I had some plastic containers full of butter and mayonnaise, a half dozen eggs, a little container of milk, a few bottles of salad dressings, salad, and lunchmeat, and a block of cheese. Anyway, all that gigantic sloshing around resulted in (remember me mentioning the blender earlier?) the worst, most disgusting, greasy, milky stinking cesspool of repulsive liquid with the rest of my food floating in it. That wasn’t any Pińa-Colada in there either, folks. The ONLY thing I could salvage out of this quagmire was the block of cheese, and I had to rinse it off with a jug of drinking water so that it was consumable. After this, I slammed the lid shut and decided to deal with it when I got home.
After taking a few pictures, we passed a stand of brand new windfarm windmills that had been put up last year. “Those things ought to be painted earth tones to blend in,” I thought to myself. After another few miles, we rejoined Colockum Road and it became time for the party to split up, half of the group was going back south to Ellensburg and the other half was going to finish the trip to Wenatchee by going north.
The rest of the trip home? More beauty of nature with great views, good company, laughs, camaraderie, and real quality time with my family that I would not have missed for anything in this world. Was I ready to go again? You betcha!
And this darn JK Wrangler, it has done something to me, something good. Remember when you first got your driver’s license, you would find ANY excuse to “go to the store, go to the post office, go to….etc?” It was the real fun of driving, and it has happened to me again, even though I got my first license in 1953! It is so good to feel the road and manipulate the gears again (I have the 6 speed). And it is a vehicle that you can be proud to own. By the way, my paint job suffered no permanent scratches, probably due to the clear coat on the paint, and I had put a double layer of Zymol wax on before we left for the trip. In my poor, pathetic, addled mind I feel like I am back in the old days, and I am loving every single moment of it.
Of course, I had to disinfect the ice chest once I returned home. Whooooooffff…bad. very bad.
This old dog learned some new tricks, and I can’t wait to go again and be with the most wonderful gathering of family and new friends such as I just encountered with the Northwest Overland Society. My “Camping Kit” is ready in the garage for the next trip so let’s go!
* Special thanks to Rich Cronin for his contribution of this article and to the Northwest Overland Society for their support of JPFreek Adventure Magazine.
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* Published by JPFreek Jeep Adventure Magazine – The leader in Jeep and adventure enthusiast publications.