Saurian
New member
RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: HAS ANYONE NOTICED RUBICON REAR BRAKES D
This is a very insightful topic, brought to you from Michigan Jeepers... Here's my lengthy (yeah, you know it's me :twisted: ) response to this quandary...
Ooh, good story...
:: cracks fingers ::
It all started waaaaaayyyy back when, when I was a small Sean, and a mere fraction as crazy as I am now. You know, those days when the world is bright and wonderful, and the only concern you have is when summer vacation ends, and will your 4th grade teacher end up being a bitch?
For as long as I could remember, my family went up to the property in Cheboygan County... We own 11 acres in the middle of the forest off a little 2 track (incidentally, right near a place that CC owns, I believe)... Between Indian River and Onaway... But anyway. All my happy thoughts were created, and still exist up there, sometimes, the vivid memory of the place is all that keeps me going, reminding me that there is still something good worth fighting for in this messed up congested angry world of ours... Every summer, for 10 days or so, just relaxing in the woods as a family...
Picture it... It's morning, but only just. The sun is just peeking up through the trees. It rained last night, it seemed to gently rain every night, so the trees and ground were moist with the dew. Dad would get up and start the campfire, while Mom would get the coffee going... As they woke up, I just took in the whole scene; the perfect breeze blowing through the trees as it got lighter and lighter with the sunrise... The scent of earth, wood smoke, and strong coffee... Next thing you know, Mom's making breakfast, and what a spread! Eggs, hash browns, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, milk, coffee if I wanted, with lots of cream and sugar (which is how I still drink it to this day)... As the day went on, my sister and I would occupy ourselves... We'd go down the road through the woods, catching frogs, picking berries, eating lichens off the trees (but not the poison ones that Dad told us to look out for...) PB&Js, washed down with Faygo Rock and Rye, or Redpop, then we'd digest and shoot cans off the fallen tree with the pellet rifle. Hotdogs over the fire for dinner, and then we sat in a circle as a family, roasting marshmallows, and making s'mores as it got darker and darker, till the only things you could see were the trees immediately around the camping area lit up by the lanterns, and a perfect blackness behind them... And we could go fishing, we'd go to Mackinac, Tahquamenon, all of Northern Michigan was at our disposal, even if it was merely sitting in the dirt and playing with my toy cars...
In 1994, we went up there for the last time. My dad got a new job that year, and it was one of those deals where he didn't have the vacation time this year, but we'd go next year... Next year never came... The years went by, and I grew up, of course, progressing through school, graduating, but forever in my mind was my property, a place where only perfect happy memories have, and will ever exist in their purest state. I saw it in my dreams, I smelled it on the air, and anything that triggered a memory pulled it all back, like I was there again... And so, in early 2002, 8 years since I had last been up there, I finally decided to go...
The vehicle: 1984 Plymouth Reliant... It was the wet season, and the 2 track had been badly damaged by the logging that took place around my parcel shortly after the summer of 1994. Those cars were amazing, the capability to pull through mud, snow, dirt, whatever... But it just couldn't handle the road... I bottomed out, and was stuck. The tow-truck driver, upon pulling me out, rear-ended me and took off, effectively shattering the frame of the vehicle, to the point that the back seat was dragging on the road as I pulled it into the drive for the last time...
I NEEDED to get up to my property... All my happy memories were merely that, memories, and memories long past to boot. Sister and I catch frogs, fat chance, we haven't spoken in 3 years now. Family sit around and roast marshmallows, please, every one of us has jobs, and works mad crazy hours. Pick the burrs out of Mio when he finally wandered back to camp, hell, he's been dead for almost 4 years now. My criteria in a new vehicle were two things. Automatic. Can get me to my property...
Went up to Oakland Dodge. I was planning on a 4X4 Dakota. All my life, my grandma and grandpa have been preaching the evil of Jeep, how they roll over, how they're badly built, how they're a pain in the ass to work on, so on, and so forth... So, I'm looking around, and I say, hey, that's nice...
Grandma... A TRUCK?!? Rear wheel drive in Michigan?!? Oh no no no, honey... Umm... What about that Jeep over there? By this time, the used car salesman has emerged to feed on my blood. 1997 XJ, 89,000 miles, black, 4 door, great shape... I am interested and pleased indeed... 13 grand...
Hey, let me show you this little number...
Suddenly, around the building pulls this sparkly blue XJ, in flawless condition. 2000 XJ, 24,000 miles, power everything, excellent shape, CD changer, sunroof... Grandpa looks in, out, and under... Being that he was not only a master mechanic of the highest degree, he had some mad skills, he also worked for Chrysler for 46 1/2 years, until he no longer was mentally able to do so... And he declared it to be good... That was all I needed. 15 grand, monthly payments of 275... I can do that!!! Of course, 275 became 316, but hey, what're you gonna do...
That was May of 2002. All that year, I couldn't get up there, recouping the costs of the purchase and all that... But finally, in the summer of 2003, I was able to take it up there... Skeptical, hell yeah, I was. Put it in 4 hi, and eased into the mud... It skipped and splashed around like a happy puppy, and glided through the destroyed road to my property. For the first time in 9 years, a tent was set up on the property. A fire built in the firepit. And I sat for nearly 14 hours straight, once camp was set up, and wrote... Everything I had on my mind, every thought, despair, worry, triumph, poem, song, anything that I thought, I wrote until finally, as the sun had came back up, and the lantern ran out of fuel, I ran out of anything to write. All the hate and rage of the last 9 years of my life was gone, poured into 5 legal pads, and 3 sticky notebook pads...
I started wheeling to bring me back to my happy place. The one and only place that I will always care about, and always fight for, even in the deepest and darkest apathy I may fall into. As time went on, I more than found the joy of off-roading, and love it like crazy, but I know that as long as Jeepy sits out there in the driveway, I can get back to my property... This is also why I have such a strong bond with my Jeep, it did what 9 years of my life could not manage to accomplish in a mere 5 hour drive.
So what about you all? What's your story?
This is a very insightful topic, brought to you from Michigan Jeepers... Here's my lengthy (yeah, you know it's me :twisted: ) response to this quandary...
Ooh, good story...
:: cracks fingers ::
It all started waaaaaayyyy back when, when I was a small Sean, and a mere fraction as crazy as I am now. You know, those days when the world is bright and wonderful, and the only concern you have is when summer vacation ends, and will your 4th grade teacher end up being a bitch?
For as long as I could remember, my family went up to the property in Cheboygan County... We own 11 acres in the middle of the forest off a little 2 track (incidentally, right near a place that CC owns, I believe)... Between Indian River and Onaway... But anyway. All my happy thoughts were created, and still exist up there, sometimes, the vivid memory of the place is all that keeps me going, reminding me that there is still something good worth fighting for in this messed up congested angry world of ours... Every summer, for 10 days or so, just relaxing in the woods as a family...
Picture it... It's morning, but only just. The sun is just peeking up through the trees. It rained last night, it seemed to gently rain every night, so the trees and ground were moist with the dew. Dad would get up and start the campfire, while Mom would get the coffee going... As they woke up, I just took in the whole scene; the perfect breeze blowing through the trees as it got lighter and lighter with the sunrise... The scent of earth, wood smoke, and strong coffee... Next thing you know, Mom's making breakfast, and what a spread! Eggs, hash browns, bacon, pancakes, orange juice, milk, coffee if I wanted, with lots of cream and sugar (which is how I still drink it to this day)... As the day went on, my sister and I would occupy ourselves... We'd go down the road through the woods, catching frogs, picking berries, eating lichens off the trees (but not the poison ones that Dad told us to look out for...) PB&Js, washed down with Faygo Rock and Rye, or Redpop, then we'd digest and shoot cans off the fallen tree with the pellet rifle. Hotdogs over the fire for dinner, and then we sat in a circle as a family, roasting marshmallows, and making s'mores as it got darker and darker, till the only things you could see were the trees immediately around the camping area lit up by the lanterns, and a perfect blackness behind them... And we could go fishing, we'd go to Mackinac, Tahquamenon, all of Northern Michigan was at our disposal, even if it was merely sitting in the dirt and playing with my toy cars...
In 1994, we went up there for the last time. My dad got a new job that year, and it was one of those deals where he didn't have the vacation time this year, but we'd go next year... Next year never came... The years went by, and I grew up, of course, progressing through school, graduating, but forever in my mind was my property, a place where only perfect happy memories have, and will ever exist in their purest state. I saw it in my dreams, I smelled it on the air, and anything that triggered a memory pulled it all back, like I was there again... And so, in early 2002, 8 years since I had last been up there, I finally decided to go...
The vehicle: 1984 Plymouth Reliant... It was the wet season, and the 2 track had been badly damaged by the logging that took place around my parcel shortly after the summer of 1994. Those cars were amazing, the capability to pull through mud, snow, dirt, whatever... But it just couldn't handle the road... I bottomed out, and was stuck. The tow-truck driver, upon pulling me out, rear-ended me and took off, effectively shattering the frame of the vehicle, to the point that the back seat was dragging on the road as I pulled it into the drive for the last time...
I NEEDED to get up to my property... All my happy memories were merely that, memories, and memories long past to boot. Sister and I catch frogs, fat chance, we haven't spoken in 3 years now. Family sit around and roast marshmallows, please, every one of us has jobs, and works mad crazy hours. Pick the burrs out of Mio when he finally wandered back to camp, hell, he's been dead for almost 4 years now. My criteria in a new vehicle were two things. Automatic. Can get me to my property...
Went up to Oakland Dodge. I was planning on a 4X4 Dakota. All my life, my grandma and grandpa have been preaching the evil of Jeep, how they roll over, how they're badly built, how they're a pain in the ass to work on, so on, and so forth... So, I'm looking around, and I say, hey, that's nice...
Grandma... A TRUCK?!? Rear wheel drive in Michigan?!? Oh no no no, honey... Umm... What about that Jeep over there? By this time, the used car salesman has emerged to feed on my blood. 1997 XJ, 89,000 miles, black, 4 door, great shape... I am interested and pleased indeed... 13 grand...
Hey, let me show you this little number...
Suddenly, around the building pulls this sparkly blue XJ, in flawless condition. 2000 XJ, 24,000 miles, power everything, excellent shape, CD changer, sunroof... Grandpa looks in, out, and under... Being that he was not only a master mechanic of the highest degree, he had some mad skills, he also worked for Chrysler for 46 1/2 years, until he no longer was mentally able to do so... And he declared it to be good... That was all I needed. 15 grand, monthly payments of 275... I can do that!!! Of course, 275 became 316, but hey, what're you gonna do...
That was May of 2002. All that year, I couldn't get up there, recouping the costs of the purchase and all that... But finally, in the summer of 2003, I was able to take it up there... Skeptical, hell yeah, I was. Put it in 4 hi, and eased into the mud... It skipped and splashed around like a happy puppy, and glided through the destroyed road to my property. For the first time in 9 years, a tent was set up on the property. A fire built in the firepit. And I sat for nearly 14 hours straight, once camp was set up, and wrote... Everything I had on my mind, every thought, despair, worry, triumph, poem, song, anything that I thought, I wrote until finally, as the sun had came back up, and the lantern ran out of fuel, I ran out of anything to write. All the hate and rage of the last 9 years of my life was gone, poured into 5 legal pads, and 3 sticky notebook pads...
I started wheeling to bring me back to my happy place. The one and only place that I will always care about, and always fight for, even in the deepest and darkest apathy I may fall into. As time went on, I more than found the joy of off-roading, and love it like crazy, but I know that as long as Jeepy sits out there in the driveway, I can get back to my property... This is also why I have such a strong bond with my Jeep, it did what 9 years of my life could not manage to accomplish in a mere 5 hour drive.
So what about you all? What's your story?
