Coast 2 Coast 5,147 mile JLUR Trip

[72Blazer]

Mmmmmm Hash House


very cool trip. No stops in Texas though.

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[marcdm]

Sounds like a pretty awesome and well mapped out adventure! Ive always wanted to do a cross country trek, so I'll look forward to following along.

Once you arrive back in WC, I'll be certain to wave if I spot your Sting Gray JL. I am only a few miles to the south of you in Danville. If you are from the area, you might recognize Mt Diablo below... No off road Jeep trails... but a great place for my kids to toss rocks off the switchbacks~

Good luck!

Hi fellow jeepers, this is my first thread here and I promise to do my best at keeping it short, but also sharing our trip as much as the WiFi permits!

WHO:
Brian (Me)
Delaney (My girlfriend)
Perticon (Our 2020 Sting Grey Rubicon Recon)

 

[Perticon]

great trip! I also picked up a JLWU Sahara and drove from Miami, through Macon, St. Louis, Colby, KS to Fairplay, CO. After 2 weeks, we moved to Breckinridge until yesterday. We drove to Santa Fe- tomorrow to Dallas, then New Orleans then back home.
Only casualty was a cracked windshield replaced,( and pitted yesterday by an errant driver) , otherwise I absolutely love driving this thing. The 4WD Lo sticks when cold, and it has been cold for weeks!

Have a great time, and enjoy the company along with the vistas.

ps Wear a mask!

That sounds like a great trip! I have been waiting for the windshield to go.. so much gravel has been dropped in these snowy states, but I am doing the best I can to keep my distance. I couldn't agree more, the JL is so smooth on the highway, its awesome! I have tested out 4L and it is definitely sticky, I also forgot how much you somewhat have to throw it in there haha

 

[Perticon]

Mmmmmm Hash House


very cool trip. No stops in Texas though.

mannn we almost did. I have a good amount of people I work with that live in the Houston area, but it just didn't add up for the time frame that we wanted to run. We will come down there soon though!

 

[mjindy]

Thank you for sharing the great trip. How is that one touch top holding up? Leaks, wind noise...?

 

[Perticon]

Sounds like a pretty awesome and well mapped out adventure! Ive always wanted to do a cross country trek, so I'll look forward to following along.

Once you arrive back in WC, I'll be certain to wave if I spot your Sting Gray JL. I am only a few miles to the south of you in Danville. If you are from the area, you might recognize Mt Diablo below... No off road Jeep trails... but a great place for my kids to toss rocks off the switchbacks~

Good luck!

Nice, we will have to get together and get the tires dirty!

 

[Perticon]

Thank you for sharing the great trip. How is that one touch top holding up? Leaks, wind noise...?

This is something I was super worried about, but I am pleasantly surprised thus far. Temp has been in the teens, winds over 30 mph in badlands and a solid 75mph cruise for hours on end and it is doing great. We haven't run into too much heavy rain yet (thank goodness) but no leaks from the rain that we have had. Overall this Jeep is still fairly quiet in my mind. I haven't been in a freedom top JL on the freeway yet, so I cant really draw a comparison, but I am very happy with how the one touch is doing.

 

[Perticon]

January 2, 2021

Day 5-6: 1762/5147m

New Years Eve morning we woke up excited to get to Chicago, a city that I’ve always wanted to visit and that funny enough, a lot of Delaney’s friends from college reside. We got in the Jeep and started another 8 hour day in the car. We got to Chicago around 3pm and picked up one of Delaney’s friends downtown for a little tour of the city. She showed us around the Gold Coast the Loop, Millennium Park (including the bean of course), the skyline and lake view, as well as the river. We kept the Sky One-Touch roof back and heater blasting so we could soak in all that Chicago had to offer without an obstructed view. We finished the tour in Wicker Park, where another one of Delaney’s friends lives, and where we stayed, to begin NYE festivities and reunite with the rest of her friends. We spent the night snacking on charcuterie, bacon wrapped scallops, jalapeno poppers, and plenty of champagne of course, and rang in the New Year with a great group of friends in the cutest/coziest apartment in all of Chicago.

New Years Day we woke up to un-ideal weather but wanted to explore as much as we could regardless. We started the day at Beatnik, a brunch spot and must-see, and ate the most delicious bulgogi fried rice (HIGHLY recommend) and sipped Bangkok Bloody’s. Also, due to it being New Years day, there was a DJ that only added to the insane vibes of this place.

A bit tired from the travels thus far and the night before, we chilled at our friends’ apartment for the afternoon but then decided to brace the cold for some thrift shopping & exploring. We walked the river but it was half snowing half icing, and after about 20 minutes decided we needed to be somewhere with heaters. We drove over to the Wicker Park area and walked Milwaukee Ave. where we found some awesome thrift stores (found a Levi’s winter jacket for $30).

We knew we couldn’t leave Chicago without tying deep dish pizza, so for dinner we ordered Lou Malnatis Pizza to the apartment and stuffed our faces. We weren’t sure if deep dish was going to be our thing, but it did not disappoint.

There’s still so much more to see in Chicago, we most definitely will be back post-covid. Knowing we had yet another 8 hour drive ahead of us, we woke up and did some yoga and stretching to help our stiff bodies, and then got on the road en-route to Kansas City!

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[72Blazer]

mannn we almost did. I have a good amount of people I work with that live in the Houston area, but it just didn't add up for the time frame that we wanted to run. We will come down there soon though!

Keep me posted so we can do some wheeling and boozing! Also stay about 200 miles away from Houston. Way better places to spend your time than there.

 

[Perticon]

forgot to add this.... Super important :P Ship Lou Malnati's Pizza | Tastes of Chicago

Go get yourself a deep dish baby!

 

[mdelzer]

Gumball Head is pretty good, I prefer Zombie Dust or Arctic Panzer Wolf. I just wish they would distribute to Michigan.

 

[JeepVT]

Yum. Three floyds

 

[Perticon]

Gumball Head is pretty good, I prefer Zombie Dust or Arctic Panzer Wolf. I just wish they would distribute to Michigan.

Zombie Dust is a top 3 beer of all time for me! Great choice!

 

[Perticon]

January 4, 2021
Day 7-8: 2276/5147m

So by now we’re starting to realize how long we’ll truly be in a car for… It gets real when you’re starting yet another 8-hour drive. Hey, this is Delaney by the way. Thought you guys might be sick of Brian at this point . Anyways! We made our way to Kansas City from Chicago to visit my old stomping grounds and see a couple more friends (I graduated from KU in 2017). We made our way through the Midwest and arrived at our friends, Gabby and Cameron’s, in KC around 6:30pm. Starving, we started our adventures at Mi Ranchito, a Mexican restaurant that I loved in college and was excited to take Brian to. It’s nothing fancy (and might even seem a bit off putting from the outside) but I promise their food is amazing.

The weather the last couple days had left the streets quite icy and we were happy to see how well the jeep handled it. Like a champ! The next morning, I took Brian to Lawrence, where KU is, and got to show him around my old college town. We took a little tour around the campus and town and had lunch at Merchants (including their famous pickle martini’s). Gabby and I got to reminisce about our college days and got to fill Brian in on all our favorite memories.

Once back in Kansas City we had dinner at Q39, a famous Kansas City BBQ spot that I would take everyone who visited me in college to. Kansas City BBQ is in my opinion, the best BBQ in the country so I knew we had to make it a stop. Brian said it lived up to his expectations and we even had enough leftovers to make a meal for the following day.

We capped off our evening watching the new Wonder Woman (would literally NOT recommend…) and went to bed early in preparation of our very early morning drive to Badlands, South Dakota!

PICS:

 

[RJE2]

looks like a great time. Enjoy and keep the posts coming.