Month: July 2025

Dualling Shovels

I feel a little cheated, don’t they fact check over there at the Roadside America HQ? Back in May on the way back from Hammond with Santa Fe Sally I made us stop just outside of Wichita Falls, TX to take a photo of the Largest Shovel in Texas at 15 feet high. In the blog post about it I said, “… someone will take that as a challenge and make one 25′ tall somewhere else in the state.”

I have been pre-planning another jaunt with Sally for later this year. Today I was looking for a different route across the great state of Texas to go between Santa Fe and Hammond. We did it last time with a single overnight stop in Bowie, TX, and we’d would like to do that again, but I’d like a different path to mix it up. So I started dragging the blue line on Google Maps around and came up with something promising that loops south of Dallas.

The next thing I look for is hotels at the overnight spot, some small towns in the middle of nowhere don’t have many places we’d stay in, we have some standards, you know. Off I went to Roadside America to see if there is something weird that would hopefully be near a driver’s change spot. I opened the Texas map and zoomed into an area where I thought we would be and saw something labeled World’s Largest Shovel. Wait a minute, I thought I’d been to the largest shovel in Texas? I had, but it was only the tallest one until this beast was created in 2020.

The Wizard of the Sphere

In November I’m going down for another visit with Santa Fe Sally. The impetus for the trip is a good old Thanksgiving dinner with her family. This means another drive to Hammond, Louisiana, but first is a trip to Monument Valley. She has always wanted to go, and she has a State Department friend that lives in northern New Mexico that has the same desire, but neither wanted to go alone; enter Brian. Sally and I will be in Tucson, and her friend will be in her own car (she is having it serviced in Arizona before meeting us there.)

Sally and I had planned on looping by the Grand Canyon and other places after the Monument Valley visit, but things took a turn over the weekend when Sally saw the video below. She is a big fan of the Wizard of Oz and wondered if we could maybe add a stop in Vegas. So guess who just spent over $200 to see a movie that could be watched for free on numerous streaming services and has his own copy of it?

Jigsaw Puzzle Fun

After yesterday’s nearly all-day being outdoors, today was exactly the opposite. The only time I went outdoors was to get an Amazon package off the front porch.

On Friday before grocery shopping I opened up a jigsaw puzzle and dumped it on the table. Later that day I sorted for the end pieces and turned over all the rest on the side table.

Yesterday in the evening I made the outside of the puzzle and started on some of the comic’s titles.

This morning I worked more on it while watching the final stage of the Tour de France.

I’m going to keep adding daily pictures here to watch it fill in.

A Day At The Races

I spent the day at Portland International Raceway with a small subset of the Mt. Hood Miata Club. We met for breakfast at a Holiday Inn close to the racetrack before heading over to over for the SpeedTour that incorporates several different classes of car racing.

It also included a Hagerty: Cars & Caffeine, which is a car show for all kinds of automobiles in about 7 or 8 different classes. This is how we got in the event, at a cost of $50. That might seem like a lot, and it sort of is, but it included admission to the track for all 3 days (Fri, Sat & Sun) of the event for 2 people and your entry into the car show. The Miata is in the “sports car” class for show judging, and there were too many much cooler cars than our relatively “new” cars for us to win anything. My only chance at winning a prize was if there was a category for most stickers on the inside of a trunk lid.

I enjoyed myself and will probably go again next year.

Bucky Update

I’ve addressed those maintenance issues I mentioned last week. I greased the turn signal & wiper stalks, and they are quieter now. The turn signal one may need a bit more grease, as it isn’t as silent as the wiper one, but that’s for another day. The driver’s door power mirror not working was because the wire connection from mirror to door was not hooked up.

I took Bucky down to the folks at PDX Wraps to pick out the color that I wanted the stripe to be. We hashed out the color and location, so now when I’m done at the DMV next Thursday, I can just drop it off and Uber home. Reverse that on Friday afternoon and drive it home.

While we were on the driver’s side of the car, he noticed what looked like a light scratch. Upon closer inspection it appears to be a line of excess paint drips. The Carfax showed no accidents, but I am beginning to think, with this excess paint and unconnected mirror wires, that it was in a fender bender of some sort and it was fixed off the books. Not a big deal, but still every time I turn around there is another surprise with this car.

Excess Paint?


 
Speaking of surprises, when I went to restart the car at PDX Wraps, it was hard to start. It was a hot day, so that could be the issue, but it wasn’t that hot. So now what? It could be the 25-year-old fuel pump, regulator, or fuel injectors, or a couple, three of them. This car has really become a money pit, and I’m starting to reconsider the plan to keep Bucky and sell the new Miata plan.

Masters Miata Club 2004 Pool Party

Because I’m being lazy (see today’s Instagram post) here is the Club’s newsletter report and photos from the titular event:

Pool Party

Saturday, July 10th

We held our annual pool party at the Creer’s this afternoon, where we have done it every year for the last 5 or so. Because the Jim & Judy are pulling up stakes and moving to the Sunshine State soon, next year we will have to drive to Spring Hill, FL to have it at their house.

There were plenty of grilled brats and dogs to be eaten, along with the usual assortment of side summer type salads. Then there were a couple of delicious homemade desserts to finish off the meal.

We called it a pool party, but a majority of those who came didn’t go in the pool. Only Donna and I and the hostess floated and bobbed around a bit. It was a heck of a lot cooler in the water, than sitting around it, even if you were in the shade. Jim didn’t even get in the water. Too bad too, as usually he and I make fools of ourselves by having a big-splash contest off the diving board.

Jim did make a fool of himself in a slightly different manner. He climbed a couple of ladders up a couple of levels of his house to get to the top of the roof so he could take a group picture…

Post Office Mop Up

I had originally planned to to get today’s 4 post offices as part of an overnight trip back to Klamath Falls, but when I got up this morning I almost didn’t go anywhere. Just couldn’t get motivated to to go all that way, spend a night in a hotel and drive back the next day. Instead, today I just drove a loop that was the equivalent driving to Klamath Falls, but I’m already home for the night.

While I captured four post offices, I actually got to mark off five. The post office in the community of Brothers, which was on the list for capture today, has closed. I have now taken photos of 238 Oregon post offices out of the 390 in the state. Green marks are the ones I taken photos of, hover over the image and the yellow marks are one that I still need.

Don’t ask me why the Google maps for brian.the.red account shows as a flat map and the mr.miata account shows as if it a portion of a globe…