Mud Day Clean-up

Well, the downside to having all of the fun we did on Saturday was the cleaning up of the Jeep on Sunday. We both knew we'd gotten a good bit of mud on her and we were a little sad that the rain/hail storm that we drove through on the way home washed away a bit of our "proof" of all the fun we had. We shouldn't have worried about the little bit of mud that was washed off in the storm.

Sunday morning we got up and drove over to the car wash. The Jeep really looked like we had just towed it out of a swamp. In addition to the mud caked all over it, we had grass and weeds hanging off of it.  RCC wanted to run the Jeep through an automated wash first to get the majority of the mud off and then figured we could just finish it up with the power washer and avoid getting muddy ourselves. You know what they say about best laid plans...

One automated wash and $7.00 later we drove out of the bay just as muddy as we went into it. So much for all the pre-soak and rinse cycle. So into the power washer we went.  RCC used his debit card so that we wouldn't be feeding coins throughout the whole wash; the instructions said that the card would be charged until the wash was complete. What we didn't know is that the computer decides when the wash is complete. But, then, after twenty minutes with a power washer, we should have been complete, right? Wrong! We were mostly done, but still had to clean out the engine compartment.

We took turns with the power washer forcing the caked on mud off of the Jeep; we had mud packed in the tires, wheel wells, bumpers, mirrors (why would any Jeep designer think that hollow mirror brackets were a good idea?), springs, undercarriage - you name it, we had mud in it. I'm pretty sure that we had doubled the poor girl's weight with all of the mud we had packed in.

Once we finished with the power washer, it was vacuuming time. That, at least, went smoothly and we were on our way home in no time.

We had knocked the majority of the mud off at the car wash, but still had plenty of washing to do once we got home. And someone, who will remain nameless, still had to clean up the interior of the Jeep. Bummer. The mud came off the inside pretty well, except for the cloth seats. The nameless person will have to get some spot cleaner for that. It looked like the mud came off the seats until the seats dried, then it reappeared again. Blast it all!

To be honest, cleaning up the mess was almost as fun as making the mess. I couldn't help but smile the whole time. And I can't wait to do it all again!

I love the skinny pedal!

On Saturday, RCC and I went to Colorado Off-Road Extreme (CORE) in Deer Trail as part of a Colorado 4x4 thing. What a freakin' blast! CORE has a little bit of everything for off-roading: a desert rally track, ATV track, MX, rock crawling, 4x4 obstacles and mud pits. Since we were there with Colorado 4x4, there wasn't an admission fee, but their normal admission fee is only $20 per vehicle anyway.

RCC's Jeep is pretty much stock, no lifts, no over-size tires, just a Jeep, but we still had a ton of fun! We did the rally track, which thanks to all of the rain we've had lately, had plenty of mud pits for us to play in and get really dirty.  He took us up over some small obstacles, which didn't feel so small when we were going over them. If we had a lift kit and bigger tires, we'd've eaten up those little obstacles. After lunch, we played around some more and then RCC handed me the keys. Oh, big mistake. I was having a good time riding shotgun, but once I got those keys in my hand I had a GREAT time!

We did learn one thing - GunDiva likes the skinny pedal. Now, that may not be news to many of you, but maybe when 4-wheeling a little less skinny pedal may be called for. I had so much freakin' fun on the rally track. The mud and I had a good time.

Except for the time I forgot to roll up my window before hitting the mud/water and I got drenched. Nope. Had a good time then, too.  RCC had a good time, too, laughing at me getting drenched as I negotiated the mud puddle. I managed to get mud all over the inside of the driver's side all the way to the back window (guess who spent a really long time yesterday cleaning mud out of the inside of the Jeep?) and splash the passenger side in the process.

I really need my own Jeep. One without carpet or cloth seats so that I can just take a pressure washer to it, inside and out.