Roads finally dried off and I got to take six out for a spin for the first time in ages. No heat = chilly drive but damn fun to be behind the wheel again. We've been having very strange weather lately, it's been really really foggy at night for the past four nights. It then gets very cold and these crazy little spiney ice crystals form all over everything. Very surreal. Here are a few pics I took around my yard. These were taken mid-day, and the crystals had already shrunk quite a bit by then...

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More detail...this plant is perfectly smooth beneath all that.

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Detail...

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One more...

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Warming up after the drive...

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ps: yes, i know I'm missing a side marker light

pps: yes, i'm jobless now so I have time post pretty pictures all day

Lavanaut:

You are right very strange ice cystals, the red one in the 1st. picture

looks big enough to throw a saddle on and ride! Dave

ps. you think you have a lot of time on your hands, try being retired!

pps. OH i adjusted my glasses, that pic . was of your 914 , also no fun getting

old.

Yeah, the job market in Bend isn't doing so well. If you are technical minded, it may interest you to know that Bend-Tel is buying out Rio communications....should be some openings there since the Indian tribe that owned Rio layed off almost everybody before selling.
I too am desperate to drive my 914. So desperate, in fact, that I'm buying a pos little 12v heater so I can drive mine to work. I doubt that it will work but....I gotta try!

Ack! Salted roads! Can't you hear your 914 screaming in pain?

Zach

Some states don't salt. Maybe he's in one of the lucky few. Definetly have driving envy now. Mine is still in peices :S Need to get my rear in gear and get her done.

I don't believe they use salt. We don't up here unless you go into Seattle, which just started to use salt after the last storm.

Cool pics Reid. What's the drink?

The past 4-5 days have been so nice here!! Been putting some miles on mine for sure!! Top-off driving is chilly from the shoulders up, but that's what the heaters are for

Me too! 70 degrees though when I rode home at 2:00. Stopped at the car wash and gave the 'teen a quick bath. Haven't washed it in over 6 months.

I used to spend a lot of time in Bend, OR. Skiing Mt. Bachelor and bicycling to the Ice Caves (which have since melted - across from the cinder cone south of town). And back then, the cinder cone didn't have any trees...

Anyway, they use sand. And since much of the area is volcanic in nature, it used to be red sand. Pretty cool.

The summit at McKenzie Pass is pretty cool too. Any pics of your car up there?

Eric Read

I would love to try that Dave. In light of recent financial market fluctuations I play to do so some time after turning 92.


I am, and that's pretty interesting. I will definitely look into it, thanks.


As a couple people mentioned, Oregon doesn't use salt on the roads. Around here they use cinder which is readily available just about everywhere since the entire area essentially sits on a massive lava field, and cinder is crushed lava. It's light, red, gritty rock that makes a mess of things but isn't corrosive, at least not like salt is. I drive around spots of it when I can though.


Thanks John. Drink is a Spanish Coffee, invented at Huber's up in Portland. I grew addicted to them when I lived up there. 151, kaluha, triple sec, coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, a little bit of frothed creme in a caramelized sugar-rimmed glass. It's an after dinner drink, more involved that just mixing it all together, and worth it to do right. I will publicly right now volunteer to make one (or more if you're not driving) for anyone that shows up in Bend and calls me on it. Oh and they've got balls enough to shrug off being called a froo-froo drink.


I haven't heard about the ice caves, I'll have to look that up. As for McKenzie Pass? That's one of the craziest landscapes I've ever witnessed. I can't believe it's an hour from here (part of what makes it so crazy). The road getting up there from the Eugene side is I think the windiest road I've ever been on...at times too windy and narrow to really be fun. Here's a pic or two at the top (no 914 sadly). Speaking of lava fields...

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that's the reason why I can't drive my teener(s) from October to April/May

It might snow here tonight, but I know we don't have any salt trucks

T.C.

Lavanaut,
Great pics. Its been really foggy in Seattle too, its eerie to have the thick fog rolling in at 2 in the afternoon.

FYI- I love Hubers! I try to stop in there everytime I'm in Portland. Lots of cool history in that place.

Kyle