Birthday Surprises

So, this birthday was one of the best. My family and I went to Moab and went jeeping and hiking. I got to hike a really fun trail called Ding and Dang Canyon, Discover an awesome Valley in Goblin Valley (aptly named Jackpot Valley because hardly anyone goes there and it's full of rock scrambling goodness), drove the jeep on Elephant Hill and loved it, and caught a runaway jeep.

So, I got to explain that last one. It was EPIC!!

So, when we go to Moab, one person drives the blue jeep and the red jeep is tied to the trailer pulled behind the RV. This is how we've always done it to save on gas and whatnot. Well, I was driving the blue jeep with the cousin, Katie-Sue, riding in the passenger. We're driving through a valley enjoying the scenery when Katie-Sue looks out the front window and says, "Jekka, the jeep's off the trailer!"

I look up and sure enough the jeep has all four wheels on the road and is heading slowly off the road. I slam on the brakes, grab the ham radio (like a CB radio but ten times better) and start yelling into it, "JEEP! JEEP! JEEP! NO JEEP! NO JEEP! JEEP GONE!" But we get no response from dad and he keeps driving away in the RV. Katie-Sue's yelling for Dad to stop (even though he is in another vehicle and incapable of hearing us), and I honk the horn but the RV disappears around the corner. Katie-Sue yells, "Why is he still driving?! Does he not see that the jeep isn't there anymore?!"

So, we sit there and watch the red jeep drive itself off the road, bump over a pile of logs and some sagebrush, until it comes to a stop in the middle of a meadow. It's sitting there, red against green, looking very pleased with itself. So, because we don't have any keys for it, we pick up the ratchet straps that held the jeep to the trailer and now spread across the road, and go racing after Dad. I tell Katie-Sue to keep calling him on the ham radio. I tell her after a mile to make sure we were on the right channel (we kept getting off of mara-simplex while jeeping) and she checks it. It was on the wrong channel. So she puts it on the right one and says, "Richard, can you hear us?" Here's what follows:

Dad: Yeah, what's up?
Katie-Sue: The red jeep is gone. Look in your rearview mirror. It's gone!
Dad: What the?! Where is it?!
Katie-Sue: It's in a meadow--
Dad: It's in the middle?!?!?! You got to move it before someone hits it!! (he thinks its in the middle of the road)

Katie-Sue: No, Richard. the. jeep. is. in. a. mea-dow!
Dad: Oh. Okay. How did it get there?
Katie-Sue: It rolled off of the road-
Dad: It ROLLED?!?!?!?!
Katie-Sue: No! It drove itself off of the road and into a meadow
Dad: Is it okay? (he's very panicy by now)
Katie-Sue; yeah, it looks fine.

So, we catch up to the RV where dad had pulled off to the side of the road. he and mom hope into the blue jeep with us and we drive back to the meadow. All the while, Dad is asking us exactly what happened and if we are sure the jeep is okay. We just keep repeating that it drove itself off the road and is perfectly alright as far as we can see. So we get to the meadow. Dad checks it out and finds out that everything is perfectly alright with it. It's still drivable, not even a scratch, but it did collect a lot of twigs in the axles. :D So, he drives it out with no problem, and because one of the straps had broken, Mom drove the red jeep into Moab. Katie-Sue and I doubled back a little bit because Dad was missing a strap (he uses four to tie down the jeep), and though we didn't find it we did find the tire marks from when the jeep's back wheels and then front wheels fell off of the trailer. It was pretty intense. On top of that, if the jeep fell off fifteen feet before or after where it did, it would have gone off into a ditch filled with huge boulders and lots of trees.

Yeah, guardian angels are looking after my family, and probably hating it. But, that was the ultimate birthday experience: The jeep tried to runaway. Once I get the pictures from Mom, I'll post them. It's really funny.

so, yeah, I had an awesome birthday. Toodles!