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Leaving for Vegas!

There was a lot to consider. Should we keep the BMW i8 Roadster for one more road trip? Given how it would be a transit across several state lines before we make it to Las Vegas and with the price of gas having passed through US$5.00 for a US Gallon, electing to take the hybrid sports car seemed quite logical. Then again, the car was coming off lease and the potential for mishaps to occur along the way was enough deterrent from taking it for this trip. With heavy hearts we turned the roadster in, a couple of weeks early, and in taking that option off the table, we still had a decision to make.

Faced with choices all of which would work, we arrived at the obvious conclusion. Let’s drive the Corvette. The F Pace came a close second and for a short while was the leading candidate, but when we looked at how large a volume of baggage space existed in the Corvette, it won the day. Now it’s all about the route and behind the wheel of a Corvette it will not include a lot of interstate driving. There are numerous national parks between Colorado and Nevada and we plan on taking advantage of as many as we can. Capital Reef? Of course! Bryce Canyon and Zions? Possibly. 

It was only a few weeks ago when Las Vegas was not the center of our attention. While Las Vegas is happening, given it is HPE’s annual big-tent marketing event, HPE Discover 2022, a couple of weeks ago the focus was all on London. Surprise, surprise! The schedule called for us arriving the weekend before the local HPE NonStop event and that meant dropping in on London in the middle of the Queen’s Jubilee. Sheer chaos! But we made it through the throngs of well-wishers and past the road blocks to finally end up in a fine old restored hotel in The City.

For the rest of the week, we walked. From The City we walked to Harrods on Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. All six plus miles, mind you. And it was all in the name of eating in Harrods dining hall. I must admit that I was taken by the way they served Dover Sole and it was the opportunity to enjoy this fine fish that drew us back again and again. We had to eat while in London and eating fish and chips together with a fine Sauvignon Blanc seemed appropriate for the times. Did I mention it was cooked in butter before being fileted and served with the most enormous chips I have ever come across. 

Spring has transitioned to summer and with the transition, the heat is well and truly upon us. We are once again walking before the first meal of the day and in many ways this is a reflection on how well Margo’s leg has healed following the serious breakage that happened prior to Christmas, 2020. Yes, it has taken almost two years to get back to walking but following the trip to Long Beach and then with the week in London, needing to walk has definitely helped with her recuperation. Her energy to walk has been restored and it’s become an enjoyable part of our daily routine once again.

With summer, the neighborhood has taken on the greenest hue that we have seen in quite some time. Lawns are pristine and flower beds overflowing with color. The trees we planted over the past four years have all taken root and are now roof high. Simply having a screen of multicolored flora provides both shade and screening and for that we are most grateful. Already we are contemplating adding one more mature tree to further enhance our privacy.

  

The picture included above serves two purposes. It highlights the greenery even as it showcases our last construction project. We have added a perimeter wall surrounding the initial concrete pour that was laid down at the time the house was built. We were able to color match the “cultured stone” and obtain the same color grout. Being a craftsman style home we even convinced the construction team to terminate the wall at each end on a slight angle that is typical of construction found with craftsman homes.

In this regard, the trip to Las Vegas has come at the wrong time. When we return we face a sizable clean up as we move outside the furniture that you would normally see on our patio at this time of year. Concrete dust has a way to work itself into every nook and cranny, but the good news is that from any viewing angle, our home looks complete and this new feature quickly has become indistinguishable from the rest of the house. It truly looks like it has always been there. 

With the arrival of summer come short trips to favorite haunts. It’s only fair to add that with the garage fully populated with vehicles we had planned on having then it’s just too tempting to leave them garaged for too long. The rivers are flowing fast and the school holidays are in full swing so that can mean only one thing. Tubing down the rivers flowing out of every canyon along the Rockies front ranges. The authorities had been issuing cautions to check with the locals before entering the creeks as we have been experiencing rapid snow melt and that’s not always a good thing to have happened.

This past week we returned to Golden, Colorado. Creekside there is a wonderful restaurant called Sassafras that “is a Southern styled ‘from Scratch’ local eatery offering the best Breakfast and lunch using locally sourced organic ingredients.” Did we mention they offer the best beignets around and continue to be the drawcard for return visits. Driving down to Golden along the Foothills Parkway is only part of the story as Golden just happens to be the starting point for the Peak to Peak Highway which we traversed once again. As for the car of choice? Surprised to read that yes, even as this was hinted at in the last post we finally settled on giving the Corvette its first road trip experience. 

Oh, those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer! Who would have dreamed it possible that with the start of June we received our last snowfall? That’s all part of the unpredictable weather of Colorado, but the upside is that it has many more days of sunshine than just about any other place in the continental states of America. A far cry from what we can expect to get when we arrive in Las Vegas and already we are making plans that will see us relying heavily on Uber for local transportation despite how much we now love to walk.

It has been a number of weeks since we last mentioned our good friends Brian and Jan Kenny and their wonder-grandkid, Colton Herta. There is no question that he is gifted beyond his years and that it is fair to say that he continues to impress all who now gather around him. And the relationship between Colton and his strategist and dad, Bryan Herta, has given us come fun insights into how they respond to each other on track in high pressure situations whenever the broadcasts include an open mike between the two of them. The more experience he gains the quicker he gets and to watch him tackle the Indy circuits – ovals, street circuits and road courses has Margo and me becoming true Indy Racing fans. 

And yet, after the excitement of Long Beach, it has proved to be shaky times for young Colton. You may recall that Colton broke the track record in qualifying for the Acura Grand Prix only to crash out a handful of laps before the finish of the race. From leading the race pit stop rotations left him in third place but challenging hard for the lead, he clipped a wall and was done for the day. The things didn’t get much better next time out. Didn’t crash at the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama but missteps in qualifying left him starting in tenth place, which is where he finished.

Fast forward to the month in Indianapolis where in absolutely atrocious conditions and once again being caught out in qualifying for the GMR Grand Prix of Indy that left him starting from fourteenth, he scrapped and scrambled his way to his first win of the season. Walking a fine line with slicks on his Indy car as it continued to rain, he demonstrated something magical with his race craft to keep it on the track but it paid off. What a happy family on the podium! Just one more first place trophy to add to his rapidly growing trophy case.


When it came time for the big one, the Indy 500 everything was going smoothly right up to the time when it came to final practice. Again, qualifying issues with the first time for a new qualifying program that left him to the back of midfield in twenty-fifth place, during final practice he clipped the barriers of turn two. The impact flipped him high into the air after which he rolled upside-down ending up in mid track. It took the quiet words of his team strategist and Colton’s father, Bryan Herta, to talk him through his next steps, but the crash and medical teams were on the spot almost immediately.

With a totally wrecked Indy oval race car, Colton was forced to take out his Grand Prix winning car which simply wasn’t set up for ovals. After a slow start it only got worse for Colton where he finished at the back of the field in thirtieth position and out of the series top 10 for the first time. This wreck also meant he had little time to get his car up and running for the next race in Detroit as the engine needed considerable work and while he managed to finish eighth (after starting seventh), the unintended consequence coming out of Indy meant he started his last race at Road America with a six spot grid penalty. But amazingly and showing flashes of what we know he can do and achieving the most passes for position in the race, finished in fifth place and exactly where he should have started.

Our outing to Golden gave rise to this photo of Margo with a bear behind. Yes, you read it here first. When it comes to being chased by hungry bears I cannot clear my mind of thoughts of how Colton must have felt these past couple of weeks with so many hungry bears behind him only too anxious to devour him at times when he was behind the wheel of a lesser performing car. But then again, as they say, that’s racing. You have to drive the car you brought. With three of the top four drivers in this year’s Indy series not finishing the last time out, the top of the table has collapsed rather noticeably and with nine races to go and a little over 450 points on offer, being 90 points behind on 196, he is only 28 points out of fifth place.

That’s still a couple of weeks away and for now, our thoughts are on Las Vegas and the upcoming HPE event. I will be giving a short presentation that should ensure that I stay focused. Then again, driving to and from the event in our almost new Corvette should be distraction enough for as long as we can afford gas, that is. Yes, it’s truly Vegas, Baby, Vegas! Wrapping up this latest post it only seems appropriate to end it with one last farewell and it happened as Margo waved goodbye for the very last time to our gorgeous BMW i8 Roadster. 



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