As promised in our phone conversation from high atop the stormy mountain 5-24-99, here are some pics of my trip from Jupiter, FL to Pikes Peak, CO and back.   It was a six day blast from May 22-27.  I racked up about 4,200 miles altogether, and would do it again in a heartbeat!

5-28-99
Got home from my 6-day Jupiter, Florida to Pikes Peak, Colorado jam last night, and all's well. The trip ended up being different than I planned: little camping, lots of bad weather and rain-snow-slush in the mountains and more time driving on highways than back roads. Drove from Tallahassee to Colorado in about 2 days, intending to do the mountain, then spend a few days running around the passes and mountain roads. A massive bad-weather system sat over my part of Colorado, and so the only thing I accomplished there was climbing Pikes Peak...it was a blast, but completely stormed in at the top, so couldn't see any view at all. It's 14,100 feet high, tallest place I've ever been, and reputed to have a 600-mile view on a good day.

The mountaintop was covered with black-gray storm clouds, which unloaded lots of "grapple snow" while I was there. They closed the gates and didn't let any more traffic up the mountain, then the ranger told us we better think about driving carefully down if we intended to leave that night...when I went to get in #1152 it was covered with about 1/2" of snow! The drive down went well. Man that's a steep dirt road, with unforgiving drop-offs on the outer lane! The guys who race there are definitely MANLY MEN! Stayed at a motel in the mountains that night, next day was snowing that real slushy sticky stuff, frozen all over the bikini top and tonneau. Scraped it off by hand (hey, I haven't owned a windshield scraper in years!), then decided to head for the only clear weather in sight per Weather Channel: KANSAS! Drove through torrential rain and running water for a few hours, wearing my borrowed foul-weather gear and wiping the inside of the windshield with a towel. Almost drowned one time in Colorado Springs when a dread SUV slammed into a deep puddle next to me and sent a huge wave of water crashing over the roadster's driver door and into my face and everything beneath. Finally, it cleared up in Kansas and I kept running for Tulsa. Next day was Mobile and then home Thursday.

On the way out I saw Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo & took a pic or two. That's where some farmer planted 10 Cadillacs a few years ago, in a row, nose- first into the middle of a field. I camped in Texas one night, before hitting the damnable foul weather, and was given some fantastic homemade Texas chili by the couple who runs the campground. Needless to say, everybody I met seemed to love the car, and most of the people who approached me owned one/had a brother-in-law who owned one/etc. in the past. I averaged about 650-700 miles a day, put on over 4,000 miles, and nothing much went wrong! Broke the top radiator mounts loose on Pikes Peak, but fixed with God's own zip-ties, the perfect roadside repair tool. Broke the passenger side exhaust bracket I'd custom fitted some months ago, and fixed by having a shop in Raton, N. Mexico weld a thicker piece of strap steel in there. I LOVED the marine-spec windshield wiper I installed in place of the damnable Lucas stuff, and used the hell out of it! The bikini top was a real help, too, and didn't flap hardly at all at speed. My roll-hoop plexi wind deflector worked good too, kept the wind roar from my ears, and kept rain from blowing back into the windshield interior surface. Tonneau modifications the day before the trip worked perfect...so that I left the passenger side tonneau in place most of the trip, and it stayed snapped and in place the whole way, with no billowing.

The front wheel well mud flaps must've worked, as there wasn't any observable rear fender damage when washing today. Used 2 quarts of oil, and didn't use any tools except my Leatherman one time when I bent a tent peg! The pics I got developed today, and scanned while learning to use my wife's computer equipment! They're self-explanatory from the above account, except the one where I'm leaning against the car while being stalked by a golden retriever: it was taken this a.m. here at home in Jupiter, just before I washed off the trip grime. The trunk-shot was in the garage, showing the tent-sleeping bag-bikini top, etc. in the trunk (cool RV, huh?). All in all a great use of a week off, from sea level to 14,000+ feet and back with almost nothing but grins (and lots of water!). I wish Gordon Levy's driving school in Phoenix had happened, but this less-structured trip was a fun substitute! Now, you go out there and DRIVE those CARS!

Later, buddies!
John Phillips
FFR #1152
Jupiter, FL

P.S. 3 days after getting home I ran #1152 at a local Speed Trial, on a paved 1/4 mile oval  Think I got 1st or 2nd in the novice street class, haven't chacked the Net for official results.  Not bad, huh?   It tours, it climbs, it races, and no downtime!

John