This is the story of the greatest snow run combined with the worst road trip of my life. To begin with I'd like to thank Rick at Snohomish Transmission for inviting me on their 23rd annual snow-camp / jeep-trip near Ellensburg over New years weekend. To get even with Rick for making me freeze in 20 degree weather, I invited his group to the April Fools Snow Run in the Blue Mountains. Every year on april 1st, the snowmobile trails are no longer groomed and are opened up to wheeled vehicles. About 200 rigs attack Skyline Drive from Dayton Washington to Tollgate Oregon, and up Tiger Canyon from Walla Walla. This road is 50 miles long and we covered 30 miles of it on over 15 feet of snow.

Now, if you look at the last picture you will see what was left of a few tires from my trailer. Here is how the Road trip went:

Friday morning 8:15 left Poulsbo, WA - headed out I-90 and then to Yakima over I-84. Well you know how when you are towing and you go down a hill and are about to go up the next one, you speed up a bit to get a run at the hill? Well at 70 miles per hour our trailer started fish tailing, I told Nirmala (My wife who was driving) to tap the brakes to straighen it out and she said she already did, and the next thing we knew was that we were spinning around backwards. We came to a stop facing on-coming Semi's; I had to have Nirmala bury the gas peddle to pull it off the side of the road. As it turns out we had a low tire that started the fishtailing on the right rear of the trailer, but we wipped around clock wise and snapped the left rear trailer axle off and pulled the left rear rim right off over the lug nuts (look real close at the rim in the picture). I was real proud of Nirmala she didn't freak out or anything and in about 2 minutes she was helping me get the jeep off the trailer and jacking up what was left of our trailer so we could put the spare on what was left of the hub, which was slighly bent but runable.

A really nice guy with an orange safety jacket stopped and waved traffic to the far side of the road while we got it jacked up and spare on. I wish I knew who he was so I could thank him. So now we head on towards Yakima with only 3 wheels on the trailer, and the gear all moved forward so the broken axle did not drag on the ground. Nirmala driving the suburban with trailer and me now driving SuperJeep down the highway. In Yakima we found a Six & Roblees store an bought a stub axle, hub & bearings to fix up the trailer.

Then about 25 miles out of Yakima I look in the rear view mirror and see a cloud of dust and no Suburban. Seems one of the tires on the Suburban just couldn't handle the previous spin and decided to blow out as well. By the time I got turned around Nirmala already had the lug wrench out and was working on the jack. So I told her right then and there, that if she blew another tire on this trip I just wasn't going to let her drive my truck anymore!

By now it was 3:00 in the afternoon. No problem; we would still make camp prior to dusk. Of course then and there was when the (exactly) one-week old rebuilt starter decided not to spin! So under the Burb with a prybar to short out the terminals. Ok now we need some gas, but lets not turn this thing off untill we get to camp. We got gas and then 10 minutes later I see black soot pouring out of the tail pipes on the Burb, and Nirmala pulled it over again. Temp guage was pegged! Over heated, filled it up with water and made about 5 miles. And here we go again. BLOWN Head gasket! Well shit now what do we do. Guess we will tow it with the Jeep to Tri-Cities and leave it a the nephews house 39 miles ahead for repair. Then as we approached Kennewick, Oh yes we are doing fine, Jeep 70 mph down the highway, followed by 10 foot of chain followed by 20 foot of tugem strap, followed by Nirmal steering Burb, followed by a 3 wheel'd trailer. Nirmala calls me on the cell phone, says she's doing fine, lets just keep going on to Walla Walla. So 85 miles of double towing later we arrived at my moms house at 9:15pm where we ditched the Burb and trailer, repacked the Jeep and made camp by 10:15.

Whewe, what a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now we had some great jeeping, and helped a lot of stuck rigs out of the snow drifts, those that went are already planning the next April Fools Day Snow Run.

Then It was time to head back, I fix the trailer Sunday night at my Bro's house in Walla Walla (thanks again Larry for rounding up parts and providing camp and food), and Kurt Franson (Orange Scout) was nice enough to let be borrow his Scout to tow my jeep home on the partially fixed trailer, while he towed my Burb on his heavy duty trailer. Yep if you are counting you saw 4 bad tires in that last picture, and about Cle Ellum we had our 4th blow out for the weekend. And of course the last spare we could beg and borrow had a bead leak, so luckily Rick Pratt, who has had a few bad tire weekends himself, now carries a Duck bill hammer and a set of tire Irons with him, 15 minutes later we were on the road again with our rusty bead sealed with silicone.

But wait its not over yet. About 5 miles from I-405 Nirmala informs me that the temp gage is reading high in the Scout. Sure enough that little bit of radiator fluid we smelled 200 miles back turned out to be yet another blown head gasket. Well be had brough lots of water with us and in only 3 more fill ups we managed to get Home to Lyynwood. Then Tuesday morning I drove Super Jeep to Poulsbo. Wednesday I borrowed a truck from Fred (Thank YOU!) and brough the Scout to the shop to replace the head gaskets, and by Saturday evening, 8 days after it all began everyone and everything was home safe and sound!

Oh I forgot to say the Jeep lost a fan belt, and blew a couple of fuses and the ring and pinion in the rear is still working but now has a 1/2 a tooth missing. Isn't four-wheeling fun!