Politics and Off-Road combine on Episode 278 with Roger Salazar

Join Big Rich Klein in an engaging conversation with Roger Salazar, a dynamic figure in the off-road community and a member of the California Off Highway Motor Vehicle Commission. In this episode, Roger shares his journey from a small town in California to the bustling political scene of Washington, D.C., and how his love for off-roading has intertwined with his professional life.

Background & Early Life: Roger talks about growing up in Lodi, California, in a blue-collar family with a passion for cars and off-roading. He reflects on his education and how he skipped third grade due to his early academic prowess.  

Political Career: Roger outlines his path into politics, including his time as an intern and press secretary at the White House under President Clinton and his role in Al Gore’s presidential campaign. 

Off-Road Passion: Roger delves into his deep-rooted love for off-roading, tracing back to his family's legacy with Jeeps. He shares stories from his adventures on the Rubicon Trail and his involvement with the Sierra Treasure Hunters Off Road Club. 

OHV Commission Goals: Roger discusses his ambitions for expanding off-road trails in California and his vision for a continuous trail from the Mexican to the Oregon border. He also mentions the importance of preserving access to iconic off-road areas like Oceano Dunes.

Final Thoughts: Rich and Roger explore the intersection of politics and off-roading, emphasizing the need for thoughtful advocacy and community involvement to ensure future access to public lands. Roger leaves listeners with his commitment to fostering off-road opportunities and preserving the adventurous spirit of the community.

Transcript

[00:00:05.120] - 

Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the off road industry. Being involved, like all my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present and future legends as well as business owners, employees, media and land use warriors. Men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle. We call off road. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes and reboots. We dive into what drives them to stay active and off road. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call off road.

[00:00:46.460] - 

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[00:01:13.270] - Big Rich Klein

My guest this week grew up in a blue collar, hard working family that loved off road. He eventually found his way into politics and now sits on the California Off Highway Motor Vehicle Commission and has lofty goals of opening more trails in California. My guest is Roger Salazar. Hello Roger Salazar. So good to have you on the podcast. I'm really looking forward to this. Known you for a couple of years now and I think we got some good things to talk about.

[00:01:43.010] - Roger Salazar

Well, I appreciate you having me on and it's always a pleasure to be on and talking to your listeners is going to be, it's new for me but, but I hopefully we, I can share some stuff that, that is interesting enough for them to keep, to keep listening to me at least on your, on your podcast.

[00:01:59.900] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I think so. You know, I really am intrigued by your background and your rise to where you're at now and then how that ties into the your off road career as well. So.

[00:02:13.020] - Roger Salazar

Sure.

[00:02:13.740] - Big Rich Klein

Let's get started with the first question question, which is the easiest one for me to ask because I ask everybody where were you born and raised?

[00:02:22.050] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, I was born and raised in the Central Valley in California. Lodi, California is my hometown and you know, the entire Salazar clan moved to the Central Valley in California in the early to mid-50s. They were originally from South Texas. My grandfather on my dad's side came to this country in the early 19 teens, you know, from Monterrey, Mexico. Settled in, I all settled in the Rio Grande Valley before, you know, eventually moving out to California to, to work in agriculture out here.

[00:02:56.690] - Big Rich Klein

Right. So you're, you were born in, in Lodi. They came from Texas. And what, what time frame did they come from? From Texas?

[00:03:07.410] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, they came, they came, they moved from Texas, sorry, in the, in the mid, early to mid-1950s. So they've been, you know, they've settled in the Center Valley, you know, right around 55 or so. I had an uncle who came out earlier and you know, said there's great opportunity out in California. And it was interestingly, you know, they all started in farm work, but as they sort of, you know, got settled in California, they all, most of my uncles really moved into, into trucking or mechanicking. My dad, you know, was a forklift mechanic. And first of all, he started off as a truck driver and then was a forklift mechanic and then ran his own forklift repair business, you know, up until he retired. So, you know, these were, these were folks who, you know, you know, as young guys in the, in the, in the, in the 50s and 60s, really loved to drag race, really loved cars, really loved off road vehicles and you know, really got into, you know, the, the, the mechanicing and tinkering aspect of it. I think it's just something that fascinated them.

[00:04:16.280] - Big Rich Klein

And you, you grew up in the, your early years were the, more the 70s, right?

[00:04:23.080] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, so I, yeah, I was, I was born in 70s. So. Okay. Yeah, so I, so I was, I was a, I was a 70s kid.

[00:04:29.320] - Big Rich Klein

All right. Yeah, I, I, I was born in late 50s. So I was just trying to get a time reference there.

[00:04:36.390] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:04:37.670] - Big Rich Klein

With growing up in the Central Valley, the Lodi area and stuff. What was, what was school like for you? Were you predominantly in a Latin based school, more of a school system or was it.

[00:04:49.190] - Roger Salazar

No, no, I was, you know, again, I was born here. So you know, for me it was, you know, you know, I, I got an early start that, you know, the, you know, I used to actually, you know, because you, you know, you've got work when you have working parents, you know, your, your babysitter becomes the tv, you know, so I actually learned to read and write prior to starting school by watching Sesame street and Electric Co. And you know, shows like that, you know, that, that. So I kind of had a little bit of a head start when I started. So much so that, you know, that when I got to third grade, they skipped me over. So I never went to third grade. I went directly from second grade to fourth grade, which is a little bit of a challenge as, because all of a sudden you're the youngest kid in your class, you know, from basically there all the way through high school and. Yeah. So, you know, and for me, you know, it was just, you know, Lodi was, you know, was an interesting mix of, you know, of, you know, folks, you know, we had a very, I always, I joke about it, I call it sort of the Axis Powers because it was, you know, it was a lot of Germans, a lot of Japanese, a lot of Italian and a lot of Mexican, you know, and, you know, so it was, it was a, you know, it was a very, you know, fun mix of, you know, different backgrounds and you learned a little bit about, you know, you know, what the German family kids, you know, had great food, the Italian kids had great food, the Japanese

[00:06:19.520] - Roger Salazar

kids had great food, and Mexican kids had great food. So it's probably one of the reasons, you know, you know, I'm a little extra on the, on the size meter because I just enjoyed all those foods that were out there.

[00:06:33.800] - Big Rich Klein

I was, I was brought up in the, in the Bay Area, San Francisco Bay area, just south of San Francisco. And the, the amount of various cultures that were impactful in my life, same thing. I'm going to do like you do, and I'm going to attribute my weight to, to those cultural differences in eating food from all the different nations.

[00:06:55.420] - Roger Salazar

Absolutely. It never hurts to have a little schnitzel here. Oh, yes, Sushi there, some spaghetti there, you know, and yeah, it all contributes to that, but we had no. So, you know, like I said, my, you know, my, my, my grandfather came to, to, to the United States, like I said, in the early 1910s, like right around 1915, 16, right in that area. So my, my family, while they're, you know, Latino based, you know, we're pre guys by the time they got to California, right. You know, and, you know, they're so, you know, big, like I said, big hot rodders, big off roaders. And you know, my, my, my dad grew up, when I was growing up, listening to KRAK radio in, in Sacramento, which was the crack country and, and uh, you know, so I'm, you know, while I'm not a, a, a modern country fan, uh, I do love the classics. You know, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, you know, all those guys.

[00:07:53.750] - Big Rich Klein

More of an outlaw country. I love it.

[00:07:55.550] - Roger Salazar

It is the outlook. I love the outlaw country. You know, it's what I grew up listening to, you know, watching Dukes of Hazzard, you know, all that stuff. That's the stuff my dad loved. And, and so, you know, we loved it by extension because that's, he was watching what the stuff we wanted to watch.

[00:08:08.630] - Big Rich Klein

Cool. And so you're, school wise, if you're, if they advanced you and you skipped over a year, what was the rest of the schooling like? Were you, was it easy to keep up?

[00:08:23.280] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, yeah, no, I, I, I did fine. You know, again, I, you know, thankfully, I've got a pretty good head on my shoulders, you know, so, you know, I managed well, you know, at once. I acclimatized to, you know, to being with the older kids. You know, I kind of, you know, hid my age, you know, for, for a while, you know, growing up, just because I didn't want to be like the youngest kid out there and, you know, but, you know, making great friends, you know, the, the issue becomes, you know, your, your friends get driver's licenses a year before you do. They, you know, they turn 18 a year before you do, you know, all that stuff, you know, but once you sort of get past, you know, 21, it all sort of, you know, doesn't matter anymore. But, but at the time, I just remember that was the hardest part for me was just being a younger kid in my class. But I, you know, I made friends very well. You know, we had a really good time. You know, went to, to Lodi High School, graduated from, from Lodi High School, and then, you know, did a year in, at a community college at the San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton before going down to Southern California to the University of Redlands and getting my bachelor's degree down there.

[00:09:29.200] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Your bachelor's degree is in what is in political science.

[00:09:33.920] - Roger Salazar

You know, I actually started off being a Soviet studies major because, you know, there was a, you know, I, I had dreams of, of, you know, working in the State Department or something like that. And, you know, the Soviet Union, you know, at the time was our, our biggest, you know, adversary. And so I kind of wanted to learn all about the, you know, our adversary and sort of see what they were all about. And, you know, unfortunately for me, and it may be fortunately, but while I was in college, the Soviet Union collapsed, wall came down and everything, and all the stuff that I was learning about was kind of moot, you know, so I kind of pivoted right at the last minute to just a, you know, a government major. And, and, you know, I was like, all right, well, I guess, you know, I'll, I'll figure out something else to do, you know, in, in government if, if that, if that still was the path that I wanted to go in. So I ended up working on some political campaigns, a school bond race, an initiative campaign on saving the legislative Analyst in California, and before deciding to work on a congressional campaign, and worked on a campaign of Patty Garamendi when she was running for Congress against Richard Pombo.

[00:10:54.320] - Roger Salazar

And she ended up losing that race. And I, you know, I decided to go out to Washington, D.C. anyways, and ended up working for a congresswoman, Lucille Roybal Allard from, you know, from Southern California, and as a process secretary at that point. I think at the time, I was the youngest press secretary on Capitol Hill. But, you know, I kind of know my own limits. So one of the things that I did was that I decided to go back to. To graduate school to get a little bit more seasoning, because I felt a little bit over my head, you know, at that time in working on Capitol Hill. So I did that. I went back to college. I went to George Washington University and got a master's degree in political communication. And then that's really when everything sort of took off for me. I ended up getting an internship, you know, at the White House under President Clinton in his press operation. And, you know, after my internship ended, I just kept going back, and they eventually said, we ought to pay this guy probably, and then hired me on, you know, and I was, uh.

[00:12:08.860] - Roger Salazar

I started off as a, you know, news analysis coordinator, which is just a fancy way of saying the clips guy. You know, I'd cut the newspaper clippings out and moved up to assistant press secretary in the White House before going to work for Al Gore as his deputy press secretary and eventually the spokesman for his 2000 campaign.

[00:12:27.160] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, I'm gonna go backtrack a little bit, but how. How do you. How did you find politics as the avenue while you were still young? I mean, well, you know, what was that? What was. Was there somebody in politics in your family?

[00:12:45.400] - Roger Salazar

No, you know. You know. You know, it's very interesting to me. You know, I actually have not, you know, even. Even after all these years, 30 some years of being sort of in the. In the political world, I don't really consider myself very political. I love history. I, you know, that's what I was a huge fan of. I loved, you know, seeing history, you know. You know, and, you know, working in these, you know, for these. These figures, you know, got kind of got to let. Let me see history as it unfolded firsthand. There was an editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradley, who was the guy who was the editor during the Watergate scandal, who once said that news is the first rough draft of history. So I figured if I could work in, you know, in the press side, of politics, you know, the media relations side of politics, that I could sort of be there when history was being made or, you know, if I give, you know, if I talk to a reporter and, and, you know, kind of convince him of my point of view or, you know, my, you know, my office, holder's point of view, then that in some small way kind of helps me shape history.

[00:13:55.240] - Roger Salazar

And I always thought that was pretty cool. So that's, that's why I got into it. You know, it was, was for the, the history aspect of it. And fortunately for me, I've been, I've been lucky enough to see a lot of history, especially when I was in Washington, D.C. in the 90s, there was a, you know, a ton of history unfolding. And then when I came back out to California as well.

[00:14:12.550] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, and you, you, you mentioned before we got started to record that you don't consider yourself a liberal.

[00:14:24.630] - Roger Salazar

Right.

[00:14:25.110] - Big Rich Klein

And I don't consider myself a conservative. Like myself, I'm a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.

[00:14:32.790] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:14:33.190] - Big Rich Klein

So I don't think that's right. Really have anybody out there that I can, I can truly throw 100% of my weight behind.

[00:14:40.310] - Roger Salazar

And I think we're kind of in the, in the, in the same boat. I, you know, I grew up in the Central Valley in California, and while we were, you know, Democrats, we were what you consider Reagan Democrats at the time, which is, I think, almost exactly what you're talking about. Derich is fiscal conservative. You know, be smart with our money. It's our money, but stay out of my bedroom. But stay. Yeah, but, but, but mind, you know, but mind your own business. Right.

[00:15:02.950] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:15:03.430] - Roger Salazar

At the same time, and I think, you know, that's sort of where I landed. You know, I probably could, you know, in either direction. I consider myself, you know, fairly middle of the road, you know, where I see, you know, both sides of issues. You know, and the only real reason that I think I ended up on, on the Democratic side was really just sort of a, you know, a fit of pique. You know, when I was, when I was in college, you know, I, you know, I actually, in college, I volunteered on the George Bush campaign when he was, you know, when he was going through the Central Valley, I was, I was a, you know, a press assistant and on one of his campaign rallies for college credit. And the, you remember the whole Tiananmen Square in China where they had their sort of the democracy protests and they had the guy with the. Raising his fist on the tank and all that stuff that really moved me and Then when, you know, a couple of months later, George Bush gave China most favored nation trading status. This is really obscure. I apologize.

[00:16:08.980] - Roger Salazar

But when he, it really ticked me off. I, I just was so upset that like, you know, you hear you had these, these kids fighting for, for freedom and democracy and then, you know, we go around and reward, you know, the country that, you know, that, that basically did that to them again in my adult life now it's probably, that was probably a good deal trade wise for us, you know, but that at the time, as a, you know, 18 and 19 year old, it really sort of ticked me off and I just kind of said, all right, I'll just go on the other side and, you know, work on the D side.

[00:16:37.770] - Big Rich Klein

My, my, my dad always said he was a Republican, my mom was a Democrat. But I told my dad when he was alive, I said, you're, you've never voted Republican except against Kennedy because you didn't like Kennedy. And I said that was only because you figured he got more girls than you did. And, and he would always tell me, you don't know who I vote for. But I could tell by how he talked. Now I, I grew up more on the, on the, the, the liberal side until I became a business owner.

[00:17:16.200] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:17:16.760] - Big Rich Klein

And then that'll do it. Then instantly I went, wait a second here. I, Everything I'm trying to do, the government is just trying to put their thumb on top of my forehead and, and hold me down.

[00:17:30.010] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, you know, I can see that. Like, I can see that. And that's, that's also one of the things that, that I have frustration with, especially in California in this, in this day and a, with, in this day and age with the, with the super majority that, that, you know, that Democrats have in California. There's just, you know, there's no, you know, there, at least there used to be, you know, some caution to some of the policies that they would take because they would be afraid of blowback or, you know, the pe swinging the other way. Because the pendulum does swing in politics. Absolutely. But it's gotten so far, you know, to, to the left that even if it swung back, it's still not going to, I don't know that it reaches the middle quite like it should. So it's, it's always frustrating and you know, it's interesting to me to see, you know, the governor, uh, you know, now that he's looking at the higher office sort of moving, uh, trying to get to that pendulum back in the middle again. Yeah. You know, and it's you know. You know, like, I think he's figured.

[00:18:27.260] - Roger Salazar

I think he's finding out it's a lot harder than, you know, than you would think. But, but, you know, you see him making that effort.

[00:18:32.900] - Big Rich Klein

I think there's too many people with long memories.

[00:18:36.180] - Roger Salazar

Exactly.

[00:18:36.700] - Big Rich Klein

For that to work for him.

[00:18:38.340] - Roger Salazar

Well, and it's also, again, it's not like it used to be. You know, again, the old rule was, you know, in, in political primaries, you know, you attack to the left or right, depending on your. On your, on your base, and then in the general election, you move to the middle. You know, but with, with the Internet, you know, and the, the ease of, of getting information, you know, you can't. You can't, you know, you can't hide things. We are sort of getting into sort of a. A kind of a truth vacuum out in this world, which is kind of disappointing to me, which is, you know, that, you know, you can kind of say whatever you want and as long as you say it enough and 10 other people will repeat it for you, it just, it doesn't matter. It just seems like it doesn't matter anymore. And that is kind of sad to me. You're.

[00:19:23.820] - Big Rich Klein

I agree, and I think a lot of that. It's not just social media, but it's also. I think it's the media in general. And I don't care if it's what side of the aisle you're on, the media is only going to spin it the way they want. They're not, they're not, they're not presenting the news they're presenting. They're presenting their idea or their, Their opinion. And it's. Well, and keep in mind, it's the opinion.

[00:19:51.390] - Roger Salazar

Yeah. And keep in mind that there are guys like me, you know, on, on, you know, on, you know, on. In the middle. But there are guys. There are also guys who do what I do on the left and the right who are working very, very hard to, you know, to convince those reporters of, you know, their perspective and.

[00:20:07.390] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:20:07.750] - Roger Salazar

You know, it's a. You know, I used to think, you know, before I started in this business that the news was the news and didn't realize that there were, you know, PR people out there pushing, you know, their perspectives one way or the other.

[00:20:19.250] - Big Rich Klein

Right. Okay. So we've gone through politics, at least our beliefs enough. Now let's, let's get into, let's get into those, Those early years. You did. Did you have a chance to work while you were in school or was it all concentrated on work? I mean, you grew up in a. In a working family, as I did, and I tried to get to work as. As early as I could. Working in a shop, sweeping, that kind of thing. What about yourself?

[00:20:51.120] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, no, make no mistake about it, Rich. I didn't want to be working, so it wasn't. I, you know, I. I applaud you for wanting to get in there. That wasn't what I wanted to do. But my folks were. Were smart enough, you know, that they. They valued education. And when I told my dad at, I think 13 years old that I didn't want to go to summer school because they had us in summer school every year, right? I said, I don't want to go to summer school this year. You know, I'm starting to get a tea, become a teen. I want to, you know, want to see, you know, go to. Go to the beach or go to the lake. Sorry. And go to the river and. And hang out with girls and. And my dad's like, all right, you don't want to go to summer school, that's fine. I got some work. I got some things you can do. And so at 14, he had me out thinning grapevines for. For. For one of his friends who was a major domo, one of the grape vineyards out there. So I went out there for a couple of weeks, did that.

[00:21:46.500] - Roger Salazar

The next thing I knew, he had me working at a chicken ranch, collecting chicken eggs, you know, from. From underneath the. The live chickens. Then had me bussing tables at the local cafe that, you know, that was next to his forklift shop and, you know, doing all sorts of things like that. And. And that was it. He's like, if you don't want to go to summer school, understand this is your life. And, you know, I took it to heart, you know, and so while I didn't, you know, necessarily keep going to summer school every year, you know, I did, you know, continue to do, you know, the type of work that, you know, that, you know, that. That kept me, you know, that helped me learn about, you know, a solid work ethic. You know, like I said, I bus tables for. For a couple of restaurants. You know, was a dishwasher at a local Mexican food restaurant. And then my senior year after, between colleges, between high school and college, I worked at General Mills, you know, which is a cereal plant in Lodi that's now closed. But, you know, that, you know, General Mills, they make all those.

[00:22:52.240] - Roger Salazar

Oh, yeah, cereals. And I was on the Cinnamon Toast Crunch line and, you know, and, you know, putting toys in boxes and, and, you know, sweeping up and, and, you know, doing all that stuff. And, you know, actually be. Got to. Got to be a union member, you know, not necessarily by choice, but, you know, when you get in there and, and so I was at. And the International association of Grain Millers, which I don't even think is a thing anymore. But yeah, so I, I, you know, I worked, you know, throughout. I actually loved working overtime, which is one of the, one of the things I talked. When you think about sort of compounding things, I was like, all right, so if I work overtime, that's double. That's time and a half. And then I think there was a Fourth of July when they said they needed people in. So I worked the day shift on 4th of July and got triple time and like, this is great, you know, this stuff. And. Yeah, so that's what I learned. And then, you know, when I, when I was, when I was. When my dad saw that I was getting a little too idle, he'd take me out on.

[00:23:54.530] - Roger Salazar

On his. His runs with him when we would go out and, you know, grease forklifts and. And, you know, maintain them, you know, out in the different places that he had contracts with.

[00:24:04.690] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, cool. When did you, when did you start driving? Did you get Your license at 16? Like a lot of us, I did.

[00:24:12.130] - Roger Salazar

You know, I got it on my. On my 16th birthday. And I was, I was actually, you know, and again, my parents. My parents were fairly old school, so when I started working, you know, at 14, they kind of had the belief that, like, if you're working, you can, you know, you can drive to work. So I started driving before I had a license, you know, and, you know, breaker you. I come from a family of, you know, of, like I said, they're, you know, auto geeks and mechanics and truck drivers, etc. So, you know, I, you know, I have. My dad had a. Had a, you know, 1978 CJ5 stick shift. And, you know, that's what I learned to drive in, and that's what I drove to my job. Like, I would go to the restaurant in the CJ5 at 14 and a half, and I think I got my learner's permit at 15, so I just kind of drove straight there and back. And, you know, these are older. These are different times. Back then there really wasn't a lot of hassle for that kind of thing. And, And I think. I think I may have even gotten stopped one time, you know, for, you know, when you don't have a top on and you know, you barely have a seatbelt on because if you remember, the old CJ5 just had the lap belt.

[00:25:20.810] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:25:21.370] - Roger Salazar

You can't really tell. So I think I got pulled over once and the guy just told me to go home. So it was a, it was like I said it was, it was a much different time, you know, back then, you know, but yeah, so I started driving pretty early on and, and like I said, I think I mentioned this to you in previous things and I've talked about this a lot. You know, there's, you know, the, the, the off road stuff runs deep in my family. My, the very first photo of my dad that was ever taken was as an infant in my grandmother's arms in front of my grandfather's 1946 Willys.

[00:25:56.630] - Big Rich Klein

Nice.

[00:25:57.510] - Roger Salazar

So, you know, it's a. And, and I know for a fact, you know, my grandma and grandpa had, you know, 12 kids, so I. But I know for a fact that consistently since that point there, there's always been a Jeep in the Salazar family, whether it was an uncle or cousin, my, you know, my dad, you know, there's, there's never not been a Jeep in our family since, since at least 1946. Great. Awesome.

[00:26:23.410] - Big Rich Klein

So then you, your, your career and work has been, you know, reading your Wikipedia page, it's all, it's all politics.

[00:26:37.490] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:26:37.930] - Big Rich Klein

Everything from serving in the White House and stuff. Okay, you did mention Clinton and you were an intern there, so I have to ask the stupid question.

[00:26:46.800] - Roger Salazar

Sure.

[00:26:47.000] - Big Rich Klein

Did you know Monica?

[00:26:48.720] - Roger Salazar

I did.

[00:26:49.520] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, really?

[00:26:50.160] - Roger Salazar

Okay. Yeah. So. So Monica Lewinsky was in the intern class after mine. So I was an intern in the White House. And then she was in the, the very next intern class. And you know, I was, like, I said, I, I went from being an intern to, to doing the clips, the overnight clips in the White House. So I was, I basically had the entire White House to myself from 10pm until 7am it was me and a couple of Secret Service guys. Wow. And, you know, I would, the newspapers would, would get dropped off, you know, you know, first batch at 10am another one at 10pm sorry, another one at 1am you know, a couple more would roll in around 3am and my job was basically to go through all those newspapers and find out, you know, news that was of interest to the White House and collect it. So this is before they had Politico or, you know, you know, Rough and Tumble or any of those, you know, aggregate news aggregators. I was the aggregator. I would, I would cut the newspaper clips out and put them together into a large, you know, you know, book.

[00:27:52.620] - Roger Salazar

Basically it was the White House news report. And, you know, to send that down to the copy room in the White House and the print shop, and they would print that up by 7am and then I would drop it off on the President's desk, the vice president's desk, you know, all the chiefs of staffs and the, you know, top officials. I put them all on their desk. And so I was, you know, kind of the first guy to read the news. And again, this is just before the Internet, so. So, you know, I would get phone calls from senior officials in the middle of the night saying, hey, what does that newspaper article say? Or what does this say? You know, and so that was kind of neat to sort of know what was being in that. What was being printed kind of before everybody else did. And then after, when I. So when. I don't know if you remember this, but there was a government shutdown that was a result of a battle between Newt Gingrich, who was the speaker of the House then, and President Clinton. And so they forced the government shutdown and the entire government got laid off or they were on furlough during the shutdown, with the exception of each department in the White House was allocated two essential personnel.

[00:29:05.380] - Roger Salazar

So for the press office, the press secretary, Mike McCurry, was deemed essential personnel, so he had to stay. And for some reason, the clips guy, me, was deemed essential personnel, so I had to stay. So you didn't get a vacation? So I didn't get a vacation. You know, and I remember afterwards because everybody, everybody who was furloughed still got paid when they came back. Right?

[00:29:25.980] - Big Rich Klein

Exactly. That's what I mean. You didn't get the vacation.

[00:29:28.380] - Roger Salazar

Yeah. So. But, but that, that, that was a, an interesting period because that was also when Monica Lewinsky was an intern for the chief of staff's office, Leon Panetta. So she was in the, you know, the White House during that, during that shutdown. And that's when all that funny business occurred in, in the White House. So that was always sort of interesting because, you know, there were. There weren't that many of us in there when we were, you know, we were in there like, you know, for me, you know, I, I was only. I only sort of ever crossed paths with everybody for a couple of hours in the morning because I was on the zombie shift. But, you know, I'd drop off the cliffs and the clips, the news clippings, and she would be there to take them. And so, you know, so you knew the People, but it's not, we weren't, you know, not friendly or anything like that, but that's when that's all that stuff occurred. And I just always remember, this is a funny story to me, the room in which the, you know, the indiscretions took place was just a little sort of butler's pantry next to the West Wing, next to the Oval Office.

[00:30:27.700] - Roger Salazar

Excuse me. And I just remember, you know, my 20 somethings, you know, lack of imagination going, there's no way anybody did anything there. That's just such a small room. It's impossible. I just, I just didn't have the creativity, I guess, to figure that something else, something could happen like that. So it was a, it was an interesting time. And again, like I said, I learned a lot about crisis communications while I was, while I was over there.

[00:30:48.920] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, I would imagine so. So then my next question is about Al Gore and the Internet. Do you really think he invented it?

[00:30:58.440] - Roger Salazar

We never said that. And it was a losing battle that, that I was actually in the middle of all of that because, you know, I was on, it was basically I was on, on shift when that happened. This is sort of when you realize, you know, what the power of, you know, talk radio and, and, you know, and if you don't, there used to be a sort of a, a way of approaching media relations where it's like, you know, don't respond to nonsense or, you know, don't, don't add fuel to the fire, you know, and, and I learned at that point that you never let a, you know, an attack go unanswered. And that's, which is what happened because he never actually said the words I invented the Internet. He was, he was discussing, you know, the, you know, the, the, the legislation that helped, you know, create some of the, the infrastructure for the Internet. And so he had said something along the lines of, yeah, I took the initiative and with it, you know, pushing the legislation to help create the Internet.

[00:31:54.540] - Big Rich Klein

And, and they took that creation.

[00:31:56.700] - Roger Salazar

They took it. Yeah, they took that and ran with it. And because we were slow to respond to it and slow to back it up, it just basically became fact, you know, at that, that was, you know, it couldn't, we could not get out from under it. And again, like I said, if, if we had taken it more seriously and reacted to it because it just seemed like something consequently, you know, just tell reporters we didn't say that. And, and they just sort of ran with it. And you know, and again, detractors at the time were very aggressive, you Know. Well, I'll say this about the Republican side of things. Since the, since the 90s, in late 80s and early 90s at the very least, have been very, they've been so much better at basically at taking, you know, taking little nuggets like that and, and, and, and magnifying them, you know, and, and, and it just, it served. Because Gore was like, he was, he was a wooden, you know, he was a wooden guy, you know, who. You could sort of believe that he would say something like that because he also, you know, he did have a tendency to exaggerate.

[00:33:00.420] - Roger Salazar

You could believe it. And so if you could believe it, and then it's true. Look, I worked for him, and we were in South Texas on a trip in the Rio Grande Valley, and I had mentioned to him on the plane that my family was from there originally. And he took that and told the crowd that, you know, my assistant press secretary actually gave me a promotion. In the middle of it, it said, my press secretary, Roger Salazar is from right here in the Valley. To which the press secretary looked at me and said, first of all, now you have my job. And second of all. And second of all, I thought you were from California. I said, I am. But that's, that's the way he just, he just took little nuggets intended to exaggerate them. And again, that's why that thing, you know, was, was so effective is it was just believable to people.

[00:33:47.870] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And yet, you know, that's, and that's the thing, like what I was saying about the media earlier is that it's like when Trump was talking about cleaning the forest floors because of the fire hazard and said, we need to rake the forest floors.

[00:34:08.520] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:34:09.000] - Big Rich Klein

And people didn't understand, especially all those people that have never been in the forest. And that's a lot of people that raking the forest is done with equipment and machinery.

[00:34:21.340] - Roger Salazar

Yeah. No, and look at a hand rake.

[00:34:23.380] - Big Rich Klein

You know, and that's, and it's one.

[00:34:24.620] - Roger Salazar

And that's, that's, that's, again, that's one of those things where, you know, if I, if I'm a political opponent, you know, you know, take that and run with it because they, because, you know, because, you know, and, and again, it's not that it's exactly what you said. It's, you know, if that, if, if it's, it's taking a little piece of information and, and, and amplifying it, magnifying it to the point where, you know, it makes the, makes the guy look ridiculous. You know, the The Internet thing made Gore look ridiculous. The raking thing, you know, made, made, you know, Trump, you know, you know, you try to make Trump look ridiculous on that stuff and, and, and that's what these guys do. That's what the, the political people, you know, from both sides, you know, they're going to try and, and leverage every advantage they can to make their point. And it's just become, it's, it's gotten a lot nastier. And I know it's easy to say, you know, everything's nastier now than it used to be. And you know, if you, if you go back to like, you know, Thomas Jefferson days or William Henry Harrison that, you know, are Taft, you know, mama, where's my pa?

[00:35:27.340] - Roger Salazar

Went to the White House. Hahaha. You know, there's all sorts of, you know, there's, there's all sorts of, you know, stuff that was happening, you know, even way back then. So. But it just does, it just seems like it's sharper and more biting now than ever before.

[00:35:39.100] - Big Rich Klein

Well, and it, and it's just pervasive. It just everybody, it just amplifies it and they're looking for any little tiny thing to grab a hold of like, and then it doesn't matter what side it is.

[00:35:53.390] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:35:54.030] - Big Rich Klein

Because I'm, I'm a fan. I'd be, I'd be a fan of a third party system, but there's no way the two parties are ever going to allow that.

[00:36:01.870] - Roger Salazar

No. And it's, it's, it's unfortunate because I think, I think you're right. I think, you know, that, you know, there is, I think there's room for a common sense party because it doesn't seem like, you know, we're getting a ton of it from, from, from either party right now. And it's just, you know, it's gonna take, I think he's going to take a dynamic personality. You know, there was a thought, you know, when Ross Perot was running, maybe he's that guy. And then that didn't happen. You know, there was, you know, when, when, when, you know, when, when, you know, I think some, some people on the left think that, you know, that, that, that, you know, Bernie Sanders could do it. Uh, and I keep reminding them that he's, you know, he's 80 plus years old man. So he's, you know, there's a, there's. Everybody sort of has like their, their, you know, their guy Elon Musk is now trying the America Party or whatever it's called. And you know, it's it's going to be difficult for anybody. These parties are so sort of entrenched, you know, in, in, in, you know, all across the country, in every neighborhood, in every state and every county, that it's hard for anybody to, you know.

[00:37:05.050] - Roger Salazar

Exactly.

[00:37:05.570] - Big Rich Klein

And the only way that a third party would, would work is if it started at the ground level. And it would take a couple of generations to swell to force its way in, because you can't just bring in a Ross Perot or somebody and say, okay, here's the guy that's going to do it. Because there's. Yeah, even if he did get elected, the other two parties would just stonewall him because they don't want him.

[00:37:31.750] - Roger Salazar

Well, and that's the way our system was designed. You know, our system was designed, you know, I studied this quite a bit. Our system was designed to be slow, which is, which is very frustrating for folks.

[00:37:41.450] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:37:41.850] - Roger Salazar

But it was designed to be slow so that there would be no sort of overreaction or, you know, you know, kind of the, you know, the, what do they call that? The, the passion of the, of the, of the crowd, you know, that wouldn't take over and you get super hard pendulum swings, you know, And I think one of the things that surprises a lot of people about the way Trump's been operating is, you know, because he's moving so quickly on these things and he's kind of ignoring some of the, you know, the political norms, the legal norms, and just, you know, I know that my side will argue that he's, you know, that he's doing things that are unconstitutional. I think what he's doing is pushing the boundaries. Let's see how far we can go. If somebody calls me back on it. Great. But at least he's not going to leave it out. He's not going to leave anything out on the floor. He's going to keep pushing as hard.

[00:38:27.110] - Big Rich Klein

As he just advanced the playbook that Obama started. Yeah, let's use that power.

[00:38:33.180] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, So I think that's, that's their thing is, let's, let's, you know, let's, let's stretch that envelope as far as we can. And, you know, if it stretches back, that's fine. And I think that's sort of, the, the thing that, that, that, that Democrats don't do is, is, you know, they're so reticent to sort of push that envelope, you know, that, that they end up playing with one hand tied behind their back. And, you know, we'll see if there's, there's Any, any difference? Again, I, I kind of, you know, the, the politics to me is, is really unseemly. I mean, I'm interested in the history of it. I'm interested in the history of it to see what happens historically, you know, but, but yeah, it's just, it's a, it's a whole different deal than even I was used to back in the 90s.

[00:39:17.840] - Big Rich Klein

So let's, let's get into the off road aspect of all this. Yeah, in you, you ended up getting, getting on to the OHV Commission. And that was in 2020.

[00:39:35.850] - Roger Salazar

That was five years ago. Yeah. 20. 20.

[00:39:38.470] - Big Rich Klein

20. And so how did that come about? I mean, how were you recognized as, as that person?

[00:39:46.170] - Roger Salazar

Well, you know, I had been, you know, getting back into, into off roading after, you know, you know, when, when you have kids and, and you know, and they're growing up, you know, your life kind of becomes about them and as it should be. You know, they're playing a lot of sports. And so all my weekends, basically from the age of, of, you know, five or six for the kids up until they, you know, graduated high school was all about, you know, their activities. So baseball, football for my son, you know, soccer and cheerleading for my daughter. And you know, so there really wasn't. I just didn't have a lot of free time. You know, we, you know, we, we had some time off in the winter, so we go skiing, you know, and, and that sort of thing. But once they sort of got to that age where they were, you know, where I didn't, you know, I was starting to have some more free time. I, I told my wife I really want to get back into, into off roading. And we've always had Jeeps. You know, it's a. Again, we. But you know, when the kids were growing up, it was basically the, the Grand Cherokee because that's, that's what you can take the kids around in and you know, we would still do our camping and you know, some light off roading, but nothing, you know, like we, like, like I did when I was growing up with my dad and you know, and, and I really wanted to get back into it.

[00:41:07.580] - Roger Salazar

So, you know, I got myself, you know, a Wrangler in, in 2015 and you know, built that thing up and just, you know, basically, basically rehooked myself. It was, it was first trail I went on, I said, all right, I got to build this thing. Let's get, let's get, let's get, let's get rolling, you know, and you know, went out you know, to Utah to Easter Jeep Safari in 2016. And you know, when you go to events, you know, like that or, you know, the Jeepers Jamborees or anything like that, you see sort of what's, what's possible, right, with your, with your rig and you know, and so I, you know, and, and then, you know, in between, you know, those, the, you know, that time, you know, my cousins, you know, who had, who were off roaders, you know, when I was growing up and we would do the Rubicon Trail, you know, I remember doing the Rubicon Trail all the way up until I was, you know, 17, 18 with my cousins or, you know, driving with my dad. And then after that I had some cousins who got into the, you know, the Dunes, you know, out of Pismo, Glamis, Ocotillo and you know, those places.

[00:42:13.420] - Roger Salazar

And so we started getting started building up side by sides and really sort of getting into, into that world. I just, you know, I saw the passion they had for it. You know, I got back my passion back and you know, now 10 years ago and you know, really wanted to commit myself to, you know, to, you know, to enjoying off roading. And then, you know, I, I ended up meeting some fellas from the Sierra Treasure Hunters Off Road Club and joined that club in 2016 or 17 right around there. And you know, they, the, the, the great thing about the Sierra Treasure Hunters is they have a very long history of being involved. Uh, they're one of the original clubs for Cal four Wheel and heavily involved in Sierra Trek and Winter Fun Fest and a bunch of other events. And you know, again, I saw, you know, the, the, the, you know, the passion they had for, for not just, you know, off roading but, you know, conserving trails and, and main. Making sure this trail, our trail stayed open. So I, I really started, you know, helping them with that and, and you know, volunteering.

[00:43:25.880] - Roger Salazar

I started going to California Wheel conventions and you know, was very interested and, and, and, and, and in what people were saying and you know, I was, I was, you know, fortunate enough to hear Steve Morris, you know, when, when he gave his, you know, his last speech to California Wheel and thanked him for everything he had done and sort of got me really sort of into this whole notion of like, I'd like to, I'd like to, I'd like to help out. So my wife had served on a, on a state commission and I, I figured I'd just go ahead and, you know, throw my, my hat in the ring and applied for the OHV commission and they, you know, I think they had seen the folks who, who, you know, I know in the governor's office had seen, you know, you know, my, my activities in off roading and figured I'd be a good fit for it. So I'm grateful that they recognized that after I submitted my application, so they didn't ask me. I, you know, I applied for it.

[00:44:27.160] - Big Rich Klein

Okay, great. That's, that's interesting. And I met you the first time it was out in, it was when they were doing the like ribbon cutting over Auburn. I can't remember the name of the.

[00:44:47.930] - Roger Salazar

Over at Mammoth Bar.

[00:44:48.890] - Big Rich Klein

Yeah, Mammoth Bar, that's right. Yep. And that's when we first met, was the, the, I guess it was the ribbing cutting there.

[00:44:56.650] - Roger Salazar

Yeah. They had opened up a new track, I believe.

[00:44:58.650] - Big Rich Klein

Yes. And since then we've come across each other quite a few times.

[00:45:03.930] - Roger Salazar

Yeah. I always enjoy seeing you out at that trek or at the, you know, you know, at the, at the, the different events that, you know, the folks have, you know, I try to stay as, as involved as I can. You know, I, I, I know that some people don't like, like the larger events like the Jeepers Jamborees or the jamboree, you know, J.J. uSA jamborees or Easter Jeep Safari and would prefer, you know, going out on their own, you know, two or three rigs at a time. I kind of like them both, you know, you know, I, I, I enjoy meeting new people. And one of the coolest things about, you know, the jamborees or safaris or Trail heroes is you meet people from all across the country and you all of a sudden have a new friend, you know, and, and you know, I've, I've met up with people I've met at Jamborees or you know, from Trail Hero or the other events, you know, after, outside of that, you know, gone on trips together and you know, and I just, I just love, you know, meeting all the different people that are out there.

[00:46:02.100] - Roger Salazar

And, and, and the, the great thing for me is, is noticing that the people come from all walks of life, you know, that you've got, you know, really, really wealthy people out there who are, who are, you know, just passionate about it. And you got hardscrabble folks like my pop was, you know, who, you know, who this is, this is, you know, this is their biggest investment and you know, is, is in their rig or, you know, that activity. And you know, everybody's sort of on equal footing out there. And, and as I would say, you know, my dad might not have Had a lot of money, but, but he had a lot of experience and, and uh, you know, if he had the equipment that we have today, I like to say he could probably drive up a tree. Uh, cause he was just that good at it. So, uh, you know, that's, that's a, it's one of the things that I always respect about my, my, my dad and my uncles is they could fix anything. They could drive anything. You know, there was nothing, There was no obstacle they couldn't overcome, you know, or fix if they, if they have, if they broke while overcoming it.

[00:47:02.770] - Big Rich Klein

So are you still, are you still in the Sierra Treasure Hunters?

[00:47:07.730] - Roger Salazar

I am the past president of the Sierra Treasure Hunters. And you know, they're, they're a great group. You know, they're, you know, we, we have the, the Walker Hill section of the Rubicon Trail is our. Adopt a trail. Our current president is Phil Klinkenberg. And you know, we're still very active. We'll be at Sierra Trek, you know, next week coming up or a couple weeks. And you know, still very active in Winter Fun Fest. And you know, there's, there's just, there's a lot of good history there. And, and uh, you know, you got guys like uh, like Chris Collard who are like you and you know, you know, you know, hall of fame off roaders and, and well, he's an off.

[00:47:47.600] - Big Rich Klein

Road, He's a hall of famer. I'm just on the board of directors.

[00:47:51.600] - Roger Salazar

All right, well, you know, buddy, well, I appreciate everything you do. I mean, that's, that's a, that's good to recognize those types of folks. And, and you know, and, and you're in my hall of Fame, rich, so don't worry about that.

[00:48:06.320] - Big Rich Klein

I'm in my own too, so.

[00:48:09.580] - Roger Salazar

I love it. Love it. Yeah, no, and it's been good. And, and I'm kind of. Now I've got, I've had this rig that I've had, you know, I, I call it Jeep Number seven. That's the license plate that I have on it. And you know, built it up, you know, quite a bit. Every once in a while it'll frustrate me and, and you know, I'll think, all right, there's a time to go, you know, to get something new. But, you know, I like it. It's a, it's nostalgic to me now. I can't see myself giving it up even, even no matter how many times it frustrates me.

[00:48:37.950] - Big Rich Klein

And, and why is it named number seven?

[00:48:40.510] - Roger Salazar

It's the seventh Jeep I owned.

[00:48:42.270] - Big Rich Klein

Okay.

[00:48:43.070] - Roger Salazar

And so, you know, again, and I consider the, the, you know, the when, when I learned to drive in, in what is now what I call Jeep number one, I kept that Jeep and then passed it on to my brother. And unfortunately Jeep number one is, is sitting in multiple pieces in his garage in Cincinnati. You know, he's working on, on a project to put it back together. But it's a, it's a, if you look around his garage, you're like, there's a Jeep here. It's pretty well taken apart. And then. Yeah. So that's the, that's the seventh Jeep I've owned. We actually are up to nine. My wife has Jeep number nine on hers and she's got a, you know, 2019 two door Wrangler JL and uh, with a little lift on it, uh, she doesn't want to go crazy and uh, but she takes that to events as well and you know, so. And then my kids, they both live in the Midwest, but They've got Jeep 6 and Jeep 8 with them as well.

[00:49:40.790] - Big Rich Klein

Oh, nice. Nice.

[00:49:42.110] - Roger Salazar

Yep.

[00:49:42.790] - Big Rich Klein

I, I don't even know what number I'm on. I'd have to sit and really put together a list. I can't even figure that out vehicle wise.

[00:49:52.470] - Roger Salazar

Yep. So yeah, no, it's a, it's a lot of fun and, and I, I like to joke as I get. My Jeep's got, you know, more ink than I do. It, it's, it's got a, it's, it's a, it's a, you know, it's, it's recognizable I guess.

[00:50:05.650] - Big Rich Klein

Right. And you said it was a wrangler, what, what year?

[00:50:10.570] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, it's a 20. It's a 2015 JKU. It's a hard rock edition one. But basically nothing original left on it anymore.

[00:50:17.370] - Big Rich Klein

Right.

[00:50:17.810] - Roger Salazar

It's, it's on Dana 60s with you know, 40 inch, you know, nittos and, and uh, some hutches and uh, rock monster bead locks. So it's a, it's a heavy, heavy, uh, you know, Jeep. And so I was having trouble getting it upgrades. So about two years ago I had Jeep speed shop out of Katati, drop a Hemi 5.7 liter in it and now it's run, now it runs great and you know, it does all sorts of. It'll get me wherever I want to go. It just, you know, takes, takes a lot more fuel.

[00:50:51.990] - Big Rich Klein

Right. You know what, I'm, I'm of the mind. I drive a Ford Raptor. Okay. Most of the time and in fact, yeah, Most of the time. And people go, well, what kind of mileage you get? And I said, you know, I don't even look at that because it would be disappointing if I counted miles per gallon.

[00:51:11.760] - Roger Salazar

Oh yeah, absolutely.

[00:51:12.840] - Big Rich Klein

But I count smiles per gallon and smiles per gallon.

[00:51:16.040] - Roger Salazar

I love that. I love that. So I had an issue with it though. So, you know, I've run, you know, Jeep number seven through the Rubicon a couple of times with, you know, with a friend, you know, with friends or with the club and you know, when you run in three or four people, you can get through the Rubicon. You know, I think we started, we came in one time, started at 9, got through to home about 2:30. Not even really Russian if it's just the two of us. And there was no crowd on the trail. It was the middle of the week and nobody was out there. And you know, we got through fine at just a regular pace. And, and this was with the V8. And I, you know, gassed up into and you know, near Tahoma and Tahoe City and then went home. This Jeep, last Jeep Jamboree USA that I did. We idled so much during that day because just waiting for folks to get over their obstacles. So we left loon Lake around 8 o' clock and got to, got to Rubicon springs around 4, 4:30 somewhere in there. And I was under a quarter tank of gas and a little bit of panic set in.

[00:52:16.170] - Roger Salazar

But fortunately I was able to buy, you know, four gallons off of one of the mechanics.

[00:52:20.610] - Big Rich Klein

And they had 20, 20 a gallon.

[00:52:24.930] - Roger Salazar

You know, actually it was 20 bucks for the four gallons. So that was actually, I was like, I was like, you know, that, that's, you know, that was a, you know, again I would have paid the 20 bucks a gallon right at that point. So they just basically sold them to me at cost and, and I was grateful for that.

[00:52:40.210] - Big Rich Klein

I, I drove, I had a, used to have a M38, A1 1953, you know, military five. And that gas under the seat as, as I came, came in with my daughter, she was just a young teenager. And we went in from Tahoma side and we got down to. And this is when, when I met Mark Smith. We got to the Springs and there was a Jeep Jamboree USA going on. You know, one of the, yeah, the corporate events. And I come in at this old, you know, this old military five and I was smelling gas for like the last half a mile.

[00:53:18.590] - Roger Salazar

Oh no.

[00:53:19.230] - Big Rich Klein

And I get in there and it's just dripping pretty well, pretty good. So I pull the seat out, pull the tank, and realize that there was a screw or a bolt, something got in between the tank and the floorboard and rubbed a hole in the, in the floorboard. In the.

[00:53:36.670] - Roger Salazar

Oh, no.

[00:53:37.650] - Big Rich Klein

I wish it had rubbed a hole in the floorboard. So I, I was able to get it patched, but at that point I'm like, okay, now I need gas. And luckily Mark was kind enough to. To hook me up, but I ended up working on the cook crew. Me and my, my daughter worked on the cook crew and became friends with a bunch of those, a bunch of those people from Cheap Jamboree back in those days. Because this was back in the early 2000s. Yeah, say it was early 2000s, so 2001 ish. Right around there or something. And it was, it was, it was a pretty fun time.

[00:54:18.220] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, it's a great time. I had that. And we had a great. I just took my high school buddy of mine that, that we had actually had some, some nice fun jeep adventures when I was in high school, including getting my Jeep stuck in the mud during the, the, the floods of 86. Okay. And we went out there and, and got, I got, I had my dad. This was Jeep number two. So it was the 80 CJ5. And we got it stuck in the mud, you know, up, up and down. Up in Lodi or down in Lodi, you know, off, off of, of a, you know, a used car lot. They had a big mud pit back there there. And, and we went through it. My friend said, can you get through that puddle? I said, it's a Jeep, man. I can go through anything. And probably got it stuck and, and, you know, buried up to the, up to the, you know, the, the door jambs and, and it took two days for me and my uncles to try and pull it out. You know, I had to get it out before my parents came home because I wasn't allowed to drive it.

[00:55:14.690] - Roger Salazar

So my, my cousins and uncles were out there, you know, with their trail dusters and, you know, old broncos and, you know, trying to get it out. And they, you know, they were all keeping the distance. They don't want to get stuck. So, you know, pulling up, pulling on a Jeep with a, with a long winch line is you're not going to get a lot of leverage, right? So, you know, when my parents got home, my brothers promptly snitched on me. And my dad went out there and I saw him and I was like. And my uncle, my uncle saw him and my uncle said, good luck and took off when my dad showed up, and I'll always remember this, my dad, you know, got out of his truck, I went to him to try and explain, and he just kind of put his finger up like, don't say a word. And I knew better than to try. And he went around. I just. I love this story, too, because what he did was he got to the. To the. To the front of the Jeep, walked around it once, then went back the other way, walked around it again, went back to his truck, got a 2x4 and a jack, put it behind the rear bumper, broke the section on it, and then told my uncles to pull and got it right out.

[00:56:26.940] - Big Rich Klein

You know, wisdom.

[00:56:29.020] - Roger Salazar

Wisdom. Just. Just. I was like, wow. And, you know, and. And of course, I was grounded for three months, so. But there are fun times. But no. So that. That's the same buddy that was with me, and I took him out on his first trip through the Rubicon just in this last Jeepers Jamboree. And I love the look on people's eyes when they. They don't realize how grueling it could be. And I guess for some of us, you know, it becomes kind of old hat. You're like, ah, it's. You should have seen it back in the day or whatever case may be, but, you know, when you watch somebody new sort of, you know, experience it for the first time, it's. It's always awesome. It's. It's. It was. It was a lot of fun. And I'm kind of glad that I got to see him, you know, in my passenger seat go. You know, this. This is a lot different than I thought it was going to be, right?

[00:57:13.880] - Big Rich Klein

And I just was up on the con just a couple of weeks ago. The week before the. The Jeep Jamboree USA event this week. Yeah, that just happened. And what I noticed, and I hadn't been up past Ellis in. In probably four or five years, and I didn't realize how relentless it was.

[00:57:38.560] - Roger Salazar

Oh, yeah.

[00:57:39.280] - Big Rich Klein

You know, I took my. My grandkids two years ago up to Ellis Creek and, you know, we played around in the bowl and stuff and, and back out, and it was nothing. And then going all the way, you know, I mean, in this time, I just went up to the RTF property and it was. I mean, it was just constant, relentless. What used to be just open dirt, you know, it's now been all falled in, you know, with all that cold crack granite and stuff that they've put in there to keep the Water Resources Board happy, I guess. And, yeah, you Know, it just made it relentless.

[00:58:13.560] - Roger Salazar

Well, and it's, and it's, and I do think that the snow, this last year's snow did a number on it. I think this year's trail was probably tougher than it's been in, in, in you know, four or five years at least. I just think the rocks got moved to the spots that just made it a little, a little tougher. And it probably doesn't help that, you know, that I just, I, I, I'm used to e lockers and got new air lockers and you know, I just never turned my air compressor on. So I ran the whole thing without lockers this time and was like, you know, I probably should have.

[00:58:48.240] - Big Rich Klein

Well, I'm a firm believer when it comes to lockers and even, you know, going into four wheel drive, especially like in the snow or you know, because I've, I've wheeled all over the country.

[00:59:01.920] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:59:02.360] - Big Rich Klein

Is that I don't use the tools until I need the tools.

[00:59:08.180] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:59:08.740] - Big Rich Klein

Because if you're, if you're using your tools and you get stuck and you have no more tools in the box, you know, then you're pulling winch line.

[00:59:18.900] - Roger Salazar

Exactly.

[00:59:19.460] - Big Rich Klein

I hate pulling winch line. You know, to me that's a total fail. You gave up. You know, there's no, you know, you have no other option. And I mean some of the places I've wheeled, especially snow wheeling, you know, there's no, you know, like in Moab.

[00:59:36.650] - Roger Salazar

Yeah.

[00:59:37.050] - Big Rich Klein

You know, you get stuck out there, you know, there's nothing to winch to.

[00:59:40.890] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, exactly. But I do love Moab though. That is, that is a, I love that sticky rock, man. That being able to basically climb straight up, it's just, it's awesome. But you know, all the different places.

[00:59:54.490] - Big Rich Klein

Moab in the winter time is not so sticky.

[00:59:58.610] - Roger Salazar

Okay. Yeah, I guess so, huh. You get that wet. You get wet rock on there with that snow.

[01:00:06.610] - Big Rich Klein

Revenge in the snow. And you know, it's, it's pretty exciting.

[01:00:13.490] - Roger Salazar

I'll give it a shot. No, that's one of the great things I love about, about you know, doing these types of events is again, so I've done, you know, I've done Eastern Chief Safari pretty much. I think we only missed one year, it's 2016. And then you know, done Ouray Jeep Jamboree and, and added on Black Bear Pass as one of my. We just did it ourselves with you know, a couple other people and, and uh, had a blast, uh, you know, doing, you know, doing that thing again. That's, I always say that's not a, it's not a hard road, but yeah, you got to be careful. And that's one of those roads that if you, if you make a mistake, it's catastrophic. So, you know, it's a, you know, it is puckery when you go on that. And this year my cousin and I are, are taking our jeeps out to Black Hills, South Dakota, and we're going to wheel that for the first time ever. So that'll be in September. So that should be kind of interesting. I love that area.

[01:01:08.460] - Big Rich Klein

Excellent. Excellent. That's. Yeah, Black Hills is pretty cool. You'll enjoy that. You'll enjoy that. Well, Roger, what is the future hold for you? What do you see? What do you see coming up?

[01:01:22.630] - Roger Salazar

Well, I think, you know, again, I'm going to keep. Keep on wheeling. That's, you know, that's for sure. I'm kind of excited on the commission side of things, you know, that, you know, we, we've been hosting these safety summits. We've got a safety summit coming up in, in Reading, you know, in our, in our September meeting. Uh, and then the other one that I'm excited about. And, and you know, you gotta, you know, you gotta deal with the slow pace of, you know, state government and how that works. But the OHV Access project is working. You know, the OHV division is working to create new writing opportunities across the state. So, you know, there's, I've seen a lot of work from, you know, from different community groups and off road community groups and clubs and others that have opened up some trails, you know, and I'd like to see that. I'd like to see expansion of OHV Access in California. And one of the dreams I have is that we can sort of make a trail that connects from Southern California, from the border with Mexico all the way up to the border in Oregon.

[01:02:24.620] - Roger Salazar

And ideally, at some point be able to, you know, to do kind of a, you know, Pacific Crest Trail type of thing for off road. Right. So where you can go from, from the bottom of the state to the top and never touch pavement. You know, something like that.

[01:02:35.500] - Big Rich Klein

Let me help on that.

[01:02:36.700] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, it's. Something like that would be kind of neat. I also have an idea. You know, I'd love to, you know, to, you know, the folks in, in the forest and, and smud and parks and others. You know, that Loon Lake Chalet has been kind of decrepit. You know, I think they're gonna have to re, you know, you know, tear that down and redo it at Some point I'd love for there to be like a Rubicon Trail history museum or interpretive center or something like that there that, you know, that also might contain some meeting rooms for folks and you know, people can learn a little bit about the history of the, of the trail, you know, before they, you know, jump on it, make a good meeting place. So that's an idea that I started to talk to some folks about to see if we can't do something like that. And then the other thing is I gotta give a lot of credit, in fact, almost all the credit to the folks down at the Friends of Oceano Dunes and the other groups who are involved in that lawsuit to fight the Coastal Commission's closure of Oceano Dunes.

[01:03:39.770] - Roger Salazar

Their order to close it. Without those guys, you know, it, you know, we'd be looking at closing, closing one of the most, you know, historic off road parks and the first off road park that we've ever had in California over at Pismo. And I'm, I am grateful, you know, eternally to them. I know my family is, because I have a lot of family that off roads and, and runs those dunes. But you know, I just, I wish we could, you know, that our, you know, that we as the parks and I'm on the commission, not in parks, but had stepped up a little bit more. But I'd love to see one of the things that I'd like to see and I'm going to try to push, you know, the governor and the legislature, I'd love to see the Coastal Commission authority over parks separated. I don't think they should have authority over the state parks, especially Oceano Dunes. And you know, and so I'd like to see that, you know, that authority, you know, curtailed in some way, shape or form. I just think they've overstepped and overreached and, and we need to do something about that.

[01:04:45.370] - Roger Salazar

So I'm going to be fighting for that. So those are kind of the things that I'm up to and, and you know, just trying to keep staying, staying involved and making a difference somehow. And you know, that's, that's my focus.

[01:04:57.930] - Big Rich Klein

You think there's any chance of getting, you know, your help to push Placer county into accepting their Rs2477 rights in exercising those rights in on the Rubicon?

[01:05:12.500] - Roger Salazar

Yeah, I'd like to, you know, I, I, I am, I'm hopeful, you know, I know, I know that, you know, the, the different groups, RTF and others have been talking to them about it, you know, and I. And I. And I've encouraged them to reach out to, you know, local campaign folks and consultants that I know that, you know, they have, you know, some. Some input into. Into some of the. The local officials there. We kind of have to, you know, move every. Every rock, so to speak, to, you know, to. To get those guys to, you know, to exercise those rights and not, you know, not get rid of them. I. I just. I would hate to see that. And again, it's not that I don't have, you know, faith in the Forest Service, but, you know, they. They, you know, they kind of move at a different direction than everybody else does sometimes. And. And, you know, you can't have a trail be open access if, you know, if the Forest Service can close it down anytime they want, so.

[01:06:06.030] - Big Rich Klein

Correct.

[01:06:07.070] - Roger Salazar

We want to make sure that, you know, that Placer, you know, continues to have those. Exercise their, you know, their authority over it, similar to what El Dorado is doing, and keep that, you know, a county road so that. So that they don't have the ability to shut it down whenever they want. I get it when there's snow emergencies or stuff like that, you know, but. But, you know, you got to be. You know, I just. I just don't want to have any one entity be. Be able to shut it down whenever they want.

[01:06:36.370] - Big Rich Klein

Agreed. Agreed. Well, I think that's a good segue. I want to say thank you so much for. For joining me in this conversation and being forthright and open and. And covering all the bases.

[01:06:52.760] - Roger Salazar

Well, I'm glad, and I appreciate, you know, being on, and I look forward to seeing you, you know, out on the trails and, you know, and out of the different events. It's always a pleasure, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk to you and your listeners.

[01:07:05.480] - Big Rich Klein

All right, well, thank you, Roger, and, yeah, I look forward to seeing you at Trek then.

[01:07:10.600] - Roger Salazar

Sounds good.

[01:07:11.480] - Big Rich Klein

All right, you take care.

[01:07:13.240] - Roger Salazar

Thanks.

[01:07:14.920] - Big Rich Klein

Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gusto you can thank you.