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BIG TEXAS HUMMER OUTING
Was held February 8th and 9th 1997
Spring Creek, just north of Houston TX
The first big TEXAS Hummer outing! If
you missed it then don't feel so bad because we sure took LOTS of pictures!!
Maybe next time...
[Preruns
and Photos] [Main
Event Pictures] [Patricks
Pit Pictures] [Sundays
Pictures]
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Eddie] [Back
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This BIG EVENT
started out with Lee from Dallas asking me on the internet Hummer Mailing
List when we were going out to the creek the next time.. Lee wanted to drive
from Dallas to Houston to 4 wheel with us.
Because we discussed it on the internet, many others showed an interest in
bringing thier Hummers to Houston and 4 wheel with us! The dealerships
wanted to come, and then AMGeneral decided to send someone...We had prizes
donated for our event! WOW..
Our regulars decided to be guides, and we set out to make maps of the trails
and explore as much as we could to make sure we were ready for the event. It
was also a great excuse to do allot of 4 wheeling every weekend preparing
for the big event without feeling guilty. We used GPS, Compasses, maps and
notebook computers to map the trails as accurately as we could..
On our first trip out Allan Madar treated his truck to a drink of water and
the motor broke. Next weekend Allan was still ready to go explore and we
braved and ice storm to make some maps, Allan even used his waders to cross
to make sure our truck didn't have any problems. Allan (even without his
Hummer) went out every weekend and did allot of preparation for the big
event.. Mikey Hughes, Patrick Scranton, Bob Kraitchar, and David Collie were
all important to the many pre-runs we did!
Many participants started arriving at the Hotel near the creek on Friday
night, and we drove into Humble Texas (not very far) to eat German
food...Bob K. picked the restaurant and it was delicious! We had the
opportunity to meet Lee Fikes and his group from Dallas and Ron Bohnhoff and
his wife Kathy from California.. We had some nice conversations after the
meal and stayed till the restaurant closed...
The Hotel gave us great parking spots and marked them off with cones, it was
great seeing all the Hummers parked all in a row! We had a total of 15
Hummers, 1 jeep, 1 Landcruiser, and a Nissan 4x4... We had several folks
without Hummers show up just to ride along.. We had two Hummers from CA, 1
from NM, and the rest from Texas...We had MANY that called or emailed that
they would come but many of them were not able to make it. Some had broken
trucks or trucks apart being modified, some caught the flu, at least two
didn't have their new 97 Hummers yet... BUT even with less trucks than we
expected, we still had a blast!
SATURDAY
Many were up EARLY! When I made it to the parking lot there were groups
standing around the trucks talking ready to go! I assigned numbers to the
trucks with white shoe polish and gave everyone a list of the other trucks
so they could tell who was who while on the trails. Allan Madar driving the
Ron Carter (dealership) Hummer lead the first group out around 9AM while I
got the second group together and headed out around 10:30AM...
Group one went in at the Treshwig entrance by the shooting range, ran the
high trail to the burned out bridge and played a while at Patricks Pit. The
Pit caused a near turnover of Mikeys Jeep and they had to get a winch cable
on the rear to prevent a problem. When the Ron Carter Hummer tried the pit
they got stuck also but with no danger of a turnover, they were pulled out
through the bottom of the Pit. They crossed the creek to the burned out
bridge beach and tried to follow Mikeys jeep across the deep creek, Mikeys
jeep sucked some water and stalled (gas engine, no problem). Allan was
driving the Ron Carter Hummer and as he pulled up to the edge of the creek
to pull Mikey out they sunk down into the sand to the frame sticking the
Hummer solidly. Trying the winch to rescue Mikey and the winch wouldn't
work, Lee from Dallas with the military Humvee tried his winch and it
powered out but not in..!!! ARGH! Had to use a Bob K.'s winch to get the
Hummer and Jeep unstuck.
Group two went in at the main entrance and proceeded directly to the school
beach, the creek was a little high so we decided to head through the swamp
and see if we could link up with the first group... Heading down the high
trail looking for the other group we ran across a small group of 4 wheelers
(little quadratracks) and I asked them if they have seen any Hummers ahead.
They said, "yeah, the Hummers are up there and those guys are CRAZY!" he
went on to say "those are some BAD men in those Hummers" (that means
good)...! We headed on looking for the other group and we met them head-on
at the mud pit.. We stopped to watch LEE and AUGGIE get their trucks
hopelessly stuck... Everyone parked their truck and got out to watch...
Myself and Gerald Luiz used our winches to pull them out, thanks to Ron
Bohnhoff for some added muscle...
In the mud pit, the Ron Carter Hummer gets stuck right in the deep mush, I
don't know if Allan or Auggie were driving but I do remember Allan standing
on the roofrack with his video camera and Auggie slogging through waist deep
mud...Lee has the HUMVEE with front and rear lockers and dove right into the
mud, he maneuvered his way out of the first hole and landed in the second
bigger mud hole, when he landed he popped the bead off his tire and released
all the air, now he was really stuck! I winched him out but it peeled his
flat tire right off the rim and left it in the mud bog.. The first thing
that I saw Lee do when he stepped out of his crippled truck was to take some
photos while laughing! My wife was in the crowd that was watching the fun
and she told me later that she was worried that they wouldn't be able to get
the tow truck out to rescue Lee (my wife doesn't offroad much)..She was
amazed when Lee's crew jumped out with air tools and changed the tire in
just a few minutes.. Gerald did some fancy winch maneuvers to extract the
Ron Carter Hummer and we were all on our way again.. Since Auggie was wet
and muddy to the waist he was going to return to the hotel and some others
wanted to get sandwiches or lunch, I led a group down to the Burned bridge
beach to socialize and Allan led some back to civilization. We took pictures
and talked and afterward we explored a couple of small trails before we
called it a day. And the convoy back to the hotel had 14 or 15 Hummers, it
was a sight to see! At every stop light, photographers would jump out of
Hummers to take pictures of them all in a row! We even have pictures of guys
taking pictures of Hummers.. ha ha...
Saturday night we had BBQ and returned to the hotel meeting room where Allan
had set up a projector.. We spent 3 and 1/2 hours giving away the prizes and
watching all the video and computer still pictures that we took that day..
Prizes were donated by Ron Carter Hummer, Overseas Motors, AMGeneral,
Stinger, Piping Products Inc, and River Oaks Car Stereo! (hope I didn't
forget anyone)....
SUNDAY
Sunday morning many of the participants had to head for home, we had some
nice chats in the parking lot of the hotel... I lead a small group out at
about 10AM... Bob K, Gerald Luiz, Mikey, and myself... Keri and Lucy went to
breakfast and said they would catch up with us but we never saw them
again...must a been a good breakfast... Sunday we had Scott McGregor the
PRO-Photographer with us and also Albert (friend of Geralds) and Allan Madar
armed with video cameras! We entered the main entrance and went to the
school beach, the water level in the creek was much lower and safer than the
day before... We forded the creek after Allan Madar put on his waders and
scouted the creek bottom and water depth for us.. We played a while on the
dunes and made a couple more creek crossings with Allans help.. (we now call
him wader boy)... I think the water depth surprised Gerald in his plum 95
opentop because he was joking about his toilet paper he kept under his seat
getting all wet, other than that he looked like he enjoyed it!... We went on
through the woods and Bob K. got his 1994 white wagon tangled with a small
tree and cracked the hood and mangled his front side marker light... We
stopped to play in an area called the swamp, there are a couple of DEEP mud
holes that try to high center the Hummers when driving out, it did give me
the opportunity to experiment with the new Super Swamper tires I installed
two weeks ago. Bob K. and I drove through the holes several times and we
both bent our rear license plates all up, I broke my rear plate light also
because the mud holes were so deep we slammed our rear bumpers on hard dirt
when our rear tires dropped down in the holes.. We proceeded to the mud pit
and we all avoided the nastiest areas except BOB, he has to turn every
moment into a barrel of fun! He drove into the goo and had to winch himself
out.. From there we went to Patricks Pit to play and even the conservative
driver Gerald decided to try going down in the pit! He told me he normally
wouldn't drive down into something like that but we made it look like so
much fun he had to try.. After going down I decided to try to drive back up
like very few had done before me.. Gerald said he would spot for me,
GREAT... When I got into the pit and was heading for the top, Gerald was so
preoccupied with taking my picture he was not directing me at all then SLAM!
I smacked the right front fender into the had packed sand wall, it was a
VERY abrupt stop! I bent my new brushguard, cracked my hood, and must have
broken the fuel sending unit because now I have a full tank (ha ha)... I
backed up to try again and this time Gerald was paying attention and
directed me right up the pit wall.. Bob K. also barreled right on up without
Geralds expert guidance, in fact Gerald positioned himself to give
directions to Bob but just as Geralds says "SLOW" Gerald had to dive out of
the way as BOB and his white Hummer wagon flies right on up the pit wall
gracefully!!! LOOK OUT!!...
We took allot of pictures and met allot of people and ate allot of food and
I saw allot of great things I want to do to or add to my truck We had men,
women, children and dogs, and they all seemed to have a blast! Despite the
cracked hood and bent brushguard I had a great time, now I need about two
weeks of sleep...
List of
participants
- Eddie Runner 1994 Green Opentop
(Houston TX)
- Bob Kraitchar 1994 White Wagon
w/big brushguard (Freindswood TX)
- Allan Madar 1993 Red Wagon
(Houston, TX)
- Patrick Scranton 1996 White Opentop
turbodiesel (Houston TX)
- Mikey Hughes Silver Jeep w/33s and
lockers (Houston TX)
- Auggie 1996 Tan Wagon (Ron Carter
Hummer) (Alvin TX)
- Jim & Lisa Feine 1995 Black Wagon
w/Stinger Brushguard (Bellaire TX)
- David Collie 1992 Toyota
Landcruiser (turbodiesel!) (Houston TX)
- Ron & Kathy Bohnhoff 1995 White
Wagon (AM General) (CA)
- Ross Mabey 1996 Red Wagon (Overseas
Motors) (Dallas TX)
- Dick Blanchard 1996 Black wagon
(Lone Star Hummer) (San Antonio TX)
- Lee Fikes TAN VEE highly modified
HUMVEE (Dallas TX)
- Gerald Luiz 1995 Plum (b) opentop
(CA)
- Keri Quinn 1994 Green Opentop
(Lucy) (Dallas TX)
- John & Richard Key 1995 Green Wagon
(Big Spring TX)
- Ronny Finkelman 1995 Plum opentop
(Houston TX)
- Joe Henderson 1996 Tan Opentop (New
Mexico)
- Von Faulkner 1997 Red opentop with
aftermarket hard wagon extension (San Antonio)
- Bill Grant and friend Matt Nissan
4X4 (Dallas TX)
- Heath Deikert his dads red honda
(College Station TX)
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