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

[wibornz]

what in incredible journey. Your friends will hopefully love their Tiffin, my parents had one briefly before cancer took my dad and they loved it. THeir plan was to do similar to what you guys did but with a Harley and motor home.... unfortunately cancer had other plans for them. Such an incredible journey you guys got to take, and thankfully share with all of us. Nice to see the internet used for something incredible.

Maybe now that your home, you could do some posts on each state you visited with pics that you havent posted so far.....just a thought.
if you make it to northern Va let me know would love to meet and say hi.

They love the motorhome, the $7,000 a year insurance not so much so.

Cancer is horrible for sure. This is another example of why you don't put off dreams. Put a date on the calendar and make it happen. We get today, and tomorrow is not guaranteed.


I have a ton of video and pics that are not posted. It will take a while before I can sit down with the laptop and go through. It may be a project for down the road. Maybe a best of each state.

It has been a great journey, but it has not ended. We will doing more of this type of travel........ So the journey has really just began.

Sponsored

 

[wibornz]

Ted, thanks for taking us along on the trip.

You're welcome. I only sleep 4 to 5 hours away. so I have to do something while Carla gets her 8 to 10 hours of sleep.

 

[wibornz]

I’ve loved this thread and have enjoyed following along on your trip. You and Carla are very inspiring!

I hope you have a wonderful visit with your son! I get it, I’d be burning rubber all the way home to see my kid, too.

PS: love her car!

Thank you. We just try and be decent people and have fun. I like posting as it gives me something o due and is an outlet to fill my time creatively.

We always love visiting our kids. They have planned some mountain climbing, bouldering and camping for when we are down there. I may take them with me to do the badge trails in South Carolina and Georgia. Leave Carla with our daughter in-law and the boys go wheeling.


It is a fun car. Now to just do a little personalization to it. Maybe some small red accents here and there. Nothing gaudy, very subtle.

 

[wibornz]

I'll just echo what everyone else is saying here... thanks for including us on the journey. I really looked forward to reading your updates and of course seeing the great pictures. And tell Carla thanks for us too. She's a superstar here.

Enjoy your time with your son.

Thank you. Will do, I will tell Carla she is a superstar, and she is. She will give me the eye roll, and I don't care. Lol.

 

[wibornz]

Okay, something I have not done a good job of covering yet. This forum, has enabled me to share this journey with you guys, but it has also made it better for us. This forum gave us the ability to network and communicate so that our journey was enhanced by all of you. There were many times that I thought, hey stop, take this pic as you all will enjoy this. Many of you provided encouragement and it was usually right when we needed it.

There was a couple times our struggle was real and it would have been real easy to just go home. Right at the beginning of the trip, when they messed up Carla's retirement and did not pay her for four months. Living in the little camper meant all kinds of sacrifices like dealing with weather, no potty and always being outside.

Also I created a thread about helping me plan the trip and many people gave me great advice on things to see and do. Super helpful. Then there were the ones that reached out to personally help us along the way. Some became our trail guide for the day, others helped in unimaginable ways and provided sound advice. What a great community. Then there were offers to wheel with us, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not, but it is not if it worked out or not it was the gesture that they were willing to try and make it happen.

I received many PMs over the months with offers of assistance or general insights that we benefited form. Sometimes it might be route advice, other times it was opening up their home for us to stay at, or the garage so we could do maintenance work to the Jeep and camper or just spend the day doing cool stuff with them.

We have gained friends that we are sure will last a life time. It is funny how you will meet someone and say yup, this is a good one and know in that moment that they will be in your life for long time.

@cornercanyon met with us early in the trip. Super great guy, wheeled all day with us and then took us hiking. Carla and I knew right a way that this is a quality guy. He has been wonderful and I sure enough, we crossed paths again in our travel and camped with him in Johnson Valley in Utah over by The Valley of the Gods. He took us wheeling, hiking and camping again for a couple days. Showed us places that were not common knowledge out hiking and just had a wonderful time. We first met Cornercanyon in Texas and he wheeled Hidden Falls with us and then took us hiking. This is when he was sporting in JK........ He has since upgraded.

Then acted as our guide for hiking at Enchanted Rock. Jump a few months ahead and we ended up meeting again. He acted as our guide for some interesting and incredible hiking.

He took us down trails that are not on the normal routes.

and took us to places that are not on the tourist maps. like this. Where the trail is barely visible and as not many know about the location.

Make no mistake, Carla will out hike all of us easily, except Cornercanyon. He would take off and show Carla areas that will leave a lasting impression on her. She often talks about hiking with him again.

Plus anyone who will climb up on top of their camper to take their shoes off and chill while overlooking camp and the great southwest, you know he is just a good guy to the core.

I am sure our paths will cross again. We look forward to seeing him again. If I just mention his name, Carla will light up and say I can't wait to hike with him again. Super knowledgeable about the area we where is and the type of guy that inspires happiness and adventure.

I posted something about being camped on the road that leads to Zion National Park, @gandk hits me up and says something along the line of I think I am camped right down the hill from you.. So I invite him up for coffee in the morning. Well gandk is a great guy and we end up wheeling Sand Hollow with him and enjoying a couple days of hanging out with him and his wife. He leaves us all over Sand Hollow and we go have a cookout on the edge of the lake. What a perfect day. Make no mistake gandk wheels. We had a blast with him.

Had to reset to a better line on this.

So after leaving gandk and heading off, we are wheeling in Valley of the Gods and as we crest a hill, There is gandk coming our way.

gandk and his wife are great fun. We moved camp over to Mexican Hat and spend the evening with them. We had a great party and let our hair down some... so to speak. gandk and his wife are just fun to be around.

@DGT another life time friend for sure. Just talked with him on the phone yesterday. He and his wife are a true gem. Quality people for sure the kind of people that you just want in your life. Humble, generous, intelligent and just fun to be around. DGT hit us up and offered us a day on his boat so that we could get out the camper and Jeep for the day. In less than 2 minutes, I knew he was a special kind of person. You have to know that with my past job, and all the training I have had in investigation, interviewing training, personal assessment training, he was just a stand out. This is a guy that was like hey, got a boat, you guys are in my area, if you need a break, come join me for a day on the boat. Had a super time cruising Lake Powell. You have to be brave to welcome this crew on your boat.

Talk about enhancing a journey. I boat ride and swimming in Lake Powell was NOT on our radar.

Just a cool dude

DGT had ordered a JLURD and was going to join us in Moab and wheel with us. Unfortunately by the time his Jeep came in and he got the lift and tires installed, he missed us in Moab by a couple of days. Then a month or so later, when it was just Carla and me traveling as the other had headed home he hit us up and offered us a place to stay and do maintenance on our Jeep before we headed to Alaska. We are so glad we took him up on it. His offer was like hey I have an apartment you can say in for a day or two, a week or month or whatever. You can clean your Jeep and camper and do any maintenance or repairs before you head to Alaska. It was about three hours out of our way, hey a chance to hang with DGT again is worth a two day drive out of the way.

Plus we did a bunch of wheeling together and he showed me Kanab Utah that I would have never shaw on my own.

He did get himself a sweet JLURD.

He also took us to great places to not only wheel, but to explore. I grabbed this pic of Carla while out with DGT on our first outing.

DGT was fearless. Brand new Jeep and he is dropping it off ledges that that are off chamber and 4ft drops. My kind of guy. This pic does not do this obstacle justice.

We went to DGT place with the intention of being there about 2 days. We had so much fun with DGT and his wife, that we ended up spending 8 days with them. Great food, great company, great hiking and of course great wheeling. We will hopefully see DGT and his wife again this coming winter if everything works out right.


I still have more people to thank, but out of time for the moment.

 

[blnewt]

She has owned many manual transmission vehicles and rode motorcycles. She even owned a ZX-10 Ninja. As we get older, the auto is the way to go. Can't drink coffee and shift a manual car fifty times in ten miles. So she has the 10 speed auto with paddle shifters.

Prolly easier to keep slinging that fighting knife too if you don't have to worry about what your feet are doing

 

[gandk]

Okay, something I have not done a good job of covering yet. This forum, has enabled me to share this journey with you guys, but it has also made it better for us. This forum gave us the ability to network and communicate so that our journey was enhanced by all of you. There were many times that I thought, hey stop, take this pic as you all will enjoy this. Many of you provided encouragement and it was usually right when we needed it.

There was a couple times our struggle was real and it would have been real easy to just go home. Right at the beginning of the trip, when they messed up Carla's retirement and did not pay her for four months. Living in the little camper meant all kinds of sacrifices like dealing with weather, no potty and always being outside.

Also I created a thread about helping me plan the trip and many people gave me great advice on things to see and do. Super helpful. Then there were the ones that reached out to personally help us along the way. Some became our trail guide for the day, others helped in unimaginable ways and provided sound advice. What a great community. Then there were offers to wheel with us, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not, but it is not if it worked out or not it was the gesture that they were willing to try and make it happen.

I received many PMs over the months with offers of assistance or general insights that we benefited form. Sometimes it might be route advice, other times it was opening up their home for us to stay at, or the garage so we could do maintenance work to the Jeep and camper or just spend the day doing cool stuff with them.

We have gained friends that we are sure will last a life time. It is funny how you will meet someone and say yup, this is a good one and know in that moment that they will be in your life for long time.

@cornercanyon met with us early in the trip. Super great guy, wheeled all day with us and then took us hiking. Carla and I knew right a way that this is a quality guy. He has been wonderful and I sure enough, we crossed paths again in our travel and camped with him in Johnson Valley in Utah over by The Valley of the Gods. He took us wheeling, hiking and camping again for a couple days. Showed us places that were not common knowledge out hiking and just had a wonderful time. We first met Cornercanyon in Texas and he wheeled Hidden Falls with us and then took us hiking. This is when he was sporting in JK........ He has since upgraded.

Then acted as our guide for hiking at Enchanted Rock. Jump a few months ahead and we ended up meeting again. He acted as our guide for some interesting and incredible hiking.

He took us down trails that are not on the normal routes.

and took us to places that are not on the tourist maps. like this. Where the trail is barely visible and as not many know about the location.

Make no mistake, Carla will out hike all of us easily, except Cornercanyon. He would take off and show Carla areas that will leave a lasting impression on her. She often talks about hiking with him again.

Plus anyone who will climb up on top of their camper to take their shoes off and chill while overlooking camp and the great southwest, you know he is just a good guy to the core.

I am sure our paths will cross again. We look forward to seeing him again. If I just mention his name, Carla will light up and say I can't wait to hike with him again. Super knowledgeable about the area we where is and the type of guy that inspires happiness and adventure.

I posted something about being camped on the road that leads to Zion National Park, @gandk hits me up and says something along the line of I think I am camped right down the hill from you.. So I invite him up for coffee in the morning. Well gandk is a great guy and we end up wheeling Sand Hollow with him and enjoying a couple days of hanging out with him and his wife. He leaves us all over Sand Hollow and we go have a cookout on the edge of the lake. What a perfect day. Make no mistake gandk wheels. We had a blast with him.

Had to reset to a better line on this.

So after leaving gandk and heading off, we are wheeling in Valley of the Gods and as we crest a hill, There is gandk coming our way.

gandk and his wife are great fun. We moved camp over to Mexican Hat and spend the evening with them. We had a great party and let our hair down some... so to speak. gandk and his wife are just fun to be around.

@DGT another life time friend for sure. Just talked with him on the phone yesterday. He and his wife are a true gem. Quality people for sure the kind of people that you just want in your life. Humble, generous, intelligent and just fun to be around. DGT hit us up and offered us a day on his boat so that we could get out the camper and Jeep for the day. In less than 2 minutes, I knew he was a special kind of person. You have to know that with my past job, and all the training I have had in investigation, interviewing training, personal assessment training, he was just a stand out. This is a guy that was like hey, got a boat, you guys are in my area, if you need a break, come join me for a day on the boat. Had a super time cruising Lake Powell. You have to be brave to welcome this crew on your boat.

Talk about enhancing a journey. I boat ride and swimming in Lake Powell was NOT on our radar.

Just a cool dude

DGT had ordered a JLURD and was going to join us in Moab and wheel with us. Unfortunately by the time his Jeep came in and he got the lift and tires installed, he missed us in Moab by a couple of days. Then a month or so later, when it was just Carla and me traveling as the other had headed home he hit us up and offered us a place to stay and do maintenance on our Jeep before we headed to Alaska. We are so glad we took him up on it. His offer was like hey I have an apartment you can say in for a day or two, a week or month or whatever. You can clean your Jeep and camper and do any maintenance or repairs before you head to Alaska. It was about three hours out of our way, hey a chance to hang with DGT again is worth a two day drive out of the way.

Plus we did a bunch of wheeling together and he showed me Kanab Utah that I would have never shaw on my own.

He did get himself a sweet JLURD.

He also took us to great places to not only wheel, but to explore. I grabbed this pic of Carla while out with DGT on our first outing.

DGT was fearless. Brand new Jeep and he is dropping it off ledges that that are off chamber and 4ft drops. My kind of guy. This pic does not do this obstacle justice.

We went to DGT place with the intention of being there about 2 days. We had so much fun with DGT and his wife, that we ended up spending 8 days with them. Great food, great company, great hiking and of course great wheeling. We will hopefully see DGT and his wife again this coming winter if everything works out right.


I still have more people to thank, but out of time for the moment.

This forum is great and Jeepers in general are super people. It was awesome to meet up with you and your awesome group of friends. We even got to wheel with your Jeep Club in Moab and walk through the EJS exhibits with you. Happy trails and I hope we to cross paths again.

Greg and Kim @gandk

 

[wibornz]

This forum is great and Jeepers in general are super people. It was awesome to meet up with you and your awesome group of friends. We even got to wheel with your Jeep Club in Moab and walk through the EJS exhibits with you. Happy trails and I hope we to cross paths again.

Greg and Kim @gandk

I was on people overload in Moab, and I think my local Jeep club from back home adopted you, wheeled with you feed you and drank with you...... I do have a great bunch of Jeep friends back home and they welcomed gandk and his wife in like they where family.

This is my favorite pic. that I got of gandk Jeep while in Moab. So many days run together. I forget what I did at Moab until I look back at the photos. Your wife got some great pics those days too.

 

[cornercanyon]

Okay, something I have not done a good job of covering yet. This forum, has enabled me to share this journey with you guys, but it has also made it better for us. This forum gave us the ability to network and communicate so that our journey was enhanced by all of you. There were many times that I thought, hey stop, take this pic as you all will enjoy this. Many of you provided encouragement and it was usually right when we needed it.

There was a couple times our struggle was real and it would have been real easy to just go home. Right at the beginning of the trip, when they messed up Carla's retirement and did not pay her for four months. Living in the little camper meant all kinds of sacrifices like dealing with weather, no potty and always being outside.

Also I created a thread about helping me plan the trip and many people gave me great advice on things to see and do. Super helpful. Then there were the ones that reached out to personally help us along the way. Some became our trail guide for the day, others helped in unimaginable ways and provided sound advice. What a great community. Then there were offers to wheel with us, sometimes it worked out, sometimes not, but it is not if it worked out or not it was the gesture that they were willing to try and make it happen.

I received many PMs over the months with offers of assistance or general insights that we benefited form. Sometimes it might be route advice, other times it was opening up their home for us to stay at, or the garage so we could do maintenance work to the Jeep and camper or just spend the day doing cool stuff with them.

We have gained friends that we are sure will last a life time. It is funny how you will meet someone and say yup, this is a good one and know in that moment that they will be in your life for long time.

@cornercanyon met with us early in the trip. Super great guy, wheeled all day with us and then took us hiking. Carla and I knew right a way that this is a quality guy. He has been wonderful and I sure enough, we crossed paths again in our travel and camped with him in Johnson Valley in Utah over by The Valley of the Gods. He took us wheeling, hiking and camping again for a couple days. Showed us places that were not common knowledge out hiking and just had a wonderful time. We first met Cornercanyon in Texas and he wheeled Hidden Falls with us and then took us hiking. This is when he was sporting in JK........ He has since upgraded.

Then acted as our guide for hiking at Enchanted Rock. Jump a few months ahead and we ended up meeting again. He acted as our guide for some interesting and incredible hiking.

He took us down trails that are not on the normal routes.

and took us to places that are not on the tourist maps. like this. Where the trail is barely visible and as not many know about the location.

Make no mistake, Carla will out hike all of us easily, except Cornercanyon. He would take off and show Carla areas that will leave a lasting impression on her. She often talks about hiking with him again.

Plus anyone who will climb up on top of their camper to take their shoes off and chill while overlooking camp and the great southwest, you know he is just a good guy to the core.

I am sure our paths will cross again. We look forward to seeing him again. If I just mention his name, Carla will light up and say I can't wait to hike with him again. Super knowledgeable about the area we where is and the type of guy that inspires happiness and adventure.

I posted something about being camped on the road that leads to Zion National Park, @gandk hits me up and says something along the line of I think I am camped right down the hill from you.. So I invite him up for coffee in the morning. Well gandk is a great guy and we end up wheeling Sand Hollow with him and enjoying a couple days of hanging out with him and his wife. He leaves us all over Sand Hollow and we go have a cookout on the edge of the lake. What a perfect day. Make no mistake gandk wheels. We had a blast with him.

Had to reset to a better line on this.

So after leaving gandk and heading off, we are wheeling in Valley of the Gods and as we crest a hill, There is gandk coming our way.

gandk and his wife are great fun. We moved camp over to Mexican Hat and spend the evening with them. We had a great party and let our hair down some... so to speak. gandk and his wife are just fun to be around.

@DGT another life time friend for sure. Just talked with him on the phone yesterday. He and his wife are a true gem. Quality people for sure the kind of people that you just want in your life. Humble, generous, intelligent and just fun to be around. DGT hit us up and offered us a day on his boat so that we could get out the camper and Jeep for the day. In less than 2 minutes, I knew he was a special kind of person. You have to know that with my past job, and all the training I have had in investigation, interviewing training, personal assessment training, he was just a stand out. This is a guy that was like hey, got a boat, you guys are in my area, if you need a break, come join me for a day on the boat. Had a super time cruising Lake Powell. You have to be brave to welcome this crew on your boat.

Talk about enhancing a journey. I boat ride and swimming in Lake Powell was NOT on our radar.

Just a cool dude

DGT had ordered a JLURD and was going to join us in Moab and wheel with us. Unfortunately by the time his Jeep came in and he got the lift and tires installed, he missed us in Moab by a couple of days. Then a month or so later, when it was just Carla and me traveling as the other had headed home he hit us up and offered us a place to stay and do maintenance on our Jeep before we headed to Alaska. We are so glad we took him up on it. His offer was like hey I have an apartment you can say in for a day or two, a week or month or whatever. You can clean your Jeep and camper and do any maintenance or repairs before you head to Alaska. It was about three hours out of our way, hey a chance to hang with DGT again is worth a two day drive out of the way.

Plus we did a bunch of wheeling together and he showed me Kanab Utah that I would have never shaw on my own.

He did get himself a sweet JLURD.

He also took us to great places to not only wheel, but to explore. I grabbed this pic of Carla while out with DGT on our first outing.

DGT was fearless. Brand new Jeep and he is dropping it off ledges that that are off chamber and 4ft drops. My kind of guy. This pic does not do this obstacle justice.

We went to DGT place with the intention of being there about 2 days. We had so much fun with DGT and his wife, that we ended up spending 8 days with them. Great food, great company, great hiking and of course great wheeling. We will hopefully see DGT and his wife again this coming winter if everything works out right.


I still have more people to thank, but out of time for the moment.

This forum is its members. And the members here are really a great diverse group. Not only interested in mods, or BOH trails; interested in Jeep Life and all that means. You and Carla are the epitome of this forum: trail running, mechanics, hiking, radios, photography, rock crawling, dispersed camping, trail and camp ethics, mods,... The whole package.

Thank you for the kind words. Looking forward to watching your next adventure unfold here and our next meeting outside–

 

[mnjeeper]

Even ending early, this is a trip nearly anyone would be truly fortunate to be on.

Sincere thanks from me, I loved following along,

 

[AMT]

Ted, not sure if this would have affected your trip but if it was part of it you dodged it as well coming back early.

 

[wibornz]

Even ending early, this is a trip nearly anyone would be truly fortunate to be on.

Sincere thanks from me, I loved following along,

This just means we start a different trip and a different thread.

 

[wibornz]

Also a big shout out to @hickinwa

and @Left Field

they both saved me a lot of potential hassle while visiting their area. It is local members like them that through their generosity and knowledge of the their area help make a trip like this smooth and successful.

Big Thanks guys.

 

[wibornz]

Ted, not sure if this would have affected your trip but if it was part of it you dodged it as well coming back early.

Talk about dodging a bullet. Sometimes things change our plans and luck is on our side.

 

[wibornz]

Over the last couple days, I have been trying to convince Carla that we need to take the Jeep to New Hampshire and pick of the badge trail there, go see the boys, then go to South Carolina for that badge then Georgia for that badge, and maybe Missouri for those badges. Then we will just have one in California (Dusty Ershim) that is a 5000 mile trip. Sadly we dam near drove by it last month, and Poughkeepsie Gulch in Colorado to get and we will have wheeled all the badge trails.

She is thinking about taking the car, and doing the Blueridge Parkway, the tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway. Then maybe after leaving the boys do a run down the Outer Banks.

She is not keen on the idea of doing another almost 4000 miles right now. Plus we are planning on going to Overland Expo East in October. I am working on submitting an application to be an instructor at the event. So we may do the whole Jeep loop then if we take the car to see the boys.

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