Here are a few Santa Pictures from the mall and from our Lion's Club Christmas Social.
Santa Pictures
Here are a few Santa Pictures from the mall and from our Lion's Club Christmas Social.
A new Trailer
December 10th through 12th--Well, owning a vintage ramp truck was cool, but it just isn't practical anymore. I want to continue staying the night at the race track like we did at Buttonwillow. I've actually been looking for a living quarters car hauler for a while and found a Santek on Craigslist. It was down in Rancho Cucamonga. We didn't have anything going on, so we drove down to Bakersfield on Friday night and stayed at the Best Western next to Buck Owens Crystal Palace. Saturday morning we drove the rest of the way to Rancho Cucamonga and looked over the trailer. We liked it, so we bought it.
It's a 28' Santek with 20' of open cargo space once the two electric queen beds are motored up to the ceiling and the two combination dinette/couch twin beds are folded up against the wall. It has a full bathroom and kitchen, AC and heat, TV, DVD and stereo system--all the comforts of home. It is heavy. It weighs about 10,000 pounds without a car in it and it has a 15,000 pound maximum load rating.
We stopped off at Magic Mountain for a couple of roler coaster rides on our way over the Grapevine and finally pulled off at the Visalia KOA to spend the night. We had no food, no water and we couldn't figure out how to start the heater, so we got up early and headed to town for breakfast. We got home in the early afternoon and ended up out in the trailer watching a DVD of the new Flipper movie and making Quasedillas for everyone.
I listed the Ramp Truck for sale on Monday and sold it on Wednesday. My friend Tony and I delivered it to the new owner in Rohnert Park on Thursday and that ends the Ramp Truck era.
LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apalooza
I finally got back onto a road race track December 3-5th at Buttonwillow Raceway in the south valley. Yes, I finally let myself be talked into going competitive road racing with a LeMons Team. I am now a member of the Cajun Coonasses dba Spinal Crap team that won the 2099 Lemons National Team and Driver’s Championship. LeMons cars are a trip. Basically stock piles of junk with extremely good safety gear (cages, seats, harnesses and full drivers safety gear) that race competitively on road race courses throughout the US. The Cajun Coonasses have two ‘91 Nissan Sentra SE-R’s that they campaign on the west coast and a Saturn stored in Texas that they campaign on the southern circuit. Stock or not, when you strip a Sentra SE-R of everything that can be ripped out without the car falling apart, they’re pretty fast. You may remember some of my team mates. They are Scott Macleod, Tony Partida and Kert Miller. All ex-members of the DVMA.
The race was billed as the 2010 LeMons Arse-Freeze-Apolooza. It was cold, it was raining, it was muddy off track and a Buttonwillow kindly pointed out to us that at every event at the track in 2010 a car had ended up on it’s roof. Oh great! The team decided that since I hadn’t been to Buttonwillow before, I should go out first and learn the track on the warm-up laps. Great, a car I’ve never driven on a track I’ve never been on in pouring rain; I’ve never raced in the rain. I got a whole bunch of warm-up laps to learn the track. I went out about 20 cars behind the pace car. It took 12 laps to get all 165 cars on the track and I was about 60 cars back due to cars coming on the track in front of and behind me. The green flag fell and I discovered the joys of driving a front wheel drive car in the rain against a field of mostly rear-wheel drive cars. I could go inside them on the corners, floor it and pull right around them on the inside. Whoo Hoo! At the end of my 1 hour 50 minute session (we drive until the car sputters because it’s running out of fuel) I was up to 21st. I had also managed to slide wildly around turn 13, put both rear tires in the mud at about 50 miles and hour and fill them with mud. I also got hit in the drivers front by a spinning Nissan Z car. Between the two incidents the car had developed a violent shake in 4th gear. It turned out the be the mud in the rear wheels. When I slid off track I had filled the rims with mud; when I got hit some of the mud fell off leaving the rear tires way out of balance. Once the mud was cleaned off the car ran great again.
The rest of Saturday consisted of me driving around Bakersfield looking for front brake rotors to replace the cracked set that were on the car. It turns out that ‘91 Sentra SE-R’s use one of four different brake rotors depending on where they were assembled. Of course, I picked the wrong ones and had to go back for different rotors. I got a call during the second trip to Bakersfield; Kert had hit a Crown Victoria and bent the passenger side front strut. I found one on Highway 58 way out on the way to Mojave and finally made it back to the track just as the checkered flag came out. We were in 83rd place. Not bad with all the trouble we experienced. We changed out the strut and the front brake rotors. Oops, no brake pads and the set on the car were trashed. Scott found a set of used Hawks in the trailer; they would have to last. It looked like Sunday would be another day of babying questionable brakes.
Saturday night at a LeMons race is a social event. The Alfa Romeo teams make enough spaghetti for everyone and the 500 Buck Chuck Crown Victoria team set up wine tasting… Boones Farm Strawberry, MD 20/20, Thunderbird and Cisco. I can still taste the Cisco when I think about it, yuck. Cough medicine tastes better. Even the Ritz Crackers with Cheese Whiz they provided to clear the palate between tastings didn’t help get rid of the taste.
Sunday dawned and, yippee, it wasn't raining. All, of course, wasn’t what we expected, though. It is Lemons. The organizer announced in the driver’s meeting that they were adding another corner to the layout. Uh, OK. He then announced that for an added twist they were reversing the direction we would run the track. Yikes! Everything I had learned yesterday was now useless.
Kert went out and got our first black flag of the weekend when he went off track with all four wheels. He came in to the black flag station and received his penalty. Since he had gone off track to avoid an accident , he was given the Hero’s award. He had to wear a necklace of Alfa Romeo hubcaps and walk around the paddock waving like a beauty queen to his adoring fans. I made the mistake of waling along with him. The official asked if I was from the same team. Yes, I was. “Good,” he said, “you have to walk and wave, too.” I did. The official led the way in his motorized easy chair yelling, “He’s a Hero. He went off track to save innocent lives.” Pretty funny. Yes LeMons is about having fun. It’s real racing. Just inexpensive with a whacky sense of humor. The LeMons racers live by the motto, "Racing isn't just for Rich Idiots, it's for all Idiots."
Kert was finally released to go back on track and finished his session with no other problems. I went out next and promptly went off track going to fast into a corner that was easy in the other direction. I slid back on to the track at pit entrance, so I just went straight to the Penalty Box and reported what had happened to an official. He let me off since I had self reported and I went back onto the track. A couple of laps later I came on a snarl of cars entering a turn, locked up the brakes and decided to just go down an escape road rather than spinning or wrecking. Well, that got me a black flag and back to the Penalty Box I went. “How many black flags is this for your team today?” ”Two,” I answered. “How many yesterday?” “Zero,” I told them. “How many today?” He asked again. “Two,” I answered again. “That’s only because you didn’t get caught on one’” he stated. “Yes, but I came in and self identified,” I told him. “We still have to give you some kind of penalty’” he said, and proceeded to stencil a Yugo logo and the work “YUGO” on the back of the car to let the other driver’s know that I drove like a piece of s***. That’s pretty funny. Back on track I went. Of course the real penalty was the 5 laps I lost sitting in the Penalty Box carrying on a conversation with the officials and getting my Yugo stencil. Scott went out next and about an hour into his session reported that the front brakes were gone. He was driving with the E-brake and downshifting. He came in for fuel and Tony went out for the last hour; still with no brakes. Tony was driving pretty carefully, but in endurance racing it’s not all about speed, its just about completing laps.
Well between mechanical problems, accidents, penalty’s and our own driving abilities, we had reached a high of 21st place, a low of 81st place and managed to finish in 73rd place. Not bad for a $500 car driven by a bunch of jokers like us. Truthfully, we were winners; we had a great time, nobody got hurt and the car only needs basic maintenance to be ready for next time, and I can hardly wait for the next time!
Esther Play
October 15--Tonight was Race's school play. The Story of Esther. Race played a Guard in the production. Here he can be seen clowning around before the play.
Old Town Sacramento
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5
Tilden Park
We attended an eyeglass sorting session at the Lion's Oakland Blind Center the morning of October 16th. After spending a few hours sorting out eyeglasses for recycling and reuse, we headed to Genova delicatessen for sandwiches. We took the sandwiches up to Tilden Park in Berkeley and had a nice picnic and then went for a ride on the Steam Train. We lucked out and the local model railroad club had their garden scale trains out for the day. Elizabeth and Race scored a second train ride.
Lions Christmas Party
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5
Camp Concord
The weekend of October 8th, we went up to Camp Conc
ord on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. It was cold, but there was no snow on the ground yet. Last year it snowed us on camp closing weekend. We took our neighbors, the Bibbs with us and had a great time closing the camp for the winter. In return for our labor Camp Concord provides each family with a cabin and 3 meals a day. Tom and I repaired a roof, disassembled the archery range and collected up all the fire tools and bear cans. Elizabeth and Debra spent most of their time sorting out all the craft items and getting rid of everything that had gotten damp and moldy. This was a huge all day job. Race and Daria went with the camp counselors and got to do archery, play games, watch movies, and go on a nature hike where they got to see a momma bear and her cub fishing for salmon in the stream. Pretty cool!
The obligatory picture of Race at the Pumpkin Farm
Jeez, he just keeps getting bigger. Here he is in his Elvis costume posing in front of the measuring stick at the pumpkin farm. He's grown a lot this year. Check out last years picture for proof. 2009 picture
Elvis takes 2nd Place
Race won 2nd place in the City of Concord Halloween Costume Contest yesterday. It was a wet day at Todos Santos Park, but Race participated in the Parade and Costume Contest anyway. It paid off for him with a 2nd Place win in the Kids category.
Race the Model
Well, our July trip to the EAA Convention in Oshkosh, WI finally came to an end today when we received our EAA merchandise catalog in the mail. Race got the opportunity to model clothing for the EAA Store and his picture was used in the 2010 Fall/Winter catalog and on the website. You can see him on the EAA website at RaceCatalogPage Pretty cool!
The first day of school
Today was Race's first day as a Third Grader. Yikes, third grade!!! He started the day with breakfast at school with some friends while Elizabeth prepped and served with other members of PTF at the schools first Fellowship Breakfast for students and their parents. What a cool way to start back to school. After we all walked our kids to class there was a second seating of parents only who hadn't come in before school with their kids. It was great to see so many people renewing old and making new friendships. We fed a few hundred people and then went to first day chapel with the kids. After school we measured Race, 52.5". He's grown an inch since his birthday 6 months ago. Then we made a stepping stone to put over Sylvester's grave, an 8 year old hand print stone for Race, and Emma and Carson Van Dyke's first ever hand print stone. Great fun.I think I forgot to mention that Sylvester passed away Saturday night. He'd been losing weight and moving slow for a while now. We miss him terribly. He now rests out front in his favorite spot under the roses.
The last weekend of the Summer
Friday--We had a busy weekend. Race went to the neighbors on Friday and I loaded up the Race Car on the ramp truck and took it to Infineon Raceway for SAAC-35. Shelby American Automobile Club's National Convention. Race had a great day playing at the neighbors and I had a great trip to Infineon. ONce I arrived the bad part of the weekend began. There was no room in the paddock. Every bit of asphalt was filled with race cars and haulers, that's cool, or personal passenger cars, not cool. I ended up setting up on the opposite side of the grandstands in what was posted as a fire lane, but was already being parked in . OK, try to make the best of it. I unloaded the car and got through tech without any mishaps. That was all that I had to do until my track time started on Saturday, so I got in the ramp truck and headed for home. But, the ramp truck wouldn't shift into gear, so I pulled harder and the gear shift lever moved. Wow, it had over 2 inches of play in it, something had broken. Fortunately when I forced it to move it ended up in drive so I headed for home. About two miles from home the truck just stopped running. Dead, I managed to coast off on the side of Willow Pass Road just before the bridge in the Weapons Station and called home to whine to Elizabeth. I hung up and started to call AAA when, on a whim, I turned the key again and the truck started. Fortunately the truck doesn't have a neutral safety switch and will start in any gear. I made it almost home when it died again. This time a just waited a few minutes and the truck restarted and I made it to my driveway. I shut the truck off in gear and walked away from it.
Saturday--Race and Elizabeth stayed home and went to Adopt A Street with the Mustang Club to clean up Diamond Blvd. Then they went to see cousin Lea dance at Heather Farms. After that they walked over to Walnut Creek's Family Fest where they ran into Cindy Cecchini from Race's class and her dad, Joey. Race and Cindy rode the rides together and generally had a great time. They even got stopped at the top of the Ferris Wheel,m big excitement.
While the rest of the family was occupied in Concord/Walnut Creek I headed up to Infineon for a great day of open track, beautiful Shelby's and conversation with friends. The parking situation had actually gotten worse in the paddock, though, and caused the only annoyance of the day. While I was on track for my first session, some jerk actually took the space behind my truck to park his Explorer. Not only did he not have a paddock pass, he actually parked right next to my tools. What kind of moron comes to an open track event and doesn't realize that a tuck full of tools probably has a race car that goes along with it. Grrr, oh well, I had fun regardless.
We got back together for a great Mexican meal at El Tapatio with the three of us meeting Cindy and Joey Cecchini for dinner. When we got to the house Dennis, next door, loaned us his car trailer to bring the race car back with. I aired up the tires and checked the lights, all ready to go for Sunday.
Sunday--I got up early and headed up to Infineon with Denis' trailer in tow. I was fully convinced that I was finally going to have a perfect day at the track. Elizabeth were going to come up later in the morning to hang out with me and I was looking forward to seeing our many friends in the automotive hobby. But, alas, the gremlins were still playing mechanical havoc with me. I had a trailer tire self destruct on Highway in a most spectacular manner, throwing huge chunks of tire tread into the air and shaking the trailer and truck violently. I managed to get pulled over into a Vista Point (I still don't know what the heck people would stop to look at on Highway 37. It's just tidal swamp, but I'm glad there's a Vista Point turnout.). I went ahead and just unhooked the trailer (after and whining to Elizabeth) and went on the the track so that I didn't miss the driver's meeting and lose my track time. I even managed to move my car into the main paddock and finally felt like I was really a part of the event (at least I was close to the rest rooms finally. That's becoming more important as the years pass). At home, Race went over and asked Dennis if he had a spare tire for the trailer. Yeah, he did. Elizabeth and Race loaded up the spare, found the trailer at Vista Point, called AAA (I assume they spent some time admiring the tidal swamp while they waited.) and had the tire on the trailer changed. I have a pretty cool family. They made it to the track in time for me to head out for my second track session. I was having a great time chasing a Shelby around the track when, you guessed it, the car broke. The driver's side front hub bearing failed in a raucous manner that left my ears ringing from the screaming of tortured metal and the banging as the hub bounced up and down o the spindle. The tire began locking up and releasing adding its squealing to the cacophony. I managed to slow the car down and, fortunately was just coming up on pit entrance. I made it back to my paddock spot banging squeaking and squealing all the way. Oh well, my day was done, we loaded up the truck and headed to Vista Point to get the trailer, went back to the track loaded up the car and headed for home. Fearing that another tire might fail and, with the weight of the car on it, that the trailer might be damaged, we took secondary roads all the way home for a leisurely drive through the country. We made it home OK and, after breathing a sigh of relief that the weekend was over, called it a day.
Ooh, I almost forgot. We went across the street to the Van Dyke's for a great meal of pulled pork, home-made cream of broccoli soup, salad and french bread with a vinegar and oil dip. Yummy.
Klamath Falls
We've arrived in Klamath Falls. Arrived to an empty house. In fact, I'm using my Moms laptop to write this blog entry. We're on our own until later this evening when my everyone returns from a trip to the hospital in Bend, or Medford (I didn't really pay attention). One of the babies they're watching needed a checkup. Race is relaxing by watching Disney Channel and playing with the toys stashed here for grand kids. We had an uneventful trip through eastern Oregon. The highlight of the day was our lunch stop at the 930 square foot Dinner Bell Cafe in Lakeview, Oregon. We had an excellent lunch of patty melt and chicken tenders (I'll let you guess who had what) and Race was thrilled when the owner told the waitress to, "give that kid an ice cream cone," on our way out. Race really enjoyed his ice cream cone on the drive to Bly. We drove by the old house on Bly Mountain Cutoff and found it abandoned with the windows boarded up. It looked very sad. I was impressed that Race remembered the house and spotted it before I did. Well, I guess we'll relax a while longer and then forage for some dinner.
If it's Monday, this must be Boise
Yes we made it to Boise, Idaho today. 9 hours in the truck have left Race and I exhausted. We drove from Bozeman down Hwy 191 through the west side of Yellowstone Park down the Gallatin River (think A River Runs Through It for an idea of how beautiful and wild the Gallatin River is) and actually got pictures of a bear in Yellowstone Park, neat.
I finally pulled over at a fireworks store for Race and we have some fireworks to contribute to the next neighborhood party. We were too beat to do anything useful so we went to see Cats and Dogs 2. I thought it was awful, but Race thought it was better than the first movie. We had dinner at a Fuddrucker's. Now we are crashing in the hotel room. Race is watching Mike Rowe, Dirtiest Jobs, catch Greenland Sharks and I'm blogging.
Tomorrow we're off on another 8-9 hour drive to get to Klamath Falls and see my Mom. Race actually said he wants to drive straight home, but that would be about 16 hours in the truck, no way! We'll stay in Klamath Falls.
Until tomorrow--Dean
I finally pulled over at a fireworks store for Race and we have some fireworks to contribute to the next neighborhood party. We were too beat to do anything useful so we went to see Cats and Dogs 2. I thought it was awful, but Race thought it was better than the first movie. We had dinner at a Fuddrucker's. Now we are crashing in the hotel room. Race is watching Mike Rowe, Dirtiest Jobs, catch Greenland Sharks and I'm blogging.
Tomorrow we're off on another 8-9 hour drive to get to Klamath Falls and see my Mom. Race actually said he wants to drive straight home, but that would be about 16 hours in the truck, no way! We'll stay in Klamath Falls.
Until tomorrow--Dean
A few pictures
Top to bottom: looking out one the tunnels that frame Mt Rushmore, Umm that's kind of narrow for a big red truck, it's us at Mt Rushmore, a timber wolf harrying a bear at Bear Country Safari
Saturday--the forgotten day
I just realized that I didn't tell you what we did on Saturday...
Elizabeth, Race and I started with breakfast at Perkins (apparently a midwest chain) and then headed to the South Dakota Air & Space Museum. While it doesn't even compare to the Hill AFB Museum Race and I visited on the way out, but they did have some really unique displays. The first thing that caught our eye's was a missile, a big missile. It was a Minuteman ICBM left over from Ellsworth AFB's missile silo days. We didn't get to tour the Missile Silo at Minuteman National Park because we got there too late on Thursday, but we got to se a Minuteman missile. Inside, another big surprise, a complete Minuteman control station that had been used as a simulator. It gives me the chills to see the Launch keys inserted into their switches waiting to be turned.
We then headed for Devils Tower National Monument (cue Close Encounters of the Third Kind music), this was a 113 mile drive but, what the hey, we wanted to see it. On the way we visited the town of Aladdin and bought drinks and Buffalo Jerky at a 115 year old General Store. We also visited a Coal Tipple; this is the large chute coming down from a mine that screens coal out by size and loads wagons. The highlight of the day turned out to be in the 2-horse town of Hulett where we had a pizza at Charles T's. Charles turns out to be a Long Island New York transplant who is building his second homebuilt aircraft. He became our best bud when Elizabeth told him we were on our way home from Oshkosh. He hadn't attended this year but has in the past. Both the the pizza and the conversation were excellent. The funny thing, and I think I forgot to mention this, is that we met another homebuilder who wasn't going to Oshkosh this year in Madison County Iowa. He was running the gift shop at one of the bridges of Madison County (Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood were in the movie The Bridges of Madison County). It's a small world.
Devil's Tower was cool, but lets face it, it's just a big rock pillar. We got a bunch of pictures but the frequent and violent thunderstorms we had been experiencing all afternoon convinced us not to take the mile + hike around the base.
We stopped off in Belle Fourche (bell foosh) and took pictures at the geographic center of the United States. Now we've been to the southernmost point of the US and the center of the US. Cool.
Oh well, back to Rapid City. -Dean
On the road again
Race and I dropped Elizabeth off at the Rapid City airport a little after 5 AM this morning and headed out for Bozeman, Montana. We are now safely ensconced in a Best Western in Bozeman with the TV reporting Severe Thunderstorm warnings and advising against traveling. I'm glad it was raining when we got here because it was my intention to camp out. Right after we got our room we heard a loud sustained roar. It was hail, walnut sized hail. Yikes!
We spent 10 hours on the road today and have an 6 hour drive tomorrow to reach Boise Idaho. Our goal is Klamath Falls on Tuesday evening so we can spend the night with my Mom (Race's Nana). We'll try to stop off and see my dad in Corning, CA as well, but he's probably really busy campaigning to be the next Mayor of Corning.
We did find time for one very awesome adventure. We stopped off at the Little Big Horn Battlefield Memorial. There is a marble headstone everyplace that a soldier's body was found. Most just read:
US Soldier
7th Cavalry
Fell Here
June 25, 1876
I can't even to begin to describe the feeling of looking at the small plot of grass under the Battlefield Memorial where the remains of all the enlisted soldiers who died in the battle are interred together.
Enough for now. I'll try to post another update from Boise. -Dean
We spent 10 hours on the road today and have an 6 hour drive tomorrow to reach Boise Idaho. Our goal is Klamath Falls on Tuesday evening so we can spend the night with my Mom (Race's Nana). We'll try to stop off and see my dad in Corning, CA as well, but he's probably really busy campaigning to be the next Mayor of Corning.
We did find time for one very awesome adventure. We stopped off at the Little Big Horn Battlefield Memorial. There is a marble headstone everyplace that a soldier's body was found. Most just read:
US Soldier
7th Cavalry
Fell Here
June 25, 1876
I can't even to begin to describe the feeling of looking at the small plot of grass under the Battlefield Memorial where the remains of all the enlisted soldiers who died in the battle are interred together.
Enough for now. I'll try to post another update from Boise. -Dean
Friday
Today we started at a hearty breakfast and then headed out on a loop around South Dakota's Custer State Park. Our first stop was at Bear country, a drive through safari of North American animals. We saw elk, mule deer, bears, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bears, arctic wolves, turkeys, bears, buffalo, donkeys, bears, mountain lions, timber wolves, bears, reindeer and bears. Race decided he is no longer afraid of bears, but he still panicked when I told him I was going to roll down the window.
Next stop, Mt Rushmore. Now that we have been there we have to say that this is a must see. We are actually discussing coming back some time. I can't even begin to describe the awe inspiring majesty of the carvings. The visitors center is also quite stunning. We got to meet the last surviving member of the carving crew. We got him to autograph his book a copy of his book for us.
Next stop, the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was a bit disappointing. It cost nearly thirty dollars to get in to see the front of Crazy Horses face, this is the only part of the carving that is complete. Still it is an amazing vision and we hope it is completed someday.
We then made our way to Jewel Cave, the second longest cave complex in the US. Unfortunately, without a reservation, you can't get in. Oh well, off to Custer State Park.
Custer State Park: WOW, this place is gorgeous. At the park entrance we passed Lake Sylvan. It's not the biggest lake, but it is the prettiest lake we can remember seeing. We then headed out on the drive around the park. The drive features a half dozen tunnels blasted through the same hard rock that forms Rushmore. The really cool part, they're only one lane. You honk your horn going in and hope to heck that they hear you coming. One of the tunnels was only 8' 4" wide. That;' a little tight for a Superduty Ford, but we made it with only inches to spare. The best series of tunnels on the NW side of the loop around the park are all designed to frame Rushmore in their bore. Yes, when you drive through, Rushmore is centered in your vision at the tunnel exit. there are also a series of pigtail bridges wear you alternate between curved bridges and land and actually make a decreasing radius spiral going down the mountain, sweet. We made a number of quick stops to see the sights. At the Hole In The Wall picnic grounds we explored the hole in the wall, a cave going about ten feet into a granite wall. There's a lovely little stream you have to cross to get there and Race was really fascinated by the Waterbugs (Elizabeth called them Skaters). Race has decided that that they were his favorite part of the day.
Tomorrow we head for Devil's Tower. We'll see how far we make it and how much we get to see and experience. Good night for now. -Dean
Next stop, Mt Rushmore. Now that we have been there we have to say that this is a must see. We are actually discussing coming back some time. I can't even begin to describe the awe inspiring majesty of the carvings. The visitors center is also quite stunning. We got to meet the last surviving member of the carving crew. We got him to autograph his book a copy of his book for us.
Next stop, the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was a bit disappointing. It cost nearly thirty dollars to get in to see the front of Crazy Horses face, this is the only part of the carving that is complete. Still it is an amazing vision and we hope it is completed someday.
We then made our way to Jewel Cave, the second longest cave complex in the US. Unfortunately, without a reservation, you can't get in. Oh well, off to Custer State Park.
Custer State Park: WOW, this place is gorgeous. At the park entrance we passed Lake Sylvan. It's not the biggest lake, but it is the prettiest lake we can remember seeing. We then headed out on the drive around the park. The drive features a half dozen tunnels blasted through the same hard rock that forms Rushmore. The really cool part, they're only one lane. You honk your horn going in and hope to heck that they hear you coming. One of the tunnels was only 8' 4" wide. That;' a little tight for a Superduty Ford, but we made it with only inches to spare. The best series of tunnels on the NW side of the loop around the park are all designed to frame Rushmore in their bore. Yes, when you drive through, Rushmore is centered in your vision at the tunnel exit. there are also a series of pigtail bridges wear you alternate between curved bridges and land and actually make a decreasing radius spiral going down the mountain, sweet. We made a number of quick stops to see the sights. At the Hole In The Wall picnic grounds we explored the hole in the wall, a cave going about ten feet into a granite wall. There's a lovely little stream you have to cross to get there and Race was really fascinated by the Waterbugs (Elizabeth called them Skaters). Race has decided that that they were his favorite part of the day.
Tomorrow we head for Devil's Tower. We'll see how far we make it and how much we get to see and experience. Good night for now. -Dean
The Elizabeth Era
Friday: Race and Dean had one more day of freedom and made the most of it. We spent the night next to the Heartland Military Museum and got up to the sight of Bradley fighting vehicles, Sherman tanks and numerous other armored vehicles parked on thegrass between our hotel and the freeway. We spent a few hours touring the museum and even got to get into some of the fighting vehicles. We then hit the road and found our next stop, The Arch Bridge in Eastern Nebraska. This is a set of towers with a bridge stretching across the freeway. We stopped and bought some fish food and fed catfish in the Platte river, toured a newly built Pawnee Hogan (awesome), and then went for a tour of the Arch. It's actually and enclosed pedestrian bridge with two levels of interactive museum. You wear a headset and tour exhibits starting with the early settlers and ending with the creation of the Interstate system. We had lunch at the Arch buffet and headed to Omaha.
Well Race and Dean's free roaming travels have come to a screeching halt. Elizabeth has joined the expedition. We picked her up in Omaha, Nebraska after finishing our jaunt across the state. We got a move on early the next morning since we had to make it across Iowa and into Wisconsin in one day. We had a whirlwind trip through Iowa and finally came to a stop late in the evening. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Jelly Belly Factory. Yes there are two Jelly Belly Factory's in the world and the Cofer's have been to both of them. This is the one thing Race really wanted to do on the trip. The tour wasn't as exciting as in California, you ride a train around the warehouse and watch a series of videos on wall monitors, but the train was fun and free samples of Jelly Belly's are always welcome. We hit to the road to Oshkosh and arrived there in the early afternoon. we were immediately thrilled by the variety of aircraft overhead, both warbird and civilian aircraft made a constant drone over us. Unfortunately, our sleeping quarters for the night weren't ready. Grandpa and Pete had been rained out of the campground, along with hundreds of other RV's, and we had no place to pitch our tent. They were content to sleep along the side of an access road. We tried to get out into the field and find a place to camp, but we ended up stuck int eh mud and had to enlist the help of some good Samaritans to push us back on to dry land. Elizabeth and her cell phone came to our rescue and she found a hotel in Ripon, only 20 miles away. We spent a pleasant night there and the hotel manager even helped find us a room at another Ripon hotel for the next night.
Oshkosh, Monday and Tuesday: OMG, if you like aircraft this is the greatest place in the whole world. We are particularly found of WWII warbirds and Oshkosh had the most amazing gathering we have ever seen. There was a B-17 doing flybys almost all day long, we saw 30+, WWII training aircraft doing formation flying, P-51 Mustangs complete with wingman doing high speed passes, 21 DC-3's coming over in formation and peeling off one by one to land...amazing. This leaves out the incredible variety of stunt, civilian, ultralight, experimental, rotorcraft and everything else you can imaging making it's way overhead. Dean counted over 40 warbirds in the air and in sight of the airport at one point. We took Grandpa Don to dinner every night, Pete doesn't eat dinner, and went to a Sonex reception with him one evening. We had a great time, but with the rain threatening to return we decided to head out Tuesday night and see some more country.
Tuesday: We headed out of northwest out of Oshkosh to see shat we could see. Holy navigation errors, batman. We shouldn't have have headed due west. We ended up driving into the worst thunderstorms we have ever experienced. The radio said we were in the heart of supercells and was broadcasting dire warnings of flooding and tornado's. It was actually raining so hard that we pulled onto an off-ramp and just sat with a number of other vehicles until the rain slackened off to a level that he wipers could handle. We finally made it into Chippewa Falls and found a hotel.
Wednesday: We headed back southwest the next morning with Sioux Falls as our goal. We actually drove through an army base past signs that ominously warned, "Caution: Live artillery firing over road." Well that's not something you see every day. We made it to Sioux Falls, found a hotel and did some overdue laundry. Race and Dean were out of underwear. Then the first real disaster of the trip struck, the truck would not start. We got the hotel shuttle to pick us up and resolved to deal with the truck in the morning.
Thursday: Elizabeth was the first one up and snuck out to get AAA to tow the truck to Sioux Falls Ford. The tow truck driver gave her a ride back to the truck and, dang/yeah, it started, she drove it over to Ford and they went to work. In the rental Toyota she picked up, we went to the USS South Dakota memorial and museum, the Butterfly house (Race is scared of Butterfly's) and toured downtown and the falls (beautiful). The truck was done in time to check out of the hotel and get out of town before lunch. It turned out to be a faulty wire leading to the fuel pump and we got out of it for less than $300. thank you Sioux Falls Ford. We headed out of Sioux Falls on our way to Rapid City. We made it to Rapid City after a long day of driving that included a driving tour of the badlands, a stop at the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD, and a trip through 1880's town where we saw a bawdy floor in the local saloon and found out that Race is deathly afraid of grasshoppers.
Friday: Dean got up to post to the blog and everyone else is asleep, so, more adventures to follow.
Well Race and Dean's free roaming travels have come to a screeching halt. Elizabeth has joined the expedition. We picked her up in Omaha, Nebraska after finishing our jaunt across the state. We got a move on early the next morning since we had to make it across Iowa and into Wisconsin in one day. We had a whirlwind trip through Iowa and finally came to a stop late in the evening. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Jelly Belly Factory. Yes there are two Jelly Belly Factory's in the world and the Cofer's have been to both of them. This is the one thing Race really wanted to do on the trip. The tour wasn't as exciting as in California, you ride a train around the warehouse and watch a series of videos on wall monitors, but the train was fun and free samples of Jelly Belly's are always welcome. We hit to the road to Oshkosh and arrived there in the early afternoon. we were immediately thrilled by the variety of aircraft overhead, both warbird and civilian aircraft made a constant drone over us. Unfortunately, our sleeping quarters for the night weren't ready. Grandpa and Pete had been rained out of the campground, along with hundreds of other RV's, and we had no place to pitch our tent. They were content to sleep along the side of an access road. We tried to get out into the field and find a place to camp, but we ended up stuck int eh mud and had to enlist the help of some good Samaritans to push us back on to dry land. Elizabeth and her cell phone came to our rescue and she found a hotel in Ripon, only 20 miles away. We spent a pleasant night there and the hotel manager even helped find us a room at another Ripon hotel for the next night.
Oshkosh, Monday and Tuesday: OMG, if you like aircraft this is the greatest place in the whole world. We are particularly found of WWII warbirds and Oshkosh had the most amazing gathering we have ever seen. There was a B-17 doing flybys almost all day long, we saw 30+, WWII training aircraft doing formation flying, P-51 Mustangs complete with wingman doing high speed passes, 21 DC-3's coming over in formation and peeling off one by one to land...amazing. This leaves out the incredible variety of stunt, civilian, ultralight, experimental, rotorcraft and everything else you can imaging making it's way overhead. Dean counted over 40 warbirds in the air and in sight of the airport at one point. We took Grandpa Don to dinner every night, Pete doesn't eat dinner, and went to a Sonex reception with him one evening. We had a great time, but with the rain threatening to return we decided to head out Tuesday night and see some more country.
Tuesday: We headed out of northwest out of Oshkosh to see shat we could see. Holy navigation errors, batman. We shouldn't have have headed due west. We ended up driving into the worst thunderstorms we have ever experienced. The radio said we were in the heart of supercells and was broadcasting dire warnings of flooding and tornado's. It was actually raining so hard that we pulled onto an off-ramp and just sat with a number of other vehicles until the rain slackened off to a level that he wipers could handle. We finally made it into Chippewa Falls and found a hotel.
Wednesday: We headed back southwest the next morning with Sioux Falls as our goal. We actually drove through an army base past signs that ominously warned, "Caution: Live artillery firing over road." Well that's not something you see every day. We made it to Sioux Falls, found a hotel and did some overdue laundry. Race and Dean were out of underwear. Then the first real disaster of the trip struck, the truck would not start. We got the hotel shuttle to pick us up and resolved to deal with the truck in the morning.
Thursday: Elizabeth was the first one up and snuck out to get AAA to tow the truck to Sioux Falls Ford. The tow truck driver gave her a ride back to the truck and, dang/yeah, it started, she drove it over to Ford and they went to work. In the rental Toyota she picked up, we went to the USS South Dakota memorial and museum, the Butterfly house (Race is scared of Butterfly's) and toured downtown and the falls (beautiful). The truck was done in time to check out of the hotel and get out of town before lunch. It turned out to be a faulty wire leading to the fuel pump and we got out of it for less than $300. thank you Sioux Falls Ford. We headed out of Sioux Falls on our way to Rapid City. We made it to Rapid City after a long day of driving that included a driving tour of the badlands, a stop at the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD, and a trip through 1880's town where we saw a bawdy floor in the local saloon and found out that Race is deathly afraid of grasshoppers.
Friday: Dean got up to post to the blog and everyone else is asleep, so, more adventures to follow.
Pictures
Top to Bottom:Race with Buffalo Bill Cody, the old sign from North Platte's Main St., Raceon a Union Pacific caboose, and 2 views of Jim Bridger's Trading Post, a welcome site for travelers on the Oregon/California trail.
We're in Nebraska
Since our last update Race and Dean have survived Highway 50, made it through Utah and Wyoming and are currently in Lexington, Nebraska.
Highway 50 really is pretty lonely. We made it through all 5 towns in Nevada and got our passport stamped in everyone. We had planned on camping, but the only tent camping we found Race decided he was scared of because it was in some really scary looking desert mountains. We made it into Wendover just before dark. Wendover is the last town in Nevada on I-80 before you enter Utah and it's dirty, seedy little gambling town. We stayed at a Quality Inn that was so nasty we went out and bought a can of Lysol to disinfect everything we had to touch. The next morning we drove over to the Bonneville Salt flats which is just over the Utah border and Race got to see where the land speed cars that he is so enamored with race.
We made it through Salt Lake and stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy,Utah. Burger Bar was featured on Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. It pretty much wasn't worth going out of our way for, but we did see an Air Force Museum on the way and stopped off. It was definitely worth the trip and featured the best exhibit of Air Force planes and Helicopters Race and I have ever seen. We made it past Park City and camped at a beautiful State Park, Rockpoint, for a really lousy night's sleep. It wasn't the parks fault. Our air mattress had a leak in it and we ended up sleeping on the ground and we were subjected to an all night rain and thunder storm that made sleep almost impossible. We ended up turning on or DS's and playing games until after midnight and then got some restless sleep until dawn.
We made our way into Wyoming on Wednesday and stopped at Fort Bridger. This is a restored Army post that features a preserved Motor Inn from the '20's. The Inn was cool, the Army post, abandoned in 1890, was incredible, but the real proze was the log stockade trading post that had been reconstructed on it's original site next to the Black's Fork river. The weather still looked bad so we stayed at a Best Western in Laramie. Laramie is a really pretty town.
Thursday: into Nebraska and a stop for lunch at Ogalalla with a friend who relocated there from California via New Jersey... We than made our way to Buffalo Bill State Park in North Platte and saw Buffalo Bil's Scout's Rest Ranch and went to the Lincoln County Museum and learned about the North Platte Canteen that meant som much to servicemen traveling by train across country in WWII. I'm done for now. I'll try to post some pictures int eh morning.
-Dean
Highway 50 really is pretty lonely. We made it through all 5 towns in Nevada and got our passport stamped in everyone. We had planned on camping, but the only tent camping we found Race decided he was scared of because it was in some really scary looking desert mountains. We made it into Wendover just before dark. Wendover is the last town in Nevada on I-80 before you enter Utah and it's dirty, seedy little gambling town. We stayed at a Quality Inn that was so nasty we went out and bought a can of Lysol to disinfect everything we had to touch. The next morning we drove over to the Bonneville Salt flats which is just over the Utah border and Race got to see where the land speed cars that he is so enamored with race.
We made it through Salt Lake and stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy,Utah. Burger Bar was featured on Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. It pretty much wasn't worth going out of our way for, but we did see an Air Force Museum on the way and stopped off. It was definitely worth the trip and featured the best exhibit of Air Force planes and Helicopters Race and I have ever seen. We made it past Park City and camped at a beautiful State Park, Rockpoint, for a really lousy night's sleep. It wasn't the parks fault. Our air mattress had a leak in it and we ended up sleeping on the ground and we were subjected to an all night rain and thunder storm that made sleep almost impossible. We ended up turning on or DS's and playing games until after midnight and then got some restless sleep until dawn.
We made our way into Wyoming on Wednesday and stopped at Fort Bridger. This is a restored Army post that features a preserved Motor Inn from the '20's. The Inn was cool, the Army post, abandoned in 1890, was incredible, but the real proze was the log stockade trading post that had been reconstructed on it's original site next to the Black's Fork river. The weather still looked bad so we stayed at a Best Western in Laramie. Laramie is a really pretty town.
Thursday: into Nebraska and a stop for lunch at Ogalalla with a friend who relocated there from California via New Jersey... We than made our way to Buffalo Bill State Park in North Platte and saw Buffalo Bil's Scout's Rest Ranch and went to the Lincoln County Museum and learned about the North Platte Canteen that meant som much to servicemen traveling by train across country in WWII. I'm done for now. I'll try to post some pictures int eh morning.
-Dean
Fallon Nevada
Well, we couldn't get our passports stamped in Fernley, but the nice lady at the Fallon Convention Center stamped our passports for Fallon and Fernley. Not only that, she gave us real passports instead of the internet printed versions we had. Now we're off to Austin, Eureka and Ely on The Loneliest Highway. Wish us luck.
So far we're averaging 19.5 mpg in the F-350
and we got diesel in Fernley for only 2.98. Elizabeth should tell our neighbor, Dennis, about the mileage. He thought he did good in his diesel Dodge when he averaged 16 mpg. Race says, "We're having a great time on the trip."
So far we're averaging 19.5 mpg in the F-350
and we got diesel in Fernley for only 2.98. Elizabeth should tell our neighbor, Dennis, about the mileage. He thought he did good in his diesel Dodge when he averaged 16 mpg. Race says, "We're having a great time on the trip."
Race and Dean are in Fernley Nevada
It took us 6.5 hours to make a 4 hour trip, thanks to a stop at Cabela's and extensive road work on a Sunday, but we're here. We gave up on camping last night and stayed at a Best Western. We had a nice pizza at the Pizza Factory and then, the best ice cream we've ever had at Steve's Homemade Ice Cream. We're getting ready to get our Highway 50 passport stamped at the Fernley Chamber of Commerce and then we start out on our journey America's Loneliest Higway. We'll get our passport stamped in all 5 towns on Nevada Higway 50 and Nevada will send us a I survived Higway 50 certificate. We have all the fun!!! Race was excitred to see the parking lot filled with NHRA Safety Safari trucks when we woke up this morning. It actually was pretty cool...
Block Party
We've been pretty busy around the neighborhood lately. We've had a couple of big get together s with the neighbors in the front yard and a street wide garage sale. Here a a few pictures of the kids at play. Here's Emma, Daria, Carson and Race at play.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)