Leighton’s Blog

What do you do before you even get home after driving over 4,500 miles? You wash all the dirt, mud, sand, salt and shrubs off...particularly the undercarriage!  Yes I got home before the snow!

Well I think this will be the last photo I’ll be taking on my two week journey from Massachusetts to Key West. I appreciate all the “likes”, thumps up, encouragement, tips and suggestions! It was truly an amazing and exciting journey and I’m glad you came along.  I thought New York would be a fitting stop. New York City is where I hope to be doing outreach at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving of this year.  NYC has the highest number of homeless people in the country with estimates that put the homeless population over 75,000. New York City will be my 29th city stop on the 200 day journey across the United States to visit 30 of the most homeless cities in my little but spunky stock 2DR  Wrangler. Two weeks ago my friend would have flown me into to Key West to take some photos of his new charter boat but I thought driving my Jeep would be a good way to test the overlanding gear I have been gathering since early last fall. This trip also helped me to refine my skills at finding real

Table for one for soup & a sandwich please.

Another great sunrise this morning but about 600 miles north of where was for yesterday’s sunrise. Very peaceful tailgate breakfast. Off to Corolla just a bit north of here. 

Got up real early for this one. No permit needed to drive on the beach. Had a nice light breakfast in the parking lot before heading North to South Carolina. 

Here is some of the stuff that’s in my Jeei cockpit. It’s all about being comfortable… particular if I might spend 200 days my jeep starting in June to visit 30 of the most homeless cities in the US. Those are baby wipes. 

Last week I did a post with a list of items I have squeezed in the back of my Jeep for overlanding. (Remember my #1 goal is to be able to take the top down wherever I am.) While I was packing to head up North from Key West I took a few photos of “some” of the gear. Below the photos is the list of the gear. Make a comment if you have any questions about any of the gear.  Cargo net over gear so nothing blows away.  Non-woven quick drying camp towels on footlocker with two burner stove, propane, dry goods, Mini Hotlogic, small pans, utensils, cups, napkins, plastic plates & bowls, plastic bucket and cleaning supplies. Next to the footlocker and a 7 gallon water tank with spigot.  12 Volt marine outlets I wired into cargo area.  One both sides of cargo area are two fire extinguishers and LED lights.  Drop down tailgate table with cutting board. Two burner Coleman stove goes on the table when I’m in camp mode.  Brace for top when I need to access cargo area but don’t want to put the to

Jeep is packed. Top is down. On my way north to Deland,FL to meet up with Kyle for dinner. No I didn’t wash it. The “No’s” won my FB poll.   Instagram http://bit.ly/2VS3uqz

Meet Cameron Hobby, the captain of the Blind Squirrel, which I stayed on in Key West. Not only is he a great captain, but he is also a long time Jeeper.  He is the very proud owner of a 91 YJ…mileage unknown because the odometer stopped working years ago but Ge is guessing over 300K. His father bought the 91 YJ brand new and Cameron bought it from his dad at the age of 16....12 years ago. His YJ has seen some cities and some countries. Cameron is from Fort Myers, FL and he has driven his YJ twice to California and four times to New Jersey. He use to load it onto the roof of a commercial long boat to go fishing way off shore. So it’s been to Hawaii, Panama, San Diego and Galveston, TX. It’s got a bit of rust but he says the frame has stopped rusting because there is so much oil on it. It has the original straight six but his YJ is on it’s second tranny. Cameron is hoping to get a few more miles out of it… and I think that may happen.