Wonderful Weekend

I haven't gotten to visit the Rockies as much as I would have liked this summer. Domestic duties, along with my LGC (Little Green Car) project and some professional advancement stuff, have left me yearning to spend more time in our beloved mountains. I recently acquired a '94 Mazda Miata, which has proven to be a total hoot to drive around-- a super fun car to drive in the mountains.

I needed a break from a brutal schedule of studying for a professional certification. Saturday was blocked out as "mountain time with the girlfriend". Mimi and I picked up some tasty picnic stuff and headed out. (Garlic olives, greek yogurt, fresh strawberries, blue corn chips, and bean dip. Yum.)

Stopped in Georgetown, Minturn, Leadville, Fairplay,and Buena Vista, and got back to my place around eight.

We've had some hot, dry weather in the Denver area for the last month or so, and rain is always welcome. We got hit with some serious late summer thunderstorms in the afternoon, and got the top up just in time to keep from getting drenched in Leadville. Had a xococotl (spicy aztec cocoa) while we watched the storm move through.

It didn't rain much at all (if any) down here in the city. Bummer. Still, all in all, it was an epic day.

Miatacross!

Well, as I've said in previous posts, I've gotten hooked on autocross racing. I got a tip from the nice racer who let me race his Honda a month or so ago, and picked up a '94 Mazda Miata. That is quite the hot ticket for racing in the "E Stock" class, and the cars are relatively inexpensive to get into. I found just the car, put on the market for a very fair price, and jumped right on it. I took it down to Pikes Peak International Raceway last weekend and drove my second race-- first in my own car.

We hit some snags on the way to the race, and ended up getting there about ten minutes after registration closed. The venue is about two hours from my house, and it's just hard to get out of the house at 6 AM... The most important thing in a race is to walk the course beforehand, and memorize it. Well, I didn't get to walk it at all. I did talk them into letting me register, but I drove it blind. DNF'ed (Did Not Finish) on the first lap-- I missed several gates. There were several slaloms, and it was just a sea of random cones at first. I studied the course map, and did better on the next three runs. I still have hard tires on the Miata, and that was a big handicap. The same guy who let me race his Honda has some half-used race tires that he doesn't need, so he's going to let me use them up. Woo Hoo!

Love my little Miata, and I can't wait to get more practice! Woo Hoo!