Guten Abend, hikers!

Imagine an old car, an old Jeep, if you feel.  Now imagine rolling easily down a backwoods Jeep trail in that trusty old Jeep. There’s a gentle breeze, the birds are singing in the trees and the forest is as beautiful as you’ve ever seen it.

Now, imagine hitting a bump too hard, and somehow, in all that jostling around, your knee bumps the shift lever into the REVERSE position. In one earsplitting, metallic yelp, your transmission almost tears itself apart. But, thanks to a faithful schedule of preventive maintenance, you manage to it back into first before any serious harm is done.

Can you picture that, hikers? 

Well, that I’m that transmission, and it feels really good to be back in a forward gear.

Some quick background - As you know, I decided to take several days off over Christmas.  I was anxious to see my loved ones and to celebrate the holidays with them.  It seemed so simple then.  But it wasn’t. 

Before I took the decision to get some Christmas R&R, one of the many voices in my head urged me to stay on the trail.  The transmission was as perfectly engaged and running as the day it left the factory.  Its bipedal transfer case ran is if on rails and the engine was purring like a kitten.  You don’t interrupt your mojo when it’s workin,’ said the voice.  I tuned it out.

What I didn’t see coming was that once I was home for a day or two, the trail would begin to re-occupy virtually all of my thoughts.  I didn’t realize it as it was happening, but I’m pretty sure everyone around me did.  I felt alien and antsy. I slept poorly.  I felt as out of place as a turd on a wedding cake.

And then, “Bam!” I’m back to pushing the shift lever forward.  I’m happy to report that after doing a Texas two-step on the clutch pedal – and that took some time - I have managed to get the rig back in its unstoppable forward gears. 

Hikers, it’s an old transmission.  The kind made before they fully perfected the neutral gear, I guess. Although it’s more reliable than the new ones they make these days, the shifting of it occasionally requires more sensitivity than I can muster.  Like with any old four-wheel drive, there’s always something to work on.  I guess I ought to get to work on that sensitivity sensor. 

“And that’s all I have to say about that.” – Forrest Gorp

Cheers – and Happy New Year from the Florida Trail ! – Mike.

PS – Happy Birthday to my climbing and scuba buddy-girl, Nancy Cline.  Some people actually do get better with age.  Why did it have to be her?