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♦ The MLK Dune clean-up trip had a smaller group attending it this year, but the Tranthams, Fords, Hagens, Dave Hug-gard, and even Walt made it out at least for the day. The rest of us are looking forward to being back in the dunes soon.

♦ The Christmas / New Years trip was another big one, with over 20 rigs in camp and lots of people joining in on the fun.

♦ The next long trip to the dunes will be for Presidents Week in February, and will extend from February 10th through the 21st, with many people having Monday the 20th off for a three day weekend.

♦ The side by sides are multiplying once again! I was sur-prised and happy to see not one, but two white RZRs come out of the Oliver’s trailer. The latest addition is a 900 that Jeff promises is for Lavon. Over New Years though Amber and Rylee seemed to be enjoying the 800, following Jeff in the 900. This makes Rylee the youngest member to go for dune rides, which is very cool.

♦ The March trip will be another week long trip for the retired folks. We are planning on March 9th - 19th, and consider-ing Glamis or Gordon’s Well. If you have a preference, post it on the website or e-mail Jim or PJ.

Saturday 2012 MLK By Walt

George and I got out to Glamis on Saturday morning, parked at Mama Jennies , and after having breakfast with Jennie, we unloaded the RZR out of the back of the p/u and registered for the Clean-up. With bags in hand, we went back to the restaurant parking lot, and in about an hour had filled 2 bags of trash. Then headed to wash 6 to find the group. Pete and Dave Huggard was working on Pete's buggy, seems it wouldn't start this day, then Linda and Jerry came riding in her new 900 RZR, (looked good) and told me that Shirley and Don were at the store looking for me, which showed up to find me shortly after that.

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The group at the cleanup raffle, anxiously waiting for their numbers to be called.

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February 10th — February

21st: Presidents Week at

Glamis, Wash 6. Members will

once again be spending 10 days

at the dunes, allowing back to

back weekends for the rest of

us.

March 9th — March 19th: Another week long trip to

the dunes, at either Glamis or

possibly Gordon’s Well. If you

have a preference, post it on the

club website or e-mail it to Jim

or PJ. We will finalize the loca-

tion before the next newsletter.

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Everyone headed to the location that the raffle was at, in hopes of winning some prizes.

With George as my co-pilot, I headed to the hill thru the dunes. He stated that was amazing how the RZR made it around out there, and was hav-ing fun just riding. (that gave me the encourage-ment to step it up a notch) Leaving the hill,I headed back thru the dunes and wash's to camp just to find everybody was still at the raffle. I was hoping they would be done and back at camp, so they could come out and play with me in the dunes for awhile, so I went back into the small dunes behind wash 6. It wasn't crowded, so we ran all over the place for @ 1 hour, and again there

wasn't anybody in camp, so back out to ride for @ another hour, and with camp still empty, we headed to the raffle and visited with the group. When we got back to camp, Pete, Dave, Don and Jerry had all the wires out and was testing them with the tester, when Jerry jiggled the “oil pressure sender wire” and tighten the nut, and the engine started, just like magic.

After sitting around and visiting for a while, It was time to go to dinner at

Mamma Jennie's, with everyone going.

This wasn't just a clean-up and MLK weekend, it was also Mamma Jennie and my birthday, and Mamma Jennie had made a “ice cream cake” for all of us to enjoy after dinner.

This was a great birthday for me, I finally got to go dunning, had a great time with the friends that were there, and great food. Now I'm resting, that was a lot of driving for one day !! I'm looking forward to the next time I can go back out.

Thanx to everyone for making this such a great day !!!

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The group at pizza celebrating Walt and Jeannie’s birthdays.

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New Years Trip Report by Jim Kastle I arrived Monday the 26th in the afternoon, with my transmission and new (formerly Scott’s) axles in the truck. Dale and Rebecca, Don and Shirley, Jerry and Linda, and Mike and Ashley were already there. I went back and got the yellow trailer, and was ready to push my car out of the trailer when Dale suggested I prop the ramp up and work on the car on the ramp. Great idea, and then Dale proceeded to do most of work installing the trans, along with help from Don. The two of them did most of the work, while I got tools from the trailer. Jerry also helped, as did Bryan and Steve Sturm both of whom just stopped by to say hello. Many hands make quick work, especially when “sticking” the trans. Within a minute the trans was removed from my truck and stuck on the engine. There’s times this has taken an hour! Just after dark P.J. and Melissa arrived, and had a little trouble finding camp, as I had not yet put up the strobe, and my trailer looked odd with a buggy hanging out the back. The installation was finished in MUCH less time than I expected. I want to give my sincere thanks to all who helped. It was a highlight of the trip for me. One day, I don’t remember which, I was surprised to see Bobby Amador drive up and tell us he had a car to use for a ride. His friends were camped next to us, We were just

about ready to go for the ride, so we waited a few extra minutes while Bobby and his friend and their significant others got ready for the ride. For the first part of the ride, Bobby was a pas-senger, and was enjoying himself, but after the first break, Bobby got to drive. It was the first time in probably ten years or more that he got to drive a buggy. He had a ball, and it was fun as he talked with us on a break and did a pretty good job of remembering different people he hadn’t seen in years. There was lots of reminisc-ing about the good old days when Bobby took us deep into the dunes and would wheelie his,

or often his wife’s, car up what now would probably be hill 7 or 8! It was interesting that the friends who let him drive their car, Howard and Karen, were the ones who first introduced Body to the dunes in the 70’s. We had the usual number of breakdowns, most memorable being John breaking an axle resulting in an impressive tow by Scott. P.J. broke an A-arm, requiring a trip back to camp for a weld job. I broke an A-arm resulting a beautiful weld job by Scott, fol-lowed by painting the arm just before the spaghetti dinner. In my haste to drive my car with the recently repaired trans, I neglected to properly align the right rear wheel, re-sulting in a vibration from the axle, and an oil leak from the trans. I aligned the wheel and the vibration was gone, but the seal continued to leak. Not to worry, John had the seal and bearing needed to stop the leak, so we did another Mendeola field repair. The trans is now as good as new, despite having been opened up by the Buggy Night crew and having minor surgery performed by me after the Thanksgiving trip where it made an ugly noise most of the trip. P.J. used his Go Pro camera on every ride, and showed many of the videos on the outside of Pete’s trailer after the spaghetti dinner. The dinner went extremely well, with lots of side dishes and three different

sauces, and the most garlic bread I ever recall at one of our dinners. Thanks to all, especially Jerry and Linda for the garlic bread, and my favorite, Sandy’s meatballs (another selfish request that she continue making them.) We rode every day, and used the air horn on the yellow trailer to an-nounce the rides. It worked really well, with several cars, bikes, or side by sides on every ride. Anyone who wants to announce a ride is welcome

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Scott towed John all the way to camp from Hill 4, and we recorded it all!

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to use the horn on the trailer. Three blasts generally mean half an hour till the ride, two blasts 15 minutes, and a single blast means let’s go! Using the horn makes it clear to everyone a ride is about to depart, without leaving anyone uniformed about the ride. Maybe we need to come up with a different signal for side by side rides. The sand was very rutted, requiring us to go deep into the dunes to find rela-tively smooth sand. Most rides went below hill 4, and several went all the way to hill 5, despite my fear of the evil that has often followed us when we visit hill 5. I think the curse may have been broken, because none of the break-downs occurred at hill 5, unlike what has happened way too many times in the past. Barry, Mark Szymanski, myself several times, Walt, and Jeff the bird-man all have had bad luck near hill 5. On a couple of rides this trip we went all the way from hill 5, to 4, to 3, to Olds and then camp without a stop. There were many times in the past this was an all day trip!

Mike Bacon continued to lead many side by side trips which are greatly appreciated by the side by side contingent. On one ride Jeff let Mike drive one of the Oliver’s RZRs. I imag-ine that will cost Mike sometime in the future as side by side technology has come a long way since Mike’s Ranger was built. Mike sure had a smile on his face as he returned to camp in the RZR. Thinking of side by sides, we had a couple of times where they were turned over this trip. Mark Zimmerman and Linda Trantham both did the “Sky, Dirt, Sky, Dirt, Sky” maneuver with no significant damage to their RZRs. Linda didn’t even flatten a tire! With New Years being on a Sunday, many got to spend an extra day in the dunes, and a few of us lucky retired folks waited until Tuesday or beyond to depart. As I was getting

ready to leave, I mentioned to Linda how much I enjoy the week long trips. She mentioned the March weekend trip we have done for several years and suggested we could extend that to a week. I’m all for it, and it could provide another back to back weekend opportunity for the working crowd. Keep an eye on the calendar. –Jim

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The group at Hill 5 during one of many stops (not breaks) there.

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Hi Everybody, it's Allie. Did you know it is a brand new year? Christmas is all gone, but it is coming again this year, so I am ex-cited. I had a really great Christmas and then went to the dunes for another fun week. I got to do lots of fun stuff, but my Grandmas didn't because they didn't come. It was just me Mommy, Daddy, and my Grandpas. Oh and lots of my friends were there too, and as soon as I got there I wanted to go see Linda because I knew she would have some cookies just for me. I had to wait until morning to go see her though because it was already dark when we got there. I did end up seeing her, Jerry, and my favorite cat, Shadow Kitty. I also saw Don, Shirley, and Tara puppy. We went in the dune buggy to ice cream, but I fell asleep the first time and slept through the whole thing. But Mommy is smart, and she keeps ice cream in the trailer for emergencies like when I woke up. Dale and Rebecca came out with their puppy Wiley, and they brought me a present. I got so excited when I opened it because I knew just what it was. It was a turtle night

light with stars. I already had one, but two is always better than one, and now I have to sleep with both every night, one with green stars and the other with purple stars. Now I get both, and they keep me from being scared when I sleep in my own bed all by myself. Later in the week Foxy brought her parents Steve and Janice, and they had a pre-sent for me too. I got very cool sunglasses and a Minnie Mouse bag. It is really neat. I love to put my special things in the bag and carry it around. This trip is special since it starts a whole new year. I wrote about it last time it happened, but I guess it has been a whole year. We ended last year just like the year before, with Spaghetti. I really like spa-ghetti, and I showed everyone that I am a normal 2 year old by having a meltdown right before dinner. Mommy made it all better though by bringing me a plate of yummy food. Then we watched race car movies on the side of Rudy's trailer and had a campfire. I am getting too big to

sit at the fire, there is just too much other fun stuff to do. I can walk all by my self to go see my friends or look at the pretty Christ-mas trees that people decorated with some of my favorite things, Christmas lights! One day we went to Yuma for shopping, which Daddy thinks is "so cool". While we were eating breakfast, I was trying to be a good girl but I was a little too excited and I slipped and fell and hit my front teeth on the table. I tried to be brave, but it hurt really bad. My teeth felt funny, and when Mommy checked, a piece of the back of one had come off! It hurts when that happens. I fell asleep and took a nap, but Mommy decided to call a dentist and have my tooth looked at. I had a lot of fun playing at the dentist office. They had a jungle gym, and I met lots of kids. It turned out my tooth was fine, but I was more careful the next time I went to McDonalds for breakfast. The weather was really nice for the whole trip, and I wasn't cold, even without a giant jacket on. It wasn't windy either, so I got to play outside a lot. Daddy and my Grandpas went for dune buggy rides at night, and they came back after I went to bed. All Daddy could see in the trailer when he got back was the light from my turtles. I can't wait for the next dune trip. I really like riding in the dune buggy, as long as we don't go too fast and I get ice cream. I also love seeing all of my friends, especially my friends' pets. Until next time, keep your teeth in one piece, you meltdowns to a minimum, and ice cream at then end of your buggy rides. -Allison

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Original Chevy Wheels for sale: Chevy stock aluminum rims from a 2005 3/4ton suburban. They are 16x7 with a 8 lug on 6.5 bolt pattern. They came with the caps and lug nut covers. They are in mint condition, no scratches. Asking $200. Contact Pete at 760-451-0845

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This month we’d like to thank Walt Fisher and Jim Kastle for sending in articles, and Walt, Pete and Jer-emy Hagen for sending in MLK trip pictures. Let the group know if you have a preference for the March trip location, it should be fun as always. If there’s anything else you’d like to see in the newsletter, hop on a com-puter, write it up, and send it on in. Also, if you have any plans for upcoming trips that we don’t have listed let us know so we can put them on the calendar and on the website. -PJ, Melissa and of course Allison

Darrell made his return to Glamis over the Christmas / New Year’s week. It was his first Glaims trip in two years, and many of us were glad to see him again. The BLM Rangers apparently were eager to welcome him to California as well, since during a trip back from Brawley they pulled him over and proceeded to search his entire truck with a dog. Of course they didn’t find anything, but hat didn’t keep them from taking an hour out of his day and having the dog climb all over his groceries and everything in the truck. They made sure to tell him that “We take drugs very seriously in California.” Just a friendly welcome to the state courtesy of some over eager federal Rangers looking for a training oppor-tunity in a truck with out of state plates…