Borrego Camping Trip

New Year's Celebrations with Friends

Event Report 20131228-20140101

Back to Bill Caid's Home Page

The Experience

We joined our good friends Kai and Tina camping in Borrego Springs.  They were joined by several friends of theirs from his work as well as our Unimog friends Richard and Mark.  We were blessed with extremely good weather: warm daytime temperatures (mid-seventies) and no wind.  The nights were, however, quite chilly.  We planned to bring both of our quads, but my Raptor was not running despite several days of carburetor repairs.  I am still not sure what the issue is, but I have confidence that it will eventually be solved.

The photos below are what we saw.

Kathleen and I showed up the evening before Kai arrived and used the dark night as an opportunity to take some star photos.  The photo above was shot with my new Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera.  30 seconds, f/2.8 at ISO 2000 and 24mm.  The photo shows a swath of the Milky Way with the Andromeda Galaxy at the top center.  I was lucky enough to also capture a small meteor as well.

This photo was shot with the same parameters just a few moments later and captured 2 meteors and a plane.  The plane's path can be identified because of the blinking lights.

This shot also captured 2 meteors.  Andromeda is near the center of the photo (the fuzzy ellipse).

The next morning, Richard and Elizabeth were the first ones to arrive.  Elizabeth got a new Honda 125 bike for Christmas.

Because of mechanical issues with the Raptor, we only brought the Banshee.  It has been a very, very reliable quad.

When Kai arrived, they sent a crew over to Dan's place to bring over his Razr side-by-side vehicles.  They are fast and comfortable.

Kai's son Parker had purchased some special ballistic panels that were supposed to stop a .44 magnum round.  Since none of us had a .44, we used the biggest handgun round we had: a .45 ACP.  We placed the edge of the panel in a sand hill and shot one round of 230 grain factory hardball.  To my surprise, the panel not only stopped the bullet, but trapped it within the front layers of fabric.  There was a small bulge on the back side of the panel.

After inspecting and photographing the effect of the first shot on the panel, we stuck it back into the sand hill and I shot it again with the .45.  The second shot several inches to the right caused much more damage and deformation.  But, it did also trap the bullet and the hole did not go through.

Another view of the damage due to the second .45 shot.

After completing the inspection and photos, the panel was placed back on the sand hill and shot with a .30-30 180 grain rifle round.  The rifle round tore the plate a new one, but did not go through.

The panel was placed back in the test position and was shot again with 5.56mm round which easily penetrated the panel.  Our ad hoc conclusion was that the panels were more than acceptable for protection from standard handgun bullets.

After dinner and a few drinks, we got the bright idea of attaching glow sticks to children and having them dance in the dark.  The shot above is 15 second exposure at f/5.6 and ISO 400.

Dillon was the dance model and did a good job of shaking his booty for the photo.

A slightly different effect.

Multiple kids hopping around.

Borrego Springs is always pleasant as long as the weather is cooperating.  And cooperate it did, giving us warm days and cold, clear nights both without wind.

Special thanks to Dan Johnson for letting us use his Razr vehicles.  These totally rock.

Back to Bill Caid's Home Page

Copyright Bill Caid 2013.  All rights reserved.