Over The Hill Gang , Old Farts with Young Cars

[70rsz28]

Jan . Have a great time at Camarofest
This is the Toronto Indy race wknd ..have
been attending it since 1986

[ragzl1]

Richard - The Indy cars have become the best competitive car racing on pavement right now. Going for 32 years, you are a true supporter.

John

[69supersport396]

Hi Gang! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summertime cruising!

After seeing some of Jan's Camarofest posts on Facebook, I remembered C5 and that I have not been on here in a long time. Months ago, I took a break from some social media. Although C5 is a great place to hang out, and most of the people are great, I decided to take a break.

Still have my Camaro and my Caprice. Since it is so blazingly hot here, shows and cruises are not as frequent. Plus there is the possibility of monsoon season storms making a mess of things every evening.

However, I did sell my 2003 Dakota. It had 90K+ miles and the paint/clear was failing. My wife can no longer drive a stick, and my son cannot grasp how to drive one. Mechanically it was great, but not so much cosmetically. Plus it was not getting used much.

About the same time, my son blew up another Cavalier, so this time, we told him to spend some money and NOT buy a high mileage hoopty. We found him a very low mileage 2008 HHR LS. After much arm twisting, he finally opened his wallet and bought it. There was a bit of embarrassment with his mini-melt down in front of the seller. But he now has a reliable car that has not become another "hobby car" fixer upper for me.

In fact, I liked his HHR so much, I replaced the Dakota with a 2011 HHR LT. Not as low mileage as his, but it has been very well maintained. It looks better, has less mileage, and cost less than the selling price of my Dakota. My wife can drive it and loves it too. Some aftermarket wheels and tires are on the way for it.

My son's is silver, mine is dark silver. I'm sure people get a kick out of two HHR's in our driveway.

We recently drove the 2011 over 3600 miles from AZ to Tunnel Hill, GA and back for a family reunion. Gotta say, the trip there and back was more fun than the reunion (for the most part). I discovered Don Julio Reposado is WONDERFUL stuff!

Still work at the same place, going through yet another change / transition and becoming another company. I have grown used to and expect change at any time now. Amazing to see younger co-workers resist it, criticize it, and generally make work miserable. And I was told old people are resistant to change.

Otherwise, I am the same boring person that likes to shoot pictures of crap and post them online. Might be boring to others, but I kinda like it.

Anyway, I am alive and well (except for a broken heal bone) and kicking. I promise to check in from time to time now.

[70rsz28]

Glad to hear everything is well Rick , still doing Barrett Jackson auctions ?

[RubyCamaro]

Good to see ya back here Rick. Another Camaro Fest is in the books. I slowed down a bit this year & did not try to run all 3 events. I ran the NCM track & drag raced in V6 Modified & Bracket classes but did not do Camarocross this year. It is just too hard & it was way too hot to push myself that hard. I got through a couple rounds in Bracket & won 2nd place (again, 3rd time) in V6 class. I ran off the tack on the Deception curve at NCM but managed to get it back on track pretty quick & without damage to the car or track. Most everyone loses it on that curve at some point while learning.


Not sure how much racing I am going to be doing going forward. The heat is just so brutal at most events & at the Fest if you do drag racing, you can't do much else, having to stay by speakers listening for your class(es) to be called. You miss out on much of the socializing, vendors, watching other racing, etc. And of course I am not getting any younger. We shall see. Here are a few pics.

[Trickskier]

Good to hear from you Rick. Sorry to hear about your broken heal bone. That had to be painful!

[BLU DUCE]

Originally Posted by Trickskier

Good to hear from you Rick. Sorry to hear about your broken heal bone. That had to be painful!

Holy crap they all came out of the wood work.

[69supersport396]

Thanks everyone! Missed coming here.

Congrats Jan. I know I keep saying I'll go to one of these fests, but life gets in the way. And this year, it was the family reunion in Georgia. My wife's dad turned 80 and the family wanted to celebrate. In the past, these reunions have not always ended well, which is why we decided to drive this time. If the reunion derailed, all we had to do was pack up our stuff and leave. Claire expected the worst, but both of us were pleasantly surprised how well it went this time (for the most part )

Pushing it, I can drive from AZ to OKC, but that is about my limit. We definitely were pushing driving limits on this trip.

[BLU DUCE]

Syracuse Nationals this week. The largest in the North East. They started rolling in Tuesday and are expecting around 9,000 cars.

[RubyCamaro]

Wow! That is a lot of cars. Have not heard the final count yet from the Fest.

[69supersport396]

Yes, I am still driving at Barrett Jackson. Tons of fun!

Have a great weekend everyone. Might be too hot here for cruising.

[69supersport396]

Going to be a hot week here in the valley. 113* today, tomorrow is forecasted to reach 116*.

[Trickskier]

Originally Posted by 69supersport396

Going to be a hot week here in the valley. 113* today, tomorrow is forecasted to reach 116*.

Now that's HOT!!! Be careful in the heat!

[69supersport396]

So far it is 115* today. Supposed to go up to 117 today.

I totaled TEN Lexus RX's today. Those are the mid-priced Lexus SUV's. Brand new vehicles that were partially submerged in a flood. Such a shame.