Odd, who you run into on the trail...

[FJCTom]

Hay guise!,

Ran into Steve on the trail this weekend. And the new owner (but common friend) of a very familiar capable vee-hckle. No idea how that all happened. Steve'll probably have more to report but, in the meantime, from atop Cucumber Pass:

 

[FJCTom]

Steve wanted me to let you know that we were actually on Kidsinthehall Pass.

or was that Cabbagepatchkids Pass.

Naw, seriously, it was Cumberland Pass. Steve didn't want to keep our rendezvous pointe a secret from you guys.

 

[FJCTom]

 

[FJCTom]

 

[FJCTom]

 

[alia176]

Yup, Steve better hurry up the report from this trip AND the drone footage from our LAST trip.

Chop chop Steve

 

[Mauser]

Seeing that third gen brought tear to my eye. I don't know if it was a happy or sad tear. I sure hope that the new owner knows what they have. Nick put a lot of himself into that truck.

Now that i have my truck painted I need to find a place for my frog sticker in memory of Nick. The only sticker I will have. When we were working on his 4runner we talked about a lot of different things, but I learned a lot about frogs. Its funny, now I am reminded of him every time I see a frog.

 

[FJCTom]

Seeing that third gen brought tear to my eye. I don't know if it was a happy or sad tear. I sure hope that the new owner knows what they have. Nick put a lot of himself into that truck.

Now that i have my truck painted I need to find a place for my frog sticker in memory of Nick. The only sticker I will have. When we were working on his 4runner we talked about a lot of different things, but I learned a lot about frogs. Its funny, now I am reminded of him every time I see a frog.

The new owner (Scott) is a very good friend of mine (no not Jeremiah speaking of frogs, tee-hee) and Nick's. He used to live in ABQ and wheeled with he and me many a time. Attached is from a Jemez snow run back in 2016. Scotty is all the way on the right. The 4Runner is staying "in the family", so to speak.

Scotty also dropped off some ashes so Nick can keep adventuring with me and reminding me "you don't need to be in 4WD yet..."

And then there was the time Nick egged me on to taking lead down the back road to Magdalena and I found out how much of race suspension I have and how I can trust the ABS...

And the other time when Nick and I were out at Cedro Peak and he found out not to stand in front of a manual transmissioned truck when it is attempting to climb obstacles. Once you start going, you keep going...

So many good times, so many memories. I miss Nick and Scott (lives in TN now) as well as the rest of you HDC-folk. Smart 'wheelers are the fun ones but they are rare.

 

[FJCTom]

Virgil, where the heck was the weld done on the frame? We were crawling around looking for it so Scott could keep an eye on it and neither one of us had eagle eyes, apparently.

 

[Mauser]

Virgil, where the heck was the weld done on the frame? We were crawling around looking for it so Scott could keep an eye on it and neither one of us had eagle eyes, apparently.

The driver side coil spring bucket. We cleaned and painted it so it's pretty hard to see without pulling that spring so you can get your head up there.

The last question Nick asked me about the repair was "Would you wheel it with your family?" I wouldn't have let him drive it home if I wouldn't.

 

[FJCTom]

Thanks Virgil! Nick was very detailed oriented. I'd like to think that's why we got along so well. That, and he cared enough to keep reminding me to get outdoors no matter how bad I was feeling because life is short.