My family is very much a vehicle family. I’m weirdly proud that my mom was resourceful and rebellious enough that she earned some of her college money by street racing – in the 60s. Back when women could be either a teacher or a nurse. My dad can do just about anything mechanically and electrically, as can my brother. My brother has a restored Mustang he takes to local amateur races and he’s drag raced his car in high school. He also loves off-roading.
I only got my mom’s lead foot and love of driving. My idea of car repair begins with “Daaaaaaad!” But when my brother came to town on a business trip and decided to stay a couple of extra days to visit me, the very first thing I thought of was:
Rent a dune buggy and hit the sand!
He was most definitely on-board for that, and I think a bit surprised that I came up with something so perfect for him to enjoy. This was on Oceano Beach, and I learned it is now one of two beaches in the world that’s legal to drive on. Don’t quote me on that, but I know that beach driving is not particularly common.
The rental price was reasonable and there were several agencies to choose from. I went with SunBuggy because it was the first one in the search engine list. We got 2 2-seaters because there were 3 in our group, and if we went for a 4-seater it wouldn’t have the power my brother really wanted. Also, because of the nature of this particular adventure I did not take my nice camera with me. All these pictures are from my iPhone and aren’t exactly artistic, but at least I have some.
The rental agency had a video for us to watch and what really stood out to me was that I would be charged for every little possible ding. Before the video was even done, I have to admit I was extremely nervous. At least, my wallet was.
The embarkation point was a bit further up the sand, so we were ferried there by a shuttle. Fortunately, it was a stunningly beautiful day on this last Friday of May 2018. That said, I know from experience that the beach here is very windy so even though it was a lovely high 70s, I knew it was going to get cold. I got myself a hoodie at the gift shop and my brother got a long-sleeved shirt. He thanked afterwards, saying that having it made him very comfortable out in the wind. So if you go, remember that. Windy.
We were given everything we needed – essentially helmet and goggles. They gave us a little hood thing to put on before the helmet. Not only did it keep the helmet from touching everyone’s head who’s ever worn it, but it also covered my mouth — something I didn’t really and truly appreciate fully until I was out there and got the first wheel-slip full of sand straight in my face. Without this under-helmet hoodie thing, I would have been eating and breathing sand! My brother got himself a bandana in prep for this factoid (being an experienced off-roader) but he ended up not using it because it was redundant.
After being suited up, we shown to our chariots. I was feeling both excited and nervous about this. I don’t think I fully realized just how freaked out I was by all the “any damage and you are charged” talk was until after everything was over. As the video recommended, we did a visual inspection of the buggies. The guy prepping us said “yeah, those videos are old; you don’t really need to inspect things” and not half a second later my brother says “the bottom front shock bolt is missing.” Oops! They ended up swapping out vehicles for him since that missing bolt was not as easy to fix at it seemed.
Finally everything was sorted and it was time to hit the dunes! Off and away! So off we went, my brother in his own vehicle and me riding with a friend. Because I was the only not driving, I got the dubious job of trying to interpret the Sanskrit map were given. With the bright sun hitting a sign the way it was, I thought it was the one I was looking for. It was also an area that others were going to so I thought ‘we’re here’ and I pointed us that way. It wasn’t until we were passing the sign that I could finally see that the 13 was actually a B with light obscuring the middle. Uh-oh. But there were others here…. How bad could it be?
Harrowing. That’s my word to describe this venture. HARROWING. The sand is of course, all one color. Even when you’re on it. So when you drive up to something and it looks nice only to realize HOLY CRAP THERE’S NOTHING THERE! … that’s harrowing. Sudden drops and sharp rises, coupled with riding with someone who had no experience driving in these conditions … Not fun. I did not have fun on this one. At all. I am sad to admit that I lasted all of 15 minutes before I was like “You guys just leave me here and I’ll wait for you to come back.”
In hindsight, I remember shrieking on the way down that first embankment because I was fully expecting to have this thing roll (on my side no less) and I was seeing dollar signs the whole time. So what made it unfun for me was a combination of unfamiliarity about the type of terrain, not knowing the limitations of the buggy, the driver’s inexperience, and concern that suddenly this would morph into a multiple thousand dollar afternoon. So yeah, I ended up sitting out and never was I happier with a decision.
I got a call about an hour later. The drive belt broke on the buggy that kept getting stuck. Huh. No wonder it was struggling so – the power was gone. The buggy my brother drove had no such problems and he also didn’t get stuck. We were informed then that we were in what was essentially the advanced area. My thought was that I managed to steer us onto the diamond slopes instead of the bunny slopes. No wonder it was so freaking terrifying! My bad. I was fired as navigator after that. lol
Fortunately, my brother had a blast and that was my only real goal. I know full well that he’ll likely want to go again next time he visits. I also know that I’ll go with him, but this time I’ll make sure we end up in the correct area. So even though this adventure didn’t work out exactly as envisioned, it came out fine and I still had fun. It’s always kind of fun to make people laugh as I describe and pantomime my reactions for those 15 minutes that I was indeed out there.
Until next time, adventure on!