Member
Spotlight:
Joe Abbate
From the May 2004 Issue of Trail Tales
by Joan Wolf
There
are challenges and then there are CHALLENGES! Joe Abbate (pronounced Abbot)
appears to favor CHALLENGES since he is: (1) training for a marathon, (2)
working on his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, and (3) upgrading his
’68 Bronco. The energetic 26-year old also manages to work fulltime as a
Process Engineer at Honeywell and play on a flag football team.
So what’s up with the marathon? Joe says he isn’t really a runner and his “competitions” have been limited to 5k walks for charity. Last fall after his older sister completed her first marathon, Joe took up the challenge. He’s been training since February for the June 6th Rock & Roll marathon in San Diego. He recently ran 15 miles and said it wasn’t too bad during the run “but my knees were sore for two days afterwards.” He’ll do a 20-miler sometime prior to the run, but won’t do the entire distance until June 6. Good luck, Joe, and I probably speak for many NM4Wers in saying better you than me.
Joe hails from the Chicago suburb of Barrington, Illinois and has been in Albuquerque for four years. Shortly after graduating from Purdue with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, Joe moved to Albuquerque for a job with Honeywell. Unfortunately, 1½ years later, the Honeywell plant closed down and Joe was laid off. Besides looking for employment, Joe used the five-month downtime to work on his Bronco. Just in the nick of time, he was hired by Honeywell FM&T (Federal Manufacturing & Technology) and was able to remain in Albuquerque. The new job was a good fit, “I love my work,” says Joe.
Having completed three of ten distance-learning courses for his Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Joe’s educational challenge is 30% complete. Each week he gets three videotapes of class lectures. He must view the tapes, mail back his homework, and take proctored exams at Kirtland Air Force Base.
The Bronco building isn’t viewed as a challenge by Joe because he enjoys working on it as much as driving it. When he got the vehicle six years ago, it didn’t run. It now has a ’94 Mustang engine, 3-1/2” suspension lift, 2” body lift, and 33” tires. He’s done all the work himself. The Bronco is red and has no doors or top, except for a bikini top (which wasn’t much fun last summer at Gallup during an afternoon rain!) Everything else is stock, including the gears, drive train, Dana 44 front, and Ford 9” rear. He’s got a Dana 60 front end to install, and a set of Hummer rims for yet-to-be-purchased 38” tires.
Joe has been a member of NM4W for about a year and learned about the club through the Internet. (Once again, kudos to Glenn for impressing visitors to the nm4w.org website!) Joe joined the club to learn about local areas and to meet experienced four-wheelers. His impression of NM4W, “Everyone is nice. I like that the people range from those who are very serious and have serious vehicles to those who are more laid-back about four-wheeling and have regular vehicles.”
Joe has enjoyed taking the Bronco on runs to Gallup and Cedro Peak. He was tickled to take his father up Cedro Peak when he visited New Mexico. Dad had never seen the Bronco in running condition! (By the way, since Dad was a drag racer Joe won’t get any lectures about risky sports.)
Another fun trail experience for Joe was riding with Glenn on Broad Canyon at the 2004 Chile Challenge. A rock-crawling aficionado, Joe enjoyed watching vehicles tackle the various obstacles. Someday Joe wants to do the Rock Garden in Farmington.
Joe hopes to attend more events and become more involved with NM4W after completing the marathon and his Masters. He wants to have the Bronco “up to par” by summer so that he can help with the SWFWDA Summer Quarterly in Fairplay. In the meantime he gets around town in his ’95 Wrangler. Joe swears he will not “touch” that vehicle! Oh come on Joe, how about another CHALLENGE?