Take Your Pick

The big race starts in just a couple of days!

Looking for a 3-peat are Volkswagen with their race Touareg:

We've already seen BMW's newest entry (the Mini... which is really just as much X3 as it is Mini). But they've also got their usual fleet of X5s:

The French Team Dessoude will be entering their usual selection of Nissans: (the interesting stuff starts at about 2:20)

And, of course, Robby Gordon will be back in his Hummer!

Get Ready for it...

For me one of the biggest highlights of the sporting year is the annual Dakar Rally.

For those of you unfamiliar with this extraordinary event, it is a 16 DAY rally race including motorbikes, quads, SUVs, and big trucks. This year the rally returns to Argentina and Chile.

Normally I've been a Mitsubishi guy, but with Mitsubishi's withdrawal a few years ago I've taken up cheering for the BMW X-Raid team... especially once I saw that they were entering a MINI in this year's race!!!

If you care, follow the race on OLN or on their YouTube channel. This year's race runs from Jan.1-16.

Yesterday, and the Day Before

So, as I hinted at yesterday, this last Monday we took a trip into the forest to find, cut down, and bring home our Christmas tree. It's become a bit of a Christmas tradition in our family.

[Some of these pictures were just taken with my phone, so please forgive the lack of quality]

There was a fair bit of snow, so it was a lot of fun driving in.

It was a beautiful day. The temperature was about -10*C and not much for wind; a great day for a walk in the woods.

Unfortunately, Juanita caught the flu the night before so she couldn't come. Fortunately, Auntie Jess was willing to carry Luke around so he could still come on his first tree run.

We found our tree...

... strapped it on the Jeep...

... set it up at home...

... and then, yesterday, we decorated it.

It was a great day to spend in God's amazing creation with good friends and family!

And yes, this is a picture of a Jeep pulling a Ford up a hill! ;)

Love lifted me!

... or at least my Jeep!

In case you didn't know, the "stapes" is the smallest bone in the human body. I don't think that I can say "I don't have a mechanical bone in my body"; it's just that if I do have a mechanical bone it would be my stapes.

So in an act of true brotherly love my brother Darrell helped me (told me what to do and did at least half of the work himself) put a small lift on the my Jeep. It's just a small 2 1/2 inch body lift but I'm very happy with it.

For those of you who might care here is how it went:

In the front we swapped out my old "stock" coils...

... for some of Darrell's "used" but much sweeter coils. This gained us just under 3 inches.

In the back we inserted some 2 1/2 inch blocks just under the leaf springs:

Before

After

And here are the final before and after pics: (watch Kaleb's pom-pom to get an idea of the hight difference).

Thanks, Deebs. You're the best!