The Arizona Land Rover Owner's Second Annual Rally

Back in April while attending the Las Vegas Land Rover Club’s Rover Rendezvous in Death Valley, I had the luck to meet and befriend two guys from the Arizona Land Rover Owners group, Jayson Stangel and Rob Woodward. They invited me to the second annual club Rally in Phoenix that was to be held over the last weekend in October. After missing the National Rally in Moab, Utah in September, there was no way I was going to miss another chance to do some rock crawling and moved heaven and earth to get there for the event.

I had met some of the Arizona club members in June and felt like I was meeting up with old friends – one of the best parts of my job! Ted and Marilyn Moyer opened their home to me and as a fellow sailor, I loved staying in the ‘sailing room’. Their warm hospitality and easy lifestyle made the visit special and their home on two acres overlooking the Superstitions in Apache Junction was amazing.
Click here for pics!

The Rally was very well organized and off-roading in the desert is always an incredible experience for this rain forest born girl. I spent Saturday as co-pilot for Jayson who led a small group of serious rigs through Woodpecker and Upper Apex (or is it Ajax?!? I better check before it goes in the magazine!). Tough trails – some of the toughest in the state – and Jayson did a great job of bringing the group through the obstacles even though there was some interesting dynamics between the participants.

Saturday night was the cocktail party and raffle draw. The AZLRO organizers did a momentous job of gathering raffle prizes including a full Power Tank set up and a Superwinch. I won a $100 gift certificate (more spares! I am all about the spares after breaking down so much the last time I drove home from Texas!) from Rovers North and a couple of T-shirts to add to the Land Rover T-shirt collection.

The second day I rode along with Rob on the Walnut Creek Trail. This is an easier trail but very scenic (pics will come soon, I promise!) and we had an interesting cross section of extremely experienced drivers and new to off-roading types. It made for an interesting day and we had a ton of fun acting as tail-gunner or sweep for the group. It too was a great day – entirely different then running with the truggies of Saturday, making the sanity of Sunday even more special.

As always, it is sad to see the end of an event but considering I was in Phoenix for another week, it was not as miserable as usual leaving all my new LR friends. Thank you AZLRO for a wonderful weekend and see you in February of 2010 for the third annual rally!