Wow this was a really neat event!
It wasn't the hard wheelin, because there wasn't any.
The only sand hill that there was to climb was a large bowl, that was pretty much the center of all the fun.  This turned out to be a good thing for me, as I was still dialing in my new one month old engine, newly topped with a four day old Holley Digital Di Projection System.  It is the one that uses a lap top computer to tweak and set up your internal fuel map.  Then you download it into the  EEPROM computer on the Bronco.  The changes are instant, and really cool.  But the system is touchy, and as such, even though I had it running quite well when we left, it started acting up when were about an hour south of Brookings Oregon.
The next day was more of the same as it continued to cause problems on the remainder of the trip up, which turned out to be another 9 hour drive on top of an 8 hour drive the day before.
I was severely stressed out by the time that we arrived at the
Sand Lake Camp Ground.  The long drive had not been planned, we figured on only 12 hours, and the Bronco had not been running well.  We arrived at dusk, and we quickly unpacked and set up camp in the near dark, and finally after eating dinner, we left to head out onto the dunes in the pitch darkness.  Well on came the KC Highlites, and out to the dunes we went. Not knowing where the heck we were going.  Making sure that we fixed some landmarks in our minds as we left, so that we could make it back.. GRIN
It's weird going out onto strange dunes in an area that you've never been before, in the pitch darkness.  Well we immediately saw literally hundreds of headlights all in a row, following each other around like a giant caterpillar.  This turned out to be a follow the leader event, that was the evenings activities.  We sat there for awhile and watched hundreds of Broncos race past us, and my daughter said that she didn't know that there were so many Bronco's in the world.  I laughed telling her that this was just a few of thousands of Broncos that were out there in the world.
We were just lucky enough to get to see 207 of  them all in one place.
I think the ARB rep said it best at the raffle. " That he went to literally hundreds of events all over the US, and all that he ever saw were Jeeps, with a scattering of Broncos.  It was so good to see so many high performance Ford Broncos in one place, and that it made him happy to see this kind of event take place..
This brought a standing ovation from the crowd..
The raffle was really cool, and except for the fact that I didn't win anything : (  there were some really great prizes !
Winches, rocker guards, lights, a complete ARB Air Locker system, with air compressor, another ARB Air Locker for a Ford Nine Inch.
Plus tons of t-shirts , hats, pins, and more..
The night that we arrived we eventually found ourselves at the front bowl, which is the only real play area in the whole place..
We were able to dial in the injection a little bit more, and felt better about the system..The next morning we went back and it took about another 20 minutes of repeated running at the hill, and bogging down, because of engine tuning problems.  But eventually I figured out the combination, and she finally started to scream right past 5 grand.  This motor should be able to turn 6000 rpm, but 5000 rpm is plenty for what I want to do with it.  It was good to finally hear and feel the horsepower come out of the rig, and be able to climb up the steepest part with ease, right from the bottom of the hill while others had to get a run at it.  One guy that we had met earlier, came up to us later on Saturday evening, and said:, "
It runs as good as it looks ".  That made me feel good..
After finding the horsepower and tweaking it a bit more, we were able to go across the hill sideways while still climbing, using the horsepower to affect an uphill power slide.  When my son asked me why I did that instead of just going straight up, I said, " Because I can ".  The horsepower lets you screw around, instead of just being glad to get to the top.  He just grinned at me.  *S*

On the way home it ran like a dream, climbing steep long grades over 4000-5000 foot summits like a champion, without even trying..
Being able to be in 3rd gear, pulling a heavily loaded trailer, with fuel and water still in it, plus all of our camping gear, and still able to pull 60-65mph up hills that had most people down to 35-45, was great.  Once we were on I-5 south it was 75mph all the way to Sacramento..    Fly Bronco, Fly !
The combination finally seems to be working, the way that I wanted it to.  It's about time.  We went back to camp just before 2pm to pick up our trailer for the group photo, but found that a wire had popped lose from its straps, and was hitting the header causing a short in the charging system, so by the time I fixed that we missed the group photo.  There were things like that happening to everyone, because the sand was so rough that it gave trucks a real shaking, causing electrical shorts, blown fuses, etc. Just par for the course out here.   Quite some time arlier I had passed out one of my SFE 14v fuses that I use the most, and when the turn signal light problem showed up, I was down to my last one..Yikes..
I had a short show up that will take awhile to fix.
The left turn is stuck on, which caused the back up lights to come on.  They are on totally seperate systems..What's up with that??
See what I mean?  Talk about a head scratcher.  After arriving at the bowl with the trailer to join the rest of the crowd, we talked to literally dozens of people that all had on thing in common.
The mighty Ford Bronco..
And to everyone that came up and talked to us, thanks for all the compliments on the rig, and the work that I have done on it..
I appreciate it, and it makes all the work worth while..
While we were there we pulled a Bronco out of a mess that he had purposely put himself into, and that he tried to get out of for over an hour and a half.  We finally were tired of waiting, and offered to pull him out as we were leaving.  He took us up on the offer, and I was throwing four rooster tails as I backed down the hill and poured the coals to the new motor, dragging him up to the top.
Then the next evening there was a guy that had popped a sand tire on a Bronco, and they were trying to air it up with a 12 volt compressor.  Yeah Right.  You would be there all day and still not get it done.  GRIN  I offered my air, and they were happy to accept, but he had a tube on the inside that was popped and cut real bad, and it wouldn't allow the tire to seat the bead so I pulled out the air impact and zipped his tire off real quick, put on his spare, and got him rolling.  It was nice to be helping again, and not be needing the help.  Another cool thing happened while we were there.  Just for grins I pulled the trailer up the same hill that I couldn't climb that morning because of tuning problems and it didn't even slow me down.  The Bronco and matching trailer raced up the hill in front of a crowd !   YEE HAW!!!!!
We just shot right up it, like it was nothing while people were still trying to get up it and having to back down..
That really told me that the motor was coming right along..GRIN
I think I LIKE IT !

Here are some of the events at Son O Beach 5 :
Friday
9 pm Follow the Leader

Saturday
8am Swap Meet
9am Kids Games
9am Feats of Skill & Daring
2pm Group Photo at the Front Bowl ( Waters Edge )
4pm Raffle
6:30 pm Pot Luck Dinner
8pm Campfire Awards
9:30 Poker Run

Sunday
9am RTI Ramp and Tetter Totter
11am Close the Beach

It was raining on Sunday morning, and we were more than ready to leave.  Rain takes the fun out of the sand stuff..
We shot the only 4 pics of the Bronco, just before we left..
We had been so busy having fun, and talking to everyone, that we didn't get any pics.  We did get a little bit of video of me tuning the Bronco and finally getting the combination but that was it.

It took us 18 hours of driving to get there via 101, and only 10 hours of driving to get there via I-5..
I know which way I am going next time.  Unfortunately we had a water pump failure just as we pulled off of our exit, and will have to fix that , it also caused the fan to just catch the front core of my 5 core radiator.  Only one fan blade was bent in like it hit something, but I couldn't see what, so I bent it out, and drove it the remaining 1 minute home.  Great luck I seem to have lately.
If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all !
But overall the trip was a success. The Bronco is running better than it has in a long time, with the sand dunes making for an excellent under load tuning ground, to get my engine / injection combo dialed in..
Life goes on !