2014 HDR Trip report.
John Carey arrived Friday morning at the Slash X ranch to secure the OTR camp site. Later in the day Joe Picker, DuWayne and Tina as well as Shaun Singer arrived. Judy, Corey and I arrived at about 9:45pm after a stop in Quartz Hill to pick up he teeter totter from Tony Work. Thanks Tony!!
Slash X Ranch is a great location just 10 miles south of Barstow on the 247 highway. It’s a very large level camp on the edge of Stoddard Valley OHV area, and the slash X Café is there as well.
The next morning after breakfast 5 OTR rigs set out on our run. John Cary, myself and Corey, DuWayne and Tina, Joe and Shaun. We headed out of camp with John in the lead for Shiners Revenge trail. The weather was very nice, warm with a slight breeze. Shiners Revenge is a nice trail that climbs a mountain up a wash. There were some challenging lines that a few of us took advantage of to play on. On the second obstacle John realized something wasn't quite right with his front end. He had broken a u-bolt on his right front leaf. He had spares..... But they were in camp.
After a quick ride to camp and back with parts in hand we all pitched in to help get John rolling again. We continued up and over the mountain with a quick stop on the summit to take in the panoramic view. Then it was back to camp.
That evening was a really nice group dinner. Food was a plenty with everyone bringing delicious fare. We were joined for dinners by the Pellegrino’s for some nice lively conversation and laughs. We had a camp fire and a few of us were up solving the world’s problems before bed. I think we have it all figured out.
Sunday was the HDR game day. At just about 8:00 Jeff Sanders and Mike and Laura Whittington as well as Wendy Cary arrived to pitch in to setup and run the OTR teeter totter. By 8:30 we were busy setting up the teeter totter and by 9 we were ready for the games to begin. The Genright crew was set to help us run the teeter totter but at the last minute the HDR Staff asked them to run the wet lap event for a club that couldn’t make it.
Things were a bit slow to get started, but by 10:00 things picked up and for the most part there was a steady stream of vehicles all day trying their skills on the OTR teeter totter.
The longest time was 51 seconds. We raised about $107 for Cal4Wheel. Not too shabby.
Judy Corey and I took some time away for the teeter totter to go check out the other games. They were a blast. Genright was doing the Wet Lap game. They had a great course that went around and up and over a hill with a very fast crazy decent to the finish line. The idea of the game is that the drivers races around the course as fast as possible all the while the co-driver have to hold an open bowl of water. Well needless to say you end up wearing most if not all of the water. If you happen to have any water remaining at the finish, it reduces your H2O penalty. Corey drove first lap and I think I lost about 2/3 of our water on the first turn. Corey drove a very fast lap and we finished with about 2oz of water. Not good on my part.
Next I drove a lap. Between laps we found out the other teams were employing various techniques to conserve water. (wink wink cheating) One team went out and at the start the co-driver took his bowl and put as much water in his mouth as he could fit. He held it there until the finish when he spat it back into his bowl. It was very funny. My lap I gave it hell driving like a desert racer possessed. Corey was an awesome co-drive and was ready with plan. I drove as fast as I dared, but not having an Ultra4 or Mod class rig we had to.... Well cheat also. About ¾ of the way into our lap Corey had a water bottle and began refilling our bowl. It was super fun and we laughed the whole way. We were way down on the leaderboard. (I did beat Corey’s lap by 4 seconds, old man bragging rights)But we had fun.
Next was the potato race. You drive a marked course as fast as you can and at each of 7 stations your co-driver has to pick up a potato with a broom stick with a nail in the end. Two of the stations you have to back up to the potatoes then takeoff. It was soooo much fun and first try Corey and I were in third place for long wheelbase division and the crowd loved us. But we knew we could do better. We Lined for our second try and killed it. We moved into first place for the day by 6 seconds and we thought a win was in the bag. Later in the day we found out that we got nudged to second place by a two 10ths of a second. Now we are thinking about joining the pro potato desert racing series. If you know of anyone that would like to sponsor us, please let us know, maybe Idaho potatoes or something like that. There were a few other games that we didn’t have time to try, maybe next year.
We made our way back to the OTR teeter totter and the vehicles were still coming right up until 3:00 when the games ended. The OTR team made quick work of breaking down the teeter totter. Many hands make light work. Jeff and the Whittington’s made for home, as they just came for the day. Many thanks to Jeff, Mike and Laura for your help, and driving such a long way just to help out.
Then it was back to camp after a long day in the sun. Everyone got cleaned up and it was time for beverages and evening hors-doeuvres. We were all pretty tired and after about 9:00pm most of us crawled into our bed and crashed. All but Corey and Shaun who decided to do Shiners Revenge trail again at night backwards. Then they were up till 3:00am around the fire. Ah to be young again.
Monday was the last day and we had a group breakfast at 7:45. At breakfast we decided that it was getting hot really fast, as the forecast was for temps to go above 100, the best plan was to break camp and head for home and beat the heat and the Vegas traffic.
All and all it was a great trip and for a great cause, Cal 4Wheel and to help fund land use issues. Thank you to the entire OTR crew and your families for all of the team work and help in making this a very successful event. If you didn’t make it, try to plan on being there next year. I think you will really enjoy yourself.
Bob