Day 2 - Russels, Blue Hole and Mexican

Back on the road after Cadillac Ranch, our next stop was just a little ways down the road at Russels Truck and Travel Center

https://www.russellsttc.com

Located on Route 66 it is a place to stop for gas but it has a free museum inside with vintage cars and memorabilia. 

Day 2 - Cadillac Ranch

Chris got up and had to replace one of the sensors on the jeep that has been giving us fits.  

Then we headed to Ye Olde Pancake Station in Amarillo.  It was a great little diner with great food. 

http://www.pancakestation.com

  Yum!

Next Stop was just a few minutes down the road at Cadillac Ranch.  Located just off interstate 40, really in the middle of nowhere are Cadillacs stuck in the ground.  Armed with a bag of spray paint, we let the kids and daddy create their own works of art!

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220

Even the garbage cans are painted. 

Batman painted the LOVE for daddy and I.  So cute!  It was already painted over before we left.  You have to snap pictures fast!

Ladybug was painting dinosaurs. 

There was a vendor right outside the area that takes paint chips from the cadillacs and makes key chains out of them.  Since Ladybug collects keychains it was a good memory!

So fun!  We took at least 5 cans of paint and used every bit of it!  

Day 1 - Travel and Greek

At 12pm we headed out with the Jeep loaded.  

Each person got one duffel bag

All tools and safety supplies were packed.  

Tent had already been loaded, all sleeping supplies were packed.  

Brakes had been changed, all parts on the jeep had been greased, all upgrades were complete

This was has been in the planning for a year now.  It is hard to wait a year do something.  You talk about it and plan and change plans and talk about it more.  On Wednesday December 5, 2018, I waited patiently for the time to switch over to exactly 1pm Pacific time so that we could book our tickets and get in to ride the Rubicon Trail.  I was sitting in the car picking ladybug up from school.  Slots sold out in about 30 minutes for this trail ride.

Much more on this later!  But here is the link if you want to take a look! https://jeepjamboreeusa.com/trip/rubicon-trail/

We started meeting as a group in February and then monthly to plan for this.  Oh yeah, there are 4 other jeeps joining us! With logistics about lodging, food, activities we want to get this right!  But even after all that planning, the first two days are already completely different from the original plans and I am nothing but happy to roll with it!

We ended up leaving early on Friday lunch time instead of Saturday morning so that we could break up the long driving day a little bit on Saturday.  This gave us an opportunity to fit in some activities we hadn't expected!

12pm headed out to meet up with Sarge at Bucees in Waller.  

12:30 leave Bucees and head towards...  well we were thinking Wichita Falls or maybe Childress, TX.  But as we traveled, we decided Amarillo it is.

Besides driving the only significant stop was this little Greek restaurant in Wichita Falls, TX.  https://hibiscuscafe5.webnode.com

It was a really neat family owned hole in the wall.  Small inside space and a little tiny patio outside.  The service was great and the food was delicious.   

 We tried the Saganaki.  This is fried feta cheese.  Never before have I seen this and it was awesome.  We ordered a side of pitas with it and gobbled it up.

 Ladybug and I shared these chicken crepes!  Chris got a traditional Gyro and we finished off the meal with a slice of chocolate mouse cake.  Very much enjoyed dinner!

 Our crew today.  6 strong.

We rolled in to Amarillo pretty late around 11:30 but after a good nights sleep, it would make Saturday a lot easier.

Barnwell Mountain

January 18-20, 2019

Our first Jeep trip in 2019.  With lots of trips planned this year, we were excited to make our first one with our Jeep Club, Bayou City Jeep Club to Barnwell Mountain located right outside of Gilmer, Texas.

On Friday afternoon we dropped the kids off at the church and they loaded busses to head to their annual middle school/high school winter camp.  Sorry no pics as they were too excited to get on the buses!

The we headed north. With a solid four hour drive to get there and a quick trip to wall-mart, dinner and a gas fill up in Gilmer once we got there it was close to 11:30pm before we checked-in.

We rented a cabin that is right on the property and it works out perfectly to be centrally located to all of the trails.  With a Queen size bed and two bunk beds, a full bath, sink and refrigerator, it is perfect to take care of all the necessities.  And, especially for this weekend with the wind, rain, and temps dipping into the 20's on Saturday night, it has a heater!

We arrived ahead of the cold front and while the weather was not too bad to unload, it soon became very windy with rain, thunder and lightning and a plunge in the temperatures to a brisk 32 degrees over night.  The cabin was great and with the tin roof we got to sleep to the sound of rain.

Saturday morning arrived with cold temperatures and lots of wind.  An abundance of mud puddles and some very squishy spots give the trails an added technical aspect for even some of the lower level trails that wouldn't normally exist with dry conditions.

But not of that put a damper on the perfect day of wheeling it turned out to be.

Our Lineup for the day! Thanks for the picture Towns family

 Chris planned out the trail list ahead of time with the goal of hitting many of the level 1 and 2 trails, knowing that that rain may cause some of the high level trail to be a bit too difficult.

 Starting with Omega first off.  I love pictures of Jeeps in a row.  We had 8 rigs with us for this trip.

 Just one of the many waterfalls we saw throughout the day.

 And one of the many mud puddles.

 Just a baby puddle to get the morning started.

 Thanks Emily for videoing us!  When we lead sometimes we work through obstacles before we realize we should have been filming!

 And next was this one.  So we went through it first and realized as the back end came off the drop-off that it was a little deeper than we anticipated.  But with lockers engaged we pulled right through it and we were tall enough that it didn't reach the doors.

 Next jeep couldn't pull out so he got to use his wench.    Getting it hooked up now.  The rest of the jeeps took the bypass.

 We didn't fare to bad, but you can see the passenger side dipped first and deeper.

 Lunch!  We went for burgers but ended up eating beef tips and rice with homemade mashed potatoes and corn nuggets.  A hot meal was perfect after the cold morning we had!

A view from the dash!

We rode all the trails we had on the list today plus added a few extra.  About 5:30 as it started to get dark, half the group split off to head back to the cabins and start dinner and we went to run a couple more trail as dusk settled in.

Dinner was chili by the Towns, and chicken and dumplings from the Thornhills, Hot dogs, smores and hot chocolate by the fire finished out our evening and we were snuggled under the covers warming up from the day by 9pm.

We woke to a beautiful, yet cold morning in the 20's but after a short breakfast at Whataburger and our first trail about 9:15 the temps were rising and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

We ran Any Sunday again and the headed to Politician trail which has a couple of technical spots before loading up the jeep and turning the key to our cabin.

We met the Trail Lizards on the trails on Saturday as they were there to do trail maintenance for the park and hooked up with them this morning to run one more trail called Desi' Way.

It was a level 2 but it had one pretty technical obstical that Chris was glad he tried.  Line was perfect. Three jeeps did it and the rest took the much safer bypass. 

With tires aired up, sway bars reconnected and shocks adjusted, we hit the local car wash to get some of the mud off and headed back towards Houston.   It was a great weekend, and a perfect getaway.  With the rest of January booked and a of February we will be ready to hit the road again in March and begin planning some camping trips to try our new roof top tent!