I hope everyone that is reading this is in great health and survived the crazy late winter weather that decimated pretty much all of California. Here in the south, we have been getting record rain and snow! Nothing like what all the folks in the north are getting for snow — man, lots, and lots of snow.

I am getting back from traveling up and down the state with the awesome Convention 2023 and this past weekend at Tierra Del Sol’s 60th Desert Safari! Convention 2023 was awesome in almost every way! I want to thank Amy Cave for her incredible work and to all the volunteers that worked their butts off to make this year’s convention an incredible experience! It takes a village, as they say, and I’m so proud of this village and more so when I was able to break free a few times and walk around the property to see all the rich history of this association and the clubs that were displayed in the halls as well as the incredible vendor show and huge car show in the parking lot. Thank you to all the clubs who came and set up a table during hospitality on Friday evening and a special thanks to all that came and supported those tables and even more so to those that may have over supported those tables and had a hard time Saturday concentrating during general session.

Of course, there were some setbacks, you know, like the hotel being sold during this past year and some reservations, like mine, that were lost and so on, but overall, I think the hotel staff and management did an incredible job overcoming these hurdles and provided a great venue to celebrate 64 years of Convention! The board and I are working on ideas to improve your experience for next year’s extravagant 65th Convention and I would love to hear what you loved and hated over the past years so I can present those to the committee for Convention 2024. Please send an email to josh@cal4wheel.com with your thoughts, great times you have had in the past and ideas you would like to see implemented or taken away to make your experience more enjoyable for you and others. Convention is a time of celebration and acknowledgement of all the hard work over the past year, a time to reflect and appreciate all that is there and to brainstorm on how to make everything better. What where your highs? Lows? What would you love to see next year?

I was sorry to have missed the Kingsburg Snow run this past weekend but attended the 60th Desert Safari in the mud hills of Truck Haven near Salton Sea, California. I was able to work the booth with Don Rybarczyk and Keith Graham Saturday and get to talk to other organizations, vendors, members, and prospective members of Cal4Wheel! The weather was great up until Saturday afternoon when the precarious wind picked up and turned the area into a large dust bowl where we retreated to camp and enjoyed the evening. I want to thank the hospitality of all the great people at Tierra Del Sol and the even greater hospitality of Debbie and Bill who run the Sea View Estates who over fed everyone during the weekend and kept the doors open longer for those of us who were running late. The Sea View Estates is where we held Operation Desert Fun this past year and will be holding for the foreseeable future!

There are a couple of important things I need to get out to everyone.

If you haven’t noticed, registration for Sierra Trek and Hi Desert Round-Up has opened! Both are looking for volunteers to help here and there and if have any time during those events to help out, please reach out to me and I’ll get you in contact with the person to need to talk to. If you don’t have the time to help, you can still register, which is also helping! Being from the south, Trek is a long drive, and I never had any intention to go, then I went. I must go every year now! It’s amazing, beautiful, and awe-inspiring. I’m sure those of you from the north are looking at Hi Desert Round-Up thinking about the drive, that long drive… I promise you if you come out, you’ll have an equally incredible time, don’t hesitate, register now, and prepare an excuse to be sick from work.

The newest In Gear will be coming out soon — which is Suzy’s second to last one and we are still looking for a new editor to take over the helm. If you have any interest in taking on this (paying) position, please reach out to me so we can talk about it some more! You’ll see some Request for Proposals (RFP’s) in the In Gear and online with this update for several positions. I am eager to talk to anyone a little interested.

‘Til the next update…