For years, our family spent lots of time at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes near Waynoka, OK. We had a variety of dune buggies and ATVs over the years, some that LeRoy built, others he bought or traded for and still others that our son bought for himself. We went to the dunes by ourselves sometimes, but often there would be a whole caravan of us. Our kids both learned to drive at the dunes in those stick shift dune buggies. So many good memories! This week we took our new-to-us buggy out on the desert trails nearby our Yuma property.
But I had forgotten (or my body is older than it once was) how rough those buggies can be riding the trails! I should have read the tag frame before we started.
In my memories, we were riding on sand. In actuality this week, we were riding on very rocky desert trails. I’m glad LeRoy is not into rock climbing. This was rough enough!
Back to the memories, though. One of my favorite ones was the first time LeRoy’s Aunt Tressie (Grandma Tressie to our kids) met us at the dunes and decided she wanted to take a ride. She probably wasn’t so much older then than we are now, but we thought she was OLD and very brave for an old lady! Our family all wore helmets when we rode in the dunes, so we put one on Grandma and got her buckled into the harness. She took off with LeRoy at the wheel to go for a ride. Now, LeRoy never knew the meaning of “SLOW DOWN” on the dunes and as they started down a big dune, sand spraying all over, Grandma opened her mouth to say “Oh my goodness!” Needless to say, one mouthful was all it took for her to remember that motto: get in, sit down, hold on and shut up!
We’re winding down here in Yuma. Our teeth have been cleaned and new glasses purchased in Los Algodones, Mexico and we’ve eaten lunch one last time at the cantina. The bus bays are filling up again with the grill, chairs, tools, and more things that we have used outside all winter. The last women’s Bible study has been held and tomorrow the bus will be washed and waxed. Friday morning, we will be on our way to Tucson to enjoy Easter worship with our friends at Northwest Community Friends Church. Before we know it, “winter” 2018 in Arizona will be at an end. We hope it doesn’t catch up with us in Kansas!
