Buttercup

This is a story about John and his dune buggy.   We used to hook up Betsy the little RV with the dune buggy and head a few hours from us to a place called Little Sahara.  It had some decent sand dunes for Oklahoma.  We looked forward to it very much and had a lot of fun when we went there.

Many a time the dune buggy broke down.  Okay, too many times to count.  So many times we just pretty much expected it.  And it was cool.  We rode in it until it didn't go anymore, hoped someone would tow us in, and proceed to chill and have a good time for the rest of the weekend.

Our dune buggy was a long travel type buggy.  I didn't know what the difference was then, I know now.  There are two types mostly seen at those sand dunes.  The long travel and the jumpers.  The long travel was built for speed.  The jumpers were made to, you guessed it, jump.

So although we had a long travel type, the one made for speed, that didn't stop John from trying to jump stuff.  Noooo...  that wouldn't be 'normal'.   I have a picture of him flying across the sand dunes in freezing cold weather and a huge smile of complete joy on his face.

So we went on a weekend like usual.  This time, though, my little sister and her boyfriend were to meet us there.  Her boyfriend had a jumper type buggy.  It was fun to ride with other people. 

Buttercup is the name of the biggest dune at Little Sahara.  And John was determined to jump it.  We both had 5 point harness seat belts strapping us in and a roll cage, so what's the worse that could happen, right?   Little sister's boyfriend was going to be at the top of Buttercup and signal to us that it was clear for us to jump.

Let me pre-face this by saying, John didn't have a medium foot on the gas pedal.. it was either pedal down or brake.  So, of course, Buttercup could be done with no less than full throttle foot to the floor, balls out, flying!!   We got a good  ways back and he just put the pedal to the floor and we were off.  Across the dunes, sand in our face, yelling, climbing the steep hill, yelling, cresting the peak and WHOOOOOOSSSHHHHH!!!!!!    Airborne!!!    Both of us yelling to the top of our lungs!    It was like Thelma and Louise at the end when her T-Bird was flying, that's what it felt like.  Yelling the whole time, and BOOM, we hit the sand.  A weird noise.  Rolling down the hill.   Yelling.   No power.  Still rolling down the hill.  We were still yelling.  Still rolling.  Until finally the buggy stopped. 

After a bit the yelling stopped and our breathes were caught, we surveyed the damage.  Looking behind us we could see a trail of stripped wires in our wake.  Apparently when we hit the sand the distributor cap jumped up and caught all kinds of wires and stripped them and left a trail for Hansel and Gretel.   Honestly, we didn't care.  It was the most epic jumps of all jumps. 

Later on, the little sister's boyfriend said he had never seen a jump that awesome, it was supreme.  All in a buggy that wasn't made for jumping.  What did they know?  haha

*John taking a friend out..  poor fella*



#Camping  #Stories  #John