Greener Pastures

The Willys saved our bacon more than once during three of the coldest winters on the Montana record books. With the help of external oil and coolant heaters, the old guy always fired up when few others would. I remember some pretty rough rides into Bozeman on frozen "square" tires.

The winter of 1979/1980 proved too much for us--the truck was about the only thing we had that worked. In the spring we packed our earthly belongings into our brokedown Saab, hitched it to the Willys and headed for greener pastures in Seattle. Lookout Pass was the first big challenge, but rolling into Seattle at rush hour trailing 3,000 pounds of stuff in a rain squall with vacuum wipers was no party.

Until we could get the Saab fixed, the Willys was our daily driver. Once we got on our feet, the old guy once again proved invaluable to our numerous home remodeling projects over the years. Fifteen years ago we even built a garage for the old guy. For the last decade, however, that's pretty much where it just sits. As I recollect all the adventures my old Jeep has provided in the last nearly 35 years, I'm amazed that it all took place in just a little over 20,000 miles--when I bought it the odometer showed just over 39,000 miles, backed up by all of the oil change stickers pasted on the door jamb; the current reading is 57,359. It still fires right up and purrs like the proverbial kitten, but it's in need of some tender loving care that I just can't provide. So I'm currently searching for a good home for the old guy.

Adventures in Canyonlands

Sometime between the Mineral Fork incident and heading for Montana in the Willys, I managed to wreck the tranmission rocking my way out of a snow bank--an unsuccessful attempt to get over Guardsman Pass to Park City in the middle of January. I sold the Meyer plow to cover the expense of a brand new tranny and had enough left over to add a new Warn overdrive. The overdrive enabled true highway speeds from the 488 gear set and extended my reach for adventure. I made several trips to southern Utah's red rock canyon country. The first trip included the Flint Trail into the Maze and the Doll House. Other trips took us through Bobby's Hole and up Elephant Hill. This was back before there was any traffic, much less traffic control, so you could still go up Elephant Hill from the east as long as you were willing to back down if you met someone coming down. (One of these days I'll get around to posting the half-hour-long, 8mm epic "Adventures in Canyonlands"--stay tuned...as if anyone is reading this.)