This is my version of Moab 04. Others are welcome to chime in and embellish/refute/correct as they wish.

I have to admit, I was kind of ambivalent about going to Moab this year, since there weren't going to be very many moggers there, and the price of gasoline was soaring on a daily basis. However, I'd made the commitment so that was that. Ron DePugh wasn't sure he was going to get his truck back together in time, so I agreed to drive down to Boulder on Friday (Apr 2nd) and he would either load all his gear and the Mog Central tent in my truck and ride with me, or we'd get his truck finished and I'd follow him in case there were any problems. Ron wanted to put his huge winch on, but that looked like an all day project so I convinced him to hold off. After picking up his repaired spare tire, getting an emissions test, getting current license plates and grabbing a burger at Wendys, we finally left Boulder around 1:00 p.m.

The trip Moab was pretty uneventful. Ron's truck ran great and we were fortunate to have a tail wind all the way to the Utah border. Once we crossed into Utah, the wind shifted around to the north, and the cross winds were pretty strong which slowed us down somewhat. We were the only vehicles on the road from the Cisco exit on into Moab, and we arrived at Slickrock Campground at 11:00. It was too late for me to pitch my tent in my space, so I flopped in the back of my truck and Ron parked in front of me and slept in his truck as well.

Well, I finally came up with some time to write up a little detail on the Moab outing.

My family and I planned on driving down Thursday night, April 1, but we didn't get away until late, so we only drove a couple of hours before parking for the night. Friday morning, we got up and drove the other two hours to Moab. There was a lot of road construction just north of town this year. It looks like they are widening the freeway from town up to the airport and putting in long special turn lanes at Arches NP.

**Friday: Camp
Right after getting into town, we parked the rig by the side of the main road and unloaded the mog to go and scope things out. Slickrock campground was pretty empty. The bulk of the people there seemed to be mountain bikers. I was a little nervous about getting our rig and 48' trailer into the campground, but it was without cause. We slid right in with several feet to spare on all sides.

For those of you lucky enough to have never seen our classic "white trash" rig, it's too late now. I already have it disassembled and up for sale. Let's just say it involved a semi trailer, a 27' fifth wheel travel trailer and the mog with lots of tie-down material! Anyone wanting a good deal on the 27' fifth wheel, contact me. We recently purchased an enclosed trailer and hope to have it partially finished by NWMF this year.

Anyway, on Friday, we mostly hung around camp getting settled into vacation mode and letting the boys ride their bikes around camp. Three of the boys and I rode bikes down to the rock shop and back. We did some exploring on the way back and found an old junkyard in the foothills around the old mansion on the east side of the highway. It was a fun ride, but we found some thorns on the way that resulted in 5 flat tires! Guess it is time for some slime.

We were hoping for more moggers to roll in sometime on Friday, but nobody showed up. Actually, Kent Drummond and Ron DePugh showed up sometime around 11:00 pm, but we didn't see them until morning. Saturday morning we were getting a few raindrops. I found Kent and Ron and we invited them over for breakfast and some chatting. For those of you who don't know, Kent has a 404 hardcab and Ron has a 404 VLF. I think we got mog central setup after breakfast.

Well, I'm back from Moab, and I think it's fair to say that the trip was a success. (Though I still have a couple of XL and XXL "Mogs at Moab" T-shirts left at $18 each, including postage to anywhere in the US. First come, first serve!)

Suffering from a delayed start, I didn't arrive until late Sunday afternoon, to find that Kent Drummond, Eric Johnson, and Ron DePugh had already set up Mog Central. We added the Mercedes Benz banners (courtesy of Kai Serrano) to make the site complete, and we were off to a great start.

I'll leave the trail reports to Kent, as he does such a great job...

Speaking of Kent, and great jobs - he did a terrific job taking the reins in organizing and leading each day's trail ride. (And Eric Johnson led an alternative trip one day, taking a group of mostly pinz-go-overs on the Golden Spike..) Kent did such a good job that he went home with our sole trophy this year as the "Moab Trail Master."