It's 3 am, and what am I doing? Blogging! I told myself I was gonna get a blog done today before I turn in and that’s exactly what's going to happen.
I talked to Mastercraft seats about my 2004 4Runner project, specifically what seats will be the best fit for the second row. Sportsman seats got the nod because they are a flat-style mount and can be mounted about an inch lower than a four-tab mount. My goal is to get the seats, and several other modifications, installed before Moab Easter Jeep Safari.
Duty called at the office, so off I went. We finished shipping a few last items to the printer today, so a bit of proofreading was in order. I discovered that Christian Lee had saved me from embarrassment by catching a typo I'd committed. I'd spelled Trailrunner trialrunner by mistake. Oops. Thanks, Christian.
There were some finishing touches to be applied to a story I was working on for Off-Road Magazine, too. The changes weren't major, but there were enough that the easiest route was to completely delete the original text and replace it with the modified version. A couple of photos and their captions had to be deleted to make room for additional text, but Off-Road's art director, Brad Crowder, was able to pull off a classy layout even with the extra text and the loss of two photos.
I'm heading out to King of the Hammers later this week. I'll be there Thursday and Friday covering the competition and trolling for feature vehicles. The rock buggy owners might be bummed with this, because I'm looking for rigs that are street-legal in addition to being trail-worthy. Of course, the King of the Hammers race will be covered too. Word is that last year's champ, Shannon Campbell, has built a new over-the-top rig with four-wheel independent suspension. Is that true? Will the new rig dominate? We’ll see. My press pass was a question mark, as I have tried to get in contact with the promoters with no luck. They're probably out at Means Dry Lake and out of cell phone range. Wednesday is the deadline for press passes, but I don't have a whole day to go out and back just for a press pass. Fortunately, the friendly folks at BFG tires said they'd get my name on the list for press passes. I appreciate it.
I’ve got a photo shoot Thursday before I head out to King of the Hammers. Mike Denton has overseen the completion of a JK for Solid Axle Industries, and we’re going to meet in Cajon Pass for photos. After the photo session is wrapped up, I’ll keep driving and end up at Means Dry Lake.
Saturday is a photo shoot, too. After King of the Hammers is done Friday, I’ll head to my hotel in Yucca Valley for some shut-eye, and then go to Barstow the next day to shoot a couple of F-150 prerunners. I'm bringing my helmet, and hoping I'll get to go for a ride after the photos are taken.
After I got home, I suited up for a training ride on my mountain bike. I've entered myself in a 44-mile race that has 8,000 feet of climbing. There are two checkpoints and each check point has a cutoff time. I've got four hours to make it 18.8 miles to the first checkpoint, and two hours after that to ride 8 miles to the second checkpoint. After the checkpoints have been reached within the specified time, there's still an ascent left to complete over a rocky fire road. Recent storms have left snow on the mountain's higher reaches, and I'm hoping the snow will melt before race day. After the final peak is bagged, there's a singletrack descent to contend with and then a brisk fire road ride to the finish.
Race day is coming up quickly, so I'm putting in more miles to get myself accustomed to spending multiple hours on the bike. Tonight's ride took me to the Fullerton Loop via the city streets between Whittier and Fullerton. I completed two laps on the Fullerton Loop, and then pedaled home. The total distance was around 38 miles, with 24 of those miles spent on the rolling terrain of the Loop. I left at 9 pm with a full hydration pack and extra layers of clothing to ward off the evening chill. My guesstimate was that I'd be home in four hours. I called Collette from a major intersection on my way home. "I'm at Stater Bros. on the corner of Whittier and Harbor." "Well, you've got 23 minutes to get home by the time you said you would," she informed. I pedaled hard, still spinning the crank at high rpm on the final stretch. I rolled in at 1:05 am. I came close.
It's now 3:27. I'd better post this and go get some sleep. There's a lot going on this week.