Thanksgiving day trip

I decided to drive the Jeep to my step sister’s house for Thanksgiving dinner today instead of trailering her there. The intent was to take my Dad and brother on a trail ride after dinner and some skeet shooting. The trip was a fairly short one – 19 miles of back roads and a 3 mile stretch on the highway. It was an uneventful trip – I kept a fairly steady 35-40mph, and 45-50 on the highway. The steering gear rebuild was a great improvement, but I still have some looseness in the steering system somewhere.

When it came time for the trail ride, we loaded up – my Dad in the passenger seat and my brother and niece in the back. The trails were fairly smooth logging roads with a few washouts. There were a few mud holes to go through, and when we got to the end of one trail, there was a washed out hill (steep, washed out old road) to climb. We turned around at the top and went back the way we came. When we got to the power line, I turned onto it for a fairly steep, long hill climb. I put her in 4Lo, 1st gear and pulled the hand throttle out a couple of notches – she climbed right up. We crested the top and went down the other side slowly – then back up a not so steep hill where we turned onto another trail headed back to the house. It was just a straight road with some wash outs and a couple of mud holes. We got back to the house and I dropped them off and I had to head home before it started getting cold. I think they enjoyed the ride.

The ride home was a different route – a little longer. I hit 50mph quite a few times along this route. When I pulled into my driveway, she had a little miss that I noticed when I stopped to talk to my neighbor. I parked her in the shop and went inside for my 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. Overall, I think I put about 50 miles on her today – the most I have ever driven her in that short of a time span – now to figure out that miss!