Illustration Friday: Broken

I spent the past weekend in Moab Utah driving around on jeep trails. I took my sketchbook and some watercolors thinking I might draw something while I was there, but it was a very bumpy road. Very bumpy! I don't think you would have liked the results. I drew this little sketch when I got back.

We had a few minor breakdowns during the trip. The first day, one Jeep broke a long-arm strut. We strapped it back on and hobbled back to town, found some guy with a welder, fixed it and were ready to go again the next day. At the beginning of the next day, one guy blew a power steering hose. While we waited for him, we noticed a broken shock on the same Jeep that broke the day before. (the photo of us looking under the Jeep) Both of them were fixed pretty quickly on the trail and we were back on our way. About halfway through the trail, we were going up an obstacle when the power-steering hose guy broke one of his torsion bars. These vehicles have so much power it just twisted it right off. No problem, we would just take it off, throw it in the back of the truck and drive carefully the rest of the way. Not five minutes later, my brother was going up the same obstacle when his driveline blew. This was bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, miles from any paved road. It meant that he would have to get back to town in two-wheel drive--a nearly impossible task for the terrain we were in. It would require the the help of the other jeeps to tow and the use of winches. Luckily, one guy happened to bring an extra u-joint and another guy had some spare brackets and we were able to rebuild the driveline in the middle of the desert on the side of a mountian. Good thing we had tools. A great time for lunch. On Saturday we drove for about 7 hours and covered only 16 miles of trail. We had a blast even with the breakdowns. I can't wait to go do it again sometime. With all the breakdowns, it seemed appropriate to draw something about this trip. It somehow fit the topic.
I spent the past weekend in Moab Utah driving around on jeep trails. I took my sketchbook and some watercolors thinking I might draw something while I was there, but it was a very bumpy road. Very bumpy! (video) I don't think you would have liked the results. I drew this little sketch when I got back.

We had a few minor breakdowns during the trip. The first day, one Jeep broke a long-arm strut. We strapped it back on and hobbled back to town, found some guy with a welder, fixed it and were ready to go again the next day. At the beginning of the next day, one guy blew a power steering hose. While we waited for him, we noticed a broken shock on the same Jeep that broke the day before. (the photo of us looking under the Jeep) Both of them were fixed pretty quickly on the trail and we were back on our way. About halfway through the trail, we were going up an obstacle when the power-steering hose guy broke one of his torsion bars. These vehicles have so much power it just twisted it right off. No problem, we would just take it off, throw it in the back of the truck and drive carefully the rest of the way. Not five minutes later, my brother was going up the same obstacle when his driveline blew. This was bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, miles from any paved road. It meant that he would have to get back to town in two-wheel drive--a nearly impossible task for the terrain we were in. It would require the the help of the other jeeps to tow and the use of winches. Luckily, one guy happened to bring an extra u-joint and another guy had some spare brackets and we were able to rebuild the driveline in the middle of the desert on the side of a mountian. Good thing we had tools. A great time for lunch. On Saturday we drove for about 7 hours and covered only 16 miles of trail. We had a blast even with the breakdowns. I can't wait to go do it again sometime. With all the breakdowns, it seemed appropriate to draw something about this trip. It somehow fit the topic.