For the past few years we have made the trip to Ouray Colorado for FJ Summit or to be near the area to catch a bit of “Summit”. FJ Summit is an annual event that brings in 300+ Toyota trucks to a little town in the middle of the San Juan Mountains of Colorado with some of the best mountain pass roads in the United States.
This year… Complete madness at work had left me in a position where I was not sure I could plan a trip to the grand scale of years past. Adding to the confusion… My kids were not cooperating either. One kid was graduating High School and the other had a social agenda that was hard pressed to spend time with “Dear ole Dad”.
Never fear… A trip was going to happen whether I showed up for not! Other Trail Team trip members were making sure that something was going to happen this summer. Three families were making plans with our without me being along for the ride. When the smoke cleared… Two Trail Team Dad’s, Don and Jake, had grabbed their daughters and started a trip to Ouray by way of the Rimrocker trail in Moab Utah. If I hustled… I could meet up with them in Ouray for a long weekend of camping pre-FJ Summit.
When the time came to take flight and catch up with the others out in Colorado… I was lucky enough to have my newly graduated Daughter along for the trip. We headed out early from Central Illinois to make the rendezvous for camping near Ouray. Pekin to Denver is a 14 hour trip. Ouray is another 4 hours past that. We stopped in Denver after the first day of driving.
There were a 100 different combinations of drivers, co-pilots and kids that could have shown up this year to Colorado. Ironically… The other trucks, like me, had all come in 4Runners with their daughters. The trip could have just as well been 4 dads, 4 kids and 4 4runners… On the 14 hour ride out to meet up with Jake and Don… It started to fall into place. Three Dads… Three Daughters…. And Three 4Runners. Serendipity? Kizmit? Who knows. But it was a great trip vibe starting and a great tag for Instagram.
#3dads3daughters34runners
Stay tuned… More to come about this trip!
