Tuesday, 5/22
It just might work...
I slept horribly that night. I got about 5 hours of broken sleep before my eyes opened and the strategies for the day began running through my head. I laid there on Drew's floor for hours before I finally knocked on his door a little before 9 AM. He was slow to get moving, but we finally moved into the garage to attempt to get the front drive operational. After some measuring on the truck and the 3 shafts he had in the garage, we had a shaft… a good thing too, because Dan called to tell me that they found out his friend's flight was at 2 PM. Back to the big-truck plan. By the time we had everything loaded and ready to go, it was about 2PM. We hit the highway with the big tires hummin’.
We arrived at the river where Scott and John had to be happy to see the monster military Jeep rumble down to the beach.
First, plan 'A'. Drew reluctantly plunged his pride-and-joy project truck tail-first into the murky, swift flowing water, into the deep center of the river, then up the shallower side to drop the tailgate on the bank, where the gear and two of the bikes were ready waiting to board. While loading the gear Drew hollered out that the front was sinking, and about that time the radiator fan sank into the river, spraying water out through the fenders. The current was sweeping the loose river bottom from under the big tires, and we picked up our pace. Drew pulled out with the current and the modified 460 sang its way across the river. I couldn’t believe my original daydreamed ‘plan A’ worked, but it did, like a charm. Once the bikes and gear were across the river, we all headed the back way (beautiful ride by the way) to Superior for food and a Motel.
Free
at last...
The water in the middle of the river was well over waist deep - over seat height. You need to see a picture of the truck next to someone to get sense of scale for it's size, but note the rear bumper was under water in the middle of the river; the bumper comes up to my stomach when standing next to it. The spot where we backed the truck up to at the bank was shallower than the rest of the river.
Spirited
conversation at dinner
Los Hermano’s = good food
Los Hermano’s = good food
After an excellent dinner we said our seeya’s to Drew and his friend (also Drew) and hit the hay at local dump of a motel.
The
dive motel
John’s new Terraflex wasn’t fairing well
John’s new Terraflex wasn’t fairing well