Free Agent

You going to see the Rockettes? A heck of a terrific Christmas show. Anyway, have fun in NYC. It'll be Christmas at Home with family. The 26th on to Glamis for a week.

Looks like the same spot as this one. They stuffed it too: It's a deceiving drop. It's more severe than it looks. Never felt the LT's can travel quite as freely as they do in Glamis. Dumont is technical when you least expect it, so always expect it.

If you're all following through and make this trip we'll probably show up. Sounds like a fun run.

Always enjoy that place. The frozen bar top is off the hook cool.

The DA said he'll probably do 9.

I'll believe it when serves it. Anyone following the Benny Binion trial can understand having no faith in the LV courts.

Got teriffic service from them. Yamaha gave us bogus numbers on the lug pattern for my sons Raptor 90. We ordered paddles on that bad info, and even so, Fullerton Sand Tres replaced the tires on wheels with the proper, correct lug pattern wheels when we discovered Yamahas Faux Pawz. Great service!

We saw an encounter with a guy who couldnt stand that SxS's attract most the women. Chix like Rhinos, Teryx's,, Rangers ect,, and aren't that interested in his tubesteak frame VW powered buggie and he didn't like it. He shouted some insults, and of course sped off. Used to be so neat and orderly at Comp. But still,, a far cry better than Glamis.

Seemed like a pretty safe Holiday all things conidered. The Life flite did haul one person out. Anyone know the details?

Well, time to come to grips with the fact I'm one of those wrenching dads ya see with off roader groups. The oldest guy does all the work,, or, as I'm now officially known, the "Wrenching Dad." Really thought I had my ducks in a row with our trip to Dumont over T day. I discovered the hard way the propane gauge on our RV is not working. Damn, thought we had plenty, we ran out. So we headed into Parump to visit the crazy ladys gas/propane station next to "Who's Dunes Bar" and Steakhouse. In route up Kelbaker rd headed toward Shoshone,, a brown Mitsubishi gets right on my a$$. I look into the rear-view and it's a mid 20's horned rimmed glasses chick, red hot red lipstick, with a big MTV Lisa Loab kinda mug with a goofy grin. She suddenly just crosses over the double yellow don'ts to pass right into the path of an oncoming tanker truck. It was a menag'a trois with her, the truck and me all passing each other at the same time. Us and the truck on the opposite shoulders, the MTV chick straddling the double yellow don'ts clearing each of us by maybe a foot. Damn,, my heart started beating and my chest was pounding my whole body covered in chicken skin. I'll get back to the suicide Mitsubishi MTV chick. We make it into Parump: The Gas station Crazy Lady is a bubble off plumb no question, but she has the freshest milk & groceries and the cheapest gas and propane, and she's open 24 hours, so we deal with her idiotsy. She's located just over the Nevada State line on the left heading into Parump. Right next door to the crazy ladys place we stepped into Who's Dunes to play a little video poker, down a few excellent bloody Marys and chat with the really cool owner, I think he said his name was Deano. Deano is former Old Corp Air Force, still has the high and tight haircut. Friendly as one can get, immediately takes you at face value. His Video poker machines are very loose and lively, you can play a long time on $20. Perhaps even win a few bucks. In the evenings Deano has Sue, a knock-out, funny as hell attractive bartender holding court. Deano just made his last child support payment and wanted to talk, so I bent an ear and we chatted. It's always interesting how people scratch out a living in the middle of the desert or wilderness. Then Deano and I got to talking about him running his video poker bar "Who's Dunes" and he threw out some of his cost figures. His poker machines are taxed $125 each quarterly, his full whisky lick-her license was only $500. Nye County Nevada has super cheap and very available licenses. Yep only $500. Next door in Clark County a liquor license can be well, well over $100.000 Deano mentioned. I had no idea how the taxes and fees worked or cost. I turned a wrench my whole life, and used to wonder from time to time if pouring drinks would'a been a better line of work. I delt with the screwy Crazy Propane lady and Alice wanted to fill her grocery list so she finally met up with me at the bar. We played a spell, then headed back to Dumont Dunes Alice the DD. Driving back I told Alice the story of our friend Hells Angel Steve working the High Voltage Transmission line trouble crew one nite nearby in the desert. He believes in conspiracy theorys, UFOS,, aliens ect. So naturally he was an avid fan of late nite radios Art Bell who broadcasts from Parump, and it was that one nite Bell signed off early with a statement he had trouble he couldn't talk about. That was all it took, Hells Angel Steve and his crew headed straight to Art Bells compound in a 6X6 F650 Water & Power Line mans crew truck, I guess to kick the a$$es of the Martians they thought held Bell hostage. The Nye County Sheriff was notified by Bells listeners about the troubling statements Bell made over the air and was there already. Half the town of Parump turned out too it seemed. All was OK I'm told. So we finally made our way to Kelbaker rd, and made the left turn south for the final stretch to Dumont. Kelbaker rd is to Dumont Dunes, what Rice rd is to the river. Alice looks look up in the rear view,, and there is the Mitsubishi chick with that MTV grin on her face and she is approaching us from behind at full speed again. Coming the other direction towards us is a caravan of toy haulers making it up the Ibex pass grade. The Itchypussy driving chick jumps out over the double don'ts and their is no question in my milisecond pea sized brain we're going to witness a head-on,, and maybe be part of it. The toy hauler caravans leader pulls onto the shoulder plowing into the caltrans berm and instantly those following him do too. GEESUS it was close. We all miss the Itchypussy driving chick by paintjobs. She right outside our window as we all pass each other, wife almost stuffs the Toyota into the berm. Never ever witnessed anything so close on the highway. It all happened so quick. So we speed up I want to get her license. My CHP friends tell me that it's good to report this kinda event. No way the Toyota will catch up to her,, she's gone. Dodged 2 bullets though.

Already getting dialed in for the Christmas/New Years holiday dune trip.

It was a great weekend. Think only one life flight out. Spotted the legendary Original Sand Demon John and his wife Kathy. It truely was nice to see them on the dunes. Wifie fell in love with her Rzr once I got the correct dune tires on it. They are steamin little dune machines for only 800 cc. We think we spotted Dunfreak Petes truck on Vendors Row near the Funnel Cake shack but a look around and we couldn't find Pete to say hello and give him a T shirt. The DSD crew had a passing sand buggie flip head over heals right next to their campsite, no serious injuries. It just folded up like a cheap suitcase. Started to video our dune runs, but sometimes feel the cameras is getting between us and having fun so we put it away and forget about it. One asswipe in a VW buggie was driving around comp trying to pick a fight with SxS owners. SxS's are usually where most the fine girls are, and he couldn't stand it. The dude was a real tool. He ran off before anyone could get their fists on him. We went into Nevada and stopped off at "Who's Dunes" bar and steakhouse. Just over the Nevada borderline heading into Parump on the left. It's owned by a real excellent guy Dean. Bartender Sue is attractive and excellent. Lively video poker machines. Cheap gas & propane and fresh groceries next door. Nice break after dealing with the kids for 5 days straight. Un-eventfull trip other than lots of fun, and it seem much safer this year overall. Forget annual holiday passes. We finally got a BLM person that told us buy them online from now on, and keep your print-out from the online transaction. They don't plan on having any for the stores in Baker anytime this year that she knew of. A very poorly run operation on the BLMs behalf.

Thanks Rich

In Calif they plug them up and lean them out to pass emissions tests.

I have nothing worth adding to this post!! - I have nothing worth adding to this post!! - x2,, well stated Rich. I sometimes think that duning is a small part of their business. Damfino. We need assumed risk laws like in Germany and Japan.

My son and I tied our Razor at the Echo Sand Dunes at the Parker Strip. Wasn't real impressed on it's sand abilitys. In fact, dissapointed. But, I got online and talked to others and was convinced the big sloppy knobbies aren't the best way to tackle the dunes. We ordered some beadlocker outlaw rims and Scat traks paddles for the rear, buffs for the front with a little extra offset for the width. Geeeze what a 1000% difference. Damn, are we ever impressed on it's duning abilities. It is fantastic. We're uploading a video, but it takes forever on Verizon at the dunes. Might be a day or 3. Got the new Yamaha 90 for our 8 year old. A little steamer. Plenty of power, great suspension does about 40 MPH. Keeping with tradition, Yamaha made sure to include their famous painful thumb throttle on the new 90. I already ordered him a twist. His Suzuki 90 quad really sucked. A joke really. When I was in high school, a 90cc Honda/Yamaha street bike would carry 2 kids 45 MPH. Not the tired a$$ performance of the Suzuki. Great Weekend at the dunes. Yamaha has finally put some power back into their products.

Wife went to Valero last nite,, no passes. Next season online I guess.

Last nite they told us all they had were the regular annual passes. Can the $40 still be parlayed against an annual?

We been coming to T Day at Dumont for well over a dogs age. It's fewer pre-holiday rigs for sure. Yesterday all night rain was intense so that may slow some. The $1.74 gas is a plus for us. It'll knock $250 off the trip easily. Vendors row as big as ever. Look to see folks start rolling in this late afternoon through tomorrow morning. Starting to see rolling patches of sun.

Neither Tues or today Wednesday do any of the list of pass vendors have any holiday passes nor do they have any annual holiday passes for sale. Not Valero, the Country Store,, nor anyone else. We had to buy entrance $40 passes. Same crap as last year. Entrance rd is brutal BTW. Time to write the local Congressman.

The salesguys at Berts say the 525 is the faster motor,, but they've never been right about anything else they've told me in the past. How the hell do they know?

There it is. A business plan, and some big changes. Bankruptcy is a terrible, worst way of re-organizing a company.

Years back we'd swing by Albertsons and they had a big box dealio with a full T day dinner to go. Now we pre cook it all, and re-heat at the dunes, except the mashed potatoes. Kids love them fresh made. Traditions are: Broguers Dairy Egg Nog Still in the old school glass milk bottles. Mixes well with Castillo rum. Sweet potato pie. Kids think it's just a teriffic pumpkin pie recipe. Several Fruit and off-the-hook one taste and you die Thai macaroni salads. The cheap Grocery store pies are better than the expensive Marie Callenders IOHO's. Callenders doesn't put the care into them anymore.

The Cats are the best way to cross the channel. Boat rentals can be found on the pier, and a run to the east end light is a great adventure tooE Excellent pix. Nice that you posted them.

In addition, even though the UAW agreed to a significant lower cost contract, a UAW worker still gets paid if they work or not. Nobody, nowhere has a deal like that. It's deals like that that have sour'd the companys beyond all reason. Also, when MB owned Chrysler, the Pres of MB made $500 K per year. It was reported the pres of Chrysler pulled over $10 million. And on top all that, the big 3 exects showed up in DC with no plan. They just answered questions, and presented no business plan what so ever. I mean,,, come on. Go down and apply for a business loan to open a Subway or a Baskin Robbins. You best have a business plan to hand the bank first thing,, or they'll show you the door. Still want to see GM, Ford and Chrysler pull through. They need tougher guys running the company.