Muddy At Last!!

After several cancelled mud bogs, we finally were able to "get our mud on"

On August 2 we headed north to Ocean Pond, our favorite hole in Florida.

But first, some preparation.....

This is the newest addition to our mud family

The Jeep belongs to our good friend Mark, who is also Nate and Jordan's boss. The Jeep sat unfinished for 20 years until this trip. We weren't sure what is was or wasn't going to do, all I knew is that I couldn't wait to drive it!!

Loaded up and ready to go!

It takes us about 2 hours to get to Ocean Pond so I took some photos along the ride.

The only thing in my mirror was a big hulking green Jeep.

Once we arrived in Old Town we stopped for a bathroom break

And breakfast of course...

A few more back roads and twisty turns and we're almost there.

We were the second ones to arrive and the gates weren't open yet.

We enjoyed our Krispy Kremes while we waited.

When we were let in we were sad to hear that this would be the last bog for a while. Seems as if Ocean Pond is literally a pond now and Norman (the owner) can't seem to get rid of the water.

This photo was taken in August of 2012 from our normal parking area.

This is the same area from this trip

We knew we were going to be limited in where we could play as none of us had pontoons mounted on the vehicles.

We unloaded everything and decided to scout the area on the quads first.

Norman directed us to the back hole, which is normally just a few big puddles. Even it was full of water and where the trucks ended up playing all day.

Nate & Karissa

Jordan & Mark

 Trevor and I (selfie)

Mark was the first one to get dirty...not by choice :)

While Nate just crept around

After scoping things out, it was time to head back and see what the trucks were going to do

Here's a quick video of all three trucks making their debut

Our verdict:

Yota; just dropped a new motor in it. Has NO balls 

(for lack of better terms)

Jeep; Freaky fast, a few bugs to work out

Bronco; Ready as always!!

To the back hole we go!

Nate makes one pass and then....

Broke a rear drive shaft :(

Nate hobbled it back to the trailer to assess the damage

It wasn't pretty! 

This is what a ring and pinion is SUPPOSED to look like...

This is what Nate's looked like!

 Notice that all the teeth are missing off the gear.

No worries though, We found them!! LOL

(in the rear end cover)

We weren't going to let that ruin our day. That's what mud bogging is about. 

Build it, break it, fix it!

Nate said "screw it" and went swimming instead.

Since these holes are spring fed, the water is crystal clear 

(until the trucks root it up of course)

We still had a few more toys to play with, or tear up.

This is belongs to our friend Tom.

The Yota was still creeping along at a snails pace, and the Jeep was warmed up just for me!!

Karissa took charge of the camera while the boys moved my seat, adjusted my harness and situated my booster seat so I could reach  the pedals.

Here is Trevor giving me lessons.

You can see the concentration on my face as I don't want to screw anything up.

I started down the side to get used to driving before I hit the sloppy stuff.

And that's all the pictures I have......since I broke it too!

I felt horrible about it but they've all assured me it wasn't anything I did. The distributor gear stripped out of it.

To add insult to injury, Tom's radiator hose kept blowing off.

The only truck that survived the day was "the budget bogger" 

AKA the Yota. 

Ironically, the only one we didn't care about tearing up.

The front hole was so deep that someone brought out an airboat.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with good friends, drinking some brewskis and riding the quads.

 When it was time to load up, we agreed that despite all the things we broke, good times with good friends was well worth the price of admission.

Everything is in the healing/repairing stage now and will be ready to root once again!!