The four-wheeling community is known for its close camaraderie and sense of family, and that's what makes it what it is-the close friendships and the desire to help one another, especially on the trail or fixing up your buddy's rig the night before an event. Sure, many of these relationships belong only to your close circle of friends or maybe even your club. But on a wider note, we've seen through the years how perfect strangers are willing to help regardless of the situation, as long as it involves four-wheeling. That's one of the reasons we love the Ultimate Adventure: being out with new people with the right attitude who love to wheel and have fun.
With that in mind, we bring to you the culmination of many months of hard work and extreme effort, the hard-hitting Ultimate Adventure coverage. No, we're not tooting our own horn here, even though months of late nights and weekends were lost to the cause. No, it's more the result of all the other participants that went on the trip, as well as the host clubs, off-road parks, and people along the way that make this trip what it is, and without them it just wouldn't be the same. These people are all readers, from the park owners to the gas-station jockeys who filled our dry tanks. And without exception, every person we met on the trip seemed to enjoy the event as much as we did.
Regardless of how we present the coverage, it's impossible to thank everyone we came in contact with who helped before, during, and after the event. But here's a weak attempt to simply say thanks to all of those directly involved and those on the periphery, even to those that worked behind the scenes and that we never met or realized their contribution to the cause. And yes, a few names are also in order for help on the trip, even though you may read them again in the epic Fred Williams wrote detailing the Ultimate Adventure.
First, of course, is my staff of David Kennedy, Jerrod Jones, Fred Williams, and Alan Huber, who for some strange reason support and put up with me through all my rantings and ravings both in the office and on the road. Then there was Keith Bailey for loaning me his truck more than once, Leah Light for organizing the registration and helping Trent McGee with my embarrassing surprise birthday extravaganza, Sam Gillis for feeding the masses in the middle of the night, Tom Boyd for being Tom Boyd, Tim Hardy for showing up late, Jeff Nasi for erasing my dents in the Avalanche, Mike Harrington and his band of brothers Barry, Mark, Con, and Matt for videotaping us at our worst, Corbin Cowan and Aaron James for providing the first quality breakage, Dallas Nunn for exploding a Power Stroke in the middle of town, Tom and Lee Haus for always kicking the tail, Mike Hagen and Zeb Holder for proving that IFS can actually work and hold together, and finally Bryan and Heather Richman who brought the biggest pizza delivery truck we've ever seen. Thanks, guys. You and our sponsors (who we'll mention later) are part of the Extended Ultimate Family.