Sunday night (August 26) my friend Paul Elbiser was nice enough to put me up at his house for the night (thanks Paul), which also allowed me to spend a bit of time catching up on email and BRC business related work on Monday morning.
Monday afternoon (August 27), I headed up to Englewood, OH to meet up with the Muddy Buddys Jeep Wrangler Club on Monday evening. This group has it going on with around 50 different event activities a year, each hosted by a different business sponsor. They are pretty creative with their events that range all the way from a fundraiser rodeo type event at a local Church to full-on trail rides, unfortunately, often out of state since there is very little full-size OHV opportunity in Ohio for them. But they are working on it. It is pretty amazing to me the affiliations they have developed around the country with other groups and extensions of their club in many other states. Hopefully, I can meet with some of them as well as I continue around the states on the Tour.
I appreciated the discussion and their hospitality. (Thanks for the awesome dinner guys!) They were straight up about their concerns on lands management and I did hear some frustration there. What I appreciated most is these guys have a mission with no grass growing under their feet. To that end they were frank, very constructive, and willing to help in their suggestions for how BRC could better serve, and I can tell you I will definitely be circling back around with them after the ride. This is what this ride is about.
Check them out at http://www.muddybuddys.net/main.htm
Since there isn't enough room in the caption area, I would like to point out who is around the table with me in the picture accompanying this post. Circling around the table starting to my left in the picture (stage left/your right then clockwise--hope I get it right) is Lester Snodgrass (Treasurer- Mr. Break it), Kerry Hughs (member), Kenneth Tudor (member and board member of Ohio Motorized Trail Assoc.), Rob Eldridge (President- Mr. T), and Greg Worth (Board Member- Hoser). Great bunch and let's not forget my photographer who wasn't in the picture, Lisa Olwing, and her other half, James Olwin, both of whom added an interesting perspective to the discussions as fairly new members to the club.
