GSMTR - Part I

I got home Saturday night from a 3-day trip with my brother, Michael, to the Upper Tellico Off Road Vehicle Park (which is north of Murphy, North Carolina, on the Tennessee/North Carolina border). The even is called the Great Smoky Mountain Trail Ride and this was the 17th year that it was put on by the Southeast Toyota Land Cruiser Association.

I left town Wednesday night in the rain and it managed to rain pretty well straight through Friday night. Michael also came up from Atlanta on Wednesday and brought his '71 FJ40 (above, in its fresh new paint color), along with a supplier in his '80 FJ40, a customer in a '73 FJ55, and an employee in a '07 Tacoma. On Thursday, his business partner also came up in his 80-series Cruiser towing a ex-coworker/customer/friend's Suzuki Samurai. Everything made it out on the trails except my 4Runner (below, left), which sat comfortably and cleanly in camp the whole time.

Thursday was spent doing some very mild 4-wheeling in the light rain. We were pretty much playing scenic tour guide to several mostly-stock Cruisers and the Tacoma. We did have a bit more excitement than we ever would have wanted when Terry, the man who has (had?) the almost-perfectly-restored 1973 FJ55, slid off of a gravel road. The good news is that he wasn't injured and was saved from rolling down a very steep mountain side by a tree. The bad news is that the truck didn't come out so well.

Here is the truck pre and post- restoration:

This would be the Cruiser that Michael has hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of time and effort into restoring and is (was?) one of very few super nice examples of an FJ55. Terry only picked it up two months ago from its restoration, but has already driven it 11,000 miles since then!

(Note the ostrich leather sun visor. The same material also covers the headliner and door panels. Like I said, this truck was NICE!)

Some good news is that Terry is fairly financially secure and said he’ll have the guys at ACC rebuild it even better than it was. It does have to get in line with his two other Land Cruisers that are slated for work at ACC in the near future.