Interview with John and John, father and son jeep enthusiasts.

Listen to George and Lisa as they talk with John and John about their adventures in MOAB, Utah.  They will tell you about their very first experience in MOAB for the Easter Jeep Safari.

Transcript

Lisa RichartHernandez  0:00  
Hi, welcome back to Rview, we've got a great show for you today, we're going to tell you all about our trip to Moab, Utah, in the Easter Jeep Safari. And we have our friends John and his father John, that we met on the trails and we're going to talk to them about their, their experience and our experience and tell you all about the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah.

Outro  0:23  
Welcome to RView with your hosts, George and Lisa Hernandez. Each week, listen in as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. George and Lisa travel in their 40 foot class A, Tiffin motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  0:52  
Hi, welcome back to RView. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez.

George  0:56  
And I'm George Hernandez. And we have some great guests with us today.

Lisa RichartHernandez  1:00  
We've got John and John a pita from Pennsylvania.

George  1:05  
Yes, we met him at the Easter Jeep Safari. And we had a really good time with them riding on one of the trails. And let's just introduce them. So John and John, this was your first Easter Jeep Safari? Correct?

John  1:23  
Correct. It was our first one. It was definitely a heck of an experience. We've done some Jeep events before but nothing like Easter Jeep Safari.

George  1:32  
So one of the things that got me was that your father and son team and you were doing this experience? How did that all come about?

John  1:42  
So it actually started thinking my father was turning about 70 and was kind of looking for a new car. And so we start going looking for cars, and I was liking the Cherokees and we're just kind of at the car lot browsing through and we're looking at them and then he sees the Wrangler right next to it. And he's looking he goes oh, well, for a little more we can get into this a Wrangler Sport here. And then Oh, a little more Willys. And next thing you know, we end up with the Rubicon and then just kind of a slow step into it.

George  2:13  
Boy, that story. Sounds familiar, right? Yes, the thing with Jeeps is you just it never ends. You can do so much to jeeps, you can modify them so much. Our story was kind of similar, we needed something to tow behind our RV. And Lisa fought me for a little while on getting a jeep. And one day she just happened to see one sitting in a lot and she called me to come look at it and that was the end of that.

John  2:44  
It's definitely something that we're glad we did and all the time we're saving. Why didn't we look and get into Jeeps years ago because it's would have been amazing. Yeah, having great experiences with it.

Lisa RichartHernandez  2:58  
So you decided okay, let's go to the Easter Jeep Safari and Moab Utah in you drove like we had our RV so we you know we stay at campgrounds or whatever on the way. Tell us about how long it took you to drive from Pennsylvania to Utah. And that experience and how you went about it just in the jeep where you stayed. Give us a little info about your trip.

John  3:21  
We didn't come straight out from Pennsylvania. We did a little bit of sightseeing along the way. It was about actually seven days from when we left Pennsylvania until we pulled into Moab Utah. So already we had a week of driving before we even got there. Wow.

Lisa RichartHernandez  3:40  
I mean, yeah, it took us like two weeks but we stayed at campgrounds you know. Yeah. Yeah.

John  3:45  
And we were you know, we ended up just staying in hotels, you know, every night so we weren't, you know, pushing all night long drive and just doing you know, eight hours driving day stop. You know, get some dinner, get some sleep in and then head out the next day. So we sort of did some sightseeing along the way. We started out in South Dakota, checked out Badlands National Park, the Mount Rushmore, we did the Crazy Horse monument, Deadwood Sturgis snuck into Wyoming a little bit for Devil's Tower there. And then from there we shot down to Las Vegas. spent two nights I believe it wasn't really two nights in Las Vegas and then on day number seven shot up to Moab. So

Lisa RichartHernandez  4:30  
tell us about how did you even like how did you hear about the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab? Did you just was it just from like you heard it from other jeepers or how did that come about?

John  4:42  
So as far as Easter Jeep Yeah, it was just kind of once we got into Jeep thing and I think really probably came from a YouTube video just kind of got got caught out of it. And next thing you know, you know you're seeing these videos for these amazing trails and it's like oh Whereas this and oh, that's an MO and

George  5:01  
Lisa's laughing because that's exactly what I do, buddy. Oh,

Lisa RichartHernandez  5:06  
we so the first time we went to Moab, which was in 2020. And that was the first time we'd ever really tested out our jeep and all the things that we would kind of like learned all the stuff that our jeep could actually do, which was like, mind boggling to me. George had so many videos, he would run into our friends, you know, we'd be like, Oh, have I shown you my jeeping videos, and I'd be like, Oh, we're never gonna see those guys for another two hours. George has them trapped, looking at Jeep videos, or whatever, they love them.

John  5:39  
And I got friends with that, too. And we'll just keep sending videos back and forth agency, this one agency that one that's what

George  5:45  
it's all about. But I got trapped in that that YouTube wormhole of oh, man, I went from Moab to Rubicon Trail to overlanding to I mean, I've probably watched every damn Jeep video there is out there. And but I love it. I love it. I one thing that I definitely would love to do is try overlanding, even if it's just for like two days or whatever. It just looks so cool. Have you guys ever done that yet?

John  6:15  
We haven't yet. But that looks like an amazing experience to just be able to pack everything up into your vehicle, drive out into the wilderness and just, you're just out there for a few days, you know, and you got to find your campsite and you're willing at the same time, and it's just It looks like an amazing experience. But you haven't got to try to

George  6:33  
have Have you heard of White Rim Trail in Moab? I have not. Okay, look that one up. It is I believe the whole trail is 100 miles. Most people don't do the whole trail, but it runs through the rim of the canyon in Canyon land. So they call it the mini Grand Canyon. And each campsite is like five miles apart from each other. So when you camp out there, you are out there by yourself. And there's a ton of videos, and they're all super cool, and it looks beautiful. And that's where I'd like to do it one day. Hey, maybe we can plan and we'll all do it together.

Lisa RichartHernandez  7:16  
Yeah,

George  7:17  
I think Lisa will stay in the RV.

Lisa RichartHernandez  7:18  
Yeah, I'm a two day Max, I think Overlander type person, like my creature comforts. But I will admit, you know, when we're out there, jeeping, and we take a break for lunchtime, or whatever, we open up the back and make a sandwich and get the cooler out and sit around. I'm always like, these are the best sandwiches I've ever had. And I don't think it has anything to do with the actual sale, which itself, it's just the beautiful scenery and just being out there in the middle of places that nobody else can get to unless they had a jeep.

John  7:50  
Right, right. It's going all those different locations. And some of those trails too, especially when you take them out. And some of the lesser known ones to even that are just you know, more scenic, but you know, when you get out there, you might be the only person on the trail that morning or that day. So you basically have the whole place to yourself. Yeah, the people can make or break the experience for you for sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  8:16  
Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. And I gotta say, like everybody that we met at the Easter Jeep Safari, like, they were all super nice, like, especially the trail leaders. You know, for those people that are listening, our listeners that maybe just started driving or have always wanted to try to do this. This is like a great opportunity for you to take your Jeep off road in a really safe environment, you can start at like a beginner level. And even if you want to challenge yourself and step up, they are all there to spot you on any, you know, difficult parts of the course and stuff like that. And I really enjoyed that part. I think we were fortunate the first time we went we hired a guide. And I think that was the best 400 bucks we ever spent. He we drove our jeep and followed him and he told us how to get through the places. But if you don't have that, or have the capability to to hire somebody individually, like this group ride to me was really, really fun. Yeah,

George  9:13  
and it's $25 a ride. And they have beginner packages at 25 or 7575. I'm sorry, $75 a ride and they have beginner packages intermediate and advanced. And I think the ones we did were borderline intermediate. Weren't they done? Do you remember? Yeah,

John  9:31  
I'd say that was definitely a intermediate trail. Because there were some a few sketchy areas in there. But overall it was nice and easy and kind of go on and what Lisa said that's kind of what I liked about events like this so much is that especially for us being on the east coast the sort of offering that we have here in Pennsylvania, totally different out out west in the in Moab. So for me yeah, I feel comfortable on you know rocks with trees next to me and all but when you're on the trail and on a thin and you're, you know, 234 600 feet out you go, you know, two feet off the trail, you know, you could be rolling down that whole way. Whereas at least here in Pennsylvania, you don't want to do it. But if you're going to walk over, you're just flopping on your side. No harm, no foul. Yeah. So as those experienced guides out there, you know, these these men and women that have been riding these trails and guiding these trails for some of them. 2530 years. Yeah. That alone makes you feel so much more comfortable. And it gives you a better experience, too, I

George  10:39  
think. Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, when you're on that edge, there is no room for oops, oops, it's too late. Yes,

John  10:45  
exactly. Which can make it a little nerve wracking. But that's part of the fun, too, I think, yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  10:52  
I like to go on things that are challenging. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, a maze. But not where I'm like, I could die. I don't, I've decided I'm not big on the ledge writing anymore. Or the you know, I've definitely will probably never do a level 10 trail again, after our one time experience in windrock, Tennessee, we did our level. And I was so scared. I was like, alright, we're never doing that again.

John  11:21  
I was just saying when rock can be interesting, depending on which trails you take, we were out there last year for another event. And we spent a day down there with, thankfully a local who was willing to help us out and guide us around. And yeah, that they can be challenging down there, too.

George  11:36  
Yeah. And we're, you know, that's one of the places that we'd like to ride and I prefer the West Coast Way more than just the mud and totally different on this side. And I'm not like a mud guy. I've realized I'm not a mud guy. I like running through it and getting dirty. But it's just it's not as appealing to me as climbing up a frickin rock that you you can't even climb without the jeep. I've got a picture of Lisa trying to climb one of the obstacles as she could barely climb up the thing. And then the deep goes up like it's not even there. Then just crawls right out.

Lisa RichartHernandez  12:15  
I don't know. That's one thing that's so hard to capture on film. And you really really can't get the perspective of it. No matter how many videos I take, and what angle I take them from. I can never really show like how amazing that like that. That Jeep just climbed up that hill, like straight up like it should never have made it. I could barely even walk up and you just can't catch it on film. So being there in person and seeing it so cool. Well

George  12:41  
as a driver when you're going up and all you see a sky and you can just feel gravity pulling you into the seat like the back of your back into the seat. That's not a normal feeling. And it's so creepy. And you're I'm always waiting for the Jeep like to flip backwards, but it just never does. It's like let's go Dude, relax.

John  13:03  
Yeah, when you feel your weight shifting around on you, for me the back. I don't want too much. But if there's off cambers, yeah, you're leaning towards the left, or leaning towards the right. That's when my brain really starts, you know, saying are you this isn't normal. We shouldn't be here right now. And it's like, no, no, we're, we're okay. Right, as I normally

George  13:22  
get through this, then you start thinking, Okay, where is the point where I'm just going to roll over? Because I've got to be really close because this is so tilted. I mean, we've done a couple of those.

John  13:35  
Sometimes it can be a little hairy. I think I'm right around 25 degrees. You know, pitch is the maximum comfort

George  13:43  
level. So we got to get one of the we don't have one. Maybe we shouldn't get one. We

Lisa RichartHernandez  13:50  
do you remember, John, which trails you rode while you were there that week? So

John  13:55  
we did. We did a whole bunch of them. We hit Done. Cameo clips and bins, bins and things that

George  14:04  
you ran into. And then we did that man's point. Wasn't that what we did?

John  14:09  
No, that was the one you had told me about. You guys ran before us. We did seven mile run?

Lisa RichartHernandez  14:15  
Oh, yeah, we didn't. We didn't we we met on seven mile rim. And then the next day George and I did the poison spider.

John  14:24  
Yeah. Oh, you guys got to that one? Yeah. Well, you did. Yeah, I ruined that one on a Saturday. And that I think that might have been my favorite trail the whole time. We were out

George  14:34  
there. That's funny. I said the same thing. I said to Lisa that is now my official favorite trail because I did it.

Lisa RichartHernandez  14:43  
Yeah, and we got our jeep badges for that. And so did you get do you get your Jeep badges when you do your trails do?

John  14:50  
Yes, we do. Actually, that's funny. You mentioned that because our three that we ordered from Easter Jeep actually just showed up yesterday in the mail. Oh,

Lisa RichartHernandez  15:00  
awesome. Yeah, so yeah, so for any listeners that are listening out there that are jeepers and you don't know what your Jeep badge of honors are. So Jeep has an app and if you go on your app, you go on to click on I think it's off road. You it shows you where you are GPS wise, and you check in at the trailhead, and you check in again at the end checked out at the end. And then when you get back to Wi Fi or or whatever, you submit it to Jeep, and they will mail you a badge to put on your Jeep that says the name of the trail and where it is. And it's a Jeep badge of honor. And my wife has a lot of I think we have three from Moab now

George  15:41  
Yeah, and three from when rock. And when we the very first one we did when I ordered the badge. I was expecting like this little like almost like a sticker. I was like this isn't this is silly. It's not going to be a cool thing. And when I got the bat, it's actually like a really cool 3d. And it has a little 3d of the trail. Like a little map. Yeah, and I guess, and it tells you what trail you did where you did it. And I love it. And I'm like everywhere we go. I always pull up the Jeep badge of honor app and see if there's anyone any trail near us.

Lisa RichartHernandez  16:20  
Yeah, you did some in Pennsylvania, right, John?

John  16:23  
Yes. So we've had three for a while they actually added two more last year. That was one thing I was very fortunate was glad to see that about two hours from where we are. We have Roush Creek off road Park, and anthracite outdoor adventure area known as AOA. So Roush actually has three trails that are a badge of honor trails, and then AOA just had to last year they got named badge of honor trails as well.

George  16:53  
So road trip, road trip.

Lisa RichartHernandez  16:56  
There we go. Yeah.

John  17:01  
It's not, you know, overly challenging, but it will test you in some spots, some of them. Yeah,

George  17:06  
and a lot of the badge trails, like fins and things. I, that's my favorite. I call it my warmup trail. Now, the first time we did it, so funny story to go back to the guide. We're following the guide into fence and things. And when he tells us air down and do this and get in low, and we get to the first obstacle, and I said to Lisa, I think this guy's lost. There's no way we're going up there. And he goes up, and he hits me on the walk. And he says, All right, come on. And I'm like I said this guy smoking crack. And now I look at it. And I'm like, Oh, my God, I can't believe we I was so worried about this.

Lisa RichartHernandez  17:53  
It was Yeah, because those were so easy. Like we did run across like a little, you know, maybe foot tie Boulder and we be like, do you think we can make it through these rocks. And we're like, we laugh at each other. When we think about the things that we were afraid of when we first started jeeping it's funny, it just

George  18:15  
creates such a monster. We'd love it now. You

John  18:19  
know, once you kind of get into and you get a little more used to it. It's like oh, yeah, absolutely love it, like in Moab can definitely be intimidating. But it's also a trial by fire. Because especially when we're doing those group lines, we're like that. Yeah, you're in a group of 35 people, you don't have a choice. Everyone else says go and you gotta go to so it kind of forces you to get over that. And I know I feel much more comfortable now than before we left and you know, looking at some of the trails. It's like, oh, yeah, that's that's a piece of cake. Now I'm not even worried about that.

George  18:50  
Right. Exactly. And, and I totally agree with you because I'm that guy. If somebody does it in front of me. There's no way I'm not doing it. You know what I mean? I'm like, I got to do it. They did it.

John  19:03  
To do it, you left me no choice. Right.

George  19:05  
Exactly. Now I got to do it. So you guys, after Moab. You went back to South Dakota, didn't you? We did.

John  19:15  
We weren't I'd let that you know last week heading home kind of open because who knows what could happen in Moab? You know, we might be behind back. We might have to catch a flight home or something's getting fixed. Right? You want to plan too much. But yep, thankfully, on the last day, we met this great couple Georgia and Lisa. Actually let us know about Custer State Park because we're going through the first time, all of them and I was kind of disappointed. I didn't get to see any bison and that was for me. That was the big thing. I want to see one of those guys out there and we didn't get to see any. But you hit suggested Custer State Park in the south end of the Black Hills there. And you guys were so so spot on about that place. Ah, that's awesome. It was incredible. The the amount, the varied wildlife, and then just even the numbers. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't two minutes outside of our our lodge that we were staying at in the park. And right there, boom, there's a dozen buffalo

George  20:18  
that that's, I'm so glad and you sent me the pictures and when you sent me the pictures, I was so pumped for you guys. And I was so happy. Because I remember telling you the story that we left in the morning with, with our kids in our PJs with a cup of coffee and we're like, we'll be back in an hour. Eight hours later, we were still looking at wildlife. And I'm glad you got to see it because it's just, it's amazing. Because you're in their environment. They're not in your environment, you're in their environment. And it's they just walk across the street, they'll come right up to your car and they are massive. It make traffic jams.

John  20:58  
I couldn't believe how big they were in the fact that you're right. They'll come right up. I mean, I think we had one that wasn't more than maybe five feet from my dad outside of his window. Yeah. You see those videos to have people getting out in there wanting to get close in touch and and great. You're there looking at it. Yeah, they look so peaceful and docile. But they they will turn on you and they can mess you up in a heartbeat. They'll kill you in a minute.

George  21:23  
And of course men aren't as powerful

John  21:24  
as they are. You can't even comprehend that they can do. Yeah,

George  21:30  
that's awesome. And then you did find needles highway.

John  21:34  
We did. We found the needles highway, we got to run that for a couple hours through the day, some great stopping points along there as well. There was one area I believe it was called the Eye of the Needle where it's kind of like a little parking lot. And some of the views out over those granite formations were incredible. And it was such a beautiful. Oh, it's I can honestly say I think the Black Hills might be one of my favorite parts of the country. It's a toss up with Moab. But they're also totally different at the same time. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  22:03  
I have to say like one of the biggest things the first time we did our cross country trip, we did that that loop we did South Dakota over to cross Yellowstone all the way up to Seattle and down the coast of Oregon to California and the redwood forest and just all the different landscapes and all the amazingly beautiful things that we have, right here in our country. That was just so amazing to me, because we do so much traveling outside of the country and stuff like that and go on all these different vacations. And I'm like, man, there's so much beautiful stuff right here in the United States that we haven't even seen. And, you know,

George  22:42  
half the time don't even over

Lisa RichartHernandez  22:44  
the iceberg. Yeah, I mean, there's so many places here in the United States like that so

John  22:50  
much in this country. Why can't we anywhere else? Yeah, exactly. Right. With America, you have so much to do here, but at the same time you really think about it you because you're always thinking about, you know, in Europe, or, you know, in the island, specifically something, right, exactly. You're not thinking about what we have here, you know, in our own country, and there's so much.

Lisa RichartHernandez  23:15  
And then when you add the layer of having the jeeps to be able to not just go you know, down the regular highway, but off road into all these other amazing places that really nobody else can see unless they have a jeep, or, you know, a really good hiker. But it, it's just, that's, I think that's one of the things that made me fall in love with the jeeping is getting out to those places that are just so beautiful that nobody else could even get there. You know, you just got there in that Jeep, and it was awesome. It feels

John  23:49  
special, because it's like, you know, again, you know, with any off road vehicle that can get there, but you feel like it's part of a special community that this is for you guys, you know, yeah, you can hike there and all that, but not every person is getting to see this stuff that you're getting to see and the scenery and the way that you get to see it.

Lisa RichartHernandez  24:07  
Yep. Yeah, exactly. It's so hard to explain to somebody that hasn't done it. So what do you you know, I just encourage any especially Jeep owners like I met this girl the other day, Dolphin Island, she gave me a little Jeep doc and we started chit chatting and I said, Well, you got a really nice jeep. She had a really nice Rubicon, and I was like, have you taken an off road yet? And she's like, No, you know, I've always wanted to and that's when I showed her all the Jeep badges and we started talking to you like, oh my gosh, like I just want to do that now. I can't wait like I'm gonna take my jeep. I'm like, All right, I'm gonna check in on you and make sure you do something with that really nice jeep.

George  24:42  
you're converting a mall crawler.

Lisa RichartHernandez  24:45  
Yeah, you can't be just a mall crawler. That's like our buddy that we took the windrock with us. He's got like a beautiful $65,000 Rubicon like super nice Jeep with everything in it and sure enough heat makes it through those mud trails and it's a jeep. Vendor. It's like, that's right, that's right

John  25:08  
to go out and do these things.

George  25:09  
Yeah, the beauty with the Jeep is almost anything can be fixed. With any car, anything can be fixed. But with a jeep, it's just so much easier to I've lost fenders. I mean, they've literally fallen off, and I get the clips, put it back on, and we're good to go out. In fact, we just did that when we got back from Moab because I lost a Fender there. But that's, that's part of what I love. And man, jeeps are just, they're, they're beasts. I mean, this is kind of

John  25:38  
like the ultimate Lego car. Because with everything that you can do to customize and modify and change out. And it's, it's all things you can just do right in your own backyard or in your driveway. You know, you don't need a whole lot of mechanical ya know how even going back into that word to your YouTube wormhole. YouTube's amazing for that kind of stuff. Oh, god. Yeah, yeah, I've been doing anything. I'll watch a couple videos on it, you know, 234 different people. Just kind of pick out what I liked from all of them. And then Alright, now we'll try it now that we've seen a couple points of view. Yep, I've

George  26:11  
done ball joints that I've never done before in my life. I did ball joints on the Jeep. I fixed all kinds of stuff. Now I got to fix the air vent. It's got a bad motor, so it clicks. And it just drives us crazy. But that's my next project. But it's all so easy to work on. That's what I love about him. He's

John  26:31  
great, too. As with the Jeep, you know, we spent a week and a half off roading in Moab. But we were driving for a week beforehand. We drove another week home and all the same vehicle, you know?

Lisa RichartHernandez  26:44  
Yeah.

George  26:45  
I say the same thing. Same thing. As a matter of fact, when we were on fencing things, we ran into some younger guys. And we stopped and we were talking and one of them was like, Oh my God, you got the Modern Warfare, three edition jeep. And I was like, yeah, and he goes, you don't see those very often. What are you doing out here on the trail? And I'm like, it's a jeep, dude. It's just like any other Jeep is just a limited edition. It's cool that you notice but it's just the jeep. But he was blown away that I was writing it out. They're not at the end of the day is just the Jeep though.

John  27:16  
So basically that engine Oh, limited edition. Well, don't don't you want to put that to the side and save it and leave it all pretty? No, I bought a Jeep because I want a jeep. Right. Exactly.

George  27:26  
Yeah, car. It's just, that's one of those crazy things. So you said that. I think when we were talking you said your next big trip you might do either Moab again, or the Rubicon Trail.

John  27:41  
Yeah. So thankfully, we have some time here now to decide. But you know, Moab? Absolutely. We definitely need to get out there again. 100%. But then the hotel we were staying at in town. There was a group of guys had the four rooms next to us all reserved up, because they're the ones who actually run the jeepers jamboree for the Rubicon Trail. Oh, wow. Getting to see them every night. You know, every night we come home from a trail and Oh, Hey, where'd you guys go? What'd you do? Oh, yeah, we were doing this and we'd hang out outside the room swapping pictures for you know, half an hour or so. And then, you know, of course they were given us some pamphlets on the jeepers Jamboree, and it looks like a great time. You know, I think there were two different packages three day or four day packages out there. And but it's it's tough because we got to choose one of the other it'd be great to be in a situation where Oh heck let's do a boat but one a year. We can handle one a year. Yeah. When?

Lisa RichartHernandez  28:41  
When is that? When is the Rubicon Trail one.

John  28:45  
That's I believe the third week in July.

Lisa RichartHernandez  28:47  
Okay. So Summer.

George  28:52  
Summer. Have you watched videos on that? I have. Yes. So cool. I want to do that one so bad. We might have to put that out.

John  29:01  
Because the Rubicon is so famous. I mean, that's why you had the Rubicon trim level of the jeeps Correct. Moab was so amazing, too. It's like, oh, that's a tough one. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  29:13  
so the the one in Moab is put on by the Red Rock four wheelers club and Moab and we went then what was it Saturday night when they did the raffle? Did you guys go to the raffle?

John  29:28  
We did Yes. Go away. shares with us.

Lisa RichartHernandez  29:31  
Oh gosh. Yeah, there. Here's the here's a hint tip for anyone who's going to do that next year. Bring your chairs. We sat on the bleachers and they were so hard and now I know why the people that have been there before I'd like blankets and pads and stuff like that. But they gave away almost $175,000 worth of prizes and stuff to everybody. So that was a pretty cool, pretty cool giveaway and they said there was like 400 Wasn't it 400 volunteers that make that 400? Yeah. Which is just a huge number of people. And so it's really cool that they, yeah, I gotta give them credit. They hang on, they do a good

George  30:14  
job. The magazine they sent was very helpful. It actually breaks down all the trails rates them. That's what kind of helped me decide which trails we were going to do because Lisa didn't want to do anything overly exciting.

Lisa RichartHernandez  30:33  
Oh, whatever. I said I wasn't gonna do any 10s And we were not gonna get hurt. We were getting our jeep back. I ain't nobody got time for that. Oh, we

George  30:41  
got to get the Jeep back. That's my everyday car. I'll mess it up.

Lisa RichartHernandez  30:48  
Well, we have a friend from our Lowcountry Wranglers that was in Moab and flipped her Jeep there and that'd be helicoptered out of there. I was like, Okay, we're not doing any of those things. Like we're not getting helicoptered out of anywhere. So

George  31:00  
that's the president of our jeep club. And she is missing her left arm. And she rolled her Jeep and crushed her right arm. And everybody's like, holy and they now are back are out. And she had out of all kinds of surgeries. And she's right back at it. She's a true. Okay, they're

John  31:27  
now right. Yeah, yeah, she's

George  31:29  
fine. Yes. They just went through, you know, sometimes you get you go through a little spell where if it wasn't for bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck? Yeah, they hit it. But I'm glad they're over that hump. So John, when you go to do the Rubicon Trail, where where do you stay? Or where are you planning on staying?

John  31:48  
So that's one thing I got to look a little more into. But I believe the way it's set up is you're kind of staying on the trail, but they have some sort of central area where everyone's kind of staying at. And then each day, you just kind of go out and do a different section of the trail. And then at night, you know, everyone comes back to gather and think they have some bands there some nights and gotten all that. Yeah, I've

George  32:12  
seen that. I've seen the bands. I've seen the cookouts

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:15  
that's the Lake Tahoe areas that were that is in California.

John  32:18  
Yes. Yeah. Right around Lake Tahoe.

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:21  
We were there before. Oh my god, it's beautiful. If you do go to that one, you have to go to Hawthorne, Nevada, in the middle of nowhere and see the ghost towns. Oh

George  32:32  
my god. Yeah. We literally saw the sign that said, you are in the middle of nowhere. Yes.

Lisa RichartHernandez  32:42  
So when we did our cross country trip, we stayed well, we were gonna stay in Lake Tahoe, but we ended up staying in Carson City, which is just right outside of Lake Tahoe. And all thankfully, like thankfully we were we stayed there. All the campgrounds were closed because the fire departments were all they were all fighting fires in different places. And that was when the Sequoia National Forest was on fire. And so we were supposed to go there. So we had to reroute and we decided to go to Hawthorne Nevada. But it said like big Off Road area. Well, that was some of our first off roading experiences before we did our our guide with the person in Moab. And we so we went from Carson City, Nevada, which is there right outside of Lake Tahoe and drove through Hawthorne Nevada.

George  33:28  
We stayed in Hawthorne?

Lisa RichartHernandez  33:30  
Yeah, we stayed for like two two nights. Yeah. On our way to Las Vegas. And they had some really cool rides there to it. They weren't as challenging but like very scenic. And then at the end of this one that we go to, like you're going down all these at this time. Now looking back on is probably only like a level two or three cores. But it seemed a lot more scary when we had never done it before. But then you come out. And there's like a literal ghost town. Like where it used to be where they were did mining and stuff. And it looked like movies that like it wasn't even real.

George  34:05  
Or there was a John Wayne movie film there. And it's it's a national park now. There's actually forest rangers that are stationed there. But it was so cool. It was it was it looked like literally everybody just picked up and left. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure a lot of it is set up to look that way. But like you go and look inside the school window and all the pencils are still on the desk and papers. It was beautiful. But you forgot to say the ride out there. That one part when we were on the ledge? Yeah. Holy mackerel. We were both we were our knees were knocking that was the highest we've ever been 10,000

Lisa RichartHernandez  34:46  
square feet 10,000 foot elevation and we were led driving. And then we got off the trail in Georgia like this was a two lane road. Like what if somebody would have came bad call make up the mountain. Like there's nowhere to pull. Oh,

George  35:03  
it's a one lane road that goes two ways. Yeah. And so that's when we, that's when we found out what trail etiquette is. So the person coming up has the right of way. And I'm like, somebody's coming up where the hell am I supposed to go? Because it's only wide enough for my jeep.

Lisa RichartHernandez  35:21  
Well, and we were such a rookie. So I had downloaded these maps that you could like, read, you know, with your GPS when you don't have signal or whatever. And so we start riding on this trail. And I mean, next thing, you know, like, there's a little bit of grass, and then there's like, a little bit dirt and grass. And we like, we don't even know if we're on the trail anymore.

George  35:42  
The trail starts disappearing.

Lisa RichartHernandez  35:43  
He's like asking me like, Are you sure we're on a trail? And I was like, Yeah, it's like right here, it says main road, you know. So finally, we're riding for like an hour. And I look, I'm looking at this map. And I zoom in on the bottom, and it says, like, copyright like 1986, or something like that, like 40 year old map. And I was like, well, 40 years ago, this was an improved road. I don't think anybody's been on it since. So we learned a lot of things on that trip. But that was one

George  36:19  
thing we learned on that trip was download your maps in case you lose service.

Lisa RichartHernandez  36:24  
Yeah, yeah, definitely having that. All the little things that you just learn as you go along. Like the other thing that we didn't know about doing was when you go to start a trail to like, set your odometer to zero. So you know, like, how far you've gone and like what what, like points you're supposed to be at or whatever. We were also in Vegas on that same trip. This is all before mo before our first training in Moab. And we're writing in the red rocks. Okay, well, the map ended here is the end of the page of the book. I don't know where we are now. In our in our get how much farther it is do we get back?

George  37:03  
Well then, like two minutes after she says that to me, the gas light comes on. And I I puckered up so tight, it wasn't even funny. We're gonna die, we're gonna die.

Lisa RichartHernandez  37:15  
We like quietly sat for like 45 minutes driving without like saying a word to each other, like both of us. Like, looking back on it. We finally told each other later at different point, we're like, yeah, I wasn't sure if we were gonna make it out of there. What we were gonna do, we're gonna run out of gas. And then I finally see, like power lines going down the mountain. And I was like, Okay, there's power lines, the worst case scenario, we follow the power. They've got a lead down. And I said to

George  37:47  
people, I said to Lisa, in my mind, I was thinking, I don't have enough gas to follow the power lines. But if I knocked down the power pole, they got to come and fix it eventually. The silly things that go through your mind. Yeah, yeah. But we got

John  38:03  
through modern problems. Yeah, exactly.

Lisa RichartHernandez  38:08  
Well, it's been great catching up with you guys. And we'd love to meet you again sometime on the road. That's one of the things we love about jeeping is, is being able to share adventures with other people. So we're glad to meet other other friends that enjoy the same kind of thing.

George  38:23  
And we haven't been to Pennsylvania yet, so we might have to take a road trip. Yeah. So we'll have to

John  38:28  
the weather's just now starting to get nicer up here. Finally, you know, up into the 70s a little bit. So anytime. Come on. I'd love to go out there with you guys and meet up again. Yeah, for sure.

Lisa RichartHernandez  38:39  
We we go to the RV show in Hershey, Pennsylvania. How far are you? How far are those trails from Hershey?

John  38:47  
Oh, from Hershey, you're maybe an hour, hour and a half? I'd say,

Lisa RichartHernandez  38:52  
Oh, that's not bad. We'll have to plan it in conjunction with that because we go up there to do the I sell Luxury RV lots. And we do always do a booth at the Hershey show. So it would be we'll have to plan it. And I think that's in like the Hershey shows in September. It's probably a good time. We could probably go before that. Was it September? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Oh, yeah. Cuz Tampa's in Tampa is in January.

George  39:17  
All right. All right. Well, next Hershey Pennsylvania trip, we got to bring the Jeep app called John and John. And we got to hit the trails. Get some more badges.

Lisa RichartHernandez  39:28  
That's right.

John  39:29  
Let's get you five more badges up here. Yeah. Cool.

George  39:33  
I wish I could tell you to come to South Carolina and get some badges but we don't have any. We got mostly Flatland. Yeah, we're in the flatlands. No, no fear. Where we live on the coast fear of rolling off a cliff.

John  39:47  
Yeah, that was you have you already down there, right. Yeah.

George  39:53  
Yeah, that's up in the upstate. That's where the they got mountains up there. And so yeah, we do we do have A couple of

Lisa RichartHernandez  40:00  
parks Greenville. Yeah,

George  40:03  
yeah, in the Greenville area, there's some in North Carolina. I think there's maybe one in Georgia. And believe it or not, I think there's a badge of honor trail and Florida. And I'm like, Florida, Florida has nothing. So

John  40:16  
I'll tell your story. There is a trial in Florida. Because we usually last two years, we've actually gone down to Daytona Beach for another Jeep event called GPS that they have going on down there. And when we were down there last year, I saw there was that badge of honor so we're like, Oh, hey, let's go check it out. And I think it's more for the scenery because it's pretty much just a sand road you know, dirt road, basically, but it runs you kind of through the back country and I won't say that Everglades but you're you feel like you're out there.

George  40:52  
Yeah, I looked it up on on YouTube match and that. And that's it. That's exactly it's just a scenic trail, but I guess they felt bad for Florida gave him a badge of honor. They probably have some, some of those crocodiles from Disney that are out there on the trail make you feel good. That's

John  41:13  
where all the retired animatronics go. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  41:15  
exactly. There we go. Well, it's been great talking to you guys. And good catching up. You can find all of our pictures and videos from our Moab trip at WWW dot our view podcast.com. It's our V i e. W podcast.com. And hit us up if you have any questions about jeeping or want to get in touch with John and John. That's it. Right. That's

George  41:42  
it. We're also gonna see if John will send me some of those pictures and we'll post them on our website of their adventure in Custer State Park and some of their adventures in Moab. And we'll have our pictures on there also, and keep listening to us people. We're gonna go to the next place

Lisa RichartHernandez  41:57  
like and subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. And maybe someday we'll just travel around and podcast. We can only dream right? We can dream.

George  42:11  
Hi, guys, thank you so much for very much. So yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez  42:14  
have a good one.

Outro  42:17  
Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for listening to another episode of our view. Don't forget to drop us a line at our view. podcast.com That's the letter our view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai