So yesterday I went out to the sand dunes for the first time in almost six months. Jason came over about 7:30 and we headed to Macey's to get some lunch and snacks. Ran into Tony as we were putting the drinks in the cooler and chatted for a quick minute, then were off.

As soon as we got to the point of the mountain the rain started really dumping. To be safe Jason slowed down to 55 as the trailer felt like it would hydroplane if we went faster. We slowly made our way though Utah County, and by the time we got to Santaquin it was back to sprinkling. As we looked West we could see some blue sky, and knew it would be a good day.

On our way out we called Bryce and found that they ended with 3 bikes, not two like we initially thought. Jason asked if they filled them up, no. What is it with kids not filling up their gas tanks? Since we were still so far out we told them to drive into Nephi and gas up. We got to the Visitors center and waited. While we waited one of the rangers came over to check registrations. As he walked over I grabbed my temp out of the 4-Runner. Jason said his were good (5/09) and the guy said no, worrying Jason for a second, then said, oh, yeah, they're fine. Eventually Bryce and his friends arrived. They had gotten hungry and stopped at Arby's. One thing we noticed immediately. They had motorcycles, not quads. We definitely had enough gas for them, but as we thought they had quads, thought we would run short. Oh well.

We went though, and paid, then started down the road to Oasis. Just past the shack the ranger that checked our bikes was talking with another ranger in his truck. They didn't discuss our trailer. We got just past the White Sands turn off when the ranger in his truck came flying up lights on. We pulled over. As he came up Jason said "I bet this is about the registration on the white quad" as he handed him my temp. Jason mentioned the other guy checked it earlier, and the ranger said no problem, smiled and told us to stay safe. As he walked back, the other ranger went flying past to pull over Bryce's friends.

Jason and I drove to the Sand Mountain turnoff and waited. And waited. And waited. About 20 minutes later they pulled up. "Who got the ticket?" I asked. One of the kids had old stickers, and didn't have a temp with him. I just kinda laughed. We went on to Oasis where they led, and took us to a site in loop D. Kinda sucked to get out to the dunes from there.

We unloaded and set out to the dunes. One of the kids had little experience on the dunes, so went slow until he got the better feel for it. Found a jump and took a bunch of pics (In the gallery). Moved on. The boys wanted to find another good jump so we went looking. Finally found one that was pretty cool. On the first round of hitting it, the newbie didn't hit it small to feel it out. He went flying! He said that he was leaning so to correct it he basically did a Nac Nac with his right leg. He brought it back around, but didn't have it down when he landed. We all thought he was a gonner. BUT HE RODE IT OUT! It was crazy! When he brought his leg back around though he knocked off his flag, so we headed back to eat lunch and fix it.

After lunch we decided to hit the trails around the mountain next to Oasis. Cruised all around, Jason totally lost everyone, so we rode around trying to spot him. The quads did some nasty hillclimbs, and eventually we made our way to the back side of the mountain by all the drag trails. We hung out there as the clouds got darker and darker. Jason wanted to rush back and close a window he left cracked. When he got around the mountain he saw the uber nasty rain almost on top of us. He turned around to warn us. We all booked it back to the camp site. As we rode the rain would hit us on our lips, feeling like little pieces of hail. Short ride though and we were back quickly.

I got into the 4-Runner to check the radar on my phone. Looked like just a small cell, so we waited it out. Jason & I watched act 1 of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. The rain stopped after about 30 minutes, and we got back out riding. We were in the place where Jodi rolled when we had another flag break. Went and fixed that. Back out again. Didn't find much good stuff for a while, but just kept riding around. Eventually the boys said they were tired and ready to go home. Jason and I could have kept riding, but oh well. So we went back and loaded up.

The boys headed home, and Jason & I went to another place where we could shoot. We parked and did some walking. Thinking about it, it probably helped our legs after riding. I wasn't very sore at all in my legs the day after. Very stiff in my shoulders though. Jason wanted to try to call in a coyote, so we tried that for a bit. After a good long while with nothing we headed back to shoot some cans at least. Shot for a bit, heard some coyotes so went quiet and tried again for one, unsuccessfully. Took a couple longer distance shots, Jason hit a 46oz V8 bottle at 200 yds with 1 out of 3 shots, then put the guns away and drove home.

Good fun was had by all!