We Are Jeep People Now

Last year, Evans bought a jeep. It is a 1978 CJ-7. We had to go home unexpectedly right after he bought it, so our first week here was the first time I have ridden in it. You have to throw your leg up and over to get in then haul yourself into the seat. The front seats have lap belts only. The back seat….well good luck in the back seat. We drove it thirty miles to Gunnison to remove the hardtop. All our vehicles are four-wheel drive, but there is a difference in a Nashville four-wheel drive and a 1978 Jeep. Percy and I “helped” Evans get the top and doors off. Then we drove home, no doors, no roof. It was fun, sunny, and more than a little windy.

A few days later, we took the Jeep up to Schofield Pass.  That is a narrow, rocky, four-wheel-drive-only mountain road. Last year it was totally impassable due to an avalanche.  About two-thirds of the way up, I remembered that Evans had mentioned getting new tires.  I realized he had not gotten new tires.  Having had a flat tire on the truck last year, I was not at all certain we would make it home with all four of these older, probably slightly dry-rotted tires intact.  We did.

The next day we took it to Gunnison for new tires.  I am very happy that these tires are thicker, wider, taller, and designed for mountain roads.  I will always be a little afraid of hurtling to my death on a narrow mountain road, but at least now I am pretty sure the tires will not be the cause.  

For the last several days, whenever Evans stopped at a stop sign or slowed down, it died.  He was excited to have an older model Jeep that he could work on himself.  He tried fuel additive. Then he looked up online and found that 1978 CJ-7s have a unique carburetor issue that he should be able to fix himself.  While doing whatever it said, he realized that one of the bolts that held the carburetor in place was missing. (So glad I did not know that on our way up to Schofield Pass.) So now he is under the hood doing something with bolts to lock the carburetor into place.  

It rides rough, although better with the new tires. There is no radio, which is just as well because we would never be able to hear a radio over the wind noise. It is a three-speed, which is fine.  I learned to drive on a three-speed.  Mine was in the column. This one is on the floor. 

It is filthy. Even if I wipe down the seats and every other surface, five minutes on an unpaved road has them covered in fine Colorado dust again.  I choose to see that as part of the charm.   Evans came in from fishing the other day where he had driven the Jeep.  The shirt he was wearing was so dirty that I don’t think it will ever come clean.  You can guess how much he cares. 

We bought a short lead and a harness to attach to Percy when he rides in the Jeep.  He is an old man now, but when he was younger, he jumped out the window of my mother’s car at an intersection so I know how he thinks. The floor is sheet metal, so I bought a Frozen fleece blanket on clearance at Walmart for seven dollars and made it into a dog bed that fits between the seats.  He loves to stand on the backseat with his front feet on the side panels.  That is fine when we are on a mountain road, but he has to stay on his bed with my hand on him when we are on the highway.  

It is so much more than a car.  It is a toy, a project, and a conversation starter.  I have learned there is a special hand signal greeting between owners of CJ-7s.  Who knew?  Ours is bright orange (with some interesting areas of black). Sadly, it is more of a Bronco orange than a Tennessee Orange, but that works out here.  I expect by the end of the summer we will know all the other CJ-something owners in town.  I am excited to be Jeep people now.