4/7/09

When we last spoke, I was planning to take Ms. Clio for the Birkinstock country road tour, abuse be damned. I checked the thermometer in the morning and it read 50 degrees, so I thought, “What the fuck. Take the Seven.” I bundled up and hopped in the car. I did take the Birkini top off though for easier ingress and egress. I made it to the hotel in Granbury in plenty of time to meet the folks. There was a new addition to the group as well. A Mexican national had flown to Florida and was driving his new Stalker home to Mexico City and decided to join us for the day. Yes, Florida to Mexico City in a Seven. Bigger balls than I have, that’s for sure. So we all piled in our rides and headed out. It was butt-assed butt-butt cold! It wasn’t too terrible when we were going into the wind, but when we turned across it… Let me just say, I almost turned right onto I-20 and went home at that point. It sucked ass. I had worn layers, a long-sleeve tee-shirt, a sweatshirt, my tan BNSF pullover, and a leather jacket. I also had my tuque on to keep my head and ears warm. My legs have never been an issue so a regular pair of Docker-type pants was the leg covering of choice. It was fine for a while, until my tuque blew off my head just as we left Granbury. I was friggin’ cold after that. When we crossed I-20 the road got simultaneously better and worse. It got better in that it was quite twisty. It got worse because, well, it got worse. The road surface was so irregular and rough that we couldn’t go fast enough to enjoy the twistiness. On the other hand, going slower lessened the wind on us so it was just a bit warmer. We arrived at the turn off for the bed and breakfast where some folks were going to stay Sunday night and I had to laugh. It was a gravel road, barely wide enough for a Seven. We idled through the mesquite trees and cactus down this drive until we got to the “parking lot” of the B&B. We all found spots to park and went inside to thaw out. Tony hadn’t taken wind into account and had nothing on to stop it. I loaned him my BNSF pullover since I had the leather jacket to break wind for me. Alfredo, the dude from Mexico with the Stalker, didn’t have glasses or a hat of any kind. He was pretty miserable. I gave him my spare dark tinted safety glasses and Tony gave him a spare tuque. Oh, I turned down the tuque because I had my tan “Jackie Stewart” hat in the boot of Shichi. Once everyone was sufficiently warmed up, we headed out again to go to lunch. Now, on the way to the B&B, Shichi smoked a bit more than it had the night before, but again, mostly under high load and some extra throttle. I wasn’t too worried. On the way to lunch it continued but didn’t appear to be getting any worse. I still wasn’t worried. I was worried about running out of gas but that proved to be moo. We arrived at the lunch spot and ate. Tony, Alfredo, and I said our farewells to the rest of the group and headed east on I-20. All morning I'd been giving the boot to the car getting up to speed following Alfredo and, while smoking pretty well out of the hood, the car ran gangbusters. Hopping on the freeway this time was no exception. Two miles down the road we all stopped for gas. I was in the throttle pretty hard getting up to freeway speed, plus some to be honest, when the smoke got worse and I felt the power diminish. I eased off the throttle, which used to cause the smoke to go away, and felt it running on three cylinders. Oh, it continued to smoke out of the hood. I limped along for another three miles, to the next exit, and pulled off. Tony followed me and we had a look. Before, there was just a hint of oil around the breather from the smoke condensation. Now there was significant pooling of oil. I considered limping the last sixty miles home but Tony wouldn’t hear of it. We piled into his car and headed back to Granbury. At the hotel we parked his car and got in his truck then rolled back up the road. We looked for my tuque but decided the wind had it after this much time. Since neither one of us had thought to look at the exit number where we left Shichi, we blew right past it and had to turn around at the gas station exit. Oops. I was pleased to find the car still there and nothing amiss with it. Well, other than the blowed up motor what I done to it. Tony positioned the trailer and I drove up in to place. We tied it off and headed home. I suggested dropping it off at my house because I'm sure I could have limped it back to the shop eventually but Tony insisted on going straight there. We took FM5 so I could show him my favorite local twisty road. I cleared out the paint booth and we parked the car. I shut it down and secured it inside then we headed to Granbury to get his car. At the hotel we loaded his car and tied it off then headed back to my house. I had hoped to make it home around 1300 h so I could rest a bit before going to the Japanese Old School meet at the Purple Cow. By the time Tony dropped me off, I had time to change shoes and head out. We had a pretty good turnout at this JOS meet. I don’t know what the official car count was but it was crowding a dozen I'm sure. From there I went home and was in bed at 2100 h. I'm sure we’ll take a look at Shichi tomorrow evening at the shop and I'll have an assessment of the situation, along with plans which will change a few times along the way, in the rant on Thursday. So, with all that said…