january 2009 rooster

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1 This newsletter was slightly de- layed in order to include coverage of the New Years trip, but please feel free to write about your trip for next month’s newsletter. The next trip is very close, with the MLK dune cleanup trip planned for Wash 6 on January 16-19th. For Presidents week in mid Febru- ary, we are planning on having members arrive Thursday February 12th and stay through Monday the 23rd. As usual, other members will do back to back weekends. We need club flags. Our supply of the Red white and blue pennant club flags has finally been sold out, so now we are looking for a source for the flags. If you know someone who could produce 25-50 of these flags, let the board know. A UTV New Year! AJ and I arrived in camp on Friday, the 26 th , to find a large camp already in place. Apparently a lot of people decided to spend Christ- mas in the dunes this year! We also found more UTVs in camp than ever before. Besides Doug’s and my Rangers, the Olivers and Tran- thams had their Rhinos, and the Fords had their new Ranger. The first few days were pretty cold, but we got a few short rides in despite the cold. Monday the weather warmed up nicely so we de- cided to take all the UTVs to the north end of the dunes to Mammoth Wash. I hadn’t been up that way for 30 years so it was an interest- ing trip. On the way we came across an old grave yard that, according to our GPS, was the old town site of Amos. After a little explor- ing, where someone in our group stole a few rocks off some poor old guy’s grave (that someone will go unnamed, however HE drives a red Ranger!) we continued on north. We took a turn-off that took us away from the dunes, but turned and fol- lowed a wash back over to the railroad tracks and came out under and old railroad trestle where we stopped for a break. During the break Shirley found what we all thought was a pair of old underwear lying on the ground. We were all kind of grossed out when she picked them up, until she announced they were HER’S! Apparently they were in her pants leg and fell out while she was walking around, but just the idea that we had gone 25 miles, to an area none of us had been to in years, and found a pair of her underwear on the ground was priceless! We worked our way back to camp without inci- dent completing an epic 48 mile ride. On Wednesday, Shirley and Linda wanted to get some experience driving their UTVs in the dunes so we got all five UTVs together and went a dunin’. We spent most of the time running the small dunes right outside of camp and they did great. The best parts were the “YEEHAW!’s” coming from Linda’s Rhino every time we went up a dune! We got back to camp just in time for the Annual New Years Eve Spaghetti (Continued on page 2)

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In this edition of the Rooster, we cover the New Years trip to Glamis.

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Page 1: January 2009 Rooster

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This newsletter was slightly de-layed in order to include coverageof the New Years trip, but pleasefeel free to write about your trip fornext month’s newsletter.

The next trip is very close, with theMLK dune cleanup trip planned forWash 6 on January 16-19th.

For Presidents week in mid Febru-ary, we are planning on having

members arrive Thursday February12th and stay through Monday the23rd. As usual, other members willdo back to back weekends.

We need club flags. Our supply ofthe Red white and blue pennantclub flags has finally been sold out,so now we are looking for a sourcefor the flags. If you know someonewho could produce 25-50 of theseflags, let the board know.

A UTV New Year!AJ and I arrived in camp on Friday, the 26th, to find a large camp already in place. Apparently a lot of people decided to spend Christ-mas in the dunes this year! We also found more UTVs in camp than ever before. Besides Doug’s and my Rangers, the Olivers and Tran-thams had their Rhinos, and the Fords had their new Ranger.

The first few days were pretty cold, but we got a few short rides in despite the cold. Monday the weather warmed up nicely so we de-cided to take all the UTVs to the north end of the dunes to Mammoth Wash. I hadn’t been up that way for 30 years so it was an interest-ing trip. On the way we came across an old grave yard that, according to our GPS, was the old town site of Amos. After a little explor-ing, where someone in our group stole a few rocks off some poor old guy’sgrave (that someone will go unnamed, however HE drives a red Ranger!) wecontinued on north.

We took a turn-off that took us away from the dunes, but turned and fol-lowed a wash back over to the railroad tracks and came out under and oldrailroad trestle where we stopped for a break. During the break Shirley foundwhat we all thought was a pair of old underwear lying on the ground. Wewere all kind of grossed out when she picked them up, until she announcedthey were HER’S! Apparently they were in her pants leg and fell out whileshe was walking around, but just the idea that we had gone 25 miles, to anarea none of us had been to in years, and found a pair of her underwear onthe ground was priceless! We worked our way back to camp without inci-dent completing an epic 48 mile ride.

On Wednesday, Shirley and Linda wanted to get some experience drivingtheir UTVs in the dunes so we got all five UTVs together and went a dunin’.We spent most of the time running the small dunes right outside of camp and they did great. The best parts were the “YEEHAW!’s”coming from Linda’s Rhino every time we went up a dune! We got back to camp just in time for the Annual New Years Eve Spaghetti

(Continued on page 2)

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January14th:

Annual election meeting

at Denny’s on Alabama in Red-

lands.

January 16-19th:

MLK dune cleanup week-

end at Glamis, Wash 6.

February 11th:

Club meeting at Denny’s

on Alabama in Redlands.

February 12th-23rd:

Presidents Week at

Glamis. The Fords plan on

spending the week, and many

people hav ethe first Monday

off. Others will back to back the

weekends.

S M T W Th F Sa

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

S M T W Th F Sa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Dinner, which as alwayswas fantastic!

New Years Day dawnedsunny and warm and oncethe buggies left camp wedecided to take all theUTVs on an adventure tofind Hill 3. Despite theGPS I ended up finding thehill that wasn’t Hill 3, butwe had a nice ride thereanyway. When we leftNon-Hill 3 we were goingthrough some small dunes

and I spotted the real Hill 3 off in the distance, so I veered that way. It turned out wewere going in to some pretty tough dunes to get to Hill 3, at least tough for our UTVs.Everyone made it through very well, and I saw Shirley get her front wheels two feetoff the ground going over one big dune! I don’t know whether I enjoyed the sight ofher Ranger in the air, or the BIG GRIN on her face, more!

On Friday, again after the buggies left on their morning ride, we got all the UTVs,

Steve Tharp’s buggy, and a bunch of bikes together to go find Hill 3 again. This timewe found it after a nice ride through the dunes. When we stopped at Hill 3 I asked

(Continued from page 1)

(Continued on page 3)

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Steve if his buggy ever got off an idle! He must have had a hard time following us as we move pretty slow through the dunes. But weget where we’re going!!!!! We stayed for a while and then worked our way back to camp as AJ and Mona were packing up to gohome and I wanted to see them before they left. I spent the rest of the af-ternoon in camp close to the phone just to make sure Mona and AJ didn’thave any trouble on the way home.

Saturday dawned cold and cloudy and a lot of people in camp were pack-ing up to go home. I spent the morning out scrounging around, primarilyfor alum cans. I was able to pick up an entire trash bag’s worth just pokingaround between camp and Olds Hill. I loaded my stuff up Saturday after-noon as I had decided to leave early Sunday morning to get home and beatthe traffic. The wind came up about midnight and started rocking thetrailer, then some particularly hard gusts woke me up about 3:30am, so Ijust got up then and pulled out. I was home, safe and sound, by 8:00am.

Hope to see you all again at MLK, or President’s Day!

Mike Bacon

(Continued from page 2)

As you have read in Mike’s article, there was quite a good turnout for the club at the Christmas / New Years trip. It isneat that there are enough Side by Sides that they are having some great rides of their own. Maybe we’ll join them onsome with the LJ and see what it can do.

Our trip started the day after Christmas like a lot of other club members. We were surprised at how many people hadalready arrived, as the Tranthoms, Walt, Steve Porter, The Rhoades, The Olivers, Kris and Doug Schellinger, Chuck andJanece Grossmann, the Huggards, the Stumps, Brandy Tidball, and others were already in camp. John, Anna, Matthew,and Brianna soon arrived along with Scott Cole, his daughter Kari, and her kids Catherine and Hunter. They had such agreat time at Thanksgiving that the Coles planned a post-Christmas trip at thelast minute. Scott had put together a transmission for his car at the HighSchool over a couple of late Tuesday nights, and arrived ready to go.

With New Years falling in the middle of the week, it set up a unique situa-tion where different people were always leaving and arriving. Over thecourse of the 9 days we were there lots of members came and left, and someeven came back out. It was great to see so many members in the dunes. Onthe first weekend the club had the biggest camp in the wash, and the circlestayed full until the Friday after New Years.

There were lots of highlights of the trip, but one that stands out is the newtoys. Don Ford brought out his new front engine V8 powered long travel car,and it is pretty neat. He has some tuning to do to get itrunning on all 8 cylin-ders, but that gives him a project for before MLK. Not to be outdone, ShirleyFord brought out her Polaris Ranger, which is very pretty and has a full cageand a back seat. Brandy Tidball continued to enjoy his new to him sandrail,and always had a big smile on his face. Dominic Elliot and AmandaMcKenzie made their second dune trip with their VW car, and Dominic got todrive on lots of rides and has learned a lot of duning skill in a short period of time. Unfortunately their last ride endedwith some excess engine noise (that sounded like a rod knock) but hopefully they’ll get it fixed and be out again soon.

Speaking of mechanical issues, this trip posed some unique mechanical challenges that kept the workbench busy.Brandy broke a front hub, and to everybody’s surprise wasn’t able to find a replacement at the dunes. As a last resort heconvinced Dean Carver to weld his up, and it was very straight and held up the rest of his trip. Dean and Scott also didsome welding on my car where a tube had separated and on Scott’s car after some contact with Chuck’s car. Despiteappearing to be pretty bad, we got everything fixed in one afternoon and we went for night ride that night. Later in the

(Continued on page 4)

Scott Cole putting transmission

pieces together two weeks before

the Christmas trip.

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trip the Hagens’ car broke a rear rod end which led to a bent a-arm and torn paddle tire. Fortunately Pete had enoughspare parts in camp to get it back together and running. We also fixed issues with my bearing carriers which neededsome welding that Jim did that same afternoon. Finally, one of the more impressive failures of the trip came on the Sec-ond Saturday, when Jim’s 5 link bar broke a rod end and departed the vehicle. It took all of us about 10 minutes of dig-ging and searching in the sand before Walt found the 3 foot long piece of metal that had broken free from the car. Notic-ing that something wasn’t quite right, Jim stopped a couple of dunes later. We took the rear of the car apart in the dunes,replaced the rod ends, and duned back to camp. It is amazing what you can overcome with the right tools and help fromsuch a great group.

The trip wasn’t all about breakdowns though, and we had some really great rides. We had 16 buggies on one ride,which was even more than we had on some of the long rides over Thanksgiving. We had fast rides too, and flew throughthe dunes out between hills 3 and 4 that we have marked on the GPS as “Glamis Fun”. As the week went on it becameclear that there had been lots of people in the dunes, and without any wind the tracks got pretty rough. We still had greatrides though, and Jim did a great job leading fast rides with lots of cars so everyone could enjoy them.

As usual the food was great during the trip. With two Saturday night in the trip we had two Mama Jeannie’s dinnersto look forward to. On Wednesday we had the now annual club spaghetti dinner. This event started as something theclub could do instead of an annual Christmas party, and has worked out quite well. The club provided the spaghetti andsauce that some members volunteered to heat up. Other members brought accompanying items and desserts that were allvery good. I think I ate nearly my body weight in great Garlic bread that Walt brought out and arranged to get heated inlots of ovens. The Rhoades family offered their trailer to set up the food in, and it worked out great. We had a nice rela-tively warm evening without any wind so we were able to comfortably eat outside. After the early dinner I didn’t thinkanyone would stay up until midnight to welcome the New Year, but the Hagens, Sharon Porter, Jim Kastle, Walt Fisher,Darrell Harju, and his friend Jack all made it to midnight. The next night had a great dinner as well, since Shirley hadthe idea to head into Yuma to visit Famous Dave’s Barbecue. We took the Excursion, and I had a Cheeseburger toppedwith pulled pork. I have had lots of different burgers in my time, but this one was really quite good. I look forward togoing back there during the Spring Gordon’s Well trip.

All in all it was a great trip and we enjoyed seeing everybody who was able to make it. After two 9 day trips in a rowI think we are going to skip MLK, but we’re definitely planning on Presidents day. -P.J. Kastle

Don and Shirley Ford's Christmas and New Years at Glamis.Don and I had great time at Glamis. We went twice to Yuma to eat. Don's been craving Olive Gardens, we don't have

one here in Lake Havasu and I have been craving Famous Dave's.I would like to thank Mike Bacon for teaching me

how to navigate in the dunes with my new Ranger. Hedid an awesome job. Thanks Mike for all your knowl-edge and help. And thanks to Kris and Doug forbringing up the rear and keeping an eye on us. To me,driving the Ranger in the dunes was an whole differentball park. It was nothing like driving a buggy. Eachtime out I got a little more confident and wasn't asnervous. I was worried about tipping over. You haveto read the dunes totally different. At least I have long travel now. What I need next is

power steering. Oh sure, Don's says.- Shirley

(Continued from page 3)

Some might consider these trip ending failures, but all the cars were fixed and duned the same day.

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Matthew Cole 1/9Jeannie Le Blanc 1/14

Walt Fisher 1/14Steve Soto 1/15

Dominic Elliott 1/20

Paul Kastle 1/22Tanya Rhodes 1/25Heather Beard 1/25Susan Martine 1/28Debbie Berger 1/29

The Hagens have two child’shelmets for sale:Both were purchased atChaparral, 3 years ago. Bothare full face with visors. Exte-rior is in good shape, minorscratches. Inside is in perfectshape, foam intact, no tears.Black one is a child Small andthe Yellow one is a child Me-dium. $50 each. ContactPete/Linda at 760-451-0845

Dean Schellinger has a BuickV-8 Mid Engine Buggy ForSale:Bought from Acacia RV. I'vehad it for two years and havenot touched it and I feel it is ashame for it to just sit there.Includes two extra solid rimsand bearings for front wheels.Great buggy I just don't havethe time anymore.$5500Contact Dean Schellinger:(909) 987-1880 work(909) 887-8945 home

P.J. and Melissa have aYamaha Golf Cart ForSale:Late 1990’s G14 Gasgolf cart with lift. Floorsits 24 inches above theground. Stock motor,runs well.$2100 oboContact P.J. Kastle:(951) [email protected]

Jeff Oliver has a set offour Ford F-250 Wheels:One piece aluminumwheels. Tires have beensold but wheels areavailable.$100 for the set of 4.Contact Jeff Oliver:(760) [email protected]

Thanks to the club for a really great time! My friend Jack Beyer and I really enjoyed the rides and also theextra seats on couple rides. The Ranger/Rhino rides were also great! Mike is a great leader on those rides!The spaghetti dinner was awesome! I sure enjoy camping with the club! Thanks again till next time, DarrellHarju.

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An Acura Thanksgiving:Our Thanksgiving started about the first of November when AJ got on me about taking his buggy out with the new Acura V6 engine.I hadn’t had the time to work on it much over the summer so I had my work cut out for me! AJ and I worked evenings and weekendsand finally got it running a couple of days before leaving for Glamis. A lot of things were rigged up at the last minute, but we hopedit would run for at least a few days.We loaded up Saturday morning and headed out and arrived at Wash 6 Saturday afternoon without incident. Mona and Ashley bothhad to work the three days before Thanksgiving, so AJ and I were the “kings of our castle” until Thursday morning. AJ unloaded thecar and took it out for the first time with the new engine. I was kind of amazed it ran as good as it did, and other than the suspensionneeding some adjustment it ran great. I spent the rest of the day finding and fixing a broken wire on my Ranger, then we went toPizza with everyone else Saturday night.Sunday, AJ decided to work on his suspension, which meant I was recruited to help. It took most of the day, but we raised the frontand rear end of the car, and did a little nut & bolt checking. By the end of the day he was happy with it and ready to go riding. Heenjoyed a number of good club rides over the next few days and just loves the power the car has now.Wednesday night saw a lot of club members show up and Mona and Ashley came in Thursday morning. AJ and Ashley went on thebig club ride Thursday morning. After they left I went for a ride with the Ranger, just cruising through the wash to Olds looking forfire wood. While I was out picking up some wood I saw a big group up in the dunes that looked like the club. I rode over to find JohnCole had hit a hole and broke his front wheel off. I offered to take all the broken parts back to camp in the Ranger, so once they hadthe buggy out of the hole we headed off to camp with John driving a three-wheeler. We had to stop once on the way back to make acouple of adjustments to the buggy as John was having trouble with the front end digging in to the sand. We eventually made it backand they jumped right in to repairing it. The Wizards Of Inland Empire had it back in action for the afternoon ride!I’m not sure how it worked that way, but it seemed every time the big club ride stopped somewhere, for a breakdown or a beveragestop, I managed to find them while out in the Ranger. We even came across them during a break at Hill 3!We had some rain early in the week and that kept the dust down for the Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner. The air was the clearest wehave seen in years! Of course the food was GREAT! Saturday morning the wind started to come up and after the morning ride AJand Ashley decided to go home early to miss some of the traffic. We got them loaded up and on their way, then Mona and I went fora ride over to olds and down to Comp. We had a nice ride, but were amazed at how many people we saw heading home on the high-way, a lot more than I’m used to seeing on Saturday afternoon. Maybe it was the wind.Mona headed home early Sunday morning and got out of camp and through Brawley without a problem. The Rangers and Sheriffsset up the pass checkpoint about 8am and it wasn’t long before the line of motorhomes and trailers was two wide and all the wayback past Wash 15! I went out scrounging fire wood and found a bunch. During one ride I found a number of guys who had tried togo around the Wash Road line and got stuck in a dune next to the road. In fact, one had tried going up the steep side of the dune tow-ing his toy hauler! It took them hours to get out of there!We had a nice quiet evening and camp fire Sunday night. I had loaded everything up Sunday afternoon and was ready to leave Mon-day morning. I was up about 4:30 Monday morning and pulled out just before 5:00am. No traffic, and no line at the Shell station todump tanks was nice, and I was home with everything put away by 10:00am. We have a few minor things to take care of and arelooking forward to being back out right after Christmas. Hope to see you all there!-Mike Bacon

This month we would like to thank Mike Bacon, Darrell Harju, and Shirley Ford for submitting articles andencourage everyone to write articles about the trips this dune season. Also, Janece, the Janece count in thisnewsletter is down to three, but we left out the really good stories... Anyway, we had another great trip withthe club and we can’t wait for the next one. -P.J. and Melissa Kastle

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Inland Empire Offroad AssociationP.O. Box 132411

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

Membership Application

Please Print Birthday

Name: _____________________________________ ____________________

Spouse: _____________________________________ ____________________

Child: _____________________________________ ____________________

Child: _____________________________________ ____________________

Child: _____________________________________ ____________________

Child: _____________________________________ ____________________

Address:____________________________________________

City: _______________________________ State:______ Zip Code:____________

Home Phone: ___________________________ Cell Phone: _________________________

Email Address: _________________________________________________________________

Would you like your name and address put into our club directory? (The directory is given to club members only)

YES NO

If you would like your business included in the directory please include the information below:Business Name: __________________________ Address: __________________________

City: ________________________________ State: _______ Zip Code: ___________

Business Phone: __________________________

As with any organization there are guidelines we operate within. Please read and abide by the following:1. NO FIREWORKS ALLOWED WITHIN CAMP BOUNDRIES2. DOGS MUST BE KEPT UNDER CONTROL AT ALL TIMES (BLM law)3. ON A RIDE, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VEHICLE AHEAD OF YOU AND THE VEHICLE BEHIND

YOU. If they stop, you stop and wait for the group to return to you. This prevents separation and in this manner wenever leave a member in the dunes. Remember, it’s easier to find you if you stay still: “a moving target is harder to hit”

4. PLEASE OBSERVE THE “RIDE RATINGS” ON THE CLUB BOARD AND SELECT THOSE RIDES YOU WISHTO PARTICIPATE IN. If you wish to lead a ride, put the time and type of ride you want to lead on the board and thenstick to that time. No passing on rides (except #6 rides). You can always change your place in line at a break or if youare waved on by the driver ahead of you.

5. REMEMBER, WE ARE A GROUP OF FRIENDS who share a common interest in riding in the desert. Always keep inmind how your actions affect the other members.

SIGNATURE:_________________________________________DATE:____________________

How did you hear about the club?___________________________________________________

Annual dues are $35 per family. Each 12 month membership includes a monthly newsletter. Send your check ormoney order to:

Inland Empire Offroad AssociationP.O. Box 132411

Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

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