Here it is lookin kinda ugly. Little tires, ugly wheels, bad paint, broken seats. Most of the people who saw it at this point had a hard time understanding my exitement. No vision I tell ya! This is after Daniel and I built the shackle lift but before the body lift.
This is the day of the new tires and wheels. I bought the tires from my friend Brant. This is also right after the body lift. I don't care who you are, tires and wheels make a HUGE difference. With just that change alone, people started to understand my excitement a little more. This is the stage it was at when Clint's fourwheeler broke down at the top of a very steep mountain in 1 foot deep snow and well after sundown.. Clint told me that he didn't think that the Jeep would even make it halfway. He knew that would force me into it. At the time, I weighed in at 280 pounds (solid muscle of course) Well, as we were making our final approach up the steepest part of the mountain to where the fourwheer was disabled, I had to back up a little to manuever around a cedar tree (it was an ATV trail not a car trail) I was actually in neutral when my 280 lbs proved too much for the stock Jeep seats. The seat broke and reclined all the way back. It didn't slide back, it SLAMMED back, so did I! Both hands came off the steering wheel and my feet were not close to the clutch or brake. So down the snowy mountain we went in reverse. It was about 32 degrees and there was no top so we were bundled up quite a bit, making me that much less flexible to lean up hill and grab on while bouncing and sliding down the mountain. Of course for Clint, this was near the top 13 funniest things he'd ever seen so he was laughing so hard I thought he was going to pass out. That made me laugh pretty hard myself so I started hitting Clint in the chest to try to make him shut up so I could focus. This made him laugh harder and start hitting me back. Meanwhile, we're moving at a very high rate down the hill, bouncing over snowcovered rocks and crashing through sagebrush. between laughing and trying to breathe Clint kept yelling at me to stop, I yelled at him to stop and kept hitting him. He said, "NO, STOP!" and pointed backward. I managed to hit the brakes but we just kept sliding. I was able to get it into reverse, dumped the clutch and hit the gas to side hill the Jeep about 20 feet prior to falling into a 30 foot deep washout. We laughed pretty hard for a while, sitting in the open air with snow coming down in the dark mountain sky. By the way, we made it to the fourwheeler on the second try and I replaced the seats.
This was 2006. Clint and I took a full day trip to "where ever we wanted". That was a fun day. We left my house, drove the Arbon Valley Highway and up Upper Rattle Snake Rd to where the road cuts through the top of the mountain into Arimo. *This is where the photos were taken. Then we stopped for a snack in Arimo, drove the backroads to Lava Hot Springs, over another mountain into Soda Springs and then into some other mountains where we'd never been before. We saw a lot of beautiful country, several coyotes, deer, and elk. We went through a couple of tanks of gas and I got a sweet sunburn.
These photos were taken on that trip as well. The river is in the Soda Springs area and the rocks are between Arbon and Arimo right about where my county ends and Clint's county begins.
This was another one of our shorter Jeep outings. We went out across the desert west of American Falls and Aberdeen, worked our way across the desert to Bear Trap Cave. *These two photos were taken from inside Bear Trap. Then we continued southwest to Rupert. My neck was hurting by then so we came home on I-86.
Just a picture of the Jeep on the grass.
These are photos that Clint took of me right by my house on some of my homemade trails. The middle picture is real People think the camera was tilted, those people haven't gone with us on a Jeep outing! Look closely at my arm, not the huge forearm holding me back, my right arm. I was talking to Jason Bohrer on the phone while working my way down this one.
Nate and me after returning home from a sucessful coyote hunt. Nate called for me so that I could shoot. He called for about 15 minutes and I took the first coyote from about 250 yards. I dropped him like third period french. Nate immediately did the ol' pup in distress call and about 30 seconds later, I shot the second one from about 90 yards. That Nate can call in the coyotes, be patient and you will see some of his calling footage.
The night before taking the Jeep to get sandblasted and prepped for paint, Trudi helped me strip the Jeep down and do a few last minute repairs.
This is the most recent condition of my Jeep. I sand blasted it with the help of my cousin Clark and of course Clint. It's at the paint shop and I'm so freakin excited to get it back! It is currently getting a touch of bondo here and there and after it is painted, it will be going directly to SNYDES GLASS in Aberdeen for a new windshield and Rhino Lining in the interior. My friend Iain Schneider (SNYDES GLASS) has met all of my glass needs for years now and I would greatly appreciate you all using him for your auto glass needs. He has prompt mobile service all over the area and has always done a perfect job for me. Call him up! (208) 681-3008
