For those of you that are trying to keep track, yes, this blog is 'tracking' a few days behind the real events! I'm working on keeping it going, but easier said than done (we are working so hard out here....!).

I believe that I left you off just as we were following Ron to Salida, which is where we planned a bit of a break in our trip. Those not familiar with Colorado, Salida is out in the 'western slope' of Colorado, and the Arkansas river runs through it. Home of some great rafting opportunities, but more on that later. Ruby Jane ran very well through the mountains (even though Ron led us through more rainstorms!), so it appears that her being attended to by several pairs of men's hands got her mood back to normal, and she is feeling loved. It took us a few hours to get to Ron's new house, and both Brandon and I were amazed.





We had been by to visit last year, but it was basically just framing - now he and his wife Anne have moved in, and it is spectacular! What really makes it pretty special is that Ron essentially did the whole thing himself, with very little 'hire out' work. They were very gracious hosts, and that first evening we picked up some food at the grocery store and had a great dinner, followed by a long night of catching up (with the help of a beer or two...).





The next morning was our day off - built into the schedule. You see, Ron is actually a raft captain, and has his own customized raft. So he offered to take us down the river, which we happily accepted long ago when putting together the trip. The weather was nice, and although we got off to a late start (which had nothing to do with the previous evening, for the record), we were on the river at a decent hour, with a cooler full of beer, cigars, and even food! It was scheduled to take us 4-5 hours for the full route that Ron had planned, which meant we would end up finishing about when it got dark. We set off on a good note - the way the raft is set up, neither Brandon nor I had to do any paddling at all (which was very perfect - our hands were full as it was....). But, as with this whole adventure, we had an unexpected set-back! It was something that Ron has never seen happen in his thousands (literally) of trips down this river - the anchor to the paddle shaft sheared off when we went through some rocks!! Very bizarre, and sort of left us with just one paddle and looking at trying to pull out at the next stop.






However, our fearless leader (Captain Ron) would not be deterred! He somehow rigged up the anchor with tie downs to where he could navigate us down the river (special note - we were in a low part of the season, so navigation was very technical, lots of rocks showing, so it was a daring venture to say the least!). And he did! We were able to finish our beer allotment, as well as smoke our cigars (and had some tequila in a flask!) - Anne met us at the pull out point, we pulled out and drove to Ron's place (what makes this new house even greater is that it is about 3/4 of a mile from the pull out place!).



The night kept going with more catching up and laughter, but we did have to set off in the morning, so we kept things tame. You should hopefully eventually see some videos and pictures of this trip on here - we are working on it!

So, we left the next morning sort of on schedule, to our first real test leg through the Rockies!!

Wow, I'm obviously rather poor at this blogging thing. My excuses are lame (we've been busy, connections are hard to find, etc.), and we have left you hanging and possibly wondering ifnwe were broken down somewhere in the mountains or got abducted by aliens, so many apologies for those of you that have been wondering what's been going on out here.

So where were we last? I believe that we were on the way down to Colorado Springs. It was another very nice summer day, and we took off down highway 83 to visit Kent and crash there. We showed up at his place and he let us park Ruby Jane in his garage, also so he could take a quick look at her. He gave his approval, but we agreed that we would take a look at her in the morning and see if there was something we could do about the timing and how hot she was getting in traffic.






Brandon had arranged for some old friends from back in our days of living in the Springs to meet us in Oscars downtown. While not everyone was able to make it, we still had a great night catching up with Kim, Heidi, Shelly, Brian, Philip, Rod and others. Saturday morning Brian came over and we (actually it was much more Kent & Brian) took off the wheels, went out and got another fan as well as a top radiator hose. They finished up all the work and then Scott & Ron came over to appreciate Ruby Jane and her return from the grave in Nebraska. So overall, as you can tell, it has been quite a reunion tour for Ruby Jane (as well as Brandon and myself!)....

We left late in the afternoon to follow Ron out to Salida, where our travels continue....

We made it to Denver!

Yesterday we hit the road around 11 am after a great evening spent with my sister's family. The kids (Sean & Emma) are so grown up! It's awesome to see them blossom into such well-rounded young adults - although kind of scary, as it makes me realize how old we are getting! While the kids got to bed at reasonable hour (Sean started 9th grade yesterday morning - first day in high school!), we kept Tom & Kath up way past their bedtime. Brandon got to meet all the animals, from the bearded dragons to the goats to the sugar glider - plus the dogs and parakeet. Was great to hear about Kath & Tom's sailing adventure - it opened up a whole new world for them, and they fell in love with Grenada (can't blame them!).






The day was projected to be hot - and they projected correctly. The temperature from about 11 am onwards was 96 or above! But it was a dry heat, honest. Actually it was killing Brandon, me not so much, because it really was a dry heat! It got to the hottest (as did Ruby Jane) once we were in downtown Denver, in the middle of traffic and construction. Ruby Jane was running up around 235 degrees, so for sure hotter than when we were cruising on the highway - hoping it is just a hot day/traffic thing, otherwise we have another little 'gremlin' to keep our eyes on.

We got to Brandon's old boss's place and met up with Brad, Jim, and the team, great to catch up with them - had a GREAT burger at the Burger Bar across the street. We ended up heading to Jim's place to spend the night (original plan was Marc's), so dropped off our stuff, had some martinis, and went out for the evening. We met up with Marc and some guys at 1Up, which was a rad bar full of old video games and pinball machines - all of which ran off of quarters! Really cool night, lots of chatting and laughing and catching up.

This morning we took Ruby Jane to an exhaust place to check on the leaky headers. Just got a call, doesn't look like there is much we can do, so she'll just have a funny sound to her. Now if we can just figure out what to do about that loose steering wheel.....

Off to the Springs in a few...

Good Morning from Longmont, Colorado! We arrived last night at Kath & Tom's place just before 8:00 pm after a non-dramatic but somewhat eventful 7 hour drive from Lincoln. Once we hit the road around 1:00, we went west on I-80 - we were keenly alert of every bump and rattle, given the previous night's and morning's 'activities'. All went very well, Ruby Jane was accelerating well, sounded good, and the scrapes to the bottom of the exhaust virtually disappeared. After the first 30 minutes of high nerves, we settled in a bit. We had the radio tuned to the local rock station, until we got out of range, then it came to trying to figure out the new stereo system. (This was the last piece of the puzzle - never go cross country without a kickin' stereo - it adds a lot to the trip. We got it done at the very last minute, lots of issues with parts being out of stock, installers not being available, etc. - but it got done. Why such a big deal? Well, this is a stereo system of Brandon's own design - and rather powerful, at that. Along with the Alpine head unit, he has one digital amp, and a high-powered mono-block amp for the 8" JL Audio subwoofer, and MB quartz component speakers in the doors (with tweeters). Sounds pretty good...) First challenge was signing up for Sirius while driving - via the internet! Gotta love the Verizon wifi card - we were able to get the subscription and get linked up - but still had to figure out how to navigate through the 'user friendly' head unit. Then had to figure out how the ipad connection worked out, as well as getting the bass/treble/subwoofer balance correct. So this is how one passes the time during the initial phases of a road trip in a new/old car.

The rest of the trip through Nebraska was rather uneventful, thankfully. That is, until we got near the border of Colorado, which is when we encountered our first rainstorm. It was a dark looking horizon, one that those in the west are familiar with when a heavy summer storm is coming (or, in our case, we were driving into) - and over a 30 minute period it kept getting closer and closer. Many of you are probably wondering why this is such a big deal. Well, aside from the fact that Ruby Jane is 45 years old (and it likely has developed some leaks along the way), the windshield wiper switch isn't working - which means no windshield wipers! We do have Rain-X, though - and put it through its paces, to say the least. The first storm we encountered wasn't too bad - it was on the Nebraska side of the border. But once Ruby Jane crossed into Colorado, it was like Nebraska was making one last grab to pull her back into the state, and make us want to turn around. This storm was pretty intense - to the point that we had to actually slow down to nearly 30 mph as we were hydroplaning (and aside from the Rain-X, couldn't really see much of anything!!). And we did find out where the leaks were - mainly on Brandon's side, through the fresh air vent, a little on the passenger side, but not much... After the storm, it was beautiful sunshine and started getting hot. The rest of the drive went great, we climbed up in altitude to Longmont and are now at 5,000 feet above sea level - but she's still running great, aside from the lack of oxygen. We did, however, discover a minor exhaust leak, so will get that checked out today. Stats for the first day: Distance driven - 483 miles gas mileage - 15.3 mpg Time on the road - Approximately 7 hours Saw lots of corn, loads of trucks, bunches of cows, and basically the heartland of America. For those of you interested in getting a concrete lawn ornament (you know, like a full size elk or bear), we saw a nice place just outside of Ogallala in Nebraska... Time did not allow us to delve into the home of Glen Miller (Fort Morgan, Colorado), or to see the Trading Post near Sutherland, Nebraska. Alas, perhaps next time....

So the story continues....

We made it to Brandon's folks' house without further incident, by now it was nearly 10 pm. Luckily they had some food and beer to take the edge off. Stayed up late chatting with them, and finishing off their last bottle of tequila, and crashed in their camper out back (it had a/c, which was much appreciated!). Needless to say, sleep came well...

Up early this morning to take the car to Roger and have him work some magic. Dropped her off, went to get parts and other supplies (like road flares and a tool kit!) and returned. He reattached the exhaust (with locking bolts this time) put in about 1/2 inch spacers to raise her a little, we adjusted the timing, and put on new exhaust manifold gaskets. Our original plan was to hit the road by 9 or 10 - that didn't happen. However, we were able to take off by 1:00. Many thanks to Roger and Brandon's parents for getting us through our first 24 hours of the trip, and on our way!

I will recap today's drive later this evening....

My apologies everyone - I had planned to keep this a 'real time' blog, but since I landed in Lincoln, we've had some adventures!

First of all, Brandon & Roger met me at the airport in Ruby Jane - she looks fantastic, and does sound great. However, not all was perfect.. In fact, I am currently writing this as we sit in Roger's shop on Wednesday morning (the plan was to be well into the scenic Nebraska countryside by now). We had a few concerns with the way she was running, and Brandon's friend Barry from way back came over and was giving her a look. He had a buddy, Cory, who was a whiz with engines. It turns out that the distributor was missing some weights interenally, and thus when we accelerated the timing was actually retarding (my apologies to the non-tech readers - please bear with these specialized references, they will be common, hopefully not too common!). He put some weights on it, adjusted the timing, and she is running very smooth now.

But our adventures had just begun! On our way from Lincoln to Brandon's parents' house, we took a 'detour' thru an adjacent town to get some food (not a lot of food options out in the metropolis area we were driving thru...). We had on a few occasions scraped the exhaust - regular headers on a lowered Chevelle tends to let that happen. But as we went over one bump, the exhaust separated from the header on the left side, and started dragging! Of course this happens pretty much in the middle of absolutely nowhere! There was a reason that I updated my AAA to premium.... We called AAA, somehow they figured out where we were (turned out that Brandon's parents knew the guy that came out - love the small town relationships), and he came out with the proper tools (clothes hangers and some pliers), and got her rigged up so we could get her back to Brandon's folks' place.

Whew! This isn't turning out to be a short blog, is it? Sorry about that - I will shut down now, as it seems that we are almost ready to roll (fingers crossed!). The story shall continue later....

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

Here we go! I am heading to Licoln, Nebraska in the morning to meet up with Brandon, the owner of Ruby Jane, his 1966 Chevelle. There were some last minute fixes and adjustments to Ruby Jane, but we are confident that all will go well (knock wood!). We will hit the road officially on the 17th, and hope to keep all entertained and captivated during our exploration of the Western U.S.

I know I promised more history on Ruby Jane, as it is quite fascinating, so that will come during the trip. We hope all will follow the trip, and offer your feedback as we check out what is new in the U.S.! By the time I meet up with Brandon, he should have her registered and ready to be street legal. From there we will have a well deserved dinner with the builder, which we plan to inform you about, as nights in Nebraska are notorious.....!

You will hear more once we land in Cornhusker land, and hopefully you will get beautiful pictures of the cornfields of the midwest! And who knows what else....

Enjoy, and we hope to hear from you!!\