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♦ Coral Pink was again the trip of the year. We had 13 people make the trip, which is up three from last year. Most of the rides were RZR rides, but we were able to explore lots of new areas. Read all about the day by day activities this month, and hopefully even more about it in next month’s newsletter.

♦ Kris and Jim have said for years that they want to come back to life as a pet in this club. Unfortunately, two beloved pets have moved on to an even better place. Shadow, Jerry and Linda Trantham’s cat passed away after declining health this season. After Coral Pink Don and Shirley also lost Tara

to congestive heart failure. Both had spent years with us in the dunes and will be missed.

♦ The weather is hot, which reminds us of Lake Havasu. This year’s trip will be the weekend of August 16-18. Make your plans now for a river weekend in Don and Shirley’s and Jerry and Linda’s neighborhood.

♦ We do have swap meet spaces for the August 11th Pomona Swap Meet, so if you’d be interested in taking some items to sell or would like to go in with us contact P.J.

Wednesday 7/10: Melissa and I got up at 3AM to head for Mesquite. This time we decided to save an extra day of vacation and only spend one night in Mesquite. The drive up went great, and besides a freeway detour in San Bernardino we didn't have any problems. We got to Mesquite about 10 AM and unloaded the car. We saw Don and Shirley before they headed to St George to get a transmission light on their motorhome checked out. We had lunch at Jack in the Box and then went to the pool. We did some pawn shopping, and then met for dinner at 6PM. Don and Shirley weren't back yet, but Kris and Doug and Mike and Lisa had arrived and all went to Pizza Hut. After din-ner some of us headed to Wal Mart and then the casino. We learned that the shop in St George had been able to diagnose a communication problem between Don and Shirley's engine and trans, and the motorhome was ready to go.

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August 11th: Pomona Swap Meet.

August 16-18th: Havasu River trip at the

Fords and now Tranthams

neighborhood.

September 20-22: Sand Sports Super Show

at the Orange County Fair-

grounds in Costa Mesa.

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Just letting everyone know we had our dear little dog (Tara) put down today the 22nd. She had congestive heart failure. It got the best of her. We got back from Coral Pink yesterday the 21st. She wasn't doing well on the way home. We stayed up with her last night. We both knew it was time to let her go. Don held her while the vet gave her the injection and she went to sleep. We petted her I kissed her good-bye. We're going to spread her ashes at Glamis. That was her favorite place to ride and play. When we used to arrive, as soon as I would turn on the road next to railroad tracks she would start barking, she would get so ex-cited. When she would get out of truck she would have to run around and let everyone know she had ar-rived. She love her razor rides and chase her blue ball up and down the dunes. The first Ranger ride was with Kris in the Blue Ranger. In fact that's why I got my first Ranger (because of Tara).Then I bought a Razor. And Don installed a Infant

seat in the back of my Ra-zor. Tara loved it so much. She had her last razor ride at Coral Pink last week. She loved every moment. Even though it was only up to the Ranger Sta-tion and back.

Don and Shirley

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Thursday 7/11: We got up and met at 8AM at the RV park to head to the Virgin River for e breakfast buffet. It was great, and I particularly enjoyed the made to order omelette. When we went outside after breakfast, we noticed that it was just starting to rain. We packed up in the rain, and began our trip through the Virgin River Gorge. The rain kept the temperature nice and cool, in the low 70s. The drive was easy, despite construction in the gorge. We hit some traffic in St George, but soon enough we were at the Hurricane turn off. We stopped for a minute at Zion Harley Davidson so Walt could check his trailer lights and swap out a radio battery, and we continued on our way. The rain continued off and on, and after climbing the big Hurricane hill we saw it was very dark ahead of us. In Hildale we had to stop and wait for a tractor to clear debris from the road the it was still raining hard. We discussed it on the radios and decided that taking the dirt cane beds road wouldn't be a good idea, so we were headed for Fredonia. We went the long way around and hit more construc-tion before Kanab, then went right through town and headed for the dunes. We arrived and began to unpack, while it was clear they had gotten quite a bit of rain, and there were light showers off and on all afternoon. We got the group site all situated, and Mike and Lisa pulled into their space. We just spent the afternoon unpacking and hanging out and then barbecued dinner. Mike and Lisa of-fered Carne Asada and chicken to everyone. Then the dice games started and we watched a big rain storm roll through. By 9:30 everyone was in their own trailers for the night.

Friday 7/12: We got up to a bright clear morning. After breakfast and hanging out for a while, we decided to go for a ride with all the RZRs and my buggy through the dunes. It was a neat first ride. With the wet sand there was more traction, but it was still really soft under-neath. All of us made it to the Corral though, and Jim proudly made it up. Shirley gave it a great try, and encouraged me to give it a shot. The V8 worked great, and it was neat to have nine of us out there together. On the ride back to camp I ran out of speed and skill at the same time and got stuck, but Mike towed me out backwards using his RZR. Back at camp we had lunch and some people took a trip to Kanab. We soldered up a headset cable for my Dad, and enjoyed a sunny 80 degree afternoon. About four o'clock they decided to go for a RZR ride to the dinosaur tracks. Before they got out of camp though it started to rain. It wound up pouring, and everyone went inside. It cleared up a couple hours later, and the dice games resumed until dark. Saturday 7/13:

I got up with the dogs at 7 and walked them up to the overlook. Since it was Saturday, our plan was to go into Kanab for some shop-ping and to see if there were any garage sales. The RZRs went for a ride and we headed into Kanab. We had fun in town checking out e hardware stores and the hospital thrift shop. We had lunch at the Junc-tion, got newspapers, and headed back to camp. Back at camp we decided to go for a buggy ride, and Jim, Walt and I had a fast run to the corral. On the way back down we took the Disneyland trail, and circled back up and took the right fork down the second time. Then we headed to camp. Then Allie wanted to go play in the sand, so we went for a buggy ride to the big dune. She brought her sand toys and had a ball. Then we went back to camp and cooked hamburgers for dinner. We finished up the night by working on Walt's radio harness, which required soldering five tiny wires to a connector, but with Don, Jim, Walt, and me we got it to work. Sunday 7/14: We got up and sat around for a while deciding where to go. We ended up de-ciding on a RZR ride, but since Doug was going to stay at camp, Shirley was

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going to ride with Kris, so that meant that Shirley's RZR was available and they offered it to me. We had a great ride to the box can-yon, and while there we met up with the guy who runs the ATV rental and tours concession. He is a nice guy and has been running the business for four years now. Then we did some more exploring and climbed a hill to an overlook South of the tall plateau. It really is neat how effortlessly the RZRs climb the little trails. Then we followed some more trails around the South end of the state park and back to camp. It was really neat to get to go for a RZR ride thanks to Don and Shirley letting me drive. Next we had lunch and as the clouds came in planned another ride. The RZRs were going across the road, and Allie wanted to go play on the big dune again. It seemed like a storm was coming in, as it got cloudy and e wind picked up, but it didn't rain. We were also joined by some more off readers in the campground after an abnor-mally quiet weekend where there were only a couple of other campsites occupied. Melissa and I went for an evening jog while they loaded up the RZRs for a ride Monday morning at Hog Canyon between the dunes and Kanab. Monday 7/15: With the RZRs packed up from the night before, they left camp about 9 AM to head towards Kanab to check out some trails they had heard about for years. Nancy headed to St George, followed soon after by Melissa, Allie and me with the dogs. We had a tire to get replaced that was as close to blowing out as I have seen. You could see the steel belts all the way around and it had a big bump in the tread. Fortunately they replaced it under the warranty, so for $30 we got a new tire. We love America's Tire. We also checked out the Pawn Shops and Deseret thrift store. After lunch at Cracker Barrel we picked up the tire and headed back to camp. We found a nice little quilt shop in Hurricane and checked it out. Then we got back to camp about 5:30 and the RZRs still weren't back yet. They got back around 7 PM with stories of nice trails overlooking Kanab and a whole lot of riding. They decided they were too tired to do another day of riding on Tuesday, so the planned trip to Panguitch was delayed until later in the week. We sat around camp and fin-ished fixing Walt's car radio harness.

Tuesday 7/16: We got up and left camp before 9AM to head to the Thunderbird in Mt. Carmel Junction for Utah. The breakfast and service were great again, and we wanted to go back again later in the week. We headed back to camp while Mike, Kris, and Doug went in to Kanab. From camp Don and Shirley borrowed Walt's truck to go to town, and offered me the RZR for a ride. Mike and Lisa wanted to go get more pictures of the box canyon, so we planned on heading over there. Melissa and Allie decided to go too, and we decided to put her car seat from the buggy in Shirley's RZR. Melissa drove it and I drove my Dad's with him. Allie did great and had a ball. She loved going on the "adventure" to see what was up in the canyon. Then when we went to leave Melissa wanted to ride so I drove the RZR with Allie. She de-cided she didn't like that change, and wanted Mommy back. It also started to rain, so we stopped and switched drivers before heading back to camp. We all thought the rain would blow over pretty fast, but it ended up raining for a few

hours. It was typical Coral Pink rain where we could sit out under the can-opy together and watch it rain. It made for a great afternoon. When it was still raining at dinner time we were trying to figure out what to cook when Jim suggested Lotsa Motsa. We debated whether they would still be open, but decided to check it out. Jim, Nancy, Walt, George, Don, Shirley, Melissa, Allie, and I all had a great dinner together, then headed back to camp where it had finally stopped raining. Before going to bed we watched the GoPro video of Allie from the RZR ride, and it was adorable. She was super happy bouncing along with Melissa driving, but just didn't want to change and have Daddy drive.

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Wednesday 7/17: We got up and had breakfast before a ride. The camp-ground was as full as it had been all week, but mainly with tent campers without off road toys. I think our group was the only one with dune toys. The morning ride involved the RZRs checking out a trail across the street from the meadow while Melissa, Allie, Nancy, Don and I stayed back. Nancy headed to Kanab and the rest of us just hung out in camp. We tried to repair Shirley's push to talk button but had no luck. The ride sounds like it was great, and Jim called it possibly the best single ride he has ever had in any vehicle. They had a huge variety of terrain, starting in the dunes, then going on flat trails, and working their way up to moun-tains with beautiful views. They went through some dense brush on trails, and even crossed a creek where logs had been laid out as a bridge over the creek bot-tom. They worked their way around in a big loop, and hit the road to the corral at Hancock road. From there they went to the corral, and then through the dunes and

down the Disneyland trail back to camp. Lisa, Mike, and even Jim took some great pictures. After lunch, we decided to head to Kanab to get some sealant for the roof vent over our bed in the trailer, and so that Melissa could check out her favorite fabric shop that we thought had closed, but had moved to the other end of town. On the way in, we saw a dog running towards us on Hancock road. We stopped, and Shady, a dark pit bull mix came running up to the truck. She was really sweet, and had that lost look. She had a collar on with her name and a phone number in Glendale Utah which is about 20 miles away. We didn't have cell service, so we loaded her in the front of the truck at Melissa's feet (which drove Diesel and Shelby nuts in the back) while we drove to get service. Once we did I called the number but left a message. Then we decided to try Best Friends animal sanctuary, and see if we could leave her there to be picked up. They weren't willing to take her, but gave us direc-tions to the Kanab police station. We arrived there just after 5PM but the door was still open and there were some officers chatting inside. The police chief came out and took the dog in, and offered to have one of his deputies drive it home to the owners. What a cute small town. Then Melissa went to the fabric shop and found the owner, a sweet old man she has seen up there for years. While she shopped and chatted, Jim and I went to the Pawn Shop, hardware store, and grocery store. Once they were done, and a lot of fabric bought, we headed back to camp. We ended up not going for another ride, but we sat around and looked at pictures and cooked dinner. After it got dark we set up the projector on the side of the trailer to show the Allie ride video and some pictures from the trip. Some of us stayed up until almost 11, which was the latest night of the trip so far. Thursday 7/18: We had planned to do a Thunderbird breakfast and then take. The RZRs to Hatch Utah today, but they were tired from the long ride yesterday so ey decided to stay closer to camp. Melissa and I decided to make our trip to Cedar City because we didn't want to be gone for the last full day in camp on Friday. The RZRs except for Shirley headed out to the overlook above camp, and Melissa, Allie, and I headed North to Cedar City. Our drive was beautiful, going through a variety of different forrest ecosystems and reaching over 10,000 ft in elevation. We had thunderstorms for a little bit, but

the drive was great. In just about an hour and a half we were in town and began our shopping. The first pawn shop we stopped at had a couple of Mac laptops that interested us. It also turned out they were having a 20% off sale. After negotiation, debate, and thinking it over during lunch at Arby's we decided on the smaller one, which is the same size as my beloved (although well worn) old Mac laptop. I played with it online while Melissa checked out a quilt shop, then we all went to the thrift store and eventually Cal Ranch, which is one of the coolest stores any-where. They have clothes, auto parts, guns, ammo, and even baby chicks all in the same store, so there was something for each of us. After we were done shopping, we took I-15 South but took route 17 through Toquerville and Laverkin on the way to Hurricane. It was a nice drive and we saw some beautiful ranches. Then we climbed the big hill and took the dirt road to camp, and the trip also took about an hour and a half. When we got back, we heard about all

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the fun the RZRs had during their trip, exploring the ridge above the dunes. Mike got some spectacular video of a wash road that drops off with a 200 foot waterfall, and nothing to stop you. It is pretty amazing. They worked their way out of the canyon and back to camp while taking some great pictures of camp from the ridge above the dunes. Then we ate dinner and sat around looking at pictures on the new laptop. Friday 7/19: I got up early to play with sorting pictures on the new laptop. We then got ready and went for the second buggy ride of the trip. Jim, Walt, George and I went through the dunes past the corral. We took the usual break there, and I was super happy with how well the V8 works. We then went through the dunes and down the Disneyland trail. Once we were back at camp we had lunch and then Walt, Jim and I went to the shooting range. We spent a couple hours there and had a lot of fun. We even met some tourists from Holland who were fascinated with the guns, and we let them shoot once and they were impressed. Then we went back to camp and sat around the picnic tables and watched some afternoon

rain. We then decided to head to Kanab for an early dinner and ice cream before hopefully getting everyone together for the group picture. It can be tough to squeeze everything in to the last day of the trip. We got the picture done just before sunset, and then started packing things up and loaded Jim's RZR. I went to the showers and came back after 10 to find some people just outside the fence from camp on a couple of quads. My Dad had seen them too and was waiting in the dark to see what they did. I grabbed the Dogs and he went to talk to them. It turned out they were a couple of teachers on vacation from Florida who had taken an ATV ride from Mt. Carmel that morning. When crossing a river they had damaged the cooling system on one of the quads, and it would over-heat. They needed a ride to go get their truck, which Jim gave them and in the process made a couple of new friends. They visit the area each summer and plan on meeting up with us next year. Saturday 7/20: We woke up early to continue the packing. This is always one of the busiest days of the year, and this year it was also Melissa's birthday. She wanted to postpone celebrating, but we had to at least recognize it, and I gave her her present in the morning. Nancy greeted her by singing Happy Birthday too. The campground was full for the first time all week, and a lot of them were off roaders as some people from Lisa's group from Orange County had arrived. It was interesting how the campground could be so full this weekend after being almost empty last weekend. Tara was not feeling well, after going pretty well all week. Don had stayed in camp with her during all the rides, and she seemed to be having fun all trip. The Fords and Schellingers headed out first, and Mike and Lisa helped Walt and the Kastles pack up, since they were stay-ing another night. We got out of there before too long, and dropped off a memory stick of pictures for the Rangers. The drive to Mesquite went well, and we stopped for lunch at In-n-Out just before St. George. We got to Mesquite a little after 2 PM and got the trailers parked. Allie was asleep so we headed to Wal Mart and did some shopping before going to the pool. Allie chose to play with her toys instead of swimming, so it was just Grandpa Jim and me at the pool. After swimming, we all met for Melissa's birthday dinner at the cafe. Nancy brought a birthday cake and we all enjoyed it. After dinner we headed back to the trailer before I went up to the casino for the evening. I had good luck, and turned my Dad's $5 into $20 after almost two hours playing. Sunday 7/21: We met everyone for breakfast at 9AM. At the buffet. It was really good, with made to order omlettes and lots of variety. After the meal it was time to say goodbye and pack up to head for home. We hit the road about 11 just behind Walt, George and The Fords. They turned off in Overton, and we were on our own. Unlike last year we had no problems, and we made it to Victorville in time to meet John and Anna for dinner and birthday cupcakes. Then we made it home about 8:00 to end an awesome trip.

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Across 3. Type of tall evergreen tree that is prevalent in the upper dunes. 6. Our name for a half bowl dune formation in the lower dunes named after a banked NASCAR track. 7. ____ Friends animal sanctuary is near Coral Pink North of Kanab. 11. Name of the restaurant with famous Ho-Made Pies (and great breakfasts) in Mt Carmel Jct. Utah. 12. Between Mesquite NV and Utah is the ___ river gorge. 13. Name of the road that creates the shortcut between sand dunes road and Hwy 89. 16. Closest national park to Coral Pink. 17. Utah town on the way to Coral Pink just north of Colorado City AZ. 19. The first city we pass through in Utah is St. ___ 20. Animals at the ranger station include mice and their con-sumer, a ___.

Down 1. "I'm making a trip to the Ranger Station, anybody need any ___?" 2. ____ Island was the original name of the Casablanca Resort. 3. Color of the sand at the dunes (Don't over think this one!) 4. The ___ Canyon dam makes Lake Powell 5. St. George suburb just North of town on I-15 and the name of the county both cities are in. 8. Environmentalists want the dunes closed to OHVs to protect the Coral Pink ___ Beetle. 9. Name of town and lake North of Coral Pink off Hwy 89 with surrounding riding trails. 10. ____ Head is a ski resort North of Zion that the Kastles drove through last year. 14. Family owned markets in Kanab are Honey's IGA and ___'s Food Town. 15. ___ Post Pawn Shop in Kanab. 18. Name of fugitive polygamist leader rumored to have hidden out in the Southern Utah area: Warren ___

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This month we’d like to thank everyone for another great Coral Pink trip. We are already looking forward to next year, and reading more about this year’s trip next month. If you have summer trip plans that you’d like to share with the group let us know so we can put them on the calendar and on the website. Next month we’ll have photos from Lake Havasu, and even more about the great Coral Pink trip as the Glamis season gets closer. -PJ, Melissa and of course Allison

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Hi Everybody, It's me, Allie. I just got back from the best dune trip, it was really long and we went to Utah and the water pool at Mesquite. It is different than go-ing to the other sand dunes. You know, the 'nother ones that we go to in the trailer with the sand. These ones are the other ones that have the trees and the rain and the picnic tables and the stage for me to do dancing shows. These dunes are lots of fun because we get to stay there for a long time. When Mom and Dad asked me what my favorite part of the trip was, I told them riding in the RZR. It was really fun because I got to ride with just Mommy. I tried riding with Dad instead, but I missed Mom. She's a better driver anyway. I did like riding with both Mom and Dad and even Shelby to go play in the sand at the "sand park" on the big dune just outside of camp. Those rides were really fun too. I also had a ball putting on dancing shows for people in the campsite. I would say " Presenting....Allison!" and dance for everyone to see. When I was done with that, I would tell people when to pet Tara. I made sure that everybody took turns and that she got lots of pets. She even rode in my car seat in the RZR, which she told me she liked. I met Lisa, and George and now they are my friends

too. I have lots of friends. I also got to spend lots of time reading books with my Grandma Nancy and playing with Grandpa Jim by making his arms wave. Did you know that I have a kitty friend now too? Yes, my aunt LoLo has a new kitten named Hedge that she got for me just before we went to the dunes, and I visit him every day at work, even though he is LoLo's cat he likes coming to play with me. He is sooooo cute. Anyway, he couldn't go to the dunes so I missed him a lot. I called the office and talked to LoLo and GiGi to make sure they checked on him and

told him I'd be back soon. When I got back, he was very happy to see me. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to my dune friends and thank the ones that went to Utah for such a fun trip. I had fun with every-one, even the spanky man. He is so silly, he makes me laugh. He comes with my good friend Kris, who knows all about playing with three year olds so she's pretty cool. Pretty soon I will be FOUR! Can you believe it? Then I will be big, like all the other people. Before then though I have a few weeks of work and a couple of weeks at Mickey's big house. That will be fun, and I will have to tell you all about it. Anyway, I will see lots of you at DON and Shirley's in August, and then more of you in the other dunes this winter. Until then, keep your sand shovel ready and your dancing shoes on. ---Allie