The Rooster
May 2018
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New We had a great Easter Glamis trip to round out the season.
Dumont Cancellation Since some people had a little too much fun at Glamis and won’t have their cars repaired in time for Dumont, it looks like this year’s Spring trip won’t happen. Many of us are already looking forward to October though.
Coral Pink Reservations The reservation window is open for individual site reservations for this year’s Coral Pink trip. See more on page 6.
Glamis, Easter and Beyond By Jim Kastle I arrived On Good Friday afternoon, and found Mike, Kris and Doug, Bobby and LuAnne, and LuAnn's sister, brother in law, and her nephew. Her nephew, Elmo, has an old school mid engine VW buggy. This was its maiden voyage, and he ran the heck out of it, and had a ball, despite some teething problems. We had a fire Friday night, and most of us stayed in camp, but I think LuAnne's family went for a ride. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, Mike, Kris and Doug, and I went on long morning rides. We had issues with the sun late on the Saturday and Sunday morning rides, and decided to start the Monday and Tuesday rides at 8:00. That made the morning rides much more enjoyable. The sun made riding in the afternoon very difficult, and we were content to relax in camp. Bobby and LuAnne and her family rode multiple times each day, and at least twice came to camp to get the truck and trailer to rescue Elmo's buggy. Elmo loved the drags, and made several passes, despite Bobby's warning he was going to break it. On one pass the fan exploded. But in true buggy driver fashion they repaired it and drove it the next day. Bobby and LuAnne left Sunday afternoon. Elmo drove the repaired buggy hard enough to break the transmission. There was no dune repair for that, so they packed up and left Sunday evening. On one RZR ride we took a break at Osborne, and saw two street motorcycles from Maine. The riders were a father and son who were riding from Maine to San Diego where the son was going to work for a month at a Naval Air Base. The dad was going to fly home the next
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May 2018 day, and then fly back out when the month was over, and they'll ride home. It sounded like a dream father-son trip. They ride off road at home and had heard a lot about Glamis They asked if we could give them a ride. Mike and Doug took them in the 1000's, and they loved it. We really enjoyed talking with them.
Upcoming Events • May 4-6: Cancelled Dumont trip due to lack of running sandrails. Let’s plan for October.
Due to the pretty low turnout, we opted not to have an Easter egg hunt or omelet boil Easter morning.
• May 25-28: Memorial Day Weekend: Start of the river season!
Monday evening the four of us made a return visit to Burgers and Beer in El Centro where we, along with Walt, celebrated Doug's birthday over the President's Day weekend and decided we would return. We did, and It was again outstanding.
• July 11-20: Coral Pink! This is the best trip of the year for those of us who make it.
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Tuesday we took two rides, but the sun was brutal on the afternoon ride, validating our earlier decision not to ride in the afternoons. Mike packed up and headed home. Kris and Doug left Wednesday morning. I sure appreciated Mike, Kris, and Doug making the trip, as I had to get the trailer out of storage by the first of the month, and would have been there alone until Wednesday without them. Wednesday morning I made a trip to Yuma to buy a replacement tire for the fifth wheel, as in preparation for our upcoming trip, I checked the air in the tires, and noticed one of the was failing, apparently with a broken belt. Back in camp I did some chores, and shortly before sunset, Danny and Pam arrived. Later, P.J., Melissa, and the kids arrived, followed shortly by John and Anna. We delayed the Thursday morning while P.J., and John unpacked the trailers and prepped the sand rails. I had to be back to camp to pick up Nancy by 11:00. We got to Olds, and I started climbing it, and heard a loud noise from the back of the car, as it quickly slowed to a stop. I was sure I lost a transmission, and was relieved to find out I broke a Ujoint on a rear axle. The axle spun wildly and tore out my main battery cable, ripping the positive 2
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May 2018
terminal from the battery. John had a spare axle in camp and gave me a ride back to camp. I hopped in the truck, and left for the store. As I passed the dumpsters, I saw Nancy cross over the railroad tracks. Perfect timing! We left the car at the storage yard, and headed back to camp. John had already found the axle, and took a battery from his fifth wheel, and we headed back to Olds. P.J. and Danny had already removed the old axle, and the damaged battery. We quickly installed John's spares and made it back to camp without further incident. Later on Thursday Rick and Melanie Alonso made their long awaited return to Glamis and IEOR. Barry also arrived. Bobby and LuAnne returned. John helped me replace the U-joint in my axle, so we would have a spare. We went for an afternoon ride and about a half mile from camp, Barry radioed that his car had a problem. We returned to him and saw the axle he had repaired in Yuma over President's day had broken. John remembered that my axles are long enough to work on Barry's car, so we went to get my recently repaired axle, as I was still using John's. We got the axle from camp and installed it on Barry's car. We had some concern that my axle might be too short so we escorted Barry back to camp, and the rest of us went for a ride. On the ride John noted what he thought was a slipping clutch, and realized it could be a broken weld on third gear. He made it back to camp with intention to keep an eye on it. Barry had measured my axle and found it WAS long enough. We relaxed around the campfire and were visited by Barry's neighbor Sean and his family, from whom Danny bought his sand rail. Friday morning Rick, John, P.J., Barry, and I left on a ride. About 3/4 of a mile from camp, Barry saw two guys waving for help. We followed Barry to them and found they had rolled their Polaris Ranger on its side. No one was hurt, but they needed help righting it. Barry hooked up a tow strap to their roll cage and pulled it back on all fours. Barry then pulled P.J., out of some very soft sand where he had stopped to help with the Ranger. As Barry tried to leave, he broke an axle. Barry figured that between the two broken axles, we had enough parts to assemble one more. We returned to camp, and got the parts to make a functioning axle. We installed it, but when Barry tried again to get out of the soft sand, you guessed it!, he broke yet another axle. No one wanted to risk their car towing Barry out of the soft sand. We remembered that nearly five years ago, Don Ford donated a 10,000 pound winch to the yellow trailer. We have not used it since, but agreed this was the perfect time. P.J. and I got the winch and John positioned his car as an 3
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May 2018
anchor, and we hooked up the winch. The winch seemingly effortlessly slowly pulled Barry's heavy car out of the hole. THANKS DON! John then towed Barry back to camp. After lunch we went for a ride in the big bowls near Comp. We took a break near Osborne, and when we left, John reported his trans was making a lot of noise. P.J. ended up towing him back to camp. We had a campfire. Then Allison's trip was made when Lynette and Aryah arrived. Allison loves hanging around with Aryah. Saturday morning Danny and Pam headed for home, then we had an omelet boil. Nearly everyone attended and a good time was had by all. After breakfast, we went for a buggy ride. Bobby and LuAnne; Lynette and her friend, Clayton; Rick; P.J. with John as passenger; and I with Barry as passenger headed off towards the swing set. The sand was very soft, and there were few tracks, and due to our late start, no shadows. Add the fact Lynette's
brakes were not working properly, and she was having a rough time. She and Bobby returned to camp from Hill 3. The rest of us continued to the swing set. The poor conditions, and the extra weight in P.J. and my cars made for a rather poor ride. I had a very difficult time leading and was often surprised by the terrain. With Barry's help, we finally made it back to camp. After we watched Barry's video of his car being winched out, Barry headed for home. Strong winds had been forecast all week for Saturday, but they held off until Saturday afternoon. We all retreated to our various RVs. I figured that was it for the night, but around 9:00 Nancy noticed P.J. was with John at John's sand rail. I decided to venture outside, and the wind had died to a mild breeze. We ended the day with a campfire.
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May 2018
Sunday morning John and P.J. didn't ride due to car problems, and I wanted to get home to prepare for our trip. Rick and Melanie packed up as well. Bobby and LuAnne, and Lynette and Clayton went for a short ride. By noon we were all on our way home. So another Glamis season has come and gone. I want to thank everyone for the great company, help, and support that is so characteristic of IEOR. It makes all our trips so very special. Remember, Coral Pink is July 11th through the 20th. We'd love more company. It appears we won't have our traditional May Dumont trip due to the buggy carnage this trip, but we are all looking forward to a fall Dumont trip. I've heard there is some interest in a RZR trip to Dumont, but that was to be in conjunction with the buggy trip. Keep checking the website for information on these and other possible trips. I can't wait for the 2018-2019 Glamis season!
A New (Used) Duning Truck: After enjoying the Excursion for almost 11 years, we have upgraded our tow vehicle to a 2013 F-350. As many of you know I’ve been shopping for a long time, and have been really impressed with the 6.7 Ford Power Stroke. With no longer needing an SUV to haul giant dogs, I planned on a crew cab F-350 as our next truck. After reviewing lots of options, we fell in love with this one, a single rear wheel Lariat long bed with black leather and lots of goodies. We can’t wait for it to make its duning debut at Coral Pink! In the mean time, we have an Excursion for sale if you know anybody who’s interested… -P.J. and Melissa
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The Rooster
May 2018
Coral Pink 2018 is Coming! While the main duning season is winding down, that means for many of us that the trip of the year is getting closer. Individual site reservations are still available, so you can call or go online to get a site if you’d like to join us. This year we will be in the park from Wednesday July11th through Friday July 20th. To make reservations visit: www.utahstateparks.reserveamerica.com and search for Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. Below is the campground site map:
This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle for taking the time to write up the Easter trip. As we head into the summer months, we’d love to hear what you’re up to in order to have something to print each month. If you have anything that you want to share, please send it to me at pkastle@msn.com. We will publish what content we have and a calendar of upcoming events in every month’s newsletter, and we look forward to your contributions to expand it beyond that. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 6