May Rant and Mengel Pass

Okay, so while Christian is finishing up his last day of school with his students, I got a text from Christian's mom about yet another Jeep she is excited to go look at and possibly buy. And she wants it to buy it for Emily...even though she already bought her a replacement car. We are almost done rebuilding it. We were hoping to get it done this summer. And what's worse is that this one is an expensive new shiny model with all the shiny trimmings.

It is, in fact, a mall crawler in it's current configuration. It is a 2015 JK.

I told her it was not a good idea and that Emily's vehicle will be ready for her soon. She said, "okay" and thanked me for my "input."

I went about my day and felt a little bad about putting water on her excitement and sent her a picture of Christian at the Mt. Whitney trailhead. That's when she blurts out that she bought the damned vehicle anyway. I was very upset but didn't say much. I think she knew I wasn't happy about it and asked me why.

I don't know why I had to explain that Christian, and to some extent, Emily had spent a great deal of time, energy and money getting the ZJ ready for her. Emily understood that it was going to take time to make the vehicle nice and reliable but apparently, that wasn't good enough for Cheri. Christian has already been way overextended working on this extra vehicle for Emily. We had accepted the ZJ for Emily because it was a fairly affordable car with lots of potential and Emily really needed something and we could not afford to give her a second car. So we were incredibly thankful when Cheri offered to get this for Emily as she was afraid that she would not be able to get another vehicle while still in college.

But this one is kind of a slap in the face as well as way over the top. All the work into the other one is now just wasted when Christian was already overworked to begin with. Now we have no motivation to put the time and energy into the dead car in our driveway any time in the near future and will have to live with a dead car in our already over-crowded driveway.

I told her that Christian just didn't have it in him to work on any more vehicles and this modern Jeep would be extra difficult and expensive to work on because of all the electronic doodads on it not to mention the hours and hours of research Christian would have to put into researching about those parts. That was the other reason we thought the ZJ was a fine idea, because it is basically just like the XJ and the TJ.

This shiny 2015 Jeep JK is way over the top. It is fancy and expensive. We feel that she is spoiling Emily now. She hasn't done anything special for Caitlyn, not for the first time and not to mention any of her other grandchildren. No matter how understanding Caitlyn might seem to be, it does not promote a good relationship between siblings when one is so obviously favored over another. She did the same thing with Mark and placed a certain amount of enmity between himself and his siblings.

So, her solution was to give even more. She would buy the vehicle, take care of the registration, maintenance and insurance for Emily. I don't mean to be mean when she is being so generous, but she is so clueless sometimes. Emily didn't want to accept it either exactly, but who can turn down such a great deal when you don't have anything? In the end, it was the insurance that really cinched the deal for her. She was waiting for the ZJ but she didn't know how she was going to be able to afford the insurance on it...especially now that she has an accident on her record. 

Cheri is being over the top generous and yet, not one of us is entirely happy about this whole sticky situation. Christian and I are downright pissed about some of it. She sees some of the problems we have with it and has apologized but she's still going to do whatever the hell she wants to do so her apologies don't mean a whole lot. I don't think she realizes some of the other problems she's causing with her "generosity." I don't even want to know what Christian's sister is going to think of this fiasco.

If she merely wanted to be helpful and generous, she could have helped us get a new axle for Caitlyn and given Emily some money for her insurance but her generosity usually only goes for fun, almost frivolous things. It is very frustrating when you are struggling just to have your needs met. And this very lopsided giving causes more problems than it solves.

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The next day, Christian still had to go into work to take care of some red tape and turn in some things. As soon as he was done with that, he came home and we decided to take off for a mental health break. Christian wanted to blow out the stink of school from himself. We also wanted to test out the new tires. We ended up driving out to Death Valley.  It was probably a bit farther than we should have gone for a day trip but we really wanted to go somewhere isolated where we can breathe and relax without worrying about other people. We tried out a new route from Trona into the Slate Range. We really like this trail. It cut some time off our drive into the Panamints. It was a very scenic and fun drive and the best part was that there was no one else there! We will definitely be bring the girls back here.

From Goler Wash, we headed into Coyote Canyon and over Mengel Pass. The last time we came through here was with the F150 and Caitlyn's newly acquired XJ back in the winter of 2020. It had old cracking tires and a tired, saggy suspension. We probably lost a few chunks of her tires along the way. It took us all day to get through this part as we had to break out the traction boards over and over as well as pile rocks to get through the trail. We got lost for a while as well, missing a turnoff at some point. Christian sustained a little damage to the F-150 as well when a rock got lodged under the quarter panel. The F-150 was too big to maneuver through some parts of this trail. This time, we pretty much just breezed through with a modest lift and decent tires. We only had to slow down during the rough parts that gave us so much trouble. We didn't have to put any extra work into getting over this trail at all.

We are pretty happy with the 31 inch MT-02s we ended up getting. There is just enough room in the wheel well to clear the tires when articulating the suspension and it is grippy and aggressive enough that we were able to get over anything we tried. The tread does not cause too much road noise either which is a definite plus when the Jeep is not that quiet to begin with.

We headed out of Death Valley as the sun set and got home pretty late but it was really nice to get out and get our minds off of everything. I can hobble around with one crutch now but can't make it too far or traverse very rough terrain still, but it is nice to get out.

May

We got new tires for the TJ. We moved up to mud terrains this time. Caitlyn will get the all-terrains that we were using. They don't have very many miles on them and hers are ruined from the bent front axle. Christian had originally wanted to move up to 32 or 33 inch tires but all the bigger tires are super wide or super expensive. Luckily, the 31 inch MT-02s are still maybe a half inch or so bigger than the 31 inch A/Ts because of the bigger and more aggressive knobs on them. Christian had to make a plate to secure the wheels on our tire changer before we could switch them out. So we could not get it done right away. Meanwhile, Christian put new oxygen sensors on the TJ since we had such a good result on my Trooper.

We decided to go on a test run to see if it was able to make any difference. We headed to the Owlshead Mountains at the southern end of Death Valley. There was a hike we had heard about that we wanted to do. It started out as a beautiful day. It was sunny, clear and mild. There were still some wild flowers here and there because of all the rain and mild weather we've gotten so far.

When we got to the road closest to the mountain range, the wind had started to really kick up. There were dust devils forming in the distance. We each took a bottle of Gatorade and headed across the wash in the direction of our hike. We forgot to bring a backpack to bring more supplies. We have to traverse a couple of miles across the relatively flat wash, but as we made our way across, the wind was getting worse and we kept getting caught in dust storms blowing across the wash.

I had to put my camera away because it was getting way too dusty. When we got caught in some bad gusts, we had to just stop and close our eyes because you couldn't see anything. Then it would pass and we would dust ourselves off and continue. We continued like that for a while, but it was kind of hot and I had already finished half my Gatorade and since I am very badly out of shape, I decided to head back to the Jeep. Christian decided to continue a little longer as he wanted to at least find the entrance to the canyon we were looking for.

Shortly after I split away from Christian, however, the wind stopped blowing and it felt like it was 15 or 20 degrees hotter all at once. I was so hot and unbelievably tired. I was practically stumbling back by the time I got in view of the Jeep again. I was about ready to pass out. I had serious heat exhaustion and was worrying about how far Christian went and if he would be able to make it back. I was practically praying for the wind to come back so that there was some way to cool down a little. I kept looking back to see if Christian was headed back yet but was not able to spot him. There was not a lick of shade anywhere out there. I can't believe what a bad decision it was to hike out there. We should have turned back sooner but we were so determined to go out there and do something as we've been cooped up at home too long and the weather was fairly pleasant when we started out our day. It was so crazy how our day ended up. 

I don't know how I made it back to the Jeep in the end, even though I was in full view of it. I managed to get some of the water in the truck and dumped it on myself to try to revive myself a little. The water was warm from sitting in the car but the slightest air movement was able to help me cool down a bit. I opened all the doors in the Jeep and sat there numbly looking back across the wash to see if there was any sight of Christian yet. I was trying to make my brain work and decide on a plan if Christian didn't make it back out in a bit. I knew I could not walk back out there, so my only choice would be to drive the Jeep back in search of him. I don't know how long I was out there before I finally spotted Christian. He was moving back slowly and he would sit down on the ground every now and then so I knew he was suffering pretty badly too. I took some more drinks of water and dumped more on my head while I tried to work up the courage and energy to head back over to him to bring him some water. He was not that far off by the time I made it to him. It was bad. He took a sip of water and was wary about me dumping water on him as he was afraid that he would go into shock. We both knew that we could have died out there and barely made it back. We made a plan to head down the road so we could put the air conditioner. After we got to a better place, we pulled over and we had to take a brief nap. We were so exhausted. We cut the rest of our plans and headed back home afterwards. 

On the bright side, we got at least a ten percent improvement on the gas mileage on the Jeep, so we are pretty happy about that.

We thought we would be really suffering the next day trying to shake off the last effects of the heat exhaustion but we woke up fairly relieved and refreshed. My mom had spent the week up in Pacifica with my sister and was returning that day (Mother's Day). I had no idea when she was going to be back but had assumed that it would be later that day. I found out that she was already back and she had asked my brother to take her shopping at Costco for some supplies. We didn't have any plans and didn't have any time to make any, so I just told my brother to pick up some things and we planned to get together to have a quick bbq and visit with my mom.

Christian got me a new Kindle for Mother's Day. The battery for my old Kindle was showing its age. I am having to recharge it every couple of days at this point so Christian just got me a new one so that I would not have to worry about the charge as we travel this summer.

Meanwhile, the girls were able to see the aurora borealis due to the big geomagnetic storm recently. 

I had heard that we were supposedly be able to see it in places that they are normally not visible, but when I checked the maps of where it should be visible, it wasn't really much farther south than it is usually so I didn't say anything about it...but then we found out that the girls got to see it, I was upset that we did't try to get to a place where we might have had an opportunity to see it. It was supposedly viewed even in Utah.

The click bait news claimed that it was still viewable for the next couple of days, although the girls attempted to see it the next night but was unable to see anything. And since the information available was kind of conflicting, we decided to just take the chance and drive up north to see if we can see anything as we had heard people were even heading to Joshua Tree in order to see it. We were skeptical about that but figured we might have a chance if we headed farther north so we headed up the 395. We drove as far as Bishop but didn't see anything. We stopped at 2:am and headed back to an area we were familiar with to camp. We spent what was left of the night in the Alabama Hills.

We were pretty disappointed but the next morning, it was clear and beautiful out. there was still a small amount of snow on the Sierra Mtn. range. There were still lots of wildflowers blooming.

We decided to make the best of the situation and enjoy ourselves looking around for a while before heading back home. We decided to go up to the Mt. Whitney trailhead as we had not been up there in a while and it is usually too busy, but since Summer was not quite in full swing yet and it was still early, we thought we would give it a try. 

It was really beautiful up there. We were really enjoying ourselves while clambering around the rocks taking pictures of the waterfall.

Christian crossed over to the other side of the waterfall to take pictures and video. I decided to stay on the side of the trail to keep it safe, but as Christian moved up on one side, I moved up a bit on my side. I didn't climb up anything difficult but there was a steeper boulder that I started to step over when my shoe slipped on some sand or gravel by just a little bit...maybe just an inch or so, but it through my center of gravity off by a bit and I tried to readjust and I don't know if I locked my knee or what but all of a sudden, my knee gave way (I could feel it as my joint slid to the side). I then landed on my bad ankle and I could feel that straining and giving a bit. I smacked my hand on the rock at some point and I think I hit my head with my camera or something...I don't remember exactly since it all happened so quickly. I just knew that I was in a great deal of pain. When the initial searing pain subsided a bit, I tried to move and my knee would not hold my weight at all. I slid down to a more stable spot and waited for Christian to make his way back down and find me. I ended up half limping and Christian half carrying me back down to the truck. When we finally got back home, Christian went in to find my crutches so that I could get back out of the truck.

When I got home, I just figured that I would put my leg up and rest but by the time I got to bed, I was horribly stiff, slightly swollen and seemed to be in worst shape than before. In the morning, the stiffness had not gone away. When I tried to bend my knee to get out of bed, my knee joint seemed to be slightly dislocated again and it snapped back in place. It was so painful that I almost passed out from the pain. Christian had gone to work already. It took me quite a while to be able to get out of bed but my leg was not nearly as stiff anymore. From then on, I was careful not to straighten it too much or bend it too much and kept my knee wrapped even for bed for about two weeks before I was brave enough to go to sleep without anything  supporting my knee. I stayed on crutches to get around but could not move too much. By the third week, I could put some weight on my leg and could get around short distances with just one crutch. It has been a pretty horrific experience.

During that time, we were not really able to do much. Christian was finally able to swap out those mud terrain tires we got. 

They seem to really suit the TJ and we are fairly happy with our choice so far. We plan to take it out for a test run after Christian is done with school. 

It's been a rough few weeks and it isn't quite over.