A Sunday evening trail drive was organized in which wives would ride along. The purpose of this may have been two edged – to get the wives to like the sport and accompany their spouses on future outings, or get them to hate the activity and leave the men and their machines alone. It was anything but a Sunday drive .... see the results of this bonding or ungluing exercise below.
Paul and Navigator Andrea, Frankie and Carol, Roy and Wendy, and Leemoy’s grandson and I met at Calvin’s for a delicious lunch of curry chicken and pigeon peas. As usual Tara cooked but Calvin took the credit.
A word of explanation here – I was driving Keith’s jeep. When I brought it home last week, with all the scars of its inversion still intact, my wife’s immediate remark was what was I doing with that POS. I use initials here for the sake of decency. They do not stand for our capital city or the abbreviated suffix to my blood group. Showing her all the equipment attached did not impress her in the least. But I have had this problem before.
Anyway, four vehicles and eight well fed people met Jason, our guide, at Mayo, for our Sunday evening drive. Paul was driving his old red and yellow Suzuki –which had us needlessly worried for a while. Jason has the ability to find footpaths in the bushes – and we trustingly followed him. Everything was going well. Dry paths with some acute switchbacks - cool. Then Roy’s front tire slipped off the rim. Jason’s A/C air compressor and skill, and Calvin’s generous application of oil had the tire back on and we were off again.
Then mud – pretty deep ruts made by wheel tractors, – sometimes four – left very narrow banks on which to balance the vehicles. My front wheel slipped into one of the ruts and POS almost repeated its last famous act. Three guys standing on the high side and some careful reversing got me out. A few minutes later, Roy who apparently thought my maneuver looked spectacular, outdid me by putting two wheels in the same rut. Winching and weighting extricated him. Frankie determining the strategy in both cases
Adventurous Jason attempted to avoid the ruts on a corner by keeping to the bushes and slid sideways above a ravine. One rear wheel was in space. Two of the ruts he did not avoid kept the Toyota from sliding into the water. With Calvin winching at the front and POS winching (good equipment Keith) at the side, we had him out – textbook recovery -guidance by Paul.
A bit more mud, darkness again. We were happy to see asphalt somewhere in the back of Gasparillo, sometime around eight o’clock. Later than we expected, but the wives got to see why their husbands arrive home late with mud all over them. I hope everyone enjoyed the trail. Thanks to Jason for the course and his help on the trail with repairs. Thanks to the wives and Trent (grandson) for the company.
Respectfully Submitted, Trevor.
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