Hot Rod Hill Climb

And onward to the event we've all been waiting for!!  The hot rod hill climb!!

Night before - drivers meeting

 

 And a yummy dinner with the Reno gang (aka Peckerheads :))

 Beautiful morning for a hill climb!  It was a little chilly at first, but the sunshine helped a lot!

 Our friend, Tommy, was the first to attempt the climb from our group.  He was smoking!

 Then it was Gabe's turn...

 We were in a different class - along with our friend Ray

 and Troy

 Ray backing onto the starting ramp...

 And he's off!  With Julie as his sidekick!

 Our turn - and what a blast it was!  I video taped the ride, but am not posting it here.  You'll have to see Chris to watch the video :)

 After the climb - heading back to town.  The climb only took a couple minutes, but had a few turns, and some squirrely bumps.  Fun!

 Lunch!  Signing the Peckerheads trophy.  They (Ray) made a trophy to give to their favorite participant (all the car clubs were asked to do the same).  The Peckerheads award was a chopped windshield frame, with an illustrated Peckerhead insert that they all signed.  They picked a 4 cylinder flathead, since it is similar to the car they raced in Bonneville (and got the world record in)

 Watching more hill climbers.  One car made 8 passes!  The Peckerheads only did a few passes each.  They still had to drive back to Reno, and didn't want to tear up their cars too much.

 Cindy & Tom on a pass!

Donna & Julie watching the fun!

 In line again

 The guys all jumped in Tommy's roadster and made a pass - good times!

 They were flying!

 Award ceremony (couldn't hear a thing!)

 Troy walked away with a trophy though! 

 So many cool buildings in Central City - I asked Chris to 'pose' in front of a couple :)

 Troy & Donna

 Important discussions :)

 Thanks to Julie for the photos of our run!

Great event!!!  Not sure we can make it every year - since it's so far away - but we will definitely be back!!

And then we had a ton of fun at the after party!  (actually there were very few people there, and the band was thrown together last minute, but that made it all the more fun!)

Reliability Run Day #3

Friday was a Reliability Run!  Love these!  Even though we had just drove for 2 days, we couldn't wait to drive some more - especially in these beautiful mountains!

 

 There were a lot of cars!  150 had signed up for the hot rod hill climb, so there were at least that many on this run!

 1st stop was a large parking lot in Golden, CO - this is where we registered and got our stickers, directions, etc

Then we were off!  A bunch of friends from the Reno area were with us - so we knew it was going to be a great day!

 We checked out the Red Rocks Ampitheater

 It was amazing.  You could see downtown Denver - but these pictures make it all look so small.

 We passed through a bunch of cool mountain towns

 stopped for gas :)

Always kept our eyes on the road (or the scenery...)

 In some areas, the leaves were starting to turn - so beautiful!!  There are a lot of pines in the mountains, so it was mostly green.  But the pop of color would really stand out.  In the beginning of our trip, the trees were turning yellow, but they were more orange after the long weekend.  Winter comes fast!

We stopped at Echo Lodge

 Then we decided to drive up Mt Evans!

 Scary!  But at least the road was paved :)

 It was quite chilly at the top!

 And lunch awaited us at the bottom - in Idaho Springs, CO - Another cool town.

 We were lucky enough to see some mountain goats on our journey

And another in our group had another malfunction.  Relatively quick fix though

Then we were back at the campground, and putting a new radiator in Troy's car.  He couldn't drive his car in the Reliability run, as he was waiting for a new radiator.  But he did ride with another guy, so he didn't miss all the fun.