Mk1 Scirocco Spotted!

I was in Encino, NM – a very abandoned town on US-285.

At an abandoned service station: a Mk1 Scirocco!!  This is the first unsolicited Scirocco sighting of this trip!! FINALLY!!! And it’s a good one too!

I can see the Cell tower I am posting from. These things aren’t very powerful out here. There is not much civilization around here either! It’s pretty neat being the only car in sight for miles and miles.

New Mexico State Line

I actually have more pictures than this – but the connection speed is very slow in this part of New Mexico – so I’ll just upload the border picture for now… 92 miles to go to get to Santa Fe.

Dinner, and Deer!

Here’s a picture of me in front of Pikes Peak at my parents’ house.

My mom made Chili and Blueberry Pie. Good stuff!

Then the wildlife came out for a picture!

Cabriolet Foglights and Cats!

Replaced the ignition switch, and added foglights to iRox’s Cabriolet. Her cat decided my car was a very nice place to lay.

iRox donated a lot of money to me! Thank you so much!!

Junkyard, and Mk4 Adventure

iRox and I went down to Colorado Springs to visit the salvage yard to find some parts for her Cabriolet. Found some interesting cars there, but not the parts we needed.

We started back up to Woodland Park, and the serpentine belt on her 2004 Jetta 1.8T broke. It took out the tensioner pulley as well.  We eventually determined that the tensioner was installed incorrectly, with a black bracket on the wrong side of the tensioner bolts – causing the wheel to drag on the timing cover. One belt, and one tensioner later, we were back on the road.

South Park Buffalo

For dinner, my parents made some South Park Buffalo burgers. Aparantly, the buffalo we were eating had been named “Jake”.

Also took a picture of Pikes Peak at sunset. Remember – I grew up with this every day – to me – it’s nothing! 😀

Garden of the Gods… Again

Current Altitude: ~6200 Feet

I visited Garden of the Gods. If you look in the archive, you might find a similar picture about a month ago in the $75 Scirocco.

Pikes Peak is where I’m headed next. It’s 24.1 Miles away, but it’s also at 14,110 Feet!

Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum

Current Altitude: 5303 Feet

This museum is in the Lowry area of denver – a former air force base. Their collection includes some great planes, from the B-52B outside to the B-1A inside. There was even an X-Wing from Star Wars in there. It was an original prop from the filming of the movies.

Quiznos

Current Altitude: 5278.19 Feet

We went to the first Quiznos today – it’s only one block away from the Capitol building! In fact, I drove right by it yesterday and didn’t know it.

Chipotle

Current Altitude: 5261.14 Feet

My sister wanted to meet us at the first Chipotle Mexican Grill resturant on Evans near Denver University. We went, we ate, she signed the hood.

Then the manager pulled us aside and asked about the car – he was very cool. He gave us two AWESOME shirts!!!

Awesome Salvage Yard Trip

Eddie and I met up with Karl and Otto in Erie, Colorado to go to Andy Maass’s cool salvage yard. It had not only all kinds of VWs, there were helicopters and planes there too!!

Thanks to both Karl and Otto who donated some money, fuel and food!

CRAZY STORM FROM HELL!!

Well, there’s quite the thunderstorm here! The worst I’ve ever seen in my life!!

Anyway – I am at my friend Eddie’s place.

I drove through 4.5 Feet of water on Peoria at Mississippi in Aurora, CO. The engine did not die, thanks to the very high placment of my air filter for the Electronic Injection. The brakes failed, the lights and turnsignals went out, and all the temperatures dropped. The last few blocks to Eddie’s house – things started working again… I’ll have to wait for the storm to leave to check over the car and make sure it’s totally ok.

Posting from Colorado

Current Altitude: 4919.63 feet above sea level!

I’m near Fort Collins, posting from the Colorado Welcome Center.  Except they weren’t every welcoming – it closed at 6pm. I pulled up at 5:57 and the door was locked.

For those of you who don’t know me well – I am originally from Colorado – I lived here until 2006.