Car Watching - 1965 Corvette Sting Ray

It's finally car watching season and on a walkabout at lunch I caught this 1965 'Vette.  She's beautiful but obviously a driver, not a trailer queen...just like I like 'em!

They're incredibly small, these C2 cars.  But interestingly enough, the interiors are tall and wide.  This one was an automatic, but I didn't want to stick my phone inside this person's car to snap a photo.  You know, for fear of being branded a vandal or something.

This car could have had a 327 V8 or a 396 V8.  Either way, it probably sounds great and gets down the road just fine.

The money shot.  Most of the time, my perception of a car is built on how it looks in the 3/4 rear view, and the C2 coupes do the trick for me.  It's positively amazing from this view.

There is certainly some styling elements that made it to the '67 Buick Riviera here.  I'm fond of the exhausts that exit the rear valance.

And there it is.  Proof that some people will argue about anything... at some point the Corvette was a Stingray, and at other points it was a Sting Ray.  Haha, it's still an awesome car.

Photo Fun in Jefferson City

The Beautiful Mrs K and I had a lot of spare time while we were in Jefferson City this past weekend. Eli's event lasted the entire weekend and we only attended certain portions of that.  So we rode our bikes in the hills, drove around to see the sights, and took a lot of photos.  I hope you enjoy them.

Not So Sneaky Bike Ride

On Tuesdays, I like to join the Big Chief ride in Wildwood.  It's very fast and it gets over with by 7pm.  Did I say it's fast?  Oh yeah, it's fast.  Last Tuesday, I had my stuff all ready to go and then I pulled up the radar.  Hmmm.  I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to be out in the hills in a raging storm.  So, I devised a plan.

Everyone knows how much I like Babler.  It's a short loop with killer hills.  I figured I'd drive over, park in my favorite lower parking lot, and never be more than a couple miles from the car if the weather did hit.  It's simple to get 20 miles there, and I was going well, hitting the hills and recovering pretty fast.  I was averaging 19mph.  But I did notice that there was almost no light.  It was only 6:15 but it was very dark.  And the wind had picked up.  And there was that smell that happens in the summer when there is going to be some weather....so just as I passed the lot where my car was parked, I decided to do one more short lap and then high tail it out of there.

Which was a lap too far. About 200 yards past my car, a wall of water came down.  It was dark as night, except for the lighting.  I had just over 3 miles to get back around to my car, which included one steep hill.  As I started my ascent, hail battered my face and helmet. Water rushed down the pavement toward me, making the road like a small river.  Concerning, but not scary.  Scary part?  The very fast (40+ mph) decent on the other side of the park was also a river, and my brakes were MIA.  Nope.  Notta.  No braking whatsoever.  Disc brakes are good, my friends, and I don't have them.

I did make it back to my car, though.  The rain was frightening and invigorating at the same time.  Good thing I wore yellow....  but I did average 18.9mph on the ride with 2000ft of climbing.  So there is that.

Graduation Weekend

We had our oldest son's graduation festivities going on this weekend.  We had to take some time early on Friday to get in some couple-time.  We headed to Breommelsiek park in St. Charles County to get in some mountain biking.  It's a pretty little place with a really fun trail.  We had the place mostly to ourselves except for a few horseback riders.  Course was in great shape.

 Just because

 After a long, long day of preparations, we had to go to Eli's baseball game and then to Flannery's college graduation party.  But first, a little EGR work on Tyson's old Buick.  No, I didn't fix it. Yes, I did have to go back in to wash up and change clothes for the 3rd time that day.

On to Eli's baseball game.  He's a monster on the field but he needs to work on his batting.  It's so fun to see how much bigger, faster, and stronger he's gotten in the last 6 months!

This photo was actually taken two weekends ago when it was so cold and dreary.  The burner in an outdoor gas fireplace had rusted away and I'm absolutely certain I was cussing here.  But my plumber's smile is NOT showing, please take note!

 After ordering the replacement burner, I returned to install it Saturday and it's right on time!

After which, I trekked out to Greensfelder for some off-roading.  Wow, I've missed it!  I sat for a while in the parking lot, soaking in the awesome weather.  Trail was amazing, weather was amazing, so few distractions on the trail, too!

The beautiful Mrs K, beautiful as ever, at her no-longer-a-baby's graduation ceremony Saturday night.

 The big smiles we had once he finally got good and graduated!

 Happy happy, joy joy!  Now go out there and face the world, kid!

 The kids, all smiles.  Two down, one to go.  Hear that, Eli?

Of course the graduation crowd was a nightmare, so we waited around.  Hanna caught me and Eli.  I think he was trying to copy my skeptical look.  Nailed it.

The wonderful weather continued on Sunday, but Mrs K and I spent it indoors painting.  She had this paint dab on her face for a couple hours.  I get much joy out of this woman.

Outdoor Life - Finally

Spring has finally asserted it's dominance and showered us with some sunshine and warmth.  It's been an incredibly long and dreary winter.  Adding to the misery has been the rain.  Hopefully that will slow down as well and let us out on the damn trails!

Tuesday, the beautiful Mrs K and I took advantage of the incredible weather by riding the Tuesday Night Gravel ride just over the river in St. Charles.  There are so many choices on Tuesdays, it was surprising to see 30+ riders show up.  It's been a great time the last couple times we have joined in.

Sometimes it's just better to fit in a quick ride on the BMX bike than to suit up for full-on riding.  That's what we did last night.  Just a neighborhood ride, up to the middle school and back. Deanna is learning that riding a BMX bike is a full-on workout!  She can wheelie off of curbs now, which gave us both the giggles.

I'm Number TWO!

I have so little stuff left over from my BMX days.  I just moved on to other stuff right as I was slowing down on that scene.  I never thought about keeping any of it.  Out of the blue last week, Gary from Tennessee mentioned on Facebook that he had one of my old number plates.  In the 80's, we would give away number plates and some other accessories to kids at the finish line.  Kind of like giving autographs but more fun.  Anyway, good old Gary said he'd send it to me and sure enough, there was a package waiting for me when I got home late last night.

The number has been painted red (it was originally black) but otherwise it's pretty much the same way I used it in Peachtree City, Georgia in July of 1985.  Thanks to my friend Todd, I got into the habit early on of playing around with different stickers to make fun number plates.  This one payed homage to Run-DMC.  Gotta love nostalgia!

Thanks Gary!

Joy Riding

This is us, jumping in the car in the late afternoon Saturday for a nice drive down to Farmington.  We worked all morning, it was time to play.

 This is us, having arrived at St. Joe State Park ready to ride our bikes.

 This is us, suited up to ride the hilly and twisty path around the park.

This is me, finishing my 3rd lap.  Deanna did two laps, fully 20 minutes faster than she did in February when we last rode here.  I was a bit faster, too, but only by a couple minutes.

 This is us again, at a late Saturday night viewing of the Endgame at the Chase movie theater.

This is us, one more time, meeting friends at the Trailnet bike ride in Eureka.  Super cool route and we hung out for Cinco De Mayo festivities with a rowdy group of mountain bikers afterward.

Roofs and Raptors

A lot of times when you're standing on the ground looking up at something that you want accomplished on a roof, it seems like a piece of cake.  That outlook always changes when you're actually ON the roof.  I needed to remove an old satellite dish on a pretty steep roof.  I had already tried a ladder and it just wasn't tall enough.  Crawling out on the roof from an adjacent window seemed like a great alternative.

Sure enough, it was harder than I expected.  Really, it was scarier than I expected.  Not so scary that I didn't risk taking a photo while I was up there.  Small dish, a ratchet, a bit of fear...nothing to it.  Satellite down.

These Diamond Back bed covers are awesome.  Really cool aluminum construction.  There was a safety recall for the forward door that necessitated the installation of safety straps.

 Pretty simple job, installing the straps around the strut mounts.  Check out all that welded aluminum!

The instructions said it was a two-person job.  My lovely assistant was not available so I improvised, as I love to do.

Super clean installation that you would have to know was there to be able to see the modifications. I love when a project is so straight-forward, even if I have to hold a big aluminum door open with my head.

Rain is the New Norm

This photo depicts a very common situation here in the STL over the last couple months: rain.  It's not always pouring, it's not always storming, but it rains enough to squelch a lot of plans.  Dreams of off-roading on dry trails are just that, dreams.

That being said, the beautiful Mrs K and I have improvised as much as we possibly can. We run stairs, we ride BMX bikes, or like yesterday when the sun unexpectedly busted out, hit some hills around our own neighborhood.  It's a pretty hilly area, so it's possible to get quite a bit of elevation on the streets in just a few miles.  We were somewhere around 1200 feet last night with 15 miles of riding.  I kept the whip handy to made sure she rode them all pretty hard and it's working.  She is improving almost every time we ride which makes it super fun.  And it makes her super tired.