Life of Brian – A Proud Part of the 90%

Day 7 – Torrey, UT

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 Leave a Comment

The top photo was on my pre-drive coffee run. A lot of the day looked like this, but there was about an equal amount of sunshine to go with it. The drive was great; it was about 330 miles through all kinds of scenery and roads. All in all, it took us right at 9 hours of travelling, which includes our lunch break and several scenic pullouts.

On one of the rainy segments we were climbing up a mountain pass, and at the top, about 8,000 feet up, that rain turned to almost snow that created a layer of slush on the road. A second highlight was we came upon a herd of sheep crossing the road to get some water troughs. The flock was huge, and our 22-car caravan came to a halt. After we politely waited for them to move, and after a few minutes, a fellow in back had a brilliant idea; he started to rev his extremely loud exhaust while creeping forward at them. Instantly the sheep cleared the road.

According to Baseball Reference, the Red Sox still have a greater than 99.9% chance of making the playoffs. This means that they have less than a 0.1% chance of winning the division. Statistics, who knows? To me it looks a lot like zero chance of winning the division. Tampa Bay has a record of 96-61 with six games left, so the worst record they can end up with is 96-66. Boston on the other hand has a record of 84-73 with 5 games left. If they win them all, their best record would be 89-73. How is that a better record?

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 6 – Park City, UT

Monday, September 21, 2026 Leave a Comment

Today was the official first day of driving, and boy did we. I was actually worn out from all the driving ~~chasing down~~ trying to keep up with the group. There were several through valleys, up one side of a pass and down the other. The drives are excellently laid out with planned stops to gather up all the cars back together that are either scenic pullouts or dedicated potty stops. In the middle there is a lunch break at a good restaurant. There are occasional short stints on regular roads and a bit of Interstate in between. And we’ve got two more full days of this to come.

One of the hallmarks of these trips is people swapping cars if both parties are agreeable. Honestly, after watching the caliber of driving, I would trust any one of this group with the GTI. The flip side is I wouldn’t feel comfortable driving a lot of these cars because of their power or price. Maybe around a parking lot, but not on narrow, windy mountain roads that have frequent shear drop-offs.

But there was one I wanted to drive, and he agreed to swap. He is the son of one of the Everyday Driver guys and a high school student, but knowing his dad and watching him drive the first half of the morning, there was zero worry. He has a 2006 Mini Cooper S, which is supercharged. It was an absolute hoot, and he really liked the driving the GTI. Truth be told, if he kiddingly asked if we could swap titles, I just might have taken him up on it.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 5 – Park City, UT

Sunday, September 20, 2026 Leave a Comment

Up early as usual and walked over to a bagel place in the shopping center next door to the hotel. It sounded tempting because I used to love a nice bagel. The only one near me in Fairview that is any good is in downtown Portland, and it isn’t worth the effort to go to it. I cannot not recommend this enough, my bagel was very dry, and the one slice of ham was razor thin.

Today was Park City’s Cars and Coffee, and it was just a 1/4 mile away, so I walked over to check out the cars. A really nice mix of cars that ran the gamut from a pristine ’65 Beetle to a well-patinated Porsche 356 of the same vintage. There were several Corvettes of varying vintages, a Lambhorgini, and lots of small Japanese hotted-up ones from every manufacturer. There were even a couple GTIs of the same model as mine.

I was surprised when a red Lotus Emira drove in with a familiar face; it was Todd of Everyday Driver. I worked my way over, introduced myself, and told him I was coming on the Utah Adventure. He asked what I was driving, and I told him, “A GTI, but I didn’t bring it because it was filthy from the trip.” He said, “Go get it, this is a very low-key event, and that is not an issue.” So I did, mine made 3 GTIs. You can’t see it in the photo above because I was on the lower level. If you look closely at the blue Mitsubishi that is right in front, you’ll notice it has an Oregon plate. I never did find the owner so I could ask where in the state they were from.

The Red Sox chance of getting a Wild Card spot is still the same even though they have lost the last 2 games. They have only six games left to play in the season, and it is actually mathematically possible for them not to make it, but it will take a miracle. They would have to lose all six and have to have one of three teams not lose any.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 4 – Park City, UT

Saturday, September 19, 2026 Leave a Comment

With no post offices to find, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I mapped out the route, and it could be travelled 99.9% on the Eisenhower Interstate System and would take roughly seven hours. You know me; I abhor an interstate, but selecting “Avoid Highways” left me with a 12-hour trip. And that even included 30 miles of I-84 in Idaho and over 100 miles on frontage roads right along the interstate. If I wanted to not do any of that, and go on a bigger loop, there was an over 13-hour option.

I did get off of I-84 in Burley to cut off a big chunk of interstate, but my plan was foiled by my poor planning. I got into Utah, and when I turned onto UT-30 to circumnavigate west around the Great Salt Lake, there was a sign that read, “Next Services 89 Miles.” A quick glance at the gas gauge made me turn around and head east back towards I-84.

One of the last parts of the drive was 45 miles or so of some sweet twisty roads from Morgan, UT, back down to I-80 that totally made me forget all about most of the 400 miles of interstate.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 3 – Ontario, OR

Friday, September 18, 2026 Leave a Comment

Here is something I don’t see every day driving around Fairview. Barrelling along south on OR-7, I saw a stock trailer parked on the opposite side of the road on the shoulder. There was a guy standing next to the cab, I waved, he waved, and around the next turn I saw why he was parked there…

I found all four of today’s planned catches, but only three of them count. As you can see in the last photo on the right below, it was obviously a post office in the past. So even though I only found three real post offices, my total post office found count went down four.

Tomorrow I head to Utah to get ready for my Everyday Driver adventure. The event really starts on Sunday evening with a group dinner, but I didn’t want to get there on the day of, so I called and added Saturday night to my reservation. They actually had assigned rooms for the group already, so it was easy to put me in that particular room. I would have been happy to pack and move rooms, but now I don’t have to.

: Sumpter – Right next to the post office was the Stockade Motel that looked kinda like Fort Courage from F-Troop. (9/18/26)

: Unity – In the 2020 census there were 40 people in town. When I walked into the general store next door, about 20% of the entire town were there sitting around chatting. (9/18/26)

: Vale – The community was the first stop in Oregon along the Oregon Trail. Today this is where US-20 & US-26 West split after running concurrently for about 120 miles through Idaho. (9/18/26)

: Jamieson – It was a good thing I snapped this photo. I took it on a whim because I thought that, like, a few days ago in Lostine, this place looked defunct. I checked the USPS website, and sure enough it is still operating. Just a couple hours a day… (9/18/26)

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 2 – Baker City, OR

Thursday, September 17, 2026 Leave a Comment

Today went pretty smoothly; only one of the post offices was not where Google said they’d be. Richland had a Main Street address, but for some reason Maps had me turn left before getting there and was showing a back way into a parking lot. But there was no alley, and when I circled back to Main Street, there it was, and there were zero routes to get behind it. Sigh.

The morning was damp, wet, or rainy, but the afternoon was dry and sunny. If I let Ms. Google pick my route, there would have been about 15 miles of I-84, and it would have saved me a whole 6 minutes, but I chose all backroads. I ended up traversing two different mile and a half sections of gravel road that way. It was some of the best-maintained gravel I’ve ever driven on; 45 MPH was easily doable. The only real downside was the car came out covered in light brown dirt.

On my way into town tonight, about five miles out, I passed an Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, I almost stopped. Seeing as tomorrow is a real short day, I think maybe I’ll backtrack to it to kill some time.

: Summerville – I didn’t go in, I just took the USPS.com’s word for it. (9/17/26)

: Imbler – I actually drove through this town yesterday on the way to get to my hotel and thought, “That name sounds familiar.” It was to be my second stop on today’s hunt. (9/17/26)

: Cove – I just missed out on the spot out front where the white CRV is. They were right in front of me coming into town… (9/17/26)

: Union – An impressive Masonic Lodge that has the post office inside. (9/17/26)

: Richland – Google for some reason decided to pretend there was an alley behind this post office where there wasn’t one. (9/17/26)

: Halfway – During the dot-com bubble, Halfway agreed to rename itself Half.com for a year as a publicity stunt for the e-commerce company of the same name. (9/17/26)

: Oxbow – This town is similar to yesterday’s Imnaha in that it is the last post office on the end a twisty road before you run out of Oregon. (9/17/26)

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

Day 1 – LaGrande, OR

Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Leave a Comment

I think this is my longest day, 200 miles on I-84 and 240 miles of backroad post office hunting. It was planned to be a long drive picking up the six post offices and then just retracing the route back to La Grande. Got the first two, Elgin and Wallowa, but the third, Lostine, stumped me. I pulled up in front, it had a handicap ramp that zig-zagged to the door that was a faded postal blue and a flagpole with no flag, but there was no signage at all. It was definitely a post office in the past.

I thought I’d keep moving and figure it out on the way back. When I got to Enterprise, I spotted the post office, but there was absolutely zero parking out front. I circled the block, and when I got back there was an open spot, but it was for the handicapped. Maybe there will be one open on the way back.

The next town, Joeseph, was a mere 6 miles further along, but it is a touristy type town and parking was at a premium. There was nothing in front of the post office, but this time the block circling worked, and I got a spot right out front. The last one on the route was Imnaha, and it was 40 miles into the hinterlands. It was an easy find as long as you didn’t miss it while following where Google Maps was telling you it was. They were showing an extra 7 miles along a paved Forrest Service Road, then a half mile along a dirt Forrest Service Road.

When I got back to Enterprise, I had my choice of spots out front. When I got to Lostine and had cell service, I went to the postal website and found that there was a new post office practically around the corner from where the old one was.

: Elgin – The guy in the bright colored shirt was chatting up a storm with a woman you can’t see. I tried waiting them out, but they never moved. (9/16/26)

: Wallowa – This was the easiest get of the day, there was no one around, so I did a U-turn, jumped out, and snapped the photo. (9/16/26)

: Joseph – This is a busy tourist town, and parking is at a premium. I had to circle the block and get lucky. (9/16/26)

: Imnaha – You really have to want to be here. It is over 40 miles to the next nearest town down a windy mountain valley road. (9/16/26)

: Enterprise – My first attempt at this post office there was zero parking anywhere out front. But it was much quieter when I got back after my 80-mile round trip to Imnaha. (9/16/26)

: Lostine – My first try at this post office led me to what used to be the post office. They built a new one around the block in the intervening 7 years since I created my post office list. (9/16/26)

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%