Do you see it? Do you hear it? Do you feel the new season creeping upon us? As your group's 1st trip comes near, you begin to sense the energy of the
people preparing for another season of fun in the sand. The conversations have changed. Instead of baseball or what happened the weekend before, your friends now talk about who has the fastest bike or quad. Arguments will break out, on where the camp site should be this year. Stories about who did
what to whom when they were drunk around the campfire are followed by laughter. But just as you can hear it, you see signs of it all around you. Bikes, quads and buggies being trucked around the neighborhood. All around the city, open lit garages till way past midnight. Greasy wrenches and expired beer cans. You know what I'm talking about, it's probably happening right now at a friend's or a neighbor's house very close to you. You probably are working on a project right now.

There are so many things to get ready for that 1st trip but it's all part of the excitement. It's the preparation for the 1st big trip that makes the long Summer, act like a slowly setting sun. It's the excitement of getting a sick deal on a `03 CR250 from the cycle trader. It's the phone calls and emails back and forth to your friends letting each other know where to be and when. It's putting on that new, faster, shinier part that's supposed to give you another 1.5 horses. It's learning that your small truck can't handle two quads, a bike and all your friend's gear.

I'm not sure what to really call it but it's definitely a feeling that grows as the 1st trip comes near. The conversations and the preparation might be different from group to group but there is one thing that unites us all, the feeling of kicking that bike over or starting that engine for the 1st time after it hits the sand. Once you get your ride started it, the stress of preparation all just blows away like grains of sand.