Hi Wiggles, just to let you know the Independence Pass tour is coming up next weekend. I’ll be with a group from Idaho so won’t be able to head over the top to your part of the world but but I thought I’d let you know.
Cheers,
LLynn
Thanks: Id head up but have rehearsal on Saturday.
Is this an Oil Leak?
Love the blog, Harvey!
Great article Harvey! Love the photos too. Fantastic shop Craig. I’ve never seen anyone color coordinate their garage door hardware to the color of the car they are restoring. Too cool!
Rick OBrien
65 FHC in FL
Well, there will be plenty of leaky cars but no, it’s just a group of guys from the NW heading down to Colorado for the Independence Pass Drive/tour.
Cheers,
LLynn
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BTW the “sleep in the car” remark was tongue in cheek so to speak. The Cayman is a mid engine car and as such there is a bulkhead right behind the seats. Recline is about as generous as coach seats on a budget airline.
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Your off-road adventure is very pertinent. There was a couple from Indiana that recently followed directions in Nevada which led them to a set of goat tracks while in a large motor home pulling a car. Lost for many days. Husband died wife finally found and rescued.
Great write up and enjoy the rest of your journey!
Well, I am carrying the camping equipment and food and water. I think I could personally make it a week no problem. But the West is quite a bit higher stakes than back east where I was raised. We used to hike a lot with my Boy Scout troop, in the Blue Ridge mountains of VA. We used to say, if you really got lost, just start following a creek downhill. It was a pretty good bet you would run across people within a 1/2 days walk. Not a good plan out West!
One of my employment iterations was as a wilderness survival instructor: one of the biggest things that we had to fight against were people who promoted that saying, and had never followed a drainage somewhere in the west…
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Rick – oddly, I didn’t notice the color “match” 'til now. Harvey’s photo makes the garage door hardware look more brandy-wine as opposed to the red it actually is.
When Harvey was framing the shot inside my shop, I was sure he had captured the Sun Diagnostic Machine in the corner behind the bonnet. Harvey was quite taken with it – even though his Porsche Cayman has a 1,000 fold computing power than that 1980’s “Diagnostic Machine” (this photo was taken early in the process of populating my shop – too clean).
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" The trip only served to reinforce my admiration for the crazy guys that storm up there at max speed for the Hillclimb event!"
We took the cog train up from Manitou Springs several years ago while visiting a friend in Colorado Springs. While on the ascent, the passengers were warned to be careful when getting off of the train because the thin air could make you light headed. It did, indeed. My friend and his wife had run the Manitou Springs to Pike’s Peak foot race up the road more than once. I doubt that I could even walk up that road!
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a great road trip book from a while back…America has changed since then.but Travels with Charley–John Steinbeck. a good read.
Nick
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We were forced to read that in Jr. High. Boy, am I glad our teacher forced us to read that kind of stuff. An excellent book.
My favorite road trip book:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/peter-s-beagle-4/i-see-by-my-outfit/
I stumbled across it when it was first published and have reread it many times since.
I did that…in 1977.
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+1 on Travels with Charley. Were he alive today, a sequel travelling the same or similar route would be fascinating. So much has changed in America, I wonder what his take on our country and its people would be.
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I think (hope?) that some of that America still exists in the smaller rural towns far from the interstate highways. The small mom and pop cafes, a gas station that has a bay for mechanical work, the old 50s style motel, and some nice people that will help you out and drive a long way in the rain at night to get you a new tire, will invite you to the back room of the closed cafe for a meal. But I am not sure.
Nick
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They are few and far between: one town that I think fits the bill is Western, Nebraska, which is in Eastern Nebraska…
When I visited there about 10 years ago, it honestly seemed like I’d stepped back in time 60 years.
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We had an example of that just recently. One of the official utes helping run the Targa rally that wife and I were helping with, had the unfortunate experience of blowing a tyre and damaging the wheel on a pot hole out the back of beyond.
Local farmer put them up for the night as a tow truck was not going to get to them, this happened late afternoon/early evening.
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I’ve just posted a brief update regarding my loop drive through Washington State. I’ll be hanging with the grandchildren for a few days and will head out for Portland and the Pacific Coast Highway early next week.
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