The Rooster
January 2021
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New We had a great turnout over the long Veterans-throughThanksgiving trip, and we are looking forward to Christmas / New Years at Wash 6.
Another Extended Trip Ray and Janice are already there and set up in wash 6 for the Christmas / New Years trip, and they will be joined by others in the days to come.
Website Forum / Trip Sign Up Issues People are still seeing an error message after posting their trip plans on the club website. I am working on a fix, but in the mean time your plans will still be posted, despite receiving an error message.
Glamis, Nov. 11- Nov. 30. 2020 As Remembered by Jim Kastle Some time ago Mike told me he, Pat, and Ray and Janice were planning to go to Glamis for the Veteran’s Ceremony, and stay through Thanksgiving. I immediately thought that would be great and told him I was in. I arrived on Thursday the 12th to find Mike and Pat, and Ray and Janice had coned off a large area. I was silently concerned that we might have trouble protecting it later in the trip. My concerns turned out to be unfounded. In fact, during the whole trip no one set up camp adjacent to ours. Some were close, but there was always room to drive between ours and adjacent camps. Kris and Doug soon arrived. Ray’s Marine friends were scheduled to arrive before the ceremony, which was held on Saturday. Friday Mike led a mild ride. There were so many rides over the trip, there’s no way I can recall most of the details. Mike’s rides are pretty mellow, but still lots of fun and no one feels left out. Ray can lead any ride from one like Mike’s typical rides, to ones on which V-8 buggies work hard to keep up. Ray led two night rides to and from Olds and did a GREAT job going through the dunes, despite there being a large amount of traffic. Saturday morning the veterans left camp early to get spots close to the flag where the ceremony was held. We non-vets arrived about 10:45 in time for the 11:11 AM start. We parked in the closest available spot, but were ¼ mile from the flag! It seemed to me there were more off road vehicles than there are at Olds on Thanksgiving! We couldn’t hear the PA system nor see the ceremony. The ceremony started with a para plane fly by done by veterans who flew for two or three days to get there. (I heard this later from Ray, who
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January 2021 could hear the announcer.) Then there were several fly bys of various war birds, which seemed to me to be of WWII vintage. We stayed around for a while but were not able to see or hear the activities, so we headed back to camp. Ray and Janice later told us the ceremony was similar to past ones and included raising the new flag, and inviting veterans or active-duty military to come to the mic and give the branch and the years they served, and receive a commemorative medal.
Upcoming Events • December 16 - January 4, 2021: Christmas / New Years at Glamis, Wash 6. • December 31: Socially Distanced Pot Luck Italian Dinner. • January 15-18: MLK Weekend at Glamis, Wash 6. The official cleanup has been cancelled, but the trip will still go on…
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Over the weekend Ray led several rides, all at a medium pace with nearly all his Marine friends participating. Saturday night, the Marines held a cake cutting ceremony, which was held on the flats for the first time. In the past it was in one of the higher numbered washes. They returned to camp for a large campfire with Karaoke provided by one of the Marines. It was not a typical IEOR campfire, but the rest of us realized this was THEIR weekend, and wanted them to enjoy their camaraderie. It seems they had a great time! Sunday Ray again led with the Marines following. They had to go home Sunday. Monday and Tuesday our camp had way fewer people. I remember Kris and Doug, Mike and Pat, Ray and Janice, Scott (Scotty) and some of his friends who came for just a day and left their trailers to return later, and me. We went for more rides, some led by Mike, others by Ray, but all fun. Mike and Pat had to return home for some doctor appointments and a little work, but were gone for only a couple of days. One or two of Scott’s friends had small quads, and spent a lot of time riding inside of camp, as the camp was so large the area was well protected. Poor Mike and Pat ended up in the infield of the track and at times during the week had as many as five quads, motorcycles, or Allie’s ACE circling their trailer. They handled it very well, but plan to make sure they are on the perimeter of camp in the future. Thinking of child size vehicles, Janice spent a lot of time riding in a small RZRlike side by side she supposedly bought for her grandson to use on the Christmas/New Year’s trip. She used it to place many of the cones around camp and seemed to be really enjoying 2
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January 2021
herself. There were times she just drove it because it was fun. She’s got a lucky grandson! Tom and Jacob Ricketts brought the new motor home and enclosed trailer out for a father-son trip. Jacob recently got a small motorcycle and was getting used to it. As even experienced riders know, riding in the sand is difficult. Tom was being a great dad, and was intently watching Jacob ride “Track Bacon.” Sometimes the bike would “wash out” and Tom was right there to right the bike and make sure Jacob was ok. Tom would give some words of encouragement, and Jacob would be on his way. It was really neat to see a great dad in action, and to see Jacob’s obvious progress. It was a highlight of the early part of trip for me. They went home to return with Sarah and Aubrey for Thanksgiving. John Cole had to work Thanksgiving this year and did not want to miss the festivities, so he planned to come the weekend before Turkey Day, and spread the word among the buggy drivers. In light of this Dave Huggard arrived after there being some question about his car being ready on time. John arrived Wednesday traveling solo, followed by Danny and Pam, and long time friends “Little Charlie” and Jennifer and her son, whose name escapes me, but who had a ball on his 80 quad while racing on “Track Bacon.” Charlie has a very nice and fast sand rail and enjoys riding with us. In fact after Danny and Pam left after the weekend for Thanksgiving at home, Charlie stayed until after Thanksgiving. Barry and Ann arrived Friday. With buggies to ride with, I switched from the RS1 to the buggy. John, Barry and I shared leading and we had one or two rather fast buggy rides each day. It seems we often ended up between the swing set and Gecko Road in the area where the helicopter followed us a couple of years ago. On the “Saturday morning” ride Barry provided some variation when, at the swing set, he noticed one of his buggy’s A arms was badly cracked, requiring us to remove it, take it back to camp, weld it back together, and return and install the now green A arm. We got back to camp before dark! Then Sunday morning Barry was leading when his car made a very sharp turn to the left while going about 50 MPH. It was exciting! It seemed a setscrew on the steering rack came loose. We reinstalled it, and went just a few hundred feet when it again became loose. Upon further inspection, we found the rack bracket had broken causing the steering shaft to come off the rack. We nursed it back to camp. Barry, John, Dave, and Danny left, but Dale and Rebecca arrived with the news their house was in escrow, and they are planning to move to Arkansas! This would be their last trip with the club for a while. But they plan to vacation with us once they get settled. With only two buggies remaining in camp, I returned to the RS1. Ray led some fast rides to keep everyone on their toes. Even Charlie in the fast buggy had a good time. On Tuesday Pete, Linda, and Jeremy Hagen arrived. With five buggies it was back in buggy for me. P.J., Melissa, Allie, and Marshall arrived Wednesday afternoon, as did Nancy. Randy and Cainen Ray arrived, joining friends Jack and Dawn, and David who had arrived Monday or Tuesday. The three newcomers are friendly and have been duning for a long time. Dawn is very social, Jack a little less so, and David is pretty quiet. Jack and Dawn are from San Diego have a new turbo two seat Can Am, a few year old quad (which they never wash as they don’t want to jinx it), and an old school rear engine VW that is not
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yet reassembled after a sand seal problem. They store a toy hauler at GDS, but brought the Can Am out on a flat bed. David is from Mesa Arizona and is a long time Banshee rider who recently added a Yamaha YXZ side by side to his collection. They all say they had a good time and they will be back. I hope so, as they will be good additions. Take a few minutes to introduce yourself next time. Thursday morning we went for a faster buggy and side by side ride, and there was a concurrent more normal paced side by side ride. I don’t recall anything unusual about either ride, and we all made it back in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Due to COVID, we hoped for good weather and the ability to set the food up outside. But the weather was too windy for that, so Jeremy volunteered his trailer and parked it parallel to his parent’s motor home which provided a good windbreak for those wanting a social distance acceptable dinner experience. People who preferred more isolation were welcome to eat in their own RV, and some chose to do so. We asked that we limit the number of people in the trailer to four, and everyone cooperated and masked up before entering the trailer. Linda provided disposable gloves to wear while dishing up food. I can best describe the dinner as a feast. I can’t think of anything it was lacking. I think we did a good job of Covid protection. I want to thank everyone for their cooperation. I do, however, look forward to a more normal situation next year. There were buggy rides and side by side rides. For the first time I can recall, the different rides never met up. I have no idea why, and didn’t even think of that until I just typed it. On one of the faster side by side rides Ray led earlier in the trip, I noticed my RS1 seemed to have a slight miss above 7000 RPM. It had never been less than perfect until that ride, so I thought a lot about it. I ordered a new fuel pump, but I won’t have it until after the trip. I then thought the air filter might be dirty. I took it out and cleaned it as well as I could clean the nonserviceable air cleaner, but had not driven it since. I wanted to see if cleaning the air filter helped, but didn’t want to bother Ray. So I asked the buggy drivers if I could lead in the RS1. They agreed, so off I went. It was different, but a lot of fun, and drastically better than my old 900 RZR. Most importantly it seemed to run better with the clean air filter. Everyone said they were impressed and surprised at how well the RS1 did. It reminded me of many years ago when P.J. and I led a buggy ride in our Odysseys. Saturday morning we had an omelet boil. I hadn’t publicized it very well, and feared it might be a flop, but we ended up with many participants and a bigger than average selection of ingredients. I had so many side dishes I only ate one two-egg omelet. I really enjoyed it. Our camp started breaking up as early as Saturday, but several of us, including the younger Kastles stayed until
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Monday, which made for a much easier drive home. It was a great trip, one of my favorites, in large part due to the variety of people and vehicles at different times during the trip, and the extra length of the trip. I really enjoyed having so much room for the kids to ride inside of camp. I understand Ray and Janice will set up for Christmas/ New Years as early as December 15th, so hopefully we’ll be able to have another big camp. Others will join them well before Christmas. I will probably set up early and head home and to P.J.’s and Melissa’s for the holiday and return on the 26th. I know Janice will have her grandkids with her and they’ll have vehicles to drive or ride, and Allie will have her Ace, and Marshall may have his (Uncle Matt’s old) Suzuki 50 that the Tuesday night guys have been working on. I don’t think anyone will want to park in the center of camp! We will have our annual pot luck spaghetti dinner New Years Eve. Bring your favorite Italian dish to share.
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January 2021
A COVID Thanksgiving By Mike Bacon Thanksgiving 2020 actually started out on Veteran’s Day when Pat and I drove out to Glamis on Wednesday November 11th. We went on one ride on Thursday then had to go back home Thursday night for Pat’s last minute dental appointment on Friday morning, then back to Glamis. By the time we got back on Friday camp was filled with many people including a number of Marines who were there for the Veteran’s Day Ceremony. Saturday morning everyone loaded up and headed for the flagpole, well at least most did. We stayed behind to wait for Dana and Daniel to arrive, and we were joined by Jim and Todd. Once Dana and Daniel arrived, we headed off. I have to say coming over the dunes past Hill 3 and seeing all the people around the flagpole was an awesome sight! There was no way we could get close to the flagpole so we stopped on a low dune on the outside edge of the crowd and watched from there. A little after 11 am we saw planes approaching. A squadron of vintage planes did a short airshow for us and then the ceremony began. We were much too far away to hear or see any of what was going on so after talking for a while we loaded up and headed back to camp.
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On Sunday most of our camp went home so we had a few low-key days. We had to go home towards the end of the week for a couple days for Pat’s medical appointments, and I took advantage of the time to sell a couple machines, and we were back Saturday afternoon. The wind started to pick up towards the middle of the week so Pat and I only went on a couple of rides, content to just sit and relax in camp. Thanksgiving day arrived and the wind was blowing, however not as bad as it had been. We had a great COVID friendly plan for dinner, which went out the door with the wind, but we were still able to accommodate everyone by setting up food in Jeremy's trailer and limiting the number of people inside, with masks and gloves. Some people ate outside with the
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wind blocked by Pete & Linda’s motorhome, and some chose to eat in their trailers/motorhomes. We did not have a fire due to the wind, however Pat had made cobbler so we loaded up the cobbler in the back of the Talon and drove around camp delivering hot goodness to anyone who wanted it.
We had a couple of nice rides on Friday and Saturday and in an effort to avoid some of the traffic we packed up and left on Saturday afternoon. Lots of people on the road, but not near as bad as Sunday! Another great trip and looking forward to New Years!
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January 2021
Drone Upgrade ( I Blame Jeremy…) By Paul Kastle As many of you know, I kind of like playing with Drones. Ok, I may have a bit of an obsession, but admitting the problem is the first step, right? Over Thanksgiving, I got to see Jeremy Hagen’s Mavic Air 2, and decided I wanted to play too. Below are some great shots he got following his sandrail, going up Oldsmobile, and tracking motorcycles jumping at the swingset. It really was impressive. Thanks to a Costco deal and my parents offering to help fund the upgrade as an early Christmas present, I took the opportunity
to upgrade my 2 year old drone. The neatest feature of the new one is optical object tracking, which Jeremy demonstrated very well and made a commercial quality video following his car in the little dunes by camp. I am looking forward to trying a similar flight during a buggy ride. The new drone also has over 30 minutes of flight time, which I am pretty excited about. I already sold the old one, and Marshall and I have flown the new one in the driveway at home, so I am ready to come fly at the dunes over New Years. - P.J.
This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle and Mike Bacon for sending in articles, and encourage everyone else to do the same. We’re looking forward to getting together once again for Christmas and New Years and will again be as safe as possible while enjoying the dunes and each other’s company. Please send your contributions for future newsletters to me at pkastle@msn.com and we will publish them along with a calendar of events each month. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 9