Normal people sleep in on weekends but then again we are far from normal. The day trip to Moses Lake began at 7:30. I arrived a little early as I normally do. I found a nice place to park kind of away from the other cars. I guess Wendy’s Jeep was not cool enough because Cosmin and Cheryl parked next to some random jeep in the parking lot. So I guess if you can’t beat them join them. We had a quick meeting to talk about convoy rules and we hit the road. We even left on time. The Brady’s in “Jeeper George” followed by Cheryl’s bone stock JKU, Shan’s newly purchased JKU with his son Mathew and Cosmin running sweep in his bad to the bone baby blue JK.
The trip over was uneventful. The rigs made short work of the pass with a little rain and rain-snow mix along the way. The east side of the pass was windy and was very windy near Moses Lake.
It did take some time to find the race car group but we did find them after a quick stop to sign the volunteer cleanup sheets. We were also joined by Jeff Mars in the Mighty Red TJ. We aired down and it was time to hit the sand. Karl (sorry if I did not spell this right) in his nearly bone stock TJ, Anthony in the 4861 Chirobody ultra 4 , Evan in the LJ and Ron in his hoodless monster also hit the sand with us.
Out on the sand the wind was blowing a lot more than normal. At least 20 knots. Evan decided that the best protection against sand was to wear underwear on his face. The rest of us chose dignity. Time to find us a few small hills to climb. I was able to find the same hill we have had fun with in the past. I had some fun playing around climbing on the hills. I rolled up one and almost made it to the top. As I started to let off, Jeff urgently came on the radio “QUICK CURT TURN ON YOUR LIGHTS”. As we don’t have a single light bar or angry grill on George, I had to back down and give it some more wood. #lightsbeforlockers. Of course I could have turned on the lockers but sometimes it is more fun without. There are two ways to climb a hill like this. You can get more speed and eat the woops at the bottom or you can come at it slower and gun it right near the bottom. Jeff loves the full speed eat woops method. I then went to help Shan who was having a little trouble. He said something about trying second, so I said sure try it out. “Insert clutch smell here” Ahhh I thought…… I asked are you in low? The magic of low gear. This time Shan flew up the hill and the look on his face was priceless. He may be hooked! Cheryl too was killing it! Evan well what can I say was being Evan. He had the LJ pointed uphill in low wheels spinning slow and just sitting there. The funny part was that he was pulling sand down the hill and it would go under his tires. It is hard to explain but he could have stayed there for a long time and never dug a hole.
Then the Tamer air force came out to play. Sir Air Anthony was first. He almost made it look easy. He would start slow and then get on it. At the top launch time! I know my Cj could jump just like that. The only issue would be that the wheels would fall off on landing. Somehow we forgot to tell Karl that he does not have an Ultra 4 race car but that was not stopping him. The little red jeep got just as much air as the big dogs. Next was Ron in his new toy. Rons first jump was a little conservative although when I say conservative, I still mean way more extreme than anything I would do. The next jump Ron let it fly. At this point, we learned that Ron’s new toy is nose heavy. The front landed way before the back. But it still came out of the jump just fine.
Lots more driving and some stops for lunch. After lunch we found the big bowl. Jeff gunned it and road the bowl perfectly, carving a nice half circle. Then It was time to drop off the steepest longest hill at Moses Lake. These types of drops can be very intimidating so I helped out anyone who was nervous to try it. Like Obi Wan Kenobi in star wars I heard Moose’s voice in my head as I spoke his words. In sand the hill can’t ever get so steep that you can’t drive down it. By the time we left everyone had tried the big hill and loved every minute of it.
All and all a great day with lots of smiles.
Cheers!
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