Not much creativity is going on here this summer. Instead it's been lots of puppy time and a few road trips in the RV. We managed to meet up with my dad at the speed trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah a few weeks ago. Fearghus is getting even better about traveling which is great. Here's a few pictures:
Steve and Fearghus on the salt flats
Fearghus and me - it's amazing how big the salt flats are .. miles and miles!
not your everyday runway :-)
Looking down the race lane ... the fast cars would go to mile 4, 5 or 6 and usually stopped with a parachute ... it was unbelievable how fast they would zoom by. There was also a short course for new racers to earn their license.
Skeleton biker ... Steve liked it because of the Fkawi Racing name ... apparently from an old joke about a tribe with a poor sense of direction so they would get lost even on the shortest trips. They would constantly ask each other 'Where the Fu@k are we?' which was later shortened and became their name. ;-)
One of the many Rat Rods that we saw at the salt flats ... the cars would get coated in clumps of salt. It looks like it was snow but if you brushed it then it'd flake off into the fine crystals of table salt. In fact the salt flats are getting smaller every year because a company has been harvesting the salt for decades. Before you leave the flats they have guys next to the road who will wash off the larger clumps so that the salt can be dumped back onto the flats.
Poteet & Main guys getting their streamliner ready for its run with the small engine. My dad's friend Bob knew them so we talked with them for a bit. I loved the aprons that the guys were wearing - constructed from denim jeans with heavy duty bungee cords as ties. They were a good mix of young bloods learning from the older guys.
Poteet & Main streamliner at 307 mph or so! We were standing at the four-mile marker and it just streaked by. Can you believe that this speed wasn't fast enough for the record? They didn't do that until the day or two after we left. With this car and one other they broke five speed trial records. What an amazing feat!
Dad and me in front of the RV. We're parked at what's commonly called the Bend ... it's the sandy part of the land just before it bends to the salt flats. There were RVs, cars, trucks and tents. Dad and his friend were lucky and managed to get a hotel room in town but Steve and I were pretty happy out at the Bend. Fearghus wasn't too thrilled with the sand but eventually dealt with it. One night a bunch of college kids were blowing off steam by lighting fireworks and riding their motorcycles until 1am or so. Good thing we weren't on a tight schedule.
Overall it was a great road trip and my dad was thrilled that we were able to meet up with him. It makes up for the time that he, my brother Ronnie and I borrowed his friend's RV and drove to Bonneville when I was 17. Unfortunately it was raining so most of the racers had left by the time we got there on the third day. It's a week long event and most of the spectators and fastest speed trials take place in the first two days. It was an adventure filled with a sparrow crashing into the windshield, "ladies of the night" at the rest stop who wanted to ooh and aah over Ronnie's telescope (uh yeah, my dad decided pretty quickly that we needed to drive somewhere else to spend the night), rainy salt flats, and sneaking into Circus Circus casino to drop a coin into a slot machine.
This time the adventure involved F16s dropping bombs at a dry lake bed (very powerful to witness), a cattle drive with real live cowboys, a drive through the loneliest road in America and its little sleepy towns (former pony express stops), a friendly drunk lady who loved Fearghus, hot rods, family, and lots and lots of salt. You can't beat a good road trip!
