Sunday

We left early Sunday morning for Durango for a late breakfast with a friend of Greg's. It was 42 degrees as we left...the heater, seat heaters, sweatshirt and windbreaker felt good. We drove up and over Wolf Creek Pass at 11,000 feet. Some pretty views.We got to Durango, had breakfast and continued on to Holbrook AZ. On I40 just outside of Holbrook we caught up with friend Randy from Texas in his red roadster...good timing! We found our motel...the WigWam Motel....old concrete teepees. A fun place to stay. Found a steak house, had a good dinner and went to bed.

Hot Rod Dirt Drags

The first Hot Rod Drags was a success! We arrived about 10. I had a slow start after a bad night and early morning. A cup of coffee and seeing all the neat hot rods quickly pushed out the rotten feeling in my body. Amazing how that can help. There was probably 60 or so cars that were racing. All shapes and styles. All really cool. I saw Craig and Trevor from Denver, Darryl from Colorado Springs...had a nice visit with them. We got to park on the show car area on the grass. Several vendors, beer tent, a rockabilly band, Hop Up magazine, event T shirt tent to name a few. The cars just paired up and ran. It was almost an eighth mile dirt track. A flag girl starter and twin towers with flag guys to show the winning lane at the end. Ron had his top off (it broke the day before) then removed the windshield, taped numbers on the side, put on his helmet and away he went. He paired up with a rolling bones built car, both had SBC with tri carbs. Ron came out ahead. There is a neat video I posted on my facebook page of the race. He made another pass against a lightweight T bucket and lost that one. He was in line for another run when a radiator hose blew of of a little fiat race car burning the girl driver with the hot water. The ambulence took her for medical care so the cars could not race. It was getting close to the ending time any way so it was called off for the day. Ron was bummed that he could not make another run. We leave at 7AM in the morning for Holbrook, AZ...staying at the WigWam Motel there. It is a cool old motel on I40 which is also rte 66. The cabins are concrete Indian tepees. Should be a neat photo op. It is a 400 mile trip so an easy day. I hope wolf Creek Pass is not too cool, it is 11,00 ft high...then its downtown Pagosa Springs...I'll be singing C W McCall's song Wolf Creek Pass all day!

Friday

We got up at 5AM, breakfast at 6AM and on the road at 6:30. We had 500 miles to get to Monte Vista CO. It was chilly...mid 50's so the heater, heated seats and sweatshirts felt good. By the time we got to Brush, CO it was raining. Ron's top broke and blew apart, so he har to go topless too. He got no sympathy from me! LOL!! We gassed up in Brush, Ron borowwed raincoat from Dave and away we wnet. There is a sign at the junction of I76 and state 71...no gas stations for 75 miles. I knew that, that's why we topped off in Brush. 71 is a straight, flat 2 lane 166 miles to Rocky Ford. It rained quite hard and then would go to light rain then back tohard. It was hard to see sometimes. It was cold and the rain was getting old. Finally about 20 miles from Rocky Ford it stopped raining we pulled into a little cafe for lunch and to dry off. I almost had to eat my favorite saying..."don't need no stikin top " We had a good lunch and was off again to finish the trip. It rained lightly again for a while, but was a beautiful drive...up to 9600 feet over the pass and back down to 7600 in Monte Vista. We found our motel, checked in and washed the cars. We drove to a Mexican place for dinner. Good food, STRONG marquritas and HOT hot sauce. It was great..altho I was sick most of the night!! All and all it was a GREAT day!

LARS 2015

Wednesday morning I left about 8AM to drive to Mpls to pick up my son Rodney for the annual roadster trip. I have been driving to LA since 2004 and Rodney has been with me each year. It is a great father/son time. From Rodney's place we drove south to Lakeville to hook up with friend Greg from Wisconsin in his roadster and then it was off to Des Moines, IA. In Des Moines we met up with Dave, Don and Ron. Dave is from Iowa, Don from Ill and Ron from Florida. Our meeting spot was Bennigans Cruise night. A good start to the 18 day trip...a car show!! 6 AM this morning, Wednesday we hit the road with cloudy skies above us and headed west. The stopping spot was North Platte, NE. Within 30 miles it started to rain. Greg and me had the tops off...well Greg did, I don't have one to put up! It rained hard till we passed Omaha... a couple of hundred miles. Then it was on and off every few minutes. We had a lunch invitation at Dennis Saum's garage in Marquette. He and his wife had burgers, brats, fruit salad and drinks for us. Thanks!! Dennis is the mayor of Marquette, so we had a special holiday day! After lunch and back to the interstate for the night at North Platte. I had made reservations at my favorite hotel, LaQuinta. We checked in and proceeded to go to Whiskey Creek steak house. A couple of cold beers and a good steak was in order. In the morning it's up and out by 6:30 for a 500 mile jaunt to Monte Vista Co. Hopefully the rain will be over...if not we will just punt on the raincoats again and hammer down anyway. I wore for the first time a Cabelas windbreaker that worked well as a rain coat. I have had it for several years and used it for wind but this was the first time I used it for rain...worked well!

cell test

Test from my cell

GNRS 2015

We leave in the morning for the Grand National Roadster Show. Catch the plane at 11 AM and arrive in warm sunny CA about 4PM. I have eight shops on the visit list for Wednesday and eight more for Thursday. Two are official open houses the rest are just visits. There will be three couples and three or four guys in the group. I hope to post each night, hopefully some photos too. Sometimes I can't get this little notebook to work with pictures...if I can't the photos will go up when I get home. I will be posting on Facebook during the day too. My facebook page is just my name. Dale Grau If we aren't friends there yet...send me a request. Let the fun begin!!

Montana trip photos

Some pics of Dave's Mordor on the trip home from Montana