It's about 1200 highway miles from Chicago to Snowmass Colorado. That's a long drive in an old Lotus so Paul Quiniff and I both decided long ago that we would both trailer our Loti to the Lotus Owners Gathering or LOG 27. We left at 6 am on Wednesday with Sue and I pulling my freshly restored 30 year old trailer with my 63 Elan on top and Paul hauling his big yellow box stuffed with his Lotus Six and enough spares to supply a Russian army. We had our Audi wagon and Paul had recently upgraded his ole "Van from Hell" (a fiberglass coated 1979 Chevy with over 400,000 miles on the clock) to Moose (a big Green 2000 Ford E-150 with Air Conditioning!).
We stopped in Moline to see Ed Young and his Locost (a somewhat home made copy of a Lotus 7 using lots of parts from a donor Toyota). It was good to see Ed and his project is moving along well, but when we returned to our vehicles Moose would not start. After an hour of diagnostics we determined that the fuel pump (located in the 40 gallon fuel tank of course) had died. Ed made a few calls and found a friend of a friend who owned a shop near by could take care of it right away. Sue and I were not quite confident that "right away" meant 2 hours or 2 days so with a feeling of regret we took off - once we were sure Paul would be not left stranded. We thought he would get the van repaired and catch up to us in a day or so. I did not expect Paul's determination to catch up so quickly.
Sue and I traveled on through Iowa hitting some pretty heavy rain but we pushed on through. We hit the Nebraska border at 4 pm just as Paul hit the road again from Moline, having a freshly installed fuel pump, pumping away (ah, the wonders of Cell phone communications.). About an hour into Nebraska we saw a big storm front (Nebraska is very flat you can see for many, many miles). It was still too early to find a hotel so we pushed on figuring we could just take it easy through this storm as we did through the one we hit is Iowa. As we approached however we could tell right away this one was going to be a whopper. There wasn't much in the way of radio stations but every one that we came across was broadcasting storm warnings. As we approached the town of Hastings we had the wipers going full blast and I was following a big semi with the flashers going. There was no place to pull over to as all the viaducts were full of cars already. You couldn't see anything more that 20 feet away so I figured pulling over would be worse than continuing so we continued at about 10 mph for an hour and a half - Definitely white knuckle driving. Did I mention the hail and high winds? Since we were close to Kansas I told Sue that if I saw a cow or a wicked witch flying by I would pull over. She was not amused. The radio announced a funnel cloud touch down in Hastings. about 10 miles south of us so I continued on until we finally cleared out of the storm. Passing through Grand Island we saw a lot of debris from an overturned semi. We pushed on and after 14 hours of driving we pulled into a Comfort Inn in North Platte.
We talked to Paul on the cell as we headed across the street for dinner. He had some heavy rain but I think the REAL nasty stuff missed him. As we hit the hay, Paul was still pushing on, intending to nap a bit at a rest stop along the way. I didn't sleep well (a 5P night) worked up from the drive and thinking about how Paul was doing. In the middle of the night after one of my pit stops I looked out the window to see if I could still see my Elan. It's a silly thing I have that I worry about people messing with my toy. My eyes were not focusing well and through the window I couldn't quite make out the Audi and trailer at the end of the lot. I opened the door and took a step outside. Son of a gun! The big yellow box was out there parked next to the Elan! Paul had pulled a marathon drive and had caught up to us. OK, now I can get some sleep.
I awoke early, showered and headed out to Paul's van. He was in the back seat asleep and as I knocked on the side door and opened it up he instinctively reached down for his beer that he treated himself to after parking. It was empty. Paul cleaned up a bit and we all had some breakfast before hitting the road together again now communicating locally through our walkie talkies rather than long distance via the cell phones. Nebraska roads are boring but as we started rolling into Colorado the hills and valleys began to spice up the drive. The further into the State we got, the more stupendous the views. Denver was kind of lot like a regular big city, just real high up with a lot of very big uphill climbs and downhill blasts to get through it. We passed through some tunnels in the mountains and then the scenery started looked like miniature train sets. The houses on the hills with the train tracks all reminded me of the look that all the model train builders around the world were striving to achieve.
Our next stop was at Barb and Ken Olendzki's fabulous new shack in Breckenridge Colorado. Wow! What a place. The insides, outside and view of the mountains are truly something you see in fancy architect magazines at the magazine stand. Ken and Barb gave us the tour, Barb taking Sue through front door, Ken taking Paul and I through the garage first - most appropriate. Later we got our first experience of the thin air just trying to taking our bags up the stairs to the wonderfully appointed bedrooms, each with their own private luxury bathrooms! We spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the view and some brews.
Ken & Barb have several toys and are members of several car clubs, one of them being Land Rover. They had just returned from an off road meet and their Defender was a bit dirty. There was not enough room in the Defender for all of us so we all hopped into their Mercedes G wagon and Ken gave us a bit of an off-road demonstration on the way to dinner in town. He drove up this little dirt path along the side of the hill and I got to view the "guardrail-less" drop off to the trees below. There were many more thrilling views to follow that weekend.
The town of Breckenridge was like an illustrated story book. All the buildings were either literally over 100 years old or made brand new to look like they were built in the 1800's. Very quaint, very entertaining. We dined at a lively little restaurant and enjoyed the company, food and libations as we reviewed the locals and tourists. The locals tended to dress a bit like modern hippies, many of the women adorned with long dresses to the ankles.
Back at the ranch I took a little walk with Ken as he took his wonderful dog Sam for his evening walk. Very quiet at night and you can see the stars quite clearly through the thin air. The Olendzki's subdivision in fact has "light pollution" ordinance that limit what kind of outside lighting you can have!
The next morning after a nice breakfast at another real cool place in town, we all hit the road for our 2 1/2 hour drive to Snowmass. We finally saw our first Lotus on the road an Eclat on a trailer, chugging up a hill. There were a lot of trucks having a tough time going up the hills. We did fine, the Audi ran great and Paul by using a large amount of throttle was able to keep up with Moose. We rolled into Snowmass village around 1:00. The village was quite crowded and it was also basically on the side of a hill so you were either struggling to go up or braking hard to keep from flying down the hill. There were ample signs and lots of Lotus of Colorado volunteers on hand to point us in the right direction. As we pulled into the courtyard area of the hotel, we could see several substantial Lotus parked along the wall. The first to catch my eye was the new "Two-Eleven" which is a wild, go-cart like version on an Elise. Very low, no windshield, big spoiler and even less of an interior than a regular Elise. The second car that caught my eye was Emerson Fittapaldi's Formula 1 Lotus 72, all bright and shiny just like it was back in the day. Then there was a few of your just regularly spectacular Elises, Esprits and a cool old Lotus six.
We checked in and Ken and I unloaded the Elan at the trailer parking about a mile down the hill. I fired the Elan up and could tell on the way back up the hill to the car wash area that neither the Elan nor I liked this thin air very much. I felt the lack of air in my chest and the Elan felt it in the air cleaner as it needed a lot of throttle to get going. Where in Illinois I would have been doing a burn out, here I was bogging down the engine.
After washing off 1200 miles of bugs and road dirt. I found a nice parking spot and toured the parking lot with Sue and a Dave Bean Lotus bag we filled with some suds. Lots of Elise, Europa, Esprit Seven and Elan models to view. There were also a couple nice old Elites. A preview for tomorrow's big event.
Later on we all gathered in the tent on the roof for the Friday night reception. Lot's of finger food and carving stations with roast beef and turkey for all. Delish! Several of the Lotus Colorado Klan made some announcements but most everyone was busy socializing and enjoying the refreshments. We retired for the evening tired but very refreshed.
There was nothing of interest to me in the morning's tech sessions, so Sue and I wandered about the adjacent outside "mall" and found a trendy little coffee shop serving nice coffee, bagels and fancy egg burritos pretty good for us. It would prove to be Paul's downfall tomorrow however! Sue was not quite awake and she was giving a curious look to the little paper coffee cup insulators that those trendy shops supply. You pop them open and slide them around the cup and they insulate you so you don't burn your hand holding the cup. So anyway, Sue had never seen them before and she was very tired and she almost tried to take a bite out of one thinking it might be some sort of wafer. Funny honey!
I left Sue at the hotel to join me later and Paul and I drove down the road to the concours. We timed it just right; arriving as one of the first cars so they lined my Elan up directly dead center in the first row behind Emmo's F1 car. They moved Paul around a bit and he finally ended up in the front row off to one side along with three other sixes - also a primo spot. We cleaned up the cars a bit and started socializing with the hordes arriving in their own Loti or via rental cars. In the end, there were almost 500 registered Lotus fan with around 171 cars in the Doug Chadwick panoramic photo.
Sue joined as the final participants lined up their cars. After a lot of settling down, Doug, high atop his scaffold started up the vintage camera in its long slow sweep of the field. As it arced around, as is the tradition for all LOG photos, this guy from New York who was posing on the left, kneeling with his briefcase took off in a trot over to the right and kneeled over there as well. So this time traveler was in the same picture twice, on the left side and on the right. I don't know if this guy has been to all the LOGS to carry on this tradition, but he has been in all the photos of LOGS that I have been to.
Time for lunch - pretty good catered affair with some tables and chairs set up in the shade to cool down and enjoy. The organizers had the forethought to provide free chilled bottled water and also sun screen in a one gallon squirt container. Take a squirt - it's free. No burning for us fair skinned types.
Lot's of beautiful cars and beautiful people but as soon as the cars started to thin out and we had a route out of the tight parking, we boogied on out for a quick shower back at the hotel. Ken, Barb, Paul, Jeff, Sue and I then took a road trip down to Aspen, just to enjoy the roads and see the sights. Barb and Ken in their M100, Jeff and Paul in Jeff's Elise and Sue and I in the Elan. My Elan was running really poorly in the thin air. It runs rich to begin with so with the thin air it was all I could do to keep it running while ensuring that nobody for miles would worry about mosquitoes which actually there weren't any of anyway. The air is too thin, their little lungs would collapse if they tried to suck out the blood from a ripe victim panting and sweating as they tried to walk up a simple flight of stairs.
We zigged and zagged our way into downtown Aspen and found some street parking here and there. We walked a bit and decided alcohol was needed so we popped into a trendy bar/restaurant where we all ordered some refreshments. Relaxing by the window next to the open doorway we could see kids playing in the park at the foot of one of the mountains. We relaxed, had a few sips, talked and relaxed, orders another round, relaxed some more and when we all stood up to leave, it seemed like a real good idea that we get the ladies to climb the jungle gym for a photo opportunity. The kids let the goofy, giggling adults get their picture taken and then went back to playing while we hopped back into our toy cars and buzzed back to the hotel.
We all gathered back up for the social hour before the banquet and Barb managed to sweet talk her way into sitting in Lotus's new model the 2-11 that was just sitting outside the lobby along with some other prime examples of the Newer Lotus cars. We chatted with old acquaintances and made some new ones and then found our way in for the dinner. Seated with us at table 17 was Dave Myers sans wife and kids who had found some other kind of local entertainment for the evening. (What, you don't think Allen de Cadenet can hold an 8 year olds attention for an hour after a meal?) Din-din was very nice for a big banquet and the slide presentation helped keep everyone entertained.
After some announcements and chit chat, they started handing out awards. Paul won the "Vintage racer" class. Dave Meyers took home some metal for the Ml00 and I took a third in the Elan S1/S2 class. Dave Koski won the Europa class with his T/C Special which he had had Emmo sign the engine compartment on earlier at the show. Ken Olendzki knew his M100 would not win so he had toyed with the idea of switching identification cards with the like new 1,000 mile M100 parked next to him. He had chickened out. He would have done it had he had the Mojitos at the show! We had also tried to get Ken some gold by entering his Elan in the Cortina category. (There were no Cortinas there!) The organizers figured out our ruse and they just skipped that category.
Allen was a pretty good speaker although some people had trouble with his heavy British accent. He spoke of his early years as a lad pursuing Lotus 7's and racing cars all so he could get closer to the women whom he had hoped would swarm all over him once he got the right car. An entertaining conversation that did not last too long and we hit the hay relatively early.
Our tour guides Barb and Ken had us up early to hit the road Sunday for Maroon Bells. Sue and I and Jeff as well had decided to skip the autocross so we could just enjoy more of Colorado's beautiful twisty and scenic roads. You only get to drive up to Maroon bells before 9am, after that it gets too crowded and they shut the road down and only let people in by shuttle bus. We all grabbed a quick bite at the trendy shop Sue and I had found the day before. Paul turned up his nose at what he called "Foo Foo" food, but he ate it anyway. Not quite like the rubber egg sandwiches at McDonalds, his burrito had scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, sour cream and probably some other "Foo Foo" ingredients. We took off in our
Audi all-road as I did not trust the Elan brakes with so many turns, switchbacks and sudden changes in altitude. Paul rode with Jeff in his Elise while Ken, Barb and Sammy (the dog) were in the M100. The drive and the view to Maroon Bells (a pair of 14,000 foot mountains that looked like... guess what, Maroon bells.) was stupendous and we parked our cars in the lot and began the little trek up the hill to the hidden lake a bit up the path.
After the first beautiful lake, Barb announced we would be hiking up this little rocky path to the next lake. I thought this was a short little path - I was wrong. The walking path was very, very rocky and had a steady uphill incline almost all the way. Everyone was doing OK, some better than others. We had to stop here and there to catch our breath and view the scenery. You really couldn't look at the scenery as you walked because of all the rocks you really had to pay attention to where you placed your feet. You were continually stepping onto, over and around rocks the whole way. We thought we were doing pretty well until we were all passed up by some local Octogenarians in their walkers. Laughing and chatting the whole way you think there was a giant bingo game at the top of the mountain. Those locals really do get used to the thin air and also keep themselves thin. Strictly by coincidence we later saw on TV a report that stated Colorado has the least Obese population in the US. I believe it. A lot of people I work with would not make it 20 feet this high up.
We made it to the top and as we were taking in the beauty of the lake reflecting the mountains, Paul's stomach decided it did not like the morning Foo Foo Food and Paul had to quickly go out into the woods to do what the bears do in the woods. I know- TMI, Too Much Information. But it was funny!
We all sampled the clear water (tasted kind of irony) and headed back down the hill. Downhill was actually harder on your knees and ankles than uphill. At least your lungs had no problems. My weak ankles ended up as my downfall as I literally fell down three times and that's with no beer involved. But we all made it back down the hill. I later found out on the internet that that climb was 3.8 miles round-trip with a rise of 496 feet along the way! A little more of a hike than I normally get at work going down the hall to the washroom. I'm glad I had been doing some time on the treadmill before our trip.
After our trek I was limping along pretty sorely but we were done walking and it was time to go find independence pass. Lots of twisty, narrow roads going up the side of the mountains to the continental divide. It was an exhilarating drive but not too bad as Sue only punched me in the arm about 4 or 5 times. We stopped at the top 12,200 some feet up for some more pictures and viewing. Ken and Barb left to go find that trendy bar in Aspen and the rest of us continued down the twisty road to twin lakes - a gorgeous, gorgeous spot where the reflection is so beautiful you can't tell where the water ends and the mountains and sky begins.
We buzzed back to Aspen and hobbled to the trendy bar where Barb and Ken where just finishing up their 2nd (?) round of Mojitos. My ankles were very sore but after a couple of refreshing Guinness Stouts, I arose and found all pain was gone - what a magic potion that Guinness is!
We went back to the hotel and I put the Elan back on the trailer for the trip home. Paul and I had just restored my old trailer before the trip and several people actually took pictures of my yellow with green fendered 30 year old brand new trailer. Some people stopped to chat and we had a nice relaxing tailgate party.
Later at dinner we convinced Paul that he wouldn't die (at least not immediately) from Chinese food and we all sat down at the local Golden Dragon. We opened up the menus and what was the first thing that Paul spotted? "Foo-Foo" drinks - literally that's what it said. We all had a good laugh as we dined and reviewed the photo's from the weekend on Ken's little laptop.
There was only one more little incident on the way home the next day. As we were percolating through Denver, we came across an officer on the side of the road. I signaled and moved out of the right hand lane as per the law in Colorado. Paul did likewise but as he did he did not notice the Saturn Vue buzzing by him at a much greater rate of speed. Paul swerved back slightly at the last second but clunked his side view mirror of his van against the Saturn. I saw the trailer swinging back and forth in my rear view mirror but Paul caught it and pulled over to discuss things with the Saturn and the officer who just happened to be on the scene (the cop actually caused the accident!) It was only about 20 minutes later when Paul pulled up behind me on the side of the road and I went back to survey the damage. The big black plastic outside of the mirror was undamaged, just the mirror part was busted out. Paul immediately went into his trailer and after a few minutes emerged with the rear view mirror from his Lotus 6. He then proceeded to duct tape the Lotus mirror into the Ford opening and because it was a convex mirror, he actually almost liked it better than the stock flat Ford mirror. No more incidents on the way home - whew!
Well, 2,555 miles door to door over 7 days. The longest LOG weekend I had ever been to but certainly one of the best. Kudos to the Lotus LTD Colorado Clan as they put on one heck of an event. We really enjoyed ourselves and appreciate all the hard work they had put into their event. Where will next year's LOG be? Young Kim and his Club House for Indy Lotus Lovers (CHILL) will be hosting LOG 28 in Indianapolis. The Concours is to be held inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. See you there!
