back home! just 51 hours after leaving Seattle...
9 days, 7500 miles, 2 days at the AGM, the museum of flight, driving and walking thru downtown seattle, snowboarding for 2 days, hundreds of images imprited in my mind.
i obviously could have done it by flying there, but it just woudn't have
been the same: renting some Ford or Chevy, or .... gasp... getting on the bus to go to the museum of flight evening... nope, woudln't have been as special...
The E-type is truly an amazing car. Mine is 34 years old, has a reputation for being tempermental and unreliable, yet it's capable of cruising for hours and hours well into triple digit speeds, carry a a huge amount of gear and bags and lugage (and tools and parts...). It can be driven to a semi formal evening (at the museum of flight), or to go downtown tour the city, park and have lunch. It's equally at ease on small roads, even in snow and ice ! it fires right up, is simple enough that you dont' need half a dozen part changers (hmmm... sorry, they're called "technicians") and banks of computers if somethign happens, and is extrmely comfortable. In the past 9 days, i spent almost half the time in that little seat, yet I'm fine... slightly tired, but no aches (except my tail bone from falling so much the first day snowboarding) . And of course, its drop dead gorgeous! throw in the fact that a good V12 2+2 cost more or less the price of new honda, and you're ve got a winner
This is what these cars are all about. the memories, the moments you
accumulate by using them how they are supposed to be used ! not polished to death on a concours field ! The back (lights, plate, bumper) is so dirtty that it's one black mass. can barely read the plate... from road grime, from the snow and stuff, from the unburned fuel... i got a big chip, dime size, near the top of the windshield... guess what ? eveytime i will see it, I will not be crying and mourning the loss of 0.021345 points but i know a big grin will appear on my face. Same for the dime size paint chip on the leading edge of the bonnet...
tuesday morning, at Cristal Mountain, i had to scrape the ice off the
windshield. i had to blow on the door lock to melt the ice. I had to go
back to the room and get bottles of hot water to melt the ice on the boot
hatch seals... yet it fired almost right up... took maybe 5 seconds of
cranking... after warming it up and driving to a few spots for pics, the
good ole V12 kept running for over 2 days, except when fueling and a
handfull of hour long naps.
the only problems on the trip were the odo meter which gave up, once again, after 3000 miles and the alternator which called it a day when i reached Atlanta this morning first it was intermitent, something to do with bumps on the road, then nothing. I almost went knocking on Coventry West door but pressed on. I tried basic troubleshooting (see next post) but no luck so i finished the last 600 miles on battery alone. i figured i didnt' need any lights so the battery could last long enough for the MSD, Holley fuel pump and the Radar detector. it did... i miscalulated fuel and had to stop approchaing miami.. in rush hour traffic... well.. It's the first time the temp gauge creeped a little past the L as the fans didn't have enough juice to really keep things cool...
I got lucky with the weather... except for that snow in Wyoming on the way up. We got a lot of rain between Pedlenton OR and past Boise ID on the way back, but no big deal. Today would have been another story with a storm moving thru, snow and ice. The rest of the trip was clear blue skies.... unfortunately I missed on some of the scenery becase i had to drive at night... like between Boise and Central Wy... i missed the scenery around Utah...
They were some very special moment on the trip, things that will remain
engraved in my minds for years to come. One of them is definitely sunrise on Wed "somewhere west of Laramie". The rolling hills of the northern rockies, with taller snow capped peaks in the distance, patches of snow along the road, the warm orange early morning light, empty road with the odo firmly in triple digit territory... on a bit of automotive trivia, "somewhere west of Laramie" is how a well know automotive ad from the 20s starts... it's a poster describing a woman riding her horse, hard, racing against the car. (I ll post it inthe gallery with the rest of the pictures...)
Also, the vision of the E-type, parked in the Ski resort parking, amid SUVs, Subarus, and trucks: who says you can't driving an e-type when you want to hit the slopes? ok.. maybe not in the midle of winter when they require snow tires and chains, although ... why not ? :-) why conform to the boring and expected, like the dorky minivans with the mom, pop, daughter, son, pet stickers on the back to take the kids to school ? My 11 year old still goes to school driven in the E-type !
Life is too short to be boring... forget these rags and polish... Sir Lyons designed and built the E-type to be Driven, with a capital D ...
but wait... there is more... rambling not over yet. hey.... you got a
delete key ! although if you've made it that far, you must be one of the
good guys!
i miss the start of Jonat but we had to leave early sunday to head up to Cristal.... besides Jonat is too slow for me... heck... in the past week I've covered 70% of Jonat's distance! just kidding... I know it would be nice to take some more time and enjoy things at a slower pace although it's amazing what you can see from the interstate. on teh way up, that was last friday morning, I stopped for breakfast at a
little dinner in a town called Big Timber Montana. typical little town,
where the dinner is where the whole town meet... that breakfast was not only the cheapest but one the best tasting Eggs n harsh browns n biscuits n gravy n bacon n ... that I've had in a while!
My butt is still sore from falling so many times during the frst few hours of snowboarding... then it clicked and i really enjoyed the experience ! it's a blast ! It's been 30 years since I skied so it's hard to compare but i had a lot of fun. I don't want to learn jumps or tricks... just to have fun going down the mountain and I can already do that.
one regret, not enough time ! it was really just a sampler... wished I had mot time to visit the PNW also sorry i didn't get to meet some people, like Roger Los.
I'll be posting more pictures in the gallery, probably tomorow... for
tonight that's it... it's funny but i would swear things are gently rocking back and worth...and no it's not the boat ! even in the marina's parking lot i felt land was moving !