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2001 Annual General Meeting & Ma Earth
Trail Ride
By Graham McNeill - October 13th, 2001
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This year's Annual General
Meeting was by far the shortest in recent history. For once it
could have gone on longer as the weather forecast was for a very
wet trail ride. 105 members, family and friends with 48 Jeeps
gathered for breakfast at the VFW Hall in Pittsfield for the 2001
Annual Meeting and Ma Earth Trail Ride and Night Ride.
The meeting was uneventful with President O.R. Freesen, Trail
Boss and Safety Officer Tim Miller, and Secretary/Treasurer Graham
McNeill returning for an additional three-year term as Director's
of the Board. Minutes of the meeting will be published in the
next newsletter along with the Secretary and Treasurer's reports.
One high point is the fact that the club has donated nearly $15,000
this year to various charities.
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Randy Whitaker and John Toumbs are seen here accepting a plaque
from Trail Boss Tim Miller.
Randy and John were second place finishers in this year's Tombstone
Invitational Rock Run. As usual the chrome dome blocking the picture
is the infamous pecan pie stealing Tom Miller
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John is jokingly explaining to the audience
that he had read in a manual somewhere that you have to test your
rev-limiter at least once a month. This way he is able to keep Randy
in front of the Jeep running very fast to prevent him from being
run over. |
| Ma Earth Trail Ride |
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Six trails had been
originally planned for this year's trail ride but several inches
of rain in the preceding days reduced the selection to just three.
With clouds starting to darken the sky the convoys left the VFW.
It was not expected that we would be able to complete any of the
remaining Ridge Rambler, Murphy's Law and Back 40 trails in their
entirety.
We were only on Murphy's
Law Trail for a few minutes before the first casualty - Scooter
Hansler broke a clutch component in his CJ7 and was forced to
ride with the big Kahuna - Murphy himself, an always fun and entertaining
experience, but sometimes somewhat on the terrifying side. A few
yards later fallen tress required trail leader Steve (Chief) Gambrill
to break out the chain saw to make room for the Jeeps to proceed.
Bob Kavka is seen here doing a mighty fine job of holding back
Chief's YJ.
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It looks like Frank and Jude were having
a good day anyway. |
Frank Fleeger who normally likes to
aim his Jeep YJ at trees was unable to make contact with this branch
despite several attempts. |
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The rain started to
come down fairly heavily at times and trail leader Gambrill thought
it would be best if we did not get caught in the gullies. Previous
heavy downpours have left Jeeps struggling for many hours to exit
this trail due to the many creeks and long muddy hills.
This is one of the Jim Pleskos about to negotiate the waterfall,
- he has 35" tires on this TJ. If you miss the correct line
on this obstacle you can expect water up to your dashboard. Luckily
for Jim, Ingrid Plesko was along to make sure that this did not
happen. Jim maybe a swat team member and dog handler but Jim knows
his place with his wife in the passenger seat. Members have noticed
there are many Jim Plesko Jeeps in the club these days. This is
a result of an incorrectly worded article and photo description
in 4Wheel Drive and Sport Utility Magazine where fellow club member
Jeff Dieken is listed as Jim Plesko. As a result decals bearing
Jims name as driver of the jeep are appearing on many jeeps these
days.
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Steve Gambrill carefully spots another
Jim Plesko Jeep (a.k.a. Larry Schultz) through a minor inconvenience.
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The Tank was tail gunner for the day with
the unfortunate luck to be also the chauffer and general transportation
for yours truly. I made him put the roof on because I didn't like
getting wet. I didn't bring my own Willys because it was sans roof
or heater and complete with 1940s era non-windshield wipers. It's
certainly nice to be driven the 600 miles to and from Naperville.
It's amazing what you miss when you have to drive |
| This creek was dry when we entered the
trail. Although not a raging torrent at this point it doesn't take
a lot of rain for the creeks to become anti social. |
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"Don't worry Pete it's only flat on
the one side." Another member of Team Plesko jacks up the TJ
as Pete ponders how an AT tire is going to get him off the trail. |
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Pete Niles had the
bad luck to tear open a tire on a rock. Pete looks on as Team
Plesko changes the tire for him - must be nice!!!!
We were off the trail without
further incident. The rain came down harder so we convoyed out
for our usual shopping trip to Farm and Home in Pittsfield.
Thanks Murph for letting
us use your property again.
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| The Party |
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Debbie and Tom Wombles
hosted a hog roast at their farm. It was a well-attended gathering
with excellent barbequed pork. The lovely Ric Schultz with pal
Kim and kids came dressed in Halloween garb entertained us. It
was Tom's birthday and he was dually embarrassed with presents
and cards, and kisses from the cheerleader.
The night run to Dutch
Creek was cancelled due to the heavy rainfall which was a great
shame as this is one of the highlights of the Ma Earth Trail Ride.
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Thanks Debbie and Tom for being great
hosts.
They say a picture is worth
a thousand words. This is Craig Jessemen's Jeep pictured at the
Pike Motel after a hard day on Back 40.
Ridden hard and ………..
Nothing that money and
a power washer won't fix. If it ain't dirty and ain't broke, you
were obviously not having enough fun.
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| Final Thoughts for the Day |
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2002 will be a year
of many volunteers. With two major national trail ride events
the club will need more volunteers and help. Please let us know
how you can help. Even if it's sticking on a few stamps or contributing
ideas it will be appreciated. We will need members to help with
club promotional ideas. We will need new trail guides and tail
gunners, people to physically help at the events. Help with trail
sign up at the regular club runs. Next time you come down please
ask if there is anything you can do to help with the days activities.
Thanks.
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