July 4th weekend/picking up the E30 – Thursday I
worked until 1:30 and then went home to get Susan and the pups. We had packed some the night before and Susan
finished up during the day so there wasn’t much to do when I got home. For this trip Bella and Mel were to ride in
the back of the Suburban while Pebbles stayed between us in the front. Picking up the trailer took longer than we
would have liked due to technical issues with their system and we finally got
on the road at 3:00.
This first leg of the drive took us all the way to Salina,
Utah and we arrived right at 10:00 as we’d planned. We checked into a Super 8 hotel which was
nice enough. There was a dedicated
doggie doodoo area, complimentary water bottles in the fridge, and a rubber
ducky in the shower. The lady at the
desk recommended we walk to the end of the balcony at 10:30 to watch the town
fireworks which we did, coffee cups of wine in hand. We weren’t exactly close and the view a bit
obstructed by the landscape but we enjoyed the show while the wind blew bugs
past us.
Friday began with a 5:30 alarm. After showering, breakfast, and packing up we
were on the road by 7:00. It was to be a
long trip this day and we drove all the way to our destination by 3:30
local-time. We met the guy (goes by
“Spank” but is named Mike Spangler) near his home and he led us back there to
get the E30.
The car looked good in its badness and was essentially what
I expected it to be – rough and beautiful.
Loading the E30 on the trailer proved a challenge but we finally managed
with the aid of a few pieces of wood. As
is normal there was some chatting that occurred but we left as soon as was
prudent to start the journey back home.
We took the opportunity to stop at In-N-Out for burgers
which were fine. Not exciting or
legendary but inexpensive. The
restaurant was next to a Wendy’s (where we parked our rig) and seemed to suck
up all the business. Wendy’s served
approximately two customers that we saw while the drive thru wrapped around the
In-N-Out.
As there were so many unknowns on this trip we hadn’t booked
a hotel for Friday night. This proved to
be an issue as the entire city of Las Vegas was booked as well as the next two
closer to us. Susan managed to snag
literally the last room available in Barstow which was not nearly as far as we
wanted to go but you do what you have to.
I was pretty exhausted at this point so it was probably for the best
that we paused the trip early.
We were setting in when the earthquake hit at 8:20. I thought someone was running through the
hallway at first but then the shaking kept on going and going. We were on the third floor of the hotel and
felt the building sway back and forth several times after the quake was over. Of course we changed the channel to the local
station to watch the news which told us that the epicenter was roughly 70 miles
away and the quake registered a 7.1 which was the largest in twenty years. Pretty neat.
The alarm went off at 4:30 and we were soon up and
about. We ate some hotel breakfast and
drank some hotel coffee before hopping into the suburban. I had noticed that one of the trailer tires
looked very low so we spent the next while searching for a gas station with a
working air compressor. This proved
frustratingly difficult but eventually I was able to add air to the tire. The tire had no pressure but looked alright
pumped up so we got on the road by 7:15.
What followed was a long day as we drove the 950 miles back
to Denver. We checked the previously low
trailer tire at each gas stop and which looked alright. Towing with the E30 on the trailer proved to
not be difficult for the suburban and we made relatively good time. Darkness fell as we were traversing Glenwood
Canyon. A wrong turn once we got to
Denver added a few additional miles and some additional time to the journey and
we pulled into our driveway at 11:45. We
were pretty exhausted and left much of the suburban packed and the E30 on the
trailer for the night.
I was up around 7:00 on Sunday morning to take care of the
dogs before soon going back to bed. I
next awoke at 12:30 and soon we were out of bed. We could have easily slept longer but needed
to return the trailer by 3:00 lest we be charged for an additional day of
rental.
Unloading the E30 was simple as we knew we needed to utilize
wood to change the ramp angles. Susan
grabbed the ramps I had made for the rallybus which also proved useful. In fact, the hardest part was me having to
figure out that the E30’s reverse gear was located euro-style, to the left of
first gear.
Once unloaded we returned the trailer without incident
before making a quick stop at Harbor Freight for a tarp and tie-downs and
Walmart for various other stuffs.
We had plans to unload the engine from the trunk of the E30 but
rainchecked that for the time being as the rain started to fall. We quickly moved the car to its temporary
home next to the cat shed and secured the new tarp using the new tie-downs. Soon a heavy downpour followed and we were
happy with the timing of things.
While we were out Susan had received an invite from Kari for
pizza and games at their house in the late afternoon so we jumped in Flo to
head over there around 4:30.
We talked about this and that for the next several hours and
at Papa Murphy’s at some point. The
games never materialized but that was ok as we enjoyed the conversation. We got home around10:00 and hung out with the
pups on the couch for the rest of the evening watching Jeopardy! episodes from
the 1980s.
Other tidbits from the E30 adventure:
The pups were a mixed-bag on the trip. Pebbles was largely good but by the end of
the journey had migrated from the center console to Susan’s lap. Bella was ok in the back of the Suburban
until we were halfway home when she decided she needed to be up front with
us. Mel had a tough time for much of the
trip. She whined a lot and was almost
constantly poking her head up next to our chairs. We stopped in Utah and bought her “calming”
chewables which (we think) helped her.
When Bella finally broke through the physical barrier erected to keep the
pugs in the back of the suburban Mel also followed. By the time we entered Colorado all the pups
were in the front with us.
I found southern California to be quite the disappointment,
at least from a scenic perspective. It
is basically a hilly desert and the pollution blocked much of the distant
views.
We did check several California-specific boxes while we were
there. We saw a homeless camp and a
brush fire. The drivers were just as
terrible as I’d heard and we got to experience an earthquake.
It was a fun adventure though I think we would have enjoyed
it more if we had taken it slow and stopped at the many interesting places we
saw along the way. The landscapes in
Utah were simply amazing at times and I was overwhelmed by the largeness of
much of what we passed by. I hope we get
to take the trip again at some point in the future.
July 13 weekend – Saturday began early at 6:30 when the
alarm went off. Neither of us were
exactly excited but eventually rolled out of bed for coffee. After our ritual was complete Susan gathered
Oliver in his carrier and we were off to the vet for his last round of kitten
shots.
I was expecting that he’d be taken to the back again to
receive his shots but instead we were led to a room to watch as he was
poked. Unlike his second shots Oliver
did alright and only emitted one little yowl.
He’s calmed down greatly as well and didn’t attack everything this
time. It was a short visit and we were
soon on our way back home.
Once home we loaded up the suburban with rally wheels/tires
to drop off at Discount Tire. A Utah
rallycrosser is interested in buying the tires so we needed to get them
dismounted. While I’d love to sell the
guy the wheels too I know they won’t fit on his car.
After Discount we went to Mici Handcrafted Italian for
lunch. We’d dropped by a week or two ago
to find the place still under construction.
Susan noticed the open sign on a few days ago and suggested we try
it. We found the food yummy and the
staff nice. I could certainly see us
exchanging money for their food stuffs again.
Back home we had a few chores to tend to and got to
them. I mowed and weed whacked around
the dog corral and driveway while Susan got started on spraying the weeds. Once done Susan took up her pointing stick
and me the sprayer and we set about laying waste to the thistles and other
undesirable plants. Susan also brought
clippers and a bucket to gather the seed pods that were about to explode. It’s a never ending battle.
Once done with the weed spraying I set about spraying all
the green things on the driveway with plant-killer. The formula did great at killing everything a
month ago but many plants have started coming up between the carcasses so
another round of spraying was necessary. Hopefully this will be the last time
for the summer.
We were hot and tired at this point and a nap sounded quite
fine so we took one. It was supposed to
be short nap but we drug it out a bit. I
was woken by a call from Discount that our tires were ready to be picked up so
I did that while Susan fed the pups.
The evening plan was a Streelight Manifesto concert and we
were in a rush to leave to meet Kari. We
needn’t have been in a hurry as Kari was running late herself. Eventually Kari arrived and we ate dinner at
Noodles before heading downtown.
We went to Susan’s old office to park as her manager
provided her with the door codes. They
didn’t work for some reason (we suspect the keypad wasn’t functioning
correctly) but luckily a couple of other concert-goers were walking out and
offered to open the gates for us. Once
Flo was finally parked in Susan’s old spot we walked the few blocks to the
venue.
The Fillmore used to be a huge roller rink back in the day
and still retains a unique layout. Susan
had paid extra so we could have a balcony table which was great as we had
glorious space. We were able to watch
the younger whipershappers and not-so-young bopping and moshing about
below.
Apparently things were running behind so we chatted and
drank adult beverages while the theater filled up.
The opening act was a guy with backing tracks and a projector. He was ok I suppose but I was bored with much of his music.
It was right at 9:00 that Streetlight came on and did their
thing. As always the music was great and
the crowd was into it. Their encore
started around 10:00 and they played for another 20 minutes before making their
final exodus from the stage.
Our walk back to pick up Flo from Susan’s old office was
uneventful and soon we were driving back to drop Kari off at her car on our way
home.
We slept in until 10:00 on Sunday which felt nice. It was a message from Dan Hipwood that he was
dropping by that got us out of bed to start the day. We were just about done with our coffee when
he arrived to load up his MR2 onto his trailer.
The loading up took some time as the MR2 wasn’t
running. Dan had to swap out the
now-flat tires the car was sitting on and use a winch to pull it onto the
trailer. After many minutes the car was
secured and ready to go.
Dan had to, of course, come up to see the new (to us) E30
and he hung around to chat for a time which was nice.
We were feeling hungry when Dan finally left so we hopped in
Tuna Bean for a trip to Mariachis for lunch.
It was very busy but worth the short wait as the food was yummy enough
that we stuffed ourselves.
After another trip to Walmart for more miscellaneous stuffs
we went back home to hang out. I had
grand plans to change oil on a few cars and whatnot but a full belly and the
high temperatures had me thinking “couch-time”.
We ended up finishing the weekend out on the couch with the pups
watching TV and playing games. It was
nice to have a normal weekend after the last two were spent traveling.
On Tuesday Susan had a mini-adventure. A puggle needed to be transported from Denver
to Leadville and Susan volunteered for the task. She was up early to pick up “Scout” and head
for the hills. Susan was to meet Debra
for the handoff. They had lunch together
before Susan walked around the town and went to gaze lovingly at Gilman. Gilman is a super-fund ghost town that is
legendary in urban exploration circles.
There is a chain link fence around its perimeter so Susan contented
herself with taking pictures from afar.
After picking up a nasty sunburn Susan made her way home.
Thursday had Susan and me driving to HPR for some laps in
Scrappy. Through our Dirty Lemons
Facebook group we had recruited an additional driver named Ian Thorley for the
September race and wanted him to try out our car. He lives in Frisco and made the long trek to
the track. Ian introduced himself
following the drivers meeting and seemed nice enough. We all got to drive Scrappy which was, as
always, a lot of fun. It was very hot a
the track and it seemed like all the other cars there were overheating after a
few laps. It was great driving a car
that had no issues putting in lap after lap with virtually no issues. We finally left the track at 9:00 for the
drive home.
July 20 weekend – Saturday we were up before 6:30 to feed
the pups. By 7:00 we and a
harnessed-Bella were in Tuna Bean and attempting to drive to Leadville. I say “attempting” as a section of C470 was
closed for construction and things weren’t looking good until we figured out a
way around. Then it was smooth driving
the whole way up.
We were afraid out initial delay would cause us to be late
for the train ride we’d already bought tickets for but ended up having enough
time once we were in Leadville to stop by their tiny Safeway for some food
stuffs. Once at the train depot Susan
picked up our tickets just in time to board the train and find seats. There was only one car Susan had in mind
which was covered and open-air (no windows).
We sat in some of the last available seats and were informed the train wouldn’t
be leaving for 15 minutes.
The 12 mile train ride was pleasant enough. It plodded along as a guy delivered
interesting info over the PA. We were
sitting on the upslope side so spent a good amount of time standing to see the
views on the downslope side of the train.
The area had a lot of snow the previous winter and the avalanche chutes
had widened somewhat. Also there were
sections of forest around us where the trees were uprooted by recent
avalanches.
Bella was very good and spent almost all of the ride laying
down on her own seat between Susan and myself.
She didn’t bark once and tolerated the few children and adults who
offered pets.
On the ride back it rained pretty hard which had those in
the open cars scurrying to the covered cars to escape the cold wetness. I held Bella for most of the return journey
as it was cold and she tolerates the attention so well.
After the three-hour ordeal Susan took some pictures of the
train engine and smashed a commemorative penny before we got back in Tuna
Bean. We drove to Vail via a different
route than we’d come in on which proved to be a good choice as the scenery was
fantastic and the roads fun to drive.
Susan found a pet-friendly restaurant called Westside Café
where we stopped for a late lunch. It
was busy and we had to wait a few minutes for a patio table to open up. The pet-friendliness of the café was
evidently well-known as there were other dogs tethered to tables and chairs. The
place was pricy but worth the cost as the food delicious. After stuffing ourselves we hoped into Tuna
Bean for a long drive home.
One the way up I70 we had noted a semi-truck pulled over at
Georgetown with its brakes evidently smoking.
This tractor-trailer’s woes got worse at some point as the whole thing
eventually caught on fire and massive delays ensued for the rest of the
day. Susan saw the horrible traffic just
before we about to run into the back of it at lake Dillon so we exited at
Frisco.
My plan was to drive around Eisenhower Tunnel via Loveland
Pass but, as the traffic extended all the way to Georgetown, we elected to keep
driving on to Breckenridge and then to Fairplay to catch highway 285 to
Denver. As crazy as it might sound this
route actually saved us time versus if we stayed on I70. While it was a long drive we enjoyed the
memories conjured up as we passed over Kenosha Pass and through Bailey, Pine
Junction, and Conifer.
We didn’t get home until almost 6:30 and decided to finish
the evening out via the couch.
My plan to be productive on Sunday was dashed by an
overwhelming desire to do nothing. And
so we hung out all day with the pups watching TV and playing games. It was a great weekend for sure.
July 27 weekend – Saturday we had an early start with me
rolling out of bed at 7:00 to take care of the pups. I’d been putting off mowing the lawn due to a
combination of things for too long and wanted to get started before the day got
too hot. Susan also was up and made a
trip to Goodwill to buy some Vera Bradley purses she’d seen there the day
before.
I was maybe halfway through mowing when Susan returned so
she took up the task of spraying the thistles while I finished up. It was pretty darn hot out when I finally
drug myself back to the garage so I elected to forgo any further outdoor
exertions for the day.
I’d purchased a veggie slicer we wanted to try out and used
it to cut zucchini into spaghetti-like “noodles” and cooked chicken and a
cheese sauce for lunch. The cheese sauce
was an experiment of sorts as I’d also bought sodium citrate which used for the
first time. It was incredibly effective
and we made a whole pot of smooth melted cheese. Our recipe called for beer which is where
things went off the rails. Neither of us
actually enjoy beer and the type we chose made the cheese taste pretty
bad. We managed to choke down enough for
lunch but ended up throwing out the rest.
John’s best friend Wayne had died of heart failure a week
before and his family held services on Saturday afternoon up at Platte Canyon
High School. It was a celebration of his
life and was a pleasant experience, all things considered. Memories were shared and we chatted about
this and that with various other folks there.
We shared a table with John, Karen, Kari, and Alvin. Susan and I stayed until the services
concluded before making our way home.
Once home I whipped up another pot of melted cheese sans
beer which was much tastier. The rest of
the evening was spent hanging out with the pups on the couch.
Sunday we were up early again, this time with an alarm. Susan took care of the dogs and started
coffee while I slowly drug myself out of bed.
Alvin soon made an appearance towing his and Kari’s camper and John
arrived with Kari pulling John’s empty open-deck trailer. Alvin’s truck had engine problems when he was
at his annual two weeks of drill for the Army Reserves so he was driving his
friend’s truck to bring back the camper.
John was there to lend his trailer to pick up Alvin’s truck so it could
be brought back to Denver to be fixed.
Kari was along for the ride and hung out with Susan while Alvin and John
drove down to Colorado Springs. I
elected to keep the dogs company and entertained myself watching internet
videos while Susan and Kari went to the Parker Farmer’s Market and lunch.
In the early afternoon Alvin and John returned with Alvin’s
truck in tow and them and Kari left. We
spent the remainder of the day being lazy on the couch with the dogs. It was another nice weekend for sure.
Oliver is getting so big and isn’t as much of a maniac. He’s a purr machine for the first few minutes
when you see him before going to “attack mode”.
Oliver likes knocking things off shelves and tipping over his
water. Susan thinks he likes playing in
the water and I can imagine that is the case.
He likes to spent time at the window watching the world outside.
The pups have been great little buddies as always. Bella is still a sweet pea and just lives for
cuddles and laying in the sunlight.
Pebbles has largely been brave and ventures onto and across the wood
floors more or less at will. She’s
skinnied up a bit over the last month or two as we’re trying to get her down to
the vet-recommended five pounds. Mel is
still mildly difficult in her overbearing way.
She finally has figured out that I also have a lap that is comfortable
to lay on and now only bugs Susan 97% of the time we’re on the couch.
