2006-10-28 – Ocotillo Wells
We have heard many words of Ocotillo Wells’ vast number of people on Halloween weekend, but have never experienced it ourselves. This was our chance! We were meeting the Peji’s again for more fun!
We head out Friday afternoon, and by the time we’re close to Ocotillo Wells there’s a steady stream of RVs in front of us as far as the eyes can see around the turns! If we had been in a hurry somewhere, this would have been hell!
Saturday we dressed up. I was a trashy new-yorker. It was fun messing around all day lookin’ like this!
On Saturday we just rode out to Shell Reef to watch all the crazies! We had a little fun in the Jeep and even got a ride on some friends of the Pejis’ sand rail! Makes me want to purchase one of those some day! Shell Reef was PACKED!!! I knew now what they were talking about with tons and tons of people! Everywhere you looked were just more people!
We went back to camp to eat and everything when the fun started… Everybody else got costumed-up, even the pets!
Tiffany was an 80′s chick, but ended up looking a LOT like “Deb” from Napoleon Dynamite. Sarah was a punk rocker chick, KC=KittyCat, and the kids are what you see pictured…. 
Saturday night ended up being quite a deal… There’s a trailer that a local pulls with his tractor for a hay ride through the “spook run” that has some Halloween displays and scary stuff. We were almost back when at the same time Tiffany and I heard a strange noise, like metal noise. We both look down and see that the trailer blew a tire bead. Once we get Boyd to stop (he couldn’t hear us all yelling). Billy (KCs friend) and I grabbed the Jeep (On Board Air) and his truck (he had a jack that he thought could lift the trailer). We removed the valve stem, but couldn’t come close to getting it seated. We were somewhat blocking the traffic for the spook run, so Boyd pulled the trailer back to his land and we followed. Once there, we tried a few more tricks. Nobody had ether, so we tried carb cleaner, but it wasn’t flammable enough… It wouldn’t atomize enough to really “blow.” We ratchet strapped the tire and finally got the beads (front and rear) to catch. We applied a little more air so that when we released the strap it would still hold. I knew the ratchet strap was going to release violently so I opened it to ALMOST the point where it releases, then positioned my hand in a place where I thought it’d be safe. I was wrong!!! The ratchet strap released even more violently than I expected and it got my thumb pretty darned good!
Sunday was clean-up day. Once Dennis did a little work on their machines we went for a fun, but long ride out to Gas Domes. We led since it was uncharted territory and Dennis and Ally were in a 2 wheel drive truck. There were some rocky parts, and some really sandy parts. Most of the bad spots were on the trail we THOUGHT was Gas Dome trail but turned out as some unnamed trail. We met up with Pole Line Road and were able to find our way, but right before Pole Line Road is when Dennis got a little stuck. I think with enough time (and if he was alone and desperate) he could have eventually rocked his way out of the little area, but it was just easier to pull him out with the Jeep! After all, there’s a reason I was leading!
When we made it to Gas Dome Tiffany wanted to take another “artsy” picture for the weekend. This is her interpretation of “machine one with nature.”
Once up at Gas Dome we took a few pictures as the view was pretty good, and it seemed like a good photo-taking opportunity.
On our way back to camp to eat, clean up and leave we found this complete moron (and his 2 stupid friends). His rear was buried in to his differential!!! He was stuck pretty good! First, we drive up on a Dodge Ram trying to pull him out, but I think the Ram was only 2wd. Plus the truck was empty in the bed and couldn’t grab any sand. Then I offered to help, but they didn’t seem to really want it. The next taker was their buddy in a Durango. He pulled up backwards and that’s when we realized they were trying to pull him using those little 1″ ratchet tie-downs which are usually rated at holding (not pulling) only around 1,000 pounds. Tiffany says “Mat, you better get away, that thing’s going to snap!” Knowing it was going to snap, I just stayed right there. The Durango backed up a couple inches, and literally as soon as there was tension on the strap it broke. Kind of amusing. Realizing that their options were running out, they accepted my offer to pull them out. I still had the strap hooked up in the rear from pulling Dennis, so when I backed up to him one of the winners grabbed my antenna (I had the second loop of the strap over it) and pulled it down thinking it was a whip antenna. He broke my CB stud (second one down, many to go…). When Billy and I ducked under the Ford to see what to hook the strap to we saw that his cross-member was crushed and rusty, so this wasn’t the first time he’s done something stupid and trashed his truck. I start going forward to pull him out and when the strap (30,000 lb.) becomes taught, I’m just turning sand slowly. I hear commotion from everybody standing around. As I realize what it’s about, the driver does too and switches from park to drive. Did I mention these people were morons? Anyways, once he was in drive, with Shirly’s pulling power I pulled him out with ease. So fast that Tiffany wasn’t even able to put the camera into “video” mode before he was out, so she just snapped a second still shot!
As usual, here’s a damage assessment for the weekend. No mechanical damage (other than my CB antenna mount stud). Just thumb damage. Warning, if you click for the bigger one, it might be a little graphic for Moms and the like. 
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