May 3rd weekend – It was Thursday afternoon when
I picked mom up at the airport. It came
as a surprise to me as I had put on my calendar that she would arrive on Friday
afternoon. Big whoops! Fortunately I was able to leave work to get
her but unfortunately I had to return there to work late into the evening. I did take some time to give her a tour of
the house and outbuildings on our property before going back to the office which
was fun. Susan was able to get off at a
decent time to hang out with mom before I finally got home after 8:00 and ate
the Jimmy Johns Susan had ordered for dinner.
Friday I was up when Susan left for work around 6:15 and
made myself coffee. Mom came out shortly
thereafter and after completing my non-workday caffeine ritual we hopped in
Pitt for a trip to Walmart to do some grocery shopping. There we bought this and that, much of the
“that” being materials to make a copious amount of breakfast burritos for the
next day’s rallycross. As the event was
to occur on Cinco de Mayo I got it in my head to make breakfast burritos for
the competitors. Once back home with our
goods I set about cleaning the hard floors in the house (something I was
planning on doing the night before) and then started on the burritos. My plan was simple and mostly went without a
hitch. I made 64 burritos in all, half
sausage and half bacon. I did find that
I didn’t purchase enough potatoes or cheese and mom made a quick trip to get
more while I continued to while away cooking and folding tortillas in aluminum
foil. With mom’s help I managed to
finish and the fridge was bursting with burritos. For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse for
steak. Even though we were somewhat
early and called ahead we did have to wait for a few minutes to sit. The food was excellent and the service
good. After returning home Susan and I finished
our night-before-racing-packing and then settled on the couch to hang with
mom.
Saturday began very early for Susan and myself as all race
days do. One thing we thankfully didn’t
have to deal with was the rallybus as it was already at the home of Josh who
was to drive it. We left more or less
when we wanted to and, after a quick stop for gas, made it to the event site
before anyone else where the Suburban promptly got stuck in mud. Oh it was super-duper muddy and this was one
of the few times I wished the Suburban had 4WD.
After unloading the evo from the trailer and some rocking back and forth
I was able to park where I’d intended right about the time the rallybus and
course designer (Dan Hipwood) arrived. I
helped load up Dan’s Honda truck with cones and rode in the back throwing said
cones out the back while he drove around in rough approximation of his planned
course. I then helped Susan unpack the
bus and do our normal morning things. I
also plugged in a roaster we’d brought to warm up the burritos (mom’s idea) on
the registration table. The plan was
that the burritos were to be free and, once the PA was setup, I loudly and
often spread the good word. Eventually
we got around to having a drivers meeting and everyone went to their places,
either with their cars or on course. It
was during the parade lap when things began to really go astray. The 2WD cars mostly got stuck which
necessitated me and other people to be there to push/pull them out. This was less fun than you might imagine
though we eventually succeeded. We lined
up the cars in order for the 2WD to go after the AWD vehicles but it wasn’t
enough as they still had issues making it around the course when it was their
turn. Eventually the 2WD cars were
pulled aside for later while the AWD cars took their laps. The delays were so bad that after the 2WD
drivers finally got to go around the much-altered course we actually brought
the AWD drivers back out to finish their runs for the day. It was a very challenging morning. We eventually broke for lunch so we could
change the course a bit for the remaining drivers. We finally got the last group going around
2:00. Susan and I were to drive as well
but backed out as the ruts were deep enough the evo’s skid guard was dragging
along the ground for much of the course.
Mom came out to take rides but left before noon as the delays kept
mounting (such a bummer!). Susan and I
were able to help out in the afternoon to keep things moving which was a good
thing. Amazingly we managed to finish up
the event more or less on time and most everyone seemed to have enjoyed
themselves. One driver had thrown a
hissy fit almost first thing in the morning after doing some dangerous
driving. In all the years of racing I’ve
never seen anything quite like it. As
there is no excuse for such a stunt it’s likely he’ll be banned from
participating again. After results were
read we set to getting the bus unstuck (oh yeah, I got it stuck bad in the
morning). It took some effort which
included burning a patch of one of the ramps I’d made for the car dolly but we
did get the bus moving just to be stuck again.
Fortunately it was not stuck as badly as soon enough I was driving
pell-mell to a drier patch of ground. As
per normal Susan and I were the last to leave the site and locked the gate on
our way out. Once home Susan ordered
Pizza while mom told us of her day hanging out with Marshall. Evidently she had a negative experience
driving Pitt which included stalling in intersections and we concluded she
should rent a car for the next day’s activities. Yes, I was mortified.
Sunday began around 9:00 when we woke and I dropped mom at
our nearest Enterprise to rent her car.
During our time alone Susan and I busied ourselves rearranging vehicles
and doing this and that. I managed to
spray thistles again which made me happy.
The plan was to meet mom, Marshall, and his girls, Carmen and Kaylee, at
White Fence Farms and we arrived around 5:30.
It was a bit early for our reservation but we were seated with little
delay. While the girls colored in
butterflies we chatted about their day.
They had gone to Goodwill, a park equipped with a stream, Cold Stone
Creamery, before arriving at White Fence Farms where the girls fed the resident
goats, slid down their slide, and danced to the live band. Mom was exhausted! The food was nice and we all enjoyed our
meals. Once the check came Susan and I
left the group so Susan could also feed the goats and we explored the other
facets of the establishment including the model train building and barn. We eventually drove home to a happy
Bella. Mom arrived home soon after and
we sat in the living room discussing this and that before going to bed.
Monday we slept in a bit before heading up to Aspen Park to
have lunch with John and Karen at DW’s 285 Diner. Well, first we dropped off the rental car
which had us arriving a little after our scheduled noonish appointment with
Susan’s folks. The food was fantastic
and the portions overwhelming. Much
chatting was had about this and that and we left around the time they closed up
shop for the day (2:00). Pitt decided at
this moment to not start. Fortunately I
had brought our jump pack and was able to get things going again. I found the cable connecting to the positive
terminal on the battery was loose so we headed to the local O’reily to buy an
overpriced 10mm wrench. I managed to
tighten the cable but the battery was too low to start the car without using
the jump pack. We were going to just go
home but instead, and at the last moment, decided to take a tour through
Evergreen meadows by the old homestead.
This went alright so we then drove by dad’s grave and then proceeded to
continue on through the rest of Evergreen via highway 74 and then highway 73
all the way up to I70 before directing ourselves home. The nostalgia was palpable. Once home we watched the new Jumanji movie
which was much more enjoyable than we’d anticipated it would be.
Tuesday morning started slowish as Susan and I had our
coffee before going to Great Beginnings for breakfast with mom. The only concrete plan for the day was to
watch the newest Avengers movie at Alamo Drafthouse at 3:30 that afternoon so
we then went home to bide our time. I
did make a quick trip to Walmart for a new battery which seemed to alleviate
Pitt’s starting woes. The movie theatre
was almost empty when we arrived which was great though didn’t matter too much
as I had reserved us some excellent seats.
Somehow our orders were bungled in almost every way possible though
eventually we had what we wanted. We
thoroughly enjoyed the movie and stayed through the credits for a bit of
post-credits goodness before heading out.
We had thought to paint that evening but decided instead to order up the
latest Thor movie. It was funnier than
expected and, again, we enjoyed ourselves.
Wednesday was a bummer as I drove mom to the airport around
8:00. Traffic was light on E470 and the
trip was too short. She did make her
flight on time and I spent the majority of the day simply hanging out with a
Bella who, no doubt, was wishing I was Susan.
It was such a treat to host mom at our home. As always we talked about all things serious
and whimsical. We always enjoy her
company and look forward to next time.
May 12th weekend – This weekend pretty much
revolved around Saturday. We woke
relatively early to drink coffee before we were drive up to a Cars and Coffee
meet up in Boulder. We don’t normally attend
such gatherings but we were personally asked to come out so were seriously
considering. It was while Susan was
sipping her coffee when she came across a cheap Miata hardtop down in the
Springs. Communication was established
and we decided we’d rather check out the top than drive up to Boulder to look
at a few cars. First we were going to go
down in the afternoon but changed our tune and instead scheduled the meeting
for noonish. We were able to get in some
Walmart shopping beforehand and stopped by the bank to get cash. We drove Scrappy with its top down as the
weather was cool and relatively clear.
The forecast had called for scattered rain but we didn’t see any on our
cruise south. Traffic was miserable for
much of the drive and we arrived a little later than planned at a Safeway a few
minutes west of I25 in the Springs. The
guy was in an SUV with the top neatly packed in the back. We unloaded and attached it to Scrappy. This was one sorry top. Chips were missing around the back and one
back attachment points was very loose. I
was prepared for poor paint but the fiberglass was separating and did not allow
a solid seal. It was cheap but I wasn’t
willing to pay anything for this particular top so I let him down nicely and
helped load the thing back in his SUV.
As we were about to pull out of the parking lot Susan suggested we go to
the Mollie Kathleen Goldmine for a tour.
Sometimes fate pivots on such small requests.
After a few twists and turns we were on our way up into the
mountains. The goldmine wasn’t exactly
close and took roughly an hour to get to which included a stop for gas. We walked up to the ticket desk/counter and
found that the next tour wasn’t to start for 40 minutes. Instead of sitting around waiting we elected
to head to Cripple Creek for a quick bite to eat if we could find it. Said forage proved elusive as we walked the
entire downtown end-to-end finding not much.
We settled on some coffee from a boutique store before we hopped back in
Scrappy for the three minute drive back up to the mine. This time we arrived just in time to put on
hard hats for the tour.
After a brief introduction we were stuffed into the
elevator/cage. The ride down was smooth
and weirdly quiet as the machinery to run the thing is all on the surface. The darkness was contrasted only by the
periodic lights from the various levels we fell past. At approximately 1,000 feet down the ride
ended and we unloaded. The tour guide
was a third generation old-timer who filled the air with facts mixed with
personal anecdotes. Susan and I had done
the tour many years ago and I found that I had forgotten much more than I
remembered from the previous experience.
We enjoyed ourselves immensely for the entirety of the tour. The air was cool and water dripped down in
several areas. The lighting was
fantastic throughout which made the dark pneumatic-driven train ride neater
than it otherwise would have been. The
tour seemed shorter than the hour it lasted and we were all given some ore at
the end before the guide took pictures.
The ride back up was as quiet as before and we were happy to tip the
guide on our way out.
The guide had mentioned an overlook to the massive open pit
mine further up the dirt road the Mollie Kathleen is on and we decided to check
it out. The drive up was short and we
found an outdoor museum of sorts close to the mine entrance (the overlook was
almost a mile further down the road). We
read some of the plaques and wandered into the mine buildings which had been
moved from somewhere else for preservation’s sake. Then it was to the overlook which consisted of
the bed of one of the ginormous haul trucks used at the mine bolted down to the
side of the mountain. The view had me
gripping the rails as I felt the “pull of the void” at its grandeur. To continue the voyage we took a right to
drive through the town of Victor instead of a left which would have brought us
closer to Woodland Park. We simply
passed through Victor on our way to Cripple Creek again and back up past the
Mollie Kathleen and then down to Woodland Park.
It was around this point where I started to fret about how much sun we’d
been exposed to. We stopped in Woodland
Park for a late lunch at a small restaurant called The Southern Lilly for very
fatty ribeye steaks and we took some painful looks in the mirrors of the
bathrooms. Yikes, we were pink! Perhaps I was more violet than pink in
fact. After the meal we put the top up
on Scrappy for the remainder of the day to save ourselves from further
roasting.
We had another decision to make: drive down to Colorado
Springs and then up I25 or head north into the mountains and finally come down
highway 285 from Conifer to Denver which was projected to take 30 minutes
longer. As this was a day for cruising
we made the obvious choice and went north.
It proved to be the right call as the drive through Deckers and to then
Pine Junction was fantastic. We ran into
very little traffic and, when we did catch up to other cars, we were able to
get by them alright (a couple of cars even pulled over for us which was
super-nice). The landscape along that
windy road (highway 67) is varied and amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed the
ride. Scrappy made the trip with nary a
complaint and I finally backed her into the garage around 7:00 that
evening. Bella was ecstatic to see Susan
who fed her dinner and we snacked for our own meals. We both applied Solarcaine which we keep in
the refrigerator for such occasions. The
remainder of the evening was spent on the couch.
I think Saturday’s sunburn sucked the motivation out of both
of us as we didn’t do a heck of a lot on Sunday. We planted ourselves on the couch and didn’t
get up often throughout the day. Lunch
was Jimmy Johns and Susan made us chicken for dinner (I also whipped up salad). It was a nice way to end a weekend which
began with few plans but ended up being quite adventurous.
Max’s first business trip – On May 16th I hopped
on a flight to Tampa, Florida to go to the 2018 NASVA conference. I’d explain more about what the thing is but
it’s likely only interesting to someone in the insurance business (and really
only someone who does reporting in the insurance industry). I’ve never been asked to travel for work so
it has been a novel trip in itself. The
travel to Tampa went alright though the first part of the flight had me sitting
next to a fellow with overly-broad shoulders.
Apparently his family was seated elsewhere on the plane and he swapped
seats with a normal-sized female who allowed me to sit in relative comfort for
the remainder of the flight. It happened
to be a hot afternoon when we landed and, holy cow, the humidity was a
shock. The shuttle to the hotel was a
bit delayed but I was alright with it as, again, the novelty of the trip hadn’t
worn off yet. My hotel room was modern
with outlets all over the place for my several devices which had mostly powered
down throughout the day. There was a
cocktail reception where many insurance folks were hobnobbing. The open bar probably helped keep the
conversations going. I knew absolutely
no one there but managed to talk with a few peeps and found the experience
interesting. As I can’t help myself I
hit the meager weights in the workout room as soon as I could. Then I finally ordered dinner in my
room. I was starved and got a burger and
a giant salad which I happily devoured.
Then I was basically surfing the internet and bored. Susan and I texted and messaged a few times
but otherwise it was a quiet evening.
As is my way I was up hours before I needed to be the next
day and sitting around bored in my room.
I headed down early to eat breakfast which I found to be more to my
liking than I was expecting. The morning
conferences were ok and lunch was pleasantly yummy. The afternoon conferences were a blur and
soon enough all the attendees were gathered in the hotel lobby to be
transported to a boat for a booze cruise.
It took two large tour-style buses to hold all of us and we made it
despite the horrid traffic on our route.
The boat had an open bar and eventually we were provided with a buffet
dinner. I met some new folks but mostly
stuck with my manager Jenn and some people she knew. Twas fun and before we knew it we were docked
again and loading back on the buses.
Once back at the hotel we wandered into the hotel bar to continue the
fun. I lasted maybe 30 minutes before I
took the elevator back to my eighth floor room.
Friday morning had me packing up my bag and checking out of
my room before heading to the conference room for breakfast and the final
meetings I was to attend. They went
alright and I grabbed lunch before jumping on a shuttle to the airport. As is my luck I got through security just
fine and was at my gate over two hours early.
I watched a movie on my tablet while I waited for my flight. It was as we were taxying around the runway
when we found out we were to be rerouted and delayed due to weather in Texas. Back to the terminal we went to get
additional fuel which took a lot longer than I thought such a thing would
take. By the time we finally reached
Denver we were delayed over an hour.
Funny story – I was watching the navigation channel on the seat screen
in front of me and was shocked when we touched down. I forgot DIA is around 5,200 feet above sea
level and was expecting us to further descend.
I was happy to finally pull into our driveway after my trip and Susan
seemed happy to see me (Bella was largely indifferent).
May 19th weekend – Saturday had us up earlier
than expected when Jeff texted Susan seeing if we wanted to catch brunch. We weren’t really in the mood but once our
eyes were open we decided to get up.
After our morning coffee routine we met Jeff at Great Beginnings for
food and pleasant conversation. Jeff
came by afterwards to swap out his SUV for his current rallycross ride he’d
been storing on our lower 40 before taking off to annoy sales people at various
dealerships around town (a hobby of his).
Susan saw a reminder on Facebook about a hazardoud waste collection
thingie Douglas County was doing so she dug out all the paint cans out of the
fridge and we loaded up the Suburban. It
was also an opportunity to get rid of a couple of tires and other miscellaneous
stuff like old oil. There were a lot of
volunteers at the facility and there were many cars and trucks in line. I picked the lucky lane and we didn’t have to
wait too long to get through. We are
sooo glad to have gotten rid of all that junk!
We didn’t really have any other plans but ended up driving up to Fort
Collins to buy a used transmission for Pitt from our fellow-rallycrosser
Jonathon Nagel. He gave us a steal of a
price and we chatted for over an hour about this and that before heading back
home. I wasn’t feeling the
swap-out-the-transmission-vibe when we got home so we vegged out on the couch
for the remainder of the evening.
On Sunday we slept in a lot and finally had coffee after
10:00. We dressed and went to two
different Lowes to buy fencing. Said
fencing is to (hopefully) allow us to adopt a foster puggle Susan found on a
local Labrador rescue website. Yes,
we’re finally looking to add another animal to our home. After the fencing was in place I proceeded to
weed whack all kinds of grass while Susan sprayed thistle. It has been rainy almost every day so we
wanted to take advantage of the clearness of the day (it was cloudy but no rain
fell). I ran out of whacking material
for the weed whacker so we made another trip to Lowes and then Home Depot to
get some weed whacking ammunition, this time with Bella in tow. It was a successful trip and I was soon back
whacking away. I felt the first drops of
rain just as my final battery died so called it an evening. Dinner was Domino’s Pizza which was awesome
though the boneless wings we ordered tasted a bit too much like the frozen chicken
nuggets I used to buy at Walmart for our liking. The final hours of the weekend were spent
with Bella on the couch.
Memorial Day Weekend – Friday was the start of the weekend
for me as I took the day off to work on swapping out Pitt’s transmission. I made one attempt at installing the newer
transmission using a regular floor jack before driving to Harbor Freight to buy
a transmission jack. Unfortunately for
me one of the casters broke upon installation and I then had to go to Lowes to
buy replacements. Armed with the
newly-shod transmission jack I successfully installed the transmission and had
most of the accessories attached when Susan arrived home from work accompanied
by Bella. I decided I’d done enough
swearing at the car for the day so went inside to shower and Susan ordered
Jimmy Johns for dinner. A relaxing
evening on the couch made up the remainder of the evening.
Saturday began in the mid-morning with coffee. We had all kinds of things to do to get ready
for the next day’s rallycross and started on the list right away. For lunch we went to Texas Roadhouse which
was good although I didn’t appreciate the loquaciousness of our server
much. We then headed to Walmart to buy
BBQ stuffs as the plan was to grill lunch for all the rallycrossers the next
day. The Suburban’s air conditioning had
stopped functioning at the previous rallycross and, as the upcoming one was to
be a hot day, we made it a priority to fix.
I had bought a can of a/c refill stuff but found the existing pressure
to surpass that of the can itself. Upon
inspection I saw some wires broken close to a plug on part of the a/c
system. Eureka! This looked like an easy enough fix with a
replacement plug and wire so we drove to our favorite junk yard (Littleton U-Pull). After racing an oncoming train (not really
but it was coming a little close) we almost immediately found what we needed
and they didn’t even charge us for the part.
Susan worked her wiring magic when we got home and, wonders of wonders,
the a/c blew cold again! We finished
loading up the remaining rallycross stuff including our grill in the enclosed
trailer. We then relaxed with Bella
until Josh came by later to pick up the rallybus.
Sunday came very early when the alarm went off at 4:30. We had little left to do and arrived at USTDS
well before 7:00. When the rallybus showed
up I drove it around while others threw cones out the back. It was after setting up said cones how I
wanted them that I attended to my other morning duties. By design we drove in the first run group
which allowed us time to set up our easy-up, tables, grills, etc well before the
second run group was finished doing their thing. The racing didn’t start very smoothly as a
damaged timing cable had half the field rerunning but after that things went
well. Perhaps I started cooking a tad
later than I intended but in the end everyone was able to eat hamburgers,
brauts, and hot dogs in all their charred glory. Some folks brought sides which was nice
too. Somehow we managed to get back to
racing by around 1:30 which was amazing considering all that went on at
lunch.
The afternoon portion of the event went well which was
expected since the surface at USTDS holds up remarkably well. We were allowed seven long runs for the day
which was great. One unfortunate WRX
died of a broken engine which was sad but happens at this site on
occasion. After giving out trophies we
hung out with some drivers to chat before locking up and heading home after
6:00. I was too exhausted, dirty, and
grumpy to stop somewhere on the way so Susan ordered shrimp and pasta once we
were home and I settled on leftover hamburgers (I was not complaining about the
arrangement).
Monday Susan won the sleeping-in game as I was cajoling her
out of bed at 11:30. Our only plans
revolved around a BBQ up at Kari and Alvin’s property in the early
afternoon. We brought cookies and
stopped for Mike’s on the way. Luckily
we also had our easy-up on hand as it poured rain for at least an hour while we
were there. The attendees expanded and
contracted over the hours to eventually include us, Alvin, Kari, Karen, John,
Alvin’s dad and sister, Jeff, Alvin and Kari’s neighbor, and rallycross friends
Neil and Carol Rickli. We talked about this
and that and checked out the latest work on the property. Twas a nice time. After 6:00 the party broke up with us
stopping at Walmart for groceries on the way home to an expectant Bella who
greeted Susan with much skittering about.
We rounded out the holiday weekend on the couch with Bella and
wine.
May was a blur for Susan and myself (likely for Bella as
well). Having mom visit for several days
was a delight and between races and everything else that occupied our time we
felt very busy indeed. We’ve been
responsible homeowners in that our lawn is currently looking great with
thistles sprayed and the grass cut and weed whacked. We are planning on buying another car over
the first weekend of June which is fine.
Everything is fine. The
temperatures are going up and we’ve already seen highs over 90 degrees which
seems early this year (though it probably always feels that way every year). I’ve decided and announced to the other CORX
chiefs that I plan to retire from my role as event chair after this
season. Hopefully someone is able to
step up and take over for me. Looking
forward to June!
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