Summer 2012 has gone by fast and now school is starting in my area. That means it’s time for my Jeep to get “back to work” and be the taxi for all three of my kids. Half the summer though she sat parked under trees at my best friends house while I traveled over 8,000 miles, most of it in a friends 99 Jeep Cherokee Classic.
Shortly after school ended for the year the plan was to head down to Santa Fe, Texas (and Galveston to the beach) to take my oldest son to my dad’s house while I was working The Great Race. Originally the plan was to rent a vehicle from Enterprise rent-a-car. However, after adding up the costs of adding me as a driver, plus insurance and a $150 deposit, we couldn’t justify spending over $500 to rent a car for a week. So my friend outright said lets take her Jeep instead. Besides, we had just prepared it to go on The Great Race as soon as we got back from Texas.
Round trip we drove 2,000 miles, 860 miles to get there plus running back and forth from Galveston for our daily dose of the beach (and our hotel was there too) which is approximately 40 miles round trip each time. There were days we did it twice…
Plus I don’t take the way Google Maps says I should. There are tolls the way it says I should go and I don’t care for traffic. Besides, my kids always look forward to the Bolivar Ferry Ride each year, which is free. It also gives us a chance for one last restroom break and stretching our legs until we make it to our destination.
Thank goodness we were in the front of the line although it was quite unnerving when they let the front gate down! My son (seen in pic) always enjoys getting out of the vehicle to go upstairs and view everything around him. During the daylight you can see dolphins swimming around.
Our Jeep summer adventures didn’t stop in Texas though.
Less than a week later Janice and I were on our way to Traverse City, Michigan to begin working The Great Race, a vintage car rally that went from Traverse City, MI into Canada and around the Great Lakes that ended in Dearborn, MI. Each day we traveled anywhere from 200-300 miles during the actual rally. We were checkpoint workers so we had the opportunity to sit for nearly two hours watching 80-90 cars go by while we take their times. Some days we were lucky enough to get lunch at their lunch stops. The best part though was that since one of our overnight stops was in Buffalo, New York, Janice and I planned ahead that we would travel to Niagara Falls.
The Great Race trip total was two weeks long and 3,600 miles. Add that to the Texas trip and JeepGirl nearly did 6,000 miles in four weeks! That put her total mileage at 280K.
Let’s just say it was definitely time for an oil change and a nice tune up after all the adventuring we did…