Hey, I'm the guy with the white p/u that pulled up with the white chevy and talked to a few you guys.

We're on the left in this picture:


Just wanted to say hi.

 

Bob good seeing you again. Peter and Milton, how did we never cross paths on Saturday! I was totally looking forward to seeing you guys again. I think I saw Milton's truck at the campsite and I know I saw Peter's dog, what a total bummer.

Andries, I now know why my truck lost it when we were dragging Sat afternoon after the 1st run. I now have a wonderful 1-speed automatic with 2nd gear only. It drove fine all over the dunes the rest of the day since I never needed any other gears. After we took off to head back to San Luis Obispo and it wouldn't shift on the freeway so I was maxed at 3000 rpm doing 45 mph things started to make sense. I pulled off and took surface streets back to San Luis(sound familiar Peter!).

It drives fine in 2nd until you need more than 35mph but then the revs get too high also the engine has a high idle in park & reverse. I tried to do some diagnosis on Sunday with a few things but gave up fairly early. Got a ride home with Robinhood4x4(thanks). Meanwhile the truck is extending it's weekend vacation a bit longer.

 

hey i have the cooler..... so PM me for my celll number im in SOCAL...

 

Ah damn. We were asking everybody if they whos cooler it was. But after we were packed I had the option of either leaving the cooler or Bliksem at Pismo, as the 4R was fully loaded (as you guys probably saw we had the most stuff out there).

Scott, Mark and I cleaned up the site and couldn't locate whos cooler it was. Mark was also fully loaded and would have had to leave a child behind, while Scott was the garbage truck. I hope somebody picked it up. Sorry Bob, I feel bad since you took my chair and table last year. Next time we probably need to make a cellphone list so we can call each other to sort out things like this.

 

Oh cool, nevermind my previous post.

 

OK, back to the normal program.

Thanx guys, we had a great time. It was the most fun I had at Pismo for some time. Thanx Mark for setting up the camp area and doing a lot of the clean up. Thanx Charles for organizing the event and website. Thanx Steve for the T shirt!!

We camped on Friday night and had some good campfire BS talking. Schaeffer is defintely ineteresting to meet. A must for most people, he definitely doe not type well as he comes accross way better in person. I just wish Bruce was there for a fully entertaining weekend, would have seen them peeing on each other's parade the whole weekend

We did 2 runs on Saturday out at the dunes, one late morning when most people arrived. Steve was only able to join us late in the day as he had to have his LC's belt replaced. We did some good dunes and a few nice bowl runs. (I did take a few pics and have to look at the video, but will only post a lot later this week, probably on the weekend).

Milton got a good scare when he got stuck on a dune, as he kept sliding sideways. I got dug in trying to revocer him and Scott tried to get me out, but with Milton on the line it ws not possible. I could see Milton going everytime we looked at removing the rope from my truck to his. Once Mark also hooked up to Milton we could get him out. We found a nice big dune climb, which was pretty challenging and lots of fun. (If only Bob would have tried the soft sand line ). Once back at camp for lunch, Charles and I headed out to go help recover a Jeep that got stuck in the bushes. It took a double tag from Bud and me to get it out eventually.

Late the afternoon the sand got really soft and everybody had a tough time to clear the big dune, STeve found out solid axles and leaves need to stay on rocks We did some sand racing of which Scott should have plenty of good video. Plenty of bad starts for everybody around, but fun all round.

SUnday after we packed and cleaned camp (and nearly lost Bob's cooler). Mark,Scott and I went up to Pozo. Had lunch at the saloon, really aplace to see. We than went up up Hi Mountian to the lookout where we were greated by 2 young blonde girls (one was like 6'1-2" and pretty attractive), they gave us a lot of info on the area and wildlife. Defintely a good spot to see the area, as you can apparently see PIsmo and the dunes from the lookout on a clear day. Scott and I then went up a bit of Garcia ridge, but had to turn around due to time constraint and carrying way too much weight. Defintely a trail I want to finish next time I'm out there.

 

I think that was when we went to go get some chowder (yummy).

not unless it involves a tow strap

I take it that the truck is at Jim's place?
Man, we should designate his garage as Pismo wrenchathon central

 

Exactly what I was thinking!

:

 

That reminds me...Bob, the Spalsh Cafe was awesome! Thanks for the recommendation. Some of the best clam chowder I've ever had.

 

Hey guys, cant believe I didnt see soooo many people... Steve from AZ, sorry i didnt get to talk to you, I was the one on the phone.

Thank you guys for pulling me out so many times, think I hit a new record for getting stuck on Saturday. 1wd is still fun though

I woke up late on Sunday, got to the camp site at around 11:30 everyone was gone...

Im thinking about camping next year, at least one night.

Still had a great time guys! Thanks for comin up (or down)!

 

This happened a lot this time around. We probably should have discussed what time all the off-site people were going to meet up with the rest of us that camped on the shore.

Wow, I sooooooooo can't get motivated to do any work today...
I'm still waiting for more pictures (wishing I hadn't left mine at home).

 

Geez. First you spend all day saying I drive worse than your dead grandmother, then you call my rig a garbage truck.

Another great time for me. Thanks to bulldog for carting my carcass out to the streets and back where I tried to follow the park rules the first night by leaving my truck in town (since I brain-glitched my rsvp). The second night I employed some basic statistics and decided the odds of being busted by the po-po were about zero, as did some others. Nevertheless, thanks for indulging my paranoic respect for the rules that first night.

The only bad part of the trip was seeing how nice some people have built up their rigs compared to the "garbage truck" and trying desperately to figure out how to find some money to keep moddin'.

That Garcia ridge trail looked great. I'm definitely in for going back.

 

Fun trip.

Maybe we need name tags I couldn't remember everyones names.

Saturday morning dunes were fun. I lost something from the passenger front fender well (not sure what yet), I guess while slamming into the base of the dunes

I was impressed with the ability of the 2WD guys. You did really well. Bad luck about the damage against the fence tho.

The usual Saturday night fire experience had several amusing tales, sledging matches and general BS ending with tales of the "hicks" who were camping across from us pulling our their guns and having an argument with one our group about politics

Travelling home was a PAIN. Hit traffic around Santa Barbara which extended my return by about 2hrs. I was so tired by the time I got home, wife was ready for some action, I fell asleep while waiting for her to pull me a beer from the fridge :cry:

Many of you have excellent equipment on your trucks...... bullbars, bead lockers, diff lockers, electric fridges, laptops ( ) all cool to see. Look forward to wheeling with you guys over some rock/dirt terrain in the near future.

Will post some pictures and maybe video later.

Cheers
Mark

 

I called Jim on Sunday, but he didnt pick up, I was thinking about heading up to see him too! Instead I went windsurfing...

Let me know if your up here!

 

It was fun meeting you all!! Fun wheeling and thanks for pulling me out the few times it happened. Its those MTRs... All they do it DIG in.

 

What?!!? Someone pulled out guns on you guys?
Who were they arguing with?

 

my buddy chris (he's not on the board) went over the camp next to us just to meet the guys, chill a bit with them. things were going alright, everyone was enjoying some drinks, then he said a couple of them pulled out guns, wanted to go do some shootin, i guess way back in the dunes or something. chris was asking why then had guns and why then had to get all into that, and i guess they sensed his liberal tendencies and they started calling him michael moore lover and they were, well, just being dumb conservative rednecks. i'd have backed him up over there, but i didn't even know that was all going on, i was content staying at our own camp. funny thing is, they were blasting some punk rock, some certain bands known for being liberal and against the war, etc.

 

They were "showing off" their guns to one of the guys in our group who had gone over to their group because he liked their music.

These guys had fireworks that exploded like bombs in the air. Set off alarms all the time.

 

Yeah, for next year, we should definitely set some firm meeting times at the base camp. One for the group pic, one for lunch and possibly one for dinner. I was thinking that since so many of the group go to Splash Cafe, why not place a huge order, pool some money, and then draw straws to see who picks it up.

Otherwise, I had a great time this year, albeit a bit short. Mercifully, it wasn't as windy as last time.

One other suggestion I have is to plan this trip in the off-season when there's less people there. I definitely think the Land Cruiser (Surf N Turf) guys have it right. Now I'm sure this will make it a little more difficult for those of you who are in school, but it would make the dunes more enjoyable for all. I remember when Steve, Tom and I did a scouting trip for Pismo I in April, there were only around 20 vehicles there. It was even quiet enough to get some sleep!

Another suggestion I have is to post GPS coordinates like Monkeynuts did in the planning thread.

Thanks,
Bob

 

Test for more photos to come