Month: February 2025

My What A Big Cactus You Have

One of the last stops in Arizona in 1989 was the Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson. By this time in the trip I think we had both decided to move south to Aiken, but we didn’t really say it out loud until we returned home to Madison, NJ.

Recap of today’s events, film at eleven.

  1. I got up
  2. Rode the indoor bike and then showered
  3. Ate breakfast, the usual
  4. Light grocery shopping at Fred Meyer
  5. Walked across the street to Lowes
  6. To pick up the spray can of Flex Seal I ordered online last night
  7. Drove home and put away groceries
  8. Sprayed Flex Seal along the edge of the awning
  9. Walked up the the Community Center
  10. Spent an hour with my peeps drinking coffee
  11. Lunch of an Ensure
  12. Took a short drive with the top down
  13. Took a 2-hour nap
  14. Chatted with Sally on the WhatsApp
  15. Dinner of a sandwich and half an apple
  16. Put together my new computer chair, it has lights!
  17. Started this…

Another Sunny Day

I went out yesterday and took some photos of the new tire/wheel setup and totally forgot to put the top down. Remedied that today. This morning while I waited on the people who were coming to clean out the gutters I finally finished the 1000 piece puzzle of the Grand Tetons National Park that has been languishing on the table since before Christmas.

New Tires On Old Wheels On New Miata

Well, I gone an done it. I mounted new tires on some 25-year-old Miata wheels to put on the new 2024 Miata. And I for one think it looks fantastic. Before I could take the above picture, the car needed to be washed, so I pulled out the Griot’s Garage Foaming Sprayer and gave it a bath. After drying off the car I took a drive for lunch and headed out to a local spot to take some photos.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Ugly Duckling Edition of SORT
As of Monday, February 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2002 Chevrolet Corvette 1973 Mohs SafariKar 1996 Renault Twingo
A fifth generation Corvette converted to look like a first generation model, doing injustice to each design. A car designed for big game hunting in Africa created by the man who invented the instant milkshake. Produced in collaboration with fashion magazine Elle to be displayed at Paris Fashion Week 1996. We got style baby!

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 2017 BMW M2 Sold for USD $42,000 on 2/20/25
Off-Road: 1995 Land Rover Defender Bid to USD $43,000 on 2/19/25
Touring: 2010 Porsche Panamera Sold for USD $21,000 on 2/19/25

Grand Canyon

Continuing with more pictures of the 1989 Arizona Road Trip, theses are of the Grand Canyon. I can’t really swear to this, but I think we stayed in the Grand Canyon Lodge in the park itself. I am basing it on the large paper napkin that was in the album with the photos. For all I know we could had lunch in the dining area of the Lodge and Donna slipped the napkin in her purse.

I want to say we did the trip in a counterclockwise direction, so if that is right, the posts are kind of out of order of them being taken. Then again I just tried to link the half dozen places I have pictures of I don’t see how there was anyway to do it in a tidy loop. There had to be a lot on backtracking.

Just When I Thought That I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In… Once Again

This is the third time I have used this title, or a variation of it, the first time was in January 2006 and the second time was in January 2016. Both of those posts pertained to Gillian Anderson, this does not. Come back next January for the next Gillian Anderson installment, I’m sure she’ll be starring in something or other then.

This is about Miata Clubs. Back in October of last year I looked up the local Miata Club and either they had nothing going on or I just got a weird feeling, so I forgot about them. Well, last night I thought I’d see if they an event or something coming up in the near future. They did, the near future was a mere 12 hours away, there was a drive and eat thing for tomorrow morning, AKA today.

My people. This club is probably about 7 or 8 times the size of the Masters Miata Club, this day’s group was small for them but would be a big turn out back there in the CSRA. There were a total of ten cars and about 15 people. There were 5 NDs, 3 NCs, 1 Fiata and one non Miata. I even spotted a lot of similarities between the two clubs, there is one guy who pops the hood as soon as he parks (Jim Creer), there was another who drove to the event on the chilly misty morning with the top down (Rudy Wilmoth) and another who showed up in their Corvette (Tom Varallo.)

It was a fun day, but I don’t know how many events I’ll do with them…

In reference to my remark yesterday about having to join Facebook to get any club information, I was wrong, there have a website with their own URL…

Brownsville

Brownsville – 97327: Just a quick tuck off I-5 to capture a Post Office on my way home from Eugene with the old tires and wheels off of Bucky. (2/21/25)

Today was the first time I drove to Eugene and FTW Tuning and turned right around and came home. I just went down to pick up Bucky’s wheels and tires. The tires looked good from a distance, but 25 years can take a toll. When I was lifting them into the back of the Mini I noticed every tire had a long crack in them, one or two of them were almost around the whole circumference.

I am going to mount some Ultra High Performance All-Season tires on the stock 2001 16″ wheels to put them on the New Miata (see this mock-up.)

Maybe I can sell the 17″ wheels and tires that came on the New Miata to somebody in the local Miata club. There is one wheel that has a bit of a curb scrape, but I think a little black paint will take care of that. Now I have to go join Facebook just so I can contact folks in the Mt Hood Miata Club.