A-FJ - Wheel Novice / Utah Convert

Hello All,

I have been lurking on the FJ boards and stumbled onto a link to this a few days ago; before I introduced myself to the larger FJ audience I wanted to pop in here first. First off and foremost I wanted to let it officially be known I know nothing about wheeling and I have little or no experiencing wrenching. I am however a lover of the outdoors and have let too much of my life slip on by without experiencing them enough; which brings me to my next point.

Recently I decided to give up the life I've built for myself where I currently reside and to relocate to Park City and to get busy doing the things I gave up doing oh so long ago. So I'm selling almost all of my worldly belonings in my current home for essentially nothing; taking what will fit in the FJ with the seats down and heading out. Of course there is much more to this story; which will be revealed as part of my build thread on the FJ boards.

So hello Utah and I look forward to being in the greater Utah FJ community in the future; camping, wrenching, learning to wheel, and exploring everything that Utah has to offer.

In case you wonder A-FJ stands for Another FJ.

John

WELCOME John!

I'm glad you found us. Fly Jester lives in Park City and is a good guy. He's not on here yet but pops in on the blue room once in a while.

Welcome!

Welcome! This looks a like a good excuse for a night out in Park City!!!

Thanks for the welcome guys; I'm really looking forward to living in Utah and doing all the things Utah has to offer. Mostly mountain biking, skiing, camping and fishing. All the things I used to do but pretty much gave up long ago.

A night out in Park City sounds real nice; as I know nothing about the area. At this point haven't even figured out where I am going to live; if i want to room share, buy a house, rent a house or rent an appartment. I will leave it up to chance and maybe a little bit of fate to see where I end up.

I will have many questions particullary related to turning my FJ into a decent adventure vehicle for the wheeling novice. I'd love to be able to venture to places such as the forum picture with as few a modification as possible.

In the end though we'll see where the road takes me,

John

The Forum header was taken up American Fork Canyon.

Pictured from left to right (if I remember right): KBJames, Moab Rat, TRD Boys, Gericurl76, & Delray. Fly Jester met us a little later that day.

The funny thing is a stock out of the box FJ will go most places.

I had a 3 inch lift in the picture but stock tires. At the FJ summit I had the same set-up. People talked trash but I never lost traction. I'm new to wheeling myself but I just watch the "experienced" guys and follow their lines and learn from other's mistakes and just have fun and try not to put any more dents in my truck. The scratches I'm over, but the dents zing me every time.

Welcome! Park City is a great place for mountain biking. I used to spend almost every weekend there during the summer on my mountain bike. Also, the Wasatch Brew Pub at the top of Main Street has the best hamburgers I've had in recent memory and the beer aint to bad either. Just throwing that out there.

I'm pretty new to the 4X4 thing too. Just get out there and have fun. You'll pick it up pretty fast.

Welcome John!

It sounds like you have an interesting story to tell. I look forward to meeting you and hearing about it some day.

Welcome! The snow is finally melting up high. Just about time for a run everyone.

A-FJ wrote:

.... At this point haven't even figured out where I am going to live; if i want to room share, buy a house, rent a house or rent an appartment. I will leave it up to chance and maybe a little bit of fate to see where I end up.

I will have many questions particullary related to turning my FJ into a decent adventure vehicle for the wheeling novice. I'd love to be able to venture to places such as the forum picture with as few a modification as possible.

In the end though we'll see where the road takes me,

John

I don't live in Park City, I only work there, I do live 20 minutes to the south of PC in Heber. PC is a rather expensive place to live, housing wise, if you are still looking for a place I know of a website that lists all kinds of "affordable" housing options for the PC area. I have a friend who is selling his house in the Jeremy Ranch area(PC neighborhood) if you are interested....if you have any questions about PC let me know and I will do my best to help out.

-devin

Welcome aboard John! It's good to have you here. I also look forward to meeting you. I live about 45 miles out of Park City in Orem. I am more than happy to help with any wrenching you might want to undertake. As the group here knows, I am currently FJ-Less, but love to work on them and would love to offer an assist. Like others I have good tools (including the almighty air compressor which really comes in handy!) and a garage so if you end up living somewhere that you can't work on your vehicle let me know and you're welcome to bring it on down and we can undertake a few projects on it.

-Jon

Welcome John

Thanks for the further welcomes guys; really looking forward to getting out there. Right now I'm still going through the hassel of selling my house to my X-GF. I don't know why people ever buy a house unless it's the last place they plan to live. It's such a giant pita going through all this lawyer, appraisal, inspection, bank and etc crap. In the end going through this though is going to make it so worthwhile; it's just frustraiting because each day here is one less day in the mountains.

Well hang in there, and when your here we'll go on a run.

I didn't notice it anywhere in the threads, but where are you currently residing??

The very flatlands of Indiana where the corn grows.

I suffered an unexpected set back this week; the bank which had been telling myself and the buyer (hence fourth "our") that as soon as the appraisal was done our closing would be right around the corner. I guess our version of right around the corner was a week; the banks version was another 30 days. Needless to say we are very unhappy and we have many angry thoughts towards bankers atm. So it seems my departure date is now bumped all the way out to around the 23rd of July gaaahhhhhhhh.

j

Then maybe you should just travel to Ouray, Colorado on your way to Park City............ for the 2010 FJ Summit!

Don't sweat it A-FJ. The prime summer season, particularly being able to drive up in the mountains is usually open till at least mid-october before the 1st real alpine snows come. And then when that happens, its back to the lower elevation trails like 5 mile, little Moab, etc.

I'll volunteer to lead a group up either American Fork Canyon, or above the "B" in Bountiful.

Trying not to get my hopes up, but my buyer just told me the bank told them last Wednesday they would most likely be able to close in two weeks and to me that means next Friday. I am trying not to be excited; since I feel like I've been let down twice but geeze it's hard not to be.

j

Any updates on closing? Did it close yesterday? Best of luck on it. We hope to be seeing you soon!

Everytime I seem to talk about it I just jinx myself; I never had any idea that selling a home could be this envolving and lengthy. Though I've been assured by people it's always taken longer than it should and it's just gotten worse since the economy tanked.

The story I'm being told now is that my buyer missed some conference calls between her bank and underwriting company and it caused the closing not to happen last week. Apparently the calls are scheduled today. I was pretty shocked to believe that you actually have to have 12 conference calls in order to sell a house now; or I should say for this particular mortgage company they are using they do.

At this point I'm hoping it finalizes soon I'm getting tired of paying a mortgage in Indiana and rent in Utah.

As stupid as it sounds, things happen for a reason. If nothing else, at least you are more prepared for future housing negotiations!

You'll like being here I think. People are cool. I moved here from Seattle when I was younger and it was certainly an adjustment, but the mountains, weather, and generally nice people made things easier. In no time all of the moving garbage and everything that went with it will be a distant memory. Didn't somebody say it's not the destination, but the journey? Just think of it that way. It's part of the journey.