Year: 2023

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

60s Racer Edition of SORT
As of Monday, June 12, 2023 at 10:00 PM mountain time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1964 Chevrolet Corvette 1964 Mercury Monterey 1963 Chevrolet Impala
This was campaigned in the 60s and 70s by Sports Car Club of America national champion Bill Morrison. While this isn’t an off-road machine, it is a tribute to a car that did the Pikes Peak Hill Climb when it was just a dirt road. This car was factory built as a drag racer in the stock class and no matter how I try and twist this into a touring car I can’t.

Here is what last week’s ago cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2010 Mini Cooper S Laurel Sport Bid to $13,250 on 6/7/23
Off-Road: 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear L400 Sold for $9,900 on 6/6/23
Touring: 1951 Ford Country Squire Woody Wagon Sold for $47,000 on 6/9/23

37,000 Missed Hailstones

When we were about 15 miles from the Holiday Inn Express in Carson City we could see ahead of us very dark clouds and quite a few streaks of lightning. At hotel arrival I noticed a lot of white along the curbing and in all the cracks in the parking lot. Upon closer inspection I noticed that they were pea-sized white balls of ice. When I asked at the desk, “How long since it hailed?” The desk clerk said it was about 15 minutes back. Glad we missed it.

We didn’t miss a repeat of the scattered showers from yesterday though, for almost all of the second half of our drive along US-50, AKA The Loneliest Road in America, we were being rained on periodically. We had another disappointing lunch in Austin, NV because the Champs Burger truck was once again closed.

Afterwards, we were zipping east and Donna noticed on the map a notation of the geographic center of the state of Nevada not to far off US-50. The gray line meant it was dirt road, but it didn’t look too far, so what the heck. She pulled up a web page about it and it said that there was a road labeled “To Belmont” at about 26 miles from Austin. We saw no such road going south so I pulled over and looked at the map too. Where the map showed the gray line right near it was a picnic table icon. I said, “Oooh, I remember a roadside pull off with tables several miles back.” We turned around and went several miles back to that spot and sure enough there was a dirt road heading south called Monitor Valley Road. Nothing about Belmont but we headed down it. After a mile or so it was getting a bit too bumpy for our tastes, so we turned back to US-50 to continue on the Carson City. We did vow to rent an SUV for our next trip so we could go the whole 12 miles to the coordinates listed on that web page.

A few miles shy of Middlegate, Nevada the Mini crossed off another milestone on this trip, thirty seven thousand miles.

Intermittent Rain Showers


hover over the picture for a different view of this wind turbine farm

The whole of today’s drive was like the second half of yesterday’s drive, we were traveling it for first time in the opposite direction. And just like yesterday’s second half everything was new to us and beautiful to behold even while passing through intermittent rain showers for most of the day.

The drive along I-70 in Utah is one of, no make that the best Interstate we have ever driven. Even after the red rocks transition into brown the scenery is still fantastic. The ups and downs created a twisty highway for most of it that can be fun at the posted 60MPH or even better 70MPH. 🙂

And US-50 in Nevada to as far as Ely is no slouch either. We are now convinced that this is the route to take between Santa Fe and Klamath Falls even if it does cost us an extra day, hotel room, tank of gas and a couple meals out.

See my Instagram post from today for a couple other scenes from the drive.

36,000 Beautiful Views

To avoid the long slog on the rough surfaced, 18-wheeler dense I-40 and crazy dense traffic of Las Vegas, our usual route home, we choose to go north and west first from Santa Fe. This way we will do the quieter less traffic route of Green River, UT to Ely, NV to Carson City, NV to home. But Santa Fe all the way to Green River is 421 miles and 8 hours of driving, so we broke it into 2 smaller segments. Because we were going to leave Santa Fe after lunch, Wednesday’s leg was a shorter 150 mile, three hour drive making today’s drive a 250 miles five hour affair.

Along with the better driving conditions we got a couple of other bonuses out of it. We were going to pass through Cortez, Colorado again so that we might be able to eat at The Farm Bistro that was closed on the way east because it was Saturday and boy was it worth it, the food was fantastic, the portion size was perfect and it was priced very reasonably. We also got a chance at one last Roadside America photo op. At the Mud Creek Hogan Trading Post the previous owner stuck about a dozen telephone poles fitted with giant arrowheads and feather fletchings into the ground at an angle (see above.)

Come to think of it, make it four bonuses. We had never traveled any of the first leg and the scenery was beautiful. Then on the second leg, where we had been on the roads before, this time we were driving in the opposite direction so everything was new to us and startling beautiful as well.

Not long after leaving last night’s stop in Pagosa Springs the Mini flew by 36,000 miles on the odometer.

Adios Casa de Sally

Having guided our host through the gates of car buying hell, we packed the Mini and headed north on the long awaited return to home.

Monday we test drove the front runner, the 2023 Subaru Forester, followed by a 2023 Honda CRV (Honda shared the lot with Subaru) and although Sally swore she wanted new, a 2020 Honda Passport was taken for a short drive. She liked the heft and acceleration of the Pathfinder, but she didn’t like the low gas mileage. The CRV was an underwhelming drive and to get the stuff she wanted it was going to be over her spending cap. The Forester remained the favorite. Tuesday we started at the Hyundai dealer to try out the 2023 Tucson. After a 10 mile test drive, this vehicle jumped to the head of the class, so much so the Nissan Rogue that was possibly next, was skipped.

She really wanted a black car, her current car a 2002 Toyota RAV4 is that color and she likes it. Also a black car diminishes the prominence of the ugly black plastic cladding that is ubiquitous these days. None of the new cars tested were black and there were no black cars on the lot. The Subaru salesman on Monday said he would email her if any might be in their pipeline, but he never did. That and his ineptness in name remembrance and constant sniffing while along for the test drive killed the Subaru sale. Sally even said if the more personable and professionalism Honda salesman could sell her a Subaru, the Forester would have been her choice.

The Hyundai dealer had a still unprepped brand new Tucson in Portifino Gray (see yesterday’s post) on the lot and she though maybe if she could get it ready later in the afternoon and she could test drive it, that might make the sale. They called at 4:30 and we went back to take that test drive that included a trip right back to Casa de Sally for a test fitting in her garage. Ding, Ding, ding we have a winner. They worked up an offer sheet and she said all she needed to do was contact her insurance to see what the coverage would be like. That happened this morning and when we left she was text bargaining with the salesman over the usual dealer added options and their extra markup crap. If all goes well Sally will be driving a new Hyundai Tucson before we get back home on Sunday.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Santa Fe Edition of SORT
As of Monday, June 5, 2023 at 6:00 PM mountain time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2010 Mini Cooper S
Laurel Sport		 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear L400 1951 Ford Country Squire Woody Wagon
This is called the Santa Fe Edition, not as any Hyundai promo, but because this is where I am located right now visiting a friend.

Here is what last week’s ago cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2006 Porsche Cayman Sold for $35,000 on 6/1/23
Off-Road: 2002 Jeep Wrangler Sold for $20,000 on 6/2/23
Touring: 2013 BMW 135is Sold for $27,000 on 6/4/23