Met & left Mustang Corners. No problems on the way to Tucson. First stop was Circle K at Speedway and Houghton, for gas and last real restroom use. First problem of the trip was that Glenn had a dead battery. Electronic problems again. That put it at 2 weekends in a row. We had everyone else go the real meeting place Circle K on Redington. We got Glenn to the closest Checker store for the battery problem. At this point we were running behind on time so we called ahead, and had the rest of the group start to the trail head. (2 of us can travel faster than the main group.)

Susan and I arrived in the camp site Friday afternoon after driving most of the way in the rain, leaving us with a jeep full of water and hoping it would dry out before we had to ride in it the next day. Jim, Gordon & Kathy, Troy, and Hugh & Rosie were already all set up and ready to enjoy the night. After unhooking the jeep and setting up the RV, we were ready to sit around the nice camp fire ourselves.

Saturday morning dawned clear with no sign of the previous day's rain. It promised to be a beautiful day. Jack, Troy's father, joined us for the weekend of camping and we went exploring. Jim found a fun looking side road and we all followed him (what a mistake!!). Jim went up a little hill climb, and I followed. After reaching the midway point, I began to hear air escaping from a tire, not a good sound. I had sliced a tire pretty good. Gordon came up behind me, and he had also sliced a tire. After getting the tires changed on the hill side, we decided to not try our luck any further and just turn around and head back down the hill. This is where it got interesting. Gordon decided that turning around in the space provided by the road was too boring and wanted to charge up the hill side, dodging trees, scaring the !?%* out of Kathy, seeing if the cloth top on the Commando could survive a tree close encounter (it can't). When he finally got stopped he was wedged between trees behind and in front on a very steep side hill. I broke out my camp saw and cut the tree down behind him, allowing him to back down the hill and finally get turned around. On the way down the hill Jim discovered a fuel leak in his truck, so we decided we should head back to camp to regroup and relax a little after the morning's excitement. After Jim got his truck back in working order again, we decided to relax a little and play some holey board. After Jim beat everyone pretty soundly we decided to go exploring again before dark. We decided to go on a short loop trail close to camp that is pretty fun. Nice rocky sections, awesome views, a nice ride. Shortly after starting up the trail, Hugh broke a rear leaf spring. This caused his axle to move and rotate, and destroyed one of the caps on the u-joint in the rear drive shaft. He got strapped to Jim. Troy broke a front shackle mount, causing his front axle to move, causing his front drive shaft to pull apart. Troy got strapped to me. Eventually we limped back to camp for further repairs in the morning. 

The group of 4 vehicles departed the Shell station about 9AM Sunday, 12 Feb 06. Group leader was Dave. Members attending were Dave & Sue, Gordon & Kathy, Bill & Barbara, Tony, and Donnie (from Benson). 

Well, I started out from home to the Galiuro Mountains about 9AM Friday, 13 Jan. Maybe that was the problem; Friday the 13th. Heading east on I-10, down hill from Texas Canyon, I hear, on the CB a plaintive wail from Kathy: "You better drive this jeep and find out what was wrong. I'll drive the pickup with the tent camper." Uh Oh!!! Kathy never tows anything. I knew there was trouble for sure.

It all started over the Christmas party, with talk of a camping trip over the New Year weekend. Stacey and Gordon pre-ran the trip and sent out the directions. Run the high speed dirt road “you can do at least 50mph” on Mule Shaw road. Stacy and family, Gordon and Kathy both left early Friday followed by Mitch and Susan that afternoon. Bill, Barbra and I leaving that night. The directions were great. Mule Shaw Rd was Mule shoe road; and we never did find the smooth 50mph road. But we did make it into camp. We got set up and enjoyed the fire and the company. There were a million stars out, and it seamed that you could reach out and touch them.

The Harker clan rolled into camp about noon on Friday, consisting of myself, Sue, my Dad From California and My brother Rodney all the way down from North Pole Alaska. Oh yea, we also had Kathy White who followed along despite my best efforts to lose her.

Rolling into camp we met up with other Range Riders Bill Garbutt, Barbara, And Mitch and Susan. Once we staked our claim and set camp, it was off to do a little exploring. I had found out Wednesday that the jeep games we were hosting were moved; we had to find the new area and get the lay out for our games the next day. We played in the wash, uhhh set the games up, collected some more fire wood, and headed back to camp for steaks cooked over the camp fire a little wine and some stories told, for some reason all about me. Listening to them you'd think I can't drive, get lost all the time, and have no sense of direction. Not So!

Then it was time to head to the main campfire for the Spook Rally and the Friday night costume ball. Who would think that out in the middle of know where so many people would come together to dance around a fire? There was kids trick or treating, a costume contest for the kids and on for the adults (really big kids) too. Some of the costumes where great, lots of imagination.