The 2008 Jeep season was officially kicked off by the Jeep Blessing in Mesick, MI. The Blessing is a once a year event hosted by the Cadillac Jeepers to encourange safe 4x4'ing and a chance to pray for our Jeeps to stay in one piece for the wheeling season. This is the 7th year from the event. This year, the Blessing took place on May 3rd.

We attended this event along with about 600 other Jeeps and had a great time. It was about an hour and a half drive from our town to Mesick, but we convoyed there with 3 other Jeeps. This type of event is always more fun to go with a group. But, one of the Jeeps in our convoy was running a little rich on the carb so we had a nice buzz going by the time we arrived.

As usual, we are always running a little late. The Blessing started at 11:00 AM and we pulled in about 3 minutes till. The first thing to do is check in. As we drove into the field there was a tent setup with folks collecting the $5 entry fee and handing out a bag of goodies. The bag contained an event schedule and a bunch of sponsored vender stuff like discount ads and stickers. Right from the start, it's always nice to be greated by a smiling face. The people working the entry area were very nice.

We were directed to follow the Jeep in front of us which happened to be one of the Jeeps we drove up with. As we meandered through the 600 Jeeps that were already there it was hard to believe this many Jeeps were in one place. Talk about a great hobby! Well, we drove, and we drove and finally, we arrived at what felt like the overflow lot as Disney World. We were a long ways from the central area, but this turned out to be just fine.

All of us quickly stowed our gear and started the hike back to the central area where the blessing was supposed to be. As you can tell from the picture, it was a pretty cloudy morning and we were all a little concerned about the possibility of rain.

We we arrived at the Blessing location we found people standing all of the place.

As it turned out, we actually arrived just in time as the first speaker was just coming out. Her name is Deb Stafford and she is one of the founders of the event. In the picture below, you can see Deb up front in yellow. We really should've gotten a better/closer picture, but it was somewhat inappropriate to wander around and snap pictures during the beginning of a Church service.

Up next to the podium was the reverend who gave a very nice sermon. It's hard not to like a reverend in a flannel shirt. As the reverend led the prayer, I had to chuckle when he prayed for our Jeeps to stay in one piece. How many other cars in the world need a prayer to keep them together? Only in a Jeep!

After the final prayer, we had a visit from who else, a DNR officer. He actually did a nice job as well. He just reminded us not to run over mushroom hunters and to pick up trash when we see it in the woods.

After the Blessing service we had a chance to walk around and see what's what. Directly behind us we could see part of the obstacle course. There were Jeeps, bulldozers and hydrahoes placed around the course for pulling people out.

From looking at some of the obstacles I kind of made up my mind that I wouldn't be running the course. I hate to say it, but the JeepHobby Jeep isn't up for the challenge just yet. Maybe in another year, but this year, we decided to watch.

The beginning of the obstacle course starts by getting your Jeep nice and muddy. The pictures below show a few Jeeps running going through the pit.

The bulldozer wasn't just there for looks. Shortly after this picture, the white Jeep needed to be pulled out.

After going through the mud the next stage was the rocks. The first Jeep through the rocks was a Rubicon that looked pretty much stock. After standing there and hearing rock against metal sounds for a few minutes we decided to walk. I'm sure the Rubicon made it off the rocks eventually, but it didn't look or sound good as we stood there.

It was about noon by the time the drivers started so we decided to grab lunch back at the Disney overflow lot. The day turned out to be very nice. The sun started to come out and it was just a little chilly.

After lunch we wandered up to the central area and found one Jeep trying the balance beam. I had never seen this done before, but I think the objective is to balance. This guy made a real good attempt and almost got it.

But it slipped away. He actually tried to back up just a little as the ramp pulled up and almost got it to balance. I got the feeling this is really hard.

After we had enough of looking at the vender stuff we went back to the rock pile. There we found this big green Jeep. We met the driver at another event, but didn't get a chance to say hi. He was pretty busy managing the rocks. Unfortunately, in the picture below he is asking the onlookers what that sound was. It was his driveshaft snapping. He had to be pulled off the rocks by the hydrohoe and then limped away with no rear driveshaft and a whobbly front driveshaft. I have to say, he kept a good attitude the entire time. One comment we overheard was, "I do mud, not rocks".

Right after this, going on behind us was a Jeep doing a hill climb. After a couple of failed attempts this Jeep made it up and over.

We couldn't hear what he said after he made it, but we got the feeling it was "Did you see that! I made it!".

But, for every success story, there was a sad story. This Jeep tried to climb the same hill and broke something. Initially we thought he just got hung up at the top, but when the hood went up we knew something else had happened.

You can see the staff guy is looking over at the Hydrohoe that is busy rescuing the green Jeep and probably wondering, how am I going to get this guy off of here.

After standing around the rock and sand area for a little we decided to go see how the Jeeps were handling the railroad ties.

In this area, the Jeeps drop down into a ditch.

Just about lose themselves...

Climb out the other side of the ditch...

Get hung up on a railroad tie and...

break a driveshaft!

Hey, isn't that the same guy that was in the green Jeep with the broken driveshaft. I guess he decided to help others now that his Jeep was out commission.

Others had a much easier time...

And others decided it was best just to drive on by. I like the little smoke signals coming out the back. Looks kind of like a cartoon.

Here's our little group just hanging out.

I've been to a lot of muscle car shows and while I enjoy them I have to say I enjoyed this much more. You hate to see people breaking stuff because you know it will cost them money, but it's kind of like a train wreck. You just can't help but watch.

Here are a few more random pictures that I thought showed some of the action. Maybe next year we'll see you on the obstacle course. More than likely, what will happen is I'll have a picture of the JeepHobby Jeep sitting on a large rock with a broke drive shaft.

Take care everybody and I pray that your Jeep stays in one piece :)