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Tuesday’s Updates and a Battery of Fun

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I’m in the process of flying to Oklahoma today. From there, I plan to ride ‘shotgun’ with my sister back to Washington State. She’s doing most of the driving; I’m there for comic relief and to drive occasionally. Looks like we’ll be heading west along Highway 40 and then north on I-5. There won’t be any stopping for jeeps though; my sister puts her foot to the pedal and goes and goes . . . . Therefore, I won’t have a chance to do updates until yesterday afternoon some time.

Speaking of comedy, you might get a good laugh at my antics yesterday. Sunday morning my car’s alarm went off twice. I suspect it was not to ward off thieves, but to gain sympathy for having to endure the frigid temperatures. Sunday evening (having already burnt my pizza dough, forcing me to make more dough from scratch) I decided to pull the battery out of my car, a ’97 BMW with 200k miles I rarely use. That way, the alarm wouldn’t go off again and drain the battery (which I’d just recharged).

Now, some German genius decided to put the battery in the trunk. To pull out the battery out of its recess requires two hands, an awkward stance, and a little profanity. To make it even more fun, the trunk lid doesn’t stay open on its own, so I have to lean inside the trunk and hold the lid with my back.

When it came time to pull the battery, I put down the flash light and everything else in my hands, grabbed the battery and yanked with the appropriate words. Out came the battery. I moved away from the trunk and placed the battery onto the ground. Just then I heard the trunk clink shut.

“Oh shit,” I uttered. That’s when I realized one of the things in my hands was the car key. “Oh shit,” I repeated. As I went through the mental checklist I realized this was going to be a problem. Sure, I have a back up key, but that only opens the door and turns on the ignition. With the battery out, I can’t use the button near the driver’s seat to open the trunk door. I do have one solution, but that will require me to reach through the back seat and fish around for the key through a small hole.

Rather than fish for the key, I left the key where it was and decided to fly to Oklahoma. While I’ll miss my traveling partner Ann (she’s so jealous) on this trip, it’s better that I get away from that car for a while before it REALLY makes me mad.

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I was trying to crispen the top of the dough, while watching the Seahawks game. I guess I was never made for multitasking! Even the dog didn’t want anything to do with it.

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Extra Pedals Modification

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

For those times when the driver’s legs go to sleep, this modification shared by the folks from Jeep Village might just be handy to have. This jeep, which is being restored, had a white band on it, indicating (according to the Jeep Village folks) that it was a French Army driving school vehicle.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=692283917457177&set=pcb.692283944123841&type=1&theater

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Juan’s Grandson’s New (old) Pedal Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Reader Stories This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Juan showing his grandson a CJ-3B. Juan is passing on the joy of jeeps.

Juan shared this neat story about restoring a pedal jeep for his grandson Francisco. The email was written in Spanish, so I translated it as best as I could.

Juan writes, I am pleased to talk to you about something incredible that happened to me.  A few days ago a jeep friend, Alejandro Galvan, messaged me, telling me that there was a pedal jeep for sale in acoatepec  bazaar. They were selling a pedal jeep like the one my parents gave me when I was almost two years old.

The next day my brother and I went to see it. We bought it, cleaned it and compared it with a photo of my toy jeep from 60 years ago. We were surprised to discover that it is identical, except for a few modifications such as different tires tires and a windshield. I plan to ask the person who sold me if they know the source. Maybe there’ s a chance it was originally my very own toy. How amazing that would be!

Since my grandson just turned on year old and it was his Catholic baptism, we gave it to him. To my great astonishment, when my grandson saw it I could see in his eyes the joy. After the celebration, my brother and myself began restoring it to look like my pedal jeep. I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. Warmest regards from Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.

BEFORE RESTORATION: You can see the photos of Juan’s original pedal jeep in the photos in the first picture.

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AFTER RESTORATION: (I wish I’d had one of those as a kid!)

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1967 Snow Photo from Holbrook, Arizona

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Willys Wagons This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Given the winter weather, Colin thought this would be an appropriate photograph to post. He writes:

I have attached a photo taken in December, 1967, in Holbrook, AZ.  Arizona received record snowfall over the entire state, with Flagstaff receiving about 8 feet of snow over a 40 hour period.  The snow just about paralyzed the state.  The photo shows Arizona Highway Patrol Officer Paul Palmer sitting on the hood of Highway Patrol Officer Carlton Hill’s 1959 Jeep Station wagon.  Both Paul and Carlton (as well as myself) are retired and Carlton still has that Jeep wagon.  In that storm, Holbrook had about 3 ½ feet of snow.  In southern Arizona, where I was, we had about the same, 3 ½ feet.

1967 Holbrook Snow photos

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Hugh Tackles a Hill

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Last weekend Hugh and his father enjoyed the last bits of good weather in their jeep. As you can see, they found a fun hill to climb and photograph. Hugh reports the cold has engulfed the midwest and, as of Friday, there was a foot of snow at his dad’s place.

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1969 Photo of GPA and CJ-2A in South Africa

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Old Trucks Babanagno posted the photo below on their Facebook Page. They have even more vintage photos at their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Trucks-Babanango/422556771112707

 

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Nick from Kibler Park near Johannesburg, with his ex SADF CJ2A, and Stalhud, from Ladysmith, Natal with his Ford GPA amphibious jeep at Richards Bay on the Zululand Coast 1969. Stalhud used his GPA for fishing

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