River Wheelin'

From Sunday November 9 2008

Wheelin' at MayDaze on the river.

Yesterday I met up with a few members of okjeepthing.com at a place called Maydaze on SW 149th and I-44. As usual, I was all in a rush, thinking I'd be late.

My lovely wife was working a Craft Fair with her Mom at church, and she had my camera, so I had to stop off there on the way. Of course I had to say hi to everyone, no need to be rude LOL

Since we were meeting at noon, I thought I had it timed just right. Went through the drive-through at Burger King, and hit the highway. About halfway there, I realized I forgot to grab some zip-ties from home. Having never been to this place I wasn't sure what kind of wheeling to expect. If I needed to disconnect my front swaybar, I would need at least one. So, I had to go on into Newcastle to WalMart. Yes, on a Saturday. So being the smart guy that I am, I drove around back and went in through Automotive, which is where I needed to be anyway. So I find what I need and head for the register. Not only is there nobody in line! There is nobody behind the counter either. Don't they know I'm in a hurry? So after a few minutes, some dude on a cell phone walks up and drops a load of stuff on the counter in front of me, gives me a look like he's going first and walks off. WT? Tired of waiting, I head back into the store to electronics where there is actually someone working the cash register so I buy the bundle of 2 gazillion zip-ties for 6 bucks, and head back out, past the jerk on the cell phone still waiting and I'm off to the river.

I pull in the parking lot and I see PointBlankOKC is already there. He and I haven't met yet, but I know who he is from the club website. He drives a very cool black TJ with green flames, lifted on 35's. He also owns pointblankokc.com. He makes custom Harley stuff and Jeep stuff. Eventually I want one of his roll cages in my Jeep. So we wait around for a while and chat, of course, talking about Jeeps etc. Next to arrive is Slim in his dark green TJ. His is closest to mine in size. I'm on stock 30's and he has 31's. So if he can go through somewhere, I should be able to as well, maybe lol. Next up is Mud-Dog's brother in his Tahoe pulling a trailer full of ATV's and the Mud-Dog shows up in his white TJ lifted, locked, and running 33's. Slim's parents came as well. They brought a very cool NRA edition camo Kawasaki UTV. Like a 4-wheeler but the seats are side-by-side, 4-wheel drive, lockers, lots of cool stuff. Then I see a very large silver TJ pulling in. I've never seen this one before. Turns out it's Debs. She has the biggest Jeep there, sitting on 37's, around 10 inches of lift, lockers, all the goodies.

As this is all that's expected, we're off. Unlike the last trip, there is not a rock in sight. Sand, sand, and more sand. Right off the bat, PointBlankOKC got high-centered on a sand pile and Slim had to pull him off of it. Then it was off to play in some mud, climb some sand hills etc. Then we started off down the river, across sand bars, through shallow water, across "quicksand"through very deep water and back to dry sand. We stopped and waited for Mud-Dog and his crew to catch up on their ATV's but found out they couldn't traverse the deep water we'd been through, so we headed back to them. I looked in the rearview to see Slim making a 180, then I see where he's going. PointBlankOKC is nose down in a hole in the middle of the Canadian River! After a couple of minutes, PointBlankOKC backs out of the hole and continues on to where we are. Slim pulls up and tells us we're headed for dry land as PointBlankOKC has broken a front axle. Time for a field repair.

They pull off the wheel, and brake rotor. Then re-assemble after removing the axle. Thereby effectively making his Jeep 3-wheel drive. PointBlankOKC decides to call it a day and announces he's never coming back. Apparently he was there last weekend and caught his Jeep on fire! Bad karma or something. He's been there twice and broken twice!

So the little Jeeps go play some more! Under the bridge there were a number of washed out areas leaving ledges for us to climb up and down, then we decided to head west, up river. Slim warns me, that when we hit the white sand, gas it and do not stop, it's very soft and I will sink. So, brainiac that I am, I follow in Slim's tracks, gassing it all the way until I stop moving! So now I have what appears to be a low-rider Jeep! Buried up to the frame! See the photo album for the pic! Along comes Mud-Dog to the rescue. Not only is his Jeep lifted with nice aggressive off-road tires, but he also has a winch. So he goes around, turns around and hooks on to my tow hook and promptly pulls me right out. No sweat. I have got to buy some recovery gear of my own!

Now that I am once again free, we head west, through some mud holes and down the beach, but not too far, the sand runs our and we are looking at very deep, fast moving water, so, back to the east, we try to make a new route with Slim's parents leading the way on their UTV. Next thing we know, it is stuck, they are bailing out of it since they are now sitting in the icy cold river. Slim jumps out of his Jeep and grabs the tow strap, Dad jumps out of the UTV and is standing in almost waist-deep water. The strap is too short, and if Slim pulls in to close the gap, in all likelihood, he'll be stuck too. So we get another strap from Mud-Dog and his wife and extract Mom, Dad, and the UTV which after a couple of minutes partially submerged, starts and runs just fine. However, they are ready to call it a day, I'm sure they were nice and cold.

Oddly enough, Slim's Jeep starts running really rough, even though he hasn't been in any deep water in at least an hour. Then it smoothed out, very strange. So off we go to play some more, through the mud holes and the sand dunes. I took off up a dune and along the crest with Slim following, I go around a downed tree and then back down to ground level. The drop is about as tall as a Jeep is long and very, very steep. I ease it over the edge, then as the front wheels hit the bottom, I gas it and hook it around to the right so I can stop and get a shot of Slim coming down (last 2 pics in the album). After he comes down he has a very relieved look on his face. Turns out, when I went over the edge, he was still behind the downed tree and thought I rolled my Jeep! He thought I dropped down, and then end-over-ended it! Glad that didn't happen. Shortly after that, Slim's Jeep started running rough again, so we called it a day. All in all I think it was a good time, of course, I didn't break either so. Anyway, I look forward to doing it again. It's nice to have a place to legally wheel close to home, 20 minutes instead of 3 hours. WooHoo!