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Pictures from RCR Museum & Vineyard

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Pictures from JGR and arrival in Pell City

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We had another great pit tour, even with bouts of pouring rain. So thanks to Mariah from Haas Racing for showing us around and taking care of us in the suite, even though she wouldn’t rig the drawing to get us a damned hat. The race was a bit more interesting this year, though almost inevitably Jimmie Johnson finally got to the front and ran away with it. We decided we were just going to take our time before getting into the car, even went to the Applebee’s just in front of the track to grab a bite to eat.  Even two hours after the race ended the parking lot was still backed up getting out, but we managed to get home in about 2 hours from the time we got in the car. Not awful, but we are still less-than-impressed with the job the folks from the track do with the logistics.  Nothing like being charged $10 to park and then having almost nothing in the way of organization with the local infrastructure to move the traffic in & out.  I’ll step down off the box before I really get rolling…  Thanks to Ed and the folks at Lance as well as the Haas Racing folks for a great day.

Click the monster for the pics from the day…

Miles the Monster

After a short night’s sleep we took it fairly easy on Thursday, stocking up on groceries for the weekend, enjoying the gorgeous day on the newly-improved deck (great job on the underside of the roof Peter & Crystal!). The kids even ventured out onto the pond in the canoe, dragging Val along for the first trip. Sport quickly got over any fear he had of the water once he saw the kids out on the canoe and practically dove in, then trying to swim out to them.  He had a ball running in & out of the water. We finished up with a pizza party and some Rock Band and managed to be awake when Andy got home, though we weren’t awake long after that!

On Friday we headed into Kittery to take in the outlets and make the inevitable run out to Nubble Light so Val and the kids could see what it feels like when it’s not 20 below zero.  Biggi did a great job not falling asleep on her 30th visit of 2009 to that lighthouse.

As we were driving home the clouds ahead of the remnants of Tropical Storm Danny started to build and we decided to call an audible and swap our plans for a bonfire from Saturday to Friday. Andy had mowed the yard while we were gone and had built up the makings of the bonfire.  Biggi made a killer noodle salad with pieces of kielbasa chopped up to go along with potatoes baked in foil in the fire and sausages (brats, italian sausages and cheddarwursts) cooked on sticks over the fire. We loaded up the feast into trailer on the back of the mower and headed to water’s edge to enjoy, and enjoy we most certainly did. Melissa enjoyed the fire to a frightening degree!

We enjoyed the sausages and accompaniments by the fire and when it was dark enough we fired off the fireworks Andy & I had made a run for late in the day.  They were great, except the “big” finally box was set a little too close to the water and wound up sliding in before it was finished, so they didn’t all fire and the last couple were far closer to the ground than they were designed to be after firing FROM the water.  Regardless, they were great and we’ll do better next time! We finished up just in time to avoid the rain as Danny arrived right about the time we had everything unloaded and put away. We spent the rest of the evening jamming out to Rock Band, of course.

The rain pounded on the house all night and off and on through Saturday as well but since we had stocked up for the weekend on Thursday we didn’t have to leave the house.  It made for a great lazy day until it came time to make schnitzel.  Melissa got to help Biggi so now she knows how and we’re going to torture her into making it for us for sure! Biggi’s friend Marissa and her dog Rita joined us that evening, Marissa for dinner and Rock Band, Rita to torture Sport. Sport was very good around her and seemed to just want to play but Rita, a German Shepard, is VERY protective of Marissa and didn’t want him anywhere near her.

After a short morning with coffee and making our requisite guest book entries we loaded up Joe’s Acadia and piled in for the trip home.  We saw TONS of Vettes when we got to I-84 down in Connecticut and again on I-78 in PA. They were all on the way home from the annual Corvettes at Carlisle event, which I have yet to make it to. It quickly reached the point that it wasn’t worth calling them out as they went by, there were just too many.  Other than some traffic on the Mass Turnpike we had a fairly uneventful but safe trip home so the recovery from another awesome weekend in NH could begin.

Thank you again to our fabulous friends Andy & Biggi.  You guys blow us away every time we visit with how welcome and at home we are made to feel there, even though we invade with 3 teens and a dog!  Unfortunately for you that just means you’ll see us again soon.

All of the pics we posted from the weekend can be found by clicking here.

]]> http://www.lazyassgeek.com/2009/09/18/sport-goes-to-summer-camp/feed/ 1 http://www.lazyassgeek.com/2009/08/04/hey-dummy-click-here/ http://www.lazyassgeek.com/2009/08/04/hey-dummy-click-here/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:19:29 +0000 geek http://www.lazyassgeek.com/?p=406 Here you go Mike, a link to the Disney pics!

Random Road Shot from Highway 160

Wednesday’s second instructor was Justin, also known as JJ and according to the back of his helmet, J.Man.  When asked what he actually went by he didn’t seem to have a preference. As Jordan had called him JJ to us the previous day that’s what we stuck with.

The day began as the day prior had, with heel-toe shifting practice.  With 3 of us and 2 instructors it gave those of us still not comfortable with it, in other words everyone except Joe, some one-on-one time.  Actually after a few runs I found myself falling into a rhythm and noticed I wasn’t picking my heel up off the floor as I had been.  Not going to argue with it, so I stayed with it and it seemed to work better for me.  As we had the instructors available I asked JJ to hop in and offer some advice.  Overall he thought I was getting the hang of it and would improve with continued practice. I felt much better about the heel-toe shifting by the end of that session and Clown-foot continued merrily along as well.

The next thing was an exercise & self-test to see how our visual scanning technique was coming along.  Jordan had mentioned the previous day that they would put us on a track we’d never seen before. We assumed that he meant the other piece of the track they have there, the 1.5 mile layout.  Well we know how assumptions go, so of course it was something completely different – the same track we’d been running… but in reverse.  They wanted us to keep the speed to 45 mph and just concentrate on spotting apexes and turn-in points.  WOW does the track in reverse look completely different! The turn-in and most of the apex cones they had spotted around the track were useless so we were on our own. With each lap you got a bit more confident, but turns 2 & 4 (numbered running the track the normal way) were the tough ones as the approaches left you a lot of options for turn-in.  I don’t know that I turned in and apexed those corners at the same point any two laps, but I think I was sneaking up on it.  It was a very educational and fun exercise.

We did a debrief on the reverse track discussing some of the cornering techniques and then it was time to brief us on open lapping sessions.  The first new thing was that we’d have to wear helmets.  All the previous sessions had been speed limited because we were following the instructors so helmets weren’t necessary, but since in the open lap sessions we weren’t limited we had to wear helmets.  This would become an issue as the day moved along, but I’ll whine about that later. We were instructed about where passing was allowed and how to go about it.  They would call for the passes on the radio if necessary, but they preferred we keep an eye on our mirrors and move over on the backstretch (preferably) or frontstretch to let the faster car by. If you were the faster car they asked that you be patient if you caught up to the other car before those areas, maintain a 5-6 car length gap and then pass when permitted.  Also sometime during the first session an instructor had to ride with you for a few laps to sign you off to be able to run in the afternoon hot lapping sessions.

So off we went to the cars with helmets on.  I got the Z06 as Joe was content with his Atomic Orange Pfadt suspension C6 and the Jetstream Blue C6 Renee had been driving had a pedal extension strapped to it to make heel-toe easier for her to do. I will admit to some serious butterflies before this session, but once you get strapped in you automatically start into the process you’d been building up over the previous days and a lot of that went away. A loop through the paddock and we got in line for Jordan to release us onto the track.  I was first out, then Joe, then Renee.  Started out at pretty much the same pace we’d been doing in the Lead/Follow sessions, but ramped it up bit by bit.  Since everyone seems to want to know “how fast did you go” on that session by the end I had ramped it up to about 100mph on the back stretch.  The 5/8 mile long back stretch, that I was entering somewhere around 50mph, then has a long, large radius turn at the end of it. The trick is to keep yourself to a speed where you’re confident and comfortable that you’ll still make the corner.  After a few laps they called me into the pits and JJ got in the car with me for my checkout ride.  While all race drivers have to have a certain amount of courage, getting into the car with a n00b behind the wheel takes a rather large set of attachments (credit David Hobbs).  I did a few laps with him along for the ride and he gave me a few tips, particularly that I could carry more speed through that turn at the end of the back straight, turn 8.  He approved me to go, I dropped him off in the pits and finished out the session. Here’s a picture I dug up today from Spring Mountain’s online photo galleries.  The overhead shot of the track is a great view.  The back straight so frequently mentioned in this paragraph is that long straight stretch all the way at the right edge of the pic.  Click on the pic to get a bigger view.

Spring Mountain from the Air

The other thing that everybody asks: Who was faster, Joe or me?  I’m relieved to report it was me! I know this because during this session Joe moved over and let me pass him on the back straight. We got out of the cars and freshened up before lunch – wearing helmets is sweaty business, thank goodness they have everyone wear head socks! Lunch this last day they pulled out the stops, chicken breasts in a mushroom cream sauce.  However based on the previous day’s burger, I knew that a filling lunch wasn’t exactly a great idea when you’re throwing cars around, so seconds were out of the question!

After letting lunch settle and then doing another debrief to review what we’d done we headed back out to the cars.  Joe took the Z06 this time and I was in the Orange C6.  I went out first again and after a lap or so to warm up the car I began to find out what makes the Z06 so special.  The standard C6 is a great car, this orange coupe being no exception.  You can throw them around and they just take it.  But after just having driven the Z, well its amazing lateral grip and incredible brakes were truly appreciated by their absence!  As you move through the chicane just after turn 3 there is curbing on the left side that dips down and is your braking point that sets you up to come back right for the very tight turn 4. The Z handles this no problem, maybe a hint of ABS or active handling (since ABS is part of AH it’s hard to say which is kicking in at any given moment, you sure don’t have time to look at the display to find out!).  The standard Vette, EVERY time I hit the brakes at that point the ABS kicked in, and again and I crested the right hander at the exit of the chicane. That’s not intended as criticism of the standard Vette, those electronic aids are great for keeping your butt out of trouble, just a head shaker about how much better the Z06 is. This was again pointed out with remarkable clarity as I got on the brakes in turn 8 about half way through the session.  I went in as fast as I had in the Z06 and got on the brakes, got into understeer and felt like I darn near put the car in the gravel, though I probably had 10-15 feet of track left.  It was an eye opener, and in the debrief I talked to Jordan about it and he said two things that helped keep it from happening again.  The first was that when you first apply your brakes that should be the hardest on them you’re going to be for that turn, everything after that is easing up.  The second was “GET YOUR HEAD UP AND LOOK AT THE EXIT!!” He said he’d guarantee I was staring at that desert off the turn and my hands were taking me there, and I sure as heck wouldn’t have bet against him! With Joe in the Z06 this session I didn’t pass him, though I could see him by the last lap of the session.  Here’s a couple of pics of our rides for the session.

Atomic Orange Coupe

Z06

After another debrief, where Jordan helped me figure out how badly I messed up 8, it was time to head to the track again. Joe was kind, or so I thought, and allowed me to run the Z06 again.  This Z was silver this time as the yellow Z’s rear tires were nearly finished and a tech decided to swap them at the end of the previous session. As mentioned previously, the helmets became an issue, with the Z06 especially. The seats are nice & comfy in the Vette but if you’re at all tall and you strap a helmet on the combo of those seats and the low roofline (the Z06 seats are actually a tick higher and the roof a tick lower inside) means that great seating position they taught us where you don’t get tired goes out the window so your head doesn’t clank off the roof! At 6’1″ with a 31″ inseam, this became a real problem for me.  By the time this second session was over I was absolutely wiped out from having to reach so far for the wheel and from having hold myself in place in the seat, both because of the compromised seating position.  I still absolutely loved driving it, but I’d have to agree with both Jordan & JJ’s answer to the question “what’s the first upgrade I should get on my new Z06?”  A new seat!  A Recaro race style seat would take care of the problem nicely.  In this session I continued to ramp up the speed and with the confidence gained by putting to use the good advice in turn 8 and the forgiveness of the Z06 I was consistently topping 120 on the back stretch.  I probably still was getting on the brakes harder than I needed to as I consistently felt like I could have carried more speed through 8, but I was comfortable with what I was doing and was hitting the entry into 9 and then off through 10 pretty well so I didn’t push it. I think what was consistently the most fun section for me was turn 5A/5B and through the kink down into 6. 5A goes uphill with a very tight turn-in and the has a very short chute where you let the car unwind out to the left before coming back hard right across the apex of 5B, where then you can get back to the throttle all the way down to the braking zone for 6.  Did I mention that’s a blast!!??!!!  Cause it is. Oh yeah, I passed Joe on this session too!

As I mentioned, I was tired & sore at the end of that 3rd open lapping session and as much as I loved driving it, decided that it would be better if I skipped driving the Z06 for the final session.  After the break & debrief we headed back out to the cars one last time and I chose the Callaway instead.  The Callaway Vette is based on the standard C6 so you get that extra bit of roof height back, but it also has a Recaro seat which is much lower than the stock seats.  While with its high lateral supports it’s something of a challenge for ingress and egress(especially wearing a helmet!), but you can get a very good driving position and you sure as heck aren’t going anywhere side-to-side-in that seat!

Callaway Corvette Interior

For this last session they wanted us to take it easier, concentrate on the skills we’d be learning, hit our marks, “make it perfect.”  They told us to do laps at approximately 70% to help with that.  So while I didn’t get to really unwind and push the Callaway I still was pushing it up to 90 on the back straight and had a chance to wind out that supercharger a bit.  It’s an impressive vehicle and there’s no doubt that supercharger power is addictive, but I still would rather have the Z06 for its handling and bottom end grunt.  As always seems to happen with great trips like this, it seemed like we blinked and it was over, with the checkered flag flying on the front stretch telling us to back it down, do a cool down lap and head into the paddock.

We gathered back at the classroom so the sales people could have one last shot at us (membership, Level 2, etc) and present our completion certificates and a very nice 8×10 class photo.. that I still need to scan so I can post! After that it was saying our thanks and goodbyes and then back across 160 to Vegas.

We were pretty damn tired after the open lapping sessions but decided that we weren’t going to just sit in the room for our last night in Vegas, so we grabbed the shuttle from the timeshare down to Stratosphere. We had dinner at their Top of the World restaurant, which is about 800′ above the street. The food was pretty good, but of course you were paying for the view more than the price.  Still it was a nice relaxing dinner and we had excellent service. Then we went up to the observation decks and took in the views and shook our heads at the people who think that hanging 900′ in the air off a mechanical ride is fun! After the big dinner and just being plain wiped out we decided to call it a night after that, had a beer at a bar downstairs to kill a few minutes waiting for the shuttle and headed back to Tahiti.

The Strip at Night

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Did you think these posts were ever going to end?  I was starting to wonder about it myself, but here we are, at the end.  The flights home (connect via Phoenix) were unremarkable, which I guess is remarkable in and of itself, especially since we arrived 15 minutes early in Philly and our bags were out in decent time. To end it up I’m going to do the thank yous again.  Thanks to all the staff at Spring Mountain for an absolutely awesome 3 days – Jordan, Victor, Barry (go Tony!), Justin, Melinda, Amy and the folks who’s names I’ve forgotten or never had a chance to get.  You guys do a great job and I will talk you up at every opportunity. Also thanks to my sister-in-law Natalie for not immediately dismissing this trip as a ridiculous idea when I suggested it as a 40th birthday gift for Joe. Perhaps it was a more than a little bit self-serving suggestion but I know that Joe enjoyed the trip every bit as much as I did.  And now he won’t drive my car like a wuss any more!

Heading West on Highway 160 on the Vegas side

How's that for a desert road, Biggi?

We got settled into the common area with cups of coffee, chatting with Renee and her husband Bill as well as our instructor Jordan.  We were supposed to have a 4th student and were waiting, and waiting, and then a radio call came in to Jordan that he would not be joining us. He had been struggling to get the car going with the clutch on Monday as it had been a long time since he’d driven a manual and I guess he decided it was just too frustrating. It was really a shame he gave up, because that is the perfect environment to practice.  The C6 is tough to get moving SMOOTHLY because of the torque so it can easily frustrate you, but the torque is actually your friend in getting the car moving.  On the first day the instructors demonstrated this by having us get the cars moving on a level surface by simply letting out the clutch without touching the gas. If you go nice & easy at the grab-point the car will just glide forward. But apparently the frustration factor was too high for this gentleman to deal with and enjoy himself, so we moved on without him.

That left Jordan, and Tuesday’s instructor du jour Barry(that’s a joke you guys, having a different second instructor each day was actually pretty cool as it gave you additional perspectives, even if Barry is a Tony hater) to deal with just Renee, Joe and me.  It was practically private instruction and made for a relaxed environment to learn in. You’ll be relieved to learn, dear reader, that the postings for the next two days aren’t likely to be as long as the post from Day 1, but that’s not because we did any less, it’s just because we would be learning fewer new skills and therefore fewer exercises to describe.  Instead we would be mostly applying those previous lessons and trying to improve on those skills by doing laps, mostly in Lead/Follow sessions on this day.

Before we get to the day’s events, here are a few pics of the stable we had the pleasure of choosing from.

The Stable

The Morning's Lineup

We got in the cars and headed out to the backstretch to start the day with more heel-toe practice.  There’s no such thing as too much practice with this, the more you do it the more natural it becomes and therefore the less you have to think about it. Brake-Clutch-Neutral-Blip-Select-Release.  The Brake/Clutch/Neutral begins to happen as a single action the more you do it, but the blip, select and release are individual steps.  We got ride-alongs from the instructors who helped us with technique and tips and who approved each of us to move along.

The next step was a pair of Lead/Follow sessions, this time working in 4-3 shifts.  The 2 points along the track where we were to work on shift were the entrances to turns 3 and 7. At turn 3 you’re coming up the hill and need to get the shift finished before you turn in where you REALLY go uphill. This is a turn where if you mess up the shift you can really get yourself into trouble because it is a tight turn and uphill and if you get engine braking going up that hill because you didn’t get your shift done in time, you’re going to loop it and wind up in the gravel.  That is, assuming you’ve slowed down enough to even get that far!  But it’s actually a fun turn because if you hit the apex and exit it will lead you perfectly into the chicane so you can setup for the tight turn 4. The shift heading into 7 I found to be much easier because to me it seems like you have more time.  You come through the kink and keep it wide right to enter turn 6, which you make into one big sweep heading down into 7.  It’s a long run down to that entry, so that’s when you get your shift done.  Turn 7 is the most important turn on the track because it leads into the fast section.  The more speed you can carry through turn 7 lets you go down that 1850′ straight with more speed.

2.2 Mile Track Map

We did our first Lead/Follow session and then headed back to take a break and review things.  Barry presented a lesson in cornering technique and we had a good discussion afterwards.  We also found out that Kyle Busch sent Barry off on his biggest shunt by diving under two cars up onto curbing, which didn’t end well, pushing the 2 cars out, clipping Barry as he came into the corner and sending him off and tumbling end over end.  Yet Barry still seemed to like Kyle, while not liking Tony because he’s a bully and “is good enough that he doesn’t need to be.”  Race drivers, go figure!

We headed out for our second Lead/Follow session and what I have avoided mentioning until now started to become a problem, well at least it became one in my mind and we know I’m an impatient bitch. Renee was not running as fast as Joe & I were, and should you manage to come across my post here Renee, please don’t take what I’m saying as criticism or mean-spirited because that is not my feeling or intent.  Everybody has to go at their own pace and be comfortable in order to learn, I understand that and had absolutely no problem with Renee running a pace she was comfortable running.  When it became a problem, and my limited patience was tested,  was during that second Lead/Follow.  Any time Renee was ahead of us but not directly behind the instructor the pace was much slower than I would have preferred and I began to feel like it was keeping me from progressing. Jordan & Barry recognized it as well and for the afternoon sessions had Barry ride with Renee in the afternoon sessions while Joe & I did the sessions following Jordan. So a tip of the hat and thanks to them both for keeping my frustration from getting the better of what little common sense I possess!

After the second Lead/Follow it was the instructors turn to throw the cars around. We each got a ride-along with either Jordan or Barry. My ride was with Barry, Joe with Jordan just ahead of us. They said they were going about 80% and it was a fun ride.  Barry was giving a running commentary and it again was very instructive for learning the line and braking zones. It also was instructive about how much more work I needed on heel-toe as other than hearing the STRONG blip you would never know he’d done something.  Barry did miss the apex through 4 one time while concentrating a bit too much on showing me something rather than the turn he was making.  That of course didn’t mean that I cut the Tony-hater any slack, so therefore I outed him to Jordan later in the debrief! After the demo rides it was time for lunch break.  Day 2′s lunch was burgers and dogs, good stuff again.

After lunch we headed over to the skid pad again, this time for a rather interesting exercise.  I had heard about it on Corvette Forum but it was still cool to experience.  They had cones laid out around which we had to run a serpentine pattern. OK, sounds easy enough, right?  Well this was another exercise in keeping your eyes up and what they wanted us to do was to look at a pair of white temporary shelters that was at the far end of the layout at all times.  So you had to turn based on when you spotted the cones in your peripheral vision. After a couple of runs at it to get the hang of it, they added an extra twist – the put sunshields in to cover the windshield so you HAD to use the side windows for your vision, no choice but to turn your head and look around. That sounds difficult, but actually after having run the serpentine a few times before they did that, it wasn’t really any different to run it with the windshield blocked and turned out to be pretty easy.  After that they wanted to prove a point about going fast.  They told us to go as FAST as we could around the cones, and they reached in and turned off traction control and active handling.  I was first and I got the car a little sideways, but obviously not hard enough for Jordan because the taunting over the radio began – “I said go FAST!  Do I have to send your brother out after you??”  Boy did he know the button to push!!  Next time through the rotation he had Barry give a demo with Renee riding shotgun. Barry just about did a constant drift back & forth around the cones, he said later it had been a long time since he’d done the demo so he didn’t get the car as sideways as he would have liked.  OK, so my turn again and Jordan comes on the radio and says “OK guys, we don’t pay for tires.  Get it?”  Got it. I did manage to get a good slide or two, but there’s an art to getting the back end to come around the way you want it to, and I apparently was putting in too much steering before I got into the throttle and that induces understeer.  Regardless it was fun to spin the wheels, throw the car around and make a little smoke.  It did also prove the point that you ain’t gonna go fast just by mashing the go pedal.

The day ended with two more Lead/Follow sessions, continuing to work on all the skills we’d been taught – visual scanning (eyes up, eyes up!!!!), heel-toe, hitting the apexes, learning the braking zones, etc. By the end of the day I was feeling pretty good about getting the car around the track, but still was feeling uncertain about heel-toe, still having to think about it too much. Joe was pretty comfortable with it and was trying to work in some of the optional shifts as well.  When the sessions were over and the day ended we headed over to the clubhouse and took a bunch of pictures, including head up to the top of the member observation tower and getting some pics from up top. Great view up there and you can see all of the pics in the photo gallery.

We headed back into Vegas and decided we would finish off the day with a good steak dinner. We took the shuttle down to New York New York and walked over to Luxor. Amazingly we weren’t presented with a single card for a strip joint! We had a very good dinner at the Tender Steak & Seafood in the Luxor.  Our waiter heard us talking about the racing school and was clearly amazed and interested because he was a pretty big guy himself and figured if WE could fit in those cars then he could too! Thanks for the great service Dewayne, though we do wish you had warned us how many tomatoes came with that salad plate!  Hope maybe some day you decide to go to Spring Mountain and have as much fun as we did.

After dinner we walked back to NYNY and fed the $100 bills our dad had given to each of us into dollar slot machines and made the money disappear.  Joe was up $58 at one point, but our dad would have been disappointed if he didn’t keep going, so he did, and lost all of it! Mine was far less dramatic and disappeared in short order.  We grabbed the shuttle bus back to Tahiti to get some sleep and be ready for open lapping on Day 3!

And I guess my promise to keep this one shorter than Day 1 was broken, oh well!

After a drive across the desert on Highway 160 (last gas for 40 miles!) that had gorgeous scenery we arrived at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch.  Wouldn’t it have been cool if that picture had been taken just as we arrived? Well since I forgot my camera back at the time share that wasn’t possible (ok, you done now? Good, let’s move on).  You cross the front straight as you pull into the facility, which is kinda strange the first time when you haven’t seen how they work their gate system.  We parked out front and headed inside to sign our lives away, pretty much literally, and acknowledge the $8000 damage deductible on the insurance included with the school package. You can pony up another $200 to take care of most of that, but we were feeling confident so opted against that.  The course we were taking is the Level 1 3-Day Corvette Program.

After meeting the group, 7 of us on the first day, our instructor Jordan gave us an overview of what we’d be doing over the 3 days.  2 of the folks in the group were there for only the 1 day “Corvette Performance Highlights” class.  One guy (Sal) had been riding a motorcyle at a track day there over the weekend and since he was thinking about buying a Vette decided to hang around and take the 1 day.  The other 1 day guy (Danny) was in Vegas with his wife and while she was at a conference he decided to head on down to Pahrump. An employee of the facility, Mitch, was also taking the 1 day because he had some projects coming up for the company and needed some first hand experience.

After that introduction it was right to the cars! My first ride was a silver Z06, though for the upcoming exercise I really didn’t get to take advantage of the differences between it and a standard C6, that would come on Wednesday(cue the dramatic music) and frankly at that moment I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate the differences anyway. If I remember correctly Joe got a yellow C6. They took us over to the skid pad where they had a braking exercise setup. They start you off with the ABS fuse pulled, which disables ALL of the computer assists so we had raw, 430-505hp rides under us. The first exercise was to get the car to 35mph and when you got to a pair of cones hit the brakes and bring the car to a stop.  Here’s where it gets interesting though – the skid pad has a special, very slippery sealer on it, and they were standing there with a fire hose and had wet down the braking zone. The idea was to “threshold” brake, get the wheels up to lock and then release, modulating them to keep them as close to lock as you could but not keep them locked and bring the car to a halt. OK, so we did that a couple of times, and then they wanted us to come down at 35 again and this time just pound on the brakes and lock ‘em up, trying to get a 4-wheel lock immediately.  Joe got it first time, took me a second try as instinct kept me from really hammering on them the first time.  Even on a wet, slippery surface with the wheels locked down the Vettes come to a stop very quickly. I took this lousy cell phone camera pic while waiting my turn, since I neglected to bring along the real thing(would you PLEASE let it go).

They got us out of the cars and after a quick break they explained what they wanted us to do next. This time we’d again come down at 35 and hit 4 wheel lock, but when we hit the brakes we were also to put in a quarter turn of steering to the right, then when instinct told us it was time, release the brakes, let the car catch and make the lane change between the rows of cones and then bring the car to a complete stop in the right lane. This was VERY cool and again it was amazing how quickly the Vettes would catch and turn on that surface after you released the brakes, make the lane change and then come to a controlled stop. After a few shots at that, all of them successful on Joe’s and my parts I’ll have you know, we pulled the cars back over and this time they put in the fuses and life became much easier as we had full ABS, traction control and active handling on our sides. The next time through the cones was lane change again, but no preset steering input, no release of the brakes and you wouldn’t know whether to turn left, right or keep straight on until you got to the cones when Victor (another instructor) standing at the far end would point you where to go.  The purpose of the pointing was to begin to hammer in their visual scanning technique – get your head up and eyes off the road directly in front of the car, you know where you are, look where you’re going next.  We did this one quite a few times and they would have us bump up the speed until on the last runs we were doing 50 when we stomped on the brakes.

<The LazyAssGeek Steps up onto the soapbox>On the debrief for this exercise they were quite forceful in suggesting we show this exercise to other people.  ABS is great, but if you don’t use it properly it can’t help you.  The purpose behind 4 wheel locking was to teach us to give the ABS a “high initial impact” so the system would immediately know you need help.  From there the key is to KEEP YOUR FOOT ON THE BRAKE as long as you need to, do NOT let off the brake if you have ABS and you feel that hammering.  Removing your foot tells the computer you don’t need it any more, and when you put your foot back on the computer starts the process over. A lot of us were taught to pump the brakes if you felt the wheels lock, but ABS is way better at it, so use it!! </soapbox>

After the braking debrief it was onto learning heel-toe shifting.  Wow, ya know when people say that something isn’t as it seem?  Heel-toe is every bit as hard as it seems.  You’re working 3 pedals with 2 feet.  I won’t go into a long description as there’s tons of stuff on the web about it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, watch this vid and at about the 13 second and 28 second marks you’ll see the driver pivot his foot from the brake to clip the throttle with his heel while he’s holding the clutch in.  The idea of doing this is to bring the RPM’s up so that when you release the clutch you get a smooth shift so you don’t get braking to the rear wheels induced by engine compression.  If you don’t do this and you release the clutch when the car ain’t in a straight line it’s very easy to spin the car!  So after giving us the theory we went out to the 5/8 mile long backstretch where they have cones setup.  From there we ran a loop back & forth, using cones at the far ends as markers for where to begin braking.  First just braking to get a feel for how much brake pressure we needed to bring the car down to 20mph by the last cone, then try to get that “blip” of the throttle.  Mind you, a “blip” is anything over 3000 and under 5500rpm so it’s a damn hard blip.  Anything under 3000 is a blurp.  We all did a lot of blurping but started to get the feel.  I struggled more with this than Joe seemed to, but then he has those clown feet so I’m pretty sure he could work all 3 pedals with one foot if he needed to!  After that exercise and a short debrief they let us go have some lunch.  They include the lunches and lay out a pretty nice spread each day, Monday was the typical deli tray, but not bad at all.

After lunch we got a tour of the clubhouse.  Everything there is practically new and the clubhouse is less than a year old.  It’s VERY nice, though much more relaxed than your typical Philly country club.  They have a great pool and grill area and an observation tower where members can watch races, complete with misters for the hot Nevada racedays.  Quite a few pics in the full gallery, but here are a couple of highlights.

After the tour we got a briefing on Lead/Follow sessions.  They run as a train and everybody gets a turn behind the instructor.  We broke into 2 groups so it wasn’t very difficult when they called a change on the back straight to count the number of cars and fall to the back of the group. The laps were in 4th gear, no shifts and at a fairly easy pace.  The idea was to show us the proper line around the track, see where the instructor uses the brakes and keep thinking about what we’d been taught, using visual scanning, etc. It was fun finding the line and beginning to feel like you were running the track.

After that session we headed up to another big patch of asphalt over by the skid pad.  On this pad were a paperclip oval on one end and on the other was a rather modified Dodge Stratus.  Victor had us for the oval, riding shotgun while we drove.  The oval was to teach cornering, each end having different shapes and really it was more of a tri-oval so you were setting up for 3 corners every time around.  Victor would have you pick up speed bit by bit until you finally were getting the car a little sideways(TC off again). It was a good exercise in picking up corner entries & exits.  That Dodge Stratus however.. that’s a bizarre little thing.  Mounted at each corner are hydraulically controlled wheels that can be raised & lowered from controls in the passenger seat to induce under- or oversteer. They referred to it as the “Vomit Comet” as the back seat ride is a recipe for motion sickness. I was first up with Joe & Renee riding in the back.  You just do a figure 8 around cones placed at each end.  The whole time Jordan is preaching visual scanning, get your eyes out from in front of the car and look where you want to go, not where you are.  A couple of circuits around to get a feel and then he starts pressing buttons.  First up is understeer, push in NASCAR terms. Turns out that is very counter-intuitive to get out of.  As you turn and the car stops wanting to go the way you do you have to turn INTO the understeer and come OFF the brakes(without ABS anyway). Oversteer is more natural to correct for, countersteer and gas it.  It’s also a wild ride when that back end starts to come around and Joe & I both did manage to lose it and spin it completely around – give up on it as Jordan said. After riding my turn behind the wheel I went for the ride with Joe behind the wheel and started to feel just dizzy enough that I decided one ride back there was enough. Renee was comfy as could be and claimed to be about ready to take a nap while we drove!  Both exercises were very instructive and a lot of fun.

The Vomit Comet

To end the day we did one more Lead/Follow session.  This wasn’t much different than the first one, maybe just a bit faster.  Their program is definitely based on building blocks and they make sure you build skills before you move to the next phase.  After that we had a bit more sales schtick back in the classroom with the folks responsible for different segments (the club, the school, corporate events) taking a minute to make a pitch.  Then certificates were given to the 2 guys that would not be with us the rest of the way. Instead of a certificate, Mitch the employee got to leave to head to Detroit along with Anthony (sales guy who we booked our class through) to pick up the 2 ZR-1′s they managed to get their hands on and drive them back to Pahrump.  Poor guy, I’m sure he would have preferred a certificate.

That was it for Day 1 and wow were we tired! Joe & I chatted back & forth about the day the whole way home, and it really helped to try to absorb everything that had been tossed our way. We had a few beers when we got back to the room and decided we were too tired to face the idea of getting on the shuttle to head into town.  The alarms were set for 5:30am so Papa John’s sounded like a good way to refuel for the next day.  Some pizza, a couple more beers, handled some e-mail and off to sleep to get ready for more on Day 2!

This past weekend Rick, Chris, Steve, Greg, Jim and I, collectively known as “Old Guys” or perhaps more appropriately “Creepy Old Guys”, revisited our youth.  We met in Dayton at the Marriott (we can afford to stay there these days) on Saturday afternoon, had a few beers at the hotel bar and then headed out to hit the old haunts.

The first stop was Brown St. What was a street of old, run-down buildings with bars & shops is now a newly renovated, fancy brick-facade row of shops and bars.  One of the shops is Flyer Spirit, essentially a swag annex to the bookstore. We dropped in there so Steve could continue the brainwashing of his poor, impressionable children. Within about 2 minutes the rest of us were predictably bored, so we, also predictably, left Steve to his t-shirt shopping and headed to one of the few shops that was there when we went to school – Second Time Around. When we last did this reunion thing in 2002 we had stopped in and it had undergone a major renovation vs “the old days” so it was nothing to new to most of us, except Chris.  Chris was busy being a good Dad and husband since his daughter was about 2 weeks old when we were there last so his were the only eyes doing the whole “wow” thing at that place.  Rick of course bought a couple of CD’s – an “old” Nickelback disc and something else I don’t recall. From there we walked across the street to the Bar Formerly Known As The Shed and had a beer.  It too had undergone a remodeling that we had experienced in ’02, if one less impressive than Second Time Around’s. The “Miller Lite” they served either wasn’t, or they hadn’t cleaned the lines in months, so we moved on after 1.

We walked up Woodland to see a house that Chris had spent a semester in with a couple of friends and then headed onto campus, walking by the Garden Apartments where we lived at the end of our UD Experience, remembering our youthful housemate Raoul “Ed” Inesta. A big “hey dude” to Ed, wherever you be. We headed to the Kennedy Union in search of our next beer, but even though the bowling alley & pools tables were open, the bar was closed.  Wrong, so very, very wrong. Of course there wasn’t a bar in the place when we were there, so we were used to that and moved on.  The next stop was the new rec center… oh my what a place.  What was “The PAC” in our day is now that incredible, modern facility, complete with a smoothies bar of course.  Just.. wow.

After having experienced all that on-campus opulence the poor students of today must endure we decided to head into the area we expected would be little-changed, The Ghetto. We were not disappointed.  Though there are a few new buildings, including an apartment building, most of the housing looked exactly like it did 20 years ago, with perhaps a coat of paint attempting to spruce things up here and there. We turned to walk down the 400 block of Lowes where some of the guys had lived (456, upstairs back as they recalled) and that’s where the fun began. The first house we passed had a group of guys sitting in the side yard playing drinking games and we were immediately invited to join Joe and his buddies for a beer… or three. While this was certainly appreciated, the first question Joe had for us was if we were there dropping off our kids.  After recovering from this rather low blow (dammit, it’s 5 years until that’s possible!) we forgave Joe and let him hand us the beer of choice amongst the students, Natty Light.  Yes, it’s awful, but it’s not much more awful than The Beast and they drink it for the same reason we drank Beast, it’s cheap! We were informed that Natty is the choice because they’re they same price, but Beast doesn’t come in 30 packs!

After saying thanks to those boys we moved on down the block, and made it exactly 2 houses before getting called over again by a group of kids hanging out in a small pool, about 3′ deep and maybe 8′ in diameter. They of course wanted us to join them in the pool and practically as one, the 5 of us turned and looked at Greg.  With perhaps a hint of a resigned sigh, he took on the challenge, pulled off shoes, shirt and glasses and in the finest Gregbo fashion, went headlong into the pool at a full gallop. “The bottom comes up pretty quick” he said while rubbing a spot on his forehead.  Chris of course was video taping the event.. or was he? Turned out the useless POS missed the shot!  Now that statement may ruin my chances of ever getting the pics from him I need to truly complete this posting, but we gave him shit all evening about it so I figure consistency is the best course. Rick took Greg’s glasses over to him at the pool and I followed, because, well Natalie and her incredibly drunken birthday-girl friend were standing over there and they are WAY better looking than even Jimmy. Didn’t hurt of course that they were wearing bikinis (the girls that is) and frankly, while I don’t remember this sort of behavior while WE were in school (damn I feel old) I strongly support it. Greg got out of the pool after a beer and while Rick & I continued to chat up the girls and were paying him no attention, he did another dive in the pool resulting in the inevitable and purposeful splashing. This of course was followed by a voice saying “hey, Old Guy, weren’t you wearing glasses?”  Oops.  “Everybody, look for Old Guy’s glasses.” You’ll be pleased to know, no doubt, that Greg’s glasses were found in short order and with no visible damage. After another shot across the Old Guy bow with the question “So, what are you guys doing tonight when you go out?” we gave each other that “we’re not out already?” look, thanked the ladies and moved on down the street.

We again made it about 2 houses before getting flagged down by the boys @ Alpha Nu Omega on the other side of the street.  These boys gave us the opportunity to rinse some of the Natty Light out of our mouths with Keystone Light.  Not that we didn’t know it already, but Natty Light’s deficiencies as beer become quickly evident when Keystone Light tastes so darned good! After having a few with them we decided that it would only be fair to give share the love, so we headed to The Deli (can you believe I can’t find a website for them!) to get some beer and re-cruise the block.

We got sidetracked along the way because the boys wanted to walk down Lawnview to see #14, their first place post-Stewart Hall. We walked down Stonemill from there and got Shanghai’d by the boys of Pi Kappa Alpha, aka “The Pikes.” The Pikes were having themselves a nice party, complete with beach volleyball (a fully sand-covered lot between their house and the next) and a singer with an acoustic guitar on the front porch. We were invited inside and the house looked a whole lot like a mirror image of the one we lived in at 221 Iriving (which according to this link is known as “The Shitstain” and I can’t argue the point) and talked with one of the frat guys about his plans to become a pediatric surgeon. Jimmy decided he wanted to play volleyball and while he certainly looked comfortable out there, we weren’t sure how his teammates felt about sharing the court with one of the Old Guys! I forget which of us suggested that it would be cool if Rick could step up on the “stage” but it could very well have been me, so I’ll take the blame. The guy who’s gig it was that night, also named Rick, was very gracious in allowing Rick to steal some of the limelight and gave him a great intro.  Rick played “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Margaritaville” and it was great, but I will never forgive my fellow Old Guys for hanging me out on “where the fuck’s the salt!”  Not that their lack of participation stopped me, of course.  Almost inevitably, two bicycle police stopped along the curb across the street while Rick was playing.  Fortunately they seemed content to listen to the Old Guy play and the rest of us figured hell, we hadn’t bought the beer, we were legal to drink it and doing so on private property so worst case it was only Rick that would get hauled off. “WHERE THE FUCK’S THE SALT!?!”

Finally we were able to make it to the Deli after that and as we were apparently in Rome, we bought some Natty Light.  We ran into a couple of the guys from Alpha Nu in there, one of whom wanted me to buy him cigs.  Old Guys have the right to be contentious, capricious and hypocritical, so I told him no, I’d buy him beer all night but not cigs!  All the while Rick was grabbing a pack of Swisher Sweets.  I mentioned the hypocritical part, right?  Well at least my dad would be proud…. kinda.  The guy wasn’t thrilled with me, but made a point of several times telling me he respected it.  Swishers lit up and smoking, 30 packs in hand we headed back to the Alpha Nu house, saying hello to the 4 nice Dayton Police officers just across the street. The UDPD are somehow now an extension of the Dayton Police so they not only have actual authority, they carry guns! Everybody together now <shudder>.

We had a few more beers with the Alpha Nus, Chris getting caught having a disturbing conversation with the aforementioned cigarette-needy dude and then moved across the street to a party being hosted by a group of lovely girls.  Rick & Greg teamed up to get their asses kicked, and their drunk-on completed, at a game of Beer Pong.  The rest of us chatted up the ladies, delightful every single one of them, and watch groups of girls walk buy dressed to kill.  It being nearly midnight at this point (we hit the first stop on Lowes at around 6!) the Ghetto was really awake and the students were all headed to that previously mentioned “out.”  A tip of the hat ladies, the Old Guys approve!

It was pretty clear that after all that beer we were in desparate need of some food.  So we said thanks, goodbyes, waved to all the great folks that treated the Old Guy alums far better than we deserved and headed down to Brown Street.  Our intent was to go to Milano’s but amazingly, they had their doors locked so no subs for us.  We wandered across the street instead to BW3′s where they were happy to provide some spicy chicken and fries to help us start to soak up the Natty Light.  <NASCAR moment>I was able to catch the end of the Bristol race there and see Carl & Kyle’s post-race dust-up</NASCAR moment> while the music pounded into our already-troubled skulls. Did I mention it was loud?  This wasn’t our Dad’s loud, which basically means more than 4 voices in the same room, this was LOUD-loud, the real deal.  So we didn’t extend our stay at BW3′s, moving on as soon as we all had eaten.

It was a mutual decision that the Old Guys were D-U-N done and we began the long walk back to the Marriott, of course passing another group of UD’s finest.  I don’t remember seeing that many cops in any single year out there than we did that night.  Did I mention the guns? <shudder> There had been talk about having one more beer at the hotel bar when we left BW3′s, but by the time we made it to the hotel we were all ready to head to our rooms. We agreed to meet up the next morning at 10 for a debrief and maybe breakfast.

So another round of thank yous to Joe, Natalie and her drunk friend, the boys at Alpha Nu, the Pikes and everybody that gave us thumbs up, let us look in houses we used to live in and made us more than welcome.  The Old Guys thank you, and we’ll show up again in 5 years to take advantage of the next generation of Ghetto Dwellers!

Chris willing… pictures and maybe even video to come!

Update 9/14/2008  Chris got us the pics.  Thanks Chris! Click the thumbnails for the larger versions.

http://www.voiceofjack.com/2008/07/27/my-saturday-part-1-the-road-to-beerville/

And if you know Jack, be sure to follow up with his birthday party post!

http://www.voiceofjack.com/2008/07/27/my-saturday-part-2-surprise-youre-old/

Saturday

Shockingly the flight to Vegas went as smoothly as you could want, especially considering it was US Airways! No wait to check the bags at the curb, no wait in the security line, flight left on time… it was spooky. The German contingent really enjoyed flying over the grand canyon on the way in and getting their first glimpse of the Strip. Everything smooth getting the ill-fated minivan as well.

Tahiti turned out to be great – easy to find, good location (ok, traffic on Tropicana can be a bear at certain times of the day) and the room was excellent. They have a cool setup where they have a 1 bedroom suite and then a studio style room that are adjoining with locking doors like a hotel. That lets them rent/sell as 2 singles or as a 2 bedroom room unit.

We were all really hungry by the time we got checked in, unpacked and organized so we headed just down the street to Orleans and grabbed a meal at the Chinese restaurant there. I really like the casinos owned by the Gaughns. They are nice places but not overdone like the big places on Las Vegas Blvd. We didn’t make it to any of the others, but I really liked Sun Coast the last time I was there and South Point sure liked like a nice place as we passed it going South on I-15 later in the week.

We grabbed the shuttle downtown to Treasure Island where Alan & Heidrun were staying and met up with them. We headed over to Venetian to give them their first “wow” casino experience. That was my 2nd time in Venetian and it was just as impressive the 2nd time as it was the 1st. The lane they have setup for shopping is really cool. The lighting is especially impressive as they have managed to give the lane a very natural daylight look. That is very hard to do but they’ve done it so well with the lighting and the ceiling painting that your eyes actually get fooled into thinking the clouds are moving sometimes. We wandered around, did some window shopping and grabbed a couple of drinks at one of the bars. Joerg had a pink one, and I of course will never let him forget it! We were all pretty worn out by then so it was time to grab the shuttle back to Tahiti and get some sleep.

Sunday

We had a nice casual, slow, relaxing Sunday morning. Drank our coffee (we grabbed a pound of good stuff @ Seattle’s Best in Orleans), watched some football, read our books, etc. We drove down to Stratosphere and checked out the amazing views at 900′ and the idiots on the rides at that height! We went to the restaurant there on the 106th floor and had a very nice brunch. It was interrupted every so often by a woman with Tourettes Syndrome, but fortunately for the staff there she expressed it as noises instead of profanity!

After brunch we went down to the Fremont Street Experience and spent some time gambling at Golden Nugget (Joerg won about $60 playing roulette) and wandering the shops, displays and casinos along Fremont. I really like Fremont St, after the insanity and big money it just seems as every-day casual as a casino area can.

From there we headed up for a quick peek at the Hard Rock Hotel so Joerg could drool over all the guitars and rock memorabilia. After that quick visit we walked across the street to Hofbrauhaus for some dinner & beer. The food was very good, though Andy was disappointed in the preparation of his Wurstsalat and volunteered to show the kitchen how to do it properly. Earned him a rather dirty look from the waitress. Fortunately he didn’t give the woman selling Jagermeister shots the same kind of lip.. she was carrying a paddle and she knew how to use it! Our guess what that anyone in a group that was getting the shots who pussed out got spanked – a couple of them seemed to enjoy it. The band “Rothseepower” was playing and they mixed in Bavarian-style renditions of Sweet Home Alabama and Bad Moon Rising along with the typical music expected by Americans at a restaurant serving German food. The beer was damn good too!

Monday

Time to leave the confines of Vegas and start doing some sight-seeing. We piled into the van and headed South on US-93 to Hoover Dam. We all completely enjoyed touring the dam, it is absolutely amazing. With 3 cameras firing we took a ridiculous number of pictures, which was a continuing theme through the week.

On the way to the dam we had spotted the Hacienda Hotel & Casino and their requisite digital billboard out front showing $39.99 rooms lead us to believe that there would be cheap beer to be had as well. Damn we’re good. We stopped on the way back after stopping at a gorgeous scenic overlook to add to the growing gigabytes of pictures and Robert the bartender from Philly took good care of us – we would be returning. Joerg managed to avoid a pink cocktail this time… barely.

We had spotted a road from the overlook that turned out to be Lakeshore Road, of course. This was about 16 miles of great road right through the Lake Mead rec area. Gorgeous views all the way and a much more pleasant road to drive than fighting traffic on US93. We would take that road again on the way to & from the Grand Canyon. If only I’d had my Corvette <heavy sigh>.

By the time we got back to Tahiti we were all pretty much done for the day. Alan & Heidrun headed back to Treasure Island and we ordered from Papa John’s from the shopping center behind us and chilled out the rest of the night. Pussy for being in Vegas, but we had hit the ground running Saturday and hadn’t stopped and all felt like we needed a break.

Tuesday

It was Andy’s birthday! It started with Joerg’s now-famous birthday tribute to Andy and continued with another casino tour on the big Strip. We took the van down and parked at New York New York and wandered around there for a while. Then we took the footbridge over the strip and into MGM Grand to see the lions. Our tour continued down the strip with a stop at the Harley Davidson Las Vegas Cafe for a refresher. No pink drink for Joerg.

We continued North along the strip on the East side and strolled through the streets of Paris, stopping to enjoy a crepe. We finished up the East side of the strip when the stroll through Paris dumped us at Bally’s. We considered taking the monorail, but $5 each for a few blocks seemed outrageous so we hoofed it. About half way back we started to wonder if that would have been $5 well spent, but we would have missed seeing the dancing waters at Bellagio.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

After a rest back at Tahiti we headed back down to Treasure Island so we could take the footbridge over to the Fashion Mall where we were having Andy’s birthday dinner at Capital Grille. It was a wonderful meal, even with the finicky Argentinian cabernet! Another thank you to the very accomodating staff, especially their willingness to prepare Danni’s warm raspberries over ice cream!

However the special request dessert did take a bit longer than we had hoped and it left us nearly running over to Venetian to make it in time for Blue Man Group. It was my second time seeing the show but I enjoyed it every bit as much as I had the first time, and fortunately so did the rest of the gang(it was my recommendation!). The show is hard to describe, but it’s a mix of music, comedy, audience participation… basically it’s “performance art.” It’s absolutely a blast and I recommend it strongly.

A last pink-cocktail-free stop at a lounge in the Venetian for a whistle-wetter and some cheesy rock music by the band. We said our goodbyes to Alan & Heidrun. They were flying back on Thursday and we were headed off to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday for an overnighter.

Wednesday

After our morning routine of coffee, books and cigarettes(Andy & Biggi only!) we packed up the van and headed for the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately the internet was unavailable at Tahiti that morning so I had to find a hotel based on memory & Susie the Garmin Nuvi 660. Susie’s way better than I am because I remembered Williams, AZ as being the right area and she got us there.. but it turned out that Tusayan would have been a better choice. Worked out ok – we wound up at the Mountain Ranch Resort in Williams. But back to that later…

It was off again through the Lake Mead Rec area and down US93 over Hoover Dam and into Arizona. Sights along the way were great, including some mountain goats (pending resident biologist Mr. Hall’s verification!) and the mountains they live in. We made a rest stop at a little cafe along 93 called Rosie’s Cafe. They had a small fair-style crafts store setup and Danni bought a little something for a friend back home. Humble place, but very nice people.

After a stop at a Chili’s near Kingman, AZ for lunch we got back on I-40 and got some miles behind us. We stopped for gas and a break in at a Chevron in Seligman, AZ. Turned out to be along Historic Route 66 so after our break we drove that for about 15-20 miles until it hooked back up with I-40, crushing huge-ass plains lubber grasshoppers along the way. They were so big and so thick on the road that as they got inevitably crushed by passing cars & trucks the road looked like it had been dive-bombed by crapping seagulls!

We finally arrived in Williams and got checked into the “resort.” I use the quotes there because while it was certainly a nice location and looked good from the outside, the rooms themselves were pure 1960′s motel. They had been updated and were clean, but definitely showing their age. The hotel would have been fit right in along Route 66.

Though it was getting to be late afternoon we decided to head to the Canyon and do some scouting for the next day’s sight seeing, and maybe catch sunset. That aforementioned ill-fated minivan had other ideas. About 14 miles North of I-40 along AZ-64 there was a loud noise and just as I was wondering if it were us or the car that had passed us when the noise happened I felt the van pull to the left and knew it was one of our tires. We were able to pull into the paved entryway to one of the many dirt roads leading from AZ-64 off to private ranches. So at least we were out of traffic while Andy did most of the grunt work and Joerg (still with no pink cocktail) assisted. I did what I do best – work the electronics! I checked in with Enterprise to see how to handle it and got Susie to find us a place to take the van.

A couple of phone calls later I dug up a Union 76 gas station that was open more than late enough to help us out. I set the cruise for 50mph and tried to stay the hell out of the way along 64 as we re-traced our steps and then headed West on I-40. The folks at Sandoval’s Union 76 there in Williams were great and another thanks to them. I don’t think it took more than 30 minutes and we were back on the road with a new tire (the old one was not repairable), a slightly-used 12 pack of Coors Light (Andy & I help Biggi finish her mega-Corona) and a great recommendation for dinner – the Pine Country Restaurant. The Pine Country is a classic American diner, and in the best sense. Simple but excellent food, EXTREMELY friendly staff and great prices. Try the country fried steak, it’s comfort food at its best.

After dinner we were all ready to call it a day. A few beers and some motherfucking-snakes-on-a-motherfucking-plane later it was time to turn off the lights, cause Biggi said so. Silly her, it was just all the sooner she had to listen to my snoring.

Thursday

A good breakfast at the hotel and we set sail (Jerry Punch tribute there) for the Grand Canyon. The tires cooperated and we got all the way to the canyon this time, but the minivan’s evil ways weren’t through with us(ok, me). The parking lot by the visitor’s center was full so we had to park along the street. After pulling a U-turn when we spotted a space, I had it in my head that we were clear back to the car behind us and I backed the damn van into a rather hearty bush. Just a bush, so a few scratches, no big deal for a rental, right? <sigh>

We walked across the lot to the rim trail and got our first look (ok, I’d been there once before) at the Canyon. Truly is breathtaking, and that’s even after the initial shock at just how high up you are above the canyon floor. We took an even more ridiculous number of pictures at the Canyon than we did at Hoover Dam, but you truly cannot help it. Each step out onto yet another ledge of rock to get a different view gives you exactly that, something else beautiful to behold(I’m talking about the Canyon Biggi, not you.. this time ).

After walking down to the visitor’s center and realizing that we just didn’t have enough time to visit much more of the canyon we drove down and parked by Bright Angel Lodge. This is where we got a really good look at what I’d done to the van, and it wasn’t good! The scratches really weren’t that big a deal, they were all surface and could easily be buffed out, but the right-rear corner of the bumper was popped in. Something of a downer, but I shook it off and we headed to the Lodge to grab a bite and take a few more looks at the Canyon. That bite of lunch was an adventure. The restaurant had a very long wait so we just grabbed a sandwich at the deli/ice cream stand and sat outside. We then had lunch, and shared some of it (unwillingly) with the rather aggressive squirrels there at the lodge. OK, aggressive hell they were brazen and downright greedy!

After we finished our lunch & gave the Canyon one last gaze, it was time to head out. We had talked about trying some back roads, but there’s nothing really paved West of the Canyon out towards Seligman so we took I-40 back there and stopped again at the same Chevron. From there we took 66 across to Kingman before grabbing I-40 again. It was a great drive, much more relaxing and enjoyable than cruising the Interstate. As we stopped just outside Kingman for gas Mother Nature decided to show us something rare – rain in the desert. Not the last we’d see of that though.

We made a stop at our new favorite cheap casino, Hacienda, for a few drinks and dinner. The parking lot was nearly packed and an elderly couple walking up the parking lot with us(after we had dropped a nearly-bursting Biggi off at the front door) overheard our surprise at that and explained it was Seniors Night! Nothing like a $3.49 buffet to bring in the crowd. The then-quiet “stage bar” at which we had had our weekday afternoon beers was living up to it’s name that night, complete with celebrity impersonators. I’m still trying to blot that out of my memory!

Our dinner was at the steak house in the casino and it was very good, and of course… well not cheap, but certainly very reasonable. They even took our picture at the table(no extra charge!) and gaves us a pair of copies. Biggi did hunt down the lady who took the picture later on and gave her a tip, for which she was very surprised but grateful. We drove again through the Lake Mead Rec area and headed back to Tahiti for a well-deserved quiet evening looking at all of our pictures from the Canyon.

Friday

Friday started out with a run to the Home Depot just across the street for some tools for activities later in the day, and then breakfast at Denny’s. From there it was time to finally get Biggi her drive in the desert. We had done alot of web browsing trying to figure out just where to go and finally settled on heading South to the Mojave Nature Preserve. Turned out to be a good choice as it was just the kind of road Biggi wanted(cue the choir!). As mentioned earlier, it was again raining in the desert. But this time was no quick shower, it was flat RAINING. Still, Biggi enjoyed her drive and wants to go back, only of course next time she wants 4WD and for it to be sunny and….. add it to the list.

On our return from the drive, and after slugging our way across Tropicana Ave in Friday afternoon traffic, it was time to try our hands at body work. Andy grabbed the screwdrivers and I filled a big pot of water to use as a bucket for the wax applicator. Again, I let Andy do the work and I supervised and did some polishing on scratches. Once the bumper cover was off (pretty simple really, about 6 screws and 4 christmas tree connectors) I held onto the bumper while Andy beat the holy living shit out of the inside of it. After five minutes or so of… massaging that cover he had it looking about as good as it was going to, so back on it went. I finished up the polishing and the results weren’t bad at all!

We decided for our last night we’d head back down to Fremont Street for some gambling and to catch the light show. We didn’t want to worry about someone having to drive, so we took the shuttle down to Riviera and then the bus to Fremont, worked out great except getting soaked (raining AGAIN!) getting onto the bus. We grabbed a sandwich at the Golden Nugget, but after seeing that they had raised the minimum bets for Friday night up to $10 we wandered over to Binions.

Andy & Biggi wound up sitting down at a roulette table($4 minimum at Binions!) and I was having too much fun watching them gamble to bother myself. Also the cocktail waitress had no trouble with me “helping” Biggi drink her Coronas, so bonus! After all, that way Biggi’s beer stayed cold. I’m such a giver. There was a Binions-level high roller at the roulette table. He must have had $100-$200 on every spin, just dropping chips on numbers like crazy. He was up for quite a while, and the table was full and jumping. It was pretty cool while the table was full, the energy is pretty amazing and I can see how folks get swept up in it. But I’m still too cheap! Andy held his own for a while, but eventually ran through his original $100 and a few $ more. Biggi put down $100 and hit pretty big while making a run to the rest room where she was up $100! But she kept playing and eventually was back to her original stake, which she cashed out. It was my fault of course that I didn’t tell her she was up $100 and to stop. They played for a few hours and it was alot of fun, so I suppose it’s not an awful entertainment value.

Danni & Joerg weren’t in a gambling mood so after wandering around a bit and taking in the light show (*yawn*) they headed back to the bus stop and took it all the way up the strip to Luxor, where they decided to pop in and see how the other half was living. They commented on how different it was versus Fremont St, mostly in how people were dressed and of course in the minimum bets ($25 and up).

After Andy & Biggi were finished with roulette we grabbed the bus back to Riviera. It dropped us off across the street in front of Slots of Fun, which sits in front of Circus Circus. We ducked into Slots of Fun to use the bathroom and since we had some time to kill before the shuttle we wound up sitting down in front of a few slot machines. It was nice to be in a place where a draft Coors Light and a can of Heineken was $3.50 total, though the place was obviously a shot-and-a-beer party kinda place. Actually it had a cool party feel and we had a really good time. We even had the very nice cocktail waitress hook us up for another round while sitting at the machines, even forcing a bottle of water on Biggi. We all fed $20 into the machines and I actually managed to win! I had to lose that $20 and feed another $10 in before it happened, but I hit for $90, pressed Cash Out (in real quarters) and ended my bigtime gambling for the week up $19. We grabbed the last shuttle of the day (1:30am) and headed back to Tahiti to get some sleep so we could wake up in time for check out.

Saturday

The gang had enjoyed our breakfast at Denny’s next door the previous day, so after getting packed, cleaned up and prepped to go we went back for breakfast. After that it was time to head to the rental car return and see how we did on the body work. Vegas has a new (to me) central rental car return off-site and to our advantage the return areas are in a parking garage. We pulled up, unloaded and held our breath as the Enterprise guy walked around the car. He didn’t give the bumper a second look! Breath released and then Andy had to fill out forms to get the refund for the tire replacement.

The flight was a bit delayed as the inbound flight was running behind so we lifted off the runway about an hour or so late. Our flight out had been about as pleasant as you could hope for on USAir these days but the return flight was not. The flight crew (almost entirely male) was downright rude. One of the attendants tossed a bag of pretzels into Andy’s lap and another one backhanded a soda to us over the head of the passenger sitting in front of me without so much as looking back. Additionally, in what I have has become common on USAir flights they didn’t load enough of the food that you have to pay for these days, no more than maybe 5 or 6 sandwiches that were sold out by the time they got to us. All they had left were the snackpacks with chips & candy. Then of course the wonderful Philly airport had mechanical trouble with the baggage handling equipment and it took an extended period of time to get our bags. Hard to avoid USAir out of Philly these days, but I will go back to doing so whenever possible.

It was about 12:30am when we got to my truck at the remote parking place and we were all damn hungry. I had been trying to think of where on earth we could stop on the way home that would still be open when I had a moment of inspiration – we were no more than 20 minutes from Pat’s King of Steaks! Our friend Billy had told Danni & Joerg about Pat’s during the visit last year and Andy & Biggi had never been, so decision made. They got the full Pat’s experience, 1:00am, place was hopping, a couple of busloads of drunk bachelorette party chicks… welcome to South Philly. The steaks were REALLY good that night and they didn’t skimp on the cheese for the fries… life is good. A great end to a great week.