The Moderate group got down and dirty, then up and dirty on the New Years Run at Frielings Four Wheel Drive Park (in other words, we went down dirty trails and then up dirty trails all day long). We just couldn't help getting dirty because of all the mud that was at the Park.
It started raining on Friday afternoon about 5:00 PM and it was still raining the next morning when we left for Frielings at 8:30 AM. It had rained very hard during the night, and it continued to rain most of the morning and didn't stop until early afternoon. But a little rain and mud wasn't going to stop us. We came to wheel.
We started out with 14 rigs and 27 people. During the day we acquired 2 more rigs,
who followed us for awhile and then just disappeared. We don't know who they were.
We had one visitor with us for about half of the day. His name was Kevin Carpenter,
who came with his two children and had a really nice Rubicon. He lives in the OKC
area and seemed to have a good time. Natalie's father, Frank came all the way from
Kentucky to wheel with his daughter. Christine Foster let David Mosley drive her rig
some during the day. He did a pretty good job. Adam Roberts was our leader for the
day and Rick Mosley and Donald Weiser took turns being the tail gunner.
Our plans were to go to Ed's Place, but since it was still raining, we knew that we wouldn't be able to accomplish Ed's. Instead, we decided to go to Frielings, because there are all kinds of trails there to do. Surely we could do some of them even in the rain. We really did have a good time and there were many trails to do, and some were pretty difficult with the very muddy conditions. Almost every trail had a river running down it all day long. All of the creek crossings were much deeper than usual. Every one of us looked like we had played in the mud. Some of our group looked worse than the rest. Those were the ones with open rigs with no doors. Gerri Flatt remarked at supper that night, that she found mud in her ear.
It was also pretty cold for those with the open rigs because it was so wet. They had to dress in hats and gloves. I do love having doors, a roof and windows that roll down. However, I do not like getting dirty and you just couldn't get away that day without some mud on you. I had to spot clean, soak and pre-wash, and then wash my jean to get all that Oklahoma red mud off of them.
We did have a little carnage that day among our group. Robert Jones broke a u-joint
and was towed back to his trailer. He rode with Donald Weiser for the rest of the day
and then went back to his camp and fixed his rig so that he could run the next day.
Alex Flatt's Dad, Herb broke a rear axle on his Samurai and limped back to his motel.
He decided to go on home the next day. Mike and Saundra Jones had trouble twice that
day. Once he sliced his sidewall on a sharp rock and had to put the spare on. Then
another time he had to replace the valve stem on a tire. That was a really big job.
If someone hadn't had a CO2 tank, he wouldn't have been able to pop the tire on and
seal the bead. Adam's brother-in-law and sister, brad and Andrea had a tire that kept
losing air because mud got in between the rim and tire. We also had the same trouble;
we just kept putting air in it until we got back to our motel and Tom put the spare on
the Toyota the next morning. Adam Robert's tire went flat too. It had to be the mud.
The group did get split up once in the afternoon, but were able to find each other and then it was time to go home to our motels. We did have a big party to go to that night. Some of us went to the car wash to get a layer of mud off our rigs. It was really caked on. The rain had stopped earlier in the afternoon and we had a great time wheeling that day. We were all looking forward to the party that night and to wheeling again the next day.