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There was a group of three of us that traveled down to Disney, OK. from Goddard and Wichita, KS Mike Costello and family, his friend Maroun and my wife, son and I. Our daughter wanted to stay with grandparents. We met at the Walmart on the East side of town at 6:00am. The trip down was uneventful for us but just to the west of Fall River, KS there was a cattle hauling rig in the ditch. Looked like it must have been a rough ride. Mike called 911 on his cell and reported it. We ran into some rain at the Oklahoma border. We were glad that we had brought the soft top and full doors. Maroon had a bikini top and half doors on his cj7. We arrived about 10:00am. Went straight to the Cherokee # 3 campground. Almost everyone was there so after meetin and greetin we turned around and went back to Hogan's ORV Campground and set up camp. We were thankful it quit raining while we set up. Mr. Hogan has a very nice place. I would recommend it to anyone going to the Disney area. He also has made a wrecker boom on his Unimog which came in handy later in the day. There were a few members of OKRovers attending and several members of Tornado Alley Cruisers. I am a member of Green Country and Tornado Alley. Makes for more excuses to go wheeling... After a lunch of BBQ burgers and hot dogs. The raffle was held. There were a lot of really cool items that were donated. Many thanks to all the companies and individuals that donated. Tickets were sold for the winch, and given away for the rest of the items. Eric Cristenson, President of Tornado Alley Cruisers and Secretary of the TLCA, won the winch. Congratulations Eric! After the raffle Deano led us on a trail ride. Maroun's jeep seemed to have wiring issues and the electric fuel pump quit. He tried to rewire it but had to return to camp. Not sure where Deano took us but it was nice ride. There was a nice mix of rigs, Rovers, a 715 Kaiser an FZJ 80 and several FJ 40s. There was some concern that the open diff rigs might have trouble on the steep hill climbs. We left plenty of roll back room behind one another but it was not needed. Everyone made it. I got to show off the crawlabilty of my sm420 transmission. Oh yea, I like it! We went down a real tight canyon, straddling V's, articulating and tight turns. I thought someone said they broke a tie rod and I offered my spare. But what was said was it was a tight turn. Any way everyone got a laugh about me carrying a tie rod. "What else ya got in there Don?" It is nice that there are some places to ride through the trees in addition to playing on the rocks. I always seem to scuff something up on the rocks. We came to a very steep hill. The person going down would edge over and the rear of their rig would keep going up in the air till it looked like they were vertical. Then they would like zip down and disappear. "Must be real steep" says I. My wife Golden "Yep!" It was kinda muddy at the bottom and you would slide down the last 5 feet or so. We all made it down and the discussion started about could it driven back up. Well, that's all the prodding I needed. Golden says "You aren't gonna try it?" "Sure. Why not?" Made it real easy in second low. I think if I have a four wheeling specialty it is climbing steep muddy hills. Uh huh..... Ok, I did it who's next? David Rising gave it 3 tries. One more time! Then Randy Underwood gave it a whirl. He had a little trouble. Has anyone ever broke a front pinion? Don't feel bad Randy. I've broke 2 rear pinions myself. After trying to get the lock right out so it would roll forward. It was decided that there was too much trash in there. And Eric had come back with Mr. Hogan and his Unimog, so the decision was made to haul Randy out with the Unimog. Thank you Russ Hogan! There were plenty of burgers and dogs left so some us headed back to the state park for dinner. It also started raining off and on. I think everyone got back to Hogans by 10:00pm or there abouts. Derrick and I went over to the fire and the stories were told. I headed for my sleeping bag before midnight, I think... It started raining soon after and rained all night. It was a good test for our new tent. It past! Nothing got wet! No one was in any hurry to get up till it stopped raining. Which was about 9:00am. After breakfast a group got together and Mr. Hogan took his Green Hornet out. It is a tube frame, rotary engine powered, unimog trans and axle go anywhere machine. We said good bye to Mike and Debi, Maroun and Deano. And went riding. I wanted to show Golden some more of the play area. It was her second time down there. The first time I had broken the Cruiser within an hour. We headed toward the dam and took some photos. I managed to break a birf while backing up to turn around. Man this is getting old. Unlocked the right hub and headed back to camp. We said our good-byes, and headed home. Stopped to visit with Golden's brother in Caney, KS. And got home about sundown. Fixed the birf later in the week. Another great BBQ and meeting by the Green Country Cruisers. Thanks to All!  |
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