The Rooster
March 2020
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New The sand season is in full swing, as the Presidents trip is still continuing out there right now.
New Toys Both Kris and Doug Schellinger and Jim Kastle have made mid-season changes to their rides. Kris and Doug picked up a new Honda Talon 4 seater, and Jim went the other direction by selling his 900 RZR and getting a 1000cc RZR RS1 single seater.
Spring Break School schedules vary widely, and don’t tend to correspond with Easter, so for us, we’ll be at Gloms the last week of March, from March 26-30. We hope you can join us.
Anza For The Presidents By Mike Bacon Pat and I decided we didn’t want to deal with the crowds at Glamis for President’s Weekend so we elected to go to the golf course at Salton City for the long weekend. We were able to recruit Doug & Kris, and Jim Kastle to join us. Doug & Kris were looking to extend the break in on their new Honda Talon, and Jim was ready to experience his new RS1! Pat and I drove out Wednesday night to insure we got the spot we wanted, up on the hill above the golf course. This is a favorite of ours and the Schellingers, as it keeps us away from the more crowded areas and we have a great view both of Ocotillo Wells to the west and Salton Sea to the east. It is a small spot and I wasn’t sure we could get all three rigs in there, but it worked out perfectly. Jim, and Doug & Kris arrived Thursday and we went for a short ride Thursday afternoon only to find the washes were still a bit muddy from the rain they had received a few days before. We had a nice camp fire Thursday night. Friday, we decided we would take a ride down to the radar station at Superstition Hills. We loaded up and took off about 10am for the long ride down. We got the end of the pole line road and continued to the railroad tracks from the gypsum mine, then turned left and followed them to the trestle over San Felipe Wash. After a break we turned east and headed for Superstition and found our way up on the hill to the old abandoned radar station. While there I gave Pat
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March 2020
her Valentine’s present of watching me pole dance on top of the station (!), we left and headed back down and back out towards the pole line road. We arrived back at camp about 4PM, cleaned up, and went to The Alamo for dinner, then back for a camp fire.
Upcoming Events • February 13-24: Presidents Weekend and the weekend after at Glamis, Wash 6. We’ll have omelets on Saturday 2/22. • March 13-15: Dumont Weekend. Mike is leading a group headed out to explore Dumont. • March 26 (or earlier) - 30th: Spring Break at Glamis, Wash 6.
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On Saturday Dana and Daniel arrived. Since Doug & Kris now have the four seat Talon they can all ride together and no one gets left behind! We left camp for a leisurely ride to the Blu Inn for lunch. All day Friday we had watched people come to camp in droves and looking down on them from our spot on the hill was very nice, knowing we weren’t down among them. It was just about as crowded as I’ve ever seen it, but still not near as crazy as Glamis! So, we figured we’d better get to Blu Inn early for lunch. We arrived about 11:45, just in time to watch them clean up all the breakfast stuff and get ready for lunch at 12PM. We were one of the first groups to sit down for lunch and it was a good thing! By 12PM the place was slammed with people waiting 30 minutes plus for a seat! We enjoyed our lunch and headed over to Shell Reef so Daniel could watch some of the motorcycles and RZRs climb the hills, then made our way back to camp. Dinner at The Alamo was followed by another relaxing camp fire.
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The Rooster
March 2020
Sunday, we decided we would take Daniel to a few different places to watch the bikes and RZRs, and the route between each place would be our fun. We worked our way over to the Pumpkin Patch where there were as many people as I had ever seen there. After watching for a while, we worked our way over to Shell Reef again, then to the Gas Domes, where again more people than I’ve ever seen. By Sunday the one real negative about Ocotillo Wells was rearing its ugly head again, dust. It was very dusty on the more traveled roads and although we tried to avoid most of those roads, we had to travel on them sometimes to get to the popular areas. Once back we cleaned up again, and again went to dinner at The Alamo, and a nice camp fire.
Monday came and Dana and Daniel had to go home, but not before a morning ride to the Pumpkin Patch and Little People and going through some now dry washes back to camp. After they left, we all just sat around and relaxed for a while. We discovered RZR wheels will NOT fit a Talon, despite what the dealer told Doug, and I really like driving the Talon! I refused Jim’s many offers to drive the RS1 because I knew I’d like it and I would feel very bad having to leave Pat at camp all the time! We all decided to have dinner at camp and had a nice camp fire after dinner.
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March 2020
Tuesday morning, we all packed up and headed for home, or Glamis in Jim’s case. We are all looking forward to Dumont next month. Hope to see you there!
Talon’s Debut! (Or Anza For MLK) By Mike Bacon, Photos by Mike Bacon & Pat Starr Doug & Kris picked up their new 4 seat Honda Talon just before the MLK weekend, so we decided to break it in at Ocotillo Wells. It was a nice, relaxing weekend and we got some great riding in. Doug & Kris brought their grandson Daniel out with them on Friday and he broke in the new back seat on the Talon. The new car works very well, and Doug & Kris are very happy with it. It’s going to allow them to take both grandsons with them on rides. Dana and Dillon arrived Saturday morning and went with us on the morning ride. There were a lot of people camping throughout the area, but we really didn’t see that many out on the trails. It got a little dusty, at least for those that followed! We visited Bin Laden’s Cave where Doug partook of the rock chair while we took a break.
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March 2020
Sunday Dana and Dillon weren’t feeling very good, so Kris and Daniel joined Doug in the Talon while we rode around the area and ended up at the Blu Inn for lunch. For those that know the Crispy Chicken Sandwich is back, and we all had to have one! We took things pretty easy this weekend to allow the Talon to break in slowly and not scratch it up too bad. While sitting at camp Sunday afternoon we noticed a large refueling airplane making circles around us with helicopters practicing hooking up for in-air refueling. They passed by at least a half dozen times while we sat there watching!
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March 2020
Speeders Beware! By Mike Bacon As many of you know my son AJ has had a desire for some time to be a law enforcement officer. About four years ago he applied to the California Highway Patrol, among other agencies. He was invited to different evaluation sessions, physical, aptitude, written and oral examinations, etc. He didn’t hear anything after that and kind of forgot about it. Two and a half years ago he was informed he was being considered by CHP and would be going through a background investigation. That background investigation took two years, and last May he was invited to be in the next class at the CHP Academy in Sacramento starting in July 2019. CHP offered some pre academy classes to give new candidates a preview of what they could expect when they joined the academy. AJ took the classes and studied everything he could to be ready when the academy started. In July he quit his job at Disney and drove to Sacramento and his new home for the next 29 weeks. As the class progressed, he endured a lot of yelling and harassment, and started learning all the things he would need to know to be a California Highway Patrolman. He was able to come home most weekends to spend at least a day with his wife Lameah, then drive or fly back on Sunday afternoons. Classes were intense and stressful, and some even fun. He learned high performance driving, hand to hand combat, arrest techniques, weapons, and all the academics he would need. He was tazed, pepper sprayed, and exposed to tear gas.
On January 24, 2020 we attended graduation of his class at the CHP Academy. My Mom went with us, as well as Lameah’s parents. When we arrived at the entrance to the academy the CHP officer at the guard shack asked why we were there, to which I responded we were there for
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March 2020
cadet graduation. He asked which candidate we were there to see. I said my son, Alexander Bacon. His eyes lit up and he said, “You really did well with that one!” I didn’t really understand the significance of that then but was soon to find out.
There were 82 new officers in AJ’s class and all the families were there to see them graduate. We all gathered at the main entrance to the academy as the class marched up and stood for inspection by the CHP Commissioner. We then broke up and headed for the auditorium for introductions and awards. As things progressed, we didn’t know if AJ was up for any awards, until they announced the Class Valedictorian was to go to AJ! We were ecstatic! Ten minutes later he was announced as the Most Outstanding Cadet and Number 1 in the class! To say we were happy and proud would be an understatement! He was then given his badge, and we all filed outside for the badge pinning ceremony. Lameah pinned his badge on and he was an official CHP Officer! Once that was finished, due to his being number 1 in the class he had to go for an interview for the local news media, and then we were done. AJ and Lameah flew home that afternoon and the next day flew off to Hawaii for a few days to “get reacquainted”. His first duty assignment will be the station in Alta Dena, CA, patrolling the 10, 210, 5, and 605 Freeways and surrounding area starting the first part of February. So, if you find yourselves in that area watch that speedometer!
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March 2020
Presidents Pics From Glamis The Presidents Week trip to Glamis is still continuing for some lucky people, but here’s a quick preview of some of the fun so far. Look for more in next month’s newsletter. Mike and Tracey Wilson from Lake Havasu camped and rode with us on Presidents Day Weekend
Jerry and Linda Trantham in their RZR 1000
Jim Kastle’s first dune ride in his RZR RS1 Sarah and Tom Ricketts with Aubrey and Jacob
This month we’d like to thank Mike Bacon for for writing articles and Janice Petersen for sending in pictures. We’d also like to congratulate Officer Bacon on his accomplishments. As always, we encourage everyone to submit content as well. Please send anything you want to me at pkastle@msn.com and we will publish what content we have and a calendar of upcoming events every month. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 8