Hope y'all had a great time at the Mega Meet. Wish I could have been there, but we're on our family summer vacation in Kauai. One thing new I immediately noticed since the last time here two years ago is that the car rental companies are carrying lots of JK's. Seriously, it looked like nearly half of the vehicles on the Budget Rent-A-Car lot were JK's. So of course, I'm seeing lots of JK's on the streets. Almost looks like a Mega Meet . I wish we could have rented one, but it won't fit the five of us and certainly not with our luggages.

With all these non-Jeep owners driving Jeeps here, I'm seeing some pretty funny things. I was driving around early Sunday morning, and saw a few JK's parked overnight with the top down. These people probably just checked in on Saturday, and didn't know that here on the north shore it pours rain nearly every night as it did Saturday night. I hope they know where the drain plugs are. I saw one JK with the side soft windows flapping in the wind because the fronts of them were not properly tucked into the front retainer. I saw one with the sail panels completely not snapped into the body retainer. I saw one soft top somehow with the 3 bow dropping down and the back crumpled down. (I have no idea how they did that.) I saw a rear soft window flapping because for some reason the swing gate bar was missing. I saw people putting down their soft tops without removing any of the soft windows.

All this on just our first full day here in the Garden Island.

7/9/09 Addendum:
And a couple of days ago, I saw a kayak strapped on top of a soft top, 3-bow painfully dropping down and all.

 

That's pretty hilarious. Last time I was in Kauai, the JK had just come out and there were already a decent amount of them running around the island. The great flappy sail panel faux pas was even featured on the finale of Amzing Race this season:



Have fun out there-- I'm jealous! And take lots of pics!

 

Here are a couple of pictures I grabbed today at the market in Princeville.


In this one you can see the rear soft window and right sail panel still attached to the body, and the right soft window crunched up in there.

 

I’m going two weeks. I’ll have my camera ready so I can add to this.

 

A couple of more, taken on the 4th....

Everything all scrunched up, side window dangling out, the top not even close to folding down as far as it's supposed to.


Here, the side window is not snapped into to front or body retainers, just zipped in. They slammed the front edge into the door jam to keep it from flapping in the wind.

 

I need to be on Kauai right now.... this whole mainland thing ain't doin' it for me.

 

Last year the wife and I rented a JK in Kauai and had a blast. Yeah we even wheeled the hell out of it on our way to some secluded waterfalls and the Jurasic Park gates. It was the perfect vehicle for us and the exploring we did. Pollihale beach was the perfect spot to get some sand and water driving in too.....

 

We rented a TJ in Tulum (Cancun area) 3 years ago. We couldn't figure out how to get the soft top up. Left it all night in the jungle -- next AM it was full of water. Good thing it didn't have carpet and drain plugs were removed. Took about 2 days to get all the water out of the cupholders. You know the old saying "it's just a rental" !

 

Hey Rob - can your fellow SD JKer's come with? We can have our next Suds & Grubs at your hotel!

 

Hey Red Dog, if you're going to be on the north shore, I highly recommend Dolphin Restaurant in Hanalei. Outstanding food.