Pueblo Motorsports Park

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Dave

I went to Pueblo Motorsports Park with CECA today. I was hoping for a better turnout. Only about forty cars registered, and a couple of cars ran only a lap or two. Even so, it seemed like traffic was heavy. There were a lot of very fast cars there, and cars are split up by driver experience rather than speed. There were Viper race cars, high horsepower Mustangs, and Nissan GT-R’s in every group. Passing was allowed in only two places, and I’m sure it was frustrating for the fast cars to be stuck behind us lower hp cars.

The red car turned only a single lap

I ran in the Red (experienced) group. My top speed, at the end of the straight before turn 1, was 107mph. The Viper race cars were hitting 140. I ran on inexpensive street tires while many were on racing slicks. The slowest car in our group was a classic Mustang. I was probably ten seconds a lap quicker. I ran with a couple of Porsches that were doing very similar times. I let one by on the straight but he never managed to pull away from me. I enjoyed those couple laps immensely. I get faster laps running alone, but there’s a certain joy in matching speeds with a car that is on better tires and has more horsepower.

There were four Lotuses, all Elises. Fellow LOCO member Judd drove his blue one. There was a black one, turbocharged. And Joe’s red one. I first met Joe last year at this event. He is quite the hot shoe, turning very quick times I will probably never match. His car was there today, but he wasn’t. I was sorry to learn he’s been diagnosed with ALS and can no longer drive.

There were five Vipers there. One was a CECA regular – Alan’s pretty maroon car. Also a silver one, a shiny black one, and two matte black. The matte ones were race cars, owned by guys in Estes Park. Carriage Hills, my old neighborhood. They previously ran the cars in the Viper Cup and a GT series. They’re not running in either series this year, so will exercise the cars at the CECA events. These are monster cars. They ran several very fast laps at the end of the day, by themselves on the track. It was the only time all day they could really run at speed – they were that much faster than anything else there.

Judd and I were working turn 4 for the final session. All the fast cars were out, and the GT-R’s were fastest. One of the Mustangs was quite quick as well. The two Vipers ran nose to tail for several laps. They talked to each other by radio, one teaching the other the track. When all the other cars left the track, they opened it up. They had only been cruising until then. Now you could hear the V-10 clearly from the opposite end of the track. Still nose to tail, but now at real racing speed. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch, particularly from such a nice vantage point.

In addition to the Elises and Vipers, there were three Nissan GT-R’s. These are also quite fast cars. All wheel drive, putting out something like 500hp, with all sorts of computers that help the driver keep it on the track. Filling out the group were the usual assortment of Corvettes, Mustangs, and Porches with a Sunbeam Tiger, Mazda Miata, Hyundai Tiburon, a Cobra replica and a few other miscellaneous.

One of the miscellaneous

Some time ago, I was using a smart phone app to do my lap timing. I had some trouble with it and quit using it, then upgraded phones. Since then, I’ve been getting lap times from the video, which is not ideal. I finally got around to getting a new timer a few days ago. It’s called RaceChrono. Very simple to use, much easier than the last one. It doesn’t have as many features as others I’ve looked at, but it fits my needs.

I ran only three sessions, as Judd and I volunteered to work a corner in the afternoon. The first session was 10 laps, 8 laps in the second, and 7 in the third. There were some kids volunteering on the corners. Their only compensation for the day was getting rides. I gave rides in the second and third sessions. Both passengers really got a kick out of their rides, which made me happy. The second guy said “Aside from combat, this is the most adrenalized I’ve ever been!”

I recorded my fastest lap of the day in that third session. I told Judd after the second session that my goal was to get a time under two minutes. I didn’t make it, but it was close: 2:00.61. That’s about six seconds a lap faster than last year. Same set of tires, but last year it was much hotter.

I’m thinking that I won’t run the CECA days at HPR this year. Not a final decision, but under consideration. In a half day of open lapping at HPR I can get about as many hot laps in for about two-thirds the price. And those sessions are more or less split by the speed of the cars, which I find more comfortable, even offsetting the restricted passing of club days. I am still looking forward to the CECA days at Pikes Peak International and the State Patrol track.

And, finally, here’s today’s highlight reel. I get passed a lot, I only pass one car and the camera is on the wrong side to see it. And the lap behind the Porsche, one of my better laps:

Mills Lake

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Dave

Many people consider Mills Lake to be the prettiest lake in the park. It sits at the northern end of Glacier Gorge and has nice views of the peaks to the south. It’s an easy two and a half mile hike, climbing only about 750 feet to an elevation of 9,940. Its beauty and ease of access mean it is generally quite crowded. Yesterday, though, I spent an hour or so watching the world and saw nobody else at the lake or on the trail.

Mills Lake is named for Enos Abijah Mills (1870-1922), who was instrumental in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mills purchased Longs Peak House in 1901 and turned it into the famous Long’s Peak Inn and acted as a climbing guide on Long’s Peak. He summitted the peak 304 times.

It was somewhat windy at the trailhead, and maybe a bit cooler than I was hoping for. The forecast for Denver was a high in the mid-60’s, but at 10am at Glacier Gorge Junction the outlook didn’t seem so warm. Once on the trail, the wind wasn’t an issue. There were only a dozen or so cars in the parking lot and the only people I saw on the trail all day were two couples within a few hundred yards of the trailhead.

I took the Fire Trail shortcut to the Mills/Loch/Haiyaha trail junction. The snow on the “beaten path” was well packed, and my microspikes were sufficient. It was obvious, though, that stepping off the path meant postholing in deep snow. Just below the lake, the trail crosses the outlet stream. In the depths of winter, rather than hiking up the summer trail it’s easier just to follow the stream. By now, though, the stream was thawing enough that I stayed on the summer trail.

I arrived at the lake just in time to see the peaks to the south disappear in a cloud of snow. By the time I got the camera set up for the time lapse, the little squall had come down the valley and a light snow was blowing in my face. You never know how long these little storms last, though, so I let the camera roll and had my lunch.

I had picked a spot mostly out of the wind, which can be extreme on these alpine lakes, but I didn’t really have a comfortable place to sit. So I stood, taking a few bites of my sandwich and setting it back in my pack to grab a few chips or a sip from my soda. Before long I heard some noises. I thought perhaps some hikers had arrived but when I turned to look, I saw it was a small bird sitting on a tree branch about a foot and a half from my shoulder. It sat there nicely, as if posing for a photo. The camera was busy doing the time lapse, so I reached into my pocket for the phone. I had taken my eyes off the bird to do this and when I turned back to face him, he was gone.

He didn’t go far. He was now perched on my pack and managed to peck at my sandwich, the corner of which was poking out of its plastic bag.

The storm cleared after a short while, revealing a dramatic view of Pagoda, Chief’s Head, and Keyboard of the Winds. Had I managed to get the camera rolling ten minutes earlier, I’d have captured the whole thing. With the “storm” over and lunch consumed, I headed back. While the weather at Mills was wintery, the view to the north was much more spring-like.

In summer, I like to take longer hikes to get away from the crowds. But the rest of the year, it’s possible to get away from everybody and enjoy the scenery without taking the whole day. This hike was less than three hours start to finish, including an hour at the lake.

Here’s the time lapse:

HPR

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Dave

I went to the track Friday afternoon. I generally only go to the track with one of the clubs but do manage to get to HPR occasionally on my own. One of the reasons is that it makes me eligible to do the customer appreciation days.

Club days are different in a few key ways from open lapping days. With the clubs, it’s an all-day event where I generally get three or four sessions. Passing is restricted to two or three places. On club days, drivers often have to work corners. On open lapping days I can get three or four sessions in an afternoon, passing is unlimited, and drivers don’t have to work corners. Sure, for club days, you do a lot more waiting around, but that’s okay. It’s good to visit with other participants. And getting out on the corners is a good way to see how other drivers take the turns.

Passing is the big difference. We drivers of the slower cars have to be much more careful to watch our mirrors. Sometimes the speed differences can be immense. Friday, they divided us in two groups – street cars and race cars. There were three kinds of sessions – street cars only, race cars only, and open sessions. In the open sessions, the formula cars catch me quite quickly. They’re sometimes difficult to see. A lot of folks I talk to express some discomfort at being passed anywhere and everywhere on track. I have the feeling, sometimes, when I catch slower traffic that they don’t see me. I just don’t take chances passing people.

Most track days, there are quite a few Corvettes, Miatas, and Minis. Friday there were none of the above, at least running in the street car group. I think there were more BMWs than anything else. Three or four M models. They all sort of look alike to me unless I pay particular attention, so I don’t know the mix of 5 series versus 3 series. Scott was there with his Porsche and his friend driving a turbo Saab. There was a guy there with his Laser Blue Elise and his friends, one of whom was driving a Mercedes CL 65 AMG V-12 twin turbo.

I keep meaning to get a lap timer working on my phone, but I never seem to think of it before I get to the track. So I’m left figuring my lap times based on the video tape. Not the most accurate method, but close enough for my purposes. I haven’t broken down the tape yet, but I did manage to put together a little highlight reel. I understand YouTube is “short attention span theater” and try to keep my videos under three minutes or so. This one is more like five and a half.

I chatted quite a bit with the other Elise driver. He’s owned the car three and a half years. When he bought it, it had something like 3,700 miles on it. He has about 5,000 on it now. I don’t understand folks who buy these cars and don’t drive them. This was his first time at HPR. He was quite a bit slower than me. When he first came over to chat, he was wanting to know what kind of tires I was running. I was on my street tires, which are not well suited to the track. He was running decent tires but complaining about lack of grip. Those tires shouldn’t be exposed to cold temps and asked if it got cold in his garage. I suggested this might be the problem with his tires.

I gave him a ride for a few laps so he could learn the line. Then he got back in his car and promptly spun out. I was surprised to find out that the spin tripped the inertia switch that shuts off the fuel pump. He had to be towed back to the paddock to reset the switch. I was afraid he’d had a more serious mishap but was glad to see he was right back out on track.

Next Saturday is a day with CECA down in Pueblo. I’m really looking forward to it.

Pinball Showdown

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Dave

The Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown is this weekend at the Sheraton down in DTC. Chris and I went Friday afternoon.

Twenty bucks at the door, play all the games you want. There was a pretty good crowd. We never had to wait to play, but almost every machine was in use all the time. All the machines were in pretty good condition. A couple were being worked on, but I’d say this was the best maintained bunch of pinball machines I’ve ever seen. The event filled the large ballroom and two large meeting rooms. Something like 125 pinball machines, perhaps 80 unique games.

It was a bit nostalgic. I played many of these machines many times and for many hours. I first played pinball when I was ten or eleven. We kept the trailer at Chateau Chaparral on the Arkansas River at Nathrop. Spent a lot of unsupervised time there, some of it in the clubhouse. The teenagers played CCR on the jukebox and shot pool. They had half a dozen pinball machines there. I played one of them Friday.

One of the first machines I ever played

Jerry’s parents bowled at Celebrity Fun Center and Jerry and I used to play pinball there. Then my misspent youth, first at Mines and then a lot of hours at Malibu Grand Prix before video games took over. Lots of sessions with Wes over the years. Hundreds of hours of pinball, on all sorts of machines produced over the last fifty years or so. This show didn’t have all the machines I played so often, but they did have a real nice mix.
But play lacked in intensity. There was nothing to play for. No matter how badly you did, you could play again.

Because the machines were in top shape, I was disappointed that they didn’t take more care in setting them up. Most were not quite level, some quite a bit off. I guess it would just take too long to get them all properly set up.

Years ago I went to an event like this with Wes in Phoenix. That one had fewer machines, but had some fun twists. Back at Mines we used to do things like throw a jacket over the top half of the table, or cross our arms and flip with the opposite hands. There they had a machine that was wired that way and one with the glass obscured. Another had a platform with flippers you operated with your feet. But nothing like that at this one.

There were vendors there. Show t-shirts, of course, but booths by machine makers and hawkers of supplies. There were cameras mounted over two machines and the video displayed on large monitors with pinball table aspect ratios.

Preparations

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Dave

Three car related items today. Plans for events, rather than events themselves.

First, I just registered for the 30th Annual Colorado Concours. This is my first time entering the car in any sort of show. At this one, I had my choice of being judged or just being on display. I have no illusions that this is a winning show car, but what the heck. I’m going to be judged. Here’s how the organizers describe it:

Now in its 30th year, the Annual Colorado Concours – Exotic Sports Car Show & Concours d’Elegance is large-scale, highly-visible and well-attended. Local and regional car clubs showcase nearly 500 rare sports and exotic cars. Come take a look at these beautiful high-end, high performance vehicles. Meet the owners and exchange your favorite car stories. And, don’t forget to bring the kids as this day is filled with activities for the entire family! Mark your calendars now for a car event that has established itself as the premier auto show in its class. All proceeds from the event benefit CP of Colorado’s Children’s Programs. The featured marque for this special anniversary edition of the car show is Porsche!

If you’re in the Denver area, come on out and see the cars. This is happening on Sunday June 9 at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton. Gates open at 9am. I believe it’s $10 to get in, and it supports a fine charity.

Second, every year Lotus Colorado puts together a long weekend drive. We haven’t gone on any of these yet, but I just made reservations at the hotels for this year’s trip. They’re calling it “The LOCO Four to the 4”. We leave Denver Saturday morning, May 18, and head down toward the four corners. One night in Telluride, one night in Pagosa Springs, then back home Monday, May 20. Ross describes it thusly:

Many of you have been with us on our Colorado Good, where we do a bit less than the Colorado Grand; three days instead of four, about 800 miles instead of over a thousand miles; stay at good hotels instead of grand hotels and dine at good small yet really cool specialty restaurants with reasonable prices. This will be our fourth trip and will go to the Four Corners via Telluride and Pagosa Springs.

Finally, CECA is having their first track day of the season at Pueblo Motorsports Park on May 11 and I just sent in my registration.

CECA 2013 EVENT SCHEDULE (Tentative):

May 11                            Pueblo Motorsports Park

June 29                           High Plains Raceway

August 24                       Colorado State Patrol Track

September 28                 High Plains Raceway

October 12                      Pikes Peak International Raceway

I’m not sure how many of these I’ll attend. Last year I managed all except PPIR. I’d like to do them all, but if I miss any it will likely be one of the HPR dates.

Saturday in the Park

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Dave

Saturday I thought I’d hike to Mill’s Lake. Frankly, I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to go, but Mills seemed like the right sort of distance for me that day. I didn’t want to get up at the crack of dawn, and I’m a bit lazy when it comes to hiking through snow. A couple of miles each way seemed just about right.

The forecast high for Denver was 62 or 64, depending on who you listened to. I guessed it might be a bit breezy at Mills, but what the heck. It’s always windy at these lakes in winter, right? But generally it’s not bad in the forest. I arrived at the Glacier Gorge parking lot a bit after ten. I was thinking with such nice weather I might not get a parking spot there, but it was only about half full. As soon as I stepped out of the car it was obvious why – the wind was quite fierce. Took me about 30 seconds to decide not to hike. I exaggerate only slightly when I say the wind nearly knocked me down. I do this for fun, not as some sort of test.
I got back in the car and drove up to Bear Lake just to check it out. Not many hardy souls there, either. I was only in the parking lot for a few minutes but still managed to see three or four cars pass through without stopping.

I headed back to Moraine park for a while; it’s the first time I’ve bothered to check it out since the Fern Lake fire burned the area back in October. I sat there for maybe an hour, watching the world go by. Took a few pictures but nothing very interesting. The grass will be back in a few weeks, the shrubs might take a while longer. Maybe they’re not all dead but we won’t know for a few more weeks.

Then I headed back toward Deer Mtn. to watch the clouds fly over the mountains and set up the cameras. Eating my picnic lunch in the car isn’t as nice as at some alpine lake, but there are worse places to eat. I didn’t bring the GoPro mounts for the car, so I had to use the little gorilla pod instead of the suction cup. The suction cup does okay up to about 80mph and would have handled the wind. The lesson here is to always carry all the mounts with me whenever I take the camera. Oh well. I set the SLR up on a tripod, as low as it will go, on the leeward side of the car. Unfortunately, the wind here was still quite bad. Both cameras got moved around quite a bit.

When I looked at the raw footage I was a bit disappointed. I knew the cameras were moving quite a bit but hoped there was something I could do with the shots. I decided to make use of the “old film advanced” video effect. It makes the video look like an old film that’s been run over by a tractor. I figured the jitters in the footage looked a bit like film jumping a sprocket.

But it wasn’t a total loss. This was the first outing with the new battery grip for the EOS 20D. Worked like a charm. Shot over 1,100 photos without a snag. The grip supports either 6 AA batteries or two of the Canon battery packs. The grip shipped with two, so now I have three, even after tossing the original which no longer holds a charge. The only sub-optimal issue is that even with a full charge, the meter only reads a partial charge. I’m looking forward to trying it when it’s not so windy.

Cars & Coffee & Pinball

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Dave

The first Saturday of every month a bunch of car lovers get together at 95th and Arapahoe in Lafayette. I try to show up every few months to see what sort of vehicles show up. Today was the biggest turnout I’ve seen there. A lot of these types of events are dominated by hot rods or muscle cars. This one gets a great turnout of exotics. I’ve never seen fewer than a half dozen Ferraris and, a wide variety of Porsches from different eras, a sampling of Corvettes, Jags, Astins, and so on.

I ordered a battery grip for the SLR, but it hasn’t arrived yet. So all these pics from the cell phone.

There always seems to be a Morgan or two. Not sure that I’ve seen the same one twice. Today it was a three wheeler.This was another surprise. Don’t see too many of these.Walked by a Tesla S twice without giving it a second glance. At first, I thought it was a Porsche Panamera. Then somebody said “both trunks are empty.” Ah, yes. Something’s missing!

Boulder is full of Audis, but I don’t think I’ve seen an A7 before. I’m not a big fan of matte paints, but I like the lines.These things start pretty early with the first people arriving about 7am. I’m not sure how long people are there, but people are coming and going all morning. Every now and then, somebody will make a rather noisy arrival or departure. About an hour after I arrived, this pulled into a spot:

It didn’t take long to see this isn’t really a Corvette. Usually, they put the engines in the front.He left at the same time I did. Or, he tried. Got it out of this spot and into everybody’s way before stalling it. And unable to get it going again. A bunch of people had to push him back into the spot. That’s gotta be embarrassing, with dozens of people watching.

No Ford GT’s today, but this pretty Noble showed up. I’ve seen a couple of these but I think this had the best paint – a bright, pearlescent yellow.

I don’t think we’ve had Lamborghinis every time, but today I saw three or four. All driven by young guys, which I find surprising. Usually it’s the older guys who have the kind of coin it takes to own and operate one. I find them a bit over the top. But you don’t see too many purple ones, so I couldn’t resist. That was this morning. This afternoon, Chris came over and we drove up to Lyons to play some pinball. I’ve been meaning to do this for quite a while but somehow never got around to inviting him.

He showed up here at 1pm and we headed north. They were closed when we got there – I didn’t bother to check first, but they don’t open until 3. So we went next door to Oskar Blues for beer and chat. It was not long after three when we finished our beers and the place was already pretty busy. At least half the machines were in play.

Joust

We played Banzai Run, Black Knight, Captain Fantastic, Joust, Space Time, Strikes and Spares, and Wizard. I had played Banzai Run before in Lyons and enjoyed it. Joust I’d never seen before, and the others I’ve played many times at other places. Joust is an odd one. Although it can be played solo, the idea is two players compete. The players stand facing each other and the table is peaked in the middle – balls can pass from one side to the other. The idea is to hit your targets but not the other player’s. It’s loosely based on the video game of the same name. One annoying feature is that every time you press a flipper button, it makes a little dragon noise from the video game.

The Loch

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Dave

Last month, Jerry and I failed to navigate to Lake Haiyaha to see the igloos at Stomp IX. That didn’t seem to dissuade Jerry from taking another short winter hike with me, so this time we went to The Loch. I’ve been there many times, but don’t generally make it the destination – it’s just somewhere on the way to somewhere else. It’s a short hike, and in summer it is typically quite crowded. But I find myself more willing to take the shorter hikes in winter.

We hit the trail at about 11. I’m usually on the trail quite a bit earlier than that, but this being such a short hike there was no need to hurry. The weather forecast for Denver was for a warm day, about 70, with a slight chance of rain. Which, of course, tells us nothing of what to expect near the Continental Divide. We dressed warmly; I wore a sweater and my new heavy coat, with a baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes, a knit cap for warmth, and my new gloves. I wore the micro-spikes. Jerry decided against snow shoes, which turned out okay. He slipped a bit here and there, but wasn’t the only one without traction aid on the trail.

We managed to find a parking space at the Glacier Gorge lot, which surprised me. With the weather being so nice I figured there’d be quite a few people out on the trails and expected that lot to fill up early. Once on the trail, it wasn’t long before we were thinking we’d dressed too warmly. Hats and gloves were off and jackets unzipped before we made it to the junction with the Fire trail.

We were expecting a bit more fresh snow than we saw, but I still have a hard time figuring out exactly how old the freshest snow is. We saw a lot of animal tracks and spent some time discussing what sort of animal made each track. We came across an area where there were lots of small tracks and I saw one I thought would make an interesting picture. Before I left the house, I searched for the SLR batteries. I charged one but couldn’t find the other. When I went to take a photo of the tracks, the camera died. So the SLR was not so much a camera as an anchor. I shot the tracks with the cell phone, but I’m sure I’d have had better results with the real camera. I like the way the light went through the snow, illuminating the tracks from underneath.

Taking the Fire trail really does cut down on the traffic. We saw only one other group of hikers before we got to the Mills/Loch/Haiyaha trail junction, but the trail was nicely packed and we had no trouble without snow shoes. We ran into more hikers at the junction. They were headed to the Loch as well. They followed the sign, which put them on the summer trail. We headed up the Mills Lake trail a few yards to the bridge, then up the drainage. This seems to be a navigation problem for lots of hikers. We caught another group who were on their way to Mills. The tracks split at the bridge – right to the Loch, left to Mills. These folks went right before realizing their error.

Going up the drainage, the trail gets a bit steep in places. Jerry had a bit of difficulty on theses steeper spots without traction. He joked that going down might be more fun – he’d probably have to do it on his backside rather than on his feet. Just before getting to the top of the climb, some hikers on their way down said it was quite windy at the lake. It’s almost always windy at these lakes in winter, so no surprise there.

Once we got to the top, we were delighted to find that somebody had made a snow cave. Hard to say how long it’s been there, but long enough for several people to carve their initials on the interior walls. Looks to me like it took quite a bit of effort. The floor of the cave is the grassy meadow. It’s not quite tall enough for me to stand up in, but there was plenty of room for Jerry and me.

On the lake proper, the wind was blowing quite nicely. Snow wasn’t falling from the sky, but quite a bit of it was blowing around along the ground. We found a spot in the trees, mostly out of the wind. I started the camera and we retreated to the trees for lunch. Soon, the clouds came down the valley and snow began to fall.

Here’s the time lapse:

On the way down from the lake, we caught up to a bigger group clearly enjoying their descent. A couple of the girls fell on their butts, accompanied by much laughing. My micro spikes were providing sufficient traction on the steep snow, but it was quicker and more fun to sit down at the top and slide down.

When possible, I like to take a different route out than we followed on the way in. Jerry hadn’t done any winter hiking in the area, so I suggested we go down past Alberta Falls. I had a bit of doubt when we left the main trail. It looked like nobody had gone this way since the last snowfall. I didn’t want to get into any snow that would be difficult without snow shoes, but it was easy enough to find a “beaten path”. Some footprints were there, just covered by more recent snow. We quickly found the bridge over the stream and re-entered the drainage there.

After a short while, we came across some folks coming up. They said they wanted to go to Mills Lake, but I was skeptical they’d make it. We met at a place where the there’s about an eight foot climb up either ice or rocks. Jerry and I slid down here and I was wondering how you’d climb back up, even if you had spikes. Those folks were wearing sneakers; clearly not prepared to deal with snow. They must have made it to the top of that little bit, as a few minutes later we heard the squeals of laughter as they slid back down.

We ran into a few other folks on their way to Mills. These were better prepared for winter hiking, but they’d not been here before. I did my best to tell them how to get there. They’d be able to follow our tracks except a stretch where we walked across barren rock.

Peter the Great

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Dave

I’m working on few long term projects. I’ve been reading whole-life biographies of the American presidents, in order, starting with Adams. I’ve been thinking I’d read Washington when I’ve finished all the rest. I finished Andrew Johnson a couple months ago and just ordered a Grant book. I didn’t suddenly one day decide to do this. I enjoyed the Adams book and thought I should read more about Jefferson. They both worked with Madison, and before I knew it I decide to keep going.

I’ve been reading Russian history for quite a while, at first mostly World War II. I have a copy of Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra that I read half way through thirty odd years ago. I read Catherine the Great shortly after it came out. I read a Stalin bio a year or two ago, and intend to read the same author’s Lenin book. I’ve had this Peter book for several months but I’ve been a bit intimidated by its 855 pages of smallish print. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ve decided to read about all the key Russian rulers. The key ones, not all of them, and obviously not in order. I just put Ivan the Terrible and Alexander II on the want list. After those, maybe three more Romanovs and Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev. I anticipate it will take me a decade or more to finish the American presidents, but this Russian list I can knock off in three or four.

So, to Massie’s Peter. It’s subtitled His Life and His World. This describes the book in five simple words. Peter’s entire life is examined, and Massie deftly places it in context. We learn the social and religious settings of the time and place – the women secluded in the terem; a church schism over whether to cross using two fingers or three. The big story of Peter’s life is fleshed out with sidetracks to his nemesis Charles XII, the Sun King Louis XIV, and George I, the German on the English throne. Plus, many small stories of Peter’s advisors, generals and admirals, ambassadors and statesmen.

Peter led quite a life. Witnessed the murder of family and friends in the Streltsy uprising when he was ten, had his own son tortured to death, fought wars, built ships, drank like a maniac, had seizures all his life, and built a great city. Was married twice, had mistresses, and gave his second wife the story book rise from foreign peasant girl to Empress and autocrat. All this in fifty three years.

Overall, I thought the book was excellent. Given its length, it was a relatively quick read. I feared it would take a month, but it’s quite the page turner. I was never bored, and the many side trips really place Peter in context. I found it a good history of Europe of the time with a particular emphasis on Russia’s part. I haven’t read much history of that particular time and I found it quite informative and interesting. Sometimes when I finish a book I wish it had been shorter or longer. Even at 855 pages, I felt this one was just the right length.

Portland, this time

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Dave

This week I spent three days in Portland, OR for the first time. That would be the 54th airport I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Also seven weeks out of the last eight on the road.

I flew out Monday morning, booked on the 5:50am flight. I’ve flown out of DIA on Monday morning flights in the neighborhood of 80 times. I normally arrive at the gate as they start boarding or a few minutes before. This time I got there 6 minutes before departure. They close the doors at 10 minutes.

This week’s rental car was a Nissan Altima. It doesn’t have a key, just a fob. Push a button on the dash to start. But what do you do with the fob? I guess you’d pocket it once you unlock the door, but I just threw it on the passenger seat. I had to wait at the counter a few minutes for the car to be cleaned. It was either wait, or drive a minivan. So while I was waiting I leafed through a hiking guide to trails along the Columbia River. If I get to take another trip there in summer I’ll have to make sure I get out for a short hike. It also occurs to me that if I stayed an extra day I could hike to some glaciers on Mt. Hood.

When I went out to eat the first night, I learned they don’t have sales tax there. I had heard there are no self service gas stations by law, but the sales tax was a surprise to me. At the gas station, I was the only one who got out of his car and I chatted with the two attendants. They both mentioned the local slogan – “Keep Oregon Weird”.

Had dinner at McMenamins – John Barleycorn a nice little brew pub a half mile from the office. I had the chicken sandwich. The combination of the nicely toasted bun, half inch thick slices of tomato, and the “secret sauce” made it a messy, tasty eat. I had their amber, the Hammerhead. Probably should have considered their Ruby, a raspberry beer.

I flew US Airways, so I took the shortcut through Phoenix. It felt very familiar when we deplaned on the return trip when you get that blast furnace effect at the end of the jetway. Welcome to Phoenix! I had about an hour between flights, which left me thirty minutes to find some food and the right gate. We arrived at A17, and I’d leave on A18. Sweet. Except that all the restaurants in both A concourses were closed. Had to go all the way to the B concourse for a hot meal.

At Pizza Hut I grabbed a pepperoni pizza and a soda. It’s bigger than a personal pan pizza and it’s not their pan dough. The pie and the drink, over $11. Head all the way back to my gate, using six moving sidewalks each way. Are these movers for people in a hurry, or are they for people who are lazy? It can’t be both. The lazy ones make it impossible for anybody to hurry.

Back at the gate nearly half the seats are empty. The sun is streaming in nearly horizontally; anybody sitting facing the window gets it right in the face. Some opportunists have taken the seats behind pillars. Silly me, I’d have aligned the rows normal to the windows rather than perpendicular.

Ah, the glamour of business travel!

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