West Virginia Wheels with Jack Sloan on Episode 289

Big Rich sits down with West Virginia history buff, Ford fanatic, and long-time off-roader Jack Sloan. From learning to drive in a ‘73 Wagoneer to 22 years with his beloved Ford Explorer “The Raisin,” Jack shares how small-town roots, family campouts, and a love for the hills shaped a life behind the wheel.

-            Growing up in Fairmont, WV (home of the pepperoni roll), coal country culture, and early outdoor adventures 

-            Jack’s path from auto parts counter to independent collision center manager—and building a life around cars and trails 

-            The Explorer addiction: TTB, SAS, 37s, and why “simple” builds win on long trips - Ultimate Adventure stories: getting picked, guiding at Good Evening Ranch, and the friendships that fueled Adventure Wheelers East (AWE) 

-            Policy matters: WV Senator Mark Maynard’s pro-motorsports legislation and why legal access plates help keep trails alive 

Transcript

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[00:00:05.100] 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview-style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off-road industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call off-road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off-road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off-road.

[00:00:46.400] 

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[00:01:13.660] - Big Rich Klein

West Virginia history buff and off-roader Jack Sloan has been a Ford fan his entire wheeling life. He has trail guided for ultimate adventure and is a co- founder of the Adventure Wheelers East. Jack is also involved with Land Use on the East Coast, volunteering his time with Backroads Coalition. Hello, Jack Sloan. So good to have you on the podcast. And yeah, this is going to be a fun conversation, I think.

[00:01:45.280] - Jack Sloan

Hey, it's Jack from Jack Off Road. Rich, I'm really glad that you reached out to me. It's going to be a good time.

[00:01:50.860] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And so for everybody that doesn't know Jack, you're going to, but We met online, Facebook, and then I went out to an event that he was co-hosting with Robert Keller, and it was called AWE. It was the Adventure Wheelers East. And a UA-type thing, and had a great time. And we'll get into all that. But I just wanted to say thank you for extending that invitation.

[00:02:26.480] - Jack Sloan

I am. The Off-Road community is all about networking. It's the That's the best community for networking, the best one out there.

[00:02:32.580] - Big Rich Klein

I agree. I agree. So let's jump in with the first question I ask everybody. Where were you born and raised?

[00:02:41.120] - Jack Sloan

I was born and raised in Fairmont, West Virginia, which is recognized all over the world as the birthplace of the pepperoni roll.

[00:02:50.660] - Big Rich Klein

Really?

[00:02:51.800] - Jack Sloan

Yeah. It was first commercially produced in Fairmont, in a little bakery called Country Club Bakery.

[00:02:59.020] - Big Rich Klein

That's interesting. And is that a staple around the house?

[00:03:05.540] - Jack Sloan

Oh, my God. I can't remember if I had enough to give you when we met on that trip, but every time I go on offer a trip, I bring a couple of dozen pepperoni rolls because it's just like my olive branch to people. Last year, I even mailed some to Ken Smith. They had them on UA last year.

[00:03:23.420] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. I did not partake in those that year.

[00:03:28.680] - Jack Sloan

They they handle very well. They can withstand shipping off to send you some.

[00:03:34.200] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, great. Sounds awesome. So Fairmont, West Virginia.

[00:03:40.320] - Jack Sloan

Yes, sir. It is a small town, south of Morgantown, if anyone's familiar with WVU. And I think I sit around 900 feet in my house, and just a little mountain town, coal mining was the main industry, river transportation. The The beginning of the Monongahela River, which flows north to Pittsburgh, is in Fairmont. It's also called the City of Three Rivers because two join one to make them on. So lots of weird little interesting facts. I always end up being the tour guide anytime I'm in a group because a long time ago in school, I went to this West Virginia history quiz they do every year, and I got called the Golden Horseshoe. Because I'm like the local history buff. But I'm starting to forget that stuff because I have kids, and they've taken up residency in my brain. So any tidbit I can share, I try to share when I can.

[00:04:40.100] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. So feel free to share as much as you want today. Then And then growing up, small rural town. Was a coal mine still active while you were growing up?

[00:04:52.620] - Jack Sloan

They still are now, not as many. But my brother bosses a coal mine, so it's still the number one industry in the area.

[00:05:01.520] - Big Rich Klein

And you never worked the mines?

[00:05:04.620] - Jack Sloan

No. This is a funny story. My dad, who worked coal mines and ran a dump truck when he was laid off, he always said, Jack, don't end up in the coal mines. They're not the place for you. You're too good for it. I said, Okay, whatever. My brother got in a little trouble in school. He goes, Daniel, you get your ass to the coal mines. It'll straighten you out. That's where he's still at, and I never went.

[00:05:33.360] - Big Rich Klein

Did he get straightened out?

[00:05:35.120] - Jack Sloan

Oh, yeah. He's a good guy.

[00:05:37.810] - Big Rich Klein

Good. It sounds like it is a supervisor position, so yeah.

[00:05:41.700] - Jack Sloan

Yeah.

[00:05:43.060] - Big Rich Klein

What was it like growing up in a small West Virginia, Mountain Coaltown?

[00:05:50.000] - Jack Sloan

I lived down the road that had just one entrance and exit down the driveway. Relatives lived around us. Typical small community stuff. My mom was the odd person. She sent me and my brother and sister to a private school. All of our cousins and friends went to public school. I'm not going to call it a pleasure, but it's sequestered in my little world because I wasn't around all the other kids at school. But we went a lot of camping, fishing, cabins. I remember my parents taking us to the mountains pretty much every other weekend in the summer. I mean, if they had a weekend off, we were in a car, in a Jeep, in a truck, we were heading to the mountains. That's really what kickstarted my love for being outside was all those camping trips we were younger.

[00:06:45.940] - Big Rich Klein

How were you as a student going to those private schools?

[00:06:50.820] - Jack Sloan

I was a big dork. I'm not going to lie. I went through school, pretty good grades. Then I went to college. I was like, Man, this sucks. I'm tired of school. But through school, it was fine. Like I said, our graduating class in high school had maybe 100 people. So, you know. Small school, small town. But everyone knew each other, and you still see them when you go out.

[00:07:20.260] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:07:22.000] - Jack Sloan

The joke is, if I want to go to my high school reunion, I'll just go to Walmart on the weekend. I'll see 10 or 12 people I went to school with.

[00:07:30.520] - Big Rich Klein

I don't even know how many... I went to... I grew up in a town of 58,000 people south of San Francisco, and we had a pretty large graduating class back in 1976, if that dates me. And we had, I would say there's less than probably a handful, maybe a handful, that still live in the area. Everybody else is migrating, got the out of there?

[00:08:01.960] - Jack Sloan

My wife wants to move, but I can't. I do a bunch of adventure wheeling trips, and I see the country, and it's great, but I like coming back to Hilly, West Virginia, in my little neck of the woods. I mean, right now, I'm sitting in my garage looking out on an old county road that has a little bit of traffic, and there's a creek and some trees, and I can't see any flat land around me, and that's what I like.

[00:08:34.980] - Big Rich Klein

Nice. Is your wife a local as well?

[00:08:39.380] - Jack Sloan

Yes. There's three high schools in my county, East, West, and North. East and West are like epic enemies. They're not supposed to talk to one another. I married a girl from East Side. I went to West. And then now we live in North Marion, so my kids will go to North, so it's going to come full circle.

[00:09:03.840] - Big Rich Klein

And North was the Switzerland?

[00:09:08.900] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, North was further away. It was his own little world. That's where the Votec Center is. It was the more rural high school where they consolidated all the small town schools. They were always out there, but I like it out here. I like it outside of town. When I say town, I mean, Fairmont's got like 10,000 people, so it's not like it's huge or anything.

[00:09:33.860] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's like the town I'm living in now. Okay.

[00:09:36.440] - Jack Sloan

Yeah. It's big enough.

[00:09:37.920] - Big Rich Klein

Right. With us, it's our town. It's the surrounding area. You added all the surrounding area, which is more to the west, is closer you get to Sacramento. We're still lots of canyons, hilly. So everybody lives along the edges of the canyons. There's not a lot of flat ground in El Dorado County.

[00:10:01.200] - Jack Sloan

Yeah. I'm on a hill right now, and all my property is a hill, but, dang it, it's my hill. And even though eventually I'll get too tired to walk up and I'll have to use motorized transportation. But for right now, I'll get my exercise walking up and down these hills.

[00:10:17.800] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. When you were in school, did you play sports or any extracurricular activities?

[00:10:29.260] - Jack Sloan

I have never, ever been into ball sports. I did. I played, but I played baseball, basketball. I played one year of high school football. I don't know. I wasn't exposed to it all. It just never really clicked with me. It wasn't really... I had fun, but it wasn't really my thing. Sometimes it takes a while to find your thing. Mine took a while.

[00:10:56.880] - Big Rich Klein

And did you... You said, vote Votek in North? Did you have- Yeah, I did.

[00:11:04.350] - Jack Sloan

No, I did not. I should have, but I was in that... I'm in that generation of everyone said college, college, college. So I didn't go to Votek. I focused on grades in high school and then for college. My kids will look at me like my nine year old last summer looks at me and goes, Dad, don't go to college. I'm like, Heck, nobody. Go to that Votek Center at your high school when you go there. And learn a trade, and something that's going to be around forever because you don't have to go to college. So that was one of my regrets, not getting into a trade earlier on, I think.

[00:11:42.320] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And what did you go to college for?

[00:11:46.020] - Jack Sloan

Or were you just- This is great, Ray. I'm a guy who likes camping the outdoors in West Virginia with the wildlife and fisheries management.

[00:11:57.480] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice.

[00:11:58.580] - Jack Sloan

Oh, yeah. I loved It was just I was starting to see the longer I was there that I was like, Man, these are really selective job opportunities in the area I'm at. Because the whole West Coast, East Coast, BLM versus Department of Agriculture as far as how land is considered. So there have been more opportunity for me out West where there's more management of public land. Here, it would have been more private. Most of the land here is leased or owned by companies, and I would have to have gotten into either the DNR, which those people are there for life, literally. There's very little openings. Or I'd have to gone into the private sector or moved. I didn't want to move. I focused on the job I was at making money, and that led me to the career I have today. So college was a great experience. I learned a lot, and I still use some of what I learned, but it's not what I ended up doing with my career.

[00:13:03.360] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. And let's explore that portion of it right now. We'll get back to the hunting and camping and fishing and stuff like that with you, with the family. You said that you started working in the job that you had.

[00:13:23.800] - Jack Sloan

What was- I got a part-time job at an auto parts store when I was in college to pay for gas and a cell phone and insurance and stuff. Well, I'm not saying I got good at it. I must have been okay at it because I started moving up. Then I left the auto parts store world for vehicle dealership world. I was a parts manager and a service manager for a Kia dealership that the owner bought some additional dealerships. Let me move to Ford. Because Really, outdoors and car stuff is my two hobbies. I am now, I've left the dealership world now, I'm in a privately run independent collision repair facility, one of the largest ones in the area. I am the parts and materials manager. It's a made up title. I pretty much do anything they ask me to do, but mainly I'm in charge of ordering parts, receiving parts, stocking paint, paint levels, stocking inventory, supplies profit margins of my department, ramping up another location, so I'm spearheading everything that I need to do in my area for that, for that to open up. So Yeah, it's a routine job. I like routine stuff.

[00:14:48.140] - Jack Sloan

I go in there, I have a process of how to do things, and it's fun. Luckily, I work with people that I have known, and this is crazy, some of the people I work with, especially I'm one of the owners, I have known for over 20 years.

[00:15:02.660] - Big Rich Klein

Wow.

[00:15:03.460] - Jack Sloan

I've been friends of them in the car community, or either just other jobs, and we've all came full circle. I ended up working at the same place. So I work with pretty much some of my best friends every day, which makes work not so bad.

[00:15:20.660] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, no, that helps. Because when I went into the job market, I've done a lot Out of my own thing, different businesses that I've owned and careers, you might say. And then I've always, at one point, I always found my way back into corporate repair facilities. Started with Sears and then went to a couple of other, and then ended up in a parts place, and then got into rock crawling as a career. But I can't say the first Sears store I worked at in the automotive department, there were some guys I went to high school with or were in neighboring high schools. Maybe I went to middle school or grade school with them. But after that, it was not that at all. I mean, if you made friends with somebody, it was so you could go have lunch with them. You didn't hang out. So that's cool.

[00:16:23.420] - Jack Sloan

It definitely makes it... There's goods and bads to it, the work with people you know. I I see them more than I see my wife and kids, but at least I'm with people who I get along with. It's probably this place I'm working in now is probably the largest group of like minded people to work in one place. It's like the culture we've created by bringing in people who are similar thinking-wise to us, I guess, which makes everything flow smooth.

[00:16:55.820] - Big Rich Klein

Right. That's good. So let's backtrack now and go to, as a child, you said you're out camping and fishing and all those outdoor activities. And what vehicles did the family drive at that point?

[00:17:15.700] - Jack Sloan

You're going to love this. I learned to drive on my dad's 73 Wagoneer, three-speed standard. My mom was a rural letter carrier, so she always had a four-wheel drive. It was a lot of Wagoneers, Bronco 2s, Explores. That's what led them to that. Dad was K5 Blazers, Wagoneers. We would load up and drive down to the Mah National Forest, either a spruce snob or smoke hole, and that would pull out that green Coleman stove and- Pump it up? Pump it up, yeah. I got one, too.

[00:17:56.320] - Big Rich Klein

I still have one.

[00:17:58.220] - Jack Sloan

It's my preferred method of cooking. I bust up that green Coleman stuff. I go propane instead of kerosine because I don't want to worry about...

[00:18:06.580] - Big Rich Klein

I'm a little bit lazy, but- No, I understand.

[00:18:09.320] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, that's the nostalgia for me. I mean, I'm going on these trips, I'm busting out a two burner Coleman stove where all these overlaying people got these. They're scotls still a thing or scotls, whatever, all these fancy cooking things. When we were here with the leftover frying pan, my wife was going to throw away in a two burner gas stove because that's what I grew up on. That's what it was to me. It still works, so I still do it. But yeah, fishing, hunting, a lot of camping. Those are my core memories from growing up was being outside and doing that stuff.

[00:18:47.260] - Big Rich Klein

It was just you and an older brother?

[00:18:50.400] - Jack Sloan

I'm the oldest.

[00:18:51.430] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, you're the oldest. Okay.

[00:18:52.580] - Jack Sloan

Yeah. I don't look it. My brother's like a listener. I don't look the oldest, but I'm the oldest. I have a sister Sure, three years younger, and a brother, six years younger. So we're all three years apart. But yeah, it was good times. It was a lot of... Real quick, when the last time I went camping with my dad and my brother, my dad had his tent from 1975 or whatever, old tent. We pull up the spruce knob and we're down below this drought Lake and we're camping. He lays the tent out and our family dog was with us. He gets and he pees on the tent. I'm like, Well, that's great. Then my dad sets the tent up and there's a huge dip in the ground. So he sets the tent up right over top of that dip. Then before we went to bed, the dog ran to the creek and got all wet. Somehow, Rich, somehow, Jack ended up in the dip where the dog peed with the wet dog was sat him all night long, with my brother and my dad sawing logs like no other. And that was the most vivid memory I think I have.

[00:20:00.330] - Jack Sloan

And I still go camping. Even after that trauma from my childhood, I still would rather go pitch a tent or pull up a tent caught and go sleep outside than anything else.

[00:20:12.280] - Big Rich Klein

That's awesome. What was your first car?

[00:20:18.660] - Jack Sloan

My first car was a 1984 Monte Carlo Super Sport.

[00:20:24.680] - Big Rich Klein

Really?

[00:20:25.860] - Jack Sloan

I've had two of those things. For a while, like I said, I was in the car stuff and had that car and then I wrecked it. No, I wrecked my mom's Explorer. She was getting ready to go to the beach with the next morning with my sister. I wrecked it the night before. So she sold the Monte Carlo to obviously pay back where I wrecked her Explorer. I had another one, and then after that was Explorer's. God dang, that started me having- After you wrecked one, you just figured you'd continue the- Just continue wrecking them, I guess. That was technically the same one I wrecked.

[00:21:06.600] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:21:07.960] - Jack Sloan

Well, I think I've had like 15 of them.

[00:21:10.480] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, in a auto accident.

[00:21:14.740] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, in a vehicular collision.

[00:21:17.340] - Big Rich Klein

Right. I saw the one that we did on the adventure, the AWE trip, and it was- All the raisin, yeah. Yeah, it was like my Cherokee.

[00:21:33.460] - Jack Sloan

I have massage it through the East Coast wheeling terrain for years. It's well used.

[00:21:41.440] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. And so that started your love affair with Explorers, huh?

[00:21:47.620] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, and then I was driving... So the one I have now, I've had since 2003. Wow. So that's 22 years of owning the same vehicle, which is... That's my longest relationship, continuous relationship ever. My wife and I have had more breakups than I've had to explore. I was driving it to work and it blew up. Four liter cracked heads, who knew? It sat for a while. It's okay, I had a spare. I bought another Monte Carlo and I bought a six liter LQ4 for it. And I was like, I'm going to go fast. The buddy of mine I was making tube fenders and roll cages for the Jeep guys back then. This was mid 2000s. I'm like, Man, I think I want to put a roll cage in this Explorer. Because I had been taking it off for it a little bit and got an engine in it. Ttv lived from rough country in 33s, which back then was huge. I traded the sixth liter for the Monte Carlo for a roll cage and the Explorer. So I traded going fast for going really, really slow. I don't know which one's more dangerous, fast or slow.

[00:23:11.160] - Jack Sloan

But that ended my car phase, and I've been off road ever since.

[00:23:17.880] - Big Rich Klein

And that off-roading, was it just you by yourself, or did you have some buddies that you joined with?

[00:23:27.000] - Jack Sloan

I was working in an auto parts store in town, and some guys who I still talk to today who are in the West Virginia Jeep Club, and it used to be real big, would come in and ask who's Explorer that was. I was like, It's mine. So I started going out with them. One was John Trotta, you met when you came out with us. And that started it. I started going out to some local county roads and some mining property, and that was the bug that bit me. It was almost like every other night after work, I was getting off my shift at whatever time. It was five or nine, either one, and then we were going wheeling. Then money started getting put into a 1993 Explorer instead of a savings account. That's how that happened.

[00:24:17.780] - Big Rich Klein

Where along that process did you get married?

[00:24:27.920] - Jack Sloan

Beverly and I started Seeing each other again in '07, and I think I was on 35s, and I had not solid-axle-swaped the vehicle yet because I did the solid-axle-swap in her dad's garage after we got married. So that would have been 2010. And here's the funny thing, she used to come wheeling with me all the time. She loved it.

[00:24:54.280] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, good.

[00:24:54.660] - Jack Sloan

So one day, I was going up a hill climb, and the front suspension unloaded a little bit. We looked up in the sky and we saw what we thought was heaven. Some explatives came out of her mouth, and then she told me to get her back onto the ground. And that was the last time she went off road with me.

[00:25:16.840] - Big Rich Klein

I guess I've gotten lucky. I haven't had the wheels off the ground yet with the Shelle in the Jeep with me. I've been looking at the sky, but it was typically when I couldn't climb a hill after a race.

[00:25:31.640] - Jack Sloan

We were totally playing on the ground. She just felt that initial suspension unload, and she thought we were going to roll over backwards. I told her we weren't. I told her, I was like, We're fine. Then She didn't believe me.

[00:25:46.780] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I always told Shelle, I said, If you don't feel comfortable as we're getting up to an obstacle or someplace that we're going to continue forward, just let me know and I'll let you and you can walk it. But understand that you are in here, you're belted in, you got a cage. It may get violent, but you're going to be safe. And she's always hung out. I mean, The most dramatic time, we were in Texas, did a race. After the race, we had to go pick up all the markers and clean the course up and stuff. And there was a spot that was probably a 25 foot, 30 foot, almost vertical. And it dropped down into this creek, and then you had to come out of the creek bed. And before the race, that hill climb was really easy. And of course, it rained. And that was when Harvey came in. And then we had the race. And where all the trees were stumped to the ground, they were now all 12 to 14 inches tall stumps. Yeah. So I get down into that, I drop down into that creek, and I look up and I go, oh, this is going to be fun.

[00:27:11.060] - Big Rich Klein

And I almost made it to the top. My front wheels were probably two foot from breaking over, and I caught one of the stumps on the front diff. And backing down was not really a good idea at that point. So I set the emergency break, which amazing, that at that point it was working. Got out because there's no emergency breaks now. Because breaks are overrated. Oh, yeah. I get out and I drop. I'm basically hanging from the door and the doorsill and find footing, climb up the side of the car so I could pull the winch, hook the winch up, and then climb back into the car, into it, and then winch myself up and over the stump and continue on cleaning up the race course. And the whole time, she just sat there and goes, Well, that was interesting. So, on the front end was a little light, you might say, but it was stuck on a stump as well.

[00:28:19.100] - Jack Sloan

She's been a good sport through all this. She always tells me, If anything bad happens, just don't let anyone post videos of it until I talk to you. I'm like, That's a fair deal. I can agree to that. If anything bad happens, I'll let you know I'm okay, then we can laugh about later. Yep.

[00:28:38.240] - Big Rich Klein

Very good. So do your kids wheel with you?

[00:28:44.100] - Jack Sloan

So I have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old. So I'll be back up. I'm 42 with a nine-year-old and a six-year-old. So I had a late start. I'm a very tired man. But the nine-year-old, Brandon, he came out with me for a while, and we were camping down at a GER. And the camping aspect, 100 %, he's all about it. He wants to camp all the time. He does not like the wheel. It's my fault. I took him right from a campground to crawling rocks immediately. We're scraping on everything in the bottom of that LJ I have, and he is losing his mind. But he hung through the rest of the day. He just goes, Dad, I'm not ready to off road that much, but I'll camp with you anytime. I was like, Okay, great. Ryan, he's six. He'll fall asleep while I'm wheeling. He doesn't care. He came with me on a light off-road trip that Jerry Bane put on a couple of weeks ago, and we did some County Road stuff and some rock ledges, and he was fine. I think he'll be the Wheeler and Brandon will be the camper, which is two things I like to do the most, so we're good.

[00:29:57.500] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. Always encourage to do what they want to do.

[00:30:01.680] - Jack Sloan

Yes. I don't force them, but if they want to do something, we're going to explore and see if they like it. Then things they like, we keep doing. Things they don't like, we stop.

[00:30:14.040] - Big Rich Klein

That old Explorer is the one that you're still wheeling today, right?

[00:30:19.800] - Jack Sloan

Correct. The Raisin is still, through its many iterations of existence, is still sitting right beside me right now.

[00:30:30.860] - Big Rich Klein

And didn't I see that you... Did you bring home a... Did you drag home a Jeep?

[00:30:39.060] - Jack Sloan

I'm not a Jeep guy, first and foremost. But I do have an LJ that my mother delivered mail in. She bought it brand new. It's on 35s with some Cromoly stuff, a little overlandy vehicle. And then the wife We got rid of her TJ, and we got a new Willies, Ordor, J-L-U, a bunch of letters. I'm a Ford guy. I went and drove a new Bronco. I worked at Ford for a long time. I don't trust EcoBoost engines.

[00:31:21.180] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:31:22.180] - Jack Sloan

Outside of warranty. And warranty is a big thing because I like working on my own stuff. So I don't know, the Jeep, she liked it better, so we went with the Jeep.

[00:31:34.500] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, fair enough. So a divided household,.

[00:31:39.360] - Jack Sloan

Kind of. I mean, I honestly I like it.

[00:31:44.540] - Big Rich Klein

But I mean- You're not going to go out and beat it.

[00:31:48.480] - Jack Sloan

No, no. It has a payment. We'll wait till after the payment. I say I look for one for when we're done paying on it, it's ready for me to do stuff to. So it's the 35-inch tire package with a 44 front and a rear locker. So it's mostly already ready to do stuff. But she has a Jeep, I have a Jeep. I tow my Ford with a GMC Yukon. So I have no brand preference. If it's a good platform and it works, okay. I just have some weird thing about Explores. I sold one a couple of weeks ago and I regret it, so I'm down to three, and I have three of them now.

[00:32:31.620] - Big Rich Klein

Are two of them then parts vehicles, or are they runners?

[00:32:39.340] - Jack Sloan

I bought one for a parts vehicle, and it was too nice to have it be a parts vehicle, so Then I bought a parts vehicle for it. Then I bought a four-door because I have kids and I thought a four-door would be nice. Now, do they run? No. But they can run if I I found some time to work on. But the four-door, I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. It's really hard getting kids in the back of a two-door vehicle.

[00:33:12.780] - Big Rich Klein

True.

[00:33:13.840] - Jack Sloan

Yeah. The LJ is a two-door, basically. I took the rear seats out. It's got a platform in the back for where I go do whatever I do. So I thought me and Ryan did that everlandy trip a couple of weeks ago. I was like, No, a four-door, all the kids could be in it. If it's just me and one of the kids, we could technically sleep in the back. So maybe I have some long travel James Duff suspension parts laying around. Maybe I'll do a long travel TTB. In the mountains of West Virginia, I'll build a West Coast Whoop Eater. Just bomb down some forest roads or something.

[00:33:50.300] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. I've never been brand specific, I'd say. I really like the for the simple fact that I can build them, and it's a good platform to begin with. The Jeep 4-0s, you can just terrorize.

[00:34:14.680] - Jack Sloan

I I'm 100 %. I'm a platform guy, not a brand guy. If it's a good platform, I'm all for it.

[00:34:18.770] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And then I always wanted a raptor, and that's the vehicle I tow with. And it's a 2012 with the 6. 2. And I just turned 300,000 miles on it and have done nothing but regular maintenance and two AC compressors. That's it.

[00:34:36.940] - Jack Sloan

If you do the regular maintenance, that's half the battle. But everyone goes by. I remember, real quick, I remember working at the Kea garage. This lady came in, she had 17,000 miles or something on her vehicle, and she came in for her first oil change. She said, I thought you guys would call me and tell me why I need to change the oil. That's how that works. It blew up about a week later. Yeah, regular maintenance. You do regular maintenance, pretty much could be good.

[00:35:11.100] - Big Rich Klein

When I met Shelle, she had a Mini Cooper. And we decided to go drive the mountains and everything. Where she lived in Idaho was not too far from Yellowstone. So a couple of hours, three hours, we were in Yellowstone. We're going to do that loop. And she goes, before we go, I'd like you to check the oil, but do not tell me how bad the oil is. Do not tell me. Don't say anything to me on the condition of the oil or whatever the level or anything like that. Just take care of it. I said, okay, fair enough. I go out there. Those things only have three quart of oil in them, right?

[00:36:01.360] - Jack Sloan

Yeah.

[00:36:02.060] - Big Rich Klein

So I pull a dipstick and I'm like, well, there's nothing on it. So I add a quart of oil, stick it in there. Oh, there's nothing on it. Two and a half quart.

[00:36:13.600] - Jack Sloan

It had enough oil to run the filter.

[00:36:16.680] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah. And the filter's a little tiny thing in that thing. But we ended up putting another 60, 70,000 miles on it after that. But I'd never told I told her, but every time we stopped for gas or in the restaurant, I told other people.

[00:36:37.680] - Jack Sloan

I just put three quart of oil in a three quart vehicle.

[00:36:42.190] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. It's funny stuff. But I love that little car, especially for doing roads. Oh, my God. Mountain roads, twisties?

[00:36:50.090] - Jack Sloan

I was coming down the office first on Mountain. It's the highest point in West Virginia. I was coming off the backside. It's a real winding, twisty turn. I'm in my three quarter ton, Yukon, with six people and a bunch of gear. And we come down the bottom of the hill, and I forget who it was. Someone goes, That smells something. I'm like, Yeah, my brakes are on fire. They are. I was like, I forgot while I was driving for them. I forgot I was in a tank. I was like, I need to slow down these hills a little bit.

[00:37:21.860] - Big Rich Klein

That's one of the things I love about the Raptor, is putting it in a tow haul. So it just... I hardly have to use the brakes on mountain roads going downhill.

[00:37:30.800] - Jack Sloan

Well, I remember that after that. So the next time we came down, I'm like, I'm just going to put in tow mode and tap a break a couple of times, and it'll rev up, and we'll be perfectly fine. Yeah.

[00:37:43.060] - Big Rich Klein

Love that. Let's talk about your progression from owning and modifying, starting to modify, and meeting the guys in the Jeep Club to where you're at now.

[00:38:01.600] - Jack Sloan

Well, I kept wheeling, kept wheeling, kept wheeling, and somehow in my Ford Explorer, I was the President of the West Virginia Jeep Club for two years. As I was doing that, my skill level was increasing. Me and my local friends here, the West Virginia boys, we were doing more things and going to the park, South State and stuff. I started noticing I just outgrowing the Jeep club thing. Does that make sense? Yeah. So we're doing that. And I was watching ultimate adventure, and this is in 2014, I was watching it. There was either a Blazer or a Bronco flipped over on its back on its top. I was like, Man, that looks like a good trip. I was like, I'm going to apply to that. I I had no clue what I was doing. I just applied. Sent some pictures. It looks like they were taking through a potato phone, horrible stuff. I got picked. That's really what kickstarted where I'm at now is in 2015, I'm going to go to the ultimate adventure, do that whole week, change my life. Ever since then, every week or every year, I do a week-long wheeling trip.

[00:39:30.000] - Jack Sloan

Every year.

[00:39:31.140] - Big Rich Klein

And where was that UA held?

[00:39:33.880] - Jack Sloan

It was two hours from my house. How convenient. How convenient. Two hours to start, a nine-hour drive home, and a Ford Explorer of 180,000 miles. So it was a very humbling trip because I had no business being out there. That was a early Bronco. No, I had a high pinion 44, narrowed front, radius arms, 37s. Simple, which I later learned, that's what you want. You want something simple. That way, if something were to happen, it's not a whole lot of work to get you back on the road. But I got the fever after that. I had to do it every year. Luckily, that's where I met Robert, on a little dating site called Pirate 4x4.

[00:40:33.980] - Big Rich Klein

The off-road dating site, yes.

[00:40:36.540] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, we were both on there. Then he got picked for UA, and we started talking and went to UA. I had to borrow his Curry tire deflator every day because I lost the one they gave me in the grab bag. We've been friends ever since. That's where the AWE stuff happened is after UA, I came home and me and my friends around here started doing trips. He was already in a group in Florida that did week-long trips, and I went to one of them. And in 2020, I planned a big route up in West Virginia right in the height of COVID. We had 20 vehicles. It was like the Florida group and the West Virginia group. And then a couple of years after that, we decided instead of trying to do each other's week-long trip every year, just make one group and just have one trip a year. And that's the first or second one of those we did, you came on.

[00:41:40.840] - Big Rich Klein

Okay. Yeah.

[00:41:41.780] - Jack Sloan

Might have been the first.

[00:41:43.240] - Big Rich Klein

That was the Alabama to Kentucky.

[00:41:46.360] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, that was the first actual AWE trip. And we've done one every year. And we call it Adventure Wheelers East, but we were in Colorado two years ago. Don't tell anybody. It's East of California, we'll put it that way.

[00:42:01.880] - Big Rich Klein

So it's actually still East. East of Hawaii.

[00:42:04.080] - Jack Sloan

East of Hawaii. There you go. I like it.

[00:42:06.360] - Big Rich Klein

Because you guys got to come do the Rubicon and then Four Dice, too.

[00:42:11.120] - Jack Sloan

It's on my bucket list, Four Dice, and I haven't been to Moab yet.

[00:42:16.640] - Big Rich Klein

There you go.

[00:42:17.540] - Jack Sloan

I should have taken another week off of work. We were in Colorado and driven up. My friend Kevin did that. He went for three days after Colorado, but I had to get back to work.

[00:42:26.940] - Big Rich Klein

Three days is a tease.

[00:42:29.500] - Jack Sloan

It is. But here's the thing. If I am going back, it's going to be two and a half days of driving, three days of being there, two and a half days of driving back.

[00:42:41.220] - Big Rich Klein

True.

[00:42:44.200] - Jack Sloan

Unless I win. I mean, I played a lottery. I played it today. So fingers crossed. Jack from Jack Off Road wins the lottery. He buys a Scouly or something. He travels the country wheeling.

[00:42:55.480] - Big Rich Klein

There you go. There you go. I lived on the road for 12 years, basically doing that, putting on events.

[00:43:06.200] - Jack Sloan

I could see myself doing it.

[00:43:08.350] - Big Rich Klein

I mean, got a semi truck and built the trailer. The trailer that I bought was already partially built out for a race team, and we just converted it to work for full-time living in instead of part time. That's good. And we had room to put the Jeep in the back, plus all the gear to put on events, rock, crawling, or or four-wheel drive endurance racing. And we did that for 12 years. And it was quite the workload. But man, the semi-truck was the way to go because you never had to worry. I mean, I really never had to worry about it breaking down. Put new tires on it when they needed it and make sure the oil changes were done. The thing just kept running and running and running.

[00:43:56.920] - Jack Sloan

I will find myself looking at bigger haulers, then I'm realizing, I don't know where I'm going to park it at. I don't have a big room in my house.

[00:44:07.680] - Big Rich Klein

That's the problem I'm having right now. I got in the driveway, well, got two different parking areas, one upstairs, that the family vehicle, my mom's van that we drive for her, because that's what we're doing, is taking care of my mother. And then downstairs, I have four spots to park in front of the garage. There's no room in the garage. And I've got the Beater black Jeep there. I've got a '82 Toyota or '84 Toyota Series 60 that's in the process of being stripped down and eventually getting a V8. And then I've got the 2000 TJ, Shelleys Jeep, that's all pretty much stock, and then the Raptor. But I've got a V8 Jeep The Cherokee. It's almost... I mean, it's running. They're just finishing up the AC, and when they get the AC done, then it goes for protection and a front bumper and things like that. And then it's on. Can't wait for that. But I don't have room for it. I'm like, okay, something's going to have to park across the street. Right now I got two trailers as well, the flatbed trailer, car hauler, which I typically leave at a friend's house.

[00:45:33.650] - Big Rich Klein

And then I've got an adventure trailer. It's a camp trailer that's only 23 foot long. I leave it at a place called Uncle Tom's Cabin nearby here that's within an hour, and it's an old stagecoach stop type thing up in the mountains. So I leave it there until winter hits. And then I try to find some place to park it down here cheap. Out of the snow line.

[00:46:02.560] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, luckily, we haven't had too much snow, not like we did when I was growing up. So I'm able to not worry about covering stuff up or digging stuff out as much anymore.

[00:46:14.280] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So how were you guys affected with that, that hurricane, or was that more the Carolinas that got pillaged?

[00:46:24.640] - Jack Sloan

So the Carolinas got hit pretty bad. But then after that, we've had probably three or four really heavy storms come through, and they've affected West Virginia a good bit. I mean, anywhere from the wheeling area was buried underwater to... I mean, heck, I had to have my driveway redone, I think, twice this year from just torrential downpours. We're in an extreme drought, but when we got rain, we got a lot of rain real fast. We haven't had a typical wet summer. We've been dry, but when we did get rain, it was heavy. There's been some local flooding and road damage and stuff like that. But the Southern part of West Virginia got hit pretty hard after the Carolinas did, from storms, from another hurricane. But I've been lucky up here where I'm at. We've had some... We've been spared a lot this year. Cool.

[00:47:24.600] - Big Rich Klein

And so with your... Have you done another ultimate adventure, or UA, or do you just follow all those guys still?

[00:47:35.740] - Jack Sloan

In 2023, I got a text from Trent. Let me back up a minute. I'd always told my wife. So I went in 2015. In 2016, Robert went back as a returning reader. I was supposed to be his passenger. But when I got back from UA in 2015, apparently I felt like making a child, and my wife was pregnant. She told me I could skip being home and go on UA, but I was like, There's no way. The kid was born a week after UA started. So I missed that. But in 2023, Trent texted me. I had told my wife Ever since the first one, if I ever get a phone call, I'm going. Well, I got a text, not to go, but to help, which great. They were coming to West Virginia. They were going to be a good evening ranch. This is in 2023. That's my home park. I love it there. Heck, I'll go down there and help guide them. It was the same week of our family beach vacation. I said, Hey. She goes, It's fine. We can go to beach another time. I said, Heck, yeah. So I already had the week off of work.

[00:48:50.580] - Jack Sloan

I panned some fancy spray can stripes on it in the Dave Chappelle style and loaded it up, went down there and helped run them around the ranch for a day. It was really good, really good time.

[00:49:03.460] - Big Rich Klein

Awesome. And did you skip the beach vacation completely for that?

[00:49:08.740] - Jack Sloan

I'm not a beach guy. Yeah, we didn't go to the beach. Don't tell me when we haven't been back since.

[00:49:15.620] - Big Rich Klein

I better not let her hear this.

[00:49:19.080] - Jack Sloan

No. Well, the good thing is, the fine thing is, on our week-long trips that we do, there's UA people on the trip. I mean, Kenny comes every year. There's a bunch of UA alumni, me, Robert, Jerry, Caine Ricardi, Caleb Morison, who was on this year's UA, came with us when we went to Colorado. Carl Suting from... Well, now he's in Alabama. He was on UA in '23. I met him at the Ranch, and he came on our trip. It's just people who like that wheel and end up wheeling with each other all the time. You know what I mean? It's like a club of week-long adventure wheelers. They tend to find each other.

[00:50:04.780] - Big Rich Klein

Without meetings.

[00:50:06.720] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, correct. Without. It's like, Hey, we're wheeling. Okay, great. Let's go.

[00:50:10.040] - Big Rich Klein

Everybody knows what they got to bring. They don't have to worry about somebody else.

[00:50:14.940] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, that makes us so... People who do these trips, the more you do... They're easy to do. I always tell people, everyone's like, How do you do this? You sit down, you go, I want a wheel here, here, and here with you, you, and you. Here's the road we're going to take. Every time you do it, it gets easier after that because everyone knows each other's vehicle, each other's wheeling style. You go to the same group of people, you know what to expect. We got to a point where we started inviting people or having invitations to get people to come with us now. God damn, I think we got 15 regulars, and that's a good bit of vehicle. That's a bunch of stuff. That's a lot of cats to herd.

[00:50:55.000] - Big Rich Klein

I really enjoyed being with you guys that time. I I did as we got farther away from where my trailer was parked and my tow vehicle, I did take the easier routes.

[00:51:12.120] - Jack Sloan

Yeah, you're wheeling for the whole week.

[00:51:13.500] - Big Rich Klein

That's perfectly fine. Exactly.

[00:51:15.660] - Jack Sloan

If I had to- It's my UA stuff, Wheel for the Week. You know you're more than welcome to come anytime you see us post anything up. You're in there for life. Anytime you want to come, you hit us up and let you know where we're going to be at.

[00:51:28.510] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. I'll I'll make it again. It's just I don't have as much free time now because I've taken care of mom, but that's- Life happens. That's something that is important in life.

[00:51:42.180] - Jack Sloan

Yes.

[00:51:44.760] - Big Rich Klein

Do you guys keep where you're going next a secret?

[00:51:55.120] - Jack Sloan

So generally, one person plans a trip. They do keep where we're going, the route is secret, but we'll generally let people know the area we're going to be in because it's a lot to plan, especially when you're trying to coordinate your time off. And it's not just a bunch of people from one area. We have people from Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida, Maryland, PA, Ohio, Kentucky, all trying to get the same week off to come wheeling with us. So we do let out the bag to the group where we're going. That way they can plan a course. But the route stays a secret to whoever plans it. Every year someone different plans a route.

[00:52:39.540] - Big Rich Klein

Where are you guys? Is there a location set for next year?

[00:52:44.760] - Jack Sloan

There is. I'll put it this way. I'll text you the actual location later. Okay. Because I got to keep a little bit of secret. But we will be on the East Coast.

[00:52:53.420] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:52:55.220] - Jack Sloan

I won't have that far of a drive.

[00:52:59.360] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. And I don't mind going out that direction if I... It just can find the time. Yes. I'm retired. I'm not putting on the events like I did. My partner, Jake Good, is doing that.

[00:53:14.580] - Jack Sloan

Which Dave had a blast doing that down at GER last year. He said that was a really good time. He had a blast down there.

[00:53:22.700] - Big Rich Klein

Good, good. But I don't have to make all those travels anymore. So I filled all my time Now, with the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Rubicon Trail Foundation, and of course, the the Rebell Rally that we do. That's only for about 12 days in October. But it's still we're planning for that and having to get ready for it for months in advance.

[00:53:50.200] - Jack Sloan

Oh, yeah. A lot of people don't understand how much work goes into planning just a... Even a three or four day, let me tell you, a week.

[00:53:57.860] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, yeah.

[00:53:59.080] - Jack Sloan

You got You got to make sure you're accommodating everyone who's going to be there. It's a lot of work. I'm glad that I haven't had to plan one for a couple of years. I can just attend and be a mouthpiece and help coach what's going on.

[00:54:14.220] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. So let's talk a little bit about the land use issues and what you guys are doing in West Virginia West Virginia.

[00:54:32.520] - Jack Sloan

West Virginia is, I think, the most forested state on the East Coast, maybe aside from Maine. So you'd think, Oh, wow, there's all kinds of recreational land. There is, but most of it's gated or it falls under... It was a county road, but it hasn't been maintained, it's been abandoned, and so and so who has a joint property has taken it's theirs and gates are put up. I won't get into the whole legal side of it, but there is a huge fight with keeping public roads, not just land, but roads open. There are a few groups in the state who are working to keep it open. Of course, we're always fighting the whole stigma of we're just tearing up the land, ruining the creeks, leaving barricades everywhere. But like my buddy, Jerry Baines said, when I was talking to him on the phone the other day, the people who are against what we're doing and wanting to keep the roads closed and the lands closed, they understand that we're the stewards of the land. We're out there keeping it clean, keeping the wrong people off of it, trying to open it up for tourism, which tourism, I think since COVID, is the number one source of an economic impact in the state of West Virginia.

[00:56:00.000] - Jack Sloan

It's no longer coal and stuff like that. It's tourism. People want to come see the state. It's a fight every day to keep certain things open or to open more. I had my mother with me and my sister down the mountains this weekend, and we're driving some old forest roads, and she sees all these turns. She's like, Where does that go? I was like, I wish I could tell you. It's been gated off as long as I can remember. I don't know. I'm sure it's a great road, but it's gated off. So It's a fight, and it always has been. But there are a few groups in the state such as Country Roads Coalition, Backroads of Appalachia, Jen, Eric and his guys are great. Working to show the right people the impact off-road motor sports can have, and try to keep more land open and open more land. So it's a struggle, but we're getting there. It's everyday thing.

[00:57:01.220] - Big Rich Klein

And you have a senator.

[00:57:04.220] - Jack Sloan

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, Mark Maynard.

[00:57:06.660] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:57:07.680] - Jack Sloan

Mark Maynard, heck of a guy. Everyone knows him as Mr. Motorsports. He is always lobbying for motor sports and off-highway vehicle legislation in the state. And thanks to Mark, a couple of years ago, he put a bill through that enables you to... If you're a side-by-side guy, you can get a plate on your side-by-side. Now, there are some restrictions, but you can run your side-by-side on the street. In that bill, though, he also worded it very, very well It includes purpose-built off-road vehicles, which my Explorer technically was no longer a passenger vehicle. It didn't meet the qualifications to be registered as an everyday driver. But it does register as a purpose-built off-road vehicle. So I have a little ATV plate on the back of my Explorer so I can drive it to get ice cream or to the trail. So because of people like him, there are ways to legally tile your off-road vehicle and drive it on the street. Now it's to the trail, off the trail, anything below 55 miles an hour. But not driving that thing every 55, it's scary.

[00:58:36.780] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Yeah, I got to meet Mark Maynard, Senator, at the Ormhoff, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Gala, two years ago or last year. I forget which year it was. But anyway, he sat at our table, and It was great to be able to sit and talk with him.

[00:59:03.760] - Jack Sloan

It's great to talk to someone who is in legislature who is so passionate about motor sports and off-highway vehicle recreation.

[00:59:16.260] - Big Rich Klein

Yes.

[00:59:16.780] - Jack Sloan

It's a breath of fresh air. Those people generally don't care for what we're doing.

[00:59:22.500] - Big Rich Klein

At any level of government, you can take your local county commissioners or whatever you happen to call them in your particular state. We have that right now. We're trying to... The one end of the Rubicon Trail is Forest Service, and it's not been the county that it's in, Placer County, has not claimed their RS 2477 rights, which would give them the the claim on that trail, that part of the trail or county road, so that it'll never be closed. Right now, the Forest Service can just come in and close down, if they wish, could close down the Placer County side of the trail. And that would be really devastating to like Jeepers Jambury and Jeep Jambury USA, and just to the local economies, because if you can't make it all the way through, it's Just get down to the springs and turn around and come out. Right, exactly. So a lot of people are going to go, we'll just bypass it. We won't do that trail. And that would be a really big shame. So one of the pushes that I'm involved in right now is to try to convince Placer County to claim their RS 2477 rights and trying to put together a coalition of people not only nationally that have a lot of pool like Tread Lightly and Blue Ribbon, but also state and local groups and the chamber of commerces and things like that so that we can present them with a letter saying, this is why this needs to be open and then get it so that we can do public content.

[01:01:16.660] - Big Rich Klein

Show them an example.

[01:01:17.060] - Jack Sloan

Show them an example. A real good resource for that is, I didn't realize how big of an impact a weekend event would have until I ran the very first Backroads of Appalachia 24-hour rally in '23. I think it was in '23. I think I wrote an article about it in four low. So everyone go online and look up the article I wrote. They put out economic I have to report later. You don't think of all the things. You don't think of gas stations. Hotels, you don't think of them. Gas stations, Mom and pops, just people stopping the 300 people that were on the rally. It was a large sum of money that got pumped into the economy over a two-day weekend. And I think the more people who see what a well-organized responsible event could bring in economic-wise, I mean, I just blows my mind. People don't... They don't want free money. Let us come give you money. Let me come wheel in your area and buy gas and get a hotel room and stop to get dinner at your favorite diner and spend my money in your area. We'll come back. Yeah It's crazy to me.

[01:02:31.840] - Big Rich Klein

It's insane. So you got a work weekend this weekend. Is the Tread Lightly weekend this weekend?

[01:02:40.880] - Jack Sloan

This weekend is Tread Lightly. The last two years Me and James Wright from Fairmont Dual Sport Riders did a local spot here in Fairmont. This year, a lot of the effort is going to be put into larger areas of where trash has been found. Now, down around Charleston. I don't know if I'm going to make it down there this weekend or not for the kickoff ceremony. I have to do some repairs to the raisin before Robert's wedding at Wind Rock here in a couple of weeks.

[01:03:13.090] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, that's right.

[01:03:15.760] - Jack Sloan

West Virginia is pretty much leading the pack on a statewide cleanup day. The last two years, we just picked a local county road that we all four wheeled at when we were growing up, and we filled a dumpster from the Department of Environmental Protection. We filled it. I think we may have had... The first year we did this, I think my group had the largest tonnage of refuse taken in last year. Other than one group finding a burnt car, I think we were a close tie for a second. But it's just... I talked to the REAP lady and let her know that the contact I had there to me, if I wasn't going to do anything tomorrow, if I could get a hold of her for another day. They're all about it because they see the impact it has. Again, a group of wheelers or friends out. We just picked up beer cans off the side of a trail for four hours. But we made so much of an impact that they are asking us, Hey, wouldn't you guys do another one? That's great. That's being a steward of the lane. That's being a responsible operator.

[01:04:25.420] - Big Rich Klein

Right. The more people that hear about that and see it are more likely to start taking those gates down when they're not supposed to be up anyway.

[01:04:34.640] - Jack Sloan

We had an incident just several years ago. We're at some mining property. Everyone goes out on four wheels or target practices or something. We were driving out there and a couple of us had garbage bags in the back of our vehicles. The guy who owned the land happened to be there. He's following us down this trail in a stock long-bed Chevy truck, and he stops us. Hey, what are you guys doing? We're wheeling. He goes, It's in the back of your rig. You're going to dump that? Like, No, dude, we picked this up. This is stuff we picked up. He goes, What are you do with it? We're going to take it out of here and throw it away. He was happy. He said, You guys go ahead and do whatever you want. That's great. He's usually out there chasing people who are dumping couches, and mattresses, and garbage, and we're picking it up.

[01:05:23.660] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, you make friends that way.

[01:05:26.740] - Jack Sloan

You do. You make a positive impacts and good friends that way. They know you're out there, they see your vehicles, and they know what you're doing. That's how you make friends.

[01:05:38.360] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, and then you make sure that when you go back to those areas, if you can get their contact when you first come across them, you let them know you're coming back just so that they know that you're out there and you're going to be cleaning up.

[01:05:51.040] - Jack Sloan

I always have. Well, now it's whatever those, what's the fad now? Spider web shades, like trash cans on the back, whatever. I have two or three of those. Every time I go out, I put one in the back because I know I'm going to get out to spot someone up a trail. I'm going to find an old beer can or a lunchable pack or something that I'm going to pick up because I know I don't want to be there. I know the people who are in the land that we wheel at don't want to be there.

[01:06:20.020] - Big Rich Klein

That's perfect. Well, Jack, I want to say thank you so much for spending the evening with me. It was a pleasure Just to let everybody- I've been waiting a long time for this, just saying that. I just wanted to say thank you. And also thank you for everything you did for writing articles and all that for Forlo magazine. Really appreciated that. And I wish we could have kept that thing going and actually paid for articles and stuff, but really appreciate you donating your time and stuff to that as well.

[01:06:57.120] - Jack Sloan

That was a highlight of my off-road career. That was Being able to see my ideas being enjoyed by other people and my rambles, it was great. I appreciate the opportunity, Rich.

[01:07:07.880] - Big Rich Klein

Well, great. And raise those kids right. Keep your wife happy so she doesn't mind skipping beach weekends or weeks for you to go wheeling. And every once in a while, I guess you got to take her out to someplace nice or wine and diner, whatever she needs.

[01:07:29.400] - Jack Sloan

I I reserved a cabin at Wind Rock for Robert's Wedding, so I could be wheeling, and she could be in a cabin having the time for life. Nice. We're good.

[01:07:38.760] - Big Rich Klein

Perfect. All right. Well, you take care and say hello to everybody out there at Robert's Wedding, and I really hope to get out there and join you guys again.

[01:07:47.880] - Jack Sloan

Awesome. I hope to see you soon, too, buddy.

[01:07:49.700] - Big Rich Klein

All right. You take care.

[01:07:51.320] - Jack Sloan

All right. Thank you, Rich.

[01:07:52.080] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Good night. Bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can. Thank you.