I spent yesterday afternoon and evening doing 4 pre-session consultations and then followed those up with an ordering appointment.  We are in a very busy period and won't see much of  slow down for another couple months.  This has been a very good summer for us and fall looks very good too.  We still have some openings in October I hope to fill but our goal is 12 clients per month and we have exceeded that thus far with the current class. 

We have a pretty good sized group going to SMORR in two weeks.  Two of the people I most like to wheel with are going so we should have a great time.  We're all staying at the same hotel too so we should have some fun nights as well.

Sunday the 16th is my Jeep Invasion event at Smithville Lake.  We have 72 Jeeps currently RSVP'ed for the event and hope to add many more.  We have a lakeside pavilion rented and will grill up a lot of food, have raffles and talk Jeeps. 

Here is some recent work we have done since I haven't shared in a bit. 

I was able to get my front bumper and coilover kit hardware to the powder coater yesterday and I should see them back in a week or so.  It appears they shipped my skid plate over to 4 Wheel Parts with a load of other parts so they have to retrieve that from them.

I stopped by the Ford dealer later in the day to get an oil change and tire rotation on the Taurus.  While there, I couldn't help notice this F-550 sitting on the used lot.  What a nice tow vehicle that would make.  I texted Jodi about it and she said "keep walking".  :)

The rumors are pretty strong these days about buyouts at work to assist in the restructuring plan.  A new rumor in the press is buyouts at $120,000 per employee.  Wow, what a nice parting gift that would be. 

Jodi and I had a nice weekend as we both took a break from work for a couple days.  Saturday evening we went to the casino with friends.  I won $300 and Jodi lost $100.  We didn;t get home and to bed until about 12:30am and then we were up bright and early at 6am for a day of wheeling at Kansas Rocks.

Our group was small as many don't go wheeling over the holiday weekend.  We arrived at Kansas Rocks and of course, I was again chosen to lead the group, which means not much in the way of video and photos.  We had one guy who was not locked with our group so we had to keep it more to the tame side the first half of the day.  The trails were a bit slick due to the rain and there was standing water in the typical places.  Going up the steeper grades was more challenging because of it and the rig that was open couldn't make it up the first steep climb.  We wound up having to winch him.

We decided to head over to the older section of the park where there is more rock on the trails and we had a lot of fun for a couple hours.  Before heading back to the staging area, I decided to give Zuk's Squeeze a try.  I gave it a go but the buggies and krawlers have it so dug out that I don;t have the clearance needed to get through.  I was bottomed out on both sliders.  Here's a screen grab from a  video of me climbing up into the squeeze.  Once the left front came down, I was bottomed out. 

After lunch, we went back out to give Carnage Canyon a try, another area I had not been in before.  All the trails in the area are black and with the slippery conditions, it would be double black.  We felt that Bad Axe was about the only trail we had a good shot at making and just me and another guy would give it a try.  The other guy went up first and made it with a lot of skinny pedal.  Naturally, he made it more slick for me spinning his tires up the trail and over the rocky ledges at the top.  I took a more slow and steady approach and powered through a couple spots where it was really slick.  Bad Axe done.

Next up was Bear Tracks and I didn't know what I was about to encounter.  I was just told that if you wanted to flex, this was the trail.  Holy crap!   They sent me in first to see how it was and we wound up pretty much laying on our side driving through huge, deep ruts that put us way off camber with our nose up in the air.  At one point, I was unsure if I should continue powering my way through but I kept going and made it through the first area only to find similar immediately afterward.  The muddy conditions definitely made this trail much harder than when dry and it took some power to get over some deep ruts and obstacles in the trail and I got my first trail damage, my license plate holder!    The next rig through didn't make the second area and we had to back him down the trail and get him out of the deep ruts by going sideways and over the ruts. The other rigs didn't attempt the trail.

 

That led us to one of the funniest moments of the day, well, for most of us.  Bill took the lead from me and we cam across a big water hole.  His wife told him to stay left of it.  Bill decided to go through it.  Bill's decision was a bad one.  It was pretty deep and he was stuck, not able to get out going forward or backward.  The right side of his Jeep was lower than the water and mud level and it kind of filled the passenger side of his vehicle.  His wife is not a fan of mud period, (she jumped out during their adventures on Bear Tracks) and was freaking out a bit.   We were basically in a mud bog and my hope was to be able to find a place to turn around and get my winch on him.  Luckily, I didn't get stuck and wound up being able to turnaround and position myself in a somewhat dry area to winch him.  After getting him out, we got to see how much mud had oozed into his vehicle along with how much he had splattered into the interior spinning his tires trying to get out.  His wife was not thrilled but we couldn't help but laugh and razz them a little about it.  He was going to have fun cleaning his Jeep!

It was time to head home and we aired back up for the drive home.  It was a fun day and we capped it off by stopping at Imo's in Overland Park for some pasta and pizza.  We got an extra pizza and dropped it off to JD and Megan on our way home.

Last night, I pulled my bumper off and have it ready to go to the powder coater along with my coilover kit parts.  Since my photo session scheduled for today is rained out, I'll have a chance to get that over to them. 

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.