August 4th weekend – Friday night Slayer got in a
tussle with a stray German Shepard mix that was wandering our property. She seemed friendly enough towards us but
Slayer was visibly not ok with the dog.
I’m pretty sure the dog had no ill intentions but she came too close and
Slayer lashed out and cut the poor thing’s nose. Then the barking began. *sigh*
At least we know Slayer has some spine.
Soon after we put our now-frazzled cat away for the night.
Saturday began with an alarm at 8:00ish followed by
coffee. We hopped in Pitt for a drive up
to BFE to pick up another set of used Hoosier rally tires from Ronny. The trip was over an hour long and much of it
through farmland. Ronnie is a
companionable fellow and we chatted a bit as we picked out the best of what he
had. We took a different route back and
swung by the Applewood area to catch lunch and do a bit of shopping. Qdoba, Pet’s Mart, and then Applejack before
going home. We were surprised to see the
Walmart there had been closed at some point in the past. Crazy as we used to shop there way back when
we lived in Lakewood. After finally
getting home we hung with the dogs and took naps.
The evening plan was to attend a Tower of Power concert and
we set out around 4:00. Well, after a
couple of miles of driving I realized I forgot my wallet and we had to circle
back home. Such is. We arrived at the park where the show was to
be in plenty of time despite my foible. The
place was called Levitt Pavilion and the layout was much like Fiddler’s in that
there were general admission tickets for the grassy areas and more expensive
tickets for the seats closer to the stage.
Of course we were very close to the stage. The line in was insanely long by the time we
hiked to its end but flowed pretty quickly once the gates were opened. The opener was a solo act consisting of a
country-style singer and her guitar. She
wasn’t bad per se but a strange choice to open for the headlining bands. While our great seats were nice we only sat
in them until TOP came on and from then on we were on our feet. They sounded great throughout and we had a
wonderful time. There was a funny minute
when the speakers cut out but the venue figured out the issue in short order
and sound was restored. The band War was
on after TOP but we left before they went on.
Susan was able to snag a set list before we walked to the car which was
super-coolio. Once home we stayed up
late with the pups on the couch watching streaming shows.
We slept in late Sunday morning. Almost too late in fact. After some quick coffee Susan drove us up
into the mountains to Silver Plume in Tia.
We arrived just in time to board a train on the Georgetown Loop
Railroad. We were far back in the line
but managed to sit more or less exactly where we wanted on a car with a roof
but open windows. After around 10
minutes we got off at the one and only stop to take an extended mine tour. There was quite a crowd hanging around but
fortunately for us there are three different tours and ours was the smallest in
number. The mine was darker than normal
due to a power outage but that just made it better in our eyes as we had to
bring our own flashlights and there were burning candles periodically along the
cave walls. Our guide was ok and the
mine itself was interesting. The
ceilings were low throughout and many a helmet made contact with the rock
(including both of ours). Once back
outside we briefly toured an old building before sauntering up the slope back
to the train station. The rest of the
train ride down to Georgetown was pleasant as was the ride back to Silver Plume. Once off the train we squished a penny
(unfortunately it didn’t come out well), took a quick walk around their museum
(there really wasn’t much in it), and hopped in the car.
Traffic was terrible and we were starving so we stopped at
Georgetown for a very late lunch. Susan
suggested Cooper’s on the Creek which she found on Google Maps and I snagged a
parking spot right by the front door. We
were seated on the covered patio (the “creek” just a few feet away) and enjoyed
a yummy and upscale meal. We weren’t in
any rush and chatted away the time. Once
back on I70 we changed our tune and I ended up taking both Express Lanes on the
way back down through the mountains. At home
we plopped down on the couch for the remainder of the weekend and eventually
ordered Dominos for a late dinner. Twas
a fun weekend for sure.
Tuesday, August 7th we plunked down a deposit to
start the process of having a roll cage installed in Scrappy. The plan is to build it into a cheap
endurance race car. There is a lot to do
besides the cage but I have a list and the internet is vast and informative so
I think we’ll come out ok. Jeff happened
to drop by after work to show off his BMW he’d just done an engine swap on and
he asked if he could also drive Scrappy when we raced. Heck yes he can drive. The sorts of races we want to race are 14-24
hours long and require four or more drivers.
Hopefully we can have the major things done to Scrappy before winter and
so we have plenty of time to test the car out and have several track days to
practice before the real deal.
Exciting! We were close to
deciding to put a roll cage in Flo to do forrealsies rally-racing but in that
sport only one of us would actually get to drive while the other would read
race notes. We settled on cheap
endurance racing (24 hours of Lemons, Chumpcar, WRL) as we’ll get to race
together and it looks like a fun thing to do.
It helps that we already own a cheap Miata which, as much of the
interwebs knows, is the answer to every question.
August 11 weekend – Saturday began a little late as we slept
in a bit before having our coffee.
Mid-morning we drove to Wine Country Motor Sports to look at and then
buy a race seat for Scrappy. It was a
pretty neat place and I expect we’ll be purchasing a few race-things there in
the future. Despite having a race seat
taking up most of the back seat of Flo we swung by Costco and then Walmart to
do some shopping before heading home to eat yummy rotisserie chicken for
lunch.
After food we went outside to do stuffs. Susan suggested putting up an Easy Up over
Scrappy so I could work on it in the shade which was an excellent idea. She spent much of her time pulling stupid
plants on the driveway while I pulled unnecessary stuff off of Scrappy. I eventually got around to taking the glass
and electronics out of the doors and then cut out some of the structure to make
room for door bars for the roll cage.
The driver door took a while but I had the process down when I finally
got to the passenger door which went significantly quicker. Dinner was leftovers and we hung with the
pups on the couch in the evening.
Sunday we had another rallycross to put on. It was at FRA and we arrived soon after the
rally bus to get things going. After I
threw cones out the back of the bus while the course designer Eric Adams drove
around I helped Susan set things up. Our
normal work-assigner was off doing forrealsies rally that day so I got to
assign everyone their tasks for the day.
This went well though we just had enough workers with some of the chiefs
having to work double (including me).
The event itself was amazing and most everyone got 11 runs in before we
wrapped up. So much fun! Susan and I both managed first place finishes
which made the event even better. We
were the last to leave and locked the gates at 5:05.
The drive home is normally of zero consequence (besides the
cost of gasoline) but this time the truck had problems. Specifically the radiator sprung a leak and
the Suburban overheated. Fortunately we
were close to home and had a lot of water on hand. After the motor cooled down and we dumped a
lot of water in the radiator we limped home where one of our fellow
rallycrossers was waiting to buy Scrappy’s seats. Susan had negotiated the full-asking price
from the guy and we were happy he took them with him. Dinner was Chinese delivery which was good
despite the hour-long wait-time. We were
exhausted from the day and hung out on the couch to finish the night.
Monday came and I was simply not ok with going to work. Too tired and too sore was I. I convinced Susan to stay home as well and we
slept in before migrating to the couch to drink our coffee. I spent my day editing and uploading videos
from the previous day and working on the final results while Susan had to do
actual work. The pups made her task
difficult as they expected her attention and Susan to make all allowances to
their comfort in laying on her in this way and that. Lunch and dinner were more leftovers and Jeff
stopped by to confirm that the radiator was indeed the source of our problems
with the Suburban. It’s possible there
is more going on there but we’re hoping replacing the radiator is all we have
to do to get it roadworthy again. All in
all it was a great weekend!
August 20 weekend – Saturday began with a little bit of
sleeping in which was immediately followed by coffee. We had a list of things to buy and headed out
midmorning to make our procurements and get lunch. The first stop was to buy a radiator for the
Suburban. I had ordered one online on
Monday but there was some issue and it was never shipped. Such is.
Lunch was at Qdoba where the air conditioning worked. We’ve been to this particular Qdoba several
times and it was often very hot inside.
Walmart was next to exhaust most of our shopping list and finally we
stopped at King Soopers for dry ice on our way home. The dry ice was to aid in removing sound
deadening material from Scrappy. I
crushed up the ice in a bucket, added isopropyl alcohol, and then spread the
mix on the floor panels. It wasn’t as
magical as some of the YouTube videos but the process did help me get most of
the sound proofing out of Scrappy. Susan
spent this time using kerosene to clean the tar-like gunk off the inside of the
doors and then using the shop vacuum to get most of the dust out of the
car.
We had a few visitors throughout the day. Alvin and Brian came by to drop off Kari and
Alvin’s camper. Until they have their
building permit they aren’t allowed to keep the camper at their property so
it’ll stay on our lower 40 for the time being – along with another trailer
loaded with two unregistered vehicles.
Jeff came by too to hang out and eat BBQ. He stayed until it was just about dark before
making his exodus. Susan and I finished
Saturday on the couch with Bella and Pebbles.
Sunday I really wanted to sleep in but was wide awake at
6:00. I spent the solitary hours before
Susan was awake being productive by playing video games. She got up and started coffee around 9:00 and
convinced me to install the new radiator in the Suburban. Not too difficult as the weather was
pleasantly mild. She helped set up the
Easy Up and brought me tools and whatnot.
It was a messy affair and Susan had to chide Slayer to keep him from
licking the spilled antifreeze. Remarkably the install went smoothly and I was
just about done when Jeff dropped by to say “hi”. There was some mild hilarity when bleeding
the coolant as I forgot to hook up one hose which proceeded to spray me with
antifreeze. Good times. Before long Jeff went on his way and Susan
and I went on our way which was to test drive the Suburban and catch
lunch. We left the car hauler attached
with the evo still inside and I drove the Suburban hard on E470. Thankfully there were no issues and we had a
nice lunch at Chili’s before driving back home.
Once home we unloaded the evo from the trailer and loaded up
Scrappy. We’re pretty excited about
getting it caged! I was going to mow the
lower 40 but was feeling lazy so we sprayed the thistles instead. Susan suggested we BBQ chicken so we did so
while we hung out with Slayer in the garage (it was too windy to sit outside). Before settling down for the evening we made
a quick trip to buy a used differential for Scrappy. Apparently they are a common Miata weak-point
when endurance racing. We finished out
the evening as we usually do – on the couch with the pups.
On Wednesday August 22 we dropped off Scrappy at Brad Ames’
place to have it caged. We hung out and
talked about the process and what we expect and need before we left. My dream of having the cage work with a
hardtop was dashed as there really wasn’t any way to make what we want work
with what we need. Such is I
suppose. The expectation is that the
cage will likely be done in October.
August 25th weekend – Saturday began early enough
with coffee. Soon we left to make a
quick trip to fill the rally bus with diesel and the gas can with regular. Once back home we spent some time fixing some
shelves in the bus and I attached the car dolly. While it was still relatively cool out we
swapped out the wheels on the evo and loaded it into the car trailer. I was going to change the oil but decided it
could wait until after another event.
We then made a quick trip to eat Qdoba and do a bit of
shopping for cat food and rally chairs.
Once home I filled up the mower with gas and went to mowing the yard.
It was hot but I was making decent progress when the mower
started acting all funny. It turned out
the drive belt came off the axle thingie and got itself wedged. Of course, I didn’t realize this for a time
and, in the process of disassembly, I accidentally opened up the differential
and spilled oil all over the place. After
some time poking around and taking off this and that I saw the issue and with
Susan’s help I had it back together and the differential filled back up with
the appropriate oil. It was a messy
affair but I managed to finish mowing the yard while Susan pulled weeds.
Dinner was BBQ’d chicken for me and hamburgers for Susan and
we sat outside with Slayer. We haven’t
seen him live up to his namesake yet but he’s a friendly kitty for the most
part and we like the little fella. After
we put Slayer up for the night we finished our evening on the couch with the
pups.
Sunday was rallycross day which began painfully early in the
morning for our household. We groggily
fed the dogs, groggily made our final preparations, and groggily started our
journey to USTDS before the sun began to crest the horizon – Pebbles tagging
along for the day. We arrived on site a
bit later than I’d planned and quickly got to the business of setting
everything up. Susan was my cone thrower
as I drove the bus around to rough-out a course. It was my prerogative to set up the course
while Susan set up the bus for the event.
I then had the chance to lead a novice meeting and course walk which was
interesting.
I designed the course to be short as we had a low turnout
for the day and managed to cover all necessary worker assignments without too
much difficulty. While I like a longer
course the day flowed well and we ended up with 13 total runs which was pretty
swell. Susan earned her third victory in
her class in a row and I also climbed my way back from a serious blunder on my
first run to win my class. A storm north
of the site generated some crazy-wind just as we were finishing up the day and
we went from a little dirty to filthy in two minutes flat. Such is.
I was starving on the way home and whined to Susan a lot
about it. She suggested we pick up Jimmy
Johns which saved my day. After eating,
unpacking, and showering (Pebbles included) we made our way to the couch where
we finished up the day as we always do.
We headed to bed a bit early as we were so tired from the fun
weekend. It might be noted how well
Pebbles was during the event. She handled
the heat just fine and loved the people and other rally-dogs alike. There’s a decent chance she’ll join us on
future race-days.
Monday, August 27th I drove Susan to the airport
in the morning before work. She had to
take a trip to South Carolina for open enrollment. She was gone for two days or so and Bella,
Pebbles, Slayer, and myself missed her terribly. I was super-duper happy to pick her up safe
and sound on Wednesday.
August was a fun month for our little family. The pups have been cute and fun. Bella got a trip to the spa and her coat is
silky smooth and soft. Pebbles has
become apprehensive about walking from the hallway across the wood floor to the
living room after she goes outside to do her business. We’re not sure what brought this on but Susan
found if one deposits Pebbles a few feet onto the wood floor that she manages
to make the rest of the journey on her own.
Slayer is still generally a friendly kitty. If one doesn’t pay him enough attention
though he does get a bit bitey on occasion.
Our lower 40 got a little more full this month as our pal Dan Hipwood
dropped off his open-deck car trailer down there alongside Alvin and Kari’s
stuff and Jeff’s cruiser. What a fun
month we had! We’re looking forward to September!
