41,000km2 of Oregon’s Outback

This is a post about a road, OR31, something the Oregon Department of Transportation and its counterpart the Department of Tourism have designated as a scenic byway. This 150 mile stretch of road runs between La Pine and Lakeview and travels through some very rugged and beautiful high desert.

We really weren’t drawn to this road because of its destination, but because we could take a 350 mile 2-day road trip and take photos of 8 more Oregon Post offices. Sunday we headed east towards our first stop, Bly and then through Lakeview, the biggest town we’d see all trip, with about 2,500 people and onto the town of Adel whose population is defined as sparse. Then back to Lakeview where we had some lunch at Burger Queen, so named because, I guess, Burger King was already taken. Three post offices down we finally got on OR31 and headed north and west. The fourth and last post office of the day was in the town of Paisley home of the annual Mosquito Festival that raises funds for vector control.

Our stopover for the night was the Lodge at Summer Lake in the “town” of the aptly name of Summer Lake, population 80. The lake itself is nothing but a wildlife refuge with some sporadic marshy areas. I think the small pond behind the Lodge has more water in it than what’s in the refuge. Because it too has a post office we were going to get a photo, but the light was wrong, so we aimed to get it in the morning on our way north.

Monday, after a very good breakfast at the Lodge, we snapped that Summer Lake post office before heading to Christmas Valley. Christmas Valley is the largest town in this part of Oregon and was named after another dried up lake. The biggest attraction in Christmas Valley are their sand dunes east of town. We were going to drive over and look at them, but following our Delorme atlas, the road that was supposed to be paved turned out to be not, so we turned around we headed for our next post office in Fort Rock. After quickly visiting the state park day use area, by looking at what is left of a extinct volcano that was in a prehistoric lake which is no longer there. Our last post office of the trip was off OR31 in the town of Silver Lake that is once again named for a lake that no longer exists. Done with the photo taking we headed home from there on a meandering 50-mile road over to US97 where we turned south to get to Klamath Falls.

Somewhere in the town of Lakeview while driving around pondering our dining options, Mini #2 surpassed the 41,000 mile mark.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

I Got The Blues Edition of SORT
As of Monday, September 18, 2023 at 8:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2006 BMW Z4 M Roadster 2005 Jeep Wrangler X 39k-Mile 2016 Audi S6
Looking back it seems I pick one Z4 a year for SORT, so this is this year’s. I’ve picked 17 Wranglers over the first three years, this is the 2nd this year. This is only the fifth Audi over 162 weeks and the only one of the 6 series.

Here is what last week’s ago cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2019 Ferrari 812 Sold for $377,000 on 9/14/23
Off-Road: 2005 Jeep Wrangler Sold for $37,000 on 9/13/23
Touring: 1961 Chrysler New Yorker Bid to $16,550 on 9/14/23

The End of an Era

This photo is from 2 days ago as I watched the new owner drive off.

For the first time in just shy of 34 years (or a little over a billion seconds) I don’t own a Miata. We just didn’t drive it much and if it got driven once a week it was lucky. Usually when it did go for a drive, it was short hops to pick up a pizza or a run to the cannabis store. We did take it a couple of times to get breakfast or a coffee at our favorite spot this summer.

We have probably been in Brevada over a thousand times in the four years we’ve lived here and are known by the owners and staff. It is not exactly like Cheers, where everyone in the place shouts our names when we come in, but close. Most of folks there do know what our usual order is and will start making our drinks while we are waiting in line to pay.

About a week ago one of the owners, David, was manning the register. He asked me, “How do you like your Miata?” I of course replied, “Love it.” “I’ve always wanted one”, said David. So I said, “Do you want to buy mine?” He responded with how much do you want for it and I threw out a figure that was a few hundred more than what I paid for it. “How many miles does it have on it?”, he asked. I told him it was 2002 with just over 83K. David said he’d have to drive it, but he’d have to run it by his CFO (his wife). I told him I’d drive it up on Monday, when we came in for breakfast.

Monday we went to Brevada for breakfast in the Miata. After eating, David broke away during a lull in customers and we went for a 15 minute drive. He had driven a Miata before, he and his wife had rented one on their honeymoon and both enjoyed the experience. The rental was of course a new fourth generation Miata. Mazda has steadily improved the car over the generations, without changing the essence of the car. David said that the second gen Miata, like the CTBNL, was his favorite looking one. He was smitten. Now if we can pass the wife test.

He mentioned that his wife’s car needed to go over the mountain to Medford tomorrow for some service and would I let him take the Miata and follow her over. Then they’d drive back to Klamath Falls together so he could get her to like it enough to let them buy it. Later in the day David texted me to say the wife’s car didn’t need to go over to Medford, but could he borrow the car to go on a dinner date with her. When they picked up the Miata that afternoon David asked politely could they take it the Lake of the Woods. Now, Lake of the Woods is halfway between here and Medford, so I didn’t have any problem. After all, I was willing to to let them take the car for 140 miles, so 70 was fine.

When they returned the CTBNL a few hours later, David’s “evil” plan worked to perfection. They wanted to buy it. Seeing how much they both enjoyed the car Donna said we would sell it to them a bit cheaper than my off the cuff price from before. So I sold it to them for a few hundred less that what we bought it for 7 years and 40,000 miles ago. Win, win for all concerned. David came over the next day with a check and we signed the title. I showed him how to use the cockpit cover, loaded up the trunk with a box of spare Miata parts, tossed in a couple of Miata coffee table books I had and, well the picture above tells the story.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Regular Ol’ Edition of SORT
As of Monday, September 11, 2023 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2019 Ferrari 812 2005 Jeep Wrangler 1961 Chrysler New Yorker
Last week’s 812 Superfast didn’t meet the reserve, but that’s OK as I’s like this blue one better. If you have been following along on my BAT fun you’ll know that I’m a sucker for a Wrangler. If this goes for around $10k I’d probably dump another $20k to restomod it to modern running gear.

Here is what last week’s ago cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast Bid to $327,000 on 9/7/23
Off-Road: 1985 Subaru BRAT GL Sold for $25,000 on 9/6/23
Touring: 1985 Porsche 928S Sold for $21,250 on 9/6/23

Unexpected, But Shouldn’t Have Been

Last Friday when I went downstairs to swap the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer I was surprised to see the Soak light lit. When I opened the lid the clothes were swimming in a round plastic pond. Wow, that’s different from our usual plague of out of balance wet clothes in one half of the tub. But I tried the same fix, i.e.. the Drain and Spin cycle. Knowing that it takes 5-10 minutes, I headed back upstairs.

When I returned downstairs, the clothes were a little wetter than they should have been, but at least the water was gone. But because I didn’t know when in the cycle the washer had quit before so that maybe it never made it to the rinse part, we decide to start over, I added some soap and ran the typical wash cycle.

After the usual hour wait, back downstairs I went. The Soak light was lit and the tub was full of water again. Crap. Ran the Drain & Spin cycle again. Same results as before water gone, but clothes overly wet. So I got a big lawn & leaf plastic bag to line our clothes hamper so that we could run to a local laundromat to do the load there. Later that day I ordered a new washing machine. We really shouldn’t have been surprised.

I came close to calling in a repairman to look at it back in February and then in May I actually order a new one, but cancelled it at the last minute because it started working correctly again. Knowing our new washing machine’s arrival date yesterday I unhooked the old one and when I slid it out from it’s home, underneath, was quite a lot of small bits of plastic that looked a little like chopped up licorice. I dragged the broken washer into the garage and when I looked at the bottom of the machine I couldn’t tell where that black stuff was coming from, whatever, this thing was going to the dump.

The new washing machine arrived today and after 2 full loads it still works just like it should.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Labor Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, September 4, 2023 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast 1985 Subaru BRAT GL 1985 Porsche 928S
It’s a Ferrari, it’s red, it has 12 cylinders, so…hold on. In the bed’s plastic jump seats you’d better hold on. Old Porsche repair costs? Hold on to your wallet.

Here is what last week’s ago cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1974 BMW 3.0CS Bid to $64,500 on 8/31/23
Off-Road: 1988 Toyota Pickup Sold for $19,500 on 8/31/23
Touring: 1967 VW Karmann Ghia Sold for $36,500 on 8/31/23

Fatal Descaling

We had a fairly new Keurig K-Supreme coffee maker.

The first time the descale light illuminated I tried using white vinegar to do the job. It must have done some good, but it didn’t last as long as expected. So this time when the light came on I ordered the 3-Month Maintenance Kit from Amazon. Yesterday I did the descaling.

(Side note, the directions listed on the box on how to do this say to follow the instructions on the bottle, but there are no instructions on the bottle.)

After following the instructions I found on keurig.com I successfully ran the descaling procedure. Only trouble was that the brewer failed to restart afterwards. A search online said that I might have over heated the thermostat and I should wait a couple of hours and try again. After 3 hours the brewer would still not turn.

I then found a YouTube video on how reset it. After spending twenty minutes opening up my relatively new brewer I found the thermostat and no amount poking with a bent paperclip would reset it. I ohmed it out and it read as infinite, so I had no choice but to go out and spend $150 on a newer brewer.

Rest assured that next time the Descale light illuminates I going back to white vinegar. It may not last as long, but at least it won’t fry the thermostat.

I hope…