We chose Atlas, along with 16 other adventurous wheelers, to begin our 4X4 Blast weekend. It was pretty uneventful at first with the only excitement being what color smoke was coming out of Tim's exhaust. We had one fellow Jeeper who had several problems throughout the day. Craig, from the Rockford area, first had starter problems, then his locker wasn't cooperating, and later in the day he ripped his soft-top on a tree.

After a break for lunch we headed for more challenges on part of Tall Dog. As we progressed up the wash out hill, Mr. Jeepbox.com from Alabama broke his front axle shaft while popping his back tire off the rim. (He was focusing all of his attention on his grandson who was trying to nap in the seat next to him).

Last, but certainly not least, Mr. Jeff Dieken broke his front axle shaft and blew the ball joints. Someone, not mentioning any names…. Jim… was in front of him when he was attempting to climb up a tricky hill. Jim threatened to roll out the 'yellow carpet' and pull him up, but Jeff was bound-and-determined not to let that happen. His 3rd try would be his last for the day. We helped Jeff limp his Jeep out, while Tim pulled Jeff's wheel out attached to a strap behind his Jeep. As we waited for Jeff's trailer just outside of the woods, we found out that his trailer wasn't going to be of much help being that it had blown a tire on the way to the rescue. Luckily this happened at the end of the day, so we had a pretty full day of off-road adventure.

A big thanks to Craig, Mr. Jeepbox, Jeff, and our trail guides for making it such an exciting trail ride.

Craig and kids chose to trail ride on Atlas both days. Craig wrote:

By Caleb (age 10)

We went on Atlas on Friday. Our first obstacle was the pretzel. We went in and out easily. After that, we went to a mud hole. My dad broke his tire holder, that was the "nine Hole". On Saturday, on Atlas again, we went through the pretzel and "nine hole" again. Then we went to a field where we saw a beautiful setting. After lunch we went to Tall Dog. Tall Dog was pretty fun. Then it started to rain. Everybody was trying to get out fast. We broke a U-joint in our Jeep. We also went in another mud hole. My sister got covered with mud.

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

By Jordan (age 8)

We went on a 4-wheeling trip over the weekend. It was my first time. I'm going to go again! We went on a pretzel. It was scary the first time, but it wasn't the second time. We went on the same track the second day. We went with our friend Garry (Shadwick). He was a leader. We went over some big hills. We also went in a big mud pit. I was sitting in the back and I got covered with mud.