May 2009 Recap

Well.... I don't even know where to start! I'm bad with the recounting of a trip...especially one this filled with awesomeness! It started friday afternoon when we met Adam (Brittonoffroad) at the Chesapeake House. If you haven't already seen the pics of his monster, check them out in the member's rigs section. We caravaned up to the campground and set up our tents and then the First Up tent over the picnic table, as there was a forecast of thunderstorms for the whole weekend.

We were waiting for Samantha and Dennis (Mudslinger) to show up and started BBQing chicken (I had a ton of it!) and cooking up thebaked beans and the corn on the cob. Pastor Jim, his 2 year old son, AJ, and Josiah came by....Pastor Jim is the leader a the church we worshipped at this morning. Josiah is the Youth Minister and the coolest young man. They checked in on us to be sure we had everything we needed. They left, but Josiah came back to hang out a bit later. Sam and Dennis got there right as the last of the chicken got done and we all sat together and had dinner. It was the first time we'd all hung out with Adam.....and we're SUPER glad he was there!!!

After dinner, we all sat around a kickin' bonfire and talked and laughed. It was about 1am when we all finally resided to our tents.....and up again at around 6am. Chris started the fire going again....and then we fired up the grill and cooked scrambled eggs and sausages for breakfast. Sam and Dennis made coffee....now I am not a huge fan of coffee, but that smelled AMAZING out in the middle of the woods!

We went and gassed up and headed toward the ranger station. I had forgotten that an Xterra group was going to be wheeling back there this weekend too. But I became PAINFULLY aware when we pulled in and saw about 10 of them. All nicely modified. Then, holding back tears, I saw my friend Steven pull in in his......he's been very busy building it up and it was unbelievable! I went over and hugged him. Then another guy, Keith, that ran with us at last years' PineBarren trip came over to say hello. We also got to meet our very own TJ, as he was there riding along (nice to finally meet you, TJ!).

Dominic showed up and we headed out with him and three of his friends. The sun was shining and if there was a thunderstorm anywhere, it sure wasn't anywhere near us! Big fluffy white clouds with the occasional gray one that never amounted to anything.

Now, I'm only going to say that the trails were either deep water (some places unpassable unless skirted) or sandy and winding. We hit one area where Adam attmpted the side of the area that was known to be a bit rutted and deep. He went in and his nose dipped down...we knew he was stuck...and stuck good. We'll have the video of that up tomorrow.

Most of what I could tell you, you will see in the pics and videos we took. Samantha took a bunch of pics and vids, too...as well as Dominic. But I DO have to mention Chris' Dodge....the hero of the day. He rescued 2 jeeps and at one point was the only thing in a 100 mile radius (hehehe) that could rescue two HUGE International Scouts. One was stucktrying to rescue the other.....Chris saved both. Without blinking. Pics of this will be up too. I have videos of the Scouts getting stuck, but only pics of the rescue (from Samantha) because I was inside the Dodge with Chris, so I didn't video.

The people with the Scouts asked why the Jeeps weren't over there in the deep mud. I said it was because their stuck Scouts were in the way. They laughed.....but as soon as Chris got their rigs out, Adam blew through that area like he was on I-95....TWICE. It was awesome. He showed them who was boss. (he also later conquered the hole/trench in the mud pit where I almost rolled Pete last year......dubbing him the ONLY person to take it on and succeed!) The Scout group were a nice bunch and we met a great couple in a GORGEOUS gold and white Scout. It looked like they were having fun...they even had an Xterra follwing them around! That was so cool.

Chris did things with that dodge that are probably illegal in 32 states. He impressed me and everyone else around...that truck is one heck of a rig. And he did a LOT of it in 2WD. It was amazing. I have to run, but will continue in the morning....

Okay, I cannot wait to finish....Chris is sleeping his pretty head off on the couch right now, so I'll continue.....

I know I mentioned Chris' Dodge and went on about how great it did. I didn't mean exclude the others....it's just that when people saw that that big thing was going out, they didn't think it could do it as well. But Dennis and Sam kicked BUTT in their beauty of a Jeep and Adam was our crazy adventurer and conquered some deep stuff.

There's a pic you'll see of the two of them coming down a hillclimb with ruts and flexing towards eachother. I think we should enter it into a magazine!!!

We ended up visiting some interesting places...and then ended up in this one place that was a great play area. Again, I am going to let the pictures speak for me...they will be up tomorrow. There were hills, ruts, a lake (Chris rescued another Jeep out of) and it was a great photo op. We did some poses with all the trucks together. It was great.

We headed back and got to the campsite around 7:30pm and cooked burgers and dogs, macaroni salad, potato salad and that kinda stuff. Samantha and I went to take showers and came back to a wonderful fire that the guys had roaring. We hung for a while and then Dominic stopped by with a couple friends. We sat and talked for a while longer, but were all in bed by midnight this time!

I have to tell you.....the weekend was FULL of awesome memories....but one I think is my favorite was when I woke up to pee (God knows what time it was) in the middle of the night, only to look across at Adam's tent and see it lit up....with his sillouette kneeling, stabbing....with a huge buck knife....something unseen (by me) on his tent floor. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares about it...but I was too busy stiffling a giggle, even as I fell back to sleep. I found out this morning that it was a tick. Which to me made it even funnier. Those darn things are everywhere...I pulled one off of Chris this evening.

So we awoke to the sound of rain...which made us promptly fall back to sleep. Repeatedly. It was so comfortable and nice. But we had to get up and pack up the camp and get to church by 10. We did...it was nice, but rushed, as we slept a bit late. The rain didn't help!!! We got packed and to church just in time. Josiah was given an Alpha/Omega shirt and wore it proudly at church....so did the rest of us. The church was held in a school reception area. It was small but filled with God's love. I teared up just looking around at the 30-35 people. The band was fantastic and Pastor Jim did an amazing job. We felt right at home....even though our church has 3,000-4,000 people on sundays!

It was a wonderful time and afterwards, we hit the local "Best wings in the world" place called the Pic-a-Lilly. Josiah joined us. He's an amazing guy. So knowledgable in the bible and very comfortable with his faith...I found myself envying his knowledge and ability to quote and explain scripture.

We are definitely going to stay in touch with this amazing and growing church. It was great visiting them. It could not have been a better weekend. We decided to head back to Maryland after lunch....it was raining and we were all tired from the previous day of wheeling. We (Adam, Sam and Dennis, and Chris and I) caravaned back to MD and were quite the mud-laiden spectacle. It was a wicked weekend.

Thanks, guys, for a great time. The only other part of my day that could compare is when my future sister-in-law called and referred to me as "P.J. Taylor". hehehe....she rocks. (P.J. is her nickname for me....long story) Now, if I could just get Chris to wake up long enough to brush his teeth and go to bed. He's out like a light. I know I will be as soon as I allow my eyes to close for more than a blink.

Hope you guys enjoy the pics and vids that we will be posting up over the next few days.

I'll never forget seeing the Dodge nearly fliping over in the washouts Saturday afternoon while positioning for the photo. I thought for sure that thing was going over. After Chris played tag with the tree earlier in the day, i'm glad it didn't see any more carnage.

yah, I've only seen Chris that scared once before....when he thought we were going to roll at Rausch.

It was a blast. I can't WAIT for the videos. I'll light a fire under his butt tomorrow. We're going to bring his granddad some of my Pasta Fazool and then come back and I'll be painting....he'll have that time to load them up onto YouTube.

We had a blast this weekend. Thanks for being there!

Thank you for letting me come along!!!! It was an unbelievablely fun time. I can't wait to do it again.

What a BLAST this weekend was!!! I promise to have the Pics and Vids started by this afternoon.

Thanks a bunch to Adam, Dennis, Samantha, and of course Pattey for making this a great weekend. Adam was always "encouraging" me to try more with the Dodge and I am glad he did. I did dent the bed on a tree early on Sat, but Adam already popped out some of the dent and I am going to work on it more this week.