RMIHR/NWBRU

[tsm1@domain.elided (Tom Mandera)]

Well, RMIHR was a blast... cold and wet, but a blast (I think Bill Thebert
was mistaken when he said I shouldn't bring my heavy duty "Arctic" Carhart
coveralls.. they woulda come in handy at night... *shiver*).

Met way too many great folks.. then I raced my Scout (beat Theresa in
Banshee once!) and lost the show & shine (duh).  ;)

Bill Thebert was kind enough to lead a small group up to Holy Cross City on
Monday... I thought I'd need the strap much more often than I did.. my Scout
& I surprised myself. ;)  Though it's now been coined "Tigger" due to the
stiff Skyjacker springs & low (4cyl) weight, combined with too tall gears (=
too high RPMs to keep moving) and the thing just hits a rock, pauses,
bounces up and onto/over it..   The whole trail resulted in one new door
ding (which has my driver's window not winding like it should) and a few
instances of very off-camber (for me, anyhow.. everyone else managed to stay
on the trail, and/or not climb up sheer rock walls with one side of the truck)

Mark Korsten takes the Most Valuable Driver award tho'... piloted his
bone-stock Scout II up the first mile of Holy Cross, and made the rest of us
(33s/Lockers) look silly... 

The drive into Moab was beautiful.. I then started up the Moab Rim Trail,
but chickened out before I crested the first climb... loads of fun... too
much to do all by myself. ;)  Note that I didn't say *impossible*... *smile*
but more rational thought prevailed... I'll wait for a group to come down
and play (and a 1" body lift to keep those tires from rubbing so badly..
that first stretch really had me twisting)

I have a LOONG drive today to get as close to Portland as I can... I'll see
some of you tomorrow.

-Tom Mandera, Moab UT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'72 and '77 Scout IIs