Yes, we once again made it up to Walden for Memorial Day weekend.

Visit the Photo Gallery for some pictures.

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Our annual Memorial day trip to the Walden Sand Hills is coming up quickly, and everyone still has some work to do. Between now and then watch for updates on how things are going, what we are getting done and what isn’t going to happen. Here’s a quick rundown of where we are at.

Jason
As usual he is better prepared than any of us. The Dana 60 swap on the Blazer is pretty much done, the LT250 doesn’t ever need anything and the new Brute Force is in great shape. Of course, he will probably be busy helping the rest of us.

Rob
Rob is wrapping up the 8.1 swap in his Silver Truck. Sounds like he is getting close. Lots of late nights for him.

Jeff
Jeff bought him a new dirt bike, but it’s been sitting for a while. He’s working on getting it running and I’m sure there is plenty to do on the Cherokee.

Bob
Yeah, that’s me. We did the torque converter and tranny rebuild on the Scout last weekend (more about that later). I’ve also got a new steering stabilizer and new mirrors on order for it, plus I’m doing a few things to the Warrior, so I should be busy for the next month.

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Every Memorial Day we head to the North Sand Hills near Walden Colorado. This year was no exception.

Generally the dunes are extremely busy over Memorial day, but this year was different. With gas near $4.00/gallon and a tornado going through Windsor the week before, the sand dunes were unusually quiet.

We all spent the weeks prior to the trip trying to get everything running. Since everything was last minute, we broke a LOT of stuff. Here is a record of the Carnage:

Day 1 – Friday
When we pulled into a gas station in Ft Collins, Seth accidentally ran one of the trailers into a cement post near the gas pump.

Rob’s truck has transmission problems on the way to Laramie. He was pulling Jeff’s jeep on the trailer, so we had to re-arrange everything.

Jeff’s XJ had several problems. Missing TV cable on the transmission, front diff problems, transfer case problems etc…

The front diff in Jason’s Blazer broke after a late night foray into a snowbank. Amazing how quick you can break things with a 454.

Day 2 – Saturday
Tried to ride the buggy. It ran, so it’s not quite in the broken list, but it had serious issues. The Arctic Cat 500 2-stroke doesn’t like the sand dunes.

Jeff’s Wolverine had serious problems. Didn’t want to run right. Jeff took the carb apart, pulled the plug, checked the air filter, nothing seemed to help.

Day 3 – Sunday
Jeff’s Pickup got stuck, while pulling him out the tow hooks and bumper came off.

Rob got his truck running, took it up on the dunes, jumped it a couple times after which it promptly caught on fire.

Day 4 – Monday
Fortunately nothing broke on Monday, and we got everything hitched up an hauled home.

Another trip to the dunes in the books. Hopefully next year will be less expensive and less stuff will break.

See all the pictures in the Walden Sand Dunes 2008 photo gallery.

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