39th Annual Tierra Del Sol Desert Safari - TruckHaven

TDS Trip Report - Pete's Perspective

Members present:

Pete Griffith - CJ-7
Denni Griffith - TJ
Kelly Lee - TJ
Randy Stockberger - CJ-7
Don "Super D" McDonald - YJ
Perk - CJ-5
Big Lar 'n Cher - YJ
Marv Mquown - Scout
Jim Wrestling - Bronco II
Laura and Julio - YJ

Guests Present (I'll most likely forget a few, so bear with me...)

Keith Panza & Family - CJ-5 and K-5 Blazer
Paul & Annie - '58 Willys
Don Gardner - TJ
Bob Peterson - CJ-7
The really nice folks in the purple CJ-7
The really nice folks in the White CJ-7
Robert(?) - White Willys
JR - YJ
Larry's friend in the red CJ-7

I apologize to everyone who's name I did not get, or got wrong.  There were
a LOT of people there, so it got kinda confusing after a while.

So, on to the fun!

Day 1 - Friday:

I was first one there (again), so I got to pick the campsite.  After talking with some people the night before at the meeting..ok, ok, it was all Randy's idea...I decided to try out a new campsite that was closer to the pavement, in case it rained.  It turned out that the campsite worked out really well, as there was very little dust, and traffic was much less than that by our usual spot.  It looks like this will be our regular campsite for Truckhaven from now on.

Kieth Panza and company got there at pretty much the same time as I did, and we got to the business of setting up camp.  It seems that on every trip to Truckhaven these days, someone HAS to get their RV stuck in the dirt, and the first round went to Kieth's group, who buried their Bounder in the mud.
Two Jeeps and one Blazer later, they were on solid ground and safely camped. 

Around noon people started trickling in.  Lar 'n Cher were next, followed by Paul and Annie, and others.  Larry went off in search of some friends who wanted to camp with us, and we found them.  When they brought their (big) RV back, they decided that it could four wheel over berms.  This was stuck RV syndrome, round two.  Their RV was so solidly high-centered, we weren't sure we would get it unstuck again.  First they tried pulling it off with their Jeep.  Then I got into the act, then Larry joined in.  All we did was bury three Jeeps and not budge the RV one inch.  Then we decided to put two Jeeps on the pavement with short straps.  Surely with the traction we would get on asphalt we would be able to free this RV.  Have you ever seen two locked Jeeps spin their tire on pavement at the same time and not move?  I actually dug holes in the asphalt.  We were about to give up when a guy in a big old Ford F-250 with Dana 60 rear and '44 front and a BIG Ford 460 pulled up and said, "Let me give it a try."  He hooked up, locked in, and hit the gas. The RV popped right off that little hill.  Cubic inches count.

At around the time we were trying to rescue the wayward RV, Kelly showed up, followed a little later by Randy and Don.  After everyone got settled in, we decided to head out and play for a while.  Everyone headed for the notches, and we proceeded to try and get stuck.  Here we had our first break of the weekend.  As Paul was trying to climb a rather steep ledge, he hit the gas on a bounce...BANG...there went the rear driveshaft.  Paul quickly got the driveshaft disconnected, and I escorted him back to camp.  He welded it back together right there, and had no other problems for the rest of the weekend...well, nothing broke, anyway.  

I went back out to where everyone was playing, and found the Super Notch Crew (Randy, Don, Kelly, and Larry) trying to put their Jeeps in places they didn't look like they could fit in.  First Larry tried to climb up it, then Super D, then Randy, but they were foiled.  So Randy drove around to the top of the notch and started back down it.  He made it all the way through, then turned around and headed back up.  After much work he made it.  At this point it was dark.  The rest of the crew tried and made it through the now broken-in notch, and then we headed back to camp.  It was a fun day.  

Day 2 - Saturday

We started the day not knowing exactly what we were going to do.  The big TDS run started at 8 AM, but there had been a lot of talk the night before about leaving around 9 AM and not going on the official run.  The "Do our own thing" crowd was led by pie maker extraordinaire Randy.  The "Lets check out the main run" crowd was led by our fearless leader Big Lar.  Most of us were stuck hopelessly in the middle, and Denni stayed out of it entirely and headed out to the main run sometime around 10AM after all the crazies had gone.  As it turned out, we all wound up following Big Lar onto the main run.

We got in line and headed out toward the first obstacles.  Of course, as it always is with TDS, we got firmly stuck in the middle of the pack and started the "hurry up and wait" routine that is both the fun of TDS and the most annoying part of TDS.  We did eventually get moving, and found our way through some of the tough stuff.  Super D put on a spectacular show at one of the choke-points, driving Slinkey through a notch sideways.  Randy followed and made it look easy.

We then headed out along the trail.  Now, this is where things get a little hazy.  Somehow (how this could happen at TDS I have NO idea), our group got separated after that first chokepoint.  We headed out to where Axle Alley is, and then I heard Randy over the radio saying something about how he didn't like this waiting in line crap, and was heading home.  This would be the source of the rumor about Randy being pissed off on Saturday.  I heard most of this second-hand, so I can't speak with any authority on what really happened.  Suffice it to say that Randy headed back.

At about this time we ran into Perk, who had picked up a stray Bob Peterson. It turned out that Bob had sheared the hub bolts off of his Dana 30 on the right side.  We got him re-bolted, and he continued on for the rest of the weekend with no problems.  We all stopped for lunch, and had some fun. after lunch the rest of us forged on.  Where we really got split up was at the first Blue obstacle.  This was right next to what we call Axle Alley.  There was a huge line to go up the blue trail, so we scooted around and went up Axle Alley instead.  There was quite a line for this as well, but not nearly as bad.

Now, I'm not really sure what happened, but it was here that we became two groups.  After we headed out of Axle Alley, we continued on down the trail into the canyon just south of the obstacle.  There were about 11 of us still together, but we had lost Super D and a couple of the others.  So, we continued on.  We were still in radio contact, but it was spotty.  We all decided to meet at Checkpoint 3.  We made it to the checkpoint after following a blue trail that was nothing even close to challenging.  While we were waiting, Paul decided to try going down a new canyon.  This canyon had several deep holes in it, but he wanted to try, so down he went.

He made it about a third of the way down when he got into trouble.  There was one close call around the first deep hole, but the second one just swallowed him up.  The Jeep pitched in, then up, then over.  He wound up on his side, pointing down.  We weren't quite sure how we were going to get him out of this one. But, we took a look at the situation, and decided we could push him back over enough to get traction and drive out of it, which he did. That was the excitement for the day.

We continued the trail to the end, and then went and played for a while longer, but nothing spectacular.  We then headed back to camp to get dinner and prepare for the raffle. 

Day 2 - Saturday night

After dinner we all headed over to the raffle.  TDS puts on a HUGE raffle, and there were a lot of people there, as usual.  We got our area set up, and then waited it out.  This year it was really nice.  Two years ago, the wind was so bad that just trying to sit still was impossible.  Sand was blowing everywhere, making it hard to see.  Last year, there was wind, and rain, and it was cold.  Yuck.  This year, though, there was no wind, no rain, and it was fairly warm.  Very nice.

I was feeling pretty good about my chances for winning something, since we had two tickets for registering 2 vehicles.  Everyone was having a good time and they were giving the prizes away at a fairly steady pace when disaster struck.  The light tower they were using to power the PA system failed, knocking out half of the light AND the PA.  We couldn't hear anything. Instead of waiting and trying to fix the PA, they started calling out the numbers without it.  Of course, the only people that could hear were those in the front. So then the started using the PA system in the back.  This would have worked, except they randomly would switch from front to back.  I grabbed the kids and wife and headed out at that point, because I could see that it was going to turn ugly really soon.  According to those who came back later, that's what happened.  What a mess.  Still, it was a fun day, and most of the raffle went off well.

Day 3 - Sunday

This is where my story must end, because unfortunately, I had to leave a little early.  I did get to go out with the group for the first couple of hours, but we didn't get to do much, since we were doing hard stuff, and I was a little back in the line.  I got to watch other people having fun, though...

Anyway, thanks to Frank Bell for letting us borrow his daughter on Sunday. Jonny loved having someone to play with when we were stopped.

Can't wait for Moab!

'till next time,

Pete Griffith