We had our first outing in the in the set up. It went rather smoothly. It was only a three day trip out but we both thought it was a good idea to do a small overland/buggy run. Here is the story of the trip. It might be a little long and my apologies ahead of time.
Captains log day before "flight"
Trying to get everything packed and ready to go. Taz and his buddy D was still working on the breaks for the buggy. What should have been a simple job, in fact, was not a simple one. I do believe they took two trips to the auto parts store. The guys worked on those breaks all day and they started at 9am and didn't get done till after 5. Unfortunately they could not get the breaks to bleed correctly, and the buggy still didn't have breaks at the end of the day. I do have to give the guys credit they worked their butts off trying to get them to work but at the end of the day, they were tired and hungry and the weather started getting bad and Taz didn't want to fool with them anymore.
After "D" left, Taz and myself started loading the 4Runner up. Got the iceco fridge/freezer plugged in and running and loaded up. I had made myself a list (I always make lists when going on a trip weeks in advance) and we were checking things off the list as we loaded. Taz played tetris in the back. As for now, we do not have the truck drawers. Which when we get them purchased and installed I do believe it will be easier because most things can and will be left in them. For now, we are totes and bags.
annex for tent - check, kitchen table - check, solar panel - check, bedding - check, clothes - check, food and water - check, camera - check, cables - check. Going of the list, marking as we go. yup got it all.
Got the buggy hooked up and everything packed and ready to go. We go back in the house to get settled in for the evening, Taz jumps in the shower, and I am washing up the dishes and finishing up the kitchen. All of sudden we lose power to the house; I go get the flashlights because it is really dark. Taz finishes his shower and I go to get mine only to realize that there is NO hot water. no power = no hot water. You talk about a quick shower. The time is about 9ish. We head off to bed and the storm is kicking up crazy outside. Needless to say, neither one of us slept well, on and off, we happen to both be awake around 3ish and decide to just get up and hit the road, put some miles behind us. We still have no power and so there is no coffee.
Captains log day one...The road trip
We get up and load the rest of the stuff and off we go. Stopped and fueled the 4Runner and the buggy, I ran in the store and grabbed us some coffee and "breakfast" because at this point nothing is open yet and most places were still without power. Fueled up and ready we head out down the road. pouring rain.
We are about 45 minutes into a trip when Taz asked me if I grabbed the tent cord and light cord off the kitchen table. I sat there and had to think about that and after several minutes of contemplating this my answer was yes, I had placed it in the empty liter bucket next to the buggy. Several more minutes go by and Taz said I didn't pack the bucket did you? Me -- umm, no I thought you did. At this time we are an hour away from the house. Me - you have to turn around and go back, that bucket has everything in it for the annex and awning. All the tie downs, the little lanterns, the stakes, everything. Taz - Are you sure we didn't pack it. Me - yes, there is no litter bucket in here. So, he turns around and we head back home. 50 minutes later we pull into the driveway and sure enough the bucket is still setting where I had placed it. I was so angry at myself for missing it. There is still NO power at the house. We find a spot for the bucket and off we go again.
After this everything went smoothly. We stopped and got more fuel and grabbed some breakfast. While on the way down there one of the sponsors reached out to Taz because he had made a post on the buggy sight about how we are heading down with the buggy but no breaks. He told Taz to come on over to their shop (Dune Brothers) and he will fix the breaks. We made pretty good time, only stopped for fuel, food (to go) and COFFEE. I have to have my COFFEE.
We get to our destination around 3ish. Taz contacts the guy and we meet him at his shop. They pull the buggy in and the guys takes about an hour to get the breaks bleed and working. YAY, we have breaks. Now we can go on the buggy ride with everyone else.
Off to the campsite and meet up place. We get checked in and go find our spot. Unhook the buggy from the 4runner, decide how we want to park the 4runner and set up the tent and awning and unpack the supplies and stuff. It is pretty neat how I was doing my thing in setting up and Taz was doing his thing. Everything was coming together very nicely. Camp is set up. Probably about two hours after set up the wind started picking up, so Taz decides to anchor down the awning. We set up for a little bit and a snack for dinner and we decided to turn in early.
The wind is kicking up a storm out there. Again, I couldn't sleep. I listen to the howls of the wind and hear it attacking the awning. I start to have an anxiety attack. I try to get up quietly to go get me some water and to take some medicine for my anxiety. Now keep in mind we are in the roof top tent (RTT from here on out). I take my medicine and climb back into the tent. You might be asking why am I having an anxiety attack. Well, here is why. I am listening to this wind outside the tent, and if you have ever been around awning and wind you know those two don't play nice together. So, I was worried about the awning getting blown off and torn up.
The medicine did its job and I started dozing off. Taz wakes me up and said that the rain tarp is flapping in the wind and that we need to tighten them down better. I opened the window closest to me because that was the side that was flapping, and I was going to try and tighten it down. Well, apparently, I didn't put the T toggle through the hole correctly when setting it up and the wind pulled it out. After I fixed the T toggle I asked Taz if we could just go close the awning, He did a little mumble and agreed. We got out of the tent and went outside about 3 in the morning and closed the awning. crawled back in the tent and was out like a light.
We got up about 7 cooked breakfast and got ready to go on the beach buggy ride. I will try to attach a link if you want to see the pictures of the buggy ride. Had a great time on the ride, the breaks worked and I took lots of pictures. After the ride we went back to the camp site and chilled out.
It was an amazing experience and day.
Nothing really happened on this day. We hung out with friends and I took lots of pictures of all the buggies and hung out around the campsite. It was a really relaxing day. I will attempt to add a link to all the photos.
Captains log day four. Packing up and heading back home.
Cooked us breakfast and cleaned up and started packing everything away. It was so much easier than the first time we did a mock set up and break down. Got on the road within two hours from breakfast. It was a nice trip home with no issues.
We have another trip coming up in a few days from this post. I will be taking more pictures and actually going to start filming the excursions we will be going on. I have created a youtube page Taz & Kitties Adventures. I will post videos after we get back from the trip.
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