I will also say, it was nice to return home in the evening and not be wiped out from having to rise before the sun at 4:00am. Waking up at 6:45ish was down right sleeping in!

No matter. Next week I don’t have to drive it anymore. Next week I’m starting to take the shuttle instead. What does this mean? Instead of spending oh, around $400 a month in gas, I’ll spend $170 for the shuttle. Instead of waking up at 5ish, I’ll be waking up at 4ish. However, I can sleep for the 75 minute ride down in the morning and back in the afternoon. We’ll see how much of a zombie this turns me into. I’m optimistic though. So far the project itself is ok, I haven’t gotten to actually go much since I needed access cards, more access cards, PIN numbers, and oh, yeah, a computer. All the administrativa is taken care of though, so now we’ll get down to it (and steer clear of the politics!).

I wasn’t expecting a shuttle spot to open up so soon, so I was actively shopping a second car to save a little on gas and keep miles off my nicer, newer car that will soon be paid for and which I’d rather not drive directly into the ground. I was looking mostly at TDIs (diesel powered VWs), older VWs, and random other things here and there. The week before I was informed that a shuttle spot was opened up I went up to Casa Grande to drive a 1991 GTI I was looking at. Overall it is in pretty good shape, and the engine and transmission have less than 20,000 miles on them after a complete rebuild. The body is mostly good and other, major areas (like brakes) are in good shape also. It’s a 17 year old car and needs some help here and there of course, but what 17 year old car doesn’t. I ended up buying it regardless of the fact that I now did not need it, partially because now I have my backup should the shuttle not work for me and partially because I just flat out wanted it and it was a deal not worth passing up.

So here she is.

Yes, it’s pretty much turquoise, also known as Montana Green, a pretty rare color. The seller met me in Casa Grande again and I drove her home without issue. She’s been parked unti lI can get her title transferred officially and get Arizona tags (I blame work and the DMV’s hours) which should happen this weekend. I’m dying to drive the thing. I went over the car from bumper to bumper, found a few more minor things and made a list of all the things I’d fix or change. I won’t be doing all of them, but I wanted a record so I didn’t forget. The plan is to fix or upgrade things as they break for the most part, because that’s what 17 year old cars do, break parts. I already broke a damn door handle for crying out loud. This has the potential to be frustrating, but I want it to be fun. I have a perfectly good, newer car to drive should I need to fix something on the GTI. I’m looking forward to the challenge honestly, since it’s a completely different, and in many cases, simpler, world than the fourth generation cars.

We’ll see how things progress. Two more payments and the ’04 is paid for also, I can’t wait for that day.

Besides that, there was the SSCC autocross on the 3rd, which I did ok, sort of. Apparently there were some issues with the radios and the course and a lot of course deviations did not get called in and recorded, on my runs included. So I have no idea how I actually faired since I know my times on the results probably aren’t right. In addition, I had some battery with my camera issues so the in car video I thought I took didn’t really come out well. I did get some good pictures with my XTi. This has lead to design thoughts on a way to secure the charger to have it in the car running off the 12v power adapter. On the other hand, I have taken a step into further involvement with the Tucson folks and have designed a course which we will be using at the February event next weekend. It took some time and some input from other members, and of course, approval of the design for safety and feasibility, but hopefully it will be fun to run next Sunday. I’ll post the map with my usual post event ramblings.

Last weekend Summer and I spend the weekend in Bisbee, which is a small town about 90 miles southeast of Tucson. Bisbee was a copper town before the mines were shut down in the 1970s and now sort of straddles the border of a small arts community and an old west ghost town.

We went down on Saturday, attended the annual Chocolate Tasting, and stayed at the Gym Club Suites. The suites building was originally a YMCA, then was converted to an apartment building, and now is a hotel. The loft we got was excellent and had a small balcony with a nice view of most of the town.

On Sunday we walked around ‘downtown’ and checked out the shops and sights. We also went on a tour of the Queen Copper mine and rode down the tracks over 1000 feet into the mine, 600 feet underground. I didn’t bring the camera on the tour because I had no idea how rough the ride would be and how much possibility there was for the camera to get damaged. After all, before we got on the rail cars we were outfitted in bright yellow jackets and hard hats along with battery packs hooked up to lights. Let me tell you how flattering that outfit wasn’t.

Yesterday I dropped by the Tucson Animal Fair which Summer was working at, which provided some good photo ops.

It was basically a mass gathering of animal rescue shelters and services located in and around Tucson ranging from breed specific rescue foundations, to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, to various dog agility and dancing (yes, dancing) classes/groups.

That’s all for now, next stop: New Orleans with Summer and 5 of the Maryland VW kids. Louisiana has no idea what it is in for.