My Family Jeep

The route is set, hotels are booked and two weeks from now Shane and I will be in our red Jeep heading west to Vegas. We are making a detour along the way to drive part of the Trail of the Ancients, then we’re going to spend a day at Monument Valley, one night in Page and then on to Vegas! We’re staying a couple of nights at New York New York in a spa suite then our final night will be spent the other end of the strip in Circus Circus. I’m really looking forward to seeing New York New York. The last time I was in Vegas was mid 90’s and NY NY was still in the process of being built, we had a great view of the construction from our room at Excalibur.

I finally broke down and ordered Rain Gear for the Jeep this week and we’re expecting it any day now. I also ordered the new software for my Magellan Crossover GPS and that arrived today. So far so good, everything is falling into place and we are ready to go.

I was looking for a windjammer alternative for our upcoming trip and after getting discouraged thought about ordering a second Spider Web and running it from the rollbar down the back of the seats. Turns out the people over at Spider Web have already come up with a better option, only problem is they are only giving a sneak peak and it hasn’t been released yet. Have a look at SW3 over on their website. Coming soon doesn’t help me though unless it is ready to ship in the next week. Maybe if I beg I can get one early. What better test for it that a 4000 mile road trip through the desert.

My brilliant as always husband ran over his four week old laptop with the Jeep a couple of days ago. I’m very happy that the laptop survived but he killed my favorite Samsonite laptop bag, that bag has been half way around the world, had survived both American Airlines and Qantas checked baggage consistently over a period of five years. It was no match for 4,600 pounds of steel. You can read about the incident on Shane’s blog.

It’s been over 48 hours now and Jeep Parts 4 Less has not even responded to my request. Fortunately Bestop has better customer service. I phoned them and the missing parts will be here tomorrow. It annoys me that I had to go look up Bestop. It was obvious the box had been opened and re-taped before it was delivered to me. If the box had been opened you’d think they would check to make sure all the parts were included. Needless to say they will not be getting any more of my business.

Edited to add: It has now been one week and I have sent two requests to Jeep Parts 4 Less and they never bothered to contact me. Bestop customer service was fantastic and had the parts to me when promised.