Well I'm no Michael Oritt, but I did have the privilege of driving one of my
customer's new purchase from WA State back here to NM this week. I did get
lucky and had near perfect weather for the 1700 miles.
The route was basically from the Seattle area down to Portland, OR where I
visited Aston Martin restorer, Dave Adams, in Lake Oswego. He showed me a
60-61ish DB coupe which has been in storage for the past 31 years!
I noticed the #3 carb float bowl was overflowing. Probably due to the fact
that I had all but run out of gas prior to arrival at Dave's shop. After
fixing that, it was out the Columbia River Gorge with the first overnight in
La Grande.
The next day I rolled into Boise, ID to visit an expatriate Albuquerquean,
who with his wife had opened a chocolate shop in downtown Boise. Valentine
's Day is coming so thought I'd better get some treats for my wife. Boise,
is a very nice burg. Clean and considerate folks. My friend's wife fell
absolutely in love with the Healey, I explained it was not mine to give to
her.
The next leg was the long push. I wanted to make Durango, CO so I could
visit another friend and his wife. I rolled into Salt Lake City at rush
hour. Not a great time or place. Too many crazy cell phone drivers. Finally
made Provo in bumper to bumper traffic and headed East through the mountains
enroute to Green River and Moab. This was the first encounter with slick
roads and 2 lane traffic hassles. It was especially nerve wracking because
the headlights were very poorly aimed, like straight down and there were
literally hundreds of deer feeding along the roadway. Healeys and deer do
not intermingle well.
Well I finally pulled over just south of Moab and adjusted the lights. I
could finally see where I was going. Should have stopped sooner, but once
the bit is set and there's a schedule, you know how it go's.
So made a very sleepy and cold Durango (13F) about 11PM. Had a much needed
restful night and rolled into Albuq. For lunch the next day. No hits, no
runs, and best off all no errors. Not even any new paint chips. So it was
1687 miles and 78.66 gal of fuel. It was $208.00 air fare up and $190.00 gas
back. Of course it was 3hours out and 3 DAYS back. But, in a "very rare
indeed" 2 seat tri-carb, who's going to complain?
Many thanks to the PO for a great restoration and apologies to the Cascade
Club for taking away a very nice example of what a non-professional can do
(as per the thread from a week or so ago)
And yes I took some photos but it was with film so you probably won't see
any of them on line..
Cheers,
Dave
frogeye@swcp.com
Taos Garage Annex
Albuquerque, NM USA 87107
BN2,AN5, Fiat 1600S
Porter Custom Bicycles
http://www.Britishcarforum.com/TaosAnnex.html
|