morrow will bring? Who knows? Who cares? For now, I'm dry, warm, and happy ... sipping on a beer and eating Habanero stuffed olives........shheeeeaaat!

2 AM. Wake up. Can't sleep. Epiphany!!! Tomorrow morning, during rush hour, driving over the 3 passes (Chief Hosa/Floyd Hill, Eisenhower and Vail Pass) will suck a lot more than it sucks now. Why not leave now and beat the rush? I can always pull over if it's too bad. Hmm, makes sense to me....why not?

So from Camp Cummins to Chief Hosa (~20 miles), I bet there weren't 5 vehicles on I-70 through Denver, a route I despise due to the normally high traffic. I-70 was remarkably dry. Ah, but at Chief Hosa, ran into very heavy fog. Damn! Semis pulled over. Even cops. Fortunately I followed someone ahead of me and by the time we hit Idaho Springs it was clear - and the moon was out!

From there to the Eisenhower Tunnel it was clear sailing. Not a BIT of traffic. An almost full moon was out and shining on the snow-laden trees. Stars sprinkled the sky above the silhouettes of the mountains. AWESOME! What a neat experience...can't find the words...was more of a feeling than anything else. AWESOME!

Approaching the Ike was fine, but my expectations for the other side were low based on other year's travels. Expectations were met. From there to Vail, maybe 45 miles, it was heavily snow packed. Truckers were required to use chains, which limited the number of truckers! 2nd gear - 20 mph for 40 miles. But you know, this was the most relaxing of all the many, many times I've traversed this route. I can deal with the snow, but the damnable drivers and traffic is what makes it dangerous. You never know what some moron is going to do. There were maybe 10 vehicles on the road for this 45 mile stretch .. .. but off the road, on the shoulder, in rest areas, on ramps.... there were maybe 300 cars and trucks off to the side. Good for them - made my trip quite pleasant.

So Clint and his entourage came by about 8:30. They didn't want a long day on the trail so we elected to do Moab Rim instead. Yeah! Right!

As we congregated for the day, I saw Steve's tailgate was severely damaged. He said someone rear ended him in Denver. I said something like "That f**king ass***e." Ken, the 72 year old new guy (who drove his Hummer out) and will ride with Steve this week (so he doesn't hurt his Hummer) piped up and said "I'm that f**king ass***e." "Oh," I sheepishly replied. Dave knows how to make friends.

We hauled ass out to the trailhead knowing full well it would be a cluster with all the people here. Our expectations were fully met. We got started on the trail, looking at the 40 people ahead of us, some very competent, some complete friggin' idiots. But therein lies the entertainment.

We got about 1/4 mile and we hear on the radidio [sic] that Steve (from Omaha, remember the hood ornaments?) could not get it into 4WD. Rumor has he checked out the engine, the new tranny but perhaps neglected to see if he could jam it into 4WD. Now this caused a serious delay and another 20 "Professional Jeepers" (at least that's what their windshield stickers said...) passed us on the trail much to my chagrin. But, like the Marines, we never leave our buddies behind. (Did that sound the way I think it sounded -- never mind!)

At any rate ...... we get up to the "Z" turn only to find someone with way too much testosterone tried to take the most difficult line up the obstacle and flipped it on it's side. Maybe the extra testosterone will pay for the body damage and new paint also!

And then after he was moved out of the way, one of the peanut gallery members still blocked the trail for our group. Full Dave mode - again! We finally got up over the "Z" and motored on up to the top of the Rim. From there it was peaceful sailing - almost.

We get to the Rim, overlooking Moab Valley, and I mentioned I hear this noise. Now bear in mind that to take the windshield down I need to take off the windshield wipers - completely. (Another one of Jeep's TJ stupid, stupid, idiotic moronic designs.) After stopping to wait for Clint & Max (his son), Steve and Ken (the Hummer dude), Jim, Tim, and Dallas to catch up, I heard this strange noise. Oh shit, now what! See, I'm not calibrated with the FN JP yet! All the weird noises and quirks are part of my calibration procedure. But this noise sounded BAD! Power steering pump? Transmission? Then Jeff, being quoted in a national magazine as "one of the finest minds in the industry," said, "You dumb SOB, you bumped the lever and turned the windshield wiper motor on." "Oh," I sheepishly replied.

Moab Valley from the top of the Rim

So now we had to descend the Rim with a bunch of people in front of us. Some were good. Some were stupid. This time there was NO entertainment value. One Californian even froze in his Jeep and that killed a half hour of potential beer drinking time.

Then, 3 PM, as we try to get down, a group of people were trying to come UP the Rim. They were disturbed that so many people where coming down from the Rim on the one way in, one way out trail. Well, frigging' DUH! What the hell do you expect? Stoopid. ARG! Full Dave mode -- and even full Dallas mode. We got the trail cleared!!

We finally intimidated enough people that we were able to make the descent and got down at 3:13 PM - 3 hours later than we should have. But you know, a cluster day wheeling beats ANY day at work!

Then, as we get down, I loudly remarked to Jeff (who had been at the bottom for sometime as he walked down much faster than we drove), that we finally made it down despite the (expletive deleted) dumb Californians (some were good - some were really dumb!) ahead of us and the idiots who where trying to come up as many vehicles were trying to come down at the end of the day. Of course, Jeff knew, but I did not, that two of the ladies standing there were part of the "dumb" Californian group. "Oh," I sheepishly replied as Jeff told me within earshot of the ladies. Oh well, time for beer, what the hell!

So back to the RV, had some beer and are now ready to head to Clint & Co. up at Slickrock CG for a shrimp boil. YUM!

Despite the aggravation, this was another wonderful day - lots of fun and good stories to tell about other people!

BTW, don't expect an update tonight....LOL. Tomorrow I lead Rose Garden. Oh Boy!

We got started on time and had a really good group of about 40 vehicles. As we motored on the River Road, 20 miles to the trail head, my hat blew off. I VERY quickly went to catch it with my left hand while driving about 50 mph and slammed my left hand into the roll cage. I heard something go snap - and I don't think it was the roll cage. ARG! Most of the day it was numb, tonight it hurts -- to put it mildly. But that was the only injury today. I'm doing better than average this year. At least I'm not burned to a crisp.

After following Onion Creek and going past Stinking Spring (yes, real names), we got to a high meadow. Holy crap. The entire meadow was covered with lavender-blue flowers, dilly dilly. I tried to get some photos but these just do NOT do it justice. This was unbelievable. The colors seem subdued here but they were brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

From there, it was 5 miles up a rocky ledge then 15 miles on a county road back to the Dewey Bridge, over the Colorado River. From there, it was asphalt for the next 32 miles back to Moab. The Dewey Bridge was decommissioned in the late 70s. We drove over the bridge when it was still a one lane bridge open to traffic. At the time we pulled a travel trailer over it with an IH TravelAll. THAT was an experience!!! (Both the bridge and the IH!)

So back to town for a great meal of 1" thick "Iowa cut" pork chops and baked potato, courtesy of Chef Jeff. Then off to a safety meeting and then back here for this blather. Tomorrow will be a long day - a trip to Elephant Hill in the Needles area of Canyonlands, as well as the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. 190 miles round trip.

And tomorrow, Jeff's planning on doing Shaeffer Trail with the TRD.

6 Shooter Peak on the way to the Needles

After being awestruck for a long time, reluctantly hiked back to the Jeep, motored on back, headed over the hill, aired up, dumped in 6 gallons of fuel that I'd carried with and hit the asphalt for the 75 mile trip back.

Even after the long, exhausting hike and day, while leaving, some guy in the parking lot yelled to me "That's the way to go Jeeping, a smile on your face, the windshield down, and the top off." To put this in perspective, of the 30 people who were on the trail, I was the only one with the windshield down and the top off. A lot of folks, even with soft tops, left the tops on and the doors on - some with the windows even rolled up. Air conditioning, I suppose. Oh my! Maybe I'm not a yuppie Jeeper!

No sooner did I get in cell range than Clint called and said we'd all meet at the Brewery. After the 12 hour day on the road, it didn't take much.....in many senses of the word! First stop was their bathroom where I washed off about 10 lbs of red dust from my hair, face, arms and hands into the sink. After my "shower," joined up with Clint and his buddies, Jeff and a couple other folks....11 in all. It says something about the quality of one's character when one returns a year later (or 6 months in my case) and the wait-staff still recognizes you! We went through an unknown quantity of beer and had a spanking good time, especially Tim.

After the festivities, I was pretty well shot, uh, well, maybe 4 sheets to the wind. Came back to the coach, showered and collapsed.

Now some ask why go through all this.......if you gotta ask, you just would not understand! Another "10" rated day! (Postscript #2: here it is 3 days later trying to recall all this and having time to update the web - non-stop wheelin', visiting, and partying since Monday. My poor liver!)

These photos turned out to be a "Dave-A-Thon." I seldom have photos of myself on the web page for obvious reasons but I seem to be prominently featured in today's photos. And it's not that I was the usual entertainment committee today, there was plenty of that to go around.

The day started slow - thanks to the previous night! Did some shopping, got some T-shirts and met up with Clint & Co. at McDonald's at noon - a little later than our normal start time. But we got going, eventually, and headed out for Strike Ravine.

Tim was most entertaining on this trail.

So we had a lot of fun on the trail. We didn't do the whole thing; we bailed at Upper Helldorado. We were all worn out - and it was a hot, hot day.

On the way back, the FN JP was creaking and groaning, kinda like me. We did stop at the "Old Geezer's Butcher Shop" and picked up some great jerky and a couple steaks for the grill.

While I wrenched on the FN JP, tightening the upper control arm that was a little loose and rattling, Jeff cooked the steaks, onions, and baked potatoes. Mmmmm good.

Then, just as I finished, Dieter and Jakob stopped by. Jakob is only a few RVs down with Tina and their 2-year old, Emma. Larry, another RR4W friend also stopped by. So I cleaned up, had a beer, showered and continued to have a few more beers to relax after a long day. Whew. Everybody left. Now I can catch up on the blog, WRONG!

10 PM Clint, Tim and Steve show up. 10:15 PM Larry shows up. 10:30 Dieter and Jakob show up. So much for the blog again! Beer soon turned into wine which soon turned into homemade Pear Schnapps which then turned back into wine then beer again. Don't even ask! But yes, a good time was had by all. We even watched the DVD of the "Giggling Granny," a 4WD driver who competes in UROCK and has a most distinctive laugh, even when she rolls her Jeep.

Now there's a lot of other stuff that could be written, but most is gone.......and I need to finish this and get it uploaded. It's gone forever, but from what people have told me, we all had a great time for the next 3 hours.

Tomorrow we plan on doing Lisbon Valley, if I can wipe the cobwebs away and find the trail.

We had such a great time and there are so many more photos that could be put here, but alas, there are only so many bits to go around and they need to be carefully rationed. Suffice to say, it was truly fascinating. Even the red ants enjoyed lunch.

From there, the intrepid trail leader was supposed to take the gullible group (gullible for electing me their leader) to another mine where the entrance is so large one could drive an 18 wheeler into it. Well, suffice to say, the aforementioned intrepid trail leader once again displayed his expertise at choosing the wrong road. (1 out of 3 ain't bad!)

So as we left to go home, the intrepid trail leader spotted a mine ventilation fan and knew that the dinosaur tracks were near. A quick turn and a couple hundred yards and we were there. I knew where they were all the time!

So after appropriate ooo-ing and ahh-ing, we Jeeped back to town (without getting lost) and spent some time looking at the hundreds of exhibits at the Arena. From there, Jeff and I stopped at the "Old Geezer's Meat Shop" for some jerky and steaks, came back to the RV and had an outstanding meal of steaks, baked potatoes and onions. Yum!