I’ve been accused of being a bad influence on folks in my cloud for a long time. OS/2, Apple, Canon…. there’s a long list and a lot of history of my being the dude with the pipe, leading the rats down the trail.

I got word this weekend that I may have greatly enhanced my standing in the bad influence category.

I’ve been working on a grilling friend of ours about his need for Jeep. In fairness, he wasn’t a target until he mentioned wanting a Jeep to bang around in after I got mine. That made him a legal combatant, and a fair target for Darla and I to poke with Jeep-related suggestions. So far, there’s been hints of progress, but nothing tangible. However, I really thought he’d be the next line for a new Wrangler.

So, from out of left field, I got a call over the weekend from a co-worker I play tennis with. He’d seen my Jeep shortly after I bought it, and had mentioned in passing how he thought that might be a good fit for him. Little did I know that the seed was planted. This weekend he bought a brand new Jeep Unlimited Sahara!

And when Darla recognized what the call was about, she uttered something unrepeatable, knowing that my tennis partner and I would likely begin egging each other on with upgrades and modifications. And she’s probably right…

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After a week of thoroughly enjoying the Big Green Jeep in a topless/doorless “nekkid” configuration, rains this weekend have forced me to re-clothe my rig. *Sigh*

I’ve learned a lot through this week though. I now know how to remove/install the doors, and Beck (or Sio) and I can get the top up in just a few minutes. Today’s installation of the windows didn’t take long either. In fact, at a lallygag pace, Beck and I had the soft top up, windows and doors on in less than 30 minutes. If we’d needed to hurry, we probably could’ve done it in 15-20 minutes. Not too shabby for rank amateurs at this Jeep thing!

It seems like every time I re-configured the Jeep, I find something new I need to pickup. The biggest thing would seem to be a lockable trunk in the cargo area. Right now, I’m just not comfortable shopping in a nekkid configuration and not having someplace to hide/lock up my purchases. Even with just the soft top on, I have a little nervousness about leaving purchases unsecured.

And then there’s the little stuff. “Oh crap” handles for the passengers, a storage system for the zip out windows (which I ordered last night from All Things Jeep), better console/switch lighting…. the list goes on. And then there’s stereo upgrades so I can hear my music over the road noise. That’s a story for another day though!

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While I haven’t spoken in this forum about the Back to My Mac functionality that was released with Leopard, I’ve been kinda bummed ’cause I couldn’t get it to work with my home network. I’d thought that this would be pretty cool stuff, especially on the Great American Roadtrip.

I’d tried before we left to get my Belkin N1 Vision to do the right UPnP stuff in order for Back to My Mac to work, but all to no avail. I never quite figured it out, and vacation tasks loomed tall over geekly tasks, so that project fell to the side.

Now, a few weeks after vacation, I’ve found some time to work on this little problem again. First, I made sure that it was still broke. Yup, still broke.

I found that Belkin had released new firmware for the N1 Vision, so I blasted that onto the router, and enabled the UPnP bit on the control panel. Still no joy.

I took a gander at my good friend Google to see if anyone had reported success with this router and Back to My Mac. Sure ’nuff, someone had reported the same problem I had, and had the brilliant idea to power cycle the router.

Guess what? It worked. The Systems Prefs panel for MobileMe now indicated that it could configure the router, and all things magic took off. Cool beans.

Now, to start doing a little playing with the new functionality!

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The Midwest Jeepthing had their picnic today in Crestwood. And, despite the possiblity of rain, Sio and I took the doors off the Jeep, and lowered the top all the way — both for the first time. Being topless and doorless, you could say the Jeep was naked, but I’d tell you it was “nekkid”. Naked just means you have no clothes; nekkid means you’re naked, and having fun.

I also conjured up a big batch of baked beans, based on Mom’s recipe — another first on the day.

We got to the park right at 2pm, and met some of the MWJT folks for the first time. Friendly bunch of folks, and real knowledgeable. And, most importantly, I didn’t get any guff about my Unlimited being a “soccer mom” Jeep! In all, there were just over a dozen Jeeps there, with grilled burgers and all kinds of sides. Good food, good folks, and great weather…. until the wind shifted.

I was talking with someone, and suddenly, you could feel the wind shift eerily, and with the shift came a push of much cooler air, and significant dark clouds. Sio and I decided to high tail it out of there and try to get home before the rains started. We got just a few blocks from the park when we decided to put the top back up. As it ends up that was a good move. The doors were in the garage at home, as were the zip-off windows for the soft top, so that was as much as we could do on the road.

Once we hit the interstate, the rains came down, adding to the street wetness that was already there from a previous squall line. Impressively, most of the rain stayed out of the Jeep, with only the spray kicked up by passing vehicles really getting into the cabin. We made it home, with a side stop at Silky’s for some custard, and neither Sio nor I were too wet. Even the Jeep was relatively dry. But man, did we get some amused looks as we drove through the rain.

So how was the ride, you might ask? Well, glorious is the word that comes to mind. Having no doors or roof on the Jeep really gives a sense of freedom that I’ve never experienced with any other vehicle. In fact, you can hear so very much more — other folks’ tires, your own engine, wildlife — that it’s almost disruptive at first. Every normal sound that goes on around you can be heard easily, not just the loudest ones. And being engulfed by the air as you drive is exhilarating. This work week is supposed to be sunny and warm, so I think I’ll keep my Jeep configured nekkid this week.

My only complaint was the lack of a passenger side mirror. I didn’t realize how much I relied on that one, so only having a driver side just isn’t quite enough to keep me feeling happy and safe. I’ll need to figure that one out over the next week, but I’m thinking that the Mopar mirror I installed last week isn’t gonna be the right answer. No big deal.

This was a way fun experience on all kinds of levels. I sure wish I’d gotten one of these a long time ago!

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Our Fourth of July was spent pretty quietly — a shrimp boil at Cousin Mark’s, and neighbor Joe and I combining fireworks for a nice little show. Quiet and laid-back…. just like it should be.

Hope your fourth was great!

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I’ve gotten all the photos posted tonight. There are close to 6000 of them, so peruse, enjoy, and try not to stay up too late!

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This morning, we arose knowing that this was our last day on the road — the 20th day of our twice half-cross-country Great American Roadtrip — and that we when we slept next, it’d be in our own beds. We headed out early this morning, figuring that an early start would get us home mid-afternoon.

Truthfully, the drive was uneventful. We pushed as fast as we legally could, and made good time back to The Lou. I’d had no idea that Omaha was less than seven hours away, and I expect I’ll go back to visit again in the near future, spending a little time in my old haunts.

It was a great trip, crossing twelve states and covering 6275 miles in all, with most of that driving coming in the fourteen days of the first and third weeks. It’s funny that the driving was never exhausting, never boring, and I enjoyed every moment of it. I thoroughly enjoyed learning the idiosyncrasies of my new Jeep, and starting to figure out what functional additions I need to make to it.

However, the big thing that happened on the trip was that the three of us figured out a way of all living in the same hotel room every day for twenty days, and living in the same Jeep for twenty days, all without killing each other. That’s pretty cool.

For years, I’ve been talking about how I’d love to move to Idaho or Montana. For me, this trip was an opportunity to check out some of that territory — spending a week there between Glacier NP and Yellowstone NP — and see if Montana lived up to the images in my head. In a couple of words, it did, and probably has turned up the temperature on my desire to get up there just a little bit.

Another great realization is that Yellowstone NP is only three (kinda long) days or so away from here by driving. That accessibility means I will likely be making plans to revisit Yellowstone over the upcoming years.

Yep, it was a great trip…. sleeping in my bed tonight will be great too!

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Once again, thunderstorms struck overnight. Nothing as big as the storms in Gillette, but still enough to wake me up.

Today was a driving day, along with two stops planned. Our first was Wall Drug in Wall SD. I lived in Nebraska for over seven years, and after seeing the many signs for Wall Drug, I never made it up there. I intended to change that on this trip.

How do you describe Wall Drug? Well, it’s the size of a full city block in a town with a population of just under 1000, and houses just about anything the weary traveler could possibly want. You can get film, coffee mugs, postcards, jewelry, free ice water, coffee for a nickel…. well, you get the idea. This place is a smörgÃ¥sbord of kitschy stuff, and well worth the stop. We spent almost two hours between breakfast, browsing and panning for gems. Yep, you can do just about anything at Wall Drug.

Pointing the Jeep eastward, we headed to our next corny destination — the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD. Another place I’d heard about when I lived in the upper midwest, it was another classic destination I’d never visited. Basically, the exterior of this concert hall/basketball stadium is reworked every year using thousands of bushels of corn and grains. Impressive work! Inside was a cornucopia of Corn Palace related items for sale on the basketball floor. After picking up a few souvenirs and taking some photos, we got the Jeep pointed toward Sioux Falls SD.

We’d planned to only go as far as Sioux Falls, but I still had some steam in the engine, so we pushed on to Sioux City IA. And once we got there, I figured out that we could make an easier push to St. Louis tomorrow if we pushed on to Council Bluffs IA or Omaha NE. What we forgot about was that the College World Series was just wrapping up tonight, and that there were Olympic trials in Omaha. The nearest hotel we could find easily was well over 25 miles west of downtown Omaha, which wasn’t what we wanted to find! Somehow, Becky found a place in Council Bluffs, and was the only room they had — that seems to be a theme with us! We pulled in, checked in, and slept a sound sleep.

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Last night’s rains broke, and revealed a wonderful blue sky this morning. That was good news, as we had three stops on the docket for today.

This morning, we left Gillette, heading for Devils Tower National Monument. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid to see this monument… and way before Close Encounters of the Third Kind featured it as a landing strip! I can remember seeing a US stamp from the 1930’s with the Tower on it, and I was smitten.

We drove off the interstate, headed toward the Tower, topped a hill, and there it was! Out of this rolling farmland was this towering form, reaching skyward. It was a really cool moment for me. We drove on to the monument grounds, flashed our park pass, and headed to the welcome center.

As we learned, there are many Native American legends about the Tower, and the mythology associated with it. I also learned that this is a very sacred place to the tribes in the area, who see this as a holy site. I have a lot of respect for that. In fact, when we drove around to the other side of the Tower to get a better view, there was a sign warning us not to disturb prayer bundles left by the local tribes. Very cool, and very serene.

We also tried to fly a kite while we were on the backside of the monument — wide open spaces and some wind — but there just wasn’t enough wind to keep the big kite aloft. Sio had a tiny little fairy kite, and it flew like crazy. Go figure.

We left Devils Tower, and eventually crossed into South Dakota, heading toward our second stop of the day, Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. I don’t think I’ve been to a national park or monument that was so built up. I guess I figured it was like many others — you just drive up, take a walk, see the monument, and then leave. Not here. Rushmore has a vendor-run parking complex, an enormous front arch, and a sidewalk shaded with flags from the 50 states plus US possessions. Once you pass all that, there are several rows of bench seating for pondering the monument… and an entire open-air auditorium below for watching the nightly lighting ceremony. It looks like hundreds of folks could experience that from the valley floor. Unfortunately, our schedule wouldn’t accommodate hanging around for the lighting very well. Maybe next time.

The thing that struck me most was the size of the monument. It’s big, but I really expected it to be bigger. Don’t get me wrong — the heads are massive in size — but I was expecting heads on a gargantuan scale. Not a disappointment, but like most of the rest of Mt. Rushmore, it was part of learning about what must certainly be one of the most visited national monuments.

A short distance away from Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial. Aside from being a cool work-in-progress, it’s a great example of one man’s dream being borne out, one chip or blast at a time. I wasn’t aware of the scale and scope of this monument. This thing will be huge when it’s finished, somewhere near six times the size of Mt. Rushmore. That’s amazing. What’s more amazing is that this family operation has been carrying on for over fifty years. Just about ten years ago, the head of Crazy Horse was finished and unveiled, and it is amazing to see it across a huge valley and realize the enormity the sculpture will have.

The plans for this site don’t end with the monument either. There are big plans for a Native American university with a huge campus full of buildings. This is one impressive dream. I don’t know if I’ll live to see it completed, but it will be a very cool site/facility when they’re done.

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With Sio feeling better, we headed for eastern Wyoming today, leaving Yellowstone behind us. This was a glorious place, and I will definitely be coming back.

Once again, we were treated to a change in landscape today. The high peaks around Yellowstone gave way to the rolling hills of eastern Wyoming as we made our way east. I really hated to see the mountains dwindle in my rear view mirror — I really love being in and around them! — but I know I’ll be back in the mountains again.

When we got to Gillette, we realized we got in just ahead of a huge thunderstorm complex. That means lightning, and that means I’m out shooting. The hotel had a concrete canopy (an old drive through) that I used as a shelter, and shot some amazing lightning images. This is the first chance I’ve had to use the Lightning Trigger since the trip began, and it was great to be out there in the lightning again!

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