Page updated: 03/13/2002 12:32 AM

I arrived late Thursday night. So Friday morning I woke in the desert. I love waking up in the desert! Got myself disconnected and aired down and got in a short run in the hills. Nothing to get excited about, but it was good to be in 4low. While we were out there, we came across Ryan of Fat City Fabricators. He was in need of steering fluid. After providing him the fluid, he repayed us with some spectacular wheeling. Some crazy dudes them Fat City boys. Another Fat City truck busted his front end in spectacular fashion and my day was made watching these fellows getting wild. We headed back to camp and greeted as lots more of the group were showing up. I got a chance to get in another short run in the early evening. Lots of other runs occurred this weekend out of our camp. But I really didn't get to go on most of these and this was just how I spent the weekend. My original plan for Saturday was to ride with the vendors in our camp (FourXDoctor and Kilby Enterprises) on the main run. But, I knew Brett's Jeep wasn't really ready, but it was close. We encouraged him to bring it out anyway figuring we could get it finished enough out there in the desert. We really hoped we could get some testing done on it and get a good friend back on the trails with us. Friday evening, Brett was able to get around on his own power in rear wheel drive to at least make sure the Jeep was in some kind of order. What he discovered was his rear wrap was so bad with those monster tires he had to have a traction bar to do anything at all. The traction bar was there, but not welded into place. Saturday morning we began searching for torches since the traction bar had to be welded to the pumpkin. Since this was going to take some time, we insisted the rest of the camp go ahead and hit the trails and we'd catch up when we got finished. We talked to Harry of Premier Power welder to see if he had any suggestions. He sent us to the BFG booth/trailer for torches and gave us some rod that he recommended for the job. The BFG guys could not have been a more accommodating bunch of fellows. They didn't seem to mind giving us a hand in the least. We really pushed the mooch envelope in my opinion, but they insisted it wasn't a problem. However, they did mention part of the reason they didn't mind giving us a hand was because we didn't assume their accommodations were there for the taking. I guess it's pretty common for fellows to come to them for help and be pretty demanding. Sucks to hear a wheeler behave like that. But hey, just cause you're a wheeler doesn't make you automatically a decent person I suppose. Anyway, my Jeep provided the welder. BFG provided a flat location, torches, air tools, hand tools, electric tools and a lot of good humor. Harry came over and offered professional advice. Steve McKay our resident expert was there to provide his input and Donald Clark, a long time friend to us, provided the hands on skill. The fabrication job went very well. It still amazes me what can happen in the middle of the desert. This took quite a bit of time though. Right when we finished up with Brett's welding and was putting the tire back on, Harry walks a fellow over to us to see if we could maybe help him out. Turns out it was Ryan again. They needed a little time with the welder. They had that busted front shaft and needed to stick a stick to it to pull it out. I drove over to their camp and they made quick work of that job. Before they had gotten to me, I guess they had been spending a fair amount of time trying to get the busted shaft out without any luck. They were sure appreciative! They need to buy some good beer though. Anyway, got all my stuff packed up in the Jeep again and scurried back to camp. Not long after I got back to camp, some of the group that had ridden on the main run got back from their adventure. Brett got the front driveshaft in and I think he was ready to wheel around 1 or 2 pm finally. A few of us headed out to get a ride in. For all of us that helped fix Brett, this was our first chance out for the day. Brett's Jeep, while still not done, was performing very very well. A few issues surfaced while we were out there but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. Busted driveshaft being one of them. Also his beadlocks weren't holding air so he was on the tit quite a bit. While we were screwing around, the Fat City boys showed up. Three of the fellows jumped out of their own Jeeps, hopped into Ryan's overbuilt Blazer and we knew this was gonna be good. Ryan took what looked like the stupidest line he could find and kicked it's ass! But after he got past the impassable, he found himself in quite a predicament. Watching him trying to get out of it was a blast to watch. They had drawn a crowd and it sounded like a rock crawling event with the cheering going on. Just when it looked like he was gonna have it all worked out, the Blazer spilled over onto it's top to roaring applause. Didn't take a whole lot to get him back on his wheels and out of the hole. While we sat around in this area watching rig after rig try to top Ryan's entertainment, a fellow in a binder needed his steering arm welded up. My karma has got to be in the plus eh? So we got him welded up, then aired up a few of our group that were heading out early and of course, Brett's leaky beadlocks sucked on the tit for a bit too. Once I got my shop packed up again, I headed back to camp. Vicky and I stuffed some groceries down then grabbed a cooler of beer and headed over to the vendor area for the raffle. Brad Kilby provided a most pleasant environment with shelter and heat in his booth. Al was the big winner in our group with some BestTop seats. I got a chance to talk with a bunch of people in our camp that I hadn't really gotten to know yet, drank a bunch of beer, and had more than my fair share of laughter. After the raffle we had what has become an almost traditional marshmellow fight. Ok, on to Sunday. Sunday morning we got busy on Brett's driveshaft. I provided the welder and my wife provided the skill. She recently took a welding class so she could help out and did a very impressive job on Brett's shaft! ;) While we were fixing Brett, most of the camp had gone out for a ride. Again, just when they were getting back, we were finally ready to head out. Most of them needed to pack and get out of there. I would have too, but we wanted to test out Vicky's job on the driveshaft. She kind of insisted. So Brett, Derrick, Clint and I headed out. We got a chance to really mess around but Brett's Jeep was overheating. Rather than push his luck and get too far, he opted to head back to camp. The rest of us headed further into the hills to get some wheeling in. We got pretty far into the hills and it was getting late and I was the only one in the group not staying till Monday. I needed to get back to camp and pack. As we made our way back, I heard a familiar popping noise coming out of my front end. I'd heard that sound on the Rubicon when I busted a front shackle hanger. Sure enough, I busted the other side. Rather than fix it there, it was only a problem when I was articulating so we opted to head back via the washes and fix it when I got to camp. While it wasn't a difficult job, it does take time. The hanger was pretty mangled and Derrick couldn't have done a better job getting it back into shape. My wife did all the welding again and I am so impressed with her work and attitude. It was cold dark and cramped under the Jeep. But she was a total sport about it. Yes, I do agree, it's time I learn to weld. I took a lot of ribbing while she did the majority of the work. After getting the Jeep back together, we finished packing up, hooked the Jeep up to the motorhome and beelined it back into Santee. I really don't think I'm exaggerating to say that my engine ran more this weekend to run the welder and air than it did to push the Jeep. Even so, for any of you who are familiar with this sport know, that sure don't mean the weekend wasn't a success. I've said it before and I'll say it again, TDS Desert Safari is so much fun, it must be a sin!