Newsletter0715 by Paul Kastle

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July 2015

THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association

Bill Lucas Bill Lucas passed away on June 3rd. He was a friend of the Grossmanns and relatively new to the group, but had a yellow and black sandrail and had ridden with us at Dumont and Gordon’s Well.

Whats New There wasn’t any duning to report on this month, so what better time for Don Ford and Jim Kastle to make a road trip to see Darrell in Texas.

Coral Pink We are just a few weeks away from this year’s Coral Pink trip, so this is our annual Coral Pink Preview issue, which includes a crossword puzzle and photos from 21 years of summer Utah trips.

Don and Jim’s Road Trip! Don gave me a call and said he was going to go to Darrell Harju's in El Paso, Texas to get his Corvette seats upholstered. He was going Thursday and returning Saturday, and being smarter than us, Shirley wasn't interested in going. He asked if I'd like to go. He knew I love road trips, and would be sure to go. He suggested I spend Wednesday night at their place, go to dinner, and we could get up early Thursday, have breakfast in Parker, lunch in Tucson, and dinner at Darrell's. It sounded great to me. Wednesday afternoon the Fords, the Tranthams and I had a really great pizza buffet at Pizza Hut, the same one where the club waited for hours a few years ago on one of our Havasu trips. At dinner Jerry mentioned the song El Paso, by Marty Robbins. That planted a seed in my mind. Thursday morning we left at 6:30 and stopped at a great Mexican food place in Parker for breakfast burritos. We hit the road and the next stop was for lunch at one of my new favorite sandwich shops, Firehouse Subs in Tucson. I love my iPhone which located the restaurant and later, best-priced gas. I took over the driving and we made a short stop for gas Benson, Arizona then headed to Darrell's. As we passed through Las Cruces, New Mexico Don called Darrell who gave us an alternate route to avoid evening rush hour traffic in El Paso. We had no trouble following the directions and arrived at Darrell's at 6:30. Darrell's was in the garage (one of them) and ran his hit and miss engine for us. It was great! I've seen them at the Pomona Swap meet and Quartzite, but never knew anyone who actually owns one.

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July 2015 Darrell's home is truly a man cave with at least four garages, which house, among other things, a tractor, a forklift, two quads, lots of electrical supplies, his work van, an antique 6 foot tall flat belt driven drill press, his toy box trailer, and his truck.

Upcoming Events • July 6-8 Mesquite, NV on the way to Coral Pink

Darrell had prepared a great pot roast dinner. We watched TV, and, thanks to Jerry's reminder, asked if Darrell had ever heard of or been to Rosa's Cantina, made famous by Marty Robbins' song that came out in 1958, the year I got my first transistor radio! I still love the song. Darrell talked to a friend and found its location, not far from our final destination, Al Knoch Corvette parts.

• July 8-17 Coral Pink! This year we’ll be at the park from Wednesday through the following Friday. • July 17: Night in Mesquite, NV on the way home.

July, 2015 S

August, 2015 S

Friday morning we went to Al Knoch's. I had seen his semi trailer at Pomona, and had visions of a small operation. Wow, was I wrong! It's a huge building, I would guess somewhat larger than a football field, with all kinds of machinery, much of it originally used in the GM factory. This is at least his third location, and Darrell has done all the wiring in each. Darrell seemed to know everyone, and gave us a really interesting tour. They produce parts that GM certifies as being original equipment. Don had originally planned to have them upholster his seats, but just a week before or trip, Al himself called Don and said they could just exchange Don's seats for reupholstered ones. That saved us some time. Next to the factory is the Knoch's antique store, stocked in part with antiques Al has found while attending car shows on the East coast. He loads trailers in El Paso, sells the parts in the East, then fills the trailers with antiques, and brings them back. While I'm not a fan of antiques, the store was very impressive. They must have over a hundred antique wood stoves, along with thousands of other antiques. We had lunch at one of Darrell's favorite restaurants, a genuine Texas steakhouse. It was almost embarrassing that all three of us ordered hamburger steaks. They were great, and I can understand why it's Darrell's favorite. We then went for a tour of El Paso, including a trip highlight for me, a visit to Rosa's Cantina. It is still open, we had drinks, and Don and I bought tee shirts. Our very friendly waitress even played El Paso on the jukebox for me. I really enjoyed being a tourist. We then continued in tourist mode and drove several miles right along the Mexican Border. We even visited what claims to be the world's largest Harley Davidson dealer. Saturday morning the three of us had a McDonald's breakfast, and in Texas all the $1.00 breakfast items are still only $1.00, much different than home. We were on the road by 6:30. We 2

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July 2015

had lunch and fueled up at a Costco in Tucson, again thanks to my iPhone. I took over the driving and we made a short stop in Phoenix and again in Parker. We were back in Havasu before 6:00 P.M. We had driven over 1300 miles, and the little Ford averaged about 35 miles per gallon at 75 miles per hour. I was impressed with the car, and was reminded how much I love road trips. I want to make more!

Coral Pink Timeline As we are getting ready for our 2015 Coral Pink trip, we figured out that it will be our 21st summer trip up there. What started as an experiment in the summer of 1995 evolved into an annual tradition. While we don't have as many digital pictures from the first 10 years, I was able to find some information about each of the past trips to put together this timeline below: 1995: The Kastle, Goodrich, and Reynolds families make the first IEOA trip to Coral Pink and fall in love with it. 1996: Our first trip with the group site. We had a good turnout, and it became clear this tradition might catch on. 1997: We had a large group including Barry, Brad, and Tyson, and met the Nielson family from Utah who also visit the park every year. 1998: The Schellingers first trip, and our first big day trip to Zion in their motorhome. Discovered log cabin restaurant outside Zion after skipping Taco Time in Hurricane. 1999: We took a day trip to Bryce Canyon where the fog lifted after Arlene complained about it. We had rain every day but two, and on the last day we changed drivers and Kris, Devon, and Dana all drove on a ride. 2000: Day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with 22 people. Shirley jumped her car off Bob-Jim, leading to the infamous air pump incident. Walt made his first trip and we performed an exorcism on Barry's car. 2001: Don and Shirley's motorhome died in Vegas, but they borrowed Bill's and made the trip. Our day trip was going river rafting below Lake Powell, which was great. 2002: Dave and Paula Medlin joined in for their first trip. Day trip where we took boats out to explore Lake Powell. Dave towed the Kastle's boat, and we rented two more boats up there and travelled up to Rainbow Bridge. 2003: This was Melissa's first trip, and Jim's legs got burned when Shirley's car backfired. Kris and Doug brought their freshly painted new Dunn-Tech LS1 powered car. 2004: Barry and Terri Baker joined in for their first time with their fifth wheel. We had some hard rain that collected in the EZ Ups. We replaced transmissions in three cars (Don's, Jim's, and P.J.'s) but kept them all running. 3

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July 2015

2005: Lakes were present in the upper dunes. We had a high temp of 105 in camp, but later had rain as well. Some of us visited Zion, and ate at the log cabin restaurant outside the park. 2006: Dunes overlook was completed and the Bakers returned. Doug first brought a Polaris Ranger to the dunes, and it was the first Coral Pink trip for P.J.'s and Barry's current cars. We took ride video using a VHS camcorder from a thrift store in St. George. 2007: P.J. and Melissa borrowed John's truck, and towed our Weekend Warrior up for the first time. We first visited Panguitch after a side trip to Bryce in the trucks. Walt and P.J. collided, but we got the cars running using the tools and parts we brought. 2008: Mike Bacon made his first trip, and Tyson Conger returned. We had lots of rain, which temporarily washed out the road. Gene Sherman and Steve Sturm joined in late in the trip. 2009: Jerry and Linda Trantham made their first trip, and for the first time there were as many side by sides as buggies in the group, with 3 Rangers and a Rhino. Melissa was pregnant with Allie, and we took our first day trip to Cedar City. 2010: Allie's first trip after being born, and John and Anna Cole joined in for the first time. Steve and Gene returned, and it was the first Coral Pink trip with good VHF radios. 2011: We first visited the Dinosaur tracks. We had a smaller group with 4 cars and 3 side by sides, but Walt and Shirley both brought RZRs for the first time. There was enough rain to have standing water in the meadow. The group site was enhanced with more concrete and a BBQ. 2012: Doug's first trip with the RZR 900, and otherwise the same group of 4 cars and 3 side by sides. A permanent shade structure was added to the group site. On a side trip P.J., Melissa, and Allie visited Brian Head and Cedar City. 2013: Mike Bacon returned, and for the first time the side by sides out-numbered buggies 5 to 3. The RZRs discovered the Waterfall trail in the hills above the dunes. They also trailered the RZRs to check out nearby trails above Kanab. 2014: We had the fewest buggies ever at 2, but had a great time. Found some newly closed trail areas in the upper dunes, including Bob-Jim hill. We only had 8 people on the trip, but look forward to more returning next year.

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July 2015

Coral Pink Crossword 2015

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July 2015

Ten years ago: Coral Pink 2005 We are getting to where there is lots of content from 10 years ago. With that in mind, let's take a look back at out Utah trip from July 7-16th, 2005.

In order to write about the best trip of the year, Melissa and I decided to do something diﬀerent and keep a short journal of each day’s activities. ! Thursday: We arrived, unpacked and went for an evening ride to the corral, where we saw cows.! Friday: We went for a morning ride and Don’s trans broke at the end of the lower dunes. We came back for towing hubs and Doug towed him back to camp. Kris, Walt, and us went for a second ride and found lakes in the upper dunes. We finished installing Don’s trans that evening.! Saturday: On the morning ride with everyone we went back to the large lake in the upper dunes. Shirley walked/waded out to the middle in nearly waist deep water. ! Sunday: We went for a 10 o’clock ride where we thoroughly covered the upper and lower dunes. We had two breaks and saw cows grazing in the dunes. Most of the other duners in the campground left, which left it nice and quiet.! Monday: We went to the Thunderbird restaurant for breakfast at 8 o’clock, the food and service were great. Doug, Walt, and Kris then went to Kanab, and Don, Shirley, and us explored the dirt road to Colorado City. That afternoon we all went for a ride with a break at the corral. Jim’s snap ring popped out on the way back, so PJ towed him back. We fixed it and went on an evening ride with Walt. ! Tuesday: We went for a morning ride with everybody and found Shirley’s missing headsock from Sunday. Then, Walt, Don, Shirley, and us went into Kanab for lunch and supplies. We got a new 30 ft. extension cord for the welder which came in handy for welding up PJ’s frame. ! Wednesday: We went to Zion after breakfast. We drove through the tunnel and walked around the visitors center. Then we went to a great log cabin restaurant just outside the park that we discovered on our Zion trip 7 years ago. We came back to camp, sat around a while, and then everybody went to Kanab for dinner. Then, Walt and us went for an 8 o’clock evening ride, during which we explored the trails between the upper and lower dunes. ! Thursday: We went for a long morning ride and then, on the way back the ranger stopped us because they were shooting video for an 6

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July 2015

OLN TV show. They interviewed Jim and the show should air in 2006. In the afternoon we got a little rain and we headed into Kanab to use the internet. That evening Walt and us went for a ride and Jim broke a front spindle. We brought out a spare and fixed it in the dunes.! Friday: We got up and went for a morning ride with Kris, Walt, and Don. We saw more cows at the corral and then on the way back through the upper dunes we ran across a pair of buggies. One of them was broken so Jim towed it through some steep hills to their camp at the meadow. Walt and us then went into Kanab for more great sandwiches for lunch. When we returned we went for a last ride, during which, we moved rapidly through the lower dunes. Then we had dinner and got most of our packing done. ! Saturday: We got up, finished packing, and were on the road by 10 o’clock. We had a relatively uneventful drive to Las Vegas with the only problem being a flat tire on our fifth wheel. We had a great dinner with everyone at the Silverton, where they have just opened a Bass Pro Shops. It is an awesome store with all sorts of cool outdoor stuﬀ, from camping supplies to new boats. We can (and did) spend hours in that store. ! Sunday: We got up and Jim headed to the river to meet someone who was interested in buying our small boats. Walt and Don and Shirley, and Larry and Barbara left shortly there after. Kris, Doug and us went to breakfast at the Silverton and walked through Bass Pro Shops one more time before we had to go home. ! So there you have it. As I read through it, I couldn't help but think how most of those events could have been during any of our trips up there, and except for the number of RZRs not much has changed. I sure can't wait to get there and start our second twenty years of Coral Pink trips.

This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle for writing an article about his and Don’s road trip. We’re looking forward to hearing what everyone is up to during the summer so that we have interesting content for the newsletter all year long. Next month’s newsletter will cover the fun from this year’s Coral Pink, as we add to the tradition. -Paul, Melissa, and Allie.