My Family Jeep

A comment left for me last night reminded me that my poor Jeep blog has been very neglected since our last move. No surprise to those that know us but we have been on the move again. We are once again back in Bentonville and have no idea how long we will be here this time.

My poor Jeep is sitting in my parents driveway in Memphis covered for now, we didn’t want to bring both cars until we knew exactly how long we were here for. The current plan is that we might go and pick her up at the end of January, I miss her!!

Come summer I will be back to posting full force and we are already trying to decide where our next road trip will take us. There are even talks that our Jeep is going to be hooked up to the back of an RV!

I think I just experienced the fastest month in history. It turned out to be a month of two’s. Two sick kids, two sick adults, two moves, two cars breaking down and two trips to Memphis and one cabin being rented. Shane ended his contract in Bentonville and we moved out of both the apartment and the cabin and are temporarily in Memphis.

Not long after we got back from Vegas our Yukon, who has serious jealousy problems about no longer being the one and only, broke down when I was out with the kids. When I would put my foot on the gas the ABS kicked in and was bringing the car to a halt. First I called Shane, then AAA and then Shane again to get him to come and get us. This was just after we had packed the car to take things home to Harrison the next day. Shane had to run home, unpack the Jeep, then come and get us. We had already taken our second car seats home the previous weekend so before the Yukon could be towed I had to take both of the kids car seats out. I finally found out what it takes to get strange looks in Arkansas. Stand in front of a Walmart with two kids and two car seats. Anyway, our lovely Yukon kicked the ABS in for the tow truck driver but would not repeat the fault for the service guys. Now our lovely Yukon has an electrical problem and the buttons that control seat position have reversed themselves.

Our next breakdown was in Conway Arkansas the very next weekend. We brought our daughter to Memphis to spend a week with my parents and on the way back to Bentonville stopped at a gas station in Conway to pick up a bottle of water so I could make Ethan a bottle. Shane goes in, Shane comes out and the car won’t start, battery was dead. Yet another call to the AAA and a few hours later we were finally on our way again.

The next weekend we moved out of the apartment in Bentonville and the following weekend we moved out of our cabin in Harrison. The cabin is rented out right now and my parents will be retiring there in just over a year. We love our little log cabin but the reality is that 1300 sq ft and two bedrooms isn’t big enough for four especially when our little guy is so against sleep. We will be building a house in Harrison that is better suited to us. Right now we are in Memphis helping my parents get their house ready to sell and trying to decide where to spend the winter.

Last week the Jeep ended up in the shop due to a shot battery harness and battery. Thank goodness for factory warranty!

That is a brief version of the past month. We have hardly had time to sit down. Moving out of one house is bad enough but moving out of two is a pain in the rear. All our furniture is in storage in Harrison, only computers, clothes and a few toys moved with us. Thank goodness for furnished apartments!

Our next door neighbors Ken and Mary Ann Busam, both talented artists, have recently opened a store at Cafe Press called Maryken Art. There are many items depicting Freedom available through the Cafe Press store. You can also purchase a signed limited edition lithograph through Art of the Ozarks.

In our haste to get out of NY NY we left the insert to our Cloverpatch Window Roll behind. This is by far our favorite Jeep accessory and we consider it a must have. For the non Jeep readers and the Jeep readers who haven’t heard of it the Cloverpatch is four heavy sheets of felt that is secured at the top, you place a window between each layer, roll it up, velcro it, put it in a small bag and then snap it into place between the roll bars. We have used it so much this summer, the windows on the soft top are so easy to get scratched and take up so much space when they aren’t in the roll. We used to leave the windows behind and were caught out in the rain without them a few times. With the Cloverpatch they were always right there when we needed them.

I could blame Shane for this, I was in charge of checking out, he was in charge of putting the top up but even I am not that mean. Shane calls me the Tetris Queen and packing the Jeep was always my job so it could be my fault as well (yeah right). All we could think about was beer, lunch and of course more beer. If the Cloverpatch was the only thing we lost I think we did pretty darn good.

For Jeep enthusiasts interested in the Cloverpatch, we bought ours from All Things Jeep

The window roll is the small round cydrical bag strapped across the back.