My brother in law, JC, loves dunes-ing. Yeah, you could say he's a full bown, sand rail owner, rv toting, gear head, dunser. He LOVES it! His enthusiasm for the hobby is infectious to anyone, but especially to us easy-beach-goers from Carpinteria. This winter season Eoin and I drove out to the Imperial Dunes to meet up with my sister, Marisa, JC and my niece Payton Nicole on their annual trip with friends and families from Arizona. Upon arrival to the dunes, everyone in our group to got really stuck, which ended up needing 3 half-ton trucks to wench out each RV!! So, while we waited for our entrance permit, we found the Duners Diner and rested under an enormous camoflauged canopy while sipping our beers fast to stay warm. We watched all the huge trucks with huge trailers full of sand rails, dirtbikes, buggies, quads, other trucks, jeeps, and our personal favorite, the baja volkswagens load into the park and wondered how our comparibly tiny, very low to the ground car would do in the soft, unpredictable sand. Sooner than later we got a call informing us our sand escort was on the way with our permit and we were off, driving through the camps on a spontaneous path and gliding along on a surface that could easily eat my tires as fast as you can say Dunes-bunny! The trick to driving on sand is going fast and not ever breaking, so it's pretty common to see an RV with a huge trailer barrelling down the sand highway at speeds up to 45mph. As soon as we said "where the heck are you taking us?" I saw my sister running out to greet us and I got so excited, I floored it and the front wheels were instantly sucked down to the frame. I got out of the car without even putting it in park, as it was gently resting on the sand and not going anywhere. :) It was a fun weekend full of catching up with family and friends, eating yummy peach cobbler and smores, and endless kissing and hugging my beautiful niece.
