On May 1st Alvin came by to replace the
alternator on the BMW and Kari came by to hang with Susan and the new
kitty. I guess orange female cats are
unusual so Susan did a little internet sleuthing and kitty-anatomy-checking. Turns out our kitten is male. No biggie as we never cared. Soon after finishing the alternator swap
Alvin and Kari left us to hang with the pups for the remainder of the
evening.
On May 2nd I got off work early. The plan was to take Scrappy to the track so
we loaded it into the trailer. Things
seemed to be going alright until Susan noticed an oil puddle where Scrappy was
parked. So we unloaded the car and took
a look. The underside didn’t look a lot
different to me and I determined the leak was likely the o-ring on the oil
dipstick. This was a pain to replace but
soon we had Scrappy back on the ground and in the trailer.
We made a stop for dinner at Qdoba for dinner on the way to
HPR which looked to be on the receiving end of some menacing storm clouds. As we had already made quite an effort to
make it thus far we decided to soldier on.
The track was dry when we arrived but rain was falling from
the sky. I went out for a few laps
before parking Scrappy back in the trailer.
I did go out again when the drops paused before once again retreating as
the storm really arrived. Alvin drove up
in his Galant and took me for a couple of laps in the deluge before nearby
lighting halted all track activities.
For roughly 30 minutes Susan and I watched the weather from the confines
of the trailer before the track was reopened.
Only Alvin and I drove back out on the sodden track in our
respective cars with Susan sitting in the passenger seat of the Galant. It was dark enough that I couldn’t see the
instrument cluster well and didn’t feel comfortable driving after a handful of
laps so we packed up Scrappy. Alvin did
take me for a few laps in the Galant which was fun. We left the track a bit before 9:00 to make
the hour drive back home. Twas fun.
There’s a good chance that our new kitten is now named
“Oliver”. It was Susan’s idea and I
think it is a wonderful name for our future rabbit-killer.
May 4th weekend – Saturday began around 9:00 when
we got out of bed for yummy coffee. I
had started the large slow cooker the night before with taco-bar-style chicken
and moved it to another container to store in the fridge. After coffee Susan went to hang out with
Oliver while I showered. Afterwards I
actually played my guitar for a few minutes which was a bit amazing since I have
hardly touched any of my guitars in several months. The plan was to leave the house at 11:00 and
we found ourselves in Tuna Bean and on our way around that time.
The drive was more eventful than we would have preferred
with three different delays due to construction. We stopped at Harbor Freight to pick up a
gift card and then a liquor store for liquor on our way to John and Karen’s
home to celebrate John’s upcoming 70th birthday.
With our delays we arrived later than we wanted but it was
of no consequence as some of the guests had yet to make their appearance (Alvin
and Kari were already there). We hung
out and chatted about this and that which was nice. Eventually Wayne, Jan, and Sharolyn drove up
and we attacked lunch with wild abandon.
Conversation was lively with the older generation having a lot to
say.
After food was concluded we headed outside to see Sharolyn’s
dogs, one of which was just about the fattest pug we’d ever encountered. Lili’s frame was no bigger than Bella’s but
she probably weighed three times as much.
It was sad to see.
Much hanging out occurred after which we sat down again for
dessert which consisted of cake and ice cream.
Us dog owners have a thing about introducing one’s pup to
one’s friend’s pups. I think it’s an odd
way to validate ourselves through our pets but nonetheless we all do it. This time Karen and John’s Carly got to
interact with Jan and Wayne’s pooch for the first time. They generally stayed out of each other’s way
with only a couple of instances of bared teeth.
I will note that Piper, Kari and Alvin’s sweet doggo, was also present.
John and Karen are converting their fireplace to propane and
offered us some of their spare wood. As
we have a fire pit and a car with an empty trunk we couldn’t refuse.
How much hangin’ and conversing went on for the remainder of
the day I can’t be sure of but I recall there being a lot. Susan and I got on the road around 7:30 and
walked in our door just as the sky went dark for the evening.
Sunday we slept in for a long time. I was up and surfing the internet for a time
before I bugged Susan out of bed for coffee.
The plan was to work on Scrappy and mow the lawn. In the end we only had time for the
racecar.
I spent much of the afternoon working on the installation of
the fire suppression system. This mostly
entailed cutting and fitting the piping under the hood and behind where the
dash would have been if there was a dash.
Susan spent much of this time walking Oliver around with a leash and
harness. That is one precocious
kitty.
I was close to finishing so Susan ordered us Cheesecake
Factory via Door Dash so I could keep working.
She went for the baja chicken sandwich while I tried an Impossible
Burger which, in my opinion, tasted as close to the real thing as is
possible. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
After the suppression system was installed we spend a couple
of minutes wiring in the cool shirt cooler and figuring out how to securely
strap it down.
We made a quick jaunt to Lowes and Walmart for various
things and then we were back in the garage.
I swapped the coolant for distilled water and Susan installed foam on
the hood to close the large gap between it and the bumper due to some mishap in
Scrappy’s past. Lastly we installed a
strap to pull up the hood.
When we finally sat down on the couch after feeding Oliver
his din-din the dogs went into full-snuggle-mode. We think they really missed hanging out with
us as we were mostly out and about on this busy weekend.
On Wednesday the 8th we went to Harbor Freight to
buy a tool box and tools for the trailer.
Our plan is to upgrade the interior of the trailer to hold more than
just a car. The tool box we had our eye
on turned out to be too big for the car so we went home to get the
suburban. Once there we measured out the
space where we wanted to place the box and found that the one we had just
bought was too large. Thus we had to
drive back to HF to get a refund. After
not finding anything to our liking at Home Depot we settled on a smaller tool
box at Lowes.
The weather was cold and forecasted to get even colder over
the next few days so we purchased heating lights, one for Oliver’s shed and one
to place in front of Scrappy in the garage.
Thursday night Susan and I went to Lowe’s to buy wood and
screws to build a bench for the tool box to sit on in the enclosed
trailer. I had lofty aspirations that I
would quickly finish the work but found the going slow and many recuts were
needed before we called it a night, still far from done.
Friday night had us both in the trailer and installing
e-track. Depending on the internet
source the process ranged from simply utilizing self-tapping screws to drilling
out pilot holes for each screw. I found
the latter to be the only effective method for us. With Susan’s help we spent a few hours lining
up the e-track, marking holes, drilling, and zipping in screws. There were a lot of holes to drill and I
broke two drill bits before we were done installing the e-track we had.
Saturday – got up around 9:00 to call Parker Trailer and
drink some coffee. Parker Trailer was
literally too busy to talk so I figured we’d just drive over to see if they had
what we needed, which was shorter pieces of e-track for the front of the
trailer. So after coffee-time we hopped
in Tuna Bean for the drive over to Parker Trailer.
The wait was longish in their main building to talk to
someone but this was ok as they give excellent customer service to everyone
which takes time to do. When we finally
were helped we found out that they could cut 10’ sections of e-track into
whatever size we wanted. We settled on
four even pieces and ventured around the building’s aisles for a time before
settling down in some comfy chairs for the wait. This too took time but we had our trusty
never-bored devices so it was no big thing.
The cost of the e-track was very reasonable as they didn’t charge
anything for the cutting.
We knew we had to embark on a journey up to Colorado
National Speedway (CNS) at some point during the day so decided it was as good
a time as any to drive up there. The
following day’s rallycross was to be at this new site so someone was required
to meet with the owner. As has often
been the case in the past, no one else was available.
With the upcoming evening race the staff was busy and most
didn’t know us from Adam so it took some time to finally be connected to the
right people. We met a fellow named
Brian and the site owner named Jim who gave us the golf cart tour. He showed us where we were to run which was
alright but then asked if using the main parking lots would be better. I immediately jumped on this as the area was
better suited to our needs.
Soon after we were on our way back home. We stopped at Home Depot for some stuffs and
Duluth Trading to see what that place was about. It was interesting and confirmed my belief
that the store might as well have been called “hicks have money too”. Everything was expensive and we left
empty-handed. Everything seemed to be of
high quality but I guess we’re ok with paying a lot less for a little less
quality.
Susan remembered we needed to stop by Harbor Freight for
some things so we did so which was fun.
After one more quick stop at King Soopers to pick up chicken for Sunday’s
lunch we finally went home to unload and work on the trailer.
We spent the next few hours installing the new e-track, tool
box, drawer liner, and various trim to the front bench. After this we finally had the chance to load
the tool box with all the new tools we had just bought and all the old tools
I’ve been lugging around in our tool bag for many years. This was fun and we soon had the box
filled. Unlike most of our projects,
Susan had remembered to take before pictures so we made the trailer look nice
for more pictures of our progress.
With the trailer in order (for now) we changed focus to the
next day’s rallycross and loaded up the evo.
Then we went inside for the rest of the evening to take care of all the
little time-consuming things we have to do to prepare for a rallycross as the
Event Chair (me) and Chief of Timing & Scoring (Susan).
Sunday began early but not as early as most rallycross
mornings. The gates at the venue weren’t
supposed to be opened until 8:00 and we weren’t in a big rush to get up there
and wait to be let in. Our plan was to
still be early but, due to the perpetual lateness of guy who drives the rally
bus, we arrived on site later than we wanted.
As is often the way of things the gates were actually opened long before
8:00 so we could have gotten started on setting up much earlier. Such is.
The morning portion of the event went great after Susan
nabbed a volunteer help transport a portajohn from the far side of the venue to
our paddock area. Moving portajohns
around was never something I thought I’d do but this was not the first time my
role as Event Chair has required it.
They are remarkably light and tougher than they look, at least to
me.
During lunch I had several folks help change the course and
we were doing our thing soon after. It
was around 2:30 when things went completely off the rails.
The owner Jim drove his truck to the start line looking for
me or Todd. Once he had me in his sights
he trundled over. What followed was an
expletive-filled diatribe of epic proportions.
In my entire life I’ve never been so torn asunder. To condense the one-sided “conversation” his
expectation of acceptable wear and tear was far different from mine and
ours. It quickly became clear he wasn’t
looking for solutions but a punching bag so I weathered his storm.
In what was without precedent I stopped an event due early
due to site issues. While the drivers
were disappointed they were also understanding of the situation. We cleaned up and were about to leave when
Brian (the other CNS guy) came by to talk.
Evidently the verbal lashing I’d endured was Jim’s modus operandi and
Brian was there to try to make things right.
It was a more productive conversation than the one I’d had with
Jim.
As per normal Susan and I were the last ones to leave and
had a blessedly drama-free drive home.
As fate would have it this was the last rallycross I was to
run. I’d recruited a group of Event
Chairs to replace me in the role over several months and even was able to
convince one to take over for me as the Director. I’ve been thinking about and planning on
leaving the program for over a year and am relieved to finally move on. Susan was even able to find someone to take
on her job as Chief of Timing & Scoring, a role she’s handled for over four
years. I really wish this last event
would have gone better but I’m glad I was the one to handle it.
Wednesday – I finally mowed the grass for the first time in
2019. The Honda started right up and did
well at hacking through the dense foliage.
It took a few hours but I managed to finish up before dark. There is something satisfying about the first
mow of the year.
Thursday afternoon had us loading up Scrappy and heading to
HPR for some open lapping. We arrived
toward the end of the drivers meeting with the suburban’s hood steaming. Rut-row.
I saw that one of the coolant lines was leaking a lot but, as the motor
was still hot, I elected to worry about it once it cooled off a bit.
We were hoping to test out just about everything so I
changed into my racing suit and hopped into Scrappy. We found the radios worked fine but the new
headset wouldn’t transmit voice. The
cool shirt system worked almost too well.
It felt like my torso was immersed in cold water. The cooler came loose after a few laps so I
pulled in to give Susan a shot.
There were few at the track and no run groups so she ended
up staying out over an hour lowering her lap times. Her cool shirt seemed to stop working after a
while and the headset didn’t work when I tried fiddling with it. On her last lap Susan managed a personal best
which was awesome.
Toward the end of Susan’s drive I remembered the suburban
was in peril so finally took a better look under the hood. It was with the lightest of touches that the
leaky hose broke off from its attachment point, leaving around three inches of
plastic inside. Oh dang. Fortunately we actually had a decent
selection of tools on hand in the trailer and after much finagling I managed to
work up a fix of sorts.
This fix held for 30 miles of the drive home before all the
coolant pumped out of the motor. I
stopped immediately and reapplied said fix.
We had just enough water on hand to refill the radiator and made a
beeline to the nearest gas station to refill our jugs. This precautionary filling ended up being
unnecessary as the second fix got us home.
I decided to take Friday off to fix the suburban and go to
the track again with Susan. The nearest
car parts store had what I needed and before too long I had replaced the
offending part with a new one. Susan
made us coffee and we doddled a bit before climbing back in the suburban to
head to HPR.
We pulled into the paddock as the morning run groups were
finishing up and checked in at the main office.
The afternoon driver’s meeting wasn’t for another hour so we unloaded
Scrappy and sat together in our trailer.
It was very windy out but the temperature pleasant.
We both had fun driving the track when we finally suited up
and the cool shirt system worked flawlessly this time (the hose had simply
popped off the day before). It was an
interesting day as there were several cars there that were slower than Scrappy
which was a change. Usually I rarely
pass anyone but on this day I managed to get around a bunch of other cars.
After we were finished and almost packed up another Lemons
team also piloting a Miata came by to ask a bunch of questions and chat. I had met a couple of them last month when
they came over to check out Scrappy and ask questions. Now they were testing out their Miata and saw
us as having a lot of answers. We did
the best we could and enjoyed the conversation which went on for over an
hour.
The drive home was uneventful and we left Scrappy in the
trailer as rain was coming down.
Saturday was busy. I
was awake early and edited videos while Susan slept enough for both of us. Eventually Susan made coffee and we started
the day by unloading Scrappy and taking the trailer to Parker Trailers for
annual maintenance. On the way home we
stopped by the UPS Store and a gas station for gas.
Around 1:00 Susan and I wrangled Oliver into his kennel for
his first vet visit. Oliver didn’t
actually give us much fuss at all and seemed content on both the trip to and
the trip back. At the vet he delighted
the staff with his antics. I’ve never
experienced his level of “kitten” but we were told that he was completely
normal as he attached everyone’s hands and everything else that caught his eye.
Getting up early caught up with me when we were back home
and I napped for a time before Susan nudged me awake. We were to temporarily house a foster pug
that was being transported from New Mexico.
So, off we went to Chili’s to wait.
Eventually a tall Sprinter van arrived and Susan was handed an old pug named
Romi. Her stats: 11 years old, fawn with
a white face, fat, deaf, arthritic, cute.
Once home Romi had a difficult time calming down so Susan sat on the
floor with her.
We were to meet with Romi’s foster parents at 6:00 at the
Park Meadows Pet’s Mart but, alas, they were 25 minutes late. Once Romi was safely in their possession I
drove us to Rockbottom Brewery where dinner awaited. I had ordered under the assumption that the
foster parents would be on time so the food wasn’t exactly fresh. I wasn’t exactly happy about the situation but
such it is.
Sunday I was up early again and played games until Susan got
up and made us coffee around 10:00.
After coffee we went out to catch lunch at Mariachi’s which was
unusually not busy. Susan tried their
fish tacos and found them sufficient. I
had my normal creamy chicken plate thing which I continue to love. We ventured over to Lowe’s and then Walmart
before heading home for the last time for the weekend.
Dan Hipwood dropped by to drop off his trailer and a newly
acquired non-running MR2 he’d picked up somewhere in the San Luis Valley. Getting the car off the trailer was sketchy
as it has no working brakes but luckily a strategically positioned fence post
was able to stop the car’s momentum well short of our fence. We hung out for a time while Dan packed up
his trailer gear before heading up to the garage to gaze lovingly at Scrappy
and talk Lemons.
By the time Dan left we weren’t feeling like going out again
and had little at the house so Susan ordered Cheese Cake Factory for
dinner. The food was tasty and we spent
the remainder of the weekend on the couch watching interesting YouTube videos
streamed to our TV. Such a busy weekend!
Monday night had us going out for a quick bite at Qdoba when
a strong gasoline smell hit us on the drive.
We arrived safely and I found a puddle of gas on the driver’s side head
on the engine when I popped the hood.
Whoops! One of the rubber lines
had evidently cracked. We made it home
after eating and I ordered new lines. We
figured if the car caught on fire it would be a fitting end to its life.
After work on Wednesday Susan and I installed an electrical
outlet on the enclosed trailer. This
entailed cutting a hole in the side of the pristine trailer which proved easier
than I expected as it was very thin. We
did have to run to the store to buy the last correctly-sized hole saw they had
in stock. We were super-lucky as most of
the rack was empty and there was this lone open-package saw that happened to be
the right size.
Once the outlet was installed we shifted focus to Flo and I
replaced the leaky fuel line. This was
more difficult than I thought it would be and eventually I resorted to cutting
the old line in half to get it out.
Putting the new line in was much easier as it was a bit more
flexible. I finished the job pretty sure
Flo wouldn’t leak any more gasoline.
Pretty sure.
On Thursday I finally got around to changing Scrappy’s oil
and checking the brakes. I’m glad I did
as the front pads were almost gone. Unfortunately
I neglected to purchase another set ahead of time so we had to go to a parts
store to buy what we needed. In an
effort to make the next morning a simpler affair we loaded Scrappy into the
trailer and packed up most of our racing garb and accessories.
Friday started early with a 6:01 alarm. After a snooze we were up and packing up the
last few things for another open lapping day at HPR. Susan wanted to bring Mel to be our track
pooch and I acquiesced. I think Susan
initially regretted this as Mel kept her awake for the drive out when she
really wanted to sleep.
We pulled up to the check-in booth a hair after 8:00 and the
guy there remarked that we must really like coming out as he remembered us from
previous visits. It’s true we’d gone to
many open lapping days so far. In fact
this was our ninth visit in 2019. We
didn’t doddle much and I started the first lap of my stint around 8:30.
The plan was for me to run until Scrappy ran out of
gas. In the end my tank went empty
before the car did. I think my issue was
that I got dehydrated which eventually led to me coming down with a migraine
headache. I did stay out for a little
over two hours and I managed to put down a new personal best time but I was
feeling pretty miserable when I finally stopped by the trailer.
I had corded the tires on the left side so swapped them out
before Susan got out on the track. She
got in a decent stint herself before lunch was called.
My headache was finally starting to abate so we walked Mel
around and attended the afternoon drivers meeting. Mel was a fantastic companion at the track
and mostly spent her time quietly watching the comings and goings around the
trailer. She kept vigil when one of us
was out on the track and was always happy to see us return.
We both drove more in the afternoon and had a nice
time. We parked Scrappy at 4:00 and
watched the other cars zooming around the track and talked with other
drivers. There was another Miata there
that looked very Lemon-spec so we introduced ourselves. It turned out the car used to be a Lemons car
but had graduated to WRL. We had a nice
chat about this and that.
On the way home we stopped at Firehouse Subs for some
delicious sandwiches. We unloaded
Scrappy when we got home and spent much of the evening watching videos from the
track. Mel was very tired from her
adventure.
Saturday began relatively early for a Saturday when I
dragged Susan out of bed around 9:00 for coffee. We had an exciting day ahead of car
maintenance and garage cleaning. I
started with changing the oil in the suburban before diving into the mess which
was our garage.
It took several hours to reorganize and clean up the
garage. Truly we hadn’t cleaned up
completely since 2018 and had done many a car project in the interim. What a mess.
At some point I took a break from the garage work to finally
swap out the winter wheels for the summer wheels on the RS and Flo. Hopefully the snow from earlier the week was
the last we’ll see until next winter.
When we were finished the garage looked fantastic and was
mostly how we wanted it to be. Susan and
I spent some time gathering up our used motor oil from the previous year and
loaded it into Flo. Most auto parts
stores will accept a certain amount of used oil so we set out to get rid of
ours. The limit that stores will take is
five gallons so we had to make a total of four stops. I do change a lot of oil.
On Sunday we cleaned up the inside of the house a bit and I
prepped some food stuffs for our upcoming BBQ.
Ken, Randy, Kari, and Alvin came by after 1:00 but before 2:00 to hang
out and eat some lightly charred meat with us.
Of course there was much discussion about auto-related stuffs and I had
just about everyone sit in Scrappy to see how they fit. Even our tall friends Ken and Randy were able
to fit alright.
After we had eaten our fill Susan unleashed Oliver upon our
guests. That kitten is hilarious in that
he always seems to be in attack-mode.
Having Oliver out was a highlight of the BBQ and much laughter and
general delight was had.
It was in the late afternoon that Ken and Randy made their
exodus and a few hours later for Kari and Alvin. They stuck around to hang out more and,
eventually, to pack up the old fencing we’d taken down last summer when we’d
cleaned up the big chicken coop. Susan
and I were happy to have rid of it and they were happy to take it off our
hands. We all had a really nice
time.
Monday Susan and I celebrated Memorial Day with a trip to a
couple of junk yards. The hope was that
we’d find specific coil-on-plugs for Scrappy but we were unsuccessful. Such is.
On the way home we swung by Walmart and then Home Depot to look at and
eventually buy a small refrigerator for the enclosed trailer. We settled on a decent-sized model that we
hope will keep our food stuffs fresh on race weekend.
Once home we plugged in the new fridge and then set about
installing LED light strips in the trailer.
This was a relatively straightforward process and we were soon amazed by
our own handy work. The clouds were
looking mean and the forecast called for potential hail so I pulled the evo
into the garage and the RS into the enclosed trailer. That left Flo outside to take any hail
damage. Thankfully the clouds decided to
keep any hail to themselves.
At 6:30 we found ourselves driving to Alamo Drafthouse to
watch The Three Amigos. The Three Amigos
originally came out in 1986 and was Susan’s favorite movie growing up. Alamo Drafthouse periodically plays old
movies and we just had to get tickets to this showing when we saw a preview for
it back when we watched the last Avengers movie.
These showings are different than the normal theater
experience as they gave us “props” and moviegoer participation is
encouraged. The props were maracas and
pull-string fire crackers and much singing along and laughter was had by
all. It was a silly experience and I
think we’ll attend more of these special showings in the future. It made for an excellent finish to an
excellent weekend.
Friday the 31st had us at the track again. This time we brought Pebbles who slept on
Susan’s lap as she in turn slept on the drive.
We arrived at 8:00 and both drove during the morning. Around 11:00 Alvin made his arrival and got a
stint behind the wheel of Scrappy before the track broke for lunch. The plan was for our fourth Lemons driver,
Brad Ames, to come out and drive but he experienced some bad tire-luck and
couldn’t make it.
Alvin and I drove Scrappy in the afternoon with Susan
staying in the trailer to hang with Pebbles.
We had a good time and the car was great and had no issues with us
putting in another 100+ lap day. I even
let Chris take Scrappy out for a few laps.
Chris was on the Lemons team who let me drive their Audi at the October
Lemons event. Chris brought a turbo
charged VW that blew an oil line as soon as he drove it on the track.
Susan and I left the track after 5:30 and experienced a bit
of rain on the way home. We left Scrappy
in the trailer for the night and plopped down on the couch with the pups to
finish out the day.
May was a busy month for us.
We now have a kitty named Oliver who likes to attack everything and
everyone. We drove many hours at the
track and make many upgrades to our trailer.
Susan brought the pups to the vet to get heartworm shots and two of the
three were at healthy weights. Mel is
now less than 20lbs, Bella a hair over 10lbs, and Pebbles a little over 6lbs
(she could stand to lose a pound).
Our first Lemons race is coming up and we’re very excited!
