Unplanned Upgrade Opportunities
Not Just for Your Vehicle
We are video producers so of course, we would decide to promote our team with video. To that end we booked a crew (cajoled some friends for favors) scripted and storyboarded a video and chose a shoot day and location. It was so awesome to be, after making so many videos for other people, other cars, other brands, and even other motorsports teams, to be making a video for OUR team with MY car. And it was all going great. Until it wasn’t.
In spite of my training and experience, in spite of years of shooting car videos, in spite of having a plan, in spite of knowing that mud is the absolute worst to get stuck in what did I do? I drove straight into a pit of the deepest, stickiest, worst mud I’ve ever seen.
I’m sitting there in the driver's seat feeling horrible. I’d let my team down—we wouldn’t be able to shoot everything we needed for the video with the daylight we had left. And one of us (Hank) was framed deep in slop. I let the crew down, a team of video production pros who were doing us a favor are now knee-deep in mud hopelessly shoveling brown goo. I let my friend (and production coordinator) Mary down as I’d promised her if she tagged along on the shoot there was no possible way she’d miss her 9pm flight back to Denver.
Immediately we started problem-solving. Because what else can you do? In between shovel sessions (pro tip: always bring at least one shovel per person), I messaged two local Rebelles to ask if they knew anyone nearby that’d be able to winch us out. They might! Lisa DeLuca even offered to come out and help herself but she just needed two hours to get there. This community, y’all. You’re beautiful. They also suggested I post to a local 4x4 recovery group. I did and 1. Got roasted (hilariously) by many Bronco haters 2. Got tons of offers of help. Another fantastic community I’m so glad to be part of. Mary took our DP Jeremy’s vehicle and went driving looking for anyone in the park that might be able to help. Everyone else kept shoveling and well, in spite of our best efforts, it just got worse. Some fellas stopped by and tried to pull us out and spent quite a bit of time working on the issue. It seemed like we were making progress so we kept at it way longer than we should’ve. I was clinging to the hope that there was still something we’d planned to shoot that we’d be able to shoot. And now the Bronco looked so cool and muddy. And that’s when the bumper got totally f#%ked. Like so bent I could not open my tailgate.
I immediately thought back to our pre-pro call when went over the storyboards and I pointed out, “Lani getting out of a jam” should probably be super faked because being stuck for real is no fun. Then I thought about all the recovery videos I’ve watched on YouTube. All the hours I’d spent thinking through what gear I carried and why. Then, as a video producer, I know better than that too! You don’t risk your main prop on a gag, not when you have more footage to shoot. And especially not when it’s also your ride home.
I knew better on so many levels, friends. We finally called the pros. When they were impressed with how well we had suctioned ourselves to the valley floor I knew I should’ve called sooner.
Everyone got home ok, we have a plan together to finish the video, and I reached out to Rebelle Mechanic/Fireman/fabricator/Nickgyver with a photo of my bumper and he assured me there was probably something we can do so I made arrangements to come in for a look. I spent the afternoon spraying half of Hollister Hills off the Bronco and thought I noticed a change in camber on the rear passenger wheel and I thought I could see a bunch of stuff I don’t usually see hanging underneath the Bronco. I texted Nick, I’m pretty sure I screwed up my suspension, see you tomorrow! He texted back, unplanned upgrade opportunity! And yeah - this is a thing the Barlow Adventures folks say a lot in training. A joke for when you damage your vehicle. It's an unplanned upgrade opportunity! Thanks to the mud incident we learned a lot about how we would handle tough situations like this at the rally. I encouraged Danielle to tell me when I’m being an idiot and sticking to a plan when you’re stuck, and in any tough spot. Another great Barlow Adventures saying is, don’t marry the plan, date the plan. And I learned I can’t move a small truck with just my stubbornness. Occasionally you might need some outside help—and that’s ok. Luckily nothing was super wrong with the Bronco, but I will be swapping back to my stock bumper.
I’m looking forward to a whole lot of unplanned upgrade opportunities for myself as we work our way toward the start line in October. Learning to plot and navigate, working with Danielle in a way we haven’t before, gaining new driving skills—that’s all the stuff I expect to learn. I’m now looking forward to everything unexpected that happens on our road to the Rebelle as a sea of unplanned upgrade opportunities.
