Claim Jumper's was his choice. We wre expecting Chucky Cheese or Johnny Rockets, but no, Race picked Claim Jumpers. Well we had a great time and great food. It's really hard to believe that the boy is 9.
Race's Birthday Dinner
Claim Jumper's was his choice. We wre expecting Chucky Cheese or Johnny Rockets, but no, Race picked Claim Jumpers. Well we had a great time and great food. It's really hard to believe that the boy is 9.
Sears Point Lemons Race
Out of 186 cars our team cars managed to finish 4th and 19th. That's not bad after two 8-hour endurance races. We managed to finish with only 5 black flags and no mechanical breakdowns. Another couple of hours and we would have probably managed 3rd and a top ten for the second car, but, alas, it was not to be. Only 1 car in the championship points this race.
The next race is May 14th at Fernley, Nevada. This will be my first 24 hour endurance race. I can hardly wait. -Dean
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Slumber party
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100th day of school 2/9/11
The boys participated in the Kings Valley Christian School 100th Day of School Flag Ceremony. This year Kings Valley students collected items for Blue Star Mom's to send to military personnel serving overseas. In honor of the occasion Pack 317 was invited to attend morning chapel in uniform and perform the flag ceremony. The boys did a wonderful job with Jarod calling the commands, Race carrying the American Flag, Dylan carrying the Christian Flag and the rest of the pack serving as the honor guard. Two local representatives of the United States Army were in attendance to thank the school for the donated items and they graciously volunteered to pose with the Pack for pictures after ceremony.
the boy crippled himself
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mt shasta city
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saturday chores
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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
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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
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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
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