Four Wheels, Gravel, Dirt, and Craziness

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy! 

Today and tomorrow will feature things from Trans Iowa and how those things were featured on the blog. Then next week I'll delve into my reportage of the events here, and then we'll be done with Trans Iowa related subjects in this series, so if your are getting a little 'T.I. fatigue', I get it, but there is no denying the fact of Trans Iowa being a 'big deal' here on this blog.

Trans Iowa v2 recon was done partly with a 1996 Toyota Camry

Over the years of doing Trans Iowa I must have driven or ridden in a car for around 15,000 miles, or probably more. Most of that being on gravel roads and some Level B dirt. To do all of the recon and day-of event driving we had to use cars and trucks. This post will detail some of the vehicles which made an appearance on the blog.

A few were only referred to and never really shown fully here, like Jeff  Kerkove's Mazda 3, which did two complete passes of the first Trans Iowa course. That vehicle also was used for Trans Iowa v2 course recon. I did a bit of recon in a 1996 Toyota Camry for this version of Trans Iowa as well. Let me say here that compact cars do not make a good gravel recon vehicle! We had this confirmed later as David Pals and I used his Volkswagon Beetle on a sub-zero recon for Trans Iowa v4.

Trans Iowa v3 saw the debut of my 1991 Honda Civic hatchback wagon which I referred to as "The Dirty Blue Box". This vehicle was used for recon and the event for v3, some recon duties for v4, recon and the event for v5, and was then retired due to a failed distributor and struts which needed replacement. Those repairs being more expensive than the car was worth.

The Dirty Blue Box after getting stuck in a muddy Level B road during v4 recon.

I remember after v5 and having driven the entire weekend in that Honda. I was sooo beaten up due to the non-existent suspension and the poor ride quality of that car on gravel. Otherwise it was a nimble vehicle and amazingly adept off-pavement. I was able to push it out solo when I got stuck in a muddy Level B road once due to the lightweight nature of its construction.

I then used a 1999 Lexus as a recon and event day vehicle, one year overlapping with the Honda's service. During v4 it was the vehicle we stuck finishers in to warm them up. David Pals also used a couple of his vehicles for Trans Iowa, with the aforementioned Beetle and another Volkswagon SUV for v6.

After the Honda failed I purchased the "Truck With No Name" which had the longest run with Trans Iowa. From doing v6 recon all the way to recons for the last Trans Iowas, the "TWNN" was there. This truck was purchased with gravel travel in mind.

Although this truck was two-wheel drive, it got me through some dirt roads which I was amazed we were able to get through. Probably the most memorable moment for me in the TWNN was the half-mile drift on a muddy Level B road during T.I.v8 when I somehow managed to keep out of the ditches and thread the needle between passing cars while crossing a county blacktop.

While the TWNN served through the rest of Trans Iowa's run, we used several other vehicles through the last seven Trans Iowas which deserve mentioning, along with their owners. Most notably, Wally Kilburg and George Keslin, who used George's Ford F-150 4X4 several years in a row for recons and photography duties during several Trans Iowas.

George Keslin's F-150 immediately after fording a muddy Level B Road I thought we'd get stuck in!

Tony McGrane assessing his situation during T.I.v12

Tony McGrane always had a Ford F-150 4X4 at the ready to assist with event day at Trans Iowa also. His getting stuck in T.I.v12, and his subsequent spectacular unstucking of himself will always stand out as a chief memory for me at Trans Iowa. Tony probably used at least a couple different trucks during his volunteering days for Trans Iowa as he routinely upgraded vehicles. One note a lot of folks may not know, but Tony did the final recon to check cues for Trans Iowa v14 solo in his Ford. I'll always be grateful for that!

Matt Gersib's Subaru Forester was invaluable during the last few Trans Iowa events.

 The last vehicle and owner I will mention here is Matt Gersib's Subaru Forrester. If there ever was a chase vehicle suited for Trans Iowa, it was this one. Economical, nimble, but totally off-road capable, as evidenced when Matt drove Tama County's 270th Street Level B road. Yes! He drove through that section!

If you know this road, you will understand what a feat this was. It is something that scared the crap out of me when Matt decided to traverse this difficult, and most of the time, impassable road. But he made it and it remains as one of the best Trans Iowa ,moments I ever shared with anyone.

Of course, there are so many other vehicles and memories I could share, but these were the chief ones. I know I probably forgot someone or some cars or trucks, so if you have any chief memories which align with this post, let me know in the comments.