We had a great time in the Black Hills but it all went to crap when the truck broke down in Sioux Falls on the way home.  Hoping it's just a glow plug but it could be a cracked piston too.  My buddy is going to look at it today for me to see what he thinks.  I do have a warranty so either way, I should be good.  

I'll update more later.  

 We are only 10 days away from our Black Hills adventure. It's been 4 years since we have been there and I'm excited to explore some new trails with friends.  We may get a little radical.  ")

One day that week we have a group of 17 people renting UTV's and we are going to do about 100 miles on the trails through the hills.  That should be a great day.  Custer State Park and Needles highway is also on the to do list.  

We are currently slammed with business and there is no let up in the foreseeable future.  It's been a great year so far and we hope to somehow survive the crush of business we have experienced.  New this year is an influx of clients from the more affluent schools across the state line.  

 We are averaging 4 photo shoots per week right now and rain is a factor today which will cause us to lose another shoot day.  First it is oppressive heat and now rain jamming up our schedule even more.  At least we still have our weekends free.

I finally got my tires and wheels balanced and what a difference that made.  I've been running around with some vibration since the build but now it is smooth as butter.  80mph last night with no issues.  We wound up at a distillery with some Jeep friends and then went to Taps at the Tower at the World War I Memorial.  Great evening.  We beat the incoming storm by about 15 minutes.  We got some serious rain and wind last night but didn't hear any hail.  I took a photo of the city and did an edit on it, shown below.  

 I just don't spend much time on my upstairs computer where I do my blogging from so posting doesn't cross my mind much.

Our busy season has arrived and we are doing 3-4 shoots per week plus consultations and sales sessions. The heat last week was brutal but this week is shaping up a little better.  We are booked through mid-August right now so that is fantastic.   Another great year for our business ahead it seems.

Being President of the club keeps me busy as well.  I do enjoy it though and the members are happy with my performance it seems.  We are getting ready to take 60+ members to the Black Hills next month.  It should be quite the adventure and we are looking forward to it.  

After a Memorial Day trip to SMORR and a trip to Tuttle last weekend, the Jeep seems to be doing well, although I did break a rear driveshaft ujoint at Tuttle.  Not sure what happened as I wasn't doing anything hard.  Things happen I guess.  Click on pics to see them larger.  

  

 Haven't posted in quite some time.  Just haven't been taking the time to do so.  I have my Jeep ready for Memorial Weekend at SMORR.  It flexes pretty well but still need a longer front track bar, which I have the pieces for but it needs to be welded up.  Looking forward to a great weekend.  

 We've been working at wrapping up my build and hope to be done in a couple weeks.  I shot a new coat of Raptor on my Jeep with Jodi's great masking help and we got the Atlas 4 speed put in although we ran into an issue.  We wound up pulling a  ground wire off that wound up causing us some crazy issues including a no start situation.  It took about 10 hours of diagnosing the problem to get it to start and we still have some communication issues with the ABS which we hope is a tripped or blown relay.  We should have that figured out shortly with a relay tester.

My driveshafts are ordered and I'll be putting the armor back on in the next day or so.  I'm looking forward to being able to drive it.  Here's some pics.

 

Last week, we got to the point on my build that it made sense for me to bring my Jeep home for cosmetic stuff while we wait for the Atlas.  The good news is that it will be here Tuesday.  We won't install it until at least this coming weekend so in the mean time, I am going to shoot a new coat of Raptor on the exterior, shoot the cargo area and then install Armor Lite flooring in the front and back seating areas.  Today i repaired some body damage on my B Pillar that I damaged on the waterfall at SMORR in prep for the Raptor.  

I will also be installing a new windshield (cracked), followed by the light bar.  The rear bumper will need to be installed along with the new Metalcloak sliders.   

When we loaded my Jeep on the trailer, I wasn't happy with where it had to sit now that it has wider axles and strapping it down was very difficult due to limited points to secure it.  So, I went down to Springfield, MO yesterday morning and came home with a 28' Gooseneck deckover.  Now we are all set.

We got our hardwood flooring installed and it looks really nice. That's one big project out of the way.  Tearing the old floor out was not fun but it saved over $2000.  

We are only two months away from JD and Megan's wedding.  They are pretty excited.