Many of you know, that Gary and I have been judging at WE Rock, for 6 years now, and absolutely love it! Since the onset of RRC (Reiter Rock Crawl) we have managed to get a few more hooked on this! Ryan Sorenson, and Travis Butterfield!
Gary and I headed out at 9am Friday morning. As you know, traffic sucks at that time of the morning, and NO ONE wants to be behind a dually with a camper, pulling a trailer with a truck on it and a scooter on front! So, every time we would get several car lengths between us and the vehicle ahead, 2 or 3 more cars would jump in front of us!
As the spotter, I keep tabs on where the truck is positioned on the road….not too close to edges, don’t go too fast, and oh crap, there are a butt ton of brake lights ahead of us! As 2 cars jumped in front of us, and then came to a dead stop, Gary smashed his brakes, tires squealed, smoke piled out of the rear, and I braced for impact, as there was no way we were NOT going to have a Honda hood ornament, and cause a multi car rear-ender. At the last second, Gary let off the brake, and cranked the wheel to the left, hoping there was no one in the “pay to use” carpool lane, and thinking, less damage there, than in front of us. I glanced out at the side mirror as we barreled out of the lane, and saw about 6 inches, between the car that was in front of us, and our trailer! But, I didn’t see, hear or feel any impact! HOLY POOP….LITERALLY! We carefully worked our way to the right side, looking to see if anyone was following us, looking for insurance and license info. Apparently, we were lucky and didn’t hit one vehicle! We found a safe place to get off the freeway and check out load, and change skivvies! The right side camper tie downs were now loose, trailer and Miss Creant were tightly secured. As I sat down on the trailer, I noticed that the camper was now NOT centered on the truck bed (for those of you who know Gary, this is unacceptable)….it was now positioned about 2 or 3 inches to the left! Inside, all our gear was scattered about, but nothing broken….so, off we continued on. We were NOT going to miss WE Rock!
We arrived at 2pm, and there were around 20 rigs already there, usually there are about 5 at this time, so we quickly headed to the tree line, where it is a bit cooler, and grabbed a spot for all of us. Travis Butterfield pulled in at about 4:45 pm, Terry and Susan Crawford pulled in around 6pm, Chad Krebs and Tom Baker around 7pm I think, and last, Cheryl and Ryan Sorenson in a rented RV, pulled in around 10 or 11pm! Bed Time.
Saturday morning, camp came alive, with Terry and Susan making breakfast, judges heading to the judges meeting and Tom and Chad getting their Tech done. Since Karl VP is on a boat, he asked Tom to take his jeep to compete at WE Rock, Chad would spot for him. Chad brought his Toyota to compete, and Tom spotted for him! This could be problematic, with each spotting for each other….think Pay Backs!
Cheryl and her Mom Sandra, opted to keep watch over their two pooches, and take lots of pictures, thank you!
Gary and I were judging course 3 and 4, sportsman class C. Ryan and Travis opted to judge unlimited course A1. When Tom ran our C3 course, well….. apparently he managed to disconnect the driveline bolts…or someone never tightened them to begin with? Once Chad also ran our course, they both starting making calls to find the parts needed to continue. Once parts were located, Terry just needed a vehicle to go retrieve them….hmmm, we offered him our little red Scooter….then Travis offered his big Red Jeep….apparently he preferred the big red Jeep to the little red scooter.
During lunch break, Gary and I got a chance to watch Tom on C1 Course….NOT a good course for them in front wheel drive. There was some more carnage and more phone calls were made for additional parts! As the time approached for Tom to run our C4 Course, here comes Chad, I am fully expecting him to announce 45 minute break down time. HECK NO, he says our plan is to try to pass gate 1, if we do, then on to Gate 2, and so on. This course, was almost all downhill on Saturday, so that was on Tom’s side for his front wheel drive only rig. If any of you know Tom, well, he figured the skinny pedal was the only way he would make it through this course, so off he flew at the Speed of Rudi through gate 1, then gate 2 was an uphill battle over a couple huge rocks…..Tom opted to do this with Rear wheel drive, which means he blasted through it in reverse! Headed back down the hill through the last several gates, and before we knew it, he had the fastest time of the day on that course! Spectacular run Tom and Chad!
Chad’s runs on Saturday, were awesome as well, though no breakage…only once did I hear him yell “Am I going to flop”? There was also a lot of noise from Chad, referring to his spotter… “Come On Spotter”, “move it spotter”, etc. Some could see this as encouragement, and others could see it as heckling. Either way, these two boys got the job done!
When we returned to camp Saturday evening, Tom and Chad had Karl’s jeep taken apart and had a welder out, tools and parts scattered everywhere, and a gal under the rear end doing the 1/8 turns on each and every driveline bolt!
Everyone cooked up meals and hid away from all the bees while eating. At this point, the 3 bee traps were completely full of bees, so now they only had us to feed on. Travis kindly emptied all the bees, and made a HUGE dead bee pile out back. There was the usual chit chat and stories told around the lantern, for a few hours, then most began to turn in. As Gary, Tom and I were the last people hanging out, Chad comes out of the trailer, in his skivvies, and in some obvious pain…..He has a muscle cramp. I run in to get one of my home made essential oil concoction, to see if it will help to alleviate his pain, as he is wondering camp trying to get it to loosen up. I come out with my tincture, and ask where it hurts….this was likely an interesting view, as I lean over Chad in his skivvies, and start dousing his thigh with my tincture, up and down, to be sure we get it all! Needless to say, within about 60 seconds, Chad stands all the way up and proclaims he is healed, and heads back to bed! Yeah for the natural essential oils!
Sunday started the same as Saturday, except no one had to get up quite as early. Most began the pack up, so not as much work after the competition was done. Everyone headed back to their posts and the competition began, after the bone chilling quiet, while the tear jerking, national anthem was belted out by Leanne Rhymes!
Tom and Chad both had exceptional Days. I don’t remember all the stats, but I think Tom only hit one cone the whole day! Chad may have done better by 10 points, if it wasn’t for his spotter hitting a cone, as he maneuvered a log….THAT was a hard cone to call, but we had to be fair, and make the call.
Ultimately CHAD took 3rd place in Sportsman C class, and TOM right behind him with 4th place! EXCELLENT job by both Tom and Chad!
As always, it was a great weekend, the weather was not near as hot as it usually is, though the wind was pretty nasty.
If any of you are enjoy the rock crawling competition, this is a great event to attend. They always need more judges (we were short 2 teams this year). I encourage others to come watch, compete or judge!
Thanks for reading!
Casey
TT #256