We've Arrived!

Day 5
Know what I liked best about Laramie?  Leaving.

It was a short driving day for us (yeay!).  Traffic was scary going down through Denver but after our fuel stop in Castle Rock we entered beautiful, forested hills.  Ahhh, it was like being back home, only five thousand or so feet higher.

Now this is a pretty sight: Hills, winding road, and lots of trees that are green and taller than 8 feet.

Find the airplane.  Yes, we're near the Air Force Academy.

Arrived at the host hotel, Springs Inn, just as the day was warming up.  Unloaded and relaxed.  Met Rich, who is Bob's dad.  He came up from Texas.  And Marion and his wife from Georgia.  Oh, and Dave & Annie Hall from England.  Yes, a Type Three'r from ENGLAND is here (any one from the ol' DDB reading this?).  More volks will be arriving tomorrow; it'll be a good crowd.

Rich, Brian, and I walked to the Phantom Canyon Brewing Co for lunch.  That's where we'll be having Friday night dinner.  Good food and a few decent single malt scotches.

Walking distance from the hotel.  Party on, Garth!

 The evening was spent with a nice, thick, mello, Padilla Series '68 out on the patio.  On the patio I also met Sven, from Germany, who's here with his friend Michael for a physics conference.  It was really neat to get his input on America's roads and driving (apparently we're pretty laid back and have wide roads).

Home sweet home for the next four days.

Wyoming: The Land Of Nothingness!

Day 4 – This is being posted today instead of last night because we had NO internet service.  I wrote this up last night.

Wyoming:  The Land Of Nothingness!

Okay, at least the southern part.  More on that later…

I topped up my brake fluid reservoir and also got a spare gallon of 15w-40 diesel motor oil (cuz it’s high in Zinc) and Brian got some bungee cords to secure his hood, then we left south Ogden, Utah, and finally trekked eastward into hills and valleys…you know, scenery and winding roads.  It was a very nice change of pace.

No need to click the picture, it's just the welcome sign to Wyoming.

After we crossed into Wyoming -- along with +35mph winds -- Brian’s hood popped up AGAIN so we pulled into Evanston to put some more bungee cords on it.  The parking lot we used was an old gas station converted into a fireworks store so we went inside to check it out and use the restroom.  Ended up chatting with the owner and we saw a LOT of super-duper-really-cool fireworks – the kind that would land me 25 to life in prison if I shot them off in Oregon.  We did buy some non-fireball shooting types that are Oregon legal:  They launch little army men that parachute down.  I got some neon sparklers and some other parachute-style fireworks that I think the kids (okay, me) will like.

If there was only some way I could sneak these puppies into Oregon.

Three different parachute, Oregon-safe, fireworks for me, er, the kids.

We stopped in Green River at Penny’s Diner for lunch.  That was one of our stops from the last Invasion two years ago.  Nothing exciting put probably what contributed to our future sleepiness.  Oh, the NASCAR contingent was west bound.  We stopped at Little America so I could check it out and saw more NASCAR haulers.  I wanted to get a picture of my car with one of them as a backdrop but by the time we got out of the gift shop they were done fueling and were parked next to other trucks so there wasn’t any space.  Bummer.

Penny's Diner.

We eventually got out into the greater vastness of nothingness known as southern Wyoming.  Driving in the winds with 18-wheelers screaming by us was fatiguing and we were really sleepy so we took a 30-minute nap at a parking lot on the side of the road (literally).  That really helped out and we were able to trudge onward.  I commented that there seemed to be far too many trucks on the road and they were getting annoying, like pulling in front of a line of cars so they could pass another trucker 2mph faster.  When the 2012 Corvette in front of you mashes on his brakes to an 18-wheeler cutting him off you know they don’t care about anyone but themselves (which seems to be much of society today).  Anyway, Brian told me later he decided to count the cars & truck coming the opposite direction and he stopped at 60 trucks vs. 40 cars.

We hit Laramie at about 7pm and filled up.  Brian was deep into his gas reserves and that last stretch of nothingness (where some trailer folk actually eek out a living) was 219 [actual] miles and had my baby gulping down 8.37 gallons of fermented dino juice.  We decided to hit Cheyenne and spend the night there but when Brian turned on his headlights he got a plume of smoke from under his dash sooooo we’re now spending the night in Laramie…in a motel that has no internet service and no Sprint phone service.  Oh yeah, the winds picked back up and there’s no where to have a cigar.  And the bathroom fan doesn’t work so we have that door and our room door open to air out the failed fumigation experiment Brian and his butt executed in there.

I don’t like Laramie.

-- Pictures along the way --

Because I was bored and I want some Ohlins shocks for my Ducati.

More borning lay ahead.  Windmills are to old Volkswagens like heads on spears are to humans.  Unfriendly territory.

Yup, more boredom ahead.

Wheee!  +50mph winds for my fatigued body, yeah!  Thankfully they were mostly tail winds.

What happened today? A whole lot of BORING!

Day 3

Today was basically uneventful and BORNING.  I like these little trips because they allow me to see different places in the US, especially the places where I would NOT want to live!  I can check southern Idaho and northern Utah off my list of places I would not live (we already know Kansas is one of them).  Eastern Oregon, sorry to say, is one of those as well.  I guess living west of the Cascade mountains has spoiled me.  I love the greenery, the winding roads and temperate weather.  Hope I haven't offended too many volks; it's just my opinion.

See the flags?  That's how windy it was.

 There was a strong west by south westerly wind which was, thankfully, a tail-wind for us.  So our mileage was positively affected.  My best mileage was 28mpg.  With only two stops for gas my total for the day was 13.16 gallons, with just over 219 miles on the last fill up (8.0 gallon fill).  Oh, I also dropped from 91-92 octane to 87 per Brian's recommendation.  No pinging.  Tomorrow we finally head into the mountains (yeay, curves!) so we shall see how the engine handles the load going up hill.

Oh yeah, at a rest stop we looked at the small puddle of oil under my car and it's coming from in front of the engine so we know what that means:  Main seal.  Uhg.  I should be okay for the trip and can replace it once I'm back home.  Anyway, oil loss isn't terrible.  I did notice that the backing plate on the left rear wheel is wet looking and a check of the brake fluid reservoir shows a drop in the level so I have a small leak back there.  Let's hope it doesn't get worse.

Stitched panoramic view of BORING, between Idaho and Utah.

Dinner was at a great Italian restaurant, Zucca's.  We each had a seafood spaghetti and mussels that were great.  Cigar for the evening was a 90+ rated Alec Bradley Prensado...which left me disappointed.  It started off great, rich and spicy like a smokey chilli pepper but after a little while it petered out.  Like, I couldn't keep it lit!  I'd light it, get a good draw, then only one or two more and phthft, nada!  Brian was there and saw I tried and tried to no avail to keep that sucker alive.  Not happy with that.  Let's hope that was a bad cigar and the other one will be okay.

Okay, here's a video when we were bored today.  It's Brian in his Notch running with magical tires:

Oh, click me to see our route on Goggle Maps.

Yawning is a GOOD thing!

Day 2

We left our first gas station at 9:10 and made good time.  Then Brian’s hood unlatched.  So we pulled over and he pushed it back down and we were back on our merry way.  There is a safety hook so we weren’t worried about the hood flying open – them German engineers are smart volks.  But a bump later and it unlatched and we were on the side of the road, pushing it back down.  And repeat.  So annoyed by the frequent stops we pulled out some duct tape and further secured the hood.  Nope.  It came undone again a little later.  Uhg.  After some fiddlin’ around we saw that the catch was ‘sluggish’  so we sprayed some oil on it and worked the release…yup, that’s what it needed!  The catch was now moving back to the locked position like it was supposed to and it held the hood down.  We were back to uninterrupted driving.

Two small sections of scary gravel along the beautiful Umpqua stretch weren't fun.

Long stretches of uninterrupted driving.  Yawn.

Temps were in the upper 80s so the drive was a tad on the hot side but not unbearable like prior drives.  We both are leaking a little oil but I seem to have more coming from the center line of the engine and a little from the right side.  I did need to add a ½ quart of oil mid-trip and will likely need more in the morning…which reminds me, I need to check the oil sump cover and make sure the acorn nuts and drain plug are snug.  At least my tires are less than two years old and holding up, heheheh.

I had quite a few long, straight stretches with a purple Notchback in my sights.

Gas mileage for me was in the mid-to-upper 20s so that’s good.  We made it to Ontario, OR, about 6:30 Pacific time, 7:30 Mountain time as that is the time zone we’re now it.  I put in 20.02 gallons of 91 octane in my car today.

The day ended with a nice Carlos Torano (Exodus 1959) cigar sitting behind our cars in the parking lot, enjoying the cool evening air.  Let’s hope the rest of the trip is uneventful.  Yawning is a good thing when you’re driving a classic vehicle cross-country!

Type Three Invasion, Day 1

Woke up this morning and had a Kahlua & Creme latte with a croissant breakfast sandwich at Ava's Rosteria with my Sweetie and The Boy. Packed up my clothes for the trip, said g'bye to the family, and started my journey to the Type Three Invasion.  About 3.5 hours later I was at my buddy Brian Fye's house.

My baby ran fine and got a lot of looks, including one long one by a Marion County Sheriff...  At the 1/2 way point on the fuel gauge I was just over 150 miles so my mileage is okay.  My speedometer & odometer are off because I am running lower profile tires and thus they read higher than what they should.  Oil pressure was fine and no red light flicker from the low oil pressure idiot light when coasting down the off-ramp at the Fye exit.  Oxygen sensor was running a consistent 12.5 which is a bit rich for my tastes but that means she won't be running hot and there's no black smoke out the exhaust so my mixture isn't too rich I guess.  Handling wasn't as bad since I had a full thrust alignment done to her but she still requires attention; a little too drifty-wandery for my tastes.

Brian needed an accessory 12v outlet in his car so I installed the one he had.  Now he can charge his phone in the car and also use his cool lambda meter.  Tomorrow we plan on leaving after 8am and head towards Ontario, Idaho.  Let's hope for an uneventful trip!

It's that time of year again...when it's an even year, that is!

It's been a while so I'll just jump right in:

Antonette's mom moved in on May 30th and things are going very well.  It's really nice having her here, especially helping with the kids.  A week prior to her moving in, all her belongings from Georgia arrived in a 55' hauler (her load was 800 cubic feet).  Two guys unpacked the trailer while Antonette and I guided and helped some.  One of the guys was real young, probably 19 or 20, and while walking through the house to see where to put stuff mentioned that our house was big.  Huh.  Later that day his comment made me reflect on my life and that I've been blessed to be able to afford a nice place (with lots of help from my Sweetie!) with plenty of space and that I'm able to have work that pays well.  There are times when I feel trodden upon, over-whelmed, and I remember what that kid said and I don't feel so bad...my life could be much, much worse!

My contract with a major shoe design company ended early due to budget cuts but after a break I got a contract for an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping utility customers benefit from saving energy and generating renewable energy.  Wow!  I like them more than the previous contract; they're organized, using up-to-date software and hardware (I was disappointed with the shoe company...Windows XP on a small laptop, really?).  Office 2010, quad Intel processor with dual, hi-res LED monitors -- NICE!  The people are friendly and on the ball.  Oh, yeah, I'm working in the finance department tasked with building/automating some Excel budgeting workbooks.  They even let me take my two-weeks for the Invasion!  Of course, that means I have four weeks to do six weeks of work...no stress...

Right now I'm updating the "kid's" laptop in preparation for the Invasion.  I think it's been a couple years since it was last connected to the internet!  That laptop is used to power a "computer keyboard" toy for the kids...Learning Years or something like that.  Anyway, I'll be using that to once again blog about my trip.  It sure is taking a looooong time to update!

So, yes, it's time for another Type 3 Invasion; the whole impetus that got this blog a rollin'.  My Squareback has been cleaned, maintenance performed, and packed up with a full tank of fuel, ready for Saturday morning to head out to Fye's house.  Brian will be driving his purple Notch but I think with a different -- or at least improved -- motor.  Cigars are nestled in my humidor, ready to be packed up Saturday morning and enjoyed at the end of each day.  If we have the time.  And we're not exhausted.

This will be my last Invasion for some time, at least for any Invasion that is more than a couple hundred miles away.  It's kind of expensive, with 91-octane gasoline being the biggest expense, and it's hard to take a couple weeks off from work AND from family.

Okay, time to log off and get away from a computer.  I've been doing 11-hour work days this week so as to not get behind schedule at work.  See ya on the road!

New year, new job, new car...but I wouldn't call it all "good" news.

A New Job?

At the beginning of January my immediate manager, Reza, stabbed me in the back with a negative performance review and started making my work environment very hostile.  He would lie to me, belittle me in front of others, not help me as he promised he would, and set project expectations that were designed to fail -- he even tasked me with a project management job that was his responsibility which he failed to meet over a three month period...and he expected me to know it 100% in less than three weeks!  I don't know where any of this came from; it honestly caught me off-guard.  Were they trying to build a case to fire me?  Did they not want to give me a raise, thus using this exercise as a reason?

Since it was obvious he was out to get me and my group manager was in no way trying to help me, either, I started looking for work else where.  Since I'm good at what I do finding another job was easy.  I submitted HR the proper resignation letter with my employee badge and gave my immediate notice during our daily morning "team" meeting.  I was not going to be treated with such blatant disrespect from a manager who had yet to even earn any respect from the team.

I am very glad I listed why I was leaving in my resignation letter because that lousy manager was pressured to leave the company by the end of the month:  Who's wearing a big smile now, Reza?  I hear others are leaving as well and the business intelligence reporting environment (and other initiatives) is crumbling.

I'm now at local, major shoe design company and love it!  For every day I was there the first week I did something to improve the teams workflow.  I'm building Access database and Excel applications, both well infused with VBA to make them workhorses.  I set up remote desktop stations with spare systems to help team members in Tennessee run their reports 15 times faster.  I figured out how to automate their SAP BEx workbooks for reporting automation.  My team is very appreciative and it feels good to get positive feedback.

A New Car?

Ah...the "new" car...huh?  Well, to be honest, Antonette is the one who finally got tired of her Passat and ended up buying a 2010 VW Routan SEL...yes, mini-van!  UHG!!  Yeah, we have a mini-van :-(  But there are good points about it that make sense when you have a family:  Seating for seven, much more cargo space, dual DVD players and screens to keep the kids freakin' quiet on trips, and individual climate zones.  I already installed fog lights in it.  Looking to add an OEM trailer hitch as it came with a towing setup (just no hitch?) and also add running boards so the kids can more easily enter/exit.  It's a big step for them.  The 6-cylinder engine does have guts!  It's more responsive than the Passat with it's turbo.  However, the gas mileage is the worst of all our vehicles so ya gotta take the good with the bad.

What Else?

Nothing much for now, that's the update.

Good shop news

The previous owner stopped by today to pick up mail we had collected for them.  While we were chatting I asked about the shop.  The shop used to be just one side (the left side).  They added the right side.  The pour was 5" with another 4" more in the upper right quadrant  (top half of the addition they poured) because...excellent news!...he had planned on putting a lift there!  Yeay!  My plan was to put a lift on the left side but I can change plans, no problem-o!  This saves me from having to cut out a section of the floor, digging deeper, and repouring, which is what I was planning on doing because you need to have a good foundation for a car lift.

We also found out the house roof was put on in 2006.  Just good to know.

Oh, we also got our first snow day, yippee! 

Cherry Pickers: Not all are seasonal!

Did some searching and I think I can get my tranny reasonably fixed as long as I do the removal and install.  Since removing the tranny requires supporting the engine I decided this was a good excuse to get a new tool:  An engine hoist!  For those of us who work on cars this handy device is also known as a 'cherry picker'.

A search on the local Craig's List had a very nice 2-ton unit briefly used that was only a few miles away and for $160...and it was posted this morning so it must've been a sign to get it!

I called Ken to see if I could borrow his Yukon as a transport vehicle but it was down so I had to use my Squareback, uhg!  So I drove to the place in the rain and we barely got it loaded into my baby.  He gave me some thin rope to secure it in the cargo area and then he was gone...was in a rush to go somewhere!

I took the side streets to avoid the rush-hour traffic because I wanted to keep my speed below the 35mph speed limit and not piss off anyone.  Got home with no issues.  Antonette helped me unload it.  Here it is before unloading it:

Lucky me, it came with a load-leveler as well!

All folded up and ready for use:

Happy happy joy joy!  Now all I need is a two-post lift and my shop is complete (tool-wise).

Tick! Tick! Tick!...Crap!

Wednesday my Jetta suddenly developed a loud tick tick tick in 2nd gear...likely a chipped tooth in the tranny!  Damn!  Average cost to repair/replace starts at $1000 and likely would be a few hundred more.  I'm seriously thinking of parting the car out because to sell her whole (ask-is) I could only get a thousand or so.  Parting her out would get me close to two thousand or more.  Just really sucks because the car runs great and handles just as well but the body is in need of paint and the interior needs some refurbishing.

I wonder what my next used car should be...