September 1st had us sleeping in a little before
heading out to work on Scrappy. I took
my sweet time so we didn’t finish up the timing belt swap until around
noon. Once done we performed the longest
coolant bleeding ever. We wanted to test
the car so I turned on Scrappy’s car insurance and Susan installed the old
license plate and found the registration card (still valid).
Susan followed in Tia as I drove on E470 for a few miles
before turning back. Scrappy misfired at
low RPMs and threw two new codes but didn’t overheat – a classic one step
forward, two steps back. At a loss we
hung out until Kari and Alvin came by for BBQ around 5:30.
Alvin gave Scrappy a onceover and replaced the spark
plugs. I noticed a vacuum plug was
cracked through and replaced it. Alvin
did a compression test which came back largely alright. The food was done so we ate our hamburgers
and chicken burgers which were yummy.
Before it got too dark I took Scrappy out for another test drive. All went well. No codes, no misfiring, and no
overheating. We hung out for another few
hours before Alvin and Kari left Susan and me to chill with the pups.
Monday we slept in and I had coffee and while Susan had frap. Susan had a phone interview which seemed to
go well and soon after we hopped in suburban to pick up free patio furniture in
Evergreen.
We were literally about to pull out of neighborhood when Susan
saw the ad was deleted. Dejected I
started to turn back before Susan suggested we look at a different free set of
patio furniture in Centennial (apparently it’s that time of year). So instead of turning back into our
neighborhood we went headed north.
A few zigzags later and we arrived to see the patio set
replete with “free” sign. A quick
assessment had us glad we made the trip and we loaded it all up in the
trailer. We were hungry at this point so
stopped by a new-to-us Mexican restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately we found to find it closed for
the Labor Day holiday.
We then drove toward Walmart to buy food stuffs and saw Dicky’s
BBQ was open and stopped in for BBQ. It
was yummy and we were full when we left the joint. Once home we unloaded the patio furniture and
settled on the couch. It didn’t take us
long to find ourselves napping though Mel made it her mission to make staying
asleep difficult.
Dinner was more BBQ though from our own grill. We spent the remainder of the long weekend on
the couch with the pups.
On Thursday Susan called to inform me that Flo wouldn’t
start and she was stranded at our local Tire Rack distribution center. Sounded like it could be a starter
issue. Luckily Susan had backed into a parking
spot which happened to also be on a slight decline and she managed to bump/roll
start Flo and get home.
After work we drove to HPR for another bout of
racecar-testing. Despite another
endurance event occurring later in the weekend the track was relatively quiet
and there were few cars on the track at any time. Scrappy drove great and showed none of the
issues we’d had before. No overheating
or misfiring. We’re tentatively
confident it’s ready for next week’s Lemons race.
Saturday began with coffee around 9:00 after which we headed
to the garage. Scrappy was pretty dirty
from the last Lemons race so Susan took it upon herself to wash it. After driving Scrappy around the house to
where the hose resides I used our hedge trimmer to trim along the edge of the
driveway and our three hedges. We both
finished up around the same time and put Scrappy back in the garage.
I removed Flo’s starter to confirm it would be simple and to
gather up the necessary tools to get one from a junk yard. While we weren’t 100% positive the starter
was the culprit in Flo’s woes it seemed likely.
We threw the necessary tools in our orange tool box along with a few
extras just in case and loaded it along with the old starter and new tires and
wheels into the suburban and went out.
Our first stop was to Discount Tire to drop off the wheels
and tires to have the new tires mounted.
Then we went to Mariachi’s for a yummy lunch before driving up to Aurora
U Pull.
Susan had compiled a list of the rows that had cars that should have the parts we were looking
for – a starter for Flo and spare coil on plugs for Scrappy. As usual we were both wearing sandals and had
to walk deftly to avoid the puddles and various detritus. We had to walk up and down several rows of
cars before finding the correct Subaru with the correct starter but we found
one and, after a few minutes, I had removed the starter. Not too much later and we found a car with
coil on plugs that were in good enough shape to take for Scrappy. Success!
While at the junk yard I was notified our tires were done
being mounted so we swung back over to Discount to pick them up.
Once back home I installed the junk yard starter in Flo and
Susan tried starting the car. Success
again! It seems that the starter was the
issue and we were relieved at having been able to fix it on our own. I paid $30 for the junk yard starter instead of
buying a new one for between $150-200.
Installing it myself likely saved us another few hundred dollars. All win.
While I was tending to Flo Susan wiped off Scrappy’s water
spots and applied wax. I finished before
Susan did and helped buff off the excess wax.
Wow did Scrappy look good!
We decided we’d done enough productive things for the day so
went inside to hang with the pups.
Dinner was yummy leftover pizza.
Sunday we slept in late.
I was up a little before Susan to take care of the pups and played games
on the couch until she ventured out of the bedroom a few minutes later for
coffee. Once again we headed to the
garage after completing our caffeine ritual.
We had a list of things to do to prepare for the race next
weekend. I vacuumed and cleaned the
driver’s side floor in preparation to replace the old grip mat while Susan
scrubbed the floor of the trailer. I
swapped out the wheels and Susan inspected the old ones closely for cracks
(they were fine). We organized the spare
parts and I replaced one of the wire plugs on the coil on plugs as bare wires
were showing. We were pretty hungry at
this point and went out to eat and run a couple of errands.
Lunch was at NY style pizza at Colonna’s Pizza. It was very authentic to our Colorado pallets
but the server-person bringing Susan the wrong pizza marred the experience a
bit. Susan got to watch me eat my pizza
slices and then I got to watch Susan eat her pizza slices.
A fruitless trip to Home Depot (they didn’t have what we
needed) was followed by a tiny shopping spree Walmart where we picked up a few
odds and ends. We swung by Lowes where
we found the specific insulating foam we were looking for.
When we got home we were tired even though we hadn’t done
much. This may have been carb-overload
from lunch or perhaps we’d just had enough productivity for the weekend. For whatever reason we decided to go inside
and just hang with the pups on the couch for the rest of the day. It was a great weekend for sure.
High Plains Drifter
The race weekend began on Thursday when we drove to the
track after I got home from work. We’d
packed some in the previous days and had to finish up before we left. We weren’t exactly in a rush as our evening
plans only entailed a little driving and unpacking into our reserved covered
parking spot.
We arrived at the track to find half of our pre-paid spot
occupied by a large car hauler. This was
annoying but the area we were going to park the trailer in was free so we
proceeded to unload and set up our stuffs.
Later someone came by to let us know the hauler would eventually be
moved. It wasn’t until the next morning
this finally occurred and after they asked us if we were actually going to use
the spot. *sigh* I hate people sometimes.
After we had unpacked and mostly set up shop I took Scrappy
out for a few laps to heat cycle the new tires.
I had set up a tablet to show the water temperature so we could keep an
eye on it while we drove and it worked fine.
Scrappy was, as always, a lot of fun to drive and afterwards I swapped
the wheels out for the slightly-used set that we were to run on Day 1 of the
race.
There weren’t a lot of other teams at the track on Thursday
night so we wandered around and talked to them.
We eventually set up our air mattress and hit the hay.
Friday we wanted to sleep in a little but the dogs weren’t
in the mood so we were up pretty early to feed and tend to the little devils. We had our coffee and puttered about until
Alvin arrived with his camper. After
some discussion the camper was placed in a desirable spot and Ian showed
up.
For some reason I can’t explain I thought tech started at
noon (it actually started at 1:00) so I drove Scrappy over to the tech
area. It didn’t take long for me to be
informed of my error but by then a dozen other cars had lined up. Whoops!
They didn’t mind us leaving our cars there until 1:00 and so we all did
so.
Phil (one of the main Lemon’s people) performed the BS
inspection on Scrappy. We bribed him as
best we could, hoping to be placed in a lower class but it was for not as he
wouldn’t budge. We knew it was a
long-shot so weren’t too terribly disappointed.
Once done with the BS inspection walked back to our paddock spot and
served and ate lunch.
At 1:00 we were back to the tech area where we passed
without any issues as expected. We had
our piles of personal gear which was also cleared to race. Alvin was the last to get his gear checked
and then we took our signed tech sheet to officially check in at Lemons
headquarters and pick up our transmitter.
After finishing the last of the required things we had to do
Alvin took Scrappy out for around 30 minutes.
He felt that the brakes were sticking so he and Ian bled them while I
rewired the alternator to the kill switch wiring. The evening was spent with dinner and copious
amounts of hanging out.
Saturday was the first race day and started early. After we went through Susan’s new checklist I
suited up and got belted into Scrappy. I
waited for what seemed like a long time with the other drivers at the track
entrance before we were finally unleashed to drive slowly around. These first laps are to make sure the
equipment is functioning and after them we were shown the green flag and the
race began!
The driving was fun and I got to pass a lot of other cars
before my stint was over at noon. Alvin
was next but was immediately black flagged for not checking in with the
pre-track safety person. It was a
miscommunication but hurt as we lost a few laps while he was berated by the
Lemons staff. After Alvin finished Ian
took the wheel for his stint before Susan finished up for the day. We were placed well in 5th
overall.
As in now custom we cooked our Lemons Cheaty Chicken Chili
for the evening’s paddock potluck. This
time we made twice as much as before which worked out well as it was all still
eaten. We walked around eating this and
that and talking about this and that until the sun went down. Then we continued eating and talking until
later.
It should be noted that we were incredibly unlucky in who
paddocked next to us. This was a team
who had a history of bringing a car that barely ran and would inevitably blow
up after only a handful of laps. Their
weekend would mostly entail working on their car. This time their car ran but not well and they
spend much of their downtime (the evenings) revving their engine loudly while
trying to tune the ECU. It was oh so
annoying but part of the experience I suppose.
Sunday began a bit earlier and, despite getting up with
plenty of time to spare, I barely managed to get out onto the track in time to
race. It’s amazing how time flies I
guess. In any event I made it in time
for the green flag and my stint went without issue.
Alvin and Ian received black flagged penalties for going off
and Ian also experienced issues with the kill switch getting caught up in its
pull-cord and thereby not fully turning off.
This led us to believe that my rewiring job came apart before Alvin
messed with the kill switch and discovered the problem.
Susan had a clean stint which helped us to finish eighth
overall and third in our class after 319 laps.
The penalties and kill switch issue were painful as we likely would have
finished several places ahead overall.
Such is endurance racing! We all
had a great time and were relieved that Scrappy ran so well.
After the awards ceremony we packed up. While Alvin and Ian offered to help Susan and
I preferred to do the majority ourselves so released them to go home with clear
consciences. Perhaps because we’d packed
up after a Lemons race twice earlier this year we finished up much quicker than
before and drove off by 5:40. Such a
great weekend!
Once again the pups were mostly good. Bella was uncharacteristically needy which
had us worried that something was wrong but we think she was just stressed
out. While deaf she no doubt felt the
reverberations of the incredibly loud cars, especially those generated by our
paddock neighbors. The dogs spent much
of the weekend in Alvin’s camper as he ran his A/C continuously. They were very tired when we got home.
September 21st weekend – Saturday began with
Susan and me sleeping in before coffee.
We didn’t really have anything firmly planned for the day so spent most
of it on the couch. I edited racing
videos and Susan did her thing while we listened to a broadcast of the 2019
RallyCross National Championships.
Several Colorado competitors were participating and we
cheered them on. The weather at the
event was pretty horrid for racing on dirt with rain rolling in and making the
ground incredibly muddy. We genuinely felt
sorry for those drivers who were unprepared for such conditions (it seemed most
drivers weren’t). A few Coloradans were
doing well by the time the racing was over for the day.
Susan ordered Jimmy Johns for lunch while I ate my preferred
leftovers. Later we went to Qdoba for
dinner and did a little shopping at Walmart.
Sunday we slept in again.
I played games while we followed along with the rest of the RallyCross
event. It had rained hard during the
night and conditions were worse than before so the drivers only got two more
shots at the course. It quickly became
clear who had the best tires and had experience in the mud. I do not miss events like these. A few Coloradans finished well with one
winning his class which was nice.
Around 3:00 had Susan and myself leaving the house to catch
dinner at Garbanzo’s on the way to the Park Meadows United Artists movie
theatre. Susan had seen that they were
doing a limited showing of Shawshank Redemption and had reserved us seats. It was the 25th anniversary of the
movie coming out in 1994. We’d probably
seen the movie twenty times at home but there is something special about the
big screen and we enjoyed the show. We
were a bit surprised with the small crowd in the theatre and hope the powers
that be see enough value to continue re-releasing old movies in such a
fashion.
We finished the weekend on the couch with the pups as we
often do. While we didn’t accomplish
much it was a fine weekend.
September 27th weekend – Friday was an exciting
day as Susan received and accepted a job offer.
This after more than 90 applications and dozens of interviews. We went to Maggiano’s to celebrate and the
food was delicious.
Saturday we were up earlyish with an alarm and drank our
coffee. We had a busy day planned and
were out the door quickly.
First we went to pick up a used transmission for
Scrappy. The transmission is to
facilitate the motor swap we’re planning for the offseason. Not cheap but there were only two in all of
Colorado so the price was understandable.
Next we went to The Subie Doctor to sell Todd Briley the 2001
Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS. This went without
a hitch and the proceeds will go towards paying for Scrappy’s motor swap. After chatting with Todd for a bit we went to
pick up some cool shirt cooler stuffs from Brad Ames.
Originally I had planned on us just grabbing a quick bite to
eat but then I remembered how much we liked It’s Brothers Bar & Grill so we
stopped in for sit-down lunch on the way home.
It was noon give or take so we decided to head back out to our favorite
junk yard – Littleton U Pull.
I wanted to take a peek at several vehicle’s motors and we
needed a specific accelerator pedal from one of the cars (again, for the motor
swap). I didn’t bring nearly enough
tools to pull a motor so settled on getting the throttle pedal. Fortunately the pedals aren’t exactly sought
after so we had no issue finding one. I
did manage to cut up my arm on broken glass a little bit but I just got my
tetanus shot a month ago so wasn’t too worried.
After acquiring the pedal we went home to hang with the pups
for a few hours before we left again, this time to Alvin and Kari’s house to meet
some ducks, hang out, and eat BBQ.
Kari had recently taken responsibility for two grown
boy-ducks and wanted to show them off.
We found them cute in their duck-way.
Ducks aren’t very intelligent but Kari has them closed into her garden
area so there isn’t too much of a concern that they will injure
themselves. Worst comes to worst and
they will serve duck at Thanksgiving.
Alvin made steak and some chicken that I had brought
along. The food was yummy and we chatted
about this and that. We hung out for a
while and didn’t get home until after 9:00 to see our needy pups. It was a long day.
On Sunday we were up by 8:00 without an alarm for some
reason. After coffee it didn’t take us
long to decide to be purposely unproductive and make a b-line for the
couch. We hung out playing games,
watching TV, and keeping the pups comfortable for the entirety of the day. It was a glorious way to end the weekend and
the month of September.
Pet news
The three dogs (Bella, Pebbles, and Mel) are doing
well. Bella is very adorable but we can
see that she’s slowing down a bit.
Pebbles has largely conquered walking across the wood floors but has
started eating her own poo which we don’t appreciate. Mel is still needy and can be very annoying
at times. We think her prior owner must
not have refused this pug much in her life.
All three give us their full attention when I’m cutting cucumber or
tearing apart rotisserie chicken.
Oliver is still acts like a kitten but has grown quite a
bit. Susan has to be careful as he
doesn’t seem to grasp exactly how sharp his claws are. Oliver still knocks over his water bowls
constantly but Susan makes sure he doesn’t go without. While he’s still a challenge he has calmed
down over the past few weeks. Now Susan
can get in a few pets before he goes into attack-mode.
