How one metal fabricator celebrates a wedding anniversary in a pandemic

Josh and Darla Welton celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary at Lake Michigan in Holland, Mich.

Recently my wife Darla and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. That number doesn’t even seem real. Man, time flies when you’re in love.

Considering the state of the world, our options to celebrate were limited. The one thing Darla wanted, however, was to see the sun set on Lake Michigan.

July 7 was on a Tuesday – in the middle of the workweek, but Darla asked me to take the day off. Jeep had given us a Gladiator Rubicon to rock for the week. So as soon as I arrived home after work, we packed up the truck and headed west, chasing the big yellow thing in the sky.

It’s been a hot summer for us in Detroit. We’ve had weeks of 90-plus temps, where most years you can count them in days. This Monday was no exception. We made it to the state park beach in Holland, Mich., with time to spare. There were a lot of people there. Most were practicing social distancing. We grabbed a couple of blankets, towels, sunscreen, and the Jeep’s detachable Bluetooth speaker and headed toward the shore.

The water felt incredible. We walked out into it for a bit and I submersed myself to beat the heat. Then we grabbed a place on the painfully hot sand to lay our blankets down, lay ourselves down, and watch the sun go down through the horizon. We were together. Darla was happy and so I was happy.

Once dusk hit, we climbed back into the Jeep and found our camping spot in the park. Yeah, I said camping. We don’t do camping. We like AirbnBbs and comfortable hotels, so this was a new experience for us, even 20 years in.

We didn’t have a tent or a camper. What we did have was the Gladiator’s bed, a blow-up mattress, and mosquito netting. Oh yeah, I brought the jerrystove too. Darla brought Hershey’s chocolate, marshmallows, and Nilla wafers for s’mores.

After snacking and hanging out by the fire, we hit the hay in our makeshift sleeping quarters. It was a warm night, but the stars glittered against the blackness of space. Also, we’re 99% sure we saw a UFO dancing in bewildering patterns.

The morning came and we walked up to the beach and into the lake for a cooling swim. When the SPF began to wear off, we headed back to the Jeep where I took off the Jeep’s Freedom tops (think T-tops). We then cruised up the Lake Michigan shoreline for a couple of hours before heading back east to Detroit. We made the 2.5-hour trip home and unpacked, and I pulled the Gladiator into the shop. I wanted to turn it into a glorified dune buggy.

Any vehicle that comes with tools is cool in my book. My Dodge Demon came with a crate full of them. The Jeep comes with a small tool roll, including a ratchet and a couple of bits. There are a total of 24 bolts: 2 in the hinge, 1 for a lever in each door, 8 holding the hardtop down, and 4 (plus each wiper blade) to lay down the windshield. I substituted the ratchet for my Metabo impact gun and made quick work of them all. I did put the windshield back up; it looked kind of odd down, plus I was going to drive this 40 minutes to and from the prototype shop every day.

The Urban Detroit campsite.

This was a new sensation, driving a stripped-down Jeep. It was exhilarating rolling through Detroit’s neighborhoods before dawn with no body panels separating my skin from the cool night air. Obviously, it’s loud as hell, but I love the noise. I cranked up Deftones’ “Around the Fur” to put some rock and roll into the wind.

The plan was to work until the weekend, then go to my mom’s place back on the west side of Michigan. I was gonna utilize the Gladiator’s bed to pick up and haul back some of my dad’s stuff. That, and I was going to get this Jeep DIRTY at my sister’s farm, racing down the two tracks outlining their fields before exploring the brush and swamp outside the perimeter. I try to do that with all the 4x4 press vehicles I get, like the Hemi-powered Ram Rebel, the turbodiesel Rebel, the 6.4l Ram Powerwagon, and another Gladiator Rubicon last summer. There’s a lot of terrain variation (trails, marsh, mud, two tracks, hills) on their property and it gives me a way to compare the trucks.

Unfortunately, I was forced to work mandatory OT at the prototype shop. This meant there would be no second trip west.

That’s not to say we couldn’t have off-road fun here in the city. I threw the jerrystove into the bed, climbed a curb, and drove over the grass to a giant tree. It was time to do some urban camping.

We found a spot and unloaded.

We scrounged for wood to fuel the rocket stove and fired it up in all its glory. Then Darla brought out the steak she’d prepped. This would be the first time we’d cooked anything other than s’mores on the stove. Despite one side getting crispy as we were caught up talking to friends (who came over to see what the heck we were up to), the steak turned out incredible. Darla literally just laid it on the stove’s stainless steel grill, flipped it once, and let me at it. Then, of course, there were more s’mores.

That was it, our last hurrah in the wide-open Jeep Gladiator, and a nice cap on our 19th anniversary week. Darla, by the way, is a huge fan of the Jeep and she wants one now.

I’m so grateful for the time I can spend with Darla whether we’re on the open road, camping on the beach, or having a cookout 200 ft. from our urban loft. Here’s to another 19 years.

Slide Show | 10 Images