This first photo is from the night we traded in the Jeep Liberty for the Toyota FJ (Libby for Sandi).
Obviously, Sandi is the one on the left. ...um ...the Toyota. ;)
No fossils in Lefthand Canyon, but it's a fine place to examine the vehicle's off-road capabilities.
You just can't drive a car to some of the places we go to find old dead things.
It helps to see what we'll be able to do once we actually get out there in the field.
Did I mention the stock [minimum] 9.6 inches of ground clearance?
Even with road tires (yea, I know....wimpy, but...), off the road,
this machine can run circles around my former poser SUVs ('03 ChvBlzr & '03 JeepLbrty).
Oh, by the way, there are no fossils on the Switzerland Trail either. I swear.
I dug and dug there for a couple of hours through three feet of hard-packed snow and didn't find a damn thing.
Again, road tires = not a good idea - I know - but if ya never test the limits during practice sessions like this,
you'll never know how far you can take it when it actually matters. :)
(of course, I will be putting real tires on Sandi sometime soon, but I just had to get out in the hills to see what I could do)
I see they've established an FJ parking area on campus. (hehehe - shhhh)
Perhaps a 'Boulder FJ Club' is on the horizon (too bad they're probably not also paleo-geeks, but oh well).
Given the amount of time we'll have together each time I meet fellow FJers for trail runs, and given the family needs (i.e. kids,
dogs, etc) of my Paleo-geek friends, I suspect the likelihood of converting anyone from either designation into the other is
very low, and most likely just annoying. So, I will not try. :(
However, if it could ever work out, I'd love to get my Paleo buddies to Ouray sometime. It's where we go every year for our
anniversary trip, and we've been trying to get them out there for years (great fossil hunting in the area), but there's always
something in the way (doh!!, I hope it's not because they know I'll be there each time).
Anyway, if any of them do actually ever get an FJ, perhaps they'll come with us to the FJ Summit which takes place now in
Ouray each summer. They started this event last year, and this year (July, 2008) will be our first.
Oh my.....what a blast that will be (...and there ARE fossils in the San Juans). :-)