So it begins Michigan to the Mexico border to Alaska and back. Three JLUR and campers.

[jc1003]

Looks like you had a great time. The pics are beautiful. I hope to go back one day.

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[Rodeoflyer]

As long as you stay in the Mexican border towns and just sightsee and have a good time, you'll be fine. Safe travels!

 

[wibornz]

We just landed out by New River. Should be some great sights and wheeling/exploring over the next couple days.
We need to slow down some. Been on the road for a month now and just passed the 5,000 mile mark today. Changed the oil in an O’Rielys parking lot yesterday in New Mexico. By the time I was done, it looked like a Jeep murder scene. I pulled the plug all is well for about 10 seconds. Then a 40 mph wind gust came through and sprayed oil all over me , the Jeep and the parking lot. Fuck, oil in my hair , all over my face and upper body. Ruined my shirt. Fuck Fuck Fuck. O’Rielys was not mad at me. I think I spread more than a qt of oil in their lot. They gave me oil dry and helped me clean it up and then took the old oil.

So we are all doing great and getting along great. Stayed in a casino parking lot last night and then got a fresh hair cut this morning.

Lol almost 5000 miles!

 

[wibornz]

We are camping for awhile on west Table Mesa Rd. There is so much wheeling and hiking in the area plus the weather is going to be great. Hopefully we can slow down and enjoy this area for a week or more.

We will probably knock out the badge trails first then do Box Canyon.

 

[ObiMatt87]

We are camping for awhile on west Table Mesa Rd. There is so much wheeling and hiking in the area plus the weather is going to be great. Hopefully we can slow down and enjoy this area for a week or more.

Great stuff, Ted. We used to live in Phoenix for my first Air Force assignment. Arizona has so much to offer when it comes to outdoor beauty. Again, we are all jelly for your trip, but very glad you are having such a great experience. Keep it coming...

 

[MaineBumpkin]

Hello Ted, thanks for sharing, looks like an awesome adventure so far (minus the oil change fun) Looking forward to following the whole journey!

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Time to get a Fumoto valve and put and end to any possibility of a messy oil change.

 

[wibornz]

Two quick pics from our boondock campsite tonight from West Table Mesa Rd.

Going to be a good week.

 

[wibornz]

So this morning we get up go to breakfast with plans to run Table Mesa trail in Arizona today. Last minute, we changed our mind and head to the back way to Crown King trail instead. We pull up to a line of Jeeps and I ask what appears to be a guy that is leading about 10 Jeeps if they are running Crown King trail and if we can tag along. It ends up being two fellow JLWRANGLERFORUM members. @Jeepsk8 said heck yeah you guys can join us. We ended up having a great time and Jeepster was a great guy to wheel with and we had a great time with him and Louie. Can’t remember Louie’s forum name though. Jeepsk8 will have to tag him.

So we get aired down and settled on channel 4 on the radios. This took a couple tries as many of the channels had a bunch of chatter on them. Off we go.

we flexed on the CK rock at the

There were many spots today when it looked like the trail lead straight to the blue skys overhead.

I was actually surprised at the elevation gains and the almost shelf type road/trail that made up a section of the trail.

Jeepsk8 Jeep and mine parked along side the trail. Jeepsk8 was very knowledgeable almost nerd like about the trail and pointed out things like a true trail guide, old ruins, memorials, mining operations and so on. He had tips and good lines on the obstacles and did not take any bypasses. Wheeled like a pro.

I have ton of video to process, but that takes time. I still need to do my walk around video of our Jeep and camper, plus our week in Big Bend and now our time in Arizona.

Video editing is so time consuming it is hard to stop having fun and strap myself to a laptop to do it.

 

[Jeepsk8]

It was a truly epic day! Louie, aka @nuggyg had a ball as this was kind of a birthday bucket list thing for him. We are so happy that we "happened" upon each other in a seriously serendipitous way. Who would have thought we'd meet someone from the forum in the desert? Lol. At any rate, we wish you the safest of travels and look forward to the updates you post.

 

[Krondor]

Great to hear forum members got together on the trails!

Look forward to the videos Ted!

 

[AZJeepGuy]

Looks like a great trip! Have fun! Post your best picture everyday.

 

[wibornz]

Great to hear forum members got together on the trails!

Look forward to the videos Ted!

I spent most of the day at the laptop pulling files and editing. Youtube is processing it as I type this.

 

[wibornz]

Yeah for a 5g hotspot of my wife's phone. It only took a couple minutes to upload and then process the 1.24 gig file.



Big shout out to @Jeepsk8 for being our guide. We randomly did The Backway to Crown King and just randomly pulled over next to him and I asked if he... Glen was running the Crown King trail and he was and he was happy to let the five of us in thee JLURs tag along. It was about an hour into the trail run that we discovered that we were both forum member and had chatted online prior to this chance meeting.

 

[wibornz]

Even though I spent much of the day strapped to a laptop, I did get out for an hour or so and do some wheeling. My wife Carla said take me for a ride and off we went with the goal of getting to the top of some mountain for a good view. We did not have to go far, about 5 miles out I found the way to the top of a peak... We were all by ourselves today. Bill was off trying to get his taxes uploaded and 'Gary & Angie were out buying hiking shoes and a new fridge for their Jeep. The cheap Amazon one was not very efficient and would go into error mode by draining the battery in the Jeep and turn itself off often. They bought a Domestic fridge. They need another one for their camper. The one in their camper is pulling 50 watts just about all the time and their solar and a 206ah battery is struggling to keep up with the junk fridge they have in their camper.

Up on the top there was a grave stone for a young man. It was a reminder to me that tomorrow is not promised and we have to appreciate each day.

Rest In Peace young man.

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