Derby Dames & Hot Rods

At long last, the day of our club's Annual Spring BBQ & Hot Rod Gathering arrived!  And, amazingly enough, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  How we continue to luck out this time of year, I'll never know...

With all the people traveling in from all over ID and WA, Marc and Forrest were in need of some "spare rooms", and all our 50s trailers really came in handy!

This year, we decided to add a little more activity to the typical - cars on display, BBQ lunch, and live music entertainment.  Luckily, Moscow's roller derby team was looking for more publicity!  So, a plan was devised to have them serve as parking attendants, skating with the cars as they entered the show and directing them where to park.  Once they got the drill down, there wasn't much for the other club members to do!

The Derby Dames are accustomed to skating indoors, so in-between incoming cars they practiced skating on a mini-track they chalked out in the intersection.  Aaron was kept busy sweeping away the gravel.

The track was used later in the afternoon for a demonstrative bout, which drew quite the crowd. The Dames had a great time at the show, so I think it's safe to say we'll try this again!

So, back to the actual focus of the show - cars!  97 drove into the show, and as always, the variety was great!

One poor fellow who chose to park just outside the show to avoid the registration fee ended up with quite the dilemma!  A queen honey bee decided she liked his car, and was quickly followed by her entire colony!  They took up residence mostly in the passenger side door, but were swarming like mad around the entire car.  A beekeeper was called in, the door panel was removed, and a few hours later the bees were gone.  I don't know what else they did, but it worked!

Ahem!  Back to the cars in the show!  There were the club cars...

...which include one for Cory now!  Remember our build days, trying to get his truck to this show?  It made it!

Notice someone missing from the "club cars" photo?  Yup - we weren't represented.  This year, we drove the GMC to the show, but it spent the afternoon parked at the pinstriper's booth.

Is that an awesome shop truck, or what?  So many people stopped to snap a photo of it!

Other eye-catchers at this year's show:

Crazy-engineered hot rod.  Some kind of new hybrid between street rod and art rod.

Sweet '40 Ford!  The owner puts a show on up North the weekend after ours.

Amazing amounts of flake in this paint!

Quake was also turning heads with his burn-outs in this beat-up truck.  He brings a dying vehicle to the show each year and sells betting tickets, where you guess how long it will run without oil before it's completely dead.  Then, proceeds go to help build a community center for Palouse.  This one lasted just under a minute.

Of course, another highlight of a good car show is getting to see friends!  Sometimes we spend more time chatting than looking at cars...

 Already looking forward to next year's!

Welding!

At long last, I got brave enough to let Andy teach me a little welding.  The motivation was an assignment from the car club for each member to make a trophy to present to their favorite car at the upcoming show.  Well, the trophies we give out are made of random car parts found around our shops...and creating a statue from random metal parts is best achieved with welding!

Andy and I went through a box of unusable engine parts for a Nailhead he tore apart recently, and came up with our concepts.  Andyman welded his up in no time at all, and then patiently worked with me to figure out my slightly complicated idea and guide me through every tack weld to hold it all together.

Let me tell you - It was not what I expected! He plunked that helmet on my head and told me to watch the puddle.  Well, when you push the trigger, everything goes black except this really bright green blob!  And, with tack welding you don't hold down that trigger very long.  So...I really wasn't sure if I ever saw a puddle!  I thought I caught a glimpse of one forming on the last couple of tacks, but I sure hope it gets easier to see with some practice.

So, enough story.  Here are our trophies! (Andy's on Left, Teresa's on Right)

 I was still too chicken to do the welding to create my little bearings 'globe', and depended solely on Andyman's skills for that part!  How cool is that thing?

Not only did I finally weld something - I did not burn myself or my awesome coach, and I want to try it again!  So fun to start with something artistic and nonstructural...

Blooming Beautiful

It's that wonderful time of year again, when the whole yard is suddenly in bloom.  Granted - it's almost a month later than previous years....but I love it just the same!

 

 

 

Cabo - Part VI: Vacation Randomness

Between all the documented adventures, we did what vacationers ought to!  We wandered about the downtown village, perusing shops, greeting the local folks, and ...meeting a 10 yr old iguana!

Andy's been a fan of iguanas since he was just a little tyke begging his mom to get one of his own.  Needless to say, he was pretty excited to get to hold this guy.

We also visited the marina on numerous occasions - to see the shops and flea market there, to stop by the fishing store to ask about that day's catches, and to admire the life-size statue of the biggest marlin ever caught out of this marina.  Seriously hard to believe!

In the heat of the afternoon, we took to the pool.  The little water slide was a great source of entertainment, as we tried to see who could launch themselves down it the fastest.  Happy hour at the pool was a great time to meet new friends too - very chatty folks... :)

We tried lots of local cuisine, including the highly recommended Crazy Lobster.

It is an open air restaurant down in the village, and while you are enjoying your seafood, street musicians wander in and play for you! 

There was also plenty of down time at the resort, watching all the activity around the place or playing games.  Let me tell you - they work very hard to keep the resort in tiptop shape!  You wouldn't catch me hanging out on this rickity platform all day, dangling stories above the ground on a few ropes!  

 

 

 (wait...is it so different from our Tuesday adventure?...hmmm...)

In any case!  I quite enjoyed playing a little Carcassone and watching the dolphins instead!

This sums up our week in Cabo!  It was a much-needed R&R trip, with just enough adventure mixed in.

Cabo - Part V: Cinco de Mayo aboard the Tracy Ann

Yup! We were in Mexico for Cinco de Mayo, and we celebrated!  Although, maybe not in the traditional way...  We booked a fishing trip with Captain Julio and First Mate Arnesto on their boat, the Tracy Ann.

Word on the street was the marlin had arrived for the season, so we opted to try for those.  We met at the dock at dawn, and motored out of the bay as the sun was rising.  What a beautiful morning!

We stopped by a small fishing boat to pick up some live bait.

Then, we settled in for the long ride, past the famous Land's End rocks and out to marlin-occupied waters. 

On the way, we had the breakfast we'd packed, which included bananas.  This is where we learned that bananas are bad luck for fishing!  Arnesto confiscated the empty peels and quickly dumped them overboard, shaking his finger at us.  Well, we'd made it quite obvious how inexperienced we were!  Arnesto didn't let that dampen his energetic optimism, and he pointed right at Andy and said "You. You are lucky."  And, he taught us how to say "para suerte" while crossing our fingers.

Well, we barely had time to start nodding off, when there was yelling from the captain's perch and Arnesto was leaping down to adjust the lines and throw out the real bait (they troll with just brightly colored lures until a fish gets close).  Then, it was time for one of us to jump in the chair and start to reeling in the catch!  We quickly voted that Andyman go first, and he jumped in and got right to work moving that feisty fish toward the boat.

It soon gave into his reeling skills and was hauled aboard for a few quick photos before he returned it to the ocean.  We laugh that Andy caught the most fish - look at all the little fish hanging onto his marlin!

The excitement of a catch woke us all up, and we were on the lookout for more leaping marlin in the distance.

 

It seemed that no time at all had passed before Arnesto was scurrying about to lure into another one!  We had already decided that Don was next in line - He had been on multiple fishing trips but hadn't had the chance to reel in a marlin yet.  

 

His fish really put on a show, powering itself completely out of the water a dozen times, diving deep to run from the boat and then leaping around again when Don had worked it back to the surface.  It was incredible, albeit a lot of work for Don!

 

 But, you'll see that his persistence paid off and the ~180lb marlin was hefted aboard to admire.

You think this fisherman was excited?  You betcha!

It was about lunchtime, but I was next in line and wanted to wait to eat until I'd tried my hand at reeling in a marlin!  Somehow, it didn't cross my mind that maybe I wouldn't get that chance today...

Perhaps because there was no time for doubt to rise up!  This beauty had gone for our bait and was putting on a show while I was getting my reeling tutorial from our friend Arnesto.

Reel! down, two, three, Pull! up, two, three..."Wait, it's scuba diving!  Let it go............  Reel, mama, reel!..."

Over and over, my fish came slowly in and then ran far and fast.  This was hard work!  My left arm muscles were about to give out and Andy gave Arnesto a break and stepped in to help me out.  Whew!

 Finally, about 45 minutes after I took my seat in the chair, my marlin was at the side of the boat and Arnesto was reaching down to pull it aboard.  I could just see the tip of its fin, and it looked so brilliantly blue!

Well, that was the last we saw of it.  The hook slipped out before they got it in the boat, and it was the quickest release of the day!  Probably best, because my arms were shaking so bad, I don't think I could have held onto it for the picture!  What a workout...

 Things quieted down for awhile, and we enjoyed the box lunches prepared for us.  Then, we went between watching the ocean and watching the clock - wondering if we'd get another catch in before the captain called it a day.  

 

Well, less than a half hour before the scheduled stop time, there was more yelling overhead and then Arnesto was hard at work coaxing yet another marlin to take our bait!  This one was a little harder to convince, and Andy jumped in to help reel in the extra lines while Arnesto and Julio worked to put the real bait ahead of the marlin.  Soon enough, all the "para suerte" paid off, and marlin #4 was on the line!

Not only did this one not want the bait, it most certainly did not want to come near the boat!

All the reeling and waiting while they do the "scuba diving" thing is exhausting, but Arnesto was as happy as ever as he worked with Faith to convince hers to approach the boat.  He had us all laughing!

Again, our excitement and all the teamwork and coaching paid off, and Faith's marlin was brought aboard the very lucky Tracy Ann!

Could a sport fishing trip be more perfect?

With spirits high, we cruised back to shore.  On the way, Arnesto strung up the coded flags, telling everyone else what a great day we'd had. 

I think the creatures of land and sea must know what those flags mean too!  As we motored into the bay, a pelican suddenly landed on the back of the boat and stared us down until the photo-shooting spooked it.

 

 Next thing we knew, we were startled by another visitor!  This sea lion had hitched a ride, and it was obvious what he was after.

 

What can I say?  We had a most fabulous day.  Even typing about it makes me smile.