Westward Ho! Part 1

I love Jeeps. I love everything about them. The seven slat grill; the rugged design; the promise of capability; the tin foil transmissions... it all adds up to make something truly special. I've actually loved Jeeps as far back as I can remember. I was able to consummate that love in college when I bought a stock XJ. That was replaced by a ZJ that I lifted and put larger tires on. It actually looked pretty sweet:

So beautiful...

The double whammy of a bad transmission and mounting electrical gremlins made it a fairly easy decision to sell, but I still miss that Jeep today. So last summer when my uncle David asked for my help with finding him a Jeep, I jumped at the opportunity. What started as a search for a generally stock Wrangler ended up as a sweet red 97 TJ with a 3" lift and 33" tires.

Not to mention some great body armor.

Fast forward to this March, and I stumble upon an event called Jeep Camp hosted by Black Hills Jeeps. I shot David an email asking if he wants to take his Jeep out on the trail and break it have some fun. David thought it was a good idea, and we registered. Fast forward again to last week and we're out in Rapid City, with David's son and David's friend Terry. After dropping off our stuff at the family cabin, we headed to Steel Wheel Campground to meet the rest of the Jeep Camp.

Arriving was a little bit of a reality check. While we hadn't though of our Jeep as huge by any means, we figured it would sit midpack with everything else out there. But it turns out we were basically the smallest one! We parked next to a CJ on 40's and finished registration. The second blow came at tech inspection. On a vehicle capability scale of 1-5+ (1 being a paved road, 5+ being Moab) we were rated a 3 like some lowly Subaru or Ford Escape. Now, in all fairness, part of the 3 ranking was due to the fact David had never gone wheeling before, but our egos were somewhat deflated. We sheepishly headed out for the night with the hope we could prove ourselves on the trail.

The one on the right looks like it could eat ours.

Which, spoiler alert, didn't get off to a hot start.

[Part 2 coming soon]

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