By: Torque Staff
Dear Diary,
So it has been a long time in the truck. We knew going in that it would be a long trip from West Chester, Pennsylvania to Moab, Utah. A long trip. But then, as I told you before, weather happened and we needed to change our itinerary.
The hours add up and sometimes you wonder if you’ll ever make it, right? Like for each mile you drive, another five are added to the GPS timeframe for arrival.
Well, we did make it. We arrived at Moab under the cover of darkness early this morning, and happily piled out of our GMC truck to breathe fresh Utah air after spending nearly 40 hours on the road from West Chester, Pennsylvania.
To say it was a long trip would be an understatement, but the end game was definitely rewarding because it meant we are now on the ground and ready for Easter Jeep Safari.
Of course, you can’t really do anything at 4:50 in the morning, so several of us actually pulled off the hot tub cover and climbed inside to decompress and relax before heading to a well-deserved bed.
The condo Rob picked out this year is pretty amazing. It backs up to a beautiful view of the La Sal mountain range and besides having the hot tub, it also features a nice fire pit that we guess will come in handy with the approaching early spring cold nights. We're looking forward to lighting that fire each night and working on telling stories about Moab right near that fire — with the La Sal mountains preening in the background.
And, yes, we did all go to bed Saturday morning, but we still made it a point to get up around noon because we needed to pick up our Gladiator JTe from Outlaw Adventures, as well as another rental Jeep to fill out our crew.
We’ve missed our JTe, diary, since it left us in early November last year following the Specialty Equipment Market Association event in Las Vegas. So we were thrilled to see its sparkling green paint in the Outlaw Adventures' lot Saturday afternoon. It has been on a few adventures of its own working hard with Tread Lightly! doing 50-for-50 Trail Restoration projects.
We have plans for it as well this week, with a few more Tread Lightly! projects in the works.
Anyway, all four of us are Moab veterans, but the first day in town during Easter Jeep Safari Week is always where you just get grounded and see what is happening.
Even though many people still wait until Monday to roll in, there are still plenty of Jeeps all over town. And the best part is they aren’t all JL’s either. We saw tons of flat fender Willys, some CJs, a few old MJ trucks and plenty of YJ and TJ vehicles all day. A bunch of built-up XJs as well. They all come out for EJS. And, by later afternoon, may are covered with dirt and dust from the trail.
Hey, diary, have we mentioned the scenery yet? It is really worth the price of admission alone. Close off in the distance are the snow-capped La Sal mountains that really set off colors against the surrounding desert’s brown and red.
It is something, no matter how many times you head to Moab, you never get used to seeing.
So with all kinds of stuff coming up including trail clean-ups with Tread Lightly!, a date with Jeep and its concept vehicles, quite a few trail runs with friends and industry partners, and whatever else may come up during the week, there is no doubt work to be done and content to capture.
But Terry probably put it best as we headed out of the house and into town to meet Jeremy from Outlaw Adventures this morning — “They may be paying for us to be here, but it sure doesn’t feel like work when you are around all this.”
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