Travelogue

Mojave 4WD CourseIt was quite a contrast coming from Carmel to the small desert town of Mojave, where we would partake in a 2-day 4WD off-roading class.

There’s not much to see and do in Mojave. The whole town is pretty much based around the 3,300-acre Mojave Air and Space Port, a world-renowned flight research centering, hosting the latest and most advanced aeronautical designs. It is the leading aerospace test center for commercial operations in North America.

It was in this facility that our class would start at 7:30 am the next morning.

Excited HerbBesides being a real desert, Mojave was also a bit of a food desert, and since Herb did not take my advice of buying a sandwich in Paso Robles, we found ourselves in a gas station Subway ordering multiple sandwiches to get us through tonight and the next day. I hoped this was a learning experience for Herb, but I doubt it..

I tried not to gloat too much as I ate my delicious leftovers from Paso Robles - pasta with veal, duck, beef, chicken. It was very delicious.

Hill ChallengeWe then checked into our home for 3 nights - the Best Western Desert Winds. There probably couldn’t have been a greater contrast to our previous stay in Carmel.

However, we are very flexible, so we placed our beach chairs outside our room, and used the room’s garbage can flipped upside down as a table to hold our cheese and crackers.

The BeastFrom our perch on the second floor, we peered down at what looked like a pretty nice hot tub beside the pool, but decided to skip that for tonight. I didn’t have the energy or lack of dignity to squeeze into my “comp” suit tonight. Maybe tomorrow night.

Then the next morning at 7:30 on the dot, we arrived at our classroom in the Mojave Air and Space Port. Before going inside, one of the instructors inspected our vehicle and made sure we had all the required safety and recovery equipment.

How far can we tip?The course was to be given by a well-acclaimed organization called Badlands Off-Road Adventures, whose mission was to provide training clinics in which inexperienced SUV & 4-Wheel Drive (4WD) owners gain expertise required to safely and confidently negotiate their vehicle off-road.

It was billed as a beginner course, so I was a little concerned that we might be wasting our money, because Herb has quite a bit of off-roading experience, but this is the class they suggest you start with.

Well, boy was I wrong. When we showed up for the first morning of class, we were surprised to find that the group consisted of 10 women and 5 men.

Scouting out our lineTwo of the women were a little older than us and much more badass. The 75-year-old one (whose name was Velvet) had a $100K Ford Raptor and thought that anything less than Moab slickock was no fun. Also, there was a group of four women from LA with three very tricked out four-wheel drive vehicles and quite capable and confident. They were moms that met at a fitness center and decided they deserved a Mom's weekend in Mojave.

Then there was a couple (plus a dog) with a 13,000 lb. brandy-new diesel truck with a pop-up camper on top, which we nicknamed "the Beast."

They had just purchased it and never taken it off road before. They planned to live in it for 2 years while their new home was being built.

Not sure what Herb is doing?The first morning consisted of four hours of classroom review, which involved a lot of technical talk about things like transmissions and the engaging and disengaging of the differential, which caused me to totally zone out. However, Herb seemed to be learning something, so that was good.

After lunch, we drove to the Jawbone Canyon OHV Area where we did some practice loops on various terrain, including rocks, gullies, hills, etc.

Then we moved on to a more challenging test - practicing driving about three quarters of the way up a very steep hill and then backing back down it. Herb handled it like a champ. Each group got to do it twice so they could switch drivers if they wanted to. I decided it was best if I let Herb do it twice.

Instructor guiding usIt was pretty terrifying for some of the others in the group. This was not a “beginner” type of challenge. The poor woman in the large pickup truck with camper on top (which was to be their home for the next 2 years), was brave enough to give it a try. She told us later that she had never experienced such pains in her stomach before. I do give her credit though for trying it. I felt like a weenie, but a weenie without stomach pains.

Other fun things that we did that day was see how far we could tilt our vehicle by placing the right side of the truck on a hill. I think we tilted about 30 degrees. It did feel like we could tip over.

Herb did seem to be learning a lot, and I too was learning things, such as “I don’t want to be in the vehicle when it is tilting 30 degrees.”

This is funAt the end of that day’s adventures, we regrouped back at the Jawbone Visitor Center where Herb noticed that we had a stick jutting out from the sidewall of our front passenger side tire, which was causing a slow leak. With the help of the instructors, and boy scout Herb having the proper tire repair stuff, we managed to put a plug in that got us back to our hotel and would even get us through the rest of our trip.

Even worse than the flat tire was finding out that the “good” Thai restaurant in town was closed on Saturdays because their usual clientele were workers who were only in town on weekdays. Now what?

Fortunately we had some backpacking meals in the truck so Herb and I enjoyed a wonderful fettuccine and chicken meal out of a bag in our room. I am one lucky gal.

The next day we awoke to two bits of good news: our tire was holding air and we were able to find a bit of fruit in our hotel breakfast bar.

Tipping? Fortified (kind of), we headed back up to Jawbone Visitor Center to meet up with the gang again. The four moms from LA had only signed up for the first day of class so we were down to 11 people.

We went first to the Jawbone OHV area first and practiced placing our front and back tires on a series of boards - easier said then done. Herb, however, did very well. I think he was becoming the teacher's pet.

After a little more practice of various skills we headed up the highway to the El Paso Mountain area where we navigated through some pretty challenging terrain including rocky terrain, deep gullies, and very narrow canyons where the sides of our vehicle were scraping.

Driver relaxingWe already have so many scratches on our truck from previous off-roading adventures, but I don't think the couple with the shiny new 13,000 lb truck (which was going to double as their home) were particularly thrilled.

Somewhere along the line we lost Velvet, who decided to cut out early - not sure why. I wish I had gotten her email, because she was one cool lady.

Our final lesson was practicing recovering a vehicle that was stuck in the sand. Unbeknownst to them, the instructors tried to get the couple with "the Beast" into a "stuck" situation, but when they realized what was happening, they politely declined. They managed to get one of the younger couples in a Rubicon to volunteer to be the victim.

Spotter relaxingThen we watched as one end of a "snatch strap" was attached to the front of the "stuck" vehicle and the other end to a hook on the rear of the "rescue" vehicle. Using radios to communicate, on the count of 1, 2, 3 the rescue vehicle accelerated full speed, taking up the slack on the snatch strap, stretching, and magically and seemingly effortlessly, yanking the stuck vehicle out of its predicament. Wow, it's amazing what a giant bungee cord can do.

This was a good skill that I hoped to never have to use.

Around 3:30 or so we made it back out to the area to inflate our tires again, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways.

We had a very nice evening in Mojave - really good food Mojave Thai cuisine, followed by a soak in the motel hot tub.

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