King of the Hammers Adventure
I had no idea what to expect before my first time to King of the Hammers. And to be honest, I'm still not sure even after attending. Hammertown was described to me as Burning Man for off-roaders and I can see the comparison (though I've never been to Burning Man). All that aside, the Optima Oasis Unplugged event was fantastic complete with clean fuel charging (solar and green hydrogen). They brought together a great group of folks from all over the west. Most of us in Rivians, but a few Ford Lightnings, a handful of Kias and Jeep 4XEs and a couple Toyota hybrids hit the trails with us.
We had a great time driving the hills of Johnson Valley, learning about "tread lightly" principles even as we had a few drifting opportunities...
One of the highlights of the trip for me was reuniting with a couple of our customers who had come to our shop for pickup and install of their Thunderbolt Kitchens. In fact, including ours, there were five Thunderbolt kitchens at the event including an R1S kitchen. Even after a full day of rough trails around the desert, the kitchens easily slid out of the gear tunnel for early morning coffee duty.
