jeepin.jason

Yep, you read it right, CampJeep2006 is going to be in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The dates for this year’s CampJeep are August 10-12, and if you hussle and register by June 15 you save $50 off your registration—normal registration is $395, the ‘early bird’ registration is $345. Registration is per vehicle, and you’re only limited to as many passengers as you’ve got seatbelts for.

2006 marks the 12th year for CampJeep, and the this will be the first time it’s been held in Wisconsin. CampJeep got its start at Camp Hale in Colorado (which is where it should really be held every year), and has since been held in Virginia, California, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.

The many popular activities available at CampJeep include:

• 4×4 off-road trails, ranging from scenic to difficult


• For those who want pre-trail training, there will be the Trail Rated^® Off-Road Course, where owners learn off-road driving skills by navigating steep grades, large rocks, log crossings, sand and other obstacles


• Engineering Village is where Jeep owners can talk to Jeep engineers about every aspect of their vehicles


• The Camp Kids Village will feature arts and crafts for youngsters and a driving course with miniature Jeep vehicles


• A variety of outdoor adventure sports are slated for the Sports & Adventure Village, including a 60-foot Adventure Tower, rock climbing, hiking, fly-casting, scuba diving and more


• The 65-year history of Jeep—complete with memorabilia and vintage vehicles dating back to WW II —will be in the World of Jeep Village

This year’s event will also feature a 45-minute air show over CampJeep featuring rare WWII aircraft.

If you’re a Jeep enthusiast, I highly recommend attending CampJeep at least once. I’ve been to CampJeep1998 in Colorado and CampJeep2002 in Missouri and had a great time at each event. CampJeep is not a “wheeling” event though, it focuses more on the Jeep “lifestyle”, so don’t go expecting an offroad event. CampJeep does offer trail rides, but they aren’t the main focus, and historically haven’t been quite as good as what you’d find on a JeepJamboree or some other offroad or club-sponsored event.

Whew, what a blast! We got back sunday afternoon from another great trip to the Superlift ORV Park in Hot Springs, AR. This time we finally got our TJ out to the park, and we really put it through its paces! Jennifer drove the whole time and did great. We didn’t suffer any carnage, other than new scraps and scratches, but one of the guys in our group friday took a hard roll over an off-camber ledge. No one was hurt thanks to a tough Poison Spyder rollcage, but his windshield was toast, along with his hood and driver-side door.

Since this was a Superlift-sponsored event, there were camera crews on hand for Superlift TV as well as photographers for a few of the major 4×4 magazines. They were all with us on the trails friday, so we may end up on TV and/or in some mags! Woohoo! The guy who rolled will definitely be in there, haha!

We also finally got to meet BJ and his wife, who are the new property managers for the park, as well as Bret, the actual owner of Superlift itself. They were all great folks.

The biggest change in the park since we were there last is the completion of a huge new pavillion above the main office. Watch for a full trip report on Jeepin.com soon, in the mean time check out all the pics in my Flickr photos!

Well, I guess the end of another era is here… GM announced today that 2006 will be the last model year for the civillian Hummer H1, which originally debuted in 1992.

I guess I should take it as a sign that my little blog is gaining popularity, or atleast that it’s getting indexed by search engines more, because I’ve been getting flooded by spambots lately.  Thankfully WordPress has an excellent built-in spam filter that keeps most of it from ever getting shown.  What’s interesting is that all the spambots are using gmail email addresses… so I’m thinking about blacklisting all comments from a gmail address.  I know that’s a bit extreme, but looking back through all the comments that you guys have submitted so far, no one’s submitted a legit comment from a gmail address, so…

ugh, stupid spammers.