Wheelin' for the first time

So I survived the first day out there.

There's still some daylight hours and I've got a little bit of wrenching to do before nightfall. The pics are kinda slow to upload..and I've got some video to post. I'll do that in the tent tonight as long as the battery will hold out. So today will be a two update day.

Veronica definitely took some hard bumps today, but she's a tough girl and earned the respect of the Xterras, the two Jeeps, and the 4Runner that took part in our beginner group. She was the only Frontier out of the group. There are other Frontiers in the mix, but most of them are pretty heavily modified. There are a lot of heavily modified Xterras too. The main liability of the pickup platform is the extended wheel base and limited departure angle presented by the truck bed. In the pick above you can see that the Xterra next to me is maybe somewhere between 18"-24" from back of wheel to back of bumper. I'm more like 30"-40". Things they clear, I hit...HARD. :) I probably could sneak past some if I didn't have the rear hitch. But in the instances where there is no saving me, I'm glad to have that hitch back there. It can take a beating and I'd rather that than the bumper take that punishment. Call it "Poor Man's Armor".

I'll post another update this evening with the pics.

-MANIMAL

Utah: Get Elevated...or something like that...

So first off, this Travel Center in particular saved my life. I powered pretty strong on my second wind after leaving the IHOP for a period of about 1hr 15 min. It was initially kicked off by Fabolous' song "Holla Back Youngin" randomly coming on the radio. And for some reason I was super hyped. But then the mood slowed down. And a couple of times, I did those double long blinks. Where instead of blinking for an instant, they're like two instants. And you string enough of those together and you're asleep at the wheel. Well that pattern was starting. Plus the nights in Kansas while driving are the blackest I've ever experienced. I could easily have rolled off of the road and into some drainage ditch well below the grade of the road never to be found. So I stayed at this one and just napped in the car and no one bothered me. After maybe 1-1/2 to 2 hours, I was ready to go to work.

I was up earlier than the sun and was trying to outrun it. I posted something to that effect on facebook. If Turner ever started a trucking division, they could just acquire this company.

I was determined to make it to their campus. But on second thought, it was a Sunday and it was absolutely dead. I should have just gone straight to Denver and caught up with the convoy. Instead I ended up chasing after them all morning and afternoon with minimal food and sleep.

Everything was locked up and inaccessible. In order to get this shot, I had to crane my arm in behind some chain link fence to get the pic unobstructed.



This was just sheer boredom. This person is an olympian, but I dont recall whom

So I got a proper "leaving" this state photo at the border of Colorado and Utah.

And I decided to let Veronica pose for a photo as well.

All of this was good because as I pulled out into traffic, I ended up kinda cutting off a new convoy of Xterras with a Frontier and I was able to join them for the drive in to Moab. Serendipity.





These are some of the people attending at the condo where we got instructions. I was too cheap to go in for a condo. I kind of like my tent setup anyway.

This was me building it prior to setting up the fly sheet. I had read the instructions once when I first got it. I had wanted to experiment with building the tent, running the generator, installing snow chains, etc. just to make sure that the preparations are there before the emergency.

This is the full setup with the tent and all the camping accessories I'll be using for this go 'round.


She is kind of a beast. I asked one of the trail guides to give me some thoughts on the winch mounting. It is kind of a liability in that it really curtails my angle of approach when encountering a steep grade. We will see tomorrow. Super exhausted. Bed time is happening...NOW

Still got it...

I've only covered about half of the mileage I was able to log yesterday. But I plan on getting a second wind in an hour or so. I'm at an IHOP in Hays, Kansas (exit 159...I know that much) to do these updates. The group I was trying to keep pace with tore through the night last night and blew right through St. Louis, and on to Kansas City 300 miles ahead. I overslept this morning by about 30 minutes and was once again playing catch-up. It was a fun day though with lots of visits. Here's how it went down.

It took 4 tries, but this was the best shot I got of the arch heading into St. Louis.

I was able to link up with Taylor. Here we found a passerby to take our picture with the flag.

This is a giant Billiken formed out of a tree. Or two trees. I don't even know how one makes such a thing.

Warming up some basic stunts.

A cupie must be done everywhere that I go where there is a viable opportunity to pull one off safely.

I hit 1,000 miles on this trip on the on-ramp to go from 64 to 70.

I went to get gas at a Shell station and there was a band doing a car wash. I had them take care of all of the bugs that I massacred on the drive from MD to St. Louis.

Ozarkland. I got like shotglasses for every state. This is just outside of Mizzou.

Anheuser-Bush cares about natural resources (at Mizzou). I just thought it was kind of funny.

Ok. So this picture was taken right after I had tripped up trying to get up too fast to cover the distance to pose for the picture. The shutter was set to multiple exposures; so, you get to see me running into position.

It doesn't look like much, but it really was stinging.

Another rushed welcome sign picture. This one did have a shoulder, but I had already been in Kansas for like 3 miles before this popped up and I was in the center lane. It wasn't worth a potential collision to pose for the shot.

 Two of the guys from KU Cheer. Invariably, the dudes show up first to open stunt.

This was inside the Naismith Exhibit hall which was pretty cool. Here are some shots of history:

Ok. Time for some stunting. Kaitlyn made it out as the only girl. We started busting out some old school stuff. Did a toss to real grip arabesque. Man, it's like we tricked my body into thinking it was 2004.

The Bro'Hawk is on full display here.

New additions to the truck...the text and the decals. I'm missing a bird (Cardinal) and a billiken. We'll have to try to get that rectified.

Are these storm clouds? They were very pretty...but would they be lethal?! I started having flashbacks of the movie Twister. Fortunately, all the cows I passed by were firmly on their feet (as opposed to careening across the roadway mooing). Honestly, I did watch them to make sure they weren't kneeling or laying down in clusters. That's when you know it's about to get real.

So even though I was aware of the "Watch" as I was leaving KU, I was not deterred from stopping at a Dick's sporting goods to pick up some K-State swag...or to take this picture. It started to rain lightly as I set this up. I was going for "Tickets to the Gun Show at K-State". Did you get that same concept?

And now I'm at IHOP. It took me a bit longer than I had planned to do this update. I might need a nap before pushing on further. We'll see.

Wish me luck. Trying to make it to Boulder by sunrise.

Rush and Recovery

So that was this morning...now technically yesterday morning (Friday) at 530am.

I was to have left at 4am, but that's what happens when you're still building things the night before and packing for the first time the morning of.

I told myself the rushed packing was a test of what to do in a Bug-Out situation. My bugout back was packed, but I had not recently inventoried its contents. Some stuff I wanted to bring, and some redundancies were amongst what I had in my head as being needed for this trip. So, I got on the road at 530.

I had only heard back from a few of the coaches of programs that I wanted to visit. That at least meant that I could borrow from the 2 or so hours I had accounted for some of those visits and commit those durations to some serious driving in earnest.

I actually made great time, inadvertently deviated from the route and saved more time still, and then felt inspired enough to make a final 300+ mile push at about 8pm to make it the rest of the way to St. Louis instead of spending the night in Louisville.

My goal was to get out at all of the "Welcome" signs, but they seem to strategically remove the shoulder of the highway immediately prior to and following the sign for a distance of not less than 1/2 mile. So I snapped some really grainy shots at 70mph. Examples:

The Illinois attempt was a debacle. Some sort of weird time delay happened, and by the time I realized what was going on, I ended up with a shot from beneath the dashboard somehow.

And I'm pretty sure I'm in Missouri right now, but I never saw a sign. It's almost like how I thought I was in Illinois because I saw the "I" and stopped reading. 4th grade geography needs to start coming back to me.

Here are some other fun sights from along the way thus far:

The flag only 'lived' for about one hour. It almost tore completely free, but I pulled over and got it while it was hanging on by it's last thread.

I passed by the town where Jenn and I got married. awwww.

I'll quiet my inner 12 year old boy. They have an awesome cheerleading program. No one was on campus to stunt with though. So the 12 year old got to buy things that say Morehead.

Thoroughbred Park in Kentucky. They have some sort of fixation on horses in this state. Also, I realized that this is where I should have been born. To have a truck here is like living anywhere else and having a last name. It is just expected.

I don't think there are any Alphas on the yard. I saw a bench made out of pyramids, but that could have conceivably been anyone. Shout out to the sorors though. Keep it classy.

Not feeling the appearance of a gut in this photo due to shirt bunching. I've actually been starving myself. No more tummy. But I realized that this pic looked all frowny outside of the Student Center...

...So I took a happier one inside

the 'ville. Sad that their book store was closed. I got cool decals at UK and Morehead. I really wanted to add the Kentucky State Bird to my window. I settled for a t-shirt from a nearby mall.

Just thought this was a cool little scene. Sucks though 'cause bugs were literally kamikaze-ing my truck the entire drive. I squeegee'd the windshield 4 separate times. And the bumper? Forget about it. I got Gnats on Gnats on Gnats.