4 JLURs head from Michigan to Alabama and Florida to Wheel. Pick up some more Badges...

[wibornz]

Well one of my Jeeping bud's wife called my wife and said that they were staying in a condo in Florida for two weeks and that if we wanted to join them for a week, that they would put us up at no cost. Well fuck can't turn down a free week of lodging in a nice condo in Florida. I check airfare and hey $68 for a round trip ticket from Detroit to Orlando. Got to go.

Then I get thinking, hey, fly the wife down, I leave a week early and wheel in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Hit up my normal crew and see if they are in. Bill with the Punk'N jeep is in for Alabama and then will return home, Phil in the Sting Ray Grey jeep tell me that he is already going to Florida to house shop for a 2nd home and to visit his parents so he is in and Gary in the Ocean Blue Jeep says hey the load restrictions will be on the roads, so he is in and he will fly his wife down with my wife and then go do their own thing.

Well wheeling in Georgia does not pan out. They close down the badge trail for winter in Georgia...wtf? Figure this out a few days before we leave. No big problem, we will just wheel more in Alabama. Go out into the National Forest, hey what ever...... Well not much wheeling there either.

Well on with the story as it unfolds. Lucky for me my normal crew is low drama and we have a great time.

March 1st 630 AM is go time. We are leaving the campers at home and if weather treats us right, we will camp if we can and stay in hotels when needed.

Gary shows up early...530 am and just as I try and get momma in the mood, she say did someone just pull into the driveway???? Fuck Gary is an hour early. Everyone is at the house, coffee mugs filled up and ready to go at 630 AM.

Of course Gary is an hour early, but did not gas up so our first stop is 20 miles down the road so Gary can fill up. Gary is getting blazed good on the radio for cock blocking and needing fuel before we hit the highway.

We make it to Nashville TN. for our first stop that is not for fuel.... I had to push them a little bit as they wanted to stop earlier, but told them that we are going to the place that had the best rated Nashville Hot chicken in Nashville, It was awesome and worth the wait. We need the break from driving anyways. It also eased the pain when I picked up the bill.

Make just over the boarder into Alabama for the first night. Walk outside and say that a nice car, but the JLURs parked off to the side will be way more fun.

It is Tuesday, and we have two full days to burn because the first set of badge trails are in Stoney Lonesome OHV park and it does not open until Thursday..... or at least that is what the Jeep badge of Honor apps states, and Google states.... More to come on this.

We head out into the Bankhead National Forest to explore the forest roads and trails. Pass a very clean Jeep truck that according to Gary is kind of rare do to a special feature that was on that truck

Finally, we are going to do some wheeling.

Well after cutting our way through about 10 or so down tree spots and burning up two tanks of gas in the chainsaw, Bankhead was just not panning out as a good place to wheel. I was surprised at how poorly the place was maintained. You could easily spend a few weeks there just on the trails we tried to run picking up trash. We finally made it to the trail that we planned to run. Yup, it was gated off and closed.

Luck was with us though as an old guy.... older than any of us.... pulled up and chatted with us for a bit. He showed us some cool spots to hike so off we went for a two feet adventure as the wheeling thing was just not pinning out

More to come. It will get better. I have a bunch of GoPro stuff and drone stuff to come. Stoney Lonesome is a cool place and the people that work there are awesome.

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[DOOKEY]

 

[#diesel]

Great story. We hit Talladega National Forest, 600-1, where the ice was thick around New Years.

 

[Chief_Dan]

Hattie B's, Uncle Lou's, & Gus's! We definitely have some of the best fried chicken here in TN.

Hope y'all have had a safe trip & a whole lot of fun! Looks like it so far. Can't wait to see more.

 

[wibornz]

While not directly related, this is a video from our hike. BunkHead was not good Jeeping, but hey the hiking was beautiful. This was from about 2 miles of hiking...... That is out and back to a total distance of about 1 mile. There were many water falls.




Well we had Wednesday to burn as we thought that the Stoney Lonesome Off road park did not open until Thursday. So hit up the US Space and Rocket center in Alabama for something to do. It was worth the price of omission.

Got busted trying to put a Jeep sticker on the moon rover vehicle.....

Apparently NASA has some cool recovery gear too.

I played the video games this guy developed back in 1984 or 1985 on my Apple IIC computer. I had a lighting fast 400 baud modem. Fuck yea.

Okay back to Jeep stuff. Asked the guy if he wanted to race, He said hell no, I know that thing has a 3.6 PentaSTAR in it and 5.13 gears. Wise choice my man.

This is the 3rd Blackbird type aircraft I have seen in person. I am always awestruck by the awesomeness of this aircraft.

As a side note, I have a long time friend. We don't talk often, but hey we have been friends for 49 years of my 53 years of life.... Long time friend..... He is a space nut. I call him out of the blue and say hey it is your birthday in two days, turn on your video chat and I will walk you through the gift shop and pick you up something. He is like dude, I know exactly what I want. It was a mouse pad.

Now back to wheeling. While there were no decent trails that I could find for a full day of wheeling, Using Gaia, I was able to find a little bit of wheeling by a lake and a decent place to cook dinner.

So as we plan to head to Stoney Lonesome Off Road park on Thursday, we discover a shanfu.... They are closed on Thursday..... WTF, The Jeep Badge of Honor app shows them open on Thursday, Google shows them open on Thursday, their web site states their office is open, but the park is closed. FUCK we have already burned two days waiting for them to open. Just a small vent...... WTF Jeep, stop putting trails in places that have limited access or are closed for part of the year. We already missed the badge trail in Georgia because it is closed for winter......winter in Georgia and there are badge trails in parks that are only open occasionally.

Well we say fuck it and show up on Thursday with the hopes that after traveling a longways, they will show mercy and let us wheel in a closed park. We show up and they open the gate and let us wheel. We have the whole park to ourselves. Hats off to Stoney Lonesome. They are awesome. We each spent over $50 dollars in the gift shop to show our appreciation.

Stoney Lonesome is a great park. The wheeling is fantastic and while we only had about 5 hours of time left, it was a glorious 5 hours of wheeling. It was worth the 10+ hour drive from Michigan to wheel at Stoney Lonesome and we will be back.

Air down them tires, we have some wheeling to get done. Finally after 4 days in the Jeep, some real wheeling.

Just so you know the struggle is real.

The ledge at Gut Buster. It is at least 6 feet tall and the approach is a very steep angle. The trail was real wet. Looked like a small creek running down the tail. I tied getting up to the ledge and made it about half way. The conditions with the trail being wet would hav required winching almost the whole trail. We just did not have the time for that as there was still a lot of things to see in our limited time.

More to come on Stoney Lonesome. Still looking and editing to be done.

 

[DanW]

Not sure if you were near it at any point, but Eglin AFB has trails on the base. They are peppered with military wrecks, including tanks, rockets, jets, missiles, helecopters and even a dummy MIRV ICBM warhead! I'm not sure if they have kept it open during Covid, but I've heard it is fun and the pics of the military junk make it look like a lot of fun!

 

[daboink]

Awesome trip and an awesome video! I need to do the same in reverse and head to the Northeast to discover some neat places.

 

[Marlon_JB2]

This sounds like a fun trip!

 

[wibornz]

Not sure if you were near it at any point, but Eglin AFB has trails on the base. They are peppered with military wrecks, including tanks, rockets, jets, missiles, helecopters and even a dummy MIRV ICBM warhead! I'm not sure if they have kept it open during Covid, but I've heard it is fun and the pics of the military junk make it look like a lot of fun!

Well dam. I wish I would have known about this. We could have made time for this.

 

[DanW]

Well dam. I wish I would have known about this. We could have made time for this.

I'm sorry! I wish I'd thought of it a couple days ago when I saw this awesome thread! It's on my short list, for sure!

 

[DanW]

Here is a thread on Overlandbound.com that has some GREAT pics in it from Elgin AFB. Plus, while there, you'll get buzzed by just about everything in the US Air Force inventory from F-35's to the new F-15EX that was delivered just a few days to a week ago!

https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/trans-florida-panhandle-route.28861/

 

[Punknhed]

if your a fan of the SR-71 there is one at the air and space Udvar Hazey museum at Dulles airport in chantilly va. i think it is closed right now, but hopefully will be back open when the covid nonsense stops. They also have the space shuttle discovery on display behind the blackbird. its incredible to see up close. Its a pretty cool museum. we have gone 4 or 5 times lol. Also, in Richmond Va they have an SR hanging from the ceiling inside the Science museum. Oh and if your ever in dayton ohio check out the Wright Patterson museum, that one takes a full day to see, they have the Memphis Belle, and all the Air Force "black jets" I just slightly love airplanes lol

 

[wibornz]

if your a fan of the SR-71 there is one at the air and space Udvar Hazey museum at Dulles airport in chantilly va. i think it is closed right now, but hopefully will be back open when the covid nonsense stops. They also have the space shuttle discovery on display behind the blackbird. its incredible to see up close. Its a pretty cool museum. we have gone 4 or 5 times lol. Also, in Richmond Va they have an SR hanging from the ceiling inside the Science museum. Oh and if your ever in dayton ohio check out the Wright Patterson museum, that one takes a full day to see, they have the Memphis Belle, and all the Air Force "black jets" I just slightly love airplanes lol

I have been to the one in Dayton Ohio four times. It is an awesome and if you are an aviation fan, a must see bucket list kind of thing.

 

[HungryHound]

Not sure if you were near it at any point, but Eglin AFB has trails on the base. They are peppered with military wrecks, including tanks, rockets, jets, missiles, helecopters and even a dummy MIRV ICBM warhead! I'm not sure if they have kept it open during Covid, but I've heard it is fun and the pics of the military junk make it look like a lot of fun!

They're open now unless the fly-boys are blowing-up stuff.

 

[Punknhed]

I have been to the one in Dayton Ohio four times. It is an awesome and if you are an aviation fan, a must see bucket list kind of thing.

LOL ive lost count how many times i have been there. My son and i are going in june on vacation. No wheeling just one heck of a road trip which we will wind up in michigan.

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