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♦ Some club members made the MLK trip, and we have three articles about it in this issue for the rest of us to catch up on the fun.

♦ Presidents Week at Glamis is shaping up to be another big trip. As shown in the last newsletter and on the website, club members will be at Glamis, Wash 6 from February 8th (The Friday of the weekend before Presidents Day) through Tuesday, February 19th.

♦ This is more of a “What’s Old” item, but it seemed to fit. P.J. Kastle recently celebrated his 33rd birthday, which means it was 20 years ago that he got his first full size VW sandrail during the 1993 dune season. Wow how time flies.

♦ During the MLK trip someone came into camp and stole LED lightbars in the middle of the night. Chuck’s RZR and Buggy and Jim’s RZR all had lightbars stolen while they slept with the vehicles just outside their trailers. Other items like headsets and radios were left untouched, but it is dis-turbing to know someone was going through camp. A nearby camp reported their lights had been stolen as well. It is something for all of us to be aware of for upcoming trips, and we will all keep a closer eye out for unexpected visitors in camp overnight.

At the MLK clean up at Glamis, Walt asked Don and I if we would check his raf‐fle tickets for him. He, Jim and others wanted to go riding during the time of the drawing. Walt had 12 tickets and can you believe it.  He won 6 prizes.  2 chairs, a folding camping table, 2 gift certificates from Gilmore's a total of $125.00, a free month at Glamis Dunes Storage, and a bag full of all kinds of goodies.  There was one prize in the bag of goodies that I wanted for Nancy.  When I saw it I imme‐diately  thought of her. It was of a Frog hat/scarf. It was so cute.   The United Desert Gateway (UDG) puts on a great raffle, free hamburgers, hot 

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February 8th-19th: Presidents Week at

Glamis, Wash 6. Members will

be staying all week, so the rest

of us can do back to back week-

ends.

March 1st or 8th-?: Possible mid-March ex-

tended weekend trip. Contact

Jim if you’d be interested.

March 29th-April 8th: Easter Week at Gordon’s

Well. Plan on an Easter Egg

hunt on Sunday, March 31st.

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dogs, chips, drinks and T‐shirts.  It is their way of say‐ing thanks to everyone.  I remember when the Clean up first started 15 years ago by Jennifer White. Not many people showed up then.  Then it took off.  Every year they hold it.  The dunes are very clean now.  We have a hard time finding enough trash to fill the trash bags.    The only other one in our group that won anything, was Linda Hagen.     For those who don't know, you get a ticket for every bag of trash. And if it's a large piece of trash, they'll give you few tickets more.  Jerry and 

Linda Trantham had 22 tick‐ets and there you go, they didn't win one prize.  Now that's not right!  We all knew they would win something.  But it's about cleaning the dunes I guess.   Shirley, Don and Tara 

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Walt posing with his Raffle haul.

Nancy and her new Frog hat.

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MLK Weekend in Glamis  I was originally scheduled to go to Ocotillo Wells with Doug & Kris for MLK, however Doug called me Thursday morning to tell me both him and Kris were sick and wouldn't be able to go, so I grabbed my groceries and pointed the truck & trailer towards Glamis. I arrived just before dark to find a very pleased Jim & Nancy Kastle. Very pleased because they were the only ones there and just felt a little more secure with someone else in camp. We set up, had dinner, and a nice small fire before going to bed.  The next morning Doug Becker and Chuck Grossman arrived right after I finished my breakfast. Doug and Chuck had both brought their RZRs, and Chuck brought his buggy. With my, and Jim's RZRs, and Jim's buggy it was now 4 to 2 in the RZR vs buggy ranks. Unfortunately (for the buggies!) it wasn't going to get much better!  Once Doug and Chuck got set up we took the four RZRs out for a ride. The wind had smoothed the dunes out pretty nice, but also left a lot of razorbacks. We rode for a bit until the call came over the radio that Chuck was stuck. Chuck had not quite made it up a face and had got stuck on the razorback on top, with one front wheel about two feet in the air! Everyone jumped out to start digging when I remembered my epic Thanksgiving stuck. "Hold on guys!" The heck with this digging stuff!" "Let's just pull him out!"  "Will that work?" With the angle he's at won't we pull him over and roll him over on to his top?" "What the hey, hook him up! Digging sucks!" We hooked my tow strap on to the back of Chuck's RZR and the back of mine, and after Chuck decided it would be better if he was in his RZR, and belted up, I gave him a small tug and he popped right out! Off we go like a herd of turtles! (Since I neglected to take a picture Chuck denies this "stuck" incident ever happened. I'm not here to argue. I am impressed with my tow strap though!)  We rode up to the top of Olds Hill and took a break. After our break we were on our way back down when the call came through Doug is stuck. Doug had got hung up on a razorback too. This time there was no argument. "Break out the tow strap!" was the call. Chuck was in a better position to pull this time so we hooked Chuck to Doug and a short tug and Doug was free. That tow strap, that I found in the dunes about ten years ago BTW, is turning out to be the best tool I have ever carried!  

 By the time we got back to camp the Tranthams and the Fords had arrived, both bringing their RZRs, then Walt arrived with his RZR and buggy, and the Hagens with their buggy. Final score for this trip RZRs 7, buggies 4!  Saturday morning we all went and signed up for the Dunes Cleanup, and then went looking for trash. Trash was much harder to find than I recall in the past. I was able to fill five bags though and turned them in to get my five raffle tickets. We went over to have lunch, free hamburgers and hot dogs, and await the raffle. Jim, Walt, Chuck, and Doug decided to go for a ride instead of staying for the raffle so they turned their tickets over to those of us staying. Of our group Walt and Linda were the winners, especially Walt with SIX draws out of his twelve tickets! And he wasn't even there! Don & Shirley had to keep going to the stage to pick up his prizes! He was out riding, but he should have been in town buying a LOTTO ticket!  

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Saturday afternoon I toke a slow ride over to olds Hill to see what was going on. I met the Hagens and the Loers there. As I was leaving I just happened to see a group of RZRs coming in on the main road. The first couple veered to the left at the last hump coming in. The third one either wasn't paying attention, or tried something fancy that didn't work. He hit the big hump and flew about four feet in the air. The RZR rotated nose down and it lawn darted in to the sand, then endo'd five times before coming to rest on its roof! All less than 100 yards right in front of me! His group all rushed to him, and I drove by to see if everyone was OK. The driver and passenger were moving around and didn't look like they had any serious injuries. The RZR looked like it held up pretty well as the cage was intact and hadn't collapsed. Not a ride I would have wanted to take though! That night we burned a couple of Pete's Christmas trees.  

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Monday morning, after we had got up to discover someone had come in to camp and stole all the LED light bars off the buggies and RZRs (Damn Thieves!) we organized a RZR ride as the Hagen and Loer kids wanted to go. Karisa Hagen rode with me as we headed off to some of the big dunes eventually ending up at the flagpole. After a short break I asked if anyone had a preference where to go next. Jim sounded off "Hill 5!" Hill 5 it was then. We duned our way over to Hill 5. Somewhere during that little journey Walt decided he liked a particular razorback and stopped to admire it. No tow strap this time, all it took was a little rocking back and forth and down the hill he went. On our way back from Hill 5 we came across a particularly tough hill I got myself in to. I really didn't think we were going to make it but we finally fought our way to the top. Karisa yelled "YEAH!" and held her arms up! That was fun!  

Before we had left camp in the morning Pete had mentioned they would like to head for home about noon, so I started watching the time and heading towards camp. We worked the dunes pretty good and eventually pulled back in to camp to find the Hagens and the Loers all packed and ready to go. It was 11:56am! I discovered everyone else was packing up too, so I changed plans again deciding to head for home Monday night. I then got a call from a friend asking if I would be home in time for dinner, so I packed my stuff quickly and was off. Dinner was nice!  Looking forward to seeing everyone at President's Day! I'm hoping to be there all week.  ‐Mike Bacon  

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Glamis Cleanup, 2013 by Jim Kastle Nancy and I arrived around 3:00 pm Thursday. We were the first IEORAers. Shortly after we arrived, we were surprised to see Mike Bacon. He had planned to go to Ocotillo with the Schellingers, but received a call saying they had the flu, so he made a last-minute change of plans. We spent the rest of the day setting up camp, doing some minor maintenance, then had a nice evening around a campfire. Friday morning Chuck and Doug arrived with both RZR's and Chuck's buggy. At that point the RZR's outnumbered the buggies two to one! Mike led us on a fun ride to Olds and beyond. During the ride all of the 900's got stuck at one time or another, while Mike's 800 just kept moving and coming back to us. When we got back to camp we found the Fords and Tranthams had arrived, having brought only the RZR's, making the count six to two! The Hagens, sans Jeremy, who was on a school trip to Big Sur, arrived making the count six to three. Walt's arrival narrowed the count to seven to four, lessening the ratio to less than two to one. The Loers arrival left the ratio unchanged as they brought only quads, with Hayden's friend Jason in place of the dogs. I haven't figured out what that did to our pet to people ratio. We enjoyed another evening at the campfire. Saturday morning most of us participated in the cleanup. Walt found the most trash, ending up with 12 tickets for the raffle. We had

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the lunch provided for the volunteers, held just before the raffle. Walt and I went for a ride, giving our tickets to Don and Shirley. Chuck joined us on the buggy ride. We had a pretty good ride until I heard Walt call me telling me my right rear tire seemed low. It was, having a puncture in the inside sidewall. We made a field repair using some plugs Chuck had given me years ago to carry in my car. We limped back to camp. We found that, thanks to Don and Shirley, Walt had been very lucky in the raffle, with 6 of his 12 tickets having been picked. His prizes included $125.00 in Gilmore gift certificates, and a month's storage at Glamis Dunes Storage. Linda Hagen had the only other winning ticket in the club. Saturday night some of went to Mama Jeannie's for a dinner which in-cluded some cookies to celebrate Walt's and Jeannie's birthdays. Sunday morning we went for a ride with the four buggies and Ed and Hayden on quads. We were in the dunes above the flag when Chuck or Walt called me to stop the ride because Pete's right rear tire looked funny. It turns out it broke the right trailing arm in the same place as the left one broke on the New Years trip. We did our best Cole Brothers imitation, strapped the arm back in place, and headed for Roadrunner. At Roadrunner we stopped and Chuck offered to make a quick run to camp to get Doug's truck and Chuck's trailer. We decided to meet at Crazy Kevin's and load the car there. Walt, Hayden, and Chuck headed for camp, while Pete, Ed, and I headed to Crazy Kevin's. We made it to Crazy Kevin's, and had time for a quick ice cream before Doug and Chuck arrived with the trailer. We all made it back to camp. We found Bob Amador had arrived, after having had to work Saturday. Don, the Tranthams, Walt, Nancy and I headed off to Texas Road-house in Yuma for dinner. Upon our return we had a great campfire where Walt and Chuck entertained us with stories of their Navy days. Monday morning I was awakened by Chuck's knock on my door. I opened the door, to hear Chuck ask if my lightbar was on when I went to bed. I thought to myself that I always turn it off. What he was asking was if it had been attached to my RZR. Some SOB had stolen two lightbars from his RZR and one from his buggy, and mine from my RZR. We found the crook's footprints all over camp, just feet from where we had been sleeping. It's a very creepy feeling. A guy from a camp next to us came over and told us they hit his camp as well. I didn't think calling the authorities would do anything but add to the crime statistics at Glamis, and fig-ured we might as well go for a ride, but at Bob Amador's urging, I called the Sheriff and the BLM. I thought they wouldn't do any-thing, and we went for a RZR ride. But while we were on the ride, a deputy came and took a report from Nancy and Don. The ride was a good one with five RZR's following Mike to the flag, then hill 5, and back to camp. There had been a lack of communication regarding who was leaving when, and as several of us packed up, Walt was surprised to find that he was the only one staying Monday night. Bob Amador never went on a ride, as the only ride we went on after he arrived was the theft-shortened RZR ride. The Tranthams, the Fords, and Nancy and I headed to Quartzsite. We're looking forward to a week at Glamis for President's Day.

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With Christmas in the rear view mirror, we looked forward to burning off some Holiday calories in Glamis for New Years. Ringing in the New Year in the dunes has become a family tradition and we look forward to sharing it with our dunning friends. We packed up and left Fallbrook on Friday. We had an extra passenger this trip. Karissa invited her boy-friend, Jason, to join us. He had never been camping in an RV, never been to the dunes and never ridden in a buggy. He told us he had an iron stomach and loved roller coaster rides so I was looking forward to putting him to the test. As most of you know, even though I'm a driver, I have to take Dramamine to keep breakfast down on the morning ride. This is not the time to share with you my Zima and Strawberries episode from 20 yrs ago. We had an easy drive to Wash 6 and ar-rived around 2pm to find Chuck in his new Razor ready to guide us to camp. Our friends the Loer's waiting for us to park so they could set up their camp. There were many rigs in our circle already from families that were there the week before. But the washes was not nearly as crowded as they were for Thanksgiving. We unpacked the trailer, Chuck helped trans-port the firewood to the center of camp with his Razor. Jeremy rolled out his new (to him) YZF 450 quad while Karissa inherited his Honda 400. We had just enough time to say hi to everyone and get the BBQ started for dinner as it got dark. The evening temps were pretty cool and we made our way to the camp fire to warm up. The next morning the sun had begun warming things up and we prepared for the morning ride. Jason hopped in the front seat and Karissa rode along in the back. I believe we counted 15 buggies and 3 quads as we rolled out of camp. We were into the ride no more than 15 mins when I heard a loud bang and Karissa said the back tire was rubbing against the shock.

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As we slowed to a stop I found myself at the bottom of a deep bowl. I could not have broke in worse location. At first I thought we lost the CV's or a shock. But upon further inspection it was discover the trailing arm had snapped. I was fit to be tied, not the way you want to start a long weekend. Well in true club fashion, John, Scott and PJ were under my car and making suggestions for a repair. Finally a factory car was the problem. I thought it was catastrophic failure and that I was done. They had other plans. After pulling my car around to stop a gas leak, the jacks came out and great care was made not to scratch the paint. A make shift connection was made out of a bolt and a hex nut that was jammed in the tubing. In the mean time sev-eral buggies went back to camp to get heavy duty tie-downs and more tools. After at least 2 hrs and 5 tie downs going all different directions to hold the trailing arm in place, we were ready to try and drive back to camp. When I dropped the clutch we discovered an-other problem, the CV joint was destroyed and the axle was just turning. Another trip to camp to get a spare axle, a school car axle to be exact. The good news is the length was right and it bolted on. I was able to drive it out of the bowl and a few 100 yards with PJ and Melissa riding my bumper ready to advise if something was falling apart. We had to stop and re-tighten the straps and thought if I was towed it might be better. Scott led the way, but the increase in speed was not good. So we untied the tow rope and re-tightened the ratchet straps. Camp was in sight by then and we rolled in 6 hrs after leaving. I pulled up to the yellow trailer and with the help of many, disassembled the rear suspension and removed the broken arm. John and Scott went to work welding the cracked tube and fabricating some gussets out of some steel plate. I watched in awe as they patched it together and actually made it stronger than it was. Scott broke for dinner, but Barry fin-ished up the welding. After some finish grinding and fill in, John put the final touch to the repairs and broke out a can of spray paint and covered the newly welded joint with a nice coat of John Deere Green. While the guys were welding, Dave Huggard helped me disassemble my CV's. The one near the wheel exploded into several pieces. He just happened to have a few spare CV's that fit my 930 axles. When we degreased the axles, we discovered the splines were severely galled. It took a while to pound off the spider and another 30 mins of filing to clean them up to the point the new CV's would slide back and forth. We got the new CV's on and packed them with grease, ready for tomorrow's installation. That evening we experienced another problem with the electrical system in the RV. A water leak from a sink drain pipe caused my transfer switch to short out and we could not operate the generator to charge the batteries to run the heater that night. I went to the fire and asked Steve Porter to take a look at it. He determined a circuit board was wet. I tried using a leaf blower and hair dryer to dry out the circuits, but had no luck. I made another trip to the fire to ask if anyone had a spare 3000watt generator that we could use for the evening. Jim volunteered the use of his genset that was in the back of Walt's truck. Walt drove it over to the side of our RV and plugged it in. We would be OK for the evening. Around 11pm I checked my system and was glad to discover the circuit board dried out and was functioning again. I fired up our genera-tor and we were back in business. I notified Walt that he could have the generator back. Another disaster avoided, thanks

to the help of Steve, Jim and Walt. You all saved my bacon again!! The next morning at 8am, with the help of many, the axle and trailing arm were bolted back on and we managed to make the morning ride. I was so appreciative of the help I received all day. Thanks to everyone who lent a hand and waited around. Sorry I messed up the big ride the day before. We drove it hard and fast and never had a worry about the repairs. I was actually more worried that the other side might break!! After a few hours of dunning, Brandy suggested a visit to Crazy Kevin's for Ice Cream. On the way Scott's car jettisoned the right front wheel. In true club fashion, everyone jumped in to help. To counter balance the car and attempt to make it a 3 wheeler it was determined that the right rear suspension would need to be compressed and tied off. John, Barry and Jim jumped up and began to "whip light pole" dance, proving beyond a doubt, that white men have no rhythm. Scott tied down the rear suspension, removed the front shock and tied up the

A-arms and off he went along sand highway. He started off with about 6 inches of clearance under the car. After a while it was apparent that Scott's car was getting lower in the front. It had turned into a giant sand scooper and the front section

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by Jim Kastle Nancy and I took advantage of the Casablanca’s offer of a free room and food and spent three days in Mes-quite as a slightly belated celebration of our 40th anniversary. We took the beetle and arrived Sunday the 16th at around 2:00 P.M. We feasted on 75 cent hot dogs, and gambled a little with very little luck. We decided to go to St George and get a Texas Roadhouse dinner Monday night. We left early in the day and went to Cedar City, some 70 miles north of St George, a town P.J. and Melissa visit each year from Coral Pink. After just two pawn shops, as I started away from a signal, the 231,000 mile old beetle seemingly popped into neutral, and made a clunking noise, I had enough momentum to pull to the curb, where I diagnosed an axle or CV problem. I was on enough of a hill to coast to a gas station/convenience store where I tried to push the car into a parking space, a local hopped out of his truck and helped me push it into the space, saying, “My truck did that to me and I had to push it by myself, and I said if I ever see anyone pushing a car I’m gonna’ help.” He got in his truck and drove off. I went into the store and explained the situation and asked if I could jack up the car and take a look. The clerk said, “Sure.” I jacked up the car and climbed underneath and found the CV bolts had all backed out, and the CV and axle were just flopping around. I guess the mechanic who replaced the axle (me) didn’t properly tighten the bolts when he replaced the axle about a year ago. In feeling the CV it seems some of the balls were out of place or missing. Replacing the CV in the parking lot was out of the question. I gave the situation some thought, and figured we could rent a car, drive the 290 miles home get the white truck (which has 271,000 miles on it) and flatbed trailer, return to the Casablanca for the night and return the rental car and pick up the beetle tomorrow. One problem was that it was already about 3:00 P.M. Some quick work with the I-pad found an Enterprise Car Rental agency just up the street. I was worried about leaving the car in the convenience store parking lot, but when I asked the clerk, she said, “I don’t think there’s a problem, but let me call my boss so she won’t be sur-prised when she gets to work tomorrow.” I called Enterprise, and the guy said he only had full sized cars, but he could pick me up in minutes. If we waited an hour he expected some compact cars to become available, at a savings of about $10. We opted for the immediate departure. I checked with the clerk, and she said her boss said there would be no problem leaving the beetle there until tomorrow. The Enterprise driver picked us up within 5 minutes, and within 3 more minutes we were in the Enterprise office, and in another 10 minutes we were on the road in a new Dodge Charger. The Charger made the nearly 500 mile trip home and back to the Casablanca less objectionable, but still long for Nancy. When we got to St George we had to keep going be-cause we still had at least 7 hours of driving left, giving up on our Texas Roadhouse dinner. I called P.J., and was telling him about our day and the car, and I made a comment about the V8 I assumed it had. He said it was probably a V6. I doubted it because it had so much power for a big car. When putting gas into it, I popped the hood, and it WAS a V6. We got home, and as I fired up the white truck, the throttle stuck. I sprayed WD40 and some carb cleaner on the IP and throttle linkage, and got it to free up, but it delayed us almost an hour. Nancy got in the Charger and was off to the Casablanca. Before the trip, I had been waiting for diesel prices to drop even lower, so the truck was almost empty, necessitating a trip to Kingman for fuel. Nancy said she’d call when she got to the room, and I hoped to catch up to her before she got there. My old truck tried hard, and was towing the trailer at up to 80 miles per hour, but when I was 12 miles out of Mesquite, Nancy called to say she was in the room. The Casablanca must hate trailers, as the only trailer parking in is at the far west end of the property, a LONG way from the casino. Oh well we love everything else about the place. It was now almost midnight, and be-

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cause they were giving us the room, they expect us to gamble, so I spent the time until midnight trying to show them I DID gamble that day. Tuesday morning we were up by 7, wanting to get the beetle out of the parking lot as soon as possible. The Weather Channel reported 2 to 4 inches of snow in Cedar City, which would make towing the beetle on the trailer a very undesirable experience. We had no choice, and based on our experience with snow forecasts in Big Bear, thought they might be overstating the snowfall. Nancy drove the Charger, and I my truck and we headed up the 15 in some very heavy rain. Fortunately we were right about the snowfall, and there was no snow in Cedar City. It was cold, however. As I was driving up there I was worried about the beetle, but as we arrived at the convenience store, it was right where we left it. I went into the store and told them we’d be pick-ing up the car, and in addition to the clerk I spoke with yesterday, there was another lady. I asked if she was the manager, and she was, and said it was no problem leaving the car and she was sorry it broke. It took a little ingenuity and time to load the powerless car, but with Nancy’s help, a few straps, and a come-a-long I brought, it was soon loaded. I went into the store to thank them for all their help, and to give them $20 as a token of my appreciation. They refused the money, saying they were glad to help, and wished me luck. I insisted they take it and if nothing else, tithe it. As we drove off, the manager gave us the familiar 5 finger Southern Utah wave. The folks at Enterprise were very helpful and checking in the Charger was painless, ex-cept that Nancy wanted to keep it. Once again, everyone we dealt with in Utah was very friendly and helpful. Time and time again we have ex-perienced this from the time we were sent to the undertaker’s house in Kanab in search of VW parts, to the pharmacist opening the store for me on a Sunday morning after I got burned, to the guy at NAPA who mixed paint for Walt without a deposit, and of course the rangers at Coral Pink who stop by our camp just to talk. Like I told the ladies at the convenience store, Southern Utah is a very special place. We were off to the Casablanca, in some heavy rain and strong winds. As we got to St George, we found Texas Roadhouse wouldn’t open for another 2 hours, so we missed another opportunity for one of our favorite restau-rant meals. We made it to the Casablanca where I dropped Nancy off at the front door and I parked the truck and trailer in the appropriate (at least to them) lot. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the Casablanca, but with little real luck. Wednesday we checked out of the room, and headed to the Virgin River for a complimentary breakfast. I had loaded the gas cans on the trailer in anticipation of the New Year’s trip, and didn’t want to take the time to unload them Monday night, so there I was, in a town with gas and diesel 20 cents cheaper than Yuma or Kingman, and me with 12 empty cans and a near-empty fuel tank on the truck. As some of you may know, this is a dream come true for me! I filled the truck and every can with diesel or premium and loved it! As we were head-ing down I15, I looked at the truck odometer, at 270,000+ miles, and thought about the beetle with 230,000+ miles, and realized there was over half a million miles on the combination of my two all-time favorite vehicles. Made me all sentimental! We got home with no problems, where I took the half million mile picture. -Jim

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By Paul Kastle Each January, the attention of the automotive world is directed towards Scottsdale Arizona, where Barrett-Jackson holds its largest automobile auction each year. This annual event has grown tremendously over the years, and now there are a number of other com-panies hosting auctions near Phoenix in January. These events help set the standard in the car collecting and restoration industry and demonstrate what cars collectors are most interested in. While very early luxury automobiles used to bring the most seven figure prices at Barrett-Jackson, over the last decade there has been a noticeable increase in muscle cars and more “fun” cars. The fast cars of the sixties and seventies are becoming more popular than the classics, and accordingly are bringing high prices. It’s not all about “numbers matching” or factory perfect cars either, as a many highly customized “pro-touring”, “re-creation”, or “period modified” cars have been rebuilt into something different from what they started out as and they still are worth quite a bit of money, not to mention being really fun cars to drive. The big number cars like the original Batmobile that sold this year for 4.2 million dollars are interesting, but more reasonable cars are interest-ing to see as well. Trends are defined by success at Barrett-Jackson. A few years ago, many VWs sold at Barrett-Jackson, including a 27 win-dow VW Bus that brought over $200,000 at their Orange County event. At subsequent events, there was an increase in the number of VWs and busses in particular. This year, a 21 window bus sold for $100,000, and a highly modified tube frame mix of half a VW bus and dual sport off road car sold for $40,000! Another recent trend is the VW Type 181, or “Thing”. At the 2007 Scottsdale Barrett-Jackson event there were four of them sold, and prices ranged from $22,000 to $48,000! There have been multiple “Things” at every Scottsdale event since, and in general they have brought good money. Off road capable vehicles have been increasing in popularity over the last few years, and this year saw a no-ticeable increase in early SUVs like Ford Broncos and Toyota Landcruisers. On Wednesday an original FJ-40 Landcruiser sold for $52,000, another sold on Thursday for $54,000, and finally they were all topped by one on Sunday that sold for $80,000. Plenty of other 4x4s did well, including older pickups with lift kits and big tires. This year besides the countless muscle cars and street rods and the increasing number of trucks, there were a couple of other cars of interest to club members. There were actually two sandrails consigned at the event! Lot 621 was a nicely painted and detailed four

seat mid-engine car with a 2386 VW engine, a swingaxle transmission, and an aluminum VW beam style front end. While this car is past its prime time in the dunes, it helped introduce the sport of duning to a number of collectors at Bar-rett-Jackson. Lot 1592 was a more modern five seat Desert Dynamics car with long travel suspension, a Mendeola transmission, and an LS1 V8. Looking closely at this car, it is my opinion that it was built specifically for Barrett-Jackson, or at least to sell to an audience beyond your typical duners. The listing says the car has never been on dirt or sand. It doesn’t include paddle tires, has painted suspension pieces, and besides the very pretty paint job it is missing many of the details you would expect on this type of car. Another minor detail that stood out is that it has a third brake light mounted to the whip tab instead of a whip

mount. While the basic equipment makes this a very respectable car, it is interesting to see something like this offered to a broad audience. In the end, the VW car sold for $8500 on Thursday, early in the Scottsdale event. On Sunday the LS1 car sold for $38,000. Each of these cars proba-bly brought more money than they would have in traditional sales, but the numbers weren’t off the charts. Time will tell if these experiments were successful, and whether more sandrail builders and owners decide that high end automobile auctions are the place to sell their cars. Either way, there is always a variety of cars and trucks to interest anyone at Barrett-Jackson. -P.J.

This creation sold for $40,000!

This car sold for $8500.

SOLD! for $38,000

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This month we’d like to thank Shirley Ford, Mike Bacon, Jim Kastle, and Pete Hagen for writing articles about their trips. It is fun to hear about trips from different perspectives, and great to have an eleven page newsletter! The Presidents week trip starts in just a couple weeks, so there should be more fun to cover in the next newsletter. As this newsletter shows, it is neat to read about trips from many viewpoints. If you have 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

was now a sand box. We made it to Crazy Kevin's where Scott and Don unloaded the cargo of sand that had accumulated inside. The good news is he was able to continue from there and make it back to camp. We celebrated New Years eve with a small bunch of people huddled around the campfire. The next day we spent some time riding with the kids over to Olds and then packed up. Over all it was a great trip. Fast forward 2 weeks to MLK Weekend. We arrived on Friday afternoon to find a smaller circle than last time, but the weather was much warmer and no wind. Our friends the Loer's (Ed, Janel and Hayden and his friend Jason) joined us later that night. There were more Razor's in camp than buggies. Saturday morning was spent doing the Dune Clean Up. The good news is it is getting much harder to find trash. After filling up a bunch of bags, we got our raffle tickets and went back to camp. Thank you to Jerry and Linda for offering their Jeep to get us over the where the Raffle was set up. We met up with the Ford's, Trantham's, Mike and Jim and chowed down on Hot Dogs, Burgers and Chips. We won a grab bag of goodies, but the big winner was Walt. He had 4-5 winning tickets that he gave to Don and Shirley. That afternoon we checked out Olds. Later that evening, we torched 3 of the 5 Christmas trees we brought. It is always an amazing sight to see and feel. The heat that is generated is unbelievable. The next day we set out of camp with 4 buggies and 2 quads. Jim led us on a fun, fast and furious ride. After just 30 mins Hayden's Banshee was experiencing throttle problems and had to be towed back to camp. We quickly regrouped and headed back out. We were way back near the Flag Box when we took our first break. On the next leg of the trip, I experienced Déjà Vu. Chuck was behind me and radioed to Jim to stop. Karissa at the same moment heard a familiar sound coming from the back end of my car. We stopped to check out the problem and discov-ered that the right side trailing arm had cracked in almost the exact same place as the left side did 2 weeks ago. All I could hear in the back of my mind was Scott and John saying, bring the good trailing arm up to the Elevator shop and they would do preventative welding to strengthen the arm. Yeah, yeah, what are the odds that the other side would break. Apparently 100%!!!!! The only bit of good news was I was not down in a bowl and the bar had torn only 3/4's the way around. I had just purchased 4 new heavy duty tie downs last week at Costco and put 2 in the buggy. Boy did they come in handy. We were able to cinch up the trailing arm with the 2 tie downs. Another idea was to eliminate the shock travel by blocking the piston with a socket extension bar that fit almost perfectly. We secured it with hose clamps, zip ties and electrical tape. Walt offered a box wrench that I attached to the tear, like a splint, with more hose clamps to try and keep the piece together as long as possible. The other bit of good news was that the CV's were not trashed this time. I was able to move on my own power. It was decided that we would head for Road Runner/Gecko Rd. Jim let us out of the big dunes and after 15 mins we made it to the road. Chuck and Walt made a bee line for camp and get his flat bed trailer that was attached to Doug Becker's truck and meet us at Crazy Kevin's. After they took off Jim and Ed (on a quad) stayed behind me and we slowly made our way along the road and finally arrived at Hwy 78. Chuck and Doug showed up 10 mins later and we were able to get my car on the trailer and back to camp. What a crazy day. My luck had run out and we were done for the weekend. That night we burned the last 2 Christmas trees. Sometime that evening, evil struck the camp for the first time in many years. 2 thieves had snuck into camp and stole the LED light bars off of Chuck's buggy and Jim's Razor. They hit the camp next to us as well. It is scary to think that someone would risk their lives over lights. Their vehicles were parked just 2 feet away from their RV's. The Rangers came later that morning to take a report, but there is virtually no chance of a recovery. How sad. The Razors planned a morning ride and with several empty seats, Karissa rode with Mike, Hayden rode with Walt and Jason rode with Chuck. They had never been in a Razor before and really enjoyed the ride. Thanks to everyone for taking them along. In the mean time we had packed up camp and were ready to head home. When they returned we said our good bye's and were home by 3:30. Now I need to get the trailing arms off and over to the Elevator Repair station in Ran-cho Cucamonga if we want to make Presidents Day weekend. John, do you have any more green paint? Hope to see eve-ryone out there in February.

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It looks good from this side, after repair #1.