The Time We Almost Didn't Go To Moab

Holy shit. 

Moab is amazing!

Millie did so awesome. Seriously. There were some trails that we went on that totally made my butt hole pucker, and I never thought we would make it out alive. But you guys, we did it!  We lived.

I think that the proper way to start out the Moab posts, because there is just too much to cram into one, would be to introduce you to the Sargent.  Sargent Culpepper is Chaz and Shay's Jeep.  It is a loyal Wrangler that Chaz has had since he was in high school

About two months before we were set to leave for Moab, Chaz got a wild hair up his ass and decided that he wanted to take Culpepper's four cylinder engine out and swap it for a V8.  Brett nor Chaz had ever done such a thing, but they both thought, "fuck it, why not?". 

Chaz had purchased an old Durango with some body damage so that he could gut it and replace all of Culpepper's insides with the ones that used to reside in the Durango.  Sounds like a great plan to everyone, and the work begins. 

Here is what it looked like under the hood before they got started:

And here is the progress after removing the old four banger:

In order to get the new engine in Brett had to cut the old engine mounts out so that Chaz's cousin could come weld some new ones in the right place:

Here's the new engine softly nestled into its new home:

And last, but not least, here is what Shay's kitchen table looked like for the majority of the month of April:

I know what you are asking yourself right now.  Why is it so important to share this information with you before I can tell you about our trip and all of its Glory?

Because with such a large project in so little time, two months before our trip, we almost didn't get to go.

Brett and I went up to the Schlange's house every weekend so that Brett could help Chaz out with the engine.  It was all going really well, and they thought that they had given themselves plenty of time. I enjoyed our weekly adventures because I got to spend a few days every week with my BFF.  It was truly refreshing.  Who cares if the drive was monotonous, we had a hell of a time!

When it hit crunch time they started having some issues with the wiring harness. The fucking thing would start, but it was only firing four of the eight cylinders.  Something was wrong, and Chaz didn't know how to fix it. 

Two days before we were set to leave, Chaz decided that it was time to call in the pro's.  He took it to the shop and basically told the mechanic that it didn't matter what it took, he just wanted Culpepper runninig before Moab.  It had to be on the trailer in 48 hours.

I was so worried that we weren't going to go that I didn't start packing because I was afraid that I'd be wasting my time.  I had convinced myself that it wasn't happening, just so that I wouldn't get my hopes up.  I was devestated.  I'm sure that the sadness being experienced by Chaz and Shay was 100 times worse, but it was hard for me to recognize at the time.

After convincing myself that Moab was not going to happen I was at work when I received this text from Shay:

"Hey! He's back in business!"

Relief!! The next day, our adventure began.  Stay tuned.....