Miata envy...

This guy was grazing his way through my flowerbeds this morning, when he stopped dead and looked out toward the driveway.

There was nothing out there, so I have to assume he was just admiring my little red roadster!

Detailing day

A few days ago I turned my back on the gardens (again) and spent a couple of afternoons with my wee red roadster, affectionately called TrueRed.

We planned to go on a road trip with our old Miata club in a few days. So the car got a bath, then rubbed all over with a clay bar to remove all those little bits that get bonded to the paint. Silky smooth, it was ready for polish, then wax, then a final top coat.

Until it looked like this... polished to a mirror finish.

Nisqually

We went out for the day with our old car club today, for a drive along the Sound, then ending the day at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge.

The property was once a dairy farm, with dikes to hold back the river water (and the tides), and create grazing land for the cows. It's a beautiful spot, currently chock full of Canada geese looking for nesting spots.

I loved the pair of white dairy barns. From this viewpoint, you couldn't tell there were two identical barns, but the trail eventually led to a viewing platform right next to them.

for more information, see Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

A surgeon's touch

Easter Sunday is always a gathering of family for food and wine and an afternoon of talking and planning.

I won't soon remember this gathering. It started with surgery on a recalcitrant wine bottle by Dr. Bruce. Pliers didn't work, vice grips didn't work, but pliers and vise grips did the trick! (Who would have thought a screw cork would be so tough to pull?)

The afternoon ended with the guys taking turns trying on my MX-5 roadster for size, Mark had the worst time; at 6 ft. 8, he's not exactly the driver that Mazda designed the MX-5 was designed for.

Brother Bruce is 6 ft. 2, and fits it perfectly.

So we laughed, and took photos, and wandered back inside... leaving the top down. A half hour later I glanced outside, and our sunny afternoon had turned black and stormy and it was raining. Dang! I ran outside with a towel and my key and pulled up the top, but not before it got pretty damp inside, and I got pretty darn wet outside.

Twenty-three degrees

It was chilly cold when I got up this morning, fed the cat, and put the kettle on for tea. The house was quiet and so was the morning outside my windows. I laid a fire in the wood stove, fixed my tea, and settled down with the Tom Clancy I've been trying to finish, Command Authority. The sun came up on a glittery, frosty world... the day will be a beautiful one.

I think a drive into the foothills will be on my list today... this may be my last chance to take out the MX-5 this winter, so I should take advantage of a drive on the back roads and some time with my camera.

It's New Year's Eve... how did we get to the last day of the year so quickly?

First bath...

My wee red roadster got a wash and a polish on this beautiful spring day. Tomorrow we're meeting friends for breakfast, and TrueRed will be taking us out for the day.

Three hours (and a bunch of burned calories) later, it looked way too wonderful to just park it in the garage again. So I moved it to the lawn and took a few pictures.

Eight years old, and I love it just as much as the day I drove it home.

Taking a year off

Last year was so hectic for both of us, we decided to take a year off from the Miata club and catch up on other interests. But it was nice to get a note from some new friends in the club, wondering where we've been, and making sure we're OK.

Even though my focus last year was solely on our big regional event, Backroads to Bavaria, and didn't even host any other events, it really wore me out. Planning an event like this (people coming from all over the west, multiple events throughout the weekend, two banquets, drives, getting Mazda sponsorship, and directing a committee) is a BIG job. I was burned out, and didn't even realize it. Then Dave's work took him out of state for much of the year, and any spare time I had evaporated.

My only regret at taking a low profile is missing our friends in the club, and strengthening friendships with a few particular members that we really "clicked" with. That, and not getting my garage queen out of hibernation more often!

Dead horses

Today was a drive from the resort on the Colorado River, south toward Canyonlands. We're headed to Dead Horse State Park, and it was a great sports car drive—19 cars in all, a good group of sporty drivers and it was fun to drive this road with them. We stopped at the visitors center first, to get oriented. I bought a floppy hat with a wide brim, to keep the sun off my neck. After all the cold weather and snow in several states on this trip, we're finally getting sunny weather, and I'm starting to get a sunburn.

Then we drove the rest of the way out to the point, and with some creative parking, managed to get everyone in the small lot. There are gorgeous views from here, probably the best views of the Colorado River side of Canyonlands, because you can actually see the river.

The park is on a narrow plateau, which was used as a natural corral by cowboys in the 19th century. The plateau is 2000 feet above the river, and has a narrow neck that was easily fenced to create a natural corral. Cowboys would drive herds of wild horses onto the mesa, then fence off the opening.

How the last herd of horses got left behind, where they eventually died of thirst, is not clear. It's best to think that it was accidental, that it was a "I thought you were supposed to do that" sort of mixup. It could be that someone was told to ride out and take the fence down, and they forgot. Or it was just not considered worth the time to make the long ride. We'll never know. But I don't for a second buy the story that the fence was taken down, but the horses inexplicably wouldn't leave the plateau. That's a story concocted by someone who's never lived with horses. Horses are much smarter than that.

The other times we've come to Moab, I resisted coming out here because of the legend. As a lifetime horse lover, the thought of horses abandoned here was so painful, and I just didn't want to see where it happened. But I'm glad we came. It's a gorgeous spot with amazing views, and I could have stayed here for hours just watching the clouds blow through, and the ever-changing views.

Snowstorm #3

We're climbing now, heading toward a 10,000 ft. pass, the highest point between us and Moab. It's not snowing yet, but it's cold and windy and you can smell the snow in the air. Eventually we reached the sweet spot—where the elevation of the road finally climbed up into the snow zone. This time (our 3rd snowstorm of the trip) the snow lasted almost 2 hours on a road that climbed twice to almost 10,000 feet. We changed the GPS view to show the elevation plot, and we kept an eye on it as it rose.

All along the road were gorgeous stands of aspen trees, not the stunted trees you often see at high elevations, but perfect huge trees. If it had been warmer (and there hadn't been a white-out), I would have been out with the camera. For eight years I've been looking for just this kind of aspen forest, so I can take a wide-angle photo of the white trunks. I'll just have to come back. We stopped once at a big overlook, where the sun was breaking through clouds, giving us a wide panorama of mountains the in the background and canyons in the foreground. But the snow kept blowing, and we had to keep going.

Snow like this in May is probably not unheard of around here. But an MX-5 Miata doesn't play well in a snowstorm, and it doesn't wear tire chains. So we were relieved to finally drop below the snow zone. We stopped for a photo of the snow plow schedule, just as a group of motorcycles headed up the road toward the pass. They were in for a cold ride.

Pet Grouse

Finally, we're in Bryce Canyon National Park. The snowstorm that hit us in Zion this morning also made its mark here, and the red rocks and hoodoos were spectacular with a dusting of snow. We drove the road through the park, all the way to the end, then worked our way back. Such spectacular views from this mesa, I couldn't stop snapping photos and playing with the polarizer to get the best, brilliant blue skies. It was bitterly cold, though. Even though the sun was out, the wind was killer.

We bundled up into everything we had—for me that was my hoodie, black fleece jacket, fleece vest, baseball cap over the hood, gloves. And I was still so cold I couldn't stay on the canyon rim for more than a few minutes. I actually got brain freeze, like you get with very cold ice cream. That was a first.

At the overlook to the natural bridge (which is really an arch), I walked over to the edge to take a photo and enjoy the view, and turned around to see a ruffled grouse walking toward Dave. When he crouched down to take a picture, I got a good shot of him and the bird. Funny little thing… when Dave turned to walk toward me, the bird walked right alongside. He called it his pet grouse, and that he was taking it for a walk. The others around us were very amused.

Zion in the snow

Today was an amazing day in Zion National Park, during a freak snowstorm. The weather forecast was for low 60's today, imagine everyone's surprise when they got a dump of snow instead! We took our time driving through the park, and when the sky started to clear up, we scrapped plans to bolt for Moab, and instead we stayed in the park to photograph it in the snow.

This is one experience I will never forget... especially since we were in our Mazda MX-5. We were headed to Moab for a regional Miata event, and in our nine-state road trip through the West, we ran into snowstorms in five of them!

Grand Canyon is closed

Today we're heading for the North Rim. Once out of the hills and river valley that led south out of St. George, out into the open plains north of the canyon, we could see red rock mesas all around us. Beautiful.

But unfortunately, the North Rim isn't open for the season yet (it opens next weekend). Bummer. We tried driving up the road anyway, and at the barricade was the entrance to the campground, so we drove that way and found a historic ranger station that was really cool. This is where they stable the horses and mules for trail rides; they were hauling in hay and getting ready for the season.

The road was interesting, so we kept on going. Where it came back to the main highway was an old fire lookout station. There was a geocache there, so we parked the MX-5 and took a walk to find the cache. As we walked back up the hill, we had a great view of the contrast between the wee car and the very tall tower.

Back roads | Eastern Oregon

It's cold this morning. We're climbing out of LaGrande, heading for Baker City. We were at snow level in about 5 minutes! The highway climbs through the mountains to a flat plain of brilliant green grass, with dozens of Black Angus cattle and tiny little calves running about. Off to the right, the spectacular Anthony Lakes Wilderness area, bright in the early morning sun.

We stopped for gas in Baker City, and as soon as we got off the freeway, remembered this historic town from our last Moab trip. It has an 1880's courthouse, tree-lined streets full of old homes, manicured yards, wide streets. Great views of the mountains; wonder how cold it gets in the winter (and how much snow)? From here we head south on Hwy 7—the Elkhorn Scenic Highway. Gorgeous and remote, it's a great road for a sports car.

When we spotted this railroad museum, we had to stop even though they don't open until Memorial weekend. Spent an hour+ there, wandering through rolling stock and buildings, taking pictures, and doing some bird watching. It's still cold, though. All through this valley are the gravel piles of dredging; they've been here a long time judging by the size of the trees growing on them. Mining just tore up this gorgeous valley, leaving a wasteland of gravel pits and hills, with the river running through them.

Climbed over another mountain range to the town of John Day (we've been here before, but not by this route), then Canyon City. Amazing sports car road along the river, all the way to the town of Seneca.

There were endless photo opportunities, including a beaver dam, an oxbow lake wannabe, and the rusty-orange moose brush everywhere. Are there moose in NE Oregon? The road continued to climb and we started seeing Snow Zone signs; not comforting when driving in a Mazda MX-5, especially when we ran into snow yesterday when crossing into Oregon.

This will be the longest driving day of the trip, all the way to Winnamucca, Nevada. We passed long ranges of hills, endless cattle ranches, climbing up, then dropping down into long river valleys. Neither of us have ever driven through this part of Eastern Oregon. It's vast.

From 20 miles away we could see the huge thunderstorm hanging over town; kept expecting the skies to open and the rains to pour down. It was raining, but the rain never reached the ground. The huge sand dunes that stretched away on both sides of the highway were a magnet for ATVs of all sorts, even on this cold, windy day.

We spent the night in Winnamucca; after we chose a hotel, we found dinner at the Griddle, a diner on the main road with 1940s Nile Green booths and counter stools, lots of stained glass and Tiffany pendant fixtures, and amazingly good food. I had a turkey & roasted red pepper sandwich, with chipotle sauce. Yumm.

There's lots of Basque heritage here; unfortunately, we missed out on the traditional food because we didn't read about the town until breakfast time.

How to Taste Wine in an MX-5

Driving top-down through the vineyards of Washington's wine country is an experience not to be missed. You enjoy the complete experience much more when you can involve all the senses. Turning your face up to the eastern Washington sunshine. Hearing the impact sprinklers in nearby fields. Listening to birds chirping in the tall grass in the ditches. Smelling the flowers, and this weekend, the lingering scent of fertilizers and chemicals that were sprayed overnight. Well, maybe that part of it I could do without…


The alternative is driving the SUV. It's the better choice if rain turns to snow on Snoqualmie Pass, which has happened 3 of the last 5 years on this same weekend. Tire chains just aren't an option in a sports car. The Explorer also carries more wine, something to consider since we always find bottles we just have to add to the wine cellar. And in said snow and cold, it's definitely warmer. But the great benefits of exploring with the roadster more than outweigh the few negative things. We always figure out a way to make it work.
So in the end, it all comes down to the packing challenge. Packing light, very light, as the only place to store your gear (and your wine) is in a very small trunk. You learn to do without that extra pair of shoes, and the just-in-case bulky coat. Layers is the clothing catchword you live by. You only bring the critical things, like underwear… and detailing spray and microfiber cloths, so you can keep up with the bugs that splatter (and eat through) your car's paint. There's no room for a cooler; you learn to like warm iced tea and diet Coke.

But the biggest challenge is how to fit in the wine you buy. This trip, we broke our previous record. With two soft-sided bags, a tiny detailing kit, and warm coats in the trunk, we still managed to squeeze in 2 cases of wine, plus another 5 bottles, and never had to use the last resort: a box of wine under my feet in the passenger seat.

And just look at the photo ops a bright red MX-5 provides!

Backroads is officially open!

I finished the official web page for the Backroads to Bavaria event, and Dave uploaded it today. Time to officially open up registration. It's kind of scary, but cool at the same time. I've organized quite a few events, but this one is major. Backroads to Bavaria is our club's regional event, and this year is the 11th annual. We expect 150 people from multiple clubs and states, all descending upon Leavenworth, WA the first weekend in October, just in time for Oktoberfest. I've got lots to do between now and October!

Dude... learn to drive!

I headed out in the dark this morning, pausing at the end of my private road and looking both ways on the county road. Usually I have the road to myself, but when I saw lots of pairs of headlights, I slammed on my brakes just as a Mazda Miata passed my driveway (and 3 other cars) in a no-passing zone.

There's a reason for the double yellow no-passing zone here--there are many, many blind side roads and driveways, and it's not safe to pass here. And if you're a tiny sports car, you need to be extra careful.

If I'd pulled out just 5 seconds sooner, I would have hit him head-on, or he would have run off the road to miss me. And trust me... he'd have lost either contest. A choice between a heavy SUV and a 6-foot drop off into the trees is no choice at all.

I hope I scared the hell out of him, and he'll drive more carefully. I also hope he doesn't belong to my Miata club.

Apple Red

Or, "In Search of Corn." Take your pick of titles. After a morning of gardening, potting plants, sweeping, ironing, laundry, it was time for the great corn and apple search. Dave gently inquired whether I was going to the farm stand in Enumclaw, the last best place for the perfect ear of corn. Hadn't thought of going so far, but I was heading for the library, which was halfway there. So why not?

This sounded like a great chance to take the wee MX-5 for a spin in the country. I quickly revised my route to include Thomas Road to Auburn-Black Diamond Road, which got me to Green Valley, which is probably the perfect sports car road (if there aren't any Sunday drivers in front of me). Today is a beautiful top-down day, not too hot. As I turned onto Green Valley, I spotted a huge sign advertising a produce stand, right there in the valley. Perfect! I'll get corn and apples, and whatever else they have that looks good (baby yellow potatoes, rhubarb for a pie, garlic), then drive the rest of my favorite road.

Multi-tasking was never so fun!

To roadster, or not to roadster... that is the question

On any nice day in the Pacific Northwest, it's tempting to take my garage queen to work. Said GQ is a 2006 MX-5 Miata, shown beautifully on my banner (photo by my friend, Teresa Adams). Driving topless (the car, not me) on a gorgeous day is heaven on earth. Except when the air conditioner can't keep up with the outside temperatures. The 3rd generation MX-5, which mine is, has a fabulous air conditioning system. But as amply tested a couple of weeks ago in eastern Oregon, it has its limits. I figure 90degrees is the breaking point (this is when I start to sweat and need a constant stream of iced drinks to stay comfortable). Any hotter, especially in direct sun, you need to put the top up to feel remotely comfortable. So, knowing that today's temperatures may be destined for the record books, I paused briefly, sighed heavily, and fired up the Ford Explorer for my daily drive.