Manx Club

What a great time in Lone Pine!!  Thanks Buggy Bob for another sucessful event!!  I thought the "Rally" was fun.  I think I had the fastest time in the "slow drags".  The only thing missing from this event...my friend, "Jimbo"....miss you buggy buddy!! I had a near mishap on the way home, about 50 miles out of Lone Pine. I started to see my buggy tires in the side mirror of the motorhome!!!  EEEK...yes, one of the pins came out of the tow bar and the buggy was begining to pull to one side.  I was a little unprepared...no replacement pins.  The bracket for the axle on the tow bar was tweeked out of place and I probably couldn't have gotten a pin back in  there anyway.  And being on the side of the road on the 395, I didn't really want to be out there with a hammer trying to get it realigned. I thought about waiting for a night in shining armor, but in the 30 minutes I was out there, he was no where in sight.  We'll, luckily, I use 2 safety chains when I am towing, one of which is way too long.  I wrapped the chain around the axle and the tow bar and secured it in place with a few nuts and bolts I could find in my tool bag.  I must have stopped 10 times on the way home to make sure it was still secure.  It's a good story to tell today, but yesterday....not so much.  Where is that trunk monkey when you need him!!?  Yes, I am rethinking my "emergency tool kit".
Here are a few pictures from my cell phone...seems I lost my camera during the show and shine.  And truely....I still think it was a great trip!!

Barbara,
Thank you for the pictures.  Sorry to hear about the loss of your camera and the near catastrophe with your tow bar.  Jon Chabot (Topline Parts) had a similar incident while towing his Baja with his pick-up truck several months ago.  He was driving at night when he hit a sudden dip in a dirt road which apparently extended his tow bar beyond its normal axis.  The impact pulled the passenger side pin completely out and bent the semicircular bracket of the tow bar that attaches to the front tube.  While he knew he hit the dip hard, he didn't realize what damage was done until he had traveled a few hundred yards down the dirt road.  Do you think the pin on your tow bar just fell out or could some unforeseen movement of the tow bar have caused it to dislodge?  

Stubby (Mike) modified his tow bar brackets and attached short safety chains directly to both ends of his tow bar because he didn't trust the standard pin design. In light of these recent experiences and my practice of flat towing my vehicles, I'm seriously considering a modification to my tow bar.     

 

 The  Cerro Gordo run was fun
 We left camp with 14 buggy's and when we made it to Keeler we had 18
 By the time we got to Cerro Gordo we were down to 17 and when we finally reached the salt Tram
we dropped another to 16 but still more than I started with.
We found a little snow at the top



Remember to really watch when your following the leader


You may find a tow strap on your front end


We had a blast

Heres some pictures I took in my spare time. Enjoy!

Boulder Creek welcomes the Manx Club


Since Al wouldnt fix it, Cindy did.


Doran and Jennifer D., two of the nicest people you will ever know!


Crazy Rod from Reno, Nv. Im proud to say I know him!


Saturday morning Show and Shine with 61 buggies!


My Manxter and Dave Barretts' Kubelite


Peoples Choice and Best of Show Winners
The camo Manx won Peoples Choice and Best Theme, The green Manx won Best of Show and Most Original Manx

Instructor David Hale on how to use the Manx Club Buggy Totter

Dale Shonkweiler getting his buggy lined up

Saturday night dinner provided by Mountian View BBQ from Walker, Ca. at the Lone Pine Senior Center. Nobody left here hungry!

Jeff Hinds, the owner of Mountian View BBQ. What a great guy! Thanks go out to his staff for feeding over 100 Manx Club members!

Sunday morning buggy run up to Mt Whitney Portal and Movie Road in the Alabama Hills

All the buggies parked up the portal. Elevation: 8365ft

Theres those two nice people again!

This location on Movie Road was where they filmed the opening shot of the first "Iron man" movie. The scene where the Humvee was blown up. Manx Club members Bob and Nancy L. are the proud owners of the front hood of that Hummer.

I would like to thank all those folks who gave up there buggy day to help me with this event. With out you all, it wouldnt of happened.
Special thanks go out to Bob and Nancy Lee for all thier hard work and help! Thanks guys.

Thanks for the pictures and descriptions.
I almost feel like I was there.

As always, Mr. Robert Hunter is a little bit overly modest in his role as leader of these runs.  He actually came to Lone Pine weeks before and spent several days roaming the town to gather facts and to lay out the rally . . .which was one of the most fun runs I have been on!  To quote my son Jake . . ."We probably know more about the history of this town than the locals do".  Yep, probably true. 

Thank you Bob for all you do, you should know how much we all appreciate your work and how thankful I personally am for you playing such an important role in making the Manx Club the wonderful institution it has become.

Here's some pictures I took, mainly on the Sunday run.  I tried to get pictures of every car on that day's run, and was largely successful.  I also took a couple of pictures of cars that I just liked when I saw them parked in the campground.

Great photos. That's an outstanding shot of Bob H's, now, ever lasting smile ... thanks for sharing the fun.

Mark & Carol

Nice pictures Scott.

I noted that there are still many buggies with just a single hoop roll bar.  Too bad.

Dad and I


Me and my 2 loves the wife and rosa


I don't think my father is ever going to give the manxter back to me. Oh well.








We had a great time
I wanted to thank Bob, Gene, and everyone else who helped make this a great run

Can't wait to see you guys in Big Bear

Doran

Here's some pictures of Team 4, Cornelius / Kornoff / Drolet. The third place winners in the Rally . . . what a blast we had. I was especially impressed with the first picture. That's Bob and Anita towing a fully loaded Peterbuilt off the highway and into a gas station.