I was misinformed

Ya know, it never occurred to me to check up on the supposed VW car thing Saturday at PIR, the racetrack. My biker friend, who owns the ’64 VW bug shown in a previous entry, told me that there was a car show, swap meet, something Volkswagen oriented this weekend up at PIR – could I follow him up to the car thing and perhaps give him a ride home in case he sold the car. I called him Friday night to set up a time for me to be in Oregon City, where he lives, to meet him and follow him up there. By the way, his ex did not come up this weekend – a case of poison ivy from over-zealous gardening kept her home. (That may have been a good thing)

I drove down to Oregon City Saturday morning and got there at ten, and he "wasn’t quite done" spiffing up the car – he had some painting to do, touch ups, and some waxing. Just a little bit of work to do.

Long story short, although the time wasn’t short, it was near three o’clock by the time we hit the road. Hey, at least I got to hang out at my friend’s house instead of home alone with my cat and the computer. We had to go Up McLouglin, OR 99, instead of straight onto I-205, to stop and get some "Clear Super" – 100% 93 octane gasoline. (State law in Oregon requires all stations to sell what I used to know as "Gasohol", 10% ethanol/90% gas. Last year, boat owners and old car collectors successfully complained – ethanol is not good for old cars and boat engines, because the fuel systems weren’t designed for alcohol fuels, and it destroys gaskets and seals, very bad for engines, and now some stations are allowed to sell Clear Super, high octane straight gasoline). Anyway, the Bug, a 1964 car, works a lot better with gas like it was designed for in 1964. Parked in front of the station on 99 was this car:

It looked pretty cool. There’s the bug behind it, but that red car was pretty striking.

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Not something you see every day!

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From the gas station, we headed across Milwaukie to I-205, even though the most direct route would have been to continue north on 99, to I-5 and straight up the freeway to exit 306B, where the race track sits. A said no, he’d rather not hit all the signals on 99, so we had to go to I-205 and then switch to I-84 west to meet I-5, and then go north to the race track.

Huh. Ok.

There was less traffic than on a weekday, but it was a helluva day here, the warmest we’ve seen in over 200 days, and everyone and his brother was on the freeway, it seemed like. Some dummy almost caused a wreck for the five or six cars behind her, me and my friend included, when an ambulance went by in the far left lane with it’s lights and siren on. Jaysus, you idiot, the ambulance was already past when you jammed on your brakes, causing the two cars immediately behind you to skid and shimmy desperately, trying to stop and NOT run into your dumb ass! I had my usual three second interval behind the rest of them, and I have anti-lock brakes anyway (I didn’t have to stop too hard, but…). What a mess. The broad then sped up to all of 45 miles an hour, with two lanes of traffic passing us at 55-60 – idiots on the freeways are Dangerous.

We got up to the racetrack and found:

Nothing. Not one VW besides A’s, seen above as I followed him, and Mt. Hood on the horizon. It occurred to me that the last time I was up here, in 2002, I directed traffic for the Rose Festival Grand Prix races, the first job I had after the car wreck in 98. I spent a weekend directing traffic and parking cars, then doing security on the track as the winners were awarded trophies and holding back the eager crowds as I stood On the track. A memorable experience… nine years ago. I was surprised, frankly. that so long had gone by, because it didn’t used to seem like that long ago.

I stopped behind A and we talked about what to do – maybe the show’s at the Expo Center? It’s "right over there".

To get to the Expo Center, we drove past the place where I took truck driver training in 1989…22 years ago. My god, time has gone way by! Years and years and more years have gone by for me, and omg, I’m suddenly getting the idea that I’m not the young guy I used to be anymore. I gave that CDL up in 1993, when I went to Japan, and didn’t get another one, the one I have now, until 2006, when I started school bus driving.

Well, no VW show going on ANYWHERE. Since we were up there anyway, we drove over to a Harley parts shop on Marine Drive:

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sternCat/2011%20-%201/DSCN1101Small.jpg” />

Mt. Hood watches over Portland. It’s the tallest peak in Oregon.

After the Harley shop (A has two of them), we drove back to Oregon City and Barbecued and watched a movie, Nick Cage in "Drive Angry", a movie obviously made from an adult comic book – a violent movie with some hot cars in it – a ’69 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum and a ’72 Chevy Chevelle SS 454, a ’57 Chevy Bel Aire 409, and various trucks and police cars. A pretty decent movie, actually, with some good swearing and "the right" villains getting what they deserve – pretty fun to watch and not a bad way to make up for a non-existent VW show, lol.

Well, a kind of wasted day,in that the main objective was not achieved, but the warmest day of the year, and not any really bad driving for me, smile. Tomorrow’s going to be almost as nice a day, before it cools down on Monday and rains again beginning Tuesday.

Oh yeah. Tammy the navigator got fired. My Garmin stopped working AGAIN, and misdirected us anyway, and I’m fed up with the stupid thing ceasing to work every couple of weeks – it’s getting to be a waste of money and is making me feel like it wasn’t worth it. Maybe it’s cuz it’s a low cost unit, but, jehosphephat, it the thing is unreliable, screw it.

Aside from that, and the car show that wasn’t, it wasn’t the worst day I’ve ever had.

 

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