My day almost didn't begin at 6 am. I set up plans with Chevy John to pick me up at 5 am and I'd ride out with him. When 6 o'clock rolled around I was pissed and figured John forgot about me. Just as I turned out the porch light and was headed back to bed I heard John's truck trolling down the street looking for my house. On the road John told me that he got a call from Oreo that woke his sound slumber to tell him he was 45 mins. late. An hour late we showed up at Green River to meet up with Chris, Oreo and Patty. Finally all together, we headed for Johnson Valley.

Once out there we called for Bob-o and Iceman on the radio. But being an hour late no one was at the staging area.We followed the traffic to the trail heads, when it became a traffic jam we did a little wheel'n of our own. Eventually we made it to the event site. The runs are a series of short but extremely difficult courses that are timed. Since these courses are scattered about a 100 sq. acre area it was hard to stay together as a group. Those 14 channel 2-way radios helped keep us in touch. It was a day of climbing like a mountain goat, trying to get a good view, and getting a good photo. Walking from course to course you could see a who's who of the top crawlers that we've all seen in our favorite magazines. It was like being a kid in a candy store, seeing all the toys that you'd want to have. While walking a round I ran into Bob-o and Diane and later on I saw Iceman and visited a bit. There was to much to see and not enough time to see it all. Everywhere you went you heard stories of a roll over on one course, or a broken something or other on another course. I personally witnessed 2 rollovers , 2 broken axles, 1 snapped drive shaft, 1 broken control arm, the same vehicle break and weld his front axle twice, a spotter get trapped under a jeep then get back up after the jeep backed up and finish spotting the run and 1 rear wheel steering sniper fold his rear tie rod in a "v" and the wheels ended up pointing toward each other. It was one of the best events I've ever been to as a spectator. As the event can to a conclusion, somehow we all hooked up and headed to the staging area to meet and talk with Bob-o's friends that were competing in the days event. After a bit of story telling and general B.S. we pointed the vehicles home after seeing some of the best wheel'n I've ever experienced.

Joe aka Tumbleweed