My Bio and Other Jeepin' Stories

I was born in Wilkes-Barre and raised in Mocanaqua, a town of less than 1,000 people situated in Pennsylvania's coal region in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains. I am named after my father, Paul, my mother is Wendy, and I have a great older sister named Paula. Due to all the Pauls in the house, I was referred to as "Kevin", my middle name. My family relocated to Berwick, a town located about 12 miles down the Susquehanna River in the early 90's. This town is famous for Wise Potato Chips, as this is where the company was founded and remains today. My neighbor was actually Earl Wise, Jr., the founder's son, and my father worked at the factory.

Berwick is also nationally recognized for something else--its high school football. Under the direction of the greatest high school coach ever, George Curry, the Dawgs won 4 national championships and 6 state championships, including a streak of 4 in a row. I was lucky enough to be part of the football tradition. In fact, I started on the defensive line as a 169 pound sophomore, and was the team's third leading tackler. By my senior year, I played noseguard, tackle, and outside linebacker and racked up 19 sacks, good enough for second in the state. Due to my efforts, I was named to the PFN First Team All-State and played in the PA East-West All-Star game. I also bench pressed 375 pounds and squatted 440. In addition, I was the top ranked male in my academic class.

I choose to attend Brown University to furthur my academic and athletic career. This is the derivation of the name 'ivyjeeper' as Brown is in the Ivy League. I hoped to major in engineering (this would help in modifying my Jeep), but I found the curriculm too vigorous. Therefore, I changed my concentration to economics.

Now for the Jeeping section of my biography. About ten years ago, my father purchased a rental house in Mocanaqua with a huge garage. In the garage was two CJ-7's in pieces. My father planned to have them pieced together. However, this project never happened, and the Jeeps were relocated to a farm. When I turned 15, I hoped to rekindle the hopes of reincarnating these Jeeps, but my hopes were shattered as the body was rusted out and the frames were rather rusty as well. Although a Jeep did not arise from the mess, I was determined to own a Jeep, so I turned to the classified ads. I looked in multiply papers everyday for a few years. Everytime I found a Jeep I wanted, it was sold the day before I called. I even tried to convince my father to take me to New York to look at a particular Jeep.

Well, by the time I got my liscence, I was still Jeep-less. I purchased a 1983 Buick Skylark for \\$400 until I found a Jeep. As it turned out, this vehicle remained extremely reliable (the only thing to malfunction was the starter), and I drove it like a Jeep (I work at a tree nursery, and I would drive it through the fields and muddy roads). Over a year later, on my way to work, I saw a Jeep for sale about 1/2 mile from my house. Well, it turned out it was the Jeeps destiny for me to own it! Without power steering or power breaks, it was quite difficult to drive at first. In fact, during the test drive, I almost drove through the man's house when attempting to park it in the driveway. (As a related story, the one time I let my sister drive the Jeep, we also fied! As we were turning off a highway onto a bridge, she was going way too fast. I was hoping she realized this and just continued straight, but she made the turn with a lot of body roll. The fact that the steel hardtop was on which increases the high center of gravity did not help.)I payed $2500 dollars for the Jeep and it only had 48,000 miles on it! It also came with a steel hard top. Supposedly, it was originally owned by a golfcourse.

Ever since then, my Jeep and I have had a wonderful relationship. One time, at work, the Jeep wouldn't stay running. I diagnosed it as a bad fuel pump, so I borrowed money from my boss, and replaced it. By the time I got it in, it was dark, and I hadn't yet figured out why my headlights didn't work yet (it turns out, the dimmer switch was bad). Even with the new pump and even filter, it still wouldn't work. So I poured about a gallon of my reserve fuel into the tank, but it still didn't run. So we tried the gas in the carbuerator trick too. Finally, my boss filled the tank, and that was the problem--the gas wasn't up to the level of the pick-up line! So my coworker drove in front of me through the country roads alluminating the way. My dual exhaust was spitting out fire from the fuel poured down the carbuerator! Thanks to Harry and Scott, I got the Jeep home!

My friend Ryan has twenty-some acres of land, including a swampy area. This swamp is about 200 yards x 50 yards. When you walk through it, you sink up to your knees in mud in some places. I wanted to test the capabilities of my Jeep, so I thought I would attempt to drive through. Well, to my surprise, and my passenger's surprise as well, we made it through with very little problems. As the word of my feats spread through my pool of friends, others wanted to enjoy the experience as well. However, during one run, my Jeep stopped forward progress right in the middle of the swamp. Shit, I was stuck! Ryan tried to pull me out with his Chevy P/U, but his wheels just spun. We gave up for the day because I had to go somewhere. The next day, my buddy Nate (275 pounds of lovin') came with his '87 YJ w/ I believe 33" BFG mud terrains. Well, he pulled me right out without a bit of wheel spin! Its a Jeep thing. It turns out, I forgot to lock my front hubs into four whell drive during my fatal run! I made it half way through the swamp in two wheel drive. In order to mend my damaged ego, I drove through twice successfully. Thanks Nate!

Then, this past summer, I had trouble with the clutch linkage. It was merely a steel cable and had frayed from five strands to one strand. I couldn't locate a replacement, so I just rigged it up with a turnbuckle. This setup worked for quite a while. However, at Ryan's over my Christmas Break, disaster struck again. The cable snapped on the transmission end. Well, I searched the net for a replacement while at college. None of the "experts" really knew which cable to give me. So I ordered one off the guy that made the best effort to find out (Greg Griffith at Jim's Offroad Warehouse). Currently, I am wondering wether my mechanic has got it fixed! And thanks to the Johnson's for letting my Jeep sit in their driveway until it got towed, as well as not minding the swamp incident too much!

One more humurous story. This summer, again at Ryan's, I stopped up to visit, but no one was home. So my friend Matt and I headed to another friend's house. On the way down the driveway, I saw a pair of glowing eyes in the driveway (it was night time). Just kidding around, I gunned it into the yard and towards the animal. As we got closer, I could tell it was a skunk. Well, the thing ran right under my wheel! Luckily, we were going topless so the smell didn't hang around too much. After a few hours (to make sure the creature had expired) we went back up and removed the corpse from the yard.

Since I ended up thanking people, I might as well not let any one out. Thanks to my dad for insurance and letting me keep the Jeep in his garage when I am at college (as well as numerous other Jeep related favors), my mom for making phone calls for parts when I need them, and our mechanic friend, Kenny Evan for always fixing my vehicles for almost nothing in return! And thanks to Mike Reed for helping me paint my hardtop. Man, we had fun doing it. (Mike owns a Blazer, which is not a Jeep, but still very cool). Thanks to another Mike(Stefanacci)at Brown University for scanning the pics in for me.

More to come some other day..................

My Jeep has been sold to a guy in West Naples, Florida. He drove all the way to PA to trailer it back home. He plans to do a complete resto on it.

I have since purchased a "new" Jeep. Its a 1966 CJ-5 with a F-head four cylinder. The engine doesn't compare to the Dauntless V-6! However, this Jeep is in a lot nicer shape. It has a soft top, chrome wheels, interior carpeting, and an IMMACULATE body. Someday I will get these pics up on the web.

12-05-02:I had a chance to drive the Jeep during my Thanksgiving break. Its very easy to start even with the cold weather. However, it doesn't have a very high top speed (i don't know if its the gearing or the engine). However, it seems to have a lot of torque in first gear and amazing compression braking. I still haven't taken it off road, but don't know if a will, since its in such good shape.

7-12-03: bought a 1979 cj'5 from a guy in berwick. i bought all three of my jeeps within about 5 miles of my house, 2 of them within a mile. its kinda wierd.
7-15-03: I sold the '66 on ebay to a guy in texas. he had it shipped. i made a profit on the deal.