A quick day trip down to Sandlake for a test run on my orange baja, with both
ends now lifted up, and for Mark to test out his Turbo T-Chicken motor in the
sand. He
also brought a couple of sets of paddles to try out, and compare.
Unfortunately we need to have a designated camera operator that can just follow
us around and take general photos, as we do our thing. It is no fun to
have to stop and remember to go do something again, just to get it on film.
The day started out in the sand at 8AM for me and
my 5 year old daughter Tara. When we got there, the parking was
nuts. Both parking lots were jam packed. Being that I towed my
baja down this time, I had to do a tire change over. So I had to detach
the car in the parking lot right in front of the bathrooms, and swap tires, and
yank the rear fenders off. I then locked the hubs on the truck and whipped
it out into the sand where there was sufficient parking. As I was the only
one there from our group, I had to walk back and get the car. I loaded up
the necessary survival gear, strapped Tara in her seat, and took off through the
dunes.
Later in the morning, Mark showed up towing his trailer with the Turbo T-Chicken
on board. Parking was absolutely packed to the tilt at this point, so we
had to unload his baja, and then take the trailer over to the over flow trailer
storage along the campground entrance. With some strategic moving around
of other trailers, we made room for his. Then it was an all out attempt to
get his 2wd truck into the sand. He actually made it further than we
thought he would. I think with a bit longer pavement run, he would have made it
through the soft sand, and onto the hard pack area that my truck was sitting
on. A quick friendly tug by a HUGE 4x4 crew cab Chevy, and he was on the
hard sand.
Greg and his wife made it down the day before and hooked up with us. They were
buzzing around the dunes in the nice green fiberglass buggy. We stopped
here and watched people run the bowl and do general hammering on their rigs.
Not to be left out, Mark took off across the sand,
leaping off of the bumps, and hammering the whoops pretty hard. Being that
he had blown out both front shocks on the Memorial weekend adventures in the
woods, he was in for a pounding ride.
The close up pic of the rear tire, was just after
he came in for a landing and stopped. Some how he was over heating,
and popped the over pressure valve at the radiator cap, pissing all over it's
self.
