By David Austin
Photos by attendees
We here at C4x4 try to make as many events as we can, especially those that support great causes. Unfortunately, we cannot make all of the runs that are held in the Mid-West. With many being held in the fall, we tend to stay as close to home to make these runs.

Why Not Customs is a great supporter of our own Crawl 4 Christ event and helps us in many ways, which includes providing us products for our raffle. So, when the Why Not Customs Labor day run is scheduled it is put on our calendar and we make every effort to be a part of it. The past 4 events they have held were hosted at Southern Missouri Off Road Ranch (SMORR) in Seymour, Mo. This year, there were conflicts in the scheduling dates so they had to look for an alternative location. After several options were discussed, they settled on The Arkbuckle Off-Road Park is southern Oklahoma. This made it perfect for us since, it was a lot closer to us.

This is an event to support the 4 Wheel 2 Heal non profit organizations. 100% of all donations go directly to covering the cost associated with the veterans and caregivers, meals, transportation, camping and registration fees and cost associated with the event. With no onsite lodging yet at available at Arbuckle, we had to make a decision. Either we would have to stay in a near by town or get to work on the 'Toter home' that we've kinda let some maintenance issues go for a couple years and the inside had some cosmetic issues that needed attention. 2 weeks before the event, I got busy fixing, however, I didnt get it up into prime shape. I had to put a small window a/c unit in, as the main unit compressor was unwilling to participate. All in all, it came together to make for fairly comfortable living space for the event.

Upon arrival, I was informed that the rumble of the straight pipes out of the big Ford was disturbing the wildlife in near by counties, but I think they settled down after I shut engine off. There were a nice number of attendees already there when we arrived, so we quickly set up camp and got settled in for the weekend.

As the wheelers continue to roll in and were greeted by Chris and Tammy (Mr and Mrs Why Not), the numbers continue to build. With the change of the location at the last minute, it was to be expected that the numbers were down from previous years, but all in all, there was a great turn out and a lot of fun had. The wheeling was great, plenty of trails to run and steep sticky rocks to climb in the Arbuckle mountain range. We wheeled and visited with old friends and met several new ones that we expect to wheel with many more times.


The guests (wounded warriors and care givers) were loaded up into various rigs and taken onto the trails for hours of fun and wheelin. As the evening came to a close, the Saturday super raffle was started and particpants won tons of great items! We wrapped up the evening with an auction of a few donated items and one special Military Clock.


Once the auction was finished, much of the time was then spent discussing the day's activities around the campfire and for those that were interested, headed back out on the trails for some night wheelin'.

We have to say, that we were very impressed with the generosity given towards the event as well as to the veterans that attended. We are proud to be listed as one of the supporters of this great event. We want to give a BIG thanks for all the hard work that went into getting this event all put together. May God bless all who were a part of this event.

God Bless You and Yours
Okie-Out