US Road trip

General General Lotus Talk
21

I can report that lifting off suddenly at 150mph+ with a strong cross wind demonstrates a rather interesting area of the cars handling I�d rather not explore again.

you need ‘da Edwards’

22

Magic Ian!

I always wanted to do a trip like your myself.
One day…

me too… so give me a shout when you are ready,…

23

Sorry guys no internet access the last few days.

So here is the ‘Rockies’ update. As you will find out later all is not good at the moment…

Word of the day is�.


BUSTED

More on that later. Got on the road just after 8am and headed south on 285, the road was nice, but nice wasn�t what I was looking for. Turned of 285 onto 50 at Poncha Springs. The blue line is the GPS trace for today�s route.

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Things started to improve, until this happened.

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87 in a 65 and no way was I going to wiggle out of this one. As I was to observe later on the men in blue in Colorado have a simple mission in life � bust as many people as possible. The roadside was littered with victims. Back to my current situation. I asked Officer Averett if he considered my driving to be dangerous, reckless or in anyway unsafe. No he replied. So what was the problem I inquired? Well he said what would have happened if an Elk had leaped out in front of the car � slightly stunned by this approach I replied that unlike your 4,000 pound tank that would have plowed straight into it, I would have probably stopped in time or avoided it and it�s not like 65mph would some how make you safe from suicidal Elk… Silence� So a summons to appear in the Saguache county court on the 9th of January was duly handed over. Job done, I got a tour of his car, he�d got me with an instant on radar � my detector had gone off but no chance to react in time. He was quite proud showing me the whole setup inside the car. No hard feelings, I had budgeted on getting caught a few times and felt myself lucky to have got this far without a ticket.

So cost of admission to the Rockies: About 150 dollars.
The look on Officer Averett�s face when I told him I had no plans of slowing down: Priceless

Turned out the place was crawling with State troopers and local cops. I was stalked by about 10 miles by this character.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22012.jpg[/image]

Still there�.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22014.jpg[/image]

Eventually he got bored and pulled a Volvo going in the other direction. The views were spectacular and well worth the price of admission.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22003.jpg[/image]

Things really started to look up when I turned of 50 onto 149 heading for Lake City. The road just started getting better and better. Climbing all the time, I eventually arrived in Lake City, attitude 8,761ft. But it got even better after that�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22016.jpg[/image]

The road kept on climbing to the point I was wondering if oxygen may be called for. Had to be careful in parts where the sun hadn�t got to.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22017.jpg[/image]

Finally I reached the top at 11,530ft (3,500m)!

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22018.jpg[/image]

With the oxygen mask deployed I dropped down the other side I started heading towards New Mexico. The Police were everywhere again, and often I would just pull over to admire the view and let the Police move on.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22019.jpg[/image]

With night falling deer started appearing in numbers, I must have seen at least 20 or 30. They ignored you as long as you were moving but every time I tried to get a shot they�d get spooked. Managed to get one.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22020.jpg[/image]

Eventually hit the state border between Colorado and New Mexico � the road changed immediately from being smooth and well maintained to a pot holed nightmare. I�m guessing New Mexico has a lot less money in the coffers compared to Colorado. Pulled into the Super8 hotel in Bloomfield. Within one minute of parking up I�d been bailed up by a tramp, no internet access, no coffee in the room not very impressed with New Mexico so far. …

Mileage 3,581

Pretty amazed by the fuel economy today. Across Kansas at an average of 85mph, I�d got 29 miles per US gallon (34mpg UK). Today I got 36 miles to the gallon (46mpg UK), thanks in some part to the boys in blue�

With a can of 8 year old Tyre weld for a spare tyre I decided this was one road not worth exploring further�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/22006.jpg[/image]

24

Great write up matey and some fantastic pictures!!!

Sounds like you’re having a great time apart from the boys in blue.

Sean…

25

Combo update yesterday and today.



Today�s words are�

Deep poopy.

An early sign of things to come was the split pin solution to the fuel pump issue giving up. So once again a familiar picture.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23001.jpg[/image]

Decided to sort it out once and for all was underway again within 15 minutes. Fortunately I wasn�t in New Mexico for long. And once again the change in road conditions at the State line was very apparent.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23004.jpg[/image]

Nothing special on the menu from a road perspective so I�d departed at 7am and cruised at the speed limit. Today was to be all about enjoying the scenery and I made my way to the Canyonlands National park. I thought the views were spectacular on the way there but I was totally blown away when I arrived at the park. This place has scenery in spades!

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[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23011.jpg[/image]

The Police were up to their usual tricks, as you can see by the photos the road is obviously a death trap.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23015.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23016.jpg[/image]

I had planned on stopping the night in a little town called Blanding, not far from the Park, but having made good time together with the rather run down nature of the local towns I decided I would try to make up a day by pushing on to the Grand Canyon. I figured I could spend an extra day in Las Vegas and search out the local Lotus dealer to give the car a quick once over. Great idea, unfortunately poor execution. Throughout the day I had thought to myself you definitely do not want to break down here. The towns are very few and far between. And what towns there are very rundown.

Some distance from the Grand Canyon as I overtook a car I noticed a shudder coming from the back end under power. Initially I thought it was just the road surface, but decided to test it by giving it a bit. The shudder returned but this time a magnitude worse. Uh oh � within a few seconds the shudder quickly got to the point where the best speed I could manage was 20mph. I pulled over and the problem quickly became apparent, a rubber boot on the right hand driveshaft had split, this allowed all the grease to escape and cooked the joint. When this occurred I have no idea, but it had completely torn itself in half. I think it probably split a long while back but due to the fact I�d been in cruise mode it gave no warning. I guess it�s lucky I was taking it easy since if it had gone earlier I really would have been in big trouble.

I pulled out with the sound of grinding metal and started to limp in the direction of the park � I was kind of reassured when I saw a sign indicating 14 miles to the Park. 40 minutes later I arrived at the entrance only to be told that the village was another 23 MILES AWAY. Oh my god!!! Miles after mile I crawled along, taking small solace in the fact I was getting great views of the Grand Canyon along the way.

With the odometer ticking over at an incredibility slow rate, I finally crawled into the village. As it turned out if I was going to breakdown this was the place to do it. The village actually has a garage, supermarket etc and being a tourist trap it�s in good nick. Unfortunately internet access is limited to one public terminal at a couple of bucks for 8 mins access. No mobile phone coverage either.

With the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow the garage will be closed, which doesn�t matter since there�s nothing to be done until a new driveshaft arrives. The job itself should be straight forward enough. Bringing a spare had never been an option given the space constraints, but I was well aware that it was one part with the potential to cause problems.

But the real kicker in all of this is I left my shampoo Behind at the last hotel

Mileage: 4,107

Update today, 24th of Nov. The good news is the garage was open. The bad news is there is nothing much they could do. Owing to the remote location getting spares takes forever. So I took the decision to flatbed the car 85 miles to Flagstaff. Took the opportunity to walk a trail along the rim of the Grand Canyon, amazing what a bit of water can do!

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/23023.jpg[/image]

With a bit of luck I can be back on the road tomorrow or Saturday, in which case I�ll just skip Vegas, which will please the wife anyway Worst case is Monday. But I�ll be doing everything in my power to get this sorted as quickly as possible. Just one of those things.

26

Colorado has some of the worst state troopers out there - as you found out. I’ve been ticketed for some of the strangest things while in Colorado on holiday.

As far as the car problems - what kind of driveshaft do you need? Is it a Honda unit?

Sounds like a pretty good trip so far, overall!

27

Ian

Another greatly intetresting installment

Hope you get the driveshaft without extra hassles… btw, where did you have to go to order one ? … isn’t it a special with a Honda CV inboard and a lotus/MG on the outboard ?

Also, I never understood why peeps don’t spot the boys in blue on those roads a couple of miles before they get nicked… how do they do that ?

28

Fortunately the shaft itself is ok (I hope), so I only need the tripod joint and the spider that attaches to the shaft. Anyway read on, here’s todays update.

Big thanks to my lovely wife for phoning me at 6am this morning, I was getting up anyway�

So it was stand to the phones this morning. My finger poised on the dial button as the seconds ticked down to 8am. First call was to the local Honda dealership, parts department. As expected the answer was no. But I was told NAPA, Checkers or Autozone would definitely have one. Excellent news, struck out with NAPA and Autozone but Checkers said they could have a complete half shaft in Flagstaff by the end of the day if I ordered by 11am. Now this part is generic to pretty much all K series engined Hondas made after 2002. In this case it was from an 02 Accord 2.4 but he couldn�t tell me which kind of engine. A quick call confirmed the 2.4 was indeed a K series engine. Phoned back to place the order and was now told he�d made a mistake and it was from a 2.3. Yes � you guessed it wrong engine. Back to square one. While all this was happening I�d been ringing around to find a garage willing to do the work or a least let me do it. I�d figured most mechanics would welcome the opportunity to work on something a little more exciting than the dull boxes they normally get. Wrong � in fact most are more than happy to spend their one chance on the merry-go-round of life putting food on the table and having a couple of buds on a Friday night. But not all � so here�s a free plug for Advanced Automotive services and tires. In particular Victor the Dr. Who lovin� guy in charge.

Having failed to find the parts locally I put a call into Hasport a well respected aftermarket company catering to the Honda scene. I�d fired the chief, Joe an email the previous night and with a mouth full of Turkey no doubt he�d fired me a quick reply that he wasn�t sure but would have a look around. So it was crunch time. Call went in and with bated breath I got the news I�d been hoping for. Yes, he had one second hand RSX half shaft. Fantastic, the good news is Phoenix is close by, the bad news, this is America and there�s no such thing as close by. In fact it was 165 miles. Victor came to the rescue and organized a rental car for me. I then crawled the 12 miles to the garage and briefed Victor and the guys on the finer points of tackling a Lotus Elise. We removed the under-tray; the half shaft was in a terrible state flopping around inside the tripod joint.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25001.jpg[/image]

Job done it was into the rental, a Chev HHR�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/popup_ext_gallery05.jpg[/image]

Maximum velocity was required, but with a 2.4L 4 cylinder, warp drive was not available and I had to make do with impulse power alone. Despite frequent requests to Scotty in the engine room this is all she had to give.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25014.jpg[/image]

I had hit the road just after noon and was at Hasport by 2:30pm despite a few navigational hiccups along the way. The boys were hard at it but no sign of Joe, a search of the premises revealed the Turkey was having the last laugh. A short while later Joe emerged from the Presidential restroom and presented me with a sight for a pair of very sore eyes (thanks babes). Never before has a half shaft had so much lovin� directed towards it. It got even better when Joe said I could have it for free. So my second free plug of the day goes to Hasport. Joe�s a top guy and anyone who owns a Honda City in the US gets my respect.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Image4.jpg[/image]

I wanted a photo of Joe with the drive shaft but he insisted on changing out of his Armani suit first, muttering something about giving customers the wrong idea.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25006.jpg[/image]

Back on the road again for the trip back to Flagstaff, I realized just how different Phoenix was to Flagstaff. The big change in elevation meant that I no longer felt like I was sitting inside an airplane, it was t-shirt weather in Phoenix and cold in Flagstaff. Also for the first time I saw these.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25013.jpg[/image]

So with the mighty Chev HHR pulling like a wet teabag, I was back in Flagstaff just before 5pm. Tomorrow morning we�ll swap the damaged tripod joint out and hopefully be back on the road early afternoon. All things being equal I�ve only missed out on a night in Vegas � no great loss from what I�ve heard.

If I make it to L.A tomorrow I�ll be pretty annoyed if you find yourself reading a trip report. Hopefully the next update will be after the AutoX on Sunday.

Signing off from Flagstaff, AZ.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25018.jpg[/image]

Couple of extra pics for the Non-US readers.

The ultimate Chelsea tractor

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25004.jpg[/image]

Choppers!

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25009.jpg[/image]

Despite the flames the flying turd was faster.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/25012.jpg[/image]

29

Man, your trip is something to remember.
Good work!


PS - I definitely have to do a trip like yurs.

30

Great trip, great reports. Very succinct but entertaining and informative. Quick question: How have you located all these sources of help – Hasport for eg – via t’Internet from your lonely motel room?

31

Absolutely brilliant.
Seriously, you and seanb should put all of this into print when youre finished for all of us enthusiasts to buy!

32

This thread is superb!

Keep the updates coming and good luck for the rest of your trip.

33

You’ll all have to wait as it will all be explained in his book

34

Glad you’re all enjoying reading it. The roller coaster ride continues as you’ll find out now

Oh boy, what a day�.

Arrived at the garage this morning to find the half shaft out of the car. The head mechanic told me we had a big problem. He couldn�t fit the new half shaft into the car � not surprising since mine is a custom Honda/Lotus hybrid shaft. Apparently the message hadn�t got through that I only needed the tripod joint to be swapped over. The old one was a total mess.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26001.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26002.jpg[/image]

This is how it should look.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26005.jpg[/image]

The spider had to be ground of my half shaft; normally it should just tap off.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26004.jpg[/image]

With the spider off, we set about taking the spider of the new shaft, but it became apparent straight away that for some unknown reason it was smaller than the old one. Disaster! I racked my brains trying to figure a way of somehow getting it to work. The only solution I could come up with was to try and reuse the old spider and put the new bearings onto it. Problem was the bearings were too small. At this point I should have given up but I convinced Brian, the resident I can make anything work mechanic to start grinding the spider down to a size where the bearings would fit.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26006.jpg[/image]

It would be a real bodge job, and carried the very real risk of failing in the middle of no where.

Being a Kiwi we have a long history of bodging, and although I was reasonability confident it would work (long enough to get me to L.A). Bill the head mechanic stepped in at this point and said enough was enough. Given the liability laws in the US he just wasn�t prepared to allow me back on the road. In hindsight this was probably the correct decision, I could just picture being in the middle of the desert broken down and cursing myself for not taking his advice.

You can see in this photo how far we got with grinding one lug down and the damage done getting the spider off the half shaft � this would have needed to have been welded up as well. So I reckon I was pushing the envelope too far on this one. If this had been deepest Mongolia I would have gone with it, but there was no requirement to take such a risk and cooler heads than mine prevailed fortunately.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/Road%20Trip/26008.jpg[/image]

I managed to get a hold of Joe at Hasport and he was as surprised as me to find the tripod didn�t fit very un-Honda like. It turned out the shaft he�d given me was from a base RSX not the type R, neither of us realized there was a difference. There is a very slim chance Joe has something at home, but regardless it will be Monday at the earliest before I can get going again. This will probably mean driving straight to Laguna Seca. I must admit I�m a little concerned at how the car is going to hold up on the track, but theoretically it should be ok. The failure was simply down to a 10 dollar rubber boot splitting and not related to the mileage the car has covered so far. In any case once it gets to the West coast I�m close enough to L.A to get the car down to the shippers either under its own steam or someone else�s. Laguna Seca was supposed to be the highlight of the trip, but I�ve come to realize that the real highlight has been the people I�ve met along the way.

Now while I�d been typing all this up I got a message from a certain ChieF roca (Brian) a well known member of a Honda specific forum K20a.org. Not only did he have a half shaft, but he was prepared to get down to Fedex today so I could get it on Monday. Once again I�m blown away by the generosity of people I�ve run into along the way. Brian doesn�t know me from a bar of soap, yet has gone the extra mile. I just hope one day I find myself in a situation where I can repay some of the kindness I�ve been shown along the way. It gives you a warm feeling inside to realize that the world is still a good place and the crap the media dish out on a daily basis is just that. So if you�re ever in NZ and in a spot of bother, you know who to call

There’s a good Irish pub in town, so I can forsee a couple of pints of Guinness tonight!

Lovin’ every minute of it!

35

Its great to hear that there are some decent people in this world, I just wish I could meet some.

Good luck and look forward to the next installment!

36

Great trip & fab postings

I once found myself ‘firefighting’ with this type of problem. Can you be certain of the cause, if it’s due to use or mileage the other side could just follow suit.

I found this with a much older Lotus (nearing restoration) where not to replace both of anything that gave up just lead to more frustration.

But don’t let me put you off (Honest)

Very best wishes for the rest of your amazing journey

Tim.

37

Unfortunately there has been a history of these boots splitting. What tends to happen is the air heats up in the boot and forces it along the shaft where it can come into contact with the subframe. Being aware of this I was careful to get rid of as much air as I could when replacing the boot. What may have happened is while crossing the rockies and climbing up to 11,000 feet the air inside the boot would have expanded due to the attitude and could have caused contact with the bodywork. Just guess work but it would fit in with the time of the failure.

38

I’m friends with the guy at King Motorsports (Mugen distributor) - let me know if you have issues - I’m sure I can get them to Fed Ex a half shaft to you if you need it.

39

Well done, Meat

Ian, your’s & Sean’s daily (almost!) reports are awesome, thanks a million, bud

40

The start of another overdue update and I�ve got a lot of typing to do!

We left off on Saturday, still stuck in Flagstaff, AZ. But with some hope of getting rolling on Monday thanks to Brian in L.A who having read about my plight kindly offered to send out a tripod joint which would hopefully fit the half-shaft. So nothing to do but wait till Monday. The highlight of the weekend was watching the latest Harry Potter movie I�m sorry to say. Flagstaff at an attitude of 7,000ft is not a great place to be at night if you�re traveling light, 10 minutes exposure to the cold was all I was good for.

Monday morning arrived and to my relief the package had made it to Flagstaff, I caught a taxi to the Fedex office and returned triumphant to the garage. Now for the big test would it actually fit? Bill did the honours and removed the spider from the Tripod still covered in grease, I was uneasy at this point since the joint looked identical to the last Tripod that had proven to be too small. But not this time. For the next 5 minutes, I was like a small boy who�d just been given free rein of the Walmart confectionary department. Bill got down to the job of fitting it and I was exiled to the waiting room � a different guy was in charge today and for legal reasons the workshop was placed out of bounds to me�. This was to prove unfortunate�

An hour or so later and the car emerged from the garage with Bill swearing he would never work on another. I have no idea why�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29001.jpg[/image]

So at 11am I was underway again heading for L.A. I wasn�t due in till around 7pm so about 200miles down the road I decided to get of the interstate and take a trip down memory lane.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29006.jpg[/image]

Unfortunately for this section at least there�s not much left. Nearly all the towns were of the haunted variety�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29009.jpg[/image]

The road wasn�t that interesting either�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29007.jpg[/image]

Not only that but what road there was pounded the car and I mercilessly�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29010.jpg[/image]

At this point the Interstate was starting to look very attractive, and eventually I made my way back onto it. Not long after I pulled in for gas and decided to take a quick peek underneath to confirm all was well after the pounding the car had taken for the 100 or so miles I�d been on Route 66. To my horror, I discovered yet again the boot had split!

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29026.jpg[/image]

The cause was obvious this time, instead of using a proper strap, Bill had used a Jubilee clip to secure the boot to the haft shaft. As you can see by the photo this simply tore the boot in half. Great, back to square one and still over 200 miles to L.A. The engine block was covered in Tripod grease and I had no idea how much was left inside the joint. I tie-wrapped the boot as best I could and decided to continue on at reduced pace. 60 miles from L.A and the traffic was getting heavier and heavier. 30 miles out and I was crawling along. My destination that evening was a man whose help every step of the way on this trip has been monumental. From providing a mailing address so I could get car insurance to phoning around for spare parts and everything in-between, Patrick a fellow Elise owner has been an absolute rock whenever I�ve needed help. The surprising thing is I�ve never meet him. At 8pm all that changed when I finally arrived at his house. I sat down to the first real meal I�ve had in the better part of two weeks. A couple of bottles of wine and some good conversation later I staggered off to bed slightly the worse for wear�

Tuesday morning and the first priority was to get down to the sea, this was what the trip had been all about, getting from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean in what must be one the worlds most unsuitable Grand Tourer�s. To make it to the Pacific signaled the successful end to the trip and anything after was going to be icing on the cake. We got down to the beach and within a couple of minutes had attracted quite a bit of interest, unfortunately it was of the uniformed variety. Having explained why the car was parked where it was the ice cracked slightly and we were allowed to take a couple of photos before moving on.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29017.jpg[/image]

As Patrick�s Elise had gone out in a blaze of glory quite literally a few weeks ago, I threw him the keys to drive it back home. A gentle reminder that the Tripod joint was probably on it�s last legs was cheerfully ignored under the guise he was having problems getting used to the clutch. With smoke pouring from the tires each time we left a set of traffic lights Patrick aptly demonstrated the best way of getting around L.A�

Back home it was time to get the car sorted out. Patrick had made a few calls the previous evening and it turned out there was an independent Lotus garage not far away � Viking Motorsport. The owner Harry Appleby upon hearing my plight agreed to make space in the workshop, so Patrick and I headed down. I had a good feeling immediately, firstly Harry was a Geordie (Newcastle, UK), he�d been living in the US since 82 and had customers as far away as Florida. The workshop was full of Esprits and one very special Lotus Type 47 owned by Harry.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29024.jpg[/image]

The 47

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29036.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29037.jpg[/image]

With the car in Harry�s very capable hands it was off to a local bar for a couple of cold ones � yes L.A in November is a very pleasant place to be! By the time we�d had some lunch the car was nearly finished. Not only had the Tripod boot been replaced but the outer CV boot had been found to have a pin hole leak in it and had also been replaced. With Laguna Seca now looking very on � I asked Harry to give the car a once over, remarkably other than a new strap on the left hand Tripod boot the car was in good shape.

Finally he refused to hand the keys back until it�d been cleaned, his boys set to it and it was looking like new in 10 minutes.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29030.jpg[/image]

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29035.jpg[/image]

I bet they wished all cars were as small as mine, look what rolled in next�

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/iwilson/29034.jpg[/image]

Job done it was time to drop Patrick off at his office, where having heard about my frustration with my GPS software he promptly reappeared with a CD for another GPS program and loaded it onto my Laptop. Top man! Laguna Seca programmed in it was time to hit the road for the relatively short drive of 400 miles to the track. The car ran faultlessly all the way up. Which is more than I can say for the internet connection at the Hotel.

And who ever came up with the bright idea of building a freeway out of concrete blocks of varying heights and spacing should be shot along with his children and his childrens children!

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