It was looking pretty bleak that we would be able to head down and cover the event year. I had been working out of Booser City, La for 3 weeks and with the C4x4 Buggy still in the shop with damage from the Crawl 4 Christ event and our Web Editor Jon was stuck in Texas due to a gas shortage due to hurricane Harvey; things were not looking good. 3 days to go before the event, I got word that I would have my work completed in Louisiana and would be able to head out early that Saturday morning. My wife Judy, agreed to load all of the camping stuff and tools into the LJ and drive it 2 hours to meet me in Davis, Ok. at the event.

We hate leaving our buggies at home, but bringing the Jeep LJ was better than not making the event at all. As C4X4 and UCORA are supporters of the event and contribute to the raffle, we would really hate to miss this great event. I headed out at early on Saturday and drove to the event and arrived about 0900 and Judy had beat me there by about a half hour. The turnout was moderate this year, but there were many locals at the park which made for a good group. As this was a new location for the Labor Day Crawl, a moderate sized group is not unusual as some people are unsure of the new location. We are expecting that next year to be much larger.

We had a time of greetings and then hit the trails in the LJ with a group of rigs. We ran a lot of easy trails and got some sightseeing in of the beautiful hills of Davis, Ok. Even though the trails we drove were mild, we did manage to hang the LJ up and high centered in some of the ruts, which gave us a chance to use the winch in order to get our tires back on the ground.

Later in the afternoon, we followed a friend of ours off exploring and managed to hit some of the side by side trails. They were very tight and we managed to get a lot of light scratches and scraps on the LJ that we will now have to buff out. Although the park is just now starting to develop trails for the full sized vehicle, it is easy to see that as Cross Bar gets trails setup in the 6500 acres of the Arbuckle Mountains, it could soon become one of the premier off road parks in the area.

As evening approached, Cross Bar had invited a couple of bands to entertain the attendees and then Why Not Customs had a large raffle and auction where all proceeds from the Labor Day Crawl go to 4 Wheel 2 Heal; a non-profit organization that assists wounded veterans from all military branches as they re-adjust back into society. This year, the early count of the funds raised at the Labor Day Crawl was just at $4000 that had been collected and would be donated to the 4 Wheel 2 Heal organization.

Although we had to head on out early on Sunday morning, we had a great time of fellowship and wheelin' in the little Jeep. We want to thank the Why Not Customs crew for all of the hard work that went into this event and all they do to support our wounded vets. God Bless them and all that assist in this great event.

Additional photos by Tammy Palsmeier