buckle-up

  Look closely at the photo above. That’s right; that’s me in the passenger seat right alongside Brian Kenny. The Kennys and the Holen-Buckle family spent many years together on road courses up and down the Pacific coast and on occasion a little further inland. If you don’t recognize the track or even the corner then no worries; if you haven’t experienced it first-hand it might be totally meaningless to you. However, this is the famous Corkscrew at Laguna Seca and Brian was gracious enough to first take me around this circuit to get a good look at its 11-turn layout before giving a similar ride to Margo. There are many ways to gain experience of a track and there’s nothing like circulating in a car that is being driven competently and with confidence. Back when this photo was taken, Brian was many levels of ability past that of mine (and no, I never did catch up to him) so there clearly was a fun factor involved for me! However, even without any experience on Laguna Seca per se...

  Shattered windscreen; airbags deployed and still visible; not one panel left straight! It was just five weeks ago today, Sunday, when we said farewell to our beloved “L’il Pumpkin.” Yes, our orange Range Rover, two door Evoque convertible, was taken away. We watched it dragged up and onto a tow truck little realizing that we wouldn’t ever see the car again. Being hit in the rear while stationary on a highway, at 65 mph (who knows the g’s that were generated) and pushed into the SUV ahead of us, it wasn’t pretty. Throw in how all four airbags inflated (did you also know that four airbags come up at a replacement cost of approx. $15,000) and the subsequent frame and structural damage, it became a discussion about sorting out who pays what. That part of Interstate 25 (I25) just south of Windsor / Loveland has become essentially a concrete-lined tunnel of destruction. So many accidents over such a short period of time! The state of Colorado is into its fourth year of expansion proje...