One more photo session this evening, a sales session in the morning and then I have the rest of the holiday weekend off to do whatever I want.  My Jeep is ready to go for Sunday and I'm looking forward to the day of wheeling with friends.

I received a call from the owner of the professional lab we use and he asked if he could drive down from Iowa to meet with us.  We are pretty high volume for a photography studio when it comes to albums and such and he wants to get together in person to help strengthen our business relationship, look at Jodi's editing and color correction processes and discuss a mutually beneficial partnership in regard to promotion opportunities.  I'm looking forward to our meeting.

JD sent me a video yesterday of him singing at a local establishment on Karaoke night.  He sang Aerosmith's "Dream On".  The video quality is pretty poor but the audio is good enough to tell that he really sings well.  I like the fact that he likes all genre's of music.  I wish he would try his hand at recording.

We had a fun session yesterday in the urban jungle and we followed that up with a late night dinner at Waffle House.  Jodi met me and my assistant there and we enjoyed some breakfast for dinner. 

To my surprise, my Badge of Honor for Holy Cross arrived yesterday.  Typically these badges have been taking months on end to receive but apparently their recent supplier change has sped up delivery of them.  Next month, I'm running tow more Badge of Honor trails at SMORR.

We are off to Kansas Rocks on Sunday morning for a day of wheeling.   It has been awhile since we have been there so we are due for a visit.  We'll be wheeling with good friends and members of our club.  Thew weather has turned nicer here temp wise and I am looking forward to Fall.

We received a nice thunderstorm yesterday around dinner time.  It was perfect timing as my yard guys had just finished up mowing and then the lawn got a nice drink.  With the three day weekend ahead, I should plan to do some weeding and getting the lawn ship shape for Fall.

We have a perfect day here in KC with a high of around 80 degrees.  Our senior today really lucked out for her session as it has been pretty hot of late.  Tomorrow I have a session with a boy that will finish out on a golf course which should be pretty fun. 

Yesterday, I spent some time working on our big Jeep event scheduled for September 16th at Smithville Lake.  Our Jeep social group usually meets at a local restaurant but I suggested we get together for an outdoor event and everyone seemed to love the idea.  So, I created our Jeep Invasion event. Our company donated the fees for the pavillion and will also provide some meet for grilling.  We currently have about 70 Jeeps who have RSVP'ed for the event and I hope to get it to 100.  It will be a day of fun at the lake with our Jeeple.

The short weekend is over and it's back to work at the day job and three photo sessions and three ordering sessions ahead.  At least this weekend will be a three day weekend that should include some wheeling on Sunday at Kansas Rocks.  We haven't been there in a while and will be going with a contingent of our Jeeple and club members.  I expect a large turnout since it's a holiday weekend.

It looks like we will have a good sized group going to SMORR the weekend of the 22nd.  We are going to likely stay in Springfield at a nicer hotel than the ones that are closer to the off road park.  I'll pay more and drive further to do so. 

 

We had a fun urban session last night with a young lady who lives about an hour away from us.  Her mom really loved the whole experience we provided it calling it a "once in a lifetime experience".  Big sale coming!

I'm still waiting on a ship notice for some parts I ordered that will need powder coating so I'm hesitant to remove my front bumper until I see they are on their way as I want to be able to drive my Jeep until they arrive.  I have some free time next week so I'll just wait a bit longer. 

I'm looking forward to having three days off for Labor Day.  Luckily, it is not my weekend to work so I get some extra time off as I head into my 30th anniversary month.  We also get a nice bonus at work in September so MORE JEEP PARTS! 

After work yesterday, I headed over to the Brass Rail for a farewell party for my immediate supervisor who is retiring after 41 years with our company.  We have worked together at both St. Louis and Kansas City and he has been a great person to work with for all of these years.  It just so happens that the Brass Rail is where our Northland Jeep group meets and a few friends had arrived before I left the party to head home for a couple sales sessions.  When I got home, Jodi headed over and hung out with all of our Jeeple for a few hours.  She got home right as I was wrapping up the second sales session.  Two more sales sessions and two shoots remain this week for us.

It's hard to believe it is almost September.  This year has really flown by but I am certainly looking forward to the Fall weather.  It's my favorite season and going off roading in the Fall is probably my favorite thing to do.  I'm really looking forward to going to SMORR for the first time and we are talking about a trip down to Arkansas for some wheeling too, maybe in late October or early November.  There are two Badge of Honor trails at SMORR and 3 at Superlift ORV in Hot Springs.   

Work consumes us, at least for 3 more months and then we should see a break.  Jodi doesn't leave her desk chair much and I'm taking over all of the sales sessions so she can work or get a break.  I have two sales sessions tonight.  She is going to work all day and then go to our Jeep group meetup to relax a bit while I do my thing.  I'm glad she enjoys the mind numbing work that I cannot deal with but even she needs breaks from time to time.  She's been getting to go to Jeep meetups and I've been missing them but I'd rather her get the break than me.

I hope to get my bumper to the powder coater next week.  I have some new parts coming that need to be powder coated so as soon as they arrive I'll head that way with them and the bumper.  They just finished up my Posion Spyder bumper skid plate so I'll get that while I'm there.  I've been thinking about adding a cage to my Jeep too.  I've been doing more extreme wheeling and for safety reasons, it may be the right thing to do.  That would probably be a winter project along with Raptor Lining my exterior.  I'm excited to get that done.

Here is a quick drone shot from Mosquito Pass in Colorado.  I've got a lot of video to get through.  Watch it on Youtube for a bigger view and to choose high resolution. 

T minus 30 days until I get my 30 years in.  After that, anything can happen. 

We spent some time doing a little shopping on Saturday with three of our model team members.  We used them to help us pick out some trendy clothing and try it on so we could add some new fashion to our dressing room closet for clients to wear.  Afterward, we went and stuffed ourselves at Olive Garden.

On Sunday, I didn't accomplish much.  I couldn't get motivated to do much of anything.  I think I watched the rain more than anything.  We had a good, long rain and that should help the lawns and fields.

We have 5 sales sessions this week, two photo shoots and one consultation.  Time to make some bank.  We have 3 sales sessions next week and 3 photo shoots.  We still need to fill some dates in the Fall but things are looking pretty good right now. 

I'm ready for the weekend but have a shoot tonight to do before I get to have some fun and relax.  I have a lot of video I need to edit from our Colorado trip and since my external hard drive arrived yesterday, it's time to get started.

Jayson's first day of kindergarten was the other day.  My how time has flown.  Wish my mom could see him today.

No clients last night so after answering a few emails and making a slideshow for tonight's ordering session for a client, I pretty much did nothing.  What a bum I am.  I did talk to Raptor Linings earlier in the day about a sponsorship for my Jeep, since I plan to use their product on the exterior of my Jeep this winter.  They seemed interested and asked me to forward more info about my Jeep, social media, etc... 

Some of us in the area have made some tentative plans to go to SMORR the weekend of Sept 21-23.  We plan to do the Jeep Badge of Honor trails there and will likely get a hotel room nearby.  

 

I've spent the last two evenings doing photo shoots and consultations and now I actually have a night off without clients to take care of.  That's a great feeling after such a busy period of work.  Jodi remains pretty slammed however and a break for her is off in the distance.  She has taken a couple evenings to go out with our friends though while I was out on shoots that gave her a little break here and there.

I've started work on trying to get my Jeep sponsored by some companies.  The chances are slim but I really want to build it up bigger, going with one ton axles and at least 40" tires.  I plan to add 4.5" springs to bump me up another inch and if I can swing the axles, wheels and tires, I'm going to do coil over King shocks as well.  I'll need hydro assist steering too.  I should have bought the ported steering box in hindsight but my friend wants to buy my current one and the Rubicon Dana 44's will be an easy sell as well, especially since they are already re-geared. 

I ordered an external hard drive for my laptop so I can dump all of my video from Colorado and other Jeep adventures.  The huge video files are more than what my laptop can store so now I have 8TB of storage to work with.  I hope to get some editing done this weekend. 

The weekend finally arrived which provided me with a much needed break from the 14 hour days from the past two weeks.  It's great to be busy and in demand but I need to stick to my desired schedule and not load up weeks like I did the past two.

I got home from my shoot Friday night about 9:15pm and had dinner before heading out to the garage to remove my doors, install the trail doors and drop the top for the off roading adventure the next day.  I really wanted to sleep in for a change but figured I could manage one more early day to go have some fun.  By the time I got to bed it was midnight and the alarm was set for 5:15am as we were to meet up in Kansas at 7am, which was a 45 minute drive.

Jodi needed to stay home to work so she could keep up with our schedule so I would be riding solo for the day.  After loading gear, prepping my cooler and installing my CB antennae, I rolled out for a refreshing, cool drive.  It was 66 degrees, cool enough to wear my light Under Armour jacket, which kept things comfortable for the 75 mph highway ride.  As I was heading west, the sun was rising behind me and the sky was glowing bright orange.  Sunny and 90 was the forecast for the day so thankfully I have my Spiderwebshade to keep me out of the sun.

I arrived at the service area meet up location and was second there, arriving right behind the President of our off road club.  We went inside the McDonald's and chatted a bit, waiting for others to arrive.   He is really committed to making sure our club is the very best experience for the members.  One of his big sayings is "Activity drives membership", and it is very true.  What is the point of being in a club if the club doesn't do anything?  We have wheeling events almost every weekend for people to attend.  There are benefit rides and other social activities as well.  We have grown to 256 members now and it by far the biggest and best off road club around, hands down.

Our President asked me to lead the convoy to Tuttle so we rolled out at the designated time.  We had a lot of new members who were joining us for the first time and I'm sure the convoy was as exciting for them as it was for me my first time.   When you have a big line of the same types of vehicles rolling down the highway, it draws a lot of attention and it's a pretty cool sight to see as you follow a long string of Jeeps.

We made it to Tuttle in a couple hours including a gas up stop near the park to top off for the day of fun.  We all aired down and split into three groups, one being the hard group and two easy groups.  I was chosen to lead the hard group which consisted of Jeeps that were locked and one YJ that was basically a rock crawler.  It had an LS motor, twin stick transfer case and was on 42's.  For many, it was their first time at Tuttle.

We left the staging area and my goal was to keep us out of any serious trouble since I'm still gaining familiarity with the park.  We made our way through the lake bed and up into the hills, heading toward the steep hill climbs and rock crawling opportunities.  After going up the first steep climb and over the ledges, I spotted the rest of the group up.  We then headed to a section of ledges where there were multiple choices to go up and over.  I wanted to do one that I had not done before so was first in going up and over.  I spotted two more up it and then we watched the rock crawler do his thing on another ledge and then a JL go up another.

On one obstacle, which was a steep drop and run down a ledge, my brake pedal wound up going to the floow.  Luckily, I was in 4 Lo and in first gear which controlled my descent as I pumped the brake and it firmed up a bit but then sank to the floor again.  Just great!  I had to get to the bottom of the steep hill in front of me so I just let it crawl and had my hand on the E brake if needed.   I made it to the bottom and popped the hood to check the master cylinder fluid level.  It looked a bit low so I started looking at the front brakes.  Upon making it to the passenger side, I saw fluid on the ground.  A closer inspection showed brake fluid on the inside of the tire and on the caliper.  I grabbed the brake line where it attaches to the caliper and it was loose.  I grabbed my tools and tightened it up.  I was hopeful I didn't get air in the system and  after climbing back in and giving it a quick test, it seemed to be stopping fine.  We had an even bigger hill to go down next so I really needed my brakes!  All went well and I was hopeful someone had brake fluid back in the staging area (Someone did).

I led the group around the park for the next couple hours and then were were joined by a late comer who had a little more familiarity with the park and I let him take over so he could get us to The Ledges, where everyone likes to hang out and have fun.  It's the big playground of the park. When we arrived, there were people and rigs everywhere.  We all took our turns playing before heading back to the staging area for lunch.

The club provides the main course for lunch on every wheeling event.  It also supplies the condiments, paper plates and utensils while the members bring a side to share.  It works our great and we all enjoyed a large sub styled sandwich and other sides before heading back out for the afternoon.

Mike Starkebaum, from 4x4 Land would lead the tough group after lunch in his well built rock crawler sitting on 43's.  This rig has seen it all and he just returned from running the Rubicon Trail both ways.  He is an extreme rock crawler so we were in for some fun with him.  He immediately led our group over to the Rock Garden and he and the other rock crawler went down the steep drop and toward the big boulder field that lay ahead.  Many of the JK's basically were a NOPE when it came to following.  There were a couple of us willing to give it a go though and with one of the best and most experienced off road guys in the country spotting you, it gave me more confidence to give it a try.  With Jodi not there, it made it an even easier decision.  Might as well go a bit crazy when given the opportunity.  Here is the video of me dropping down into the garden.  It was a real thrill and the video never does the angles and steepness of the ledges justice.  I wish I would have had video of the rest of the rock garden as it was all downhill over huge boulders.  The other rig, which was a lifted JL got hung up on two massive rocks, one stuck in between his tire and slider that we had to muscle out for him while he moved back and forth.  After hitting play, click on the Youtube logo and watch it on Youtube versus embedded here.  You'll see it much larger there and can watch it in high def.

We followed Mike around the park doing areas I had not done before or going the opposite direction on trails that I had, seeing new challenges and perspectives.  It was great afternoon of wheeling with one of the best.

After airing back up and saying goodbyes, I headed east for the 2 1/2 hour ride home.  It was a great day of wheeling and I enjoyed telling Jodi all about it over a mostaciolli dinner she had prepared for us. 

I spent Sunday cleaning up my rig as the whole interior was dust covered from the dry conditions.  I didn't do a whole lot other than some minor business stuff and relax.  Jodi worked most of the day on editing client photos and then we joined three other Jeep couple for sinner and ice cream in the evening.

Our last trail of the week would be Peak 10 in Breckenridge and it would be the highest altitude we would experience while there.  After a brief rest from our Wheeler Lake trail run, we drove into Breckenridge and started the climb to the top.  The first section winds through ski slopes on Peak 9 before getting above the tree line and the full view of the mountain range comes into view.

Getting to the peak requires navigating quite a few switchbacks, which aren't Jodi's favorite thing to do as many require a three point turn, meaning you have to get near the edge to back up to make the turn.  We could see and hear the marmots barking at us as we made our ascent. 

When we reach the top at 13,400 feet, the view was spectacular, even with the haze from fires to the west.  We could see the Dillon reservoir which was at least 7 miles away.  There was still a little snow at the top and that was the case at most of the peaks we went to over the course of the week.  After hanging out at the top for about a half hour, we began our trek to the bottom.   We met a couple other Jeeps from our group on the way down and they were going to attempt to get to the top before a storm moved in.  They didn;t make it.  They were just shy when high winds kicked up on us.  We were watching for them to reach the peak and the winds where we were had to have been 30mph so they were way higher at the top.  My friend Jim said that he thought his top was going to get sucked off and they would be thrown off the mountain.  They made a smart decision and turned back.

Afterward, we enjoyed a final dinner together at an Italian restaurant in town.  The food didn't live up to the reviews.  We had ice cream afterward and then went back to the cabin to pack up our Jeep as we would leave at 6am for the drive home.  Losing an hour on the way back, we arrived about 6:30pm and we were wore out but we sure enjoyed our trip.  If Colorado was 5 hours closer, I would be there at least two weekends out of the month. 

The day before returning home, we had Wheeler Lake planned, which is the second toughest trail we had planned for the week.  It's mostly due to 3 obstacles that are at the beginning of the trail and you can get a little tippy on them.  The damaged rigs were out and a couple others decided they didn't want to risk any damage the day before driving home.  Well, they all missed out on the favorite trail of the week as my friend Ray and I tackled it by ourselves.

Entering the trail, you drive under a mill that is fed by a waterfall and stream. What a grand entrance to the trail it was.  From there, you are immediately greeted by large slabs of rock and some off camber climbs on them.  I didn't think the first obstacle was very difficult but the second one presented three different challenges.  We chose to take what we determined to be the more difficult path and I spotted Ray up.  It was a bit slick due to loose or pulverized rock and it took him a couple tries to find the traction he needed to crawl up.  I made it first go with a little skinny pedal.

The trail itself was quite beautiful as you can tell from the photos.  It had lots of rocky sections, water crossings and off camber scenarios that made for an exciting climb to the top.   The trail ends at an alpine lake and waterfall and once there, we had some lunch, flew my drone and took some photos.  We even dunked our faces in the cold lake, because that is what you do, apparently. 

It's an in and out trail so we made our way back down.,  Some of the climbs in were now steep descents going down but we navigated all just fine.   Took us 4 hours to complete start to finish.  It was an awesome trail that I would love to do again.  Later in the afternoon, we did Peak 10, going up to 13,400 feet.  I'll detail that trail in my next blog post.  Enjoy the pics from Wheeler Lake.

Probably my favorite image from the trip.  Flexing coming down one of the obstacles.  

I guess I'll get back to sharing about our Colorado trip.  The day after we visited Rocky Mountain National Park, three of us decided to tackle Red Cone.  Some of the others who suffered tie rod damage and steering stabilizer damage decided to go easy on their rigs the rest of the trip.

It took us about a 30-40 minutes to get to the trail head.  After airing down, we began the trail and it was pretty rocky at the start, a little different than what we expected but it was fun nonetheless.  We came to a pretty good sized boulder in the middle of the trail shortly into our ascent but we managed that rather easily.  The trail wound around for some time, remaining rocky until we entered a forest section which then became mostly dirt with some loose rocks.  As we made our way above the tree line, you could see the peak in the distance.

We had a pretty steep climb ahead to get to the base of the peak and that was a fund rive.  We stopped a few hundred below the top for some photo ops before making the final run to the top.  As we approached the top, a storm came in and the wind really picked up.  Some rain drops fell but nothing significant that would make the climb or descent difficult.  As we reached the very top of the peak, you could not see as you crested and Jodi freaked out thinking I was driving us off the mountain.  She had done really well until then with her fear of heights but this one didn;t go well for her.  She wound up bailing out on the plateau and we had to give her a few minutes to calm down before the real fun began.

The descent is very steep and the road has some very narrow sections.  She couldn't watch so she put her headband over her eyes and I had to just talk calmly to her as we made our way down, a cross a ridge and then down another steep descent.  Just two weeks earlier, a Jeep lost power to the engine, which in turn lost its brakes and steering and slid down the sloped trail.  He managed to keep it on the trail thankfully but he wiped out a couple signs at the bottom and tore up the side of his rig pretty good.  Fortunately we didn't have that issue but it was quite the sight to look out my window and be feet from the edge where it was pretty much straight down for a thousand feet or more.  Good thing Jodi wasn't looking.  

We all made it to the bottom safely and we continued into Montezuma to finish our day.   A steak dinner in Frisco finished off our evening followed by some drinks back at the cabin.  Next up, Wheeler Lake.

Last week was a terrible week for us as we lost Angus.  I remain devastated emotionally.  He deserved a better ending than what he experienced and I will regret that for the rest of my life.  He was my boy and I miss him so much.  It was hard enough losing Gia just a few months ago.  We are now without dogs for the first time in 17 years.

I did nothing but work last week after taking the day off of his passing.  If I wasn't busy, my mind was in the wrong place.   Luckily I had photo shoots every day of the week and had to work my day job on Saturday.   Although I really didn't feel like it, we went out Saturday night for a friend's birthday party at a local bar.  It was fun to be with our Jeeple again and we all had a good time. 

This week consists of five 14 hour days as I have a photo shoot every night this week.  Jodi will be conducting some ordering sessions by herself in the evenings.  We have a record number of sessions this month and it looks to be a busy Fall.  We have plans to go off roading at Tuttle on Saturday with our club.  Going to try some tougher obstacles.