The last 'man' standing......

 7:07 am - Monday - March 6th - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 61%, wind 4 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F, heading for 81° F next weekend!  On this date in 2012 we were 5 weeks into our full time journey, and had just arrived at South Padre Island near Corpus Christi, TX....seems like a lifetime ago......↴

....the longest vacation we had ever been on was 3 weeks, so 5 weeks seemed like something out of a dream.  We had always wanted to drive to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, and meander along the Gulf Coast all the way to Florida, so that is how we chose to begin our new lives as nomads.  We acted like we were on vacation for the first 8 months of our journey, crossing the USA three times, but finally settled down to just living on the road, and setting much slower pace after our first gig at Amazon.

Sunday began innocently enough.  We had two rentals scheduled for the same person.....a RZR and a KRX.  This gentleman had rented the same two UTVs from us on Saturday, and, in fact, had done so back in early January.  In all three previous occasions the rentals were for all day, and both units were returned without incident.  I think you know where I am going with this, right?

At any rate, our customers arrived around 9 am to sign their paperwork, and head out on another all day adventure.  By 9:30 am they were gone, and we settled in to await their return.  TLE reported around 11 am they were at 'Amie's Cabin', and all seemed to be going well.  I was sitting in my anti gravity recliner around 12 noon watching golf when I heard the sounds of our UTVs pulling into the COA staging area.....wait, what?  A customer returning over 4 hours early from an all day rental is not usually a good sign, and it was not.  As I walked out to the staging area this is what I saw......

TLE trying to remove the GPS tablet from its cradle...it was stuck

.....that, my friends, is the worst damage any of our UTVs has incurred since we began this operation in November.  Apparently the driver was running through a series of 'S' curves down the sandy wash from Amie's Cabin when he hit the brakes in the middle of a right hand curve, and did an 'endo'.  Once you are in a turn the wosrt thing you can do is hit the brakes, because you WILL have an accident. Thank goodness no one was hurt seriously.....the driver suffered a sprained wrist.  Unfortunately the KRX may be totalled as it appears the front frame rails are bent.  If it isn't totalled, the damages, including loss of use, could run over $10,000.  I know these UTV are just things, but it hurt my heart, nonetheless, to see her so badly injured.

After our customers left I drove the COA van down to the storage yard to drop our flat bed trailer on the hitch, so we could load #10 blue KRX.  Kyle will deliver her to COYNE in El Centro on Monday to get the damaged assessed, and determine if it is indeed totalled.  So, now, we have just one KRX left standing from our original fleet of 3.  And our original fleet of 7 UTVs is down to 5, and we have only one 2 seater left to rent....

Last KRX standing

....and once again my point about now easy it is to flip these UTVs is proven.  As I do every time we rent one of the RZRs or KRXs I told this customer to never brake once you are in the turn...it is already too late for that.  If you believe you are carrying too much speed into the turn take your foot off the accelerator, and do your best to steer through the turn.  If, instead, you hit the brakes it is not you 'MAY' flip, it is you 'WILL' flip....especially in loose sand.

Once I had #8 loaded on our flatbed, I took RZR #4, and KRX #8 (The father of Casey, one of the owners of COA was in town and took #8 out for a few hours) to the wash station for a rare spa day.  It's been a while since either of them has been washed/detailed, and it seemed like the right time to do it.  By 3:30 pm I had fueled them both, and put them away for a few days.

TLE made us Greek salads with crispy chicken for dinner (delicious!), and afterward we headed out to the 'lido deck' to play a game of 'Phase 10'.  TLE was up quickly by two phases, but I fought my way back, went ahead by 1 phase late in the game, and ended up wining by 1 phase.  I wonder if I can best her in Backgammon Monday night for the 'lido deck' hat trick.....lol....stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by!