Over the river...

Friday, Kaylee and I got our first taste of four-wheeling. (No, I didn't get another cat; Kaylee is the name of my Jeep).

It was such a nice day, the b/f & I decided to go target shooting. After an hour's drive (I made a good deal of progress on my sock), we discovered that everyone else had the same idea, so we headed back home. Somewhere along the way, the b/f got the bright idea to see if he could get to an area along the Missouri river that he had been to by boat a few years ago. He found a little dirt track leading off the highway, so he started following it. It parallelled the highway for a while, then angled towards the river. We went down a couple of steep drops that didn't faze Kaylee one little bit, and through a couple of puddles (we've gotten a lot of rain lately). Then we came upon a monster puddle: it was as wide as the road, a good 8 feet long at the narrow side, and I swear the water would have nearly come up to my knees if I had been foolish enough to try to wade through it, and, of course, at the bottom of it was thick, clayey, Missouri mud. Now, I wouldn't do something as silly as wade through that; but the b/f was quite willing to drive through it. He went plowing into it, and about midway Kaylee started going sideways a little, but then she found something to grab onto, straightened out, and made it to the other side. Whew! I was really quite proud of her; she is a very able little vehicle.

We had a nice little traipse along the river, then back the same way; Kaylee sluiced through the monster puddle again, but got us safely back to the highway and home. Boy, was she dirty! You can't really tell from the pic, but mud was splashed even on the rooftop. The b/f, who really is wonderful, gave her a bath and a fresh coat of wax, since the adventure was his idea.

So, I learned that Kaylee can handle steep drops and climbs without any trouble at all. And I learned that I am going to stay away from deep mud puddles, because getting through that took both Kaylee's abilities and the b/f's skill. I am certain sure that, if I had been driving, Kaylee would have gotten well and truly stuck. And I wouldn't want her to have to endure that.