Matt Matteson

Steve and I had planned a little road trip the week after finals. We had planned to do this the last two summers, but it just never happened. This year we had more of a motive, the Last Safari. (See other posts about my sad van.) Well Steve asked to leave a day late cause his work called and said they needed his help, well I got a call after steve got home from working; They had scheduled him to work the rest of the week so - again no road trip. Long story short my dad said he’d join me for a little adventure, and we decided maybe the van wouldn’t be the best choice.

Borrowing mom’s miata we took off for a 3 day driving tour of eastern colorado. Great weather lead to me getting a pretty vicious tan. Good music, great fun. I don’t recall all the towns we made it to, but I’ll name a few. Drove to Fairplay, stayed in Buenua Vista, attempted to drive over Independence Pass - but turned out not to be open for the season yet. Made it north towards I-70, wondered through Granite, wondered east to the Black Canyon, stayed in Gunnison, cruised all around Crested Butte and just found winding quiet passes where gripping the wheel and trying to stay in your seat brought similes.

As usual - pictures soon.

The mechanic gave me some sad news about the safari. The catalytic converter needs replaced ($200+), major tune up ($200+), replace injection spider ($1500), replace broken motor mount ($100). I think dad and I talked about putting maybe $300 into it, so yah, a little too much to put into a car where the drivers window doesn’t go down, you have to wrestle the hood open, A/C doesn’t even seem to work as a placebo, etc. I really enjoy the van - don’t get me wrong. Well I drove her all over yesterday and she’s running quite fine if you ask me, yet all the registration ends today. My dad decided to go put her to the Emissions test one more time - i haven’t heard back yet, but I’m guessing without a catalytic converter working that results won’t be good.

I for some reason think the van will be around a while longer though, my parents are getting a place north of fairplay, and I think they might be able to register the vehicle up there once they close on the cabin in August. *fingers crossed*

Lets say it’s May 10th, wednesday of finals week. One more final on Thursday. Jared, Shane an myself borrow Tim’s truck and get down to Chatfield ocean for some sailing. Good and bad news - it’s super windy. The strength of wind meant we had to sail from the dock. Off we went, the boat just didn’t seem to respond like usual; looking back it may be because I was letting so much wind spill off the sail. As we tack towards the wind- trying to leaving the cove - dodging the beach and the slips - the boats at a good angle. A man by the slips trying to offer some advice, “Your keel down?” Heck yes it was! Next thing he yells is “You just lost your motor!” Ahhh great… with nothing to do about it, we went back to the dock and hung out for a minute while I caught my breath. I think with the pitch the boat was at, the motor was down a ways into the water, and then the speed at which we were cruising and turning just pulled the old motor off the rotted wood it was clamped to. Next time I’ll put a rope or a chain on my outboard.

Got my breath back, were at the lake. Wind still ripping. More fun, the strength of the wind on the sail simply cracked the plastic blocks (pulleys for non-sailers) for the main sheet. I had jared use the screw driver and remove the half that was still there.

I had forgotten but Wednesday summer nights were the Denver Yaht club race nights. As we sailed into the afternoon we had more are more company on the lake. How’s this for a kicker - the wind was so strong they canceled the race! Ad some more excitement; say like fabricating a replacement clip for the shroud of the mast and such.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9rzMaAucI4
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/04/logitech_quickcam_orbit_mp_1.html
http://www.colorado.edu/police/420_Photo_Album/index.htm