October 3rd weekend –
Saturday we got up and did our coffee thing before going out
shopping. Alvin and Kari came over for
BBQ and to help us figure out why Scrappy wouldn’t start. Alvin brought his GM tuning stuff and plugged
in. Nothing looked wrong so he thought
maybe the timing was off. As fixing that
would take hours we just hung out and chatted.
I BBQ’d burgers for Susan and Alvin and chicken for Kari and
myself. It was yummy. They stayed for awhile before heading back
home.
Sunday I had plans to redo the timing on Scrappy but I lost
all motivation for some reason. Really
we just sat around and vegged on the couch.
It was nice. Not all weekends
need to be full and productive I suppose.
October 9th weekend –
We were off on Friday with the intent to go to the track for
open lapping. As Scrappy wasn’t ready I
spent the morning redoing the timing. I
wasn’t finished until the early afternoon and the car still wouldn’t start. Truthfully I didn’t think the timing was
wrong before as setting it is very simple on these GM motors. Practically dummy-proof. We were bummed out but decided to go to the
track anyways – just without the car.
We packed up the RV and headed out. We needed to stop for fuel and did so at our
usual truck stop. It was very busy for
whatever reason and it took us quite a long time to do what we needed to
do.
Once at the track we set up quickly and walked around. We recognized a Lemon’s car and went over to
chat. They had engine issues at the
recent race and thought they had fixed the problem and were out testing. Unfortunately for them another problem arose
which shortened their day. It was nice
to talk to them about Lemons though. For
dinner we cooked up a pre-made bag mix on the stove which was yummy.
Saturday we attempted to sleep in but didn’t really
manage. After taking care of the pups
and drinking our coffee we wandered around.
The weather seemed nice enough so I fired up the charcoal grill which
caused the wind to pick up. Our food
eventually finished cooking and we ate fitfully at our kitchen table in the
RV. We watched some racing and managed
to find some friends to chat with.
Dinner was another bag meal and egg rolls. We don’t have an oven so the egg rolls were a
big soft but at least they tasted great.
On Sunday the dogs let us sleep in which was nice. We eventually were up to take care of them
and have our coffee. We walked around
the paddock again before packing up and heading out around noon. Our only stop was to dump the RV’s tanks
which took a long time. We’d let the
black tank get close to full which meant we needed to fill it will water after
dumping to clean it up more. This was
the first time someone was behind us waiting while we did our thing and we felt
the pressure to be quick. Oh well, such
is the RV-life or something.
We did our dance to get the RV in its spot once we were
home. Susan checked the mail and found
that our mail in ballots were there so we spent a few minutes filling them
out. We took a special trip out to drop
them off before picking up chicken at Safeway for dinner. We hung out with the dogs on the couch for
the rest of the weekend.
October 16th weekend –
Friday we were up early for coffee and to finish packing for
another RV trip to the track. This time
we brought Tia to drive as well. We had
done most of the preparations the night before so just grabbed a few things and
the dogs before heading out.
We arrive at the track late in the morning but with enough
time to set up, swap tires out on Tia, and get a few laps in before the noon
lunch break. We cooked a balsamic
pre-made bag meal for lunch which was ok although we both agreed we’d probably
not buy it again.
After lunch we drove most of the afternoon sessions. We had so much fun. Even a daily driver Miata is still a Miata
and still a blast to drive at the track (especially with the sticky tires we had). I skipped my last stint and started the BBQ
instead. When Susan finished driving her
final stint the grill was ready for cooking and we laid on our meats. I swapped back the wheels on Tia and we
loaded up it back into the trailer before eating dinner.
After food we walked around and looked at the cars. There weren’t a lot of people at the track so
it was a short trip. A fellow from the
Colorado Miata Facebook club had come out and chatted with us earlier which was
fun. People just getting into amateur
motorsports are always fun to talk to as they are full of enthusiasm.
Saturday we were up early to take care of the dogs and then
went back to bed for a few more winks of sleep.
Eventually we were up again to have our coffee. As we didn’t know anyone and are insular by
nature we pretty much stayed in the RV all day.
Susan spent much of her time watching racing while I whiled away my time
on the couch with the dogs. We did get
out to BBQ lunch and dinner was another bag of premade food on the stove. We watched movies and TV shows before
bed.
On Sunday I got up and took care of the dogs myself. I wasn’t sure I could fall back asleep so
retreated to the couch where I promptly fell asleep until Susan woke up. We hung out some after having our coffee
before we pulled up stakes and left for home.
We stopped at KOA to dump our tanks for a final time as this
was to be our last trip of the year.
Unfortunately we didn’t have small bills and their credit card machine
evidently didn’t get turned on until later in the afternoon so we had to go to
a gas station to break a fifty.
Eventually we did manage to dump our tanks and headed home.
At home we spent a bit more time unpacking the RV once we
got home since we were soon to winterize.
With all of our weekend trips and because we got lazy we hadn’t been
keeping up on our thistles in the lower 40 for a month so we went down to do
some trimming. All things considered it
wasn’t too bad and we trimmed and gathered the seed pods on a few
thistles. Then we headed to our beloved
couch to hang out for the remainder of the weekend.
October 24th weekend –
Saturday the plan was to be productive but it started lazy
as I played games on the couch until Susan got up at noon for coffee. We did then head outside to do a few things
in preparation for the upcoming snow. We
swapped snow tires onto Flo, cleaned up the garage so another car could be
parked in there, swapped the mower out for the snow blower, and finally
disassembled the old TV antenna that had been laying on the ground since I
flung it from the roof. At the end of
the day we parked Flo in the garage and retreated to the couch for some
relaxation.
Sunday came with a side of snow. I woke up early and took care of the dogs
before sitting on the couch to edit Susan’s race footage. I cut down over three hours of Susan driving
to show every time she passed another car.
It was fun to see and put together the video. Susan woke up around the time I was finishing
up which was perfect. We had our coffee
and got dressed to go out.
We braved the snowy roads to meet my work team at Canvas and
Cocktails to paint. Most of the team was
there which was neat. Susan and I sat
together where we could and we all painted stylized Day of the Dead skulls. It was quite fun and we were happy with the
results. I had to go off the rails a bit
and my painting came out mostly ok. The
rest of the group went out for drinks but Susan and I elected to go home and
hang out for the rest of the weekend with the dogs.
October 31st weekend –
Saturday we were up early for coffee and then drove up to
Alvin and Kari’s house. The plan was to
pick up a tuning device to use to figure out what is going on with Scrappy and
then do some shopping on the way home.
Their house was eerily quiet when we arrived and, after ringing the
doorbell to no avail, we left thinking that we had missed them. Once we re-entered cell reception (there is
virtually none at their home) we had a few missed calls and messages saying
that Alvin and Kari’s doorbell must have malfunctioned and they were indeed
home. So back we drove to their house
where they were waiting. We all had a
good laugh at the mix-up and hung out for a time chatting about this and that
before Susan and I made our way back to Denver.
We had a lot to do and stopped at Costco, Harbor Freight,
and then Walmart before getting home.
After unloading our goods we went out to change the oil in the suburban
to find that we didn’t have an oil filter so off we went again. After getting a few filters and extra oil at
Walmart we stopped to fill up a few jugs of gasoline on the way back home. Then we changed the suburban and Tia’s
oil. We also swapped Tia’s wheels and
loaded up the car into the trailer for the next day’s fun.
On Sunday we were up with an early alarm for coffee and last
minute packing. Then we headed to King
Soopers for lunch stuff and made a b-line to the track. We checked in after unloading and spent the
whole day driving. We did see some
friends who got to take rides with us which was fun. We really had a blast. We loaded up after the track closed and head
up to Longmont.
Yes, Longmont where we bought and loaded up another Miata
into the trailer. This was a used
Lemon’s race car that the CU Buffs racing team had put together and driven for
the last few years. It had no drivetrain
but the price was right and we were happy to take it off their hands. Fortunately there were many other members of
their team there to help push the car into our trailer and we went home (Susan
drove Tia while I towed the new race car).
After arriving home we took care of the dogs and pushed the
car out of the trailer and into the garage.
It was pretty filthy but looked good under the lights. It was getting late so we went inside to
finish the weekend inside on the couch.
October was a fun month for us. I really wish we could have gotten Scrappy
running again but we really enjoyed our time at the track and doing other
activities. The weather is really
getting colder so we’re trying to make the best of it before it’s too cold to
participate in our car hobbies.
Oliver has been a cute kitty this month. He is quite the sweetheart for several
minutes when he first comes to greet you at the end of the day. Even when he gets grumpy he usually calms
down for more pets after a time. Oliver
doesn’t get freedom everyday as we don’t want him out when the weather is
bad.
The pups are still adorable and make our lives
wonderful. Their dynamic together is
hilarious though Pebble’s antics do wear thin.
She still coming out of her shell which is crazy as we’ve had her for
well over two years now.
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