After summer I began my senior year. One day before school I was watching the weather channel and it said it was going to pour. I decided to play it safe and drive my parents car to school and leave the Jeep in the garage. At school my friend Chris and I were talking about what to do that night (it was a Friday). We decided to offroad in my Jeep with no top in the pouring rain! What a great idea!!!

At about 5, he showed up at my house in a rain slicker and boots. I was wearing wind pants and a rain jacket too. We set out for the trails waving to all the people who were staring at us and probably thinking how stupid we were. By the way, I had fixed my windshield wipers so they were working again.

We got to the trails and drove around the sand and woods. At one point we got lost for about a half an hour and we worried we'd never be able to get out again. We circled around the pits and came upon the U-turn mud hole - thats right, the dreaded U-turn mud hole. Well, I had 4wd low and bigger tires (even though they had no tread)and 2.5" more lift than everyone else who had tried it - I CAN MAKE IT!!! I had driven through so many mud holes that day, some were pretty deep too so I thought I caould make it through this one too. Well, it never occurred to me that all the other holes were straight on so I could just speed through them. This one wasn't. I came upon the hole at about 10 MPH and slammed into the water. It hit us like a cement wall and we both whip lashed forward. The water covered over the front wheels and half the rear wheels. Water came up through the holes in the floor and flooded the cab. I began to panick as I shifted from 4 hi to 4 lo. With Chris as my spotter I manged to turn my passenger side wheel up on to some higher ground and back out. PHEW!! I'm never trying that hole again!! We drove home immediately after that considering ourselves lucky to get out on our own.

The Jeep was a mess. It was covered in mud and leaves and alot of the paint had been scratched off. Chris and I spent the next week taking the Jeep apart and repainting it - black this time. I figured black would hide the body work and dirt better.

October came around and my friend MJ and I decided to pull the top off my Jeep for one more topless offroading adventure. Now, if you're smart you'll realize that I'm still talking in the mud section so you know whats coming up :) It was a brisk October day, and we joked around on the way to the pits. We nailed some moguls at the entrance and did some donuts in the sand and then we came upon the U-turn mudhole again. I went there to show MJ how we had gotten stuck and how high the hole was. Well, it looked a lot less deep now and it hadn't rained in awhile...I bet I can make it I told him. We entered the hole and the same thing as before happened but worse. The entire hood was completely submerged and I couldn't see any of the tires. Mud water was up to our waists and man was it cold! MJ jumped to the back to get traction but it was no use, not even 4 lo could get us out. I had to keep my foot on the gas to keep the engine going and gurdled under water. I didn't want to shut it off because I was afraid it would never start again. In the end I had to and MJ and I ran for help. We went to a local autobody shop and this asshole drove down to look at it and then refused to help even though he had chains in his truck. Luckily, there was a construction site up the road and after they were donw for the day they drove their excavator to the Jeep to pull me out. I wish I had a camara with me for this because it was the coolest thing I have ever seen!

MJ and I drove the Jeep home and cleaned it out. It ran okay but I noticed it was leaking oil and gas. It turned out that I needed a new gas tank and I had blown the rear main seal. Oh well, I thought, I'll just keep adding oil...it doesn't work that way tho. After about a month, the Jeep was blowing smoke into the cab through the tranny shifter when I accelerated. In December, it was blowing smoke so bad it wasn't even driveable anymore. Also, when I went to change the oil there were white chunks in it. White chunks?! Looks like styrofoam! Nope, its coolant leaking into the oil...