Resharing here, at the end of times. May your roads ever be bumpy (or smooth, if you’re into that sort of thing).
Let me not bury the lede: thank you, everyone, for being an awesome community. I’ve given up Facebook, and Twitter, and rarely frequent the several Jeep forums I’m a member of, but Oppo keeps pulling me back in.
I know I haven’t been around very long relative to most of you: July 2018 was my introduction to Oppositelock, and I signed up for my first comment on Jalopnik in February of 2017, so most of the commentary here discussing the good old days is completely foreign to me.
(Incidentally, I never got a useful answer to my first Kinja comment; does anyone happen to know?)
I’ve been trying to make up for lost time, although my writing is probably a bit repetitious, since frankly I still don’t know much about automotive technology, or car history, or sports cars, or racing, or...well, hell, anything except some Jeep history and a vague notion of how four wheel drive works.
I’ve only owned seven vehicles in my nearly-50-year life, if that tells you how not-a-Jalop I am.
So, I post a bunch of road trip photos, some not-quite-shitposts about cool content I find, and hope no one notices I don’t actually know anything.
So, without further ado, here’s my celebration of two years on Oppo. There are also one or two Photography and Overland posts buried in here; if you haven’t checked those sites out, I’d recommend doing so. Quiet but good content.
(It’s really hard to believe it’s only been two years since I started on Oppo; partly because the last few months have felt like forever, and partly because holy hell there are a lot of posts here.)
Just Jeepin’s fave pieces, non-Jeep edition
Norman Rockwell and race relations
This one is particularly timely; I posted it three months too early.
The minimalist
I continue to be annoyed that Torch hasn’t yet interviewed this jalop (they both live in North Carolina), but I’ve given up trying to get his attention.
Despite my utter cluelessness, I’d like to think this is worth a read. The guy is fascinating.
Peak Box
I had some fun celebrating boxy SUVs. Jeeps have completely changed the way I look at automobiles.
A Road Trip to Toledo
The photographs I took one evening last year still make me smile, both because I made a family of strangers happy, and because, well, it was a stunning evening at Summit Lake, one of my favorite sunset spots.
Indianapolis industrial history
This was a deep rabbit hole spurred entirely by a wart on an M38 for sale.
Farewell to a friend
Despite the high volume of noise I make here, I don’t talk a lot about my non-Jeep life. Since Oppo is effectively my only social media, I made an exception when I discovered that one of my favorite people had passed unexpectedly.
Soapboxes
In which I get a bit ranty, but at least I won’t bore you with the several stories I’ve posted about chasing people with bad brake lights.
Car shows
I don’t know shit about cars, but I’ll usually stop long enough to take some photos for the people here who do, but unless there’s a Jeep owner I’m unlikely to stop to chat.
And, sadly, there are almost never Jeeps at these things. We do live in a dark timeline.
Slow boat to the coast
Chuckles helped me immensely with my long, slow trip from Indiana through Appalachia to the Outer Banks, which I narrated here, and which resulted in my post The minimalist I referenced above. You can see some of his great pics in comments on Got sidetracked on my way to the beach.
Southern Indiana
I spend a lot of time driving the hills and dales of southern Indiana, and a fair few photos get shared here.
I tried to organize a back-roads meetup a year and a half ago, but I needed to set Oppo aside for a bit and so I canceled it before it got any momentum. Surely the world will regain some sanity soon and we can try again; hopefully you’ll agree if you skim the pics below that it’s a beautiful part of the country.
Mobile radios
The only substantive piece I’ve written for Overland. Sorry Hhfp.
Indiana State Fair
In honor of the state fair that won’t happen this year (2020, you suck) here are some vehicular and food photos.
Miscellany
Mostly these are short pointers to much more interesting content elsewhere.
Amazing how many weird stories have simply vanished because 2020 just keeps spitting more and more craziness at us. This was a particularly weird week.
Just Jeepin’s fave pieces, World Wars edition
There’s a fair bit of overlap between the WWII content and my Jeep content, for obvious reasons.
Just Jeepin’s fave content, Jeep edition
Finally, the Jeeps.
The Jeep Experience
This is where it all started. My very first Oppo post.
Jeep Truck series
I’m not a truck guy, although now that I’ve been around Jeeps for a few years I definitely wouldn’t mind owning a classic Jeep truck.
Mainly I wrote these because the Gladiator was coming, and who doesn’t want more eyeballs?
And a great resource for people who actually understand trucks better than me:
Plus the day I saw an honest-to-heaven CJ-10.
My Jeepversary
July 8th was my first Oppo post. July 10th is my Jeepversary. July in general is one of my favorite months because there are usually no shortage of hot days when I can drop the windshield.
Toledo Jeep Fest
I have yet to miss an event, but the virus forced the Toledo Jeep Fest off the calendar this year, like so many other things. Here are some of my more pic-heavy Jeep Fest posts.
Jeep Grilles
Still a one-off. I’ll get back to the series eventually.
A Jeepy Halloween
I had fun with Halloween last year.
Jeep miscellany
Not a Jeep, but a kindred spirit.
And a good way to end it, at the beginning, before Jeep was Jeep.