Land Cruiser Dreaming

It started early Friday morning around 5:00am, I had the truck packed and ready to go. I just needed my coffee and I would begin the 3 hour trip to the North Carolina Mountains where I would be joining 6 other land cruisers for the early group. This is one of the only east coast trips that I know of that is an expedition style trip where you wheel for three straight days and camp each night. I was taking my 1996 lx 450 which had some basic modifications but was virtually a stock truck with the running boards removed. I was confident that I would be ok and was reassured my some who had been planning the trip that I would be fine. They did say that the risk for body damage was small with the risk of pin striping which is a way of saying scratches from brush was high. So I arrive on a beautiful Friday morning at 10:00 at the meeting place and being to full up the tank for the weekend. Soon two other cruisers pulled up. They were the new FJ Cruisers , both silver and shinning in the North Carolina morning sun. Man those are too nice to dirty up I thought. But after doing a double take, one of them was more build than mine and sporting some tough tires and full skid plates. Cool. Soon we were making are way over to a near park for more room as the other cruisers started showing up. There was a loaded 60 with a 4 inch lift , then a stock 62 and a beautiful slightly modified fj 40. Then a couple of 80s zoomed in both 2ich lifts and slightly modified. We were all there and talked trucks. I pulled my spare from the underneath of my truck and stuffed it inside the back where it would be out of the way. I was ready ! We all cranked up the trucks and begin to roll up in to the mountains. The drive in was wonderful winding along side a creek , I some how could see us crossing it and getting off the payment. Then we came to that spot where it was time to air down the tires .....

More on the Adventure later ....