Getting Off The Road
Joe Bostick is a friendly, quiet, unassuming man. The owner of Bostick Construction in Columbus, Mississippi, Bostick’s open-handed and soft-spoken demeanor give no hint as to his passion in life – building and driving off road vehicles.
When he was 12, he and his father purchased a four-wheel truck and used it to run around the 200 acres of land they owned. Since then, he’s been hooked on the sport.
“I like working on trucks. I like building motors. I really like customizing them myself,” he said.
Currently, Bostick owns three vehicles he has customized for off-roading: A souped-up Jeep Cherokee, a Can-Am Side-By-Side, and a rock bouncer he has essentially built from scratch. Resembling a Mad Max style dune buggy, a rock bouncer is a vehicle specifically designed to attempt to climb nearly sheer cliff walls and rocks and safely roll back down should the truck fail to make it to the top of whatever incline it is attempting to climb.
“Rock bouncers are designed to be beat to death and keep on going. It’s a little ridiculous,” said Bostick. “But it’s a lot of fun.”
Bostick, his wife Hailey, and their friends spend many of their weekends visiting different off road parks across the southeast. He’s been all over Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas to run his trucks. For a brief time, he even participated in mud racing events.
“We have a really good group of friends and running these vehicles gives us all a good reason to hang out,” he said. “It’s like a family, really.”
Bostick has attended the off-roading event, Mud Nats, in Tyler, Texas (which has since moved to Arkansas). He has also explored off-road parks like Windrock in Tennessee, which he describes as his favorite park.
He’s always looking for new places to take his trucks, but he says that can often be a challenge.
“It’s pretty easy to find information out about the big parks, because everybody already knows about them,” he said. “But finding some of the places that folks don’t know about, finding a good track or trail we’ve never ridden, that’s a lot harder.”
He sees Global Outdoors as the perfect solution for finding places to ride.
“The idea that there could be one place on the Internet where you can find reviews, see pictures, get information about off-road parks is really powerful and a great idea,” he said.
As for those who have never had the chance to ride in the mud or attempt to climb 60 degree inclined rocks, Bostick as some insight into what one can expect.
“You’ll be glad to be tightly buckled in and you’ll be really happy the roll cage is there,” he said. “We go up some pretty steep rocks and we have flipped over. When that happens, you just get out and flip the vehicle over again,” he said. “But I make sure to bring my camera with me when we go on these trips. You’ll see some amazing nature out there. And you’ll also meet a lot of new people.”
