Car Cruzin'!

We began in Carlton and ran the pink route clockwise.  Short lived...road turned to gravel around the 8 o'clock spot.  Paper map shows entire loop to be paved.  Came back to Carlton, drove due N to Yamhill and went east on rest of route...very nicely paved smooth with good shoulders.

MR2, 911, Boxster

Meeting up in Carlton near the popular Carlton Bakery

Choosing some nice pastries at $3.50 each...they were ono at home!

We finally got a car cruz in this morning...me and my three sons, Tad, Jer, and Alex, plus Mark (friend to Tad).  Weather was not the nicest since Fall is here, so we had a few sunbreaks but mostly grey sky with drizzle sometimes, and temps near 60F.  We met in Carlton, chosen for being halfway between where Jer and Alex live in Hillsboro, and where Tad and I live in West Salem.

The route I selected did not pan out perfect because part of the route shown as paved on a paper map was in reality gravel when we got there!  Anyway we met near the bakery in downtown Carlton just before 10AM, got some pastries, then headed out with me in the lead, and Alex riding shotgun with me.  Good navigator!  Headed west on Main Street and about five miles out the rather bumpy road turned to gravel, so we could not complete the loop to Yamhill.  We turned around, stopped in Carlton to discuss new plan, and then headed north with Jeremy in lead this time, to Yamhill, and thence east and south per the original planned route.  That portion was nicely paved and maintained so it was a joy to drive.  We completed our loop back to Carlton.  Not a long route but adequate for us due to the less than perfect weather.

the Young family...good looking sons!

Full complement of cars...Boxster, 911, MR2, CaymanS

Mark has joined us

Jer's MR2 on the prowl

On the road

We broke up from there.  Jer and Alex went north, Tad and Mark went east, and I headed south via Mc Minnville and 99W to home.  Nice time.  Need a better and longer route next time.  My roundrip mileage was 93 today.  I was out from 9AM till about 12:30PM.  We should do this more!

Casino Coast Cruisin!

Haven't taken the Boxster on a long drive for a loooooooooooonnnng time, so I finally got off the dime and hit the road on something manageable.  133.3 miles in about 4 hours took me from home to Chinook Winds in Lincoln City first, via Hwy 22, then Hwy 18 and short stretch of Hwy 101.  Hit four 4's on video poker but I was only playing one credit of 25 cents so that won $20.  Left there in 20 minutes with $15 of the winnings.  Drove next north on 101 heading for Hebo.  Construction signs warned of closure of Hwy 22.  I didn't know if that would be north or south of Hebo, so I took the first right off 101 on the Neskowin River cutoff.  Many one lane bridges on this route but nice twisties.  That joined with Hwy 22 apparently south of the closure because I rode it all the way to Grand Ronde and Spirit Mountain.  Lost $5 of my winnings from CW while at SM for perhaps 20 minutes again.  Headed home $10 in the black.  Round trip was about four hours from just before 9AM till 1PM.

I parked on the upmost tier of the Chinook Winds parking lot.

At Spirit Mountain, I just parked far enough out in the middle of the lot.

The 981 Boxster was a joy driving on the state highways and the county roads I took today.  Very smooth ride, easy steering, and power to spare.  Passed on the uphill passing lanes near where the buffalo used to roam, hitting 90 mph easy to scoot by everyone I wanted to pass.  Then I hit about 85 mph on the first long uphill passing section just west of Grand Ronde.  Very positive and feels safe.  No incidents recorded with numbnuts parking next to my Boxster just to be irritating.  All in all, just a very fine outing in the 981!

First Oil Change

April 18, 2014 was the one year anniversary since the dual delivery of my 981 Boxster and Tad's 991 Carrera S.  At 9AM, we left Salem for the dealership in Portland for the first oil change and servicing. I had about 2030 miles going up, so I am officially over the break-in period, but I have sort of ignored that the last 500 miles since I am no racer anyhow. We got a lot of looks on the way up and back as we caravaned the 1 hour+ trip each way.

Somehow though our hoped for one hour waiting at the dealership ended up much more. I needed the oil change as well as the patch for the service engine now dummy light issue that has existed in my car since delivery. Also had them take the meep meep out when I lock my car with the fob. My son only needed the oil change too, but they decided to do a campaign fix that took about another three hours on his 991. Knowing that we were together, they just took their time with my car too. What we hoped might be a 1-2 hour wait ended up 5 hours! Fortunately the dealership gave us a loaner car midway in the wait so that we could go eat lunch and kill some time. They actually offered my son the use of the car overnight, but we figured we were there and should just get it all done then. Lunch was just over an hour and we still had to wait almost an hour after we got back. Our 10AM appointment finally ended at 3PM and we got to hit the back roads home through some twisties, taking more like 90 minutes to get home.

While it was a frustratingly long wait, we managed to have fun and create another Porsche focused memory between father and son. Checked out all the cars in the showroom and the front lot at the dealership, window shopped all the Porsche Design merchandise inside, had lunch, and drove the marvels up and back between Salem and Portland. Not exactly as we had intended, but it was a nice day doing our Porsche car thing together, nevertheless.

I was real happy with how the car ran up and back. It's just easy to drive for short or longer trips, and I was comfortable all the time in the sport plus seats. The car handled all the roads well, and I can see taking a long roadtrip with no problems for my body. Oh hey, I noted the car was getting 28.3mpg as we neared Portland, via I-5 all the way except for a few miles in Salem.

I am a dinosaur and finally got a cell phone a few weeks ago. Using it via the bluetooth communication to the car is simply the best thing since sliced bread to me, lol. Really was easy and convenient to call my son dozens of times as we drove. I did keep the top up so that I could use the phone anytime. I think it might have been difficult to hear him with the top down. I noticed though that I got distracted a few times just using the hands free controls, so it ain't a great thing for me to use even the hands free while driving!

Best things...I love the sound during acceleration in the lower gears, so intoxicating still. Shifting is such a pleasure with the 6 speed gearbox, smooth and precise, snick snick snick. Monitoring the temps, oil, tire pressure, mileage, etc all easily with the lower right lever (forgot the name, haha) is a comforting capability. Comfort in the cockpit is outstanding to me, and I got out feeling tired only from being out for 8 hours, but my body did not ache from the seats or ride. I was still ready to stand there several minutes and grin at MY Boxster. The longer I have it, the more I love it, and the more I feel good about spending the money for it!

C5 still alive

In prep for selling the Corvette, I washed it a few days ago, and today I took it to a nearby school to take some pics for the ad.  Here are a few of the pics:

Later in the day, I took a 30 minute drive in the Corvette...it still feels so powerful and it sounds like the American muscle car.  Still love that.  I do feel strong side forces when taking curves, therefore I slow down in them.  Steering takes more effort in curves too.  The Boxster can take curves faster without the same sense of side forces, and steering is effortless at ALL times.

UPDATE on June 19, 2013:  Happened to look at the charger on the Corvette today, and a red light was on...meaning trouble in the battery.  It should be yellow for charging or green for fully charged.  I got in the car and nothing was lit.  Battery was dead as a doorknob, which is weird because I just drove the car yesterday!  Anyway, I did a quick search on the internet, and got a decent batt from Autozone. It is a Duralast Gold for $115, so I called to be sure they had it in Keizer, then took off in the XB with the Optima to trade in.  Got the batt back home and it fits and everything seems to be running.  Car starts right up.  From discovery to good as gold took maybe one hour, haha.

EFFORTLESS!

I went out for a nice drive this morning. Normally I drive maybe one hour, which limits the distance to about 40 miles RT. I've been wanting to hit a couple curvy routes that are about 30 minutes away from home, and decided to go for it today. I put on about 121 miles in 2 hrs and 36 minutes. With a couple rest stops at the Spirit Mountain casino going and coming, I was out for about 3 hours total. Had to play $5 at the casino and get a free soda while there anyway.

For those familiar with the area, I left Salem driving northwest on Hwy 22, went to SM, then back onto Hwy 22 to Hebo. Between SM and Hebo, the highway is full of curves as Hwy 22/SW Hebo Rd passes through the coastal range of mountains. In Dolph (just a name on a map, could not see anything there except an intersection of two highways), the name changes to 3 Rivers Hwy till Hebo. At Hebo, I turned south on Hwy 101...this is the highway that runs the length of the State of Oregon mostly with the Pacific Ocean in view. But the short section I was on is inland, and I was on it maybe 5 miles before turning eastward on Hwy 130/Little Nestucca River Rd. This was a fun road between 101 and Dolph...lots of curves with very little traffic. I think that was due to several one-lane bridges that I passed over, yet the road was paved nicely and well maintained. At Dolph, I then turned southeast onto 22 again, but now going in the opposite direction...still lots of fun, maybe moreso since on the way out I was stuck behind a semi and other traffic for 10 miles, but on the way back I did not catch up to traffic for many miles. Proceeded back to Spirit Mountain for a pitstop, soda, and some video poker. I think my $5 lasted 5 minutes on a nickel machine, lol. It was a good rest, and I headed back home to Salem, taking the usual 35 minutes or so.

I thorougly enjoyed the drive. The base Boxster is both a great touring car with ample cockpit comfort space and a very smooth ride while also being an aggressive go-cart with quickness and agility in the curves and hills. Loved the more aggressive sound and response with the sport button on, of course! Carving curves is just so easy with this car. I have said it before...point and shoot. Feels like it is on rails around curves. I am not a good rev matcher but I still love trying, and downshifting gets you into more torque, then that wonderful raspy note from the engine and exhaust fills your senses all over again. Curve after curve, over and over. I know I am preaching to the choir.

Heading home from SM on 22, I only had to pass a couple cars on some uphill vehicle passing lanes, but boy is that fun to downshift, accelerate pass the slower vehicle effortlessly in my gorgeous Porsche, change lanes at a comfortable distance, and slow a bit but not too much...cannot have them catch up can we, lol.

I got to play with cruise control for the first time today on the more boring parts of Hwy 22 near Salem. I had not read the manual on its use, but gosh it was very easy to figure out and use on the fly so to speak. I love how smooth it feels too, not hurky jerky as it operates. I manually deployed the spoiler several times today. Seems to be working, but I can't visually verify it is out from the cockpit. It was still out when I parked once, so I think it works fine.

As I reflect on my thoughts about this drive, I think I just determined that the key word to describe the Boxster is EFFORTLESS. It was just that in all that it did for me today...effortless steering, effortless shifting, effortless accelerating, effortless stopping, and it was just so effortless at looking good the whole time! 3 fun hours with just the Boxster and me today. The only thing better is 4 hours, 5 hours, etc, etc. Actually I might be tired after too much time out. I was not tired after 3 hours, but I was pretty fully satiated! Oh, I still think a built in catheter would allow me not to waste time on rest stops!

Boxster Runabouts!

Yesterday, I took the Boxster out for over an hour, for 45 miles, with Sandy.  Top had to be up most of the time as she did not like the cool air nor the wind blowing her floppy hat.  After a few minutes of seeing her hunker down low in the seat to stay warmer, I pulled over and raised the top...gotta love how fast it works, and I don't even have to get out of the car!  We went out to Dallas and back in via Monmouth and Independence.  In Indy, we were just 10 minutes from home and it was 5F warmer (now 72F), so I dropped the top and Sandy was fine, except for the wind.  She held down the floppy hat around her ears, so silly!

Today I drove over another hour, down River Rd, across to the bridge before Indy, headed back East and up Skyline, over to Concomly, and then up Liberty, 12th, and home on State Street, the bridge, Wallace and Orchard Heights.  TOP DOWN all the way and with the heater on since it was just over 60F.  I activated the spoiler for most of the drive and put it back down when I entered Salem again.  I saw a 911 Cab at the start of the drive when I was cruising down River Road, and I gave a wave, but did not ascertain gender of the driver, nor a response.  The Boxster seems to be running fine, as I still try to get used to everything about it.

LATER in the day, Tad came over in his 911S with his new friend Mark who is interested in the 981 Cayman!  They ended up staying about 2 hours, and we squeezed in a short 20 minute cruise with the 991 and 981 for Mark to see and hear.  Mark is one funny dude who is totally enthused about getting a Porsche, and he is well versed in all the specs, options, and costs for the Cayman.   By the end of our time though, he was also totally confused about which P car to get...the Cayman, Boxster, or Carrera, or the S variant of each, lol.  It was fun to see the excitement and enthusiasm, and Tad really hopes Mark gets one of the cars so we will have another Porsche nut to cruise and converse with!

Good route on Sunday

I took a pretty nice drive in the Boxster on Sunday!  Headed to Independence via 22 and Independence Hwy.  Went through the town, then left across the Willamette River on what would be River Road extended.  At the East end of the bridge, I turned right and drove across a floodplain full of strawberry fields and many dozens of workers who were parked roadside and harvesting the fruit.  The air was sweet with strawberries.  Turned North on Skyline, which proceeds uphill via some pretty tight twisties.  Just after the top, turned East on Concomly for a tour of the million dollar estates with multi-acre lots.  Turned North on Liberty then East on Kuebler.  Headed North on Commercial till 12th and followed that to Marion St, thence back home via Wallace and Orchard Heights.  The drive takes about an hour.  Another good variation would be to go East on 22 from home, south on Front, West then South on River Rd till the East end of the Willamette R bridge, before getting into Independence.  From there the route would be the same as described.  This would add more curves to the route!  I think I need to introduce Tad to this one.

Drove it!

Finally a nice day and since it was a bit breezy, I chose to drive the 981 Boxster instead of fly my RC planes.  I first went to get gas at the Chevron on Hwy 22 just west of Salem.  Headed from there on 22 into Dallas, and then south on 223 (Kings Hwy).  I turned back east after five minutes, onto the Monmouth Hwy (I think).  That road was about 10 minutes of ecstacy with some nice curves and hills, AND no traffic going my way.  One short stretch of straight flat road allowed me to scoot up to  90mph very effortlessly yet smoothly.  That straight ends in a 20mph 90 degree hard left, so it was fun.  I wonder how many drivers have missed that curve in the dark!  From there I went through Monmouth and Independence, then turned north on Independence Hwy, east on 22 and up Doaks Ferry to home.  That drive was just over an hour, averaged about 25mpg, and covered about 50 miles.  Top up all the way since it was 60F.

Later in the day, Tad came over in his 991 Carrera S and wanted to drive.  With Tad leading, we went east on Orchard Hgts, north on Wallace, west and north on Brush College, further north on Spring Valley Rd, then back south on Wallace thence Doaks Ferry to home. That cruise was just under 20 miles and about 30 minutes.  By now the temp was nearly 70F, so I drove top down and could hear my engine even better...I LOVE IT!

It really is so exciting to hear those two Porsche flat sixes and exhausts as we accelerate down those country roads and curves.  The sound and the experience is like a drug.  I find myself grinning the whole time.  One driver in an SUV waived to us at the beginning of our drive, and then a school crossing lady guard waved at me at the end near Brush College Elementary.  All in all, I put about 70 joyful miles on the Brown Bomber today!

981's in Paradise!

I was in Honolulu May 6-13, 2013 with my wife, son, and his wife.  I was there to see my 92 year young mom, but managed a couple fun occasions involving the 981!

Just a couple days before flying to HI, my license plate bracket sold on P-9. When I checked the buyer info, I found he lives in HI just a few miles from my mom's house where I would be staying. I was able to contact him via e-mail before the trip to ask him if he wanted to wait for me to ship the bracket to him after returning from the trip, or if he would like hand delivery in Honolulu where he could also show me his 981 Boxster. I was happy he chose the latter. So last Tuesday after work, he dropped by my mom's house to get the bracket. I am real happy I got to meet Colin, who comes to this forum now and then. He has the moniker motenai which he says means bad luck with women, haha.  He drove his white 981S with blue top and blue interior....very SWEET looking Boxster. Colin bought the car just two weeks earlier off the lot of Porsche of Hawaii. No fair, no waiting, lol. Anyway, we struck up a good 30 minute discussion in the dark in front of the garage, but Chuck activated the bright security lights there.  We talked about his options and experience so far. He's in the US Navy and is going to be transferring soon from HI to Florida, and taking the car from the West Coast on a nice cross country jaunt. I am really impressed by this young man, and am happy I got to meet him. I thanked him for serving our country...we are in good hands if he represents the service men and women protecting our nation. Darn, I did not get any pics of Colin and his Boxster S. I guess it still qualifies as my first sighting of a 981 in the wild!  I was real happy that Sue and Chuck got to see what my Boxster looks like, but in a different color.

On Thursday, my son and I went to Porsche of Hawaii for the fun of it. Saw several 981 Boxsters there, and one basalt black 981 Cayman. It was the day of their "launch" of the new Cayman, so we suspect they had more there which were probably being detailed, since their website says they have three Cayman's. Oh, one of the Boxsters was lime-gold and that really is striking in bright Hawaii sunlight! A few pics are attached.

We went into the parts shop, and I couldn't help myself....I bought a couple of their own license plate frames and baseball caps. Very nice souvenirs of our visit there!

While standing outside the parts store, two very cool F-22's passed low over the buildings, probably on their way to landing at HNL.  We learned later that each costs about $150M!!  This pic shows one F-22 between the coconut trees.

We saw lots of 911's, Cayenne's, and a couple older Boxster's on the roads. Definitely way more than I see around the small city of Salem, OR, but there has to be lots more money in Honolulu!

Non 981 related...we were landing last night at PDX and were less than a mile from the runway, and on final approach. All of a sudden the pilot hits full throttle and pulls up quickly. Turns out a military plane touched down just ahead of us and blew a tire. We would have been 20 minutes early. Instead we ended up circling, then going to Seattle, landing, refueling, and waiting for PDX to open again. Turned out to be a 3 hour delay, but I lived to tell the story and drive my 981 again. All is good, haha!

It was a good trip, mostly I was there to visit my mom and spend lots of time with her, but managed to squeeze in the 981 outings which were great fun.

Sports Car Cruising with my Sons!

Tad, Jer, and I had a nice 100 mile cruise today.  What I thought should be about 1.5 hours on the map turned into about 3.5 hours in real time counting stops here and there.  From West Salem he headed out on 22 to Lyons.

We stopped at an elementary school in Lyons to change who leads, put the tops down (for those who are able, haha), and for Jer to pee in the bushes, lol!  Here we are at the school.

We took 226 to Scio from here. What a nice discovery this highway turned out to be!  It has nice curves at the beginning which stretch out to bigger sweepers and straights as you head further southwest.  Going the opposite direction we passed about 5 Miatas, the last of whose driver gave us a wholehearted wave over his windshield!  

When we reached Scio, we turned north and turned into a high school for a few more pics!

Now we drove through Stayton and into Sublimity for this photo op in front of a mural on a building.

Next we turned toward Silver Falls State Park, this turned out to be a mistake!  At this point we already could tell it was windy because lots of little leaves and seed pods were being blown awry and into our cars.  Tad put his windows up while Jer and put our tops and windows up!  But that should have been a clue to turn around.  We did not and were surprised to see how much crap falls out of a forest when the wind his howling!  Branches and boughs of needles were all over the road.  One two foot bough fell and hit my windshield, flew over the car, and then Tad says it hit his 911 too.  Oh boy, we just high tailed it through the forest as fast as we could.  We went to a clean rest area in Silverton, and it turned out to be all locked up today.  No peeing there!  Shortly afterwards we found a DQ to eat at and pee, haha. From there it was a non-eventful drive on Silverton Rd back to Salem, thence West Salem.  Just 100 miles but we all were beat by the driving and the time it took to accomplish.  FUN though, and a great hobby to share with Tad and Jeremy!

Epic Delivery of Fraternal Twins!

On Thursday April 18, 2013, Tad, Becky, Sandy and I left Salem around 9AM  for the epic event...delivery of my 981 Boxster and his 991 Carrera S in Beaverton! What a day!! We arrived just after 10AM to see our smiling SA's waiting for us at the door of the showroom. We were going to do my delivery first, then his at noon, but my son's was able to go on concurrently for the most part because not many customers were there at the time. 

Both cars were displayed in the showroom, but my son's 911S seemed to have priority because it was in the primo display spot for deliveries, while mine was in the batter's up box, haha. There was just lots more room to move around his car than mine. I remember one customer brushing his fat arse against the right side mirror while he bent over a counter on that side. 

My delivery took over 2 hours and I missed my son's, while he was still able to pop in and out of mine, and help me look over the car.  He had done a delivery before with his 2012 CR, so he was able to walk through his pretty fast today. Being a newb to Porsche, I took it all in and welcomed the explanations of all the equipment and controls. I was happy my wife, daughter-in-law, and another son were there to take lots of pics of both cars for us! BTW the SA's can't think of another time where a father and son took delivery of 2 Porsches at the same time...they seemed pretty excited too.

The first thing that caught my attention when we entered was that the mahogany metallic is darker than I anticipated. Whoa nelly, I never wanted a black car (sorry to those who have black). While just walking around the car the first time, I could see scratches from the "detailing" done to prep the car. I am pretty sure the fellas out back are not real pro detailers. I can picture them using the same towel all day long to clean the cars. It is pretty obvious where they ran their towels, and in fact there was one guy still spraying and wiping my car when I arrived at the showroom. Note the car just arrived late the previous afternoon via truck. There was also a more noticeable abrasion on the front bumper where those blue foam tubes are affixed during transport. Well, my SA had the bumper buffed out before we left, and my son said he would help me detail the car ourselves. He is very adept at it after caring for his CR and is sure we can remove the scratches caused by the untrained human hands that unwrapped my Boxster. I did not even mention it to the SA because truthfully I did not want to let them touch it anymore than they already had. 

We signed papers, wrote a fat check, and headed to lunch nearby. We parked where I could park next to an island, son next to me, and his wife's car next to him so both our cars were protected from being parked next to, haha. Had a good table in the restaurant where we could see the cars and ensure nobody was keying them, lol. Ate well and then we headed home. We live about 50 minutes south on I-5, so it was mostly just a straight drive home. I never needed to go over 4200rpm in any gear, and the car felt peppy and smooth. On I-5, I just shifted between 5th and 6th every few minutes to avoid prolonged runs in one gear at one speed. My son was doing the same between 6th and 7th. My wife rode home with me and she played with the radio and air for us. Stock radio seems fine for us, and especially me since I know my hearing ain't what it used to be.

Parked at Pho Hung with Q5 protecting the new twins!

We got home fine, and noted the splattered bugs on our cars. They definitely show up more on mahogany metallic than on his agate grey! One thing I remember was getting hit by a small rock on the windshield, thwack. I did not find a chip but did not look real good in the garage. I just hope it did not go off the hood first. We intend to wash the cars tomorrow when the weather is good again, and I can then inspect the Boxster better and hopefully get started on removing the scratches created by the dealership. Those scratches BTW are all fine and mostly in straight lines along shere the long edges of the protective plastic sheets used to lay. 

While the color is darker than I anticipated, my wife and daughter-in-law are impressed by the color. I do agree it looks richer than a browner and lighter brown would be. What did impress me right off the bat was the espresso leather. Holy cow, it is like being enveloped in this warm, loving, and inviting caress, and it just smells so darn luxurious too.

Now to tell you the truth, everything feels somewhat anticlimatical right now...after so many months of waiting and anticipating, and just being on a really prolonged HIGH, there is a letdown. Son and I were both exhausted after getting the cars home then talking and sitting and gazing and cleaning them up a little till last night. I think it's just fatigue. I did get some energy back and managed to find $200 worth of detailing goodies on AutoGeek for myself just now, lol. And if it was sunny, I would be driving that dark brown Mocha Latte (my wife's suggestion) right now.