Members present:

Glenn McConnel, Scott Nixon, Don and Samantha Munzer, Tim Kennedy, Marty Boetel, Ed Lyons, Charlie Babcock, Chad Marshal, and Norman and Carol Harris.

Meeting called to order at 7:10pm by President Glenn. Noting that the poor attendance was less than a quorum, Glen seized the opportunity to declare himself President-for-life. Cackling with maniacal glee he ordered Treasurer Ed to deposit the entire club treasury into his personal account. Fortunately Ed had wisely switched the treasury records with his wife's top-secret cranberry bread recipe.

Glenn immediately began planning his inaugural ball to be held on Saturday the 15th of December. See elsewhere for details.

Skipping the intermission so no rebellion could be planned out in the parking lot, we pressed on. Marty discussed his Y2K+2 theory that all the worlds' computers will actually blow up this time due to the year being a palindrome. Consequently he will be camping out near the Jamboree campgrounds. If your fuel injection computer still works January 1, come out and wheel with him. Bring bottled water, Spam, and ammo.

With the sounds of far off mortar fire (or was it thunder?) the meeting was brought to a close.

Meeting Minutes dis-respectively submitted by Scott Nixon

December 15: Annual Lo-Rangers Christmas party. See elsewhere for details.

Jan 1: Wheeling the Florence Junction area New Year's day. Meet at the Texaco at 9AM or camp out in the jamboree campgrounds. Call Marty for further details.

Jan 4-6: Offroad Expo at the Phoenix Civic center. Look for details in your favorite off road magazine.

Jan 19: There will be a cleanup on the Table Mesa Road from I-17 to the Agua Fria River. Meet at the end of the pavement on the west Table Mesa Road exit of I-17. Organized and sponsored by the Phoenix Four Wheelers (beverages), the Arizona State Land Department (trash bags), the Lake Pleasant Regional Recreation Area (trucks for hauling tires) and the Bureau of Land Management (dumpsters). Questions; call Ron Karlinsky at the Canyon Service Center in Black Canyon City, 623-374-9443.

January 30: Monthly club meeting, 7pm at Peter Piper Pizza, Northeast corner of Alma School and Elliot. Dues are due! Elections will (hopefully) be held!

Participants:

My sister and brother-in-law were in town for Thanksgiving, so I figured I'd take them out in the desert for a bit of Arizona 'wheeling. I thought I'd invite some club members along, but the first guy I called was on his way to work (on the Friday after Thanksgiving?) and was quite crushed to learn I'd be out having fun while he was otherwise occupied. Rather than ruin anybody else's day, we just loaded up the truck and headed out.

Turning off of the pavement I just popped the t-case into 4-lo and kept going; no sense airing down for such an easy trail. As we slowly descended to the river, I noted quite a bit more erosion since the last time I ran this road. After enjoying the river bank view for a bit, we got back on the trail and started climbing up the ridge to the first big hill.

This section has really changed; erosion and usage lent quite a bit of pucker factor to the off-camber sections. One spot in particular was real interesting in a full-size. The remnants of a sand bag in the lowest spot testified to the fact that I wasn't the first person to wonder if this was passable. We made it through, but the truck slid a few inches (felt like feet) towards the drop off before we climbed up to level ground.

Pulling up to the next off-camber section, I finally decided to let some air out of my tires. This helped significantly in keeping the truck planted on the trail. Others hadn't been so lucky, as a new bypass dropped off to the right where no trail had been previously.

A few short climbs later we were at the top of the big hill. After a quick lunch, we listened to the melodious tones of my groaning drum brakes descending the hill. We didn't try climbing up, but it looked easily doable. Taking the sharp left down the wash a ways, I began thinking it was a wrong turn. More erosion made the trail appear quite a bit different. As soon as we came to the steep right hand turn up out of the wash I new we were headed the right way though. A few more climbs and careful descents and we pulled out into Indian Springs wash.

A high-speed romp got us down to the river again. The water was really flowing, as were the bullets through a full auto AK-47 another group had. We didn't stay long.

Headed up Indian Springs, we finally encountered other traffic. I was rather surprised as this is a popular area and it was a beautiful day. Apparently quite a few people had to work; or maybe they were still sleeping off the turkey.

This month's cover photo is a real old picture of my truck at the club Christmas party, climbing up air dam(n) rock. Wow, look at all the straight sheet metal. Not too shabby for a stock lo-rider with nothing but a rear LSD.

Wow, has it been two years already? Seems like only yesterday that I was figuring out how to get Microsoft Word to do what I wanted. Now as my tenure as Editor draws to a close and I've finally managed to subdue Word (well, ok, we called a truce), I can hardly believe how much has changed.

A lot of people have come and gone as members. Some moved away, some drifted off to join other clubs, others just seemed to disappear. My truck has gone from stock to lifted and locked. I finally made it Moab. Lynn and I went from no children, to sharing our lives with Sydney and Steven. Yep, a lot sure has changed.

I hope everyone has enjoyed getting the newsletter in their mail box every month. I'm never sure whether other people appreciate my sense of humor or not, but my intent was to have at least something in every issue that would bring a smile to the reader's face.

I wish the best of luck to whoever my successor is, and will do my best to help them get up and running. And if you ever get stuck in Word, just give me a call. I know all the secret four letter words.

Scott Nixon,

Editor

As usual, the club Christmas party will be held in BullDog Wash, near Sagauro Lake. Meet at 10AM outside the gate near the Blue Point Bridge. The club provides burgers/hot-dogs/buns, everybody brings a side dish. After lunch we play in the sand and on the boulders. Lunch spot reachable in any stock vehicle.

Call Marty to RSVP at 480-926-3977 by Friday the 14th so we know how many burgers and dogs to buy, and so everybody doesn't show up with potato salad. Bring chairs to sit on and a folding table if you have one. This is always a fun one, so try and make it if you can!

Re-read the meeting minutes.