Is it really him? Finally, yes, here I am...

Hey there folks. It is big brother Marc here, finally posting thoughts on the trip so far. And what a trip it has been! Hope you are sitting down, have a drink and a snack, and recently taken care of any pressing business 'cause this might take a while...
It all started back in '72 when I was born, then jump to February 2008. I was on the hunt for a new vehicle and the new 4dr Jeep Wrangler was calling my name. I spent a lot of time making sure it was the right choice, but there really wasn't much doubt. Growing up we loved the outdoors - camping, fishing, biking, exploring. One of the best things about a Jeep is that it can help you to get where not very many other people can go. I ended up with the Jeep I wanted...as a base to start with;)
Now jump to the end of November'09. Kelly, the beautiful-and-patience-tested girlfriend, was in Scottsdale visiting her aunt and uncle. I was at the library checking out the Jeep club's site when I saw a thread had started and mentioned the idea of going to Moab for the Easter Jeep Safari in 2010. I have to admit that I got a bit excited. Moab is the offroad mecca of North America, and quite possibly the world, and to have the opportunity to go with guys you have Jeeped with already, well it's kind of hard to ignore. Besides, I had wanted to do an Ultimate Road Trip from London to L.A. (through Colorado, Utah, and Vegas - doing some 4x4 trails and back-country camping) and then heading back to London with a stay in Scottsdale on the return trip. Kelly isn't a big road trip person (at least not that long a road trip...) so I was stuck figuing out how to swing it. I knew it would be at least as impossible to convince her to do the whole trip as it would be to drug her and get her across the border without raising any suspicion. I knew I had to go to Moab with the guys from the club.
The next trick was going to be convincing someone to come along as a shotgunner. The one person I knew would love to go, he had 2 Jeeps of his own at that point, also had a newborn son and a job that he wasn't likely to be able to get away from for the 10 days the trip would take. I asked Steve but the answer was "love to but not gonna happen unfortunately". Ended up that he did get to come and that was amazing since he was as excited as I was about it.
Next was getting the Jeep ready for the trip. New parts started arriving at mailboxes everywhere, and showing up in the strangest places. Bumpers, skidplates, winches, lift kits, auxillary lighting, switch panels. All that new stuff had to be installed, and since you can only do so much in a Target parking lot in the winter, some trips had to be made to the good folks in the Niagra area. 3 trips actually, in 7 weeks. While spending so much time getting the Jeep ready, I forgot about my own stuff. Lucky for me Kelly is very organized and helped to try to keep me focused.

(aren't you glad you got a snack and a beverage? this would be a good time for a brief intermission. cue the music...)

Welcome back. Now where was I? Oh yes. blah blah blah. We finally made it to Moab. Now Steve has done a great job of filling you in on the trip so far, so I will just add a couple of things...
1) although the stain on the dresser may not have been blood, we aren't so sure about the stains on the wall behind the bed Steve slept on top of...
2) Iowa and Nebraska look exactly the same when you drive across them, mind you so did Illinois and Indiana, and even the first bit of deserted Colorado looked like a mirror image...of nothing interesting...
3) make sure your GPS is set to the right mapping criteria, otherwise you end up detouring through East Lansing, MI and it ain't that pretty, trust me...
4) submit your work vacation requests before the due date...
5) make sure you've recharged the batteries on the cameras before you have something that you really want to record with them...like driving into Moab for the very first time ever...

So we get out for the first day of trails on Monday. Hell's Revenge. Lots of fun and lots of holy crap moments too. Thank god for bypasses around the crazy stuff. The first part into the trail was a test for sure...