The Rooster
September 2018
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New We don’t have any dune trips to report oaths month, but the sand season is just around the corner.
Dumont Trip We are planning unheeding out to Dumont for a fast start to the season on October 5-8th, which is Columbus Day weekend.
7th Annual Mona Bacon Memorial Spook Poker Run and Hot Dog Weenie Roast Mike Bacon has planned another weekend of fun at Anza for October 20th, so mark your calendars now.
The Kastles’ Summer of Travel P.J. informed me he has no content for this newsletter, so I decided to write about our “summer of travel.” Our travels began with a six week RV trip to Charlotte North Carolina. We left home two days after getting home from the Easter Glamis trip. We towed our 25 year old fifth wheel behind our 13 year old dually. We decided to “wander” across the country, with no reservations anywhere, allowing us the freedom to go wherever the urge took us. The one definite was a visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte. We had a few other places we thought we’d visit, such as the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky; The American Museum of Science and Energy in Oakridge, Tennessee; Wheels Through Time, a motorcycle museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina; Captain Sullenberger’s “Miracle on the Hudson” plane, which is on display in Charlotte; the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and too many other places to list. We enjoyed all the places we visited, except for a train Museum in
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The Rooster
September 2018 Spencer, North Carolina which had been highly recommended by a lady from North Carolina I spoke with at Disney World three years ago. We both felt it was poorly organized and too spread out for us. We had visited many museums and found them all much more to our liking. We had very few problems with the truck or trailer, and handled the few we had with little difficulty. We camped in several Army Corp of Engineers or Tennessee Valley Authority campgrounds and had many full hook up, lakefront sites for less than $20 per night using our Senior Passes. We never stayed in a Wal-Mart, or a truck stop, or a casino parking lot, despite our thoughts we would often do so. In the six weeks, we only had one night without hookups, that at a State Beach in Carolina Beach, North Carolina.
Upcoming Events • September 14-16: Sand Sports Super Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. • October 5-8: Columbus Day Weekend at Dumont • October 20: Mona Bacon Memorial Spook Poker Run and Hot Dog Weenie Roast at the Salton City Golf Course
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We loved Charlotte, staying a full week. Besides the Hall of Fame, we visited many NASCAR race shops. At the Richard Childress Museum we met Chocolate Meyers, who was Dale Earnhardt’s gas man who now hosts a national NASCAR radio show. He is an unbelievably down-to-earth, friendly guy. I could go on for pages about our trip, but I’ll spare you all! I have several pages of notes I’ll print if someone wants details. We got back to home just in time to go to Cottonwood Cove with P.J., Melissa, and the kids for Memorial Day. The Thursday after Memorial Day we went to our favorite Arizona city, Prescott, and spent another week in the fifth wheel. Nancy and I spent the Fourth of July at Cottonwood Cove. On the 8th of July we went to Mesquite on the way to Coral Pink. Although we had the fifth wheel, the comfort of a hotel room won out. On the 11th we all headed to Coral Pink, as was so completely described by P.J. in last month’s newsletter. It was one of the best Coral Pink trips ever. We spent the night of the 20th in the hotel, and returned home on the 21st. On Tuesday, the 24th I hooked up the flatbed trailer to my white 1993 truck (which now has over 295,000 miles on it) figuring I had driven the dually way too much in the last 4 months, putting on more than 10% of its 110,000 miles in that time. I planned to go to P.J.’s to get Don and Shirley’s RZR and then go to buggy
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September 2018
night at the elevator shop. I love my old truck, but was soon reminded that it tended to run warm towing in the heat. It was well over 110 degrees as I left Needles. The truck did OK until almost to Barstow where the “water in fuel” light came on for only the second time in its life. I did what you’re supposed to do: Pull over and open the water drain petcock. A mixture of water and fuel is supposed to drain. All I saw or heard was a sucking sound, and then silence as the engine died. I shut the petcock and tried to start it. After much cranking, it started. As I neared Victorville, the “WIF” light came on again. I exited the freeway and the engine was barely running. I read in the owner’s manual that if this happens, replace the fuel filter. I called the local Auto Zone, and they were out of stock, but a San Bernardino store had them. I noticed the lift pump was not running, and it was also available in San Bernardino. I called P.J., and he said he’d pick up the parts and bring them to me. When he arrived, we replaced the pump and filter, and the truck seemed to run fine. We headed for buggy night. About 12 miles later, the truck again started losing power. We transferred the trailer to P.J.’s truck and headed to John’s, normally a 20 minute drive. We did stop for dinner, and the truck died several times, but two hours later, we made it to John’s. John had already arrived, and he loves figuring out logistics, and offered P.J. the use of Anna’s jeep, as she was in Florida helping Brianna move. He then took great glee in saying I could use P.J.’s “real truck” (which happens to be a Ford) to deliver the RZR. Since it was too late to go load the RZR, we decided I would stay in our camper at John’s, and pick up the RZR the next evening when P.J. got home from work. I spent the rest of the evening searching the internet for possible solutions. I narrowed the possible problems to a defective oil pressure switch (it powers the lift pump), a fuel pump relay (which some sources say my truck does NOT have), bad fuel, or a clogged strainer in the fuel tank. Wednesday morning I took P.J.’s truck to buy an oil pressure switch and the socket to install it. Back at John’s I installed the switch, started the truck, and it ran great. I took it for a drive, and it stalled. I made it back to John’s and decided to drain the fuel and remove the fuel tank to change the strainer. I was a dirty job, but I got the tank out and the strainer removed. The tank seemed quite sandy inside, but the strainer looked OK, but it was harder than I thought it should be to suck through. I cleaned he tank as good as I could in John’s yard and left it in the back of my truck and I took P.J.’s truck to get the RZR. I took the RZR to Don and Shirley the next day, using P.J.’s truck. I still can’t believe how neat that truck is. It’s by far the best towing vehicle I’ve ever used, and that includes my dually, even when it was brand new. John LOVES hearing me say that.
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The Rooster
September 2018
I had to get P.J.’s truck back to him. John was going to do some work on the houseboat Saturday, and could use some help, so I decided to take P.J.’s truck back then. I decided I’d put my beetle on the trailer, and use it to get back home, leaving the trailer at John’s. Nancy decided that relying on my 322,000 mile old beetle in nearly 120 degree heat was not a good idea, especially given the trouble with my truck. She volunteered to get up early Sunday and drive the 4 hours to John’s to pick me up! I don’t deserve her!! After working on the boat, I decided to check out the fuel tank. It was not as clean as I wanted it. I could do a better job of cleaning it at home, but I had to get it there. My unbelievable wife allowed me to put the dirty diesel tank in the back of her nearly new car. It was such a tight fit; she had to move her seat forward to make room. I used everything I could find to protect the car, and fortunately it made it to Arizona without damaging her car. P.J. and Melissa and the kids had scheduled a trip to Cottonwood Cove, and of course we wanted to be there with them. Also, we had planned a trip to Phoenix to watch a Diamondback game, so the tank sat there for nearly 2 weeks. I was able to thoroughly clean it and install a new sock (which was very difficult to get, but I’ll spare the details.) On Tuesday, August 14, I loaded the tank and a few tools in the dually and headed to John’s. I figured if the truck still wouldn’t run right, I could use Scott’s fifth wheel flatbed to tow it home. I was able to install the tank, and a new fuel pump relay I bought just in case, put fresh fuel in the tank and was able to drive the truck some 30 miles around Phelan with no problems. I was hoping it was fixed, but was not sure. I didn’t have the confidence to drive it to buggy night in Rancho Cucamonga. The next morning I decided NOT to load it on the flat bed, instead hoping to come back and drive it home, thus avoiding another round trip on the dually. At home I researched ways to get to Phelan from Golden Valley, and busses, trains, and one-way rental cars all had problems. The most interesting of which was that there is only one westbound Amtrak train a day from Kingman, and it leaves at 11:48 PM, arriving in Victorville at 4:30 AM. The thought of waiting for an Uber ride in deepest, darkest Victorville in the middle of the night scared me! This was just before the Havasu weekend, and I decided to ask if I could greatly impose on Kris and Doug, or Mike and Pat to detour through Phelan on their way home and give me a ride. Mike immediately replied that he could, and Kris Doug read Mike’s reply before they had a chance to reply. WOW! What great friends. I love this club. After a great weekend at Don and Shirley’s, Monday Mike and Pat gave me a ride all the way to John’s. THANK YOU! I drove the relatively untested truck to buggy night, and back to John’s with no problems. Then Today, Wednesday the 22nd, I drove the truck home with absolutely no problems. It took over 4 weeks, and the help of several people, but we got it done. Our travels continue as we all: P.J., Melissa, Allie, Marshall, Brandy, Jon, Nancy and I head for 9 nights at Disney World. This will be followed by an overnight trip to the Queen Mary for Brianna’s wedding, and then a week later, on Columbus Day weekend, a Dumont trip, and then Nancy and I will attend our 50th high school reunion, causing us to miss the annual Mona Bacon Memorial Poker Run the weekend of October 19-21. This brings us to dune season. I can’t wait!
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The Rooster
September 2018
Sand Sports Super Show September 14-16
The unofficial kickoff to the sand season will once again take place at the Orange County fairgrounds in Costa Mesa the weekend of September 14-16. The show is open from 4:00 to 10:00 PM Friday, 9:00 to 7:00 PM Saturday, and 9:00 to 4:00 PM on Sunday. There will be the usual variety of vendors with parts and accessories for your enjoyment at the dunes, as well as RVs and sand toys on display. Something new this year will be an opportunity to test drive a 590 HP electric prototype UTV by Nikola. (We hadn’t heard of them before either, so it should be interesting.) As usual the ASA will be there with their raffle car, which will be given away on Sunday. This is always a fun event, and no matter which day you go you are likely to run into a bunch of club members. We’ll see you there.
This month we’d like to thank Jim Kastle for writing an article. We’d also like to hear what you all have been up to this summer, and how you’re getting ready for dune season. If you have pictures, text, comments, jokes, or 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. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall. 5