Sunday - September 12
What happens when an old dirt bike racer gets his hands on a quad? Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on! LOL We did that this afternoon. One of the things on Geri's bucket list was riding a quad on the dunes in Oregon. Whatta blast! After receiving safety and boundary instructions, our escort from Sand Dunes Frontier south of Florence took us out to the dunes. Once there, he pointed out the boundaries, took our picture and let us go. His last words were be careful. Bruce replied, "At our age, we're not going to do anything stupid." Geri just laughed and knew better when Bruce is behind the wheel.
Bruce was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, laughing and saying, "Ya gotta trust me, Babe." Geri had a couple of heart attacks, but basically knew she was in good hands as we went almost rolling down a 300' dune. Ha! Geri was ready to climb out while Bruce was yelling at her, "Get back in here, dammit!" Bruce saved it and we came out fine. He added that was borderline roll time. Ya think?! We never did make it to the top of that thing. Darn! The rest of the time we slid sideways down a dune or slowed to look at the edge of a dune before going down the steep face. His built-in reflexes helped us out more than once. Up and down we went all over the designated area, which was about 1.5 miles square we were told. The Florence dunes are open to anyone, but rentals have to stay within their leased area. We allotted an hour for this trip and that was plenty of time for the limited area we could travel. Geri came out crunching on sand from all the laughing and the "Whoa ... no" she uttered a time or two. Of course, the driver didn't pay any attention!
This picture shows one of the "tree islands" that was a boundary marker for us.
At one point, Geri decided to learn how to drive a quad, really a Rhino which is a lot more stable. Way fun! A few trips around and up or down some of the dunes, and the wheel was turned back over to the pro. :-) It was kind of like the motorcycle. Fun to ride, but Geri preferred to ride and enjoy the fun rather than drive. The smile, laughter and aura that surrounds Bruce when there's a throttle in his hands is unbelievable While the throttle was on the floor this time, he still projected that same feeling of relaxation and fun. He absolutely went back to his days on the motorcycles and hill climbing.
More and more riders appeared on the dunes shortly after 1:00. It was fun to watch the motorcyclists jumping over and off the dunes, and see the people with powerful quads climb that 300' dune with ease. Everyone was having a blast, but it got to the point where one really had to be on alert for oncoming traffic. We were told the area we were in was popular because of the high dune, and riders were enjoying the whole area but a few really wanted to climb to the highest point. At one point, we saw a little boy who wasn't having so much fun. He was riding with one of his parents and Mom got stuck. While Dad was off his quad acting cool and Mom sat on her quad, the kid had digging duty. Now, I ask ya. What's wrong with that picture?!
As the wind picked up, tracks were rapidly being covered up. This European beach grass has been windblown for so many years. There were little islands of grass or trees in a few places. Imagine the forces they survive.
And then there are the little flowers blooming on a sand hill where water is so scarce and nature is so unforgiving.
The Oregon dunes have been shut down to play in many areas unlike when we were kids and there were no rules, boundaries or limitations. And Sand Dunes Frontier is the only licensed quad rental place we could find that would turn riders loose with the equipment. The other local outfit gave guided rides on sand railers or the big dune buggies, and we weren't interested in either one of those.
When we took off from the rental office, the wind was fairly calm. It was nice and warm out on the sand. By the time we got back about 1:45, the wind was heading for 12 mph or higher as predicted. We had a wonderful experience, stayed upright, kept all our fingers and toes, and drove back in on time. The only damage done was that Geri had hat hair, but Bruce didn't so that's good. LOL Geri's bucket list is one item shorter and what a great time we had!
