King of the Hammers Road Trip 2012 part 1

There is something different about the King of the Hammers. Maybe it is the tens of thousands of fellow wheelers that help turn this empty lakebed into a city for one week a year. Or the fact that you won’t find a stranger in Hammertown. Like many people I spent the first few years drooling over the live race feed via the internet. I finally decided in 2010 that Busted Knuckle Films had to make an appearance at KOH. We purchased our plane tickets, booth, permits, yadda yadda. It was a great time spent with thousands of fellow wheelers and vendors. It only took one trip out to Johnson Valley before we decided that as long as they were racing Busted Knuckle would be there to cover the action!

For 2011 we decided we would make the 4000 mile round trip from Alabama to California. I decided that the 1/2 ton chevy wasn’t going to cut it. So a few weeks before we left I purchased a 02 Superduty with the 7.3 deisel and over 200k on the clock. Me and Jamin loaded everything up The Tuesday Night before Race week. Two Racing quads, a dirt bike, and a ton of offroad swag filled our enclosed trailer aka “The Swag Wagon”. We left out early Wednesday morning and embarked on our epic road trip. Me and my co driver swapped driving duties every tank of fuel. Which with the 7.3 Diesel averaging 70mph was about 300 miles. We quickly made our way through each state. Mississippi, Tennessee. Once we crossed into Arkansas the GPS might as well of said “Continue on I-40 FOREVER!” LOL. We made it to Okalahoma around dark. Once the Coffee and Energy drinks started to wear off, the descision was made to stop for a quick siesta. A rest stop in Texas seemed like a great spot at 3am. After 2hrs of sleep the sun started rising and we continued on our journey across Texas. We passed through New Mexico and on to Arizona. We arrived in flagstaff, Arizona around 2pm. We booked a hotel room and slept for a few hours before heading to the local pub for some dinner and a brew to end the day.

We jumped back on the road around 4am the folowing morning with 4″ of fresh snow on the BK tow rig and trailer. We were dead set on making it to Hammertown before Dark. The truck and trailer quickly made it through the rest of Arizona. The Cracker Barrel in Albuquerque, NM was our first stop and just in time for them to open. After a belt stretching country boy breakfest we were off to the desert. We crossed into California and went through the check point. A quick look in our trailer to make sure we were smuggling DVDs and Swag & not narcotics and illegals and we were on the home stretch. We arrived in Hammertown around 3pm on Friday afternoon. We wasted no time unloading the toys and heading out for some riding. We had finally made it to the otherside of the Country and our home for the week! We crossed 9 states and drove over 2000 miles to get here and for this one week a year, there is no place I would rather be.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of our epic adventure!

 

 

About The Author
- Camera Guy/Editor/Gearhead

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