An Afternoon at Portland International Raceway
Oh boy was today a great one for an old gearhead like me. One of the readers of the blog, John Gates, contacted me last week and invited me to be on his pit crew while he was racing his Alfa Romero in Portland. Wow, I could not believe it. Well, today after church I headed for Portland and hit the track. These are some of my pictures from today. Thank you John.
What kind of truck is that out there racing? I know, do you?
A shot of John's coach from the stands looking back. John has a very nice GMC coach. I learned a few things today while looking over his coach.
The red one is John.
Another shot of the truck. Come on now, what is it?
John coming down the track during the race.
John getting ready for another race.
A shot of the car, up close.
Lots of classy cars there today.
This is a 1200 Volkswagen. Can you believe it. John introduced me to the guy and he answered a lot of questions for me.
Do you remember what this car is? I just shot the door to see if anyone could remember.
I really appreciate John having me as his guest today. This was a once in a lifetime deal for me. I don't know how many hundred old race cars were at the track but there were a bunch. No way I can put up all of the pictures. We had some rain showers but it was dry come race time. What a day. Thanks again John for thinking about me.
Teri called and is at her brother's. I am heading out to pick her up. Sure will be nice to have someone here besides me again. I am about tired of tv dinners, ha.
Thanks for coming to the track with me. Will look for you again soon.
Dan
Car Show @ Museum
I should have known better than to buy a pink camera. I got 4 pictures with it today and it crashed. Oh, I was so mad. Over 120 cars in the show and I had 4 pictures. Oh well, I am sharing them with you. After I finished parking all the cars, and spectator's cars I left. That was at 2 pm. I started at 10 am and was a tired puppy. At 3 pm I decided to head for a Radio Shack store in Vancouver. They were very nice and replaced my old new camera with another pink one just like it. Hope it lasts a bit longer than the other one did.
Look at this pickup, it is sweet.
These cars drove themselves here, were not trailered. They were nice.
If you look close, there are 2 Cobras in this picture. They are real ones, no kits or look alikes.
I would try to guess the years of the cars as I parked them then ask the owner. I was almost right on the money every time or one year off. I was kinda proud of myself. there was a purple English Ford. I said '59, was a 58. Most of the folks did not even know what it was, much less the year.
Now, If I had all authority, this 51 Ford hardtop would have taken the top winner of the show. It is a very nice hotrod. No dollars spared here. I took a long time parking him. Great ride. I can not tell you in words how this car looked. It is rare to see a 51 Ford hardtop. This fella had a big smile on his face. I know why.
Well, there you have it. those are the only fruits of my labor today. I lasted 4 hours after the show started and was there almost an hour before that. Hope you enjoy the 4 pictures.
Oh, I broke down this evening and bought a box of ice cream to go with some blackberries tonight. I must get those berries eaten. Ice cream will cause them to slide down so smoothly. Yum. I just made myself hungry and am heading for the fridge now. Check back Sunday night, I may have some really good photos. Pray for my camera.
Dan
Berry Heaven
Take a look at the gorge. It was a clear afternoon and I grabbed this shot. It does not look real but it is. As they say, pretty as a picture. This is the most beautiful place I know during the summer time. I hope everyone can visit here at least once, during the summer months.
Well, here is the lowest I have seen fuel. This was today's price. Over 40 cents cheaper than it was 2 1/2 weeks ago. It took forever for it to get below 4 bux and stay there. I hear it is 30 or 40 cents cheaper than this back home.
What am I going to do? Do you think a guy could get sick eating blackberries? This is 30 minutes of picking and I never even left the front yard. This is rediculous. The berries seem to just jump into my containers. The bad thing is that I am here all alone. Sharon and Allen are gone for the weekend. Maybe I will take some with me to the car show in the morning and see if I can pass them out. I don't know if folks would even take them. I mean, there are so many blackberries here. I know one could never sell them. They may all be gone by morning though. Sam has her eyes on them too. That is a pretty good sized picture full of berries. I may just go to town and get some ice cream and founder myself before bedtime.
Hope everyone had a good week. We got the car show grounds all set up this morning. I ran over to Vancouver and installed a horn, two guages and sending units, and started working on installing blinkers. Will finish that up next trip. Had to get back and check on Sam. I left her here to rest today. She has traveled too much and is having trouble with her back legs.
That's all I know tonight. Think about me as I devour these big ole juicy berries.
Dan
Alright!!!
Look at this one.I followed him right into the hardware parking lot. I am telling you folks drive these old cars out here, they are everywhere. Wish I had an automatic camera on the car so I could catch all of them for you.
For you GMC motorhome lovers, look at this one. Its a Caddy frontwheel drive. Its in the museum at Elkhart now. My friend Nick took this shot and I took it from his blog, with permission.
Alright!!!! Well, that is because everything went my way today as I worked on the VW. I could not believe it. Sam and I were there all day working on it and I got a lot accomplished. Almost have the entire wiring re done now. I have to wire up the new oil pressure gauge. and install the volt meter. Then I will start on the blinkers and horn. I have all matching new white faced gauges in it now. Will have 6 when finished. I plan to monitor everything I can after the old motor blowing up. I might have been able to prevent that if I had an oil temp gauge. I got one now. Replaced the steering gear box and set the toe in today. Went just like a text book deal. I sure appreciate my brother in law letting me work on it in his driveway as he has all of the correct tools. It should be ready for a road test real soon now.
I am helping set up a car show Friday morning, for Saturday. Not sure if I will get to work on the bug in the afternoon or not. Saturday I have 2 big things going on so it might be next week before I get back to the bug. I hope to check all the wheel bearings and brakes before we leave Vancouver with it. I am feeling like a local person here now. Have all of the back roads here in Vancouver figured out now. Took myself to a bug shop today way up in Hazle Dale and did not get lost.
That is about it for tonight. Thanks for stopping by. I should have great pictures from this weekend.
Dan
A Day On The Road
Sam and I got up early this morning, 6 am, and headed over to Irrigon Oregon to check on Teri. Here is where we found her and this is what she was doing. Very busy getting ready to have a big Garage Sale for her father this weekend.
I Look at that smile. Anyone wonder why
I fell in love with this lady? She is a great girl and I will be glad when she finishes so we can be back together. She was too busy for me to hang around. Got my clothes washed while we visited.
Here is what Sam thought about the trip.
Click up the picture and see the guy wind surfing on the Columbia this afternoon. It was very windy. Look at the white caps on the water.
Here is a look at the bridge spanning the river at Biggs Junction.
Not often that I get to pass a helicopter. Pretty neat.
I told you it was windy this afternoon. We were stopped for 30 minutes for this at the John Day River. Seems the wind caught this rv and flipped it on its side.
A little closer look.
And, as we pass by. I feel for the owner of this rig. The wrecker had the pickup truck hooked up and ready to remove when we got by. I guess a larger wrecker was coming to right the trailer back up and haul it off. I am sure both were totaled.
We left Skamania in the rain. It was still very overcast when we got back. I had rather have driven all day in the rain than the wind I got into coming home. It was rough.
Tomorrow the plan is to swap out the steering gear box on the bug. I am thinking I will have to find a new pitman arm somewhere in Vancouver. I hope I can find it if I do indeed need one. I plan to get a lot accomplished Thursday on the bug. I have a busy weekend planned. I wont say just yet what I am doing but come on back and see the pictures. It will be a good time. Hope it takes my mind off of my best friend and the fact that she is 150 miles away from me.
Thanks for riding with us today. See you again soon, I hope.
Dan
Woops, forgot to mention that Sharon fed me salmon again tonight. Oh boy, my favorite meat, right up there above good elk. Sharon takes good care of me here. She is a great cousin and very thoughtful.
Club Meeting night
Oh yea, Allen and Sharon took me to the Portland area Plymouth club meeting with them tonight. They sure know how to entertain me. This was great. 80 folks turned out for the hot dog supper and many of them brought their cars. Look at these. I know some of you are not car people but if you could just look these over I know you will appreciate each and every one of them. Some as old as `1930 there tonight. Allen has the oldes, 1928 but too far to drive it tonight, 55 miles.
1930
They are pitching fan belts. Fun game. Also throwing dice, mirror hanging dice, fuzzy.
Take a look at the flames on this 50 model.
There were three very nice 48 models here tonight.
Slick.
Now, how did this slip in? It didn't. He had to park away from the Plymouths. It was a slick paint job.
Lots of Plymouths. As you can see some are hotrods, my type. Hope you enjoyed coming along. Got a long day Wednesday. Heading over and back to see Teri tomorrow. Up at 6 am.
Bye for now.
Dan
St. Helens, Oregon?????
No, that is not me but that is what I was doing all day. helping my cousin who lets me park here at his house. It was an enjoyable day.
Now, when folks say Mt. St. Helen, what do you think? If one says St. Helen, what state would you think that might be in? Would Washington come to mind? Yea, that is what I thought. I was going to St. Helen to help do some painting. I kept putting it in my gps and it kept going to Oregon. I finally turned it off and headed north on I-405 to I-5 for the mountain, which I knew where it was. As I was traveling north I turned the gps back on and saw what looked to be a town in Oregon called St Helen, over to my left as I traveled north. Hmm. I look closer and sure enough hiway 30 went that way. Allen told me it was on hiway 30. South I go with a big u turn and head for Portland to see if I can get over there. The gps takes me right down thru the roughest part of Portland I did not want to see. Bars on windows of buisnesses as well as homes. Gang looking thugs hanging on the corner light poles. Oh boy. I made sure folks could see Sam in the car when I stopped for red lights. 45 minutes later I finally get out of there and am now north on hiway 30 heading for a place called St. Helen Oregon. I can not believe it. Anyway I got to the street Allen told me to turn on about 30 miles out of Portland and sure enough there was Allen's truck. What a morning. Nothing I could do about it. They had been there an hour ahead of me so a good start was had. There were 4 of us that painted two very large rooms and we finished up at 4 pm. What an enjoyable day. Was great being valuable to someone today for a change. kinda been stuck here for a while waiting for Teri. I hope I can be of more help to Allen and Sharon while I am here parked at their place.
Click this photo up and look at the end of the rainbow. It was so pretty. I could not really capture it with the camera. I was just up to the mountains, eastbound on 14, when I took this shot. I hope you can see just a little of the real beauty of this thing.
Teri and I are grandparents for the 13th time today. Our son, Brad and his wife, had an 8 lb. son this morning in Springfield, Mo. Now, we have a grandson to carry on the Gregg name for at least one more generation. I hope he enjoys life as much as I have. Maybe I can teach him a few things that my grandfather taught me when I was a little boy. Grandfathers are here for a reason. I know what that reason is and I do my best to make sure the grandchildren enjoy themselves when I am around.
Pray for my buddy Clyde. He is having health problems back home in Dexter. He is a great guy and a one of a kind friend. I know The Lord is looking out after him.
So, that sums up our experiences today. Hope yall enjoyed that ride through Portland this morning. I am glad you were along with me. We now have seen Portland from the "inside out", if you know what I mean.
Catch you later,
Dan
Another Update
I just had to get this photo up for you to enjoy. It is my cousin and her husband getting home from a ride over across the river in Oregon. This is some car and they truly enjoy it. Some ride. Double click and get a better look. My batteries were weak and I was in a hurry to catch them while moving past the coach.
Dan
Update, Update
I did not want you to think that I was schucking you. I got these in about 15 minutes. That is a large bowl. Back home we count berries by the quart. Out here, its by the pound. Boy o boy. If I could not grab at least 6 at once, or the berry was not the size of a quarter, I did not waste my time. My right hand is all scratched, my left forearm is worn out from holding those berries. Lots of times I stick the bucket under a clump and just shake the living fool out of the plant. Yum. Sharon will like thes bad boys.
Hey here is some advertizing from the roofing company. My uncle Steve founded it in 44. His son in law owns it now. I like the advertizement.
Have a good evening,
dan
Sunday Afternoon Cruise
Well, here is where I was this morning. Nice little group in Washougal. Teri and I attended here a few weeks back. Some of the folks remembered me. Must have been my good looks.
Can you say "Drive Through Berry Patch"? Oh yes. Sam and I went for a ride this afternoon. Pulled in here and just plucked berries without even getting out of the car. Oh, were these sweet. My kind of place. Sitting in the car we did not have to worry about varmits or the thorns.
Who knows this guy? He must live around here. I see lots of these signs.
How do you like this plaque? My cousin has it mounted right behind my motorhome. I think it is cool.
Here is a shot of what I see daily here. This is a gorgeous place.
This boat was loading in Stevenson this afternoon. Sam and I were just out touring the area. My cousin and her husband just left for a cruise in the 28 Plymouth. Going to pick up a widow lady and she will ride in the rumble seat. That Plymouth gets lots of use.
This is a shot of the train in front of the museum.
My cousin runs this museum in Stevenson, Wa. just down the road a bit. It is right on 14. You must stop when you come. It is full of stuff from the settlers of this area. My uncle Steve came here in the early 40's and never left. I certainly can see why. This is one nice area to spend a summer in.
That Hiway 14 is a nice trip across southern Wa. I love driving the 6 speed across it. Curves and hills and lots of sights to see. Lots of bikes on this road too, with and without motors. Its a road that needs to be driven at about 45 mph from Washougal over to Biggs Junction. Such a pretty stretch.
Guess that about covers today's activities. May go get a few more berries before it gets dark. Thanks for coming along and we will see you next trip. Should you email me be sure to include "Blog" or "GMC" in the title of the message. I do not open mail if I don't know where it comes from.
Have a happy day, from Sam and Dan
Oh boy was today a great one for an old gearhead like me. One of the readers of the blog, John Gates, contacted me last week and invited me to be on his pit crew while he was racing his Alfa Romero in Portland. Wow, I could not believe it. Well, today after church I headed for Portland and hit the track. These are some of my pictures from today. Thank you John.
