GLAMIS TRIP REPORT - NEW YEARS RUN

Trail Princess and Rawmeat, Oreo (with Maggie and Zeke), Me (Santa Fe) and my sister Hollie all left for Glamis on Wednesday around noon. After a few stops to feed the clan, gas, etc, we arrived in Glamis around 7:00 p.m. Setting up camp was a group effort as the quicker camp was set up the quicker everyone got fed! After dinner we settled down for a true Roughwheeler campfire. Fire dancing at its best as usual! Slowly the group faded as first Lauren and then Hollie dropped into bed. The rest of us stayed up and drank ourselves silly waiting for Bobbo and Fidget along with their crew to arrive. And arrive they did around 2:30 a.m. I had hoped to surprise them with my new TJ, but somehow the word got out and everyone already knew. Finally with everyone's camp setup we dropped into bed around 3-3:30. Needless to say no 9:00 run the next day!

Shawn got a new Blaster for Christmas so he was up and testing it out first thing on Thursday. Deborah and her friend Janie were riding on his old quad. We went out into the dunes and played around for awhile. I think Bobbo was trying to get me stuck in the sand again, like he did on my first trip to Pismo. No such luck though. We drove over to Oldsmobile. Bobbo tried it first and made it look simple. Mind you this is no small hill. So I got brave and did it right behind him. Scary hill but I made it, stock tires and all. This new TJ has some power. Around 2:30 we headed back to camp to wait for Bruce to arrive driving the Toyota. He was due in around 3:00 and never arrived until 7:30 p.m. Oh well, so much for timing. Better late than never. What was that about the Wrigley Twins? We all had dinner and decided to go check out Competition Hill (except for Bruce and Rawmeat). Princess was riding on the back of Oreo's quad and we actually got pretty far into the dunes when the quad got a flat. So Princess squeezed into the TJ and Oreo drove the quad back to the store and aired up enough to get back to camp. Princess and Oreo climbed into her jeep and off to Competition Hill we went. The crazies were in full form for New Years and probably any other time as well. Driving up the hill with people in the back of pickups, driving up the hill backwards, just missing driving into each other, Christmas tree burning, fireworks and more. We just watched for awhile and then left to go back to camp. We settled in around the campfire somewhat subdued for it being New Years Eve. No fire dancing and Princess went to bed early, then we lost Oreo, and I had a hard time lasting to midnight. Maybe it was the effects from the night before. But we made it and screamed and yelled and woke everyone else.

Friday morning Oreo got the bad news about his mom, so it was a pretty solemn morning. Princess and Hollie were leaving that day anyway so we helped him pack up so he could go home too. Later that morning Bobbo led the whole group over to the vendor booths for awhile. Bruce was daring enough to let Rawmeat drive the truck, but they made it back in one piece. That afternoon we went back out on the dunes and back to Oldsmobile Hill. Of course on the way there I got high centered and had to be strapped out. But mind you that was the only time. Bruce got his first taste of real 4-wheeling as he had to ride with me up that hill. He managed pretty well. The second try I made it all the way to the top and then had to back down. Yuck! I hate backing down. Bobbo did a bunch of sidehill sand crawling on the way back to camp. I was content just to watch. We had a beautiful full moon staring us in the face on our way back to camp. We stopped for group photos and slowly drifted back to camp for dinner and the campfire.

Saturday morning I was up early and packing to go home. Rawmeat, Deborah and Janie had spent the night sleeping around the campfire. I had retired early the night before so I missed all the attempts they made at breaking firewood over their foreheads. Bobbo, Rawmeat and Deborah all had big red lumps on their foreheads. Obviously their brains fell out before they started this task and maybe some more afterwards. We had an uneventful trip home. The real troopers were Bobbo, Fidget and crew. They stayed another day.

Here's Bobbo's story of their last day.

"We had a really nice day on Saturday. We drove over to the base of the big dunes and played around a little bit. I let the girls drive all morning and Sean had his quad, of course. We got out of the Jeep for a while (very relaxing to just wander around in the dunes). Diane drove off in the Jeep, got side hill, got lost, and then drove by me when I was trying to find her. I was on foot!

Later, we were taking another break and I let the girls drive around by themselves! While this was going on, I was taking pictures of Sean jumping his quad. I think mom almost stroked out from all the worrying.

We stopped back at the store for a cold treat and then went back to camp. That afternoon, we found that the little quad was working pretty good, so the girls took off riding double and followed Sean around in the dunes near camp. I even got to ride Sean's quad for a little while. The kids wound up riding until dark.

We decided that since we were leaving first thing in the morning, it'd be just the same to drive back Saturday night, so we did. We left around 6:30 and arrived just after midnight. We're lucky enough to be able to just pull the whole rig into the back yard and lock it up. We spend the whole day yesterday getting cleaned up and putting stuff away."

It was a great trip, slow paced, easy-going and a perfect way to start the new year.

Happy New Year to You All!!

Santa Fe