Damn ... what a good time!
From an Irate standpoint ....
From a personal viewpoint ....
Took the wife this year, we let the house 3:30AM STL time and rolled into KoH about 2PM CA time. We rented a camper and SxS to sleep and get around JV with. The couple we rented the camper from lied (or had no clue) about being able to use the 110 outlets along with the big solar array it had, which is why we went to Vegas for that one. Since there was no inverter I couldn't run the Starlink 24/7. When we did run the generator, it did pretty well (35-50MB) considering how many were out there. They were everywhere.
The golf cart rental was fun, it was a 4 seater Polaris Dynamix. First time I've been in a go fast, only ever been in utility type on the farm. Rented it from Desert Ready Offroad, they delivered right to camp so that that awesome. Would certainly recommend them, owner's name was Alex and he' was a cool guy. Didn't take it on any trails but flew around the lakebed to look at various spectating points.
The bars/food at and near The Forty were a nice touch, it was cool to take a quick run up for lunch and drink. Would be awesome to have 5-6 others around JV to run out to.
I took my wife to the drivers meeting for the kids classes, she quickly figured out my motive there and was impressed. We were sitting there on the outside of the pack and could see out the door. A 10ish year old girl, I didn't catch her name, pulled her rig right up by the door, climbed out in her fire suit and HANS device, took her helmet off and flung her braid around and all the parents around are like .. damn ... she's gotta have a PR team working with her
. Anyway ... my oldest is currently about 2"fro reaching the peddles of a Polaris 200 ... once she grows to close that gap momma bear has give the OK to get her on the track 
. That alone made my KoH.
I stopped to look at an awesome Unimog and ran into a group of Dancing sharks who were just having a blast on Boone Rd. These guys were a riot. They eventually noticed my irate hoodie and asked if it's some sort BS pirate knock off. Told them the story and they were stoked to hear everybody moved here, turns out they were responsible for a lot of shenanigans on the old site. Think ... PBB sticker on tombstones
. They'll be on soon. 
My single biggest regret was not getting into the pits to see of the racers from here. The days were busy and by the time I got down there in the evenings most pits/camps were closed up. I have to admit, I was a bit lost this year in there as well. Seemed like 1/2 the pits didn't have garages on the 'street' and I wandered around looking for somebody that had not pit lol. Sorry I didn't get to come say hey but I, as well as the whole site, appreciate you guys rock'n the irate stickers on your rigs.
I know there were people in our camp that broke ... alot .. yet always got fixed and back out on the trail. How did the rest of you fair? Pics or it didn't happen
From an Irate standpoint ....
- The wife and I had media passes, we went to get our vests Wednesday and was told they were out. Apparently they ordered 500 and got 100 in. There are way better photographers out there then either of us so I didn't make a big deal about not getting one. Would have been nice to get out there to get pics of the 170 class races, after it started I noticed there were not many photographers out there.
- Rather than taking pics we spent most of the time walking around talking to people about the site. In hindsight thats probably what the site needed more. So many members stopped me or came by camp to say hi. I couldn't even list them all. It was pretty awesome talk to everybody and hear about them taking the time to find each other around the lakebed. Next year we'll set up a dedicated meet-n-greet or ride or something, would make things a lot easier/faster for members to connect.
- Given the current parts counter issues I talked to several vendors about being a direct vendor. Two years ago most said no, this community must be doing something right because I think we'll be carrying a few brands directly before long. I have to reach out to them to talk further this week. I may set up a group buy forum to get in with some of these companies. More later.
- Keith Silva (EV Class) came by camp and we had a few beers. Listening to some of the stuff he had to learn to build an EV rig was super interesting. Not just about the build, unexpected last min comms interference, how to charge the packs or swap them. He had me hooked. I talked to him about this place and the recent vote for an EV forum but we don't have any EV builds to populate it. He and his wife were stoked to be the first build in there and share everything they learned along the way. I'm looking forward to kicking that off when they get home and signed up.
- The kids racing was .... awesome! Not sure if it was the dad in me or what but watching the racers go around dirt track was awesome. I had seen pics from Pitbullcruiser and tribal4krawler kids racing but was not prepared for the start of that race. Arickvan, my wife and I were there at the start. The racers follow the pace car and as it pulls off the sound that comes from those little cars took us by surprise. The title modified cars were even getting a bit sideways in the corners. Hell even the drivers meeting was neat to see. All the parents and the dads with their shit-eat'n grins (pride) as their kid answered questions about their rig/class was great. So cool for those kids, I just hope Ford stays out of that class.
From a personal viewpoint ....
Took the wife this year, we let the house 3:30AM STL time and rolled into KoH about 2PM CA time. We rented a camper and SxS to sleep and get around JV with. The couple we rented the camper from lied (or had no clue) about being able to use the 110 outlets along with the big solar array it had, which is why we went to Vegas for that one. Since there was no inverter I couldn't run the Starlink 24/7. When we did run the generator, it did pretty well (35-50MB) considering how many were out there. They were everywhere.
The golf cart rental was fun, it was a 4 seater Polaris Dynamix. First time I've been in a go fast, only ever been in utility type on the farm. Rented it from Desert Ready Offroad, they delivered right to camp so that that awesome. Would certainly recommend them, owner's name was Alex and he' was a cool guy. Didn't take it on any trails but flew around the lakebed to look at various spectating points.
The bars/food at and near The Forty were a nice touch, it was cool to take a quick run up for lunch and drink. Would be awesome to have 5-6 others around JV to run out to.
I took my wife to the drivers meeting for the kids classes, she quickly figured out my motive there and was impressed. We were sitting there on the outside of the pack and could see out the door. A 10ish year old girl, I didn't catch her name, pulled her rig right up by the door, climbed out in her fire suit and HANS device, took her helmet off and flung her braid around and all the parents around are like .. damn ... she's gotta have a PR team working with her
. Anyway ... my oldest is currently about 2"fro reaching the peddles of a Polaris 200 ... once she grows to close that gap momma bear has give the OK to get her on the track . That alone made my KoH.I stopped to look at an awesome Unimog and ran into a group of Dancing sharks who were just having a blast on Boone Rd. These guys were a riot. They eventually noticed my irate hoodie and asked if it's some sort BS pirate knock off. Told them the story and they were stoked to hear everybody moved here, turns out they were responsible for a lot of shenanigans on the old site. Think ... PBB sticker on tombstones
. They'll be on soon. My single biggest regret was not getting into the pits to see of the racers from here. The days were busy and by the time I got down there in the evenings most pits/camps were closed up. I have to admit, I was a bit lost this year in there as well. Seemed like 1/2 the pits didn't have garages on the 'street' and I wandered around looking for somebody that had not pit lol. Sorry I didn't get to come say hey but I, as well as the whole site, appreciate you guys rock'n the irate stickers on your rigs.
I know there were people in our camp that broke ... alot .. yet always got fixed and back out on the trail. How did the rest of you fair? Pics or it didn't happen
I'm amazed we didn't get nerfed off the course. Those fuckers come up fast. That night we went to pre run Chocolate Thunder. Broke the engagement collar on the ARB in the front diff. We spent the night installing a spool in the diff in order to make qualifying on time.
