Uwharrie!

On the way home on Sunday, we stopped by Uwharrie National Forest with a few friends, Jeff, Mike, and Dante. Never having been "really" 4 wheeling, I had no idea what to expect. On the way in we stopped by the main outpost, got some maps, aired down the tires, disconnected the swaybars, and took off up the mountain. Dante, having been there numerous times, led the way to the hardest trail, Daniel. I was definitely skeptical of the Jeep making it over all the obstacles and rocks, but it took it like a champ! We finally found the secret of wheeling a Jeep without lockers, left foot braking. Dragging your left foot on the brake while trying to go up a slippery rock/hill slows down the tire trying to spin, and lets grab instead of it just spinning like crazy. Also, it really is about the driving and not your equipment. Dante with his mostly stock, lockerless, 4 door ran through all the obstacles like they were a cobblestone road.

We decided to keep Zoey in the back of the Jeep instead of tying her up at the campsite, and despite the constant bouncing in the back of the Jeep, I think she had fun. During one of the rock crawls at Kodak rock, she decided she wanted to sit in the front seat. Then exactly at the worst possible time, she slipped and popped the Jeep into neutral. It was a little scary at the time, as I thought I broke something :) I took plenty of pics as it was a beautiful day. Thats not a polarizer filter, the sky really was that blue. I realized afterwards I took mostly pics of our Jeep and Jeffs. Dante with his superior 4 wheeling skillz was always up over the rocks and then walking back to help the rest of us, so I only got 1 pic of his Jeep.

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Lots of Wheeling in Raleigh

Having come up to Raleigh for the week, we decided to meet up with some friends and head out to some in town 4 wheeling. The good power line trails are way closer to Raleigh then they are to us in Atlanta. There are some great trails and mud 15 mins out from house. We finally learned what the Jeep could really do....its a lot.

We started off with a pretty huge hill, and after a few tries to get the approach right, Cathy climbed right up! We finished off the ride playing in the mud. Wish we would have kept the damn windows on, as everything including the interior got covered with mud :) Took quite a few pics. Only a few really good ones, but I'm posting em all as it was all good fun.

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Race Car...

She's almost ready for the ARRC (American Road Race of Champions, the Improved Touring National Championship). Got a good amount of work done today. New radius rod bearings, coolant flush, radio install, caliper rebuilds, etc etc. Pretty much all that is left is to bleed the brakes and do a once over on all the nuts and bolts. I also put the new "REDRUM" sticker on the front bumper. I was going to paint it and then put the sticker on, but I decided I'll be doing lots of bump drafting at the ARRC, so I might as well make it pretty during the offseason. Last but not leas, but front splitter is coming in a few weeks. That should give me a bit of downforce in the high speed turns, but also free up a mph or two on the top end. I'm looking forward to that, as started to get to the point where I was going to make the car looser with a bigger rear bar. I think the splitter will be just enough to make it a tad looser then it is today, without going overboard. We'll see!

The Urban Sophisticates

A couple of weeks ago, we went up to Raleigh to visit some of out friends and also see one of Cathy's favorite bands, The Urban Sophisticates. They are a mix of hip hop with horns and have a great sound. They played at the Pour House in downtown Raleigh which is always a good time. I brought the camera, but ended up doing more drinking then picture taking and it showed :) Check out their website as they have their music streaming on it.

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All we got left is the paint

So the kitchen is 95% done! Cabinets with pimpy soft close sliders are all in. Appliances are in. Finishing touches are almost done. We picked the final paint color tonight and I'll be picking some up tomorrow to get the wall paint finished. After that, the trim/doors are going white and the crown molding gets installed. Finally the stair banister pieces are getting traded out for nice metal ones and we'll be able to call our downstairs "finished" :)

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Hiking in North Georgia

After the Barber race on Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go hiking on the Amicalola Falls trails around Ellljay, GA. The hiking was pretty good, but like last time, the views weren't quite there. There were more trees then you know what to do with, but no clearings or balds to see any views. We got to stop by the falls and walk the 600 steps to the top. Good exercise :)

This area is the start of the Appalachian trail on the south end. I still want to take a long weekend and go hike some of the trail. We'll see when we get to it

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Granite!

I can't believe I'm blogging about a kitchen instead of the race car :)

Poor "RedRum" has been sitting in the driveway getting rained on. I discovered yesterday that I have a coolant leak somewhere. Looks to be around the middleish of the motor so maybe its a cracked hose or similar. Going to diagnose this weekend and get her ready for the Barber race at the end of August.

Ok, back to the kitchen. We got the granite installed today. Looks absolutely AWESOME. We also decided to punt on the track lighting. Having 6 halogen bulbs gets HOT and there isn't quite as much light as we wanted. We are going with 4 5" recessed canned lights instead. 300W of brightness :)

The wall and new lights are getting installed tomorrow, so we should have a "done kitchen" by tomorrow night.

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The Kitchen continues

So despite a few minor setbacks, Robert (the contractor) has been kicking ass on the kitchen. We started the install with him cutting a hole in his arm on our microwave mount when he "discovered" a hot wire just hanging inside the wall. The PITA continued as the wiring to remove the soffett was a lot harder then originally planned. They actually have to undo some of the wires from the fuse panel and re-run it in order to make it fit. It ended looking great though!

Yesterday the cabinets started going in and are now fully installed. The only thing left is to shim the one next to the fridge and the wine rack above it. We also had the trash compactor installed, the new boxes put in for our track and pendant lighting, and the wall for our backsplash/bar built.

Tomorrow morning the granite installers come to template out and Robert is going to finish off the wall as well as install our fancy shock "auto close" drawers. Over the weekend I think we're going to start to paint and also install all the lighting now that the boxes are ready. I'm thinking I might also tackle the under cabinet lighting now that all the wires are run already :)

I took a few shots along the way to show the progress.

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Kitchen Part Deux

Today started the install of the new kitchen. We picked out some awesome "mocha" colored cabinets from a local shop in Macon. They have everything from solid wood sides, to the soft close drawers. We also got the 42" tall cabinets and are removing that soffet from above the current cabinets. The tall cabinets should make the kitchen look a lot taller. Also getting some "baltic brown" granite installed, under cabinet lighting, and ceiling track lighting with some pendant dropdowns. Should be pretty "pimpy". Here are a couple of pictures of the work in progress so far. It looks really weird having a "blank room" instead of a kitchen :) Tomorrow the new cabinets go in, Wednesday the lighting, and then Saturday the granite gets installed.

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Road Atlanta Win

I had another awesome weekend at Road Atlanta. This time it was a super super hot July weekend with a SARRC 15 lap sprint race, and an ECR 90 minute enduro race with the old car owner as codriver. The sprint races are the ones I focus on, while we were just running the enduro so Dan could keep his competition license. In SCCA, you have to run 2 races a year to maintain a license.

The weekend started out with qualifying, and I put myself on pole by 2 seconds for the SARRC race. I only ran a 1:44.3, but considering the hot weather, it was a pretty good time that I was happy with. In the afternoon, Dan got in the car and shook some rust off, putting us middle of the pack for the start of the ECR. Saturday evening was eventful, with me leaving the new brake pads I needed at work. We had to drive back from Road Atlanta and ended up spending the night in Marietta. Next time I'm making a list before leaving the house :)

We put on the older Hoosier tires for Sunday morning's 90 minute ECR. Immediately, I noticed a vibration above 100mph, which was probably an out of balance tire or two. I came into the pits after about 15 minutes instead of my 45, as I didn't want to hurt the car. It wasn't worth continuing with everything shaking, as this wasn't a points race or anything. We took the tires off and got them balanced with enough time for Dan to get 45 mins in the car, and finish out the race. No damage, no real wear on the car, success!

Sunday afternoon was the SARRC Sprint. I put on some fresh(er) tires and got ready to kick some butt. It was a fairly uneventful race, which on one hand was nice, but I would have like to have a little more of a fight. I drove hard for 5 laps and put some time on the rest of the field. After that I put it on cruise control and finished off the win. It was the first win (out of 2 races) in the new car. The last one I broke an axle with a 15 second lead on the last lap :) Brian Cembor also came out to watch and took my camera for a spin. He ended up with a few great pics of my car, as well as Kirk's Golf. These are also the first "evidence" of the new car on track! As a photographer, I never get to take pictures of my OWN car.

On a sadder note, it was a weekend full of carnage for some other racers. Everything from spins, to wall hits, to totalled cars, to flips. I got lucky avoiding the bad luck and came out of the weekend with no damage, other then the scrapes on the front bumper from some bump drafting :)

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Finally worked on the race car

After what seemed like an eternity I finally got to work on the race car this morning. The next race is Road Atlanta next weekend. All the qualifyings will be on Saturday and then I will be doing a 30 minute sprint race by myself on Sunday morning and then splitting a 90 minute enduro with the old owner in the afternoon. Late July in Atlanta should be scorching so I'm going to start drinking water starting Monday. This should be a well attended weekend, so I should hopefully have some on track photos of the race car finally. Its nice being a photographer, but no one takes pictures of YOUR car. This time I'm going to set loose my camera with a bunch of friends and we'll see what comes out :)

On the car note, I finished rebuilding both axles today. Just need the boot clamps and those can go back in the car. Holy CRAP that is a messy job. The grease that came out of the old ones was super nasty, but other then that, they looked great. Not sure if I'm going to drop the $300 on raxles unless I keep on breaking them. Hopefully the redline grease prevents the failure I had last race. Other then that, just need to bleed the brakes, a quick oil change, get the new tires mounted up and make sure all the bolts are tight. Might also do a quickie alignment to make sure everything is still square.

Lastly I broke out the powerwasher and washed all the mud off the jeep. It looks sort of weird being clean! We probably won't get another chance to get her dirty again till August :(

Never fear, the iPhone is here

Finally! Corporate email support, 3G, GPS, and now I've got one :)

It was quite an adventure this morning, as I got in line around 6:30am at the store a few mins from our house. I was 55th in line (lucky number, sweet) and there were people that spent the night waiting.

The whole process with AT&T was a total and gigantic clusterfuck. Their systems were up, their systems were down, their systems were slow. They did something last night so where the staff had no idea what they were doing and were reading off instructions off printed sheets. Half the people that showed up to buy a phone had no idea of contracts, some didn't have their license on them, just plain WOW

At least I had my laptop and wireless, so I got a bunch of work done while I waited. I got the phone and busted out of there after the lady told me everything was perfectly setup. 3 hours later and I've still got No Service. Time to call AT&T. Coming from Verizon, I'm real happy to have the iPhone, but real skeptical on being an AT&T customer. I hope this experience so far isn't repeated on down the road :)

More 4 Wheeling!

Our friends Jeff and Anna came into town from Raleigh for the long weekend. We went out on the town for a few days and went for some more serious 4 Wheeling on Saturday. I kicked myself the whole time for forgetting my camera for our day through Atlanta on Friday and fireworks in the Decatur square. Next time we go out on the town I'll be sure to bring it.

I only got a few good pictures on Saturday as it was very sunny. Time for a polarizer filter. Jeff's Jeep has a 4" lift with some big ol' 35" tires and right now can handle a bit more the Cathy's. Its got built in "button press" axle lockers and it was awesome watching it climb up a few sandy hills where Cathy had some issues. He also tore through some serious mud. Made for a good shot.

I got all jealous and just happened to score a sweet 4" lift on craigslist the very next day, so soon we'll be right there!

Dogs and new lens

Yesterday ended up being the last day we had Rascal as a foster. I was figuring it was about time he got adopted out, and I did just buy a new lens for my camera, so it was time to take some pictures.

The new lens is simply awesome. Its the 24-105L and its miles beyond the 17-85 that I had before. Instant focus and great contrast and colors. I had to adjust the photoshop workflow a bit as I no longer need to do anything to the pictures before posting :)

On the dog note, Rascal did get adopted out today, which made us a bit sad. He was an awesome dog and if not for the fact that I won't allow 3 dogs in the house, Cathy wanted to keep him. We got a new hound/lab/something mix, Jess, for the next few weeks, so we'll see how Zoey adjusts to having a new friend around

"4 Wheeling"

Since it was so nice yesterday, we decided to take the Jeep out for a little bit of 4 wheeling. A few weeks ago, we scouted this area about 30 mins from the house, and there looked to be a good bit of fun trails. Anything from mild to "break your car".

This was my first time doing some serious off road and it was a friggin blast! The Jeep is way more capable off road then I thought it would be considering the mild lift/mods. In one spot, we got out of the truck to inspect the road and were both a good bit cautious about the coming up maneuver. After getting into the truck, it went through it in about 0.2 seconds. It was easy!

Now I'm really looking forward to 4th of July weekend as we'll be doing a lot more serious wheeling when some friends from Raleigh come down to visit in their newly lifted Jeep Unlimited

Camping

Over memorial day weekend we went to do some camping in the NC mountains. We tried a new spot, Fire Creek, next to Hayesville. While the hiking was great, the views kind of sucked. Hence no pretty overlook pictures. This was the first time out camping/hiking with Zoey and she had an absolute blast. She was a great dog off the leash and she had a blast playing in the streams.

The 4Runner also proved itself off road. We picked a far away camping spot, about 6 miles down a hole ridden gravel/rock road. Got the point the GPS had no idea where we were anymore :)

The pictures aren't the greatest quality, but it was a great time!

VIR - Al Fairer Double SARRC

Even though I really wanted, I couldn't race this double weekend because of my broken hand. I went out instead with the Conover guys and helped out as much as a 1 handed gimp can do and took shome shots. Here are the ones from Sunday. I seem to have "misplaced" the pics from Saturday so I'll try to find them tomorrow :)

News, Updates, etc

So its been a busy back half of April for us. We've continued on the house repaint by starting on the dining room and front hallway. We also finally found a SWEET Jeep for Cathy. 1998 Wrangler in great shape. It has an ARB bumper, Warn winch, new 33" tires, and a 20k mile motor/transmission. We already threw on some wheel spacers for a wider/better stance, and the suspension lift gets here next week. The below pic is "pre spacers". Looks much better now.

I also broke my hand at soccer. Blocked a shot, dove after the rebound and got kicked right in the left pinky. 6 weeks in a splint, so the racing is once again put on hold. At least I'll save some money! The car should have the new HDTV in-car cam for the next event, as well as the new splitter. Should be even faster then last time and have awesome video to boot. The next even is May 31st at Road Atlanta.

Pic of the Jeep and a recent one of Zoey. I'll take some shots of the Jeep "post spacers" this weekend, and finally get some of the painted walls to go with our "before" shots.

Mini Cooper!

So we got a Mini Cooper! Cathy wanted to cut out the almost $600/month payment on the 4Runner and something with better gas mileage. This guy was meant to be an ITB race car, but after looking at the costs, we decided to postpone that build, and have Cat daily drive it

So far its pretty cool. We took it in to get detailed as the interior was kinda messy. Going to get the plate for it tomorrow and Cat can start driving Friday.

Race Car Update

A little update on the race car. Its coming along together fairly well.

Here are the things I've done so far over the "winter" to get it ready.

• The right front brake line was busted, so I installed 4 new ones. Also new pads from BHP Brakes and fresh rotors all around.
• New harness as the one I bought with the car was expired
• Got the seat mounted up closer.
• Installed the quick release for the steering wheel
• Wired up the DL1 data aq to the ignition, so it will turn on with the key
• Got the right side net installed. Figured I'd get one as they seem to up the safety
• Painted/cleaned up the interior. Touched up some rock spots and rough patches. Looks like new
• Nut and bolted the car. Went through and made sure nothing will fall off
• Switched to 800F/1200R springs, and sent to Koni 28s off to get inspected and revalved
• Flushed all the fluids: oil/brakes/trans/radiator

Now the car is sitting around on jackstands and waiting for me to borrow some shocks and springs to take it to Maaco to get the paint finished. Also need to get some stickers from KC at http://www.rallydecals.com to complete the look.

I'm excited as hell to start the season on March 21st at Road Atlanta!

Some pictures of the nice finished interior, and rough looking (for now) exterior.