(yes, it's Pearl Harbor Day. everybody else is speaking of it. nothing new for me to say.

Along about 1983 or so, I lived in Tucson. A work friend - both he and his wife - and I would get together for mini road trips. He drove an itty-bitty 4x4 pickup; I had a full size Jeep 4x4 pickup. As you can see, his truck wasn't large enough for three people - especially since it was a manual tranny - so we went in two vehicles. His got great gas mileage but got stuck often. Mine got not even as good as lousy gas mileage but it would climb trees. It wasn't unusual for me to pull his truck through rough spots. It wasn't unusual for me to have to gas up every 40 miles when off-pavement.

In this photo, we're travelling along the Mexican border - that fenceline heading off to the distance. We didn't worry about cartels, or border agents, or two-legged coyotes then ... though we were well armed. I can't recall his name now - probably because I'm trying to - but he's checking out the path ahead. The tracks faded along this little stretch and there was an arroyo cutting across mid-photo just before the tracks become visible again mid-right. As I recall, there was enough dirt along the fence that we could bull our way through to the other side of this section ... with a little help from some chains as I pulled ahead of him and hauled him through not long after this photo.

I wouldn't dream of doing this today.

He and his wife were both busted for stealing software from the company and I stayed away after that. I left that company not long after but I must not have left on bad terms because they asked me to come back some time later. I declined. Hindsight being what it is, perhaps that wasn't the best decision I ever made .... but it was by far not the worst either.

Damn, I can't recall his name ...

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