Pre-Turkey Day Run - November 2003
by Sharon Perron
What I thought was going to be a miserably cold trip in the Damn Yankee and its bikini top, turn out to be an absolutely wonderful day. Meeting at the Bank, we met several new members as well as the old salts of the club. Seventeen Jeeps were going to set out for a familiar run and meet back at the Bank’s extra little meeting room when the trip was done for a get-together pot luck meal. (Angie’s and Joe’s idea!)
Equipped with the usual Jeep necessities, the group also brought sodas, soup, salads, main dishes and desserts to be eaten after the run. Angie and her side-kick Pam stayed behind to ensure we would have hot food when we returned. Joe and Angie kept in touch through out the afternoon to ensure that we weren’t going to come back too early or too late and it worked out perfectly.
Pat Charron also found out that a food bank in West Brookfield needed non-perishable foods for their pantry, which was getting very low, so she asked those of us who’d be attending to please donate and they’d drop it off on the way though town. We loaded the food into Pat and Doug Stevenson’s Cherokees and it felt nice to help out the needy once again.
Off to the trail head we went in our convoy of Jeeps. The weather was warming up very quickly as we traveled to Ware. Deciding to air down in another location other than the Stone House parking lot, Pat, Doug and Kelly met up with us there. A few of the newer members went with Pat on a different route to get to Double Locker Hill, while Joe lead the majority up the back side of the power lines to go down Double Locker Hill. A few difficulties were met by the newer club members with Cherokees going up the first hill, but after taking more air out of their tires when they got to the top, the rest of the trip was pretty good for them, (well sort of, I’ll explain that later.)
Down was a bit different, although we had done this early in the year. The rocks were starting to move on us. Slowly (and I mean slowly) we inched down the hill. Mark Strohl helped to move one of the rocks that loosened with his Jeep as he cautiously creped his way down. A few additional rocks were relocated by others. Safe and sound our group was at the end while Pat’s group started their decline. It was getting easier on Double Locker Hill, but the so called by-pass is getting harder than the hill now a day, so beware!
Once the groups were joined together we headed out to find a place to eat. We decided to eat where the “play rocks” ended, just before you head left into the woods. On the way there, Paul decided to take a quick detour on some rocks to the left and didn’t expect the rest of the group was going to follow him. Oops! This path wasn’t exactly what was on the menu for the stock vehicles, but we got through it and joined the line again. (Bad Paul!)
Once at the lunch spot, Joe, Jay, Doug, Paul and Matt took their turns trying to climb the rocks. (I was busy eating, so if any others tried, sorry I didn’t see.) Joe made it the first time, but then couldn’t go up them either forward or backwards. All of a sudden, he decided to check his air pressure with someone else’s gage. Low and behold, they we at 15 PSI not the 9 he thought they were. Moral of this story, don’t buy an air gauge at Wal-Mart or ad Joe said: check them with someone else’s. Jay got himself stuck to a point where he couldn’t go up or back in Beth’s Jeep. After several tries, he was free enough to back up and out of the way of the rest of the crazy people. After playing and eating we headed up to the look out. The usual scenario took place………….the squeeze between the tree on the right and ledge on the left. The tree is growing, which means this spot is shrinking! Squeezing though, Joe made it, but Beth had to get winched. Next was Chris Schuch, who made it with a few helping hands to his roof keeping it away from the tree and most of the others who wanted to try it needed a winch to pull though. The Damn Yankee didn’t get winched, but even with the helping hands he did damage to the front of his roof line. Heading down, Jim Higgins took part of the group and Joe lead the rest. (This is where I tell you about one of the new Cherokees again.) Derrick and partner had been doing very good now that the tire pressure was brought down a bit, but as Paul and I kept watch in our rearview mirror, we noticed that the red Cherokee wasn’t following us any more. I had just radioed back that the step down was pretty straight forward, just keep it slow.
We backed up to them to see that the front passenger tire was off its rim. Out came Paul’s hilift jack and they decided to try and fill it with his air tank and pop the bead back on. In the meanwhile Jim’s group caught back up to ours and waited for us to fix the problem. The tire was fixed and filled to 10 PSI, so we started out again. Just bearly out of the woods heading towards the “play rocks”, we heard a cry for “help, the tire let go again”. It was a really bad day for the CB’s; no one could hear the 5th or so Jeep either in front of them or behind them. We had hoped that Matt was close by with his portable air tank, but didn’t get a response, so we backed around, let a few others go by and drove back up to Derrick. By this time, Matt had come to the rescue and put 15 or 16 pounds of air in it this time which did the trick.
Backing down a good portion of the hill, we got turned around and met up with the others who were killing time playing on the rocks again. Once regrouped again, it was time to head out to air up and find some good home cooking. Being tired and hungry the ride back was pretty quiet.
Once back at the bank, Angie and Pam did a great job of having all the food warmed up for us. Hardly a word was spoken as everyone dove into their food. We had all sorts of things to eat from appetizers, soup, salads, pasta, chicken, “Jeep manifold cooked beef”, chili, chicken pot pie, cookies, pumpkin cheese cake and apple pie. There was soda, coffee and what ever you brought to drink. (For you new folks, yes the beef was cooked on Chris’s manifold!)
Announcements were made about the NEA Snow Run in January, the Sniper’s Lair Toys for Tots run in December and that Doug and Kelly were going to get married in February and that Joe and Angie are expecting another little Jeeper. Joe brought his tape of the Paragon adventure for us to watch, while the ladies helped Angie and Pam clean up.
Well, this is about it for this story. I’m sorry I didn’t write down everyone’s name that came, but your Treasurer (remember him – Jeff Roderick I think is his name) actually made a run – and that was news! For all the new people, I hope you had a great time, even if your Jeeps got a couple of battle scars. And for those of you who need stuff for your Jeeps, you’d better ask Santa real soon!
Happy Holidays and drive sober, (just drink a lot when you get home from the in-laws!)
Sign those petitions and write your Senators, we still have along battle ahead of us!
From the Damn Yankee’s copilot,
Sharon