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So, a couple of months ago a long time friend of mine and fellow car guy passed away due to cancer. He was about 25 years older than me, but it got me to thinking about lessons learned from him. Although they were many, one of those lessons involved the cars. You see, he always drove his toys whereas I tend to let mine sit...and rub them with diapers...recover them...then rub them with diapers again. You get the point.
The first step in fixing that and starting to enjoy my cars instead of just letting them sit was signing up for the Big Bend Open Road Race this April. I decided I am going to dust off the Supra and run it in the 125 mph class. Of course that meant ordering up some new KW coilovers (I hated the K-sports), new RPS clutch (40K miles on the factory clutch scared me), and a couple of other goodies. Mind you this is a 40K mile '94 TT 6 speed with mint paint that has lived in the garage it's entire life.
Well the baby girl (my 6 year old daughter Revyn) and I decided we'd take the car on a shakedown pass on the course the road race is run on. We headed off and topped the car off with a splash of 93 Octane:
Please don't mind the bra, it's actually a very nice, snug bra and I'm extremely anal about rock chips and bugs. The car is scheduled this Thursday for a 3M clear bra install. LOL
After that, we left Midland and drove to Ft. Stockton, TX. That's about a 90 mile drive and it was a beautiful West Texas Sunday morning. Not a breath of wind and about 70 degrees. Ft. Stockton came quickly and we hit hwy 285 for the 62 mile journey down to Sanderson (the actual course for the BBORR). This road is awesome, smooth, curvy...and noone on it except the border patrol. They never took a second glance at us.
Soon, we arrived in Sanderson, TX:
A quick drive through town found one of the old gas stations. Said $1.19/gallon on the pumps. I wish.
A few hundred yards down the road found this odd attraction:
Looked like a cub to me. No numbers to get any info off of. This is just yards from the border. I bet the history is "questionable" at best. LOL
After a quick look around and realizing we'd be hungry soon we hit the road back north on 285. My daughter loves hunting rocks. So about 10 miles north we found a bridge over a dried up river bed and we got the rock hunt on:
That's a happy girl, folks. As we walked further down into the river bed I heard a familiar sound. Hearing any sound out here in the middle of nowhere is odd, but hearing this one really perked my ears up. I heard a car pass where we had parked, then turn around and go back toward where I had parked the Supra. All the while I couldn't see said car because we were quite a ways down the river bed and under a bridge. I grabbed the baby girl, checked my concealed gun and made my way back to the Supra only to encounter this picture:
Apparently the guy was driving to Laredo from Las Vegas in this recently purchased HKS Twin Turbo Supra. Now keep in mind I never see Supras out here...NEVER. It's like they don't exist. And then to run across this in the middle of nowhere. Strange to say the least.
So Revyn and I decided to hit the road back home again. But I couldn't resist another picture of two of my favorite things in the world:
Now, I have to tell you this trip did my heart good. This has been a very stressful time in my life as the wife and I are buying another business (to add to our other 2 businesses...what was I thinking!) and I sometimes fail to focus on what gifts God has given me. My daughter is the first of my two kids and spending this Sunday morning with her was truly one of my top 3 daddy days ever. The bonding with her combined with enjoying the beauty of the Supra TT in it's element is just beyond words. I'll never forget this day and I promise you I'm going to do ALOT more of it. So committed am I to that in fact that Revyn and I sat down last night and planned a trip to the Big Bend mountains in the next few weeks. She requested that we take the GT500 that time and I of course obliged...even though that car has sat since new and now only has 2000 miles on it after 4 years of ownership. I am just looking forward to another wonderful day bonding with Revyn and enjoying life with a little bit of car stuff thrown in.
Thank you, Gary Kahler for teaching a stubborn old Texan the value of living life and enjoying what God has granted us.
The first step in fixing that and starting to enjoy my cars instead of just letting them sit was signing up for the Big Bend Open Road Race this April. I decided I am going to dust off the Supra and run it in the 125 mph class. Of course that meant ordering up some new KW coilovers (I hated the K-sports), new RPS clutch (40K miles on the factory clutch scared me), and a couple of other goodies. Mind you this is a 40K mile '94 TT 6 speed with mint paint that has lived in the garage it's entire life.
Well the baby girl (my 6 year old daughter Revyn) and I decided we'd take the car on a shakedown pass on the course the road race is run on. We headed off and topped the car off with a splash of 93 Octane:
Please don't mind the bra, it's actually a very nice, snug bra and I'm extremely anal about rock chips and bugs. The car is scheduled this Thursday for a 3M clear bra install. LOL
After that, we left Midland and drove to Ft. Stockton, TX. That's about a 90 mile drive and it was a beautiful West Texas Sunday morning. Not a breath of wind and about 70 degrees. Ft. Stockton came quickly and we hit hwy 285 for the 62 mile journey down to Sanderson (the actual course for the BBORR). This road is awesome, smooth, curvy...and noone on it except the border patrol. They never took a second glance at us.
Soon, we arrived in Sanderson, TX:
A quick drive through town found one of the old gas stations. Said $1.19/gallon on the pumps. I wish.
A few hundred yards down the road found this odd attraction:
Looked like a cub to me. No numbers to get any info off of. This is just yards from the border. I bet the history is "questionable" at best. LOL
After a quick look around and realizing we'd be hungry soon we hit the road back north on 285. My daughter loves hunting rocks. So about 10 miles north we found a bridge over a dried up river bed and we got the rock hunt on:
That's a happy girl, folks. As we walked further down into the river bed I heard a familiar sound. Hearing any sound out here in the middle of nowhere is odd, but hearing this one really perked my ears up. I heard a car pass where we had parked, then turn around and go back toward where I had parked the Supra. All the while I couldn't see said car because we were quite a ways down the river bed and under a bridge. I grabbed the baby girl, checked my concealed gun and made my way back to the Supra only to encounter this picture:
Apparently the guy was driving to Laredo from Las Vegas in this recently purchased HKS Twin Turbo Supra. Now keep in mind I never see Supras out here...NEVER. It's like they don't exist. And then to run across this in the middle of nowhere. Strange to say the least.
So Revyn and I decided to hit the road back home again. But I couldn't resist another picture of two of my favorite things in the world:
Now, I have to tell you this trip did my heart good. This has been a very stressful time in my life as the wife and I are buying another business (to add to our other 2 businesses...what was I thinking!) and I sometimes fail to focus on what gifts God has given me. My daughter is the first of my two kids and spending this Sunday morning with her was truly one of my top 3 daddy days ever. The bonding with her combined with enjoying the beauty of the Supra TT in it's element is just beyond words. I'll never forget this day and I promise you I'm going to do ALOT more of it. So committed am I to that in fact that Revyn and I sat down last night and planned a trip to the Big Bend mountains in the next few weeks. She requested that we take the GT500 that time and I of course obliged...even though that car has sat since new and now only has 2000 miles on it after 4 years of ownership. I am just looking forward to another wonderful day bonding with Revyn and enjoying life with a little bit of car stuff thrown in.
Thank you, Gary Kahler for teaching a stubborn old Texan the value of living life and enjoying what God has granted us.
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