rzempel Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Just a short note for now: Today, we had a short drive with plans to visit Jewel Cave and Crazy horse with a run up to the air museum outside of Rapid City after we checked into our motel. Things went a little sideways for me when we stopped to fill up before we bagan today's short drive. Dion noticed something leaking from my car, and I discovered that I was losing coolant from my thermostat housing. Every day, so far--except for today because we had such a short distance to go, I checked oil and coolant. I think my car decided to demonstrate that it felt neglected today. I was ready to stay and fix it in Newcastle, but let myself be convinced that prudence should win out. I rolled my car into Skip's trailer while Tom drove the Miata into Custer. Ohhhh the shame of it. In town, the local auto parts guy was, thankfully, not tied to his computer to find parts. We chose a couple of potentially suitable gaskets and I went to work. It doesn't take too long to replace a faulty thermostat gasket, but now I'm stuck waiting for the RTV I coated it with to dry. Meanwhile everyone else seems to have gone off together for a drive. Until next time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z3 Stalker Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 While rzempel waited for his repairs to tale effect some of us went up to Crazy Horse. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzempel Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 We had a change of plans today, so if you're following the itinerary, you should know that we didn't. We had some weather concerns--the weather guessers agreed that we faced a 40% chance of rain today, clearing by tomorrow with warm & sunny conditions for the rest of the week. The consensus seemed to be that we would be best served by trading today with our "laundry and no-drive day later in the week." As it turned out, we just couldn't sit around...but, I'll get back to that in a moment. Yesterday, when I left off, I was watching paint (or, rather, RTV) dry. That was agonizing. Everyone else [we've been joined by Stewart, Steve, Tom, Skip, Bob, Derick, Catherine, and Linda.] drove away to see the Crazy Horse Monument. I have been assured that I only missed a waste of money--everything worth seeing is visible before you have to pay the steep entrance fee. They eventually returned, and we all went off to happy hour across the street. Two dollar draft beers seem destined to become a tradition as long as we're here in Custer! Today, we rose to foggy and drizzly conditions. In the roads, the locals appear to use stream rounded pebbles for the concrete aggregate. As a result, the roads are like ice-skating rinks when they are wet. That's not very good for driving, so we spent the monring having a leisurely breakfast and wandering up and down the main street of Custer. At about 10:30, I think we had all had enough resting and we'd become restive. At about five minutes to 11:00, the word came around that we'd be leaving for a drive if anyone was interested. I don't think I've seen nine Sevens warmed up and ready to go so quickly. At 11:00, we were on the road towards Wind Cave National Park. At 11:05, Bob sifted into third gear and immediately lost all power and oil pressure. He coasted to the shoulder, followed by several others. The bonnet was quickly off, and several of us gathered to help. As he described the symptoms, I spied the loose coil wires. Bob's car had apparently tried to emulate Herb's car, hoping that it, too, might be treated to a neon red paint job.... The offending plug was re-attached and we were again on the way. As an aside, during the stop, Kelly (with me) kept Rosie (with Gert) appraised of the situation via texting. That's a great way to keep the front and back of a caravan together as long as there's cell service. We drove south a few miles through the beautiful Black Hills until we reached Wind Cave National Park. In case you haven't read the tourist propaganda, Wind Cave is the fifth longest cave in the world, and contains 95% of the world's box work mineral formations. I asked our young Park Ranger guide if this cave had any blind cave zombies, but sadly the answer was no. After the cave tour, we drove on to Hot Springs for lunch. After we parked, Catherine somehow managed to chat up a local woman who said she owned a local cafe with a great menu and offered everyone free beer. That settled the question of which establishment to choose. Unfortunately, I had a pending appointment with a welder in Custer to repair my broken exhaust bracket so I had to skip both lunch and the free beer. As I write this, I see that it's half way through happy hour and the entourage hasn't yet returned. If they're not here soon, I may have to go across the street by myself. Until next time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locost7018 Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Oh, man I wish I were there!!!!! Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestTexasS2K Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Man wish I could have gone. My father in law is still in the hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzempel Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Last night, as it turned out, most of us didn't make it to Happy Hour. As everyone returned either from the days drive, or in my case from the welder, we were met by a couple who had driven 400 miles to see our Sevens. "Dallas" is a beef rancher from far north South Dakota, and has decided that it is time that he have some fun in his life. Cobras initially caught his attention as being light and powerful, but he felt that something was missing (handling) until he discovered the existence of Sevens. Dallas subsequently learned of this tour on the USA7 site, and packed his wife along for a visit. After just one evening, his wife "Sonja" was ready to write a check for any one of our cars if we wanted to sell. We finally wandered out of the parking lot and all had pizza together. Today, we all headed off reasonably early, heading for the 1880 RailRoad and the roads north of Cody. We had previously decided that the train ride itself would probably be a waste of money and time, so we just stopped to look at the stuff in the yard and watch the steam train leave. It was interesting, but I'm glad we didn't go on a train...we came here to drive. The train left on-time, at 10:00, so we jumped in our cars and left. The weather was gorgeous--blue skies accented with little puffy clouds. It was a bit on the warm side, but otherwise absolutely perfect driving weather. As we left the tourist train station, we turned onto the Old Hill City Road. What an amazing road. That twisting ribbon of asphalt twisted and turned around the hidden hills and valleys. Along the way, I learned a lesson important enough to share...sometimes, it is prudent to give up the best line through a corner in order to keep your right tires out of wet cow pattys when you have a passenger on board. My wife was a good sport, and told me that she was glad her mouth was closed when I showered her with fresh wet green dung. We met the herd that defiled this wonderful road a sort distance later. Fortunately, they made way for us so we could continue. Not long after that, Bob's car coasted to a stop. This time, it wasn't so simple as a coil wire. it appears that his fuel pump has called it quits. Bill returned him to the Motel so he could get his trailer and retrieve his car. While det ails were being worked out,Skip had a bad fall and was packed off to a local emergency room (it turned out that he wasn't as badly injured as we first thought...just a lot of blood from a cut on his arm, but he was still banged up a bit. With nothing else to do but wait for Bob and Skip, we decided to have lunch at the Sugar Shack diner, which advertised the "Biggest and Best Burgers int he Black Hills." Incredibly, they were right. Their burgers were delicious, and huge. Burgers consumed, and alll of us feeling sleepy in the warm afternoon, we sat and chatted until, simultaneously from opposite directions, Bob and Skip returned. Bob quickly loaded his car onto the trailer and returned to commence repairs, and Skip rejoined the parade in his Miata. From there, we decided to drive across the Needles Highway--except for Stuart and Steve whose car was running roughly and needed some attention from a local tuner. Stuart and Steve left our company as we turned off towards the Needles State Park. I haven't any idea if you're familiar with the Needles Highway, but since a few minutes after our arrival in Custer nearly every motorcycle rider we've met has asked if we've been on that highway yet. It is a very special road. There are dozens of incredibly tight turns stacked on top of each other. At the top, there are some really fun little tunnels to drive through. It would've been awesome if only there weren't so many other cars on the road. As it was, we got full runs around a few turns, enough to tease us with the road's potential. At the top, we had to stop for quite awhile as a tour bus squeezed through the tunnel that was mere inches wider than the bus. That driver is an idiot. Even with the traffic, it was a fun road but too soon it was ended. Gert had another interesting looking road on his GPS that turned out to be dirt. He and Dion continued, but Herb, Derick, and I opted to stay clean and return to Custer via paved surfaces, We returned to the motel, and Dallas came out to visit with us again. I took him for a ride, as did Bill, Dion, and Herb. I'm fairly certain that he has the bug and will own a Seven pretty soon. In any event, we all went to Happy Hour across the street followed by dinner and had a terrific time with conversation and humor. I expect that someone has some incriminating photos of Steve and his interesting desert. All is quiet now, with small mumurs of conversation from the few still out enjoying the cool evening. As for me, I think it's about time to go inside. Until next time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanG Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Free range. Better than speed bumps for slowing down traffic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Still lookin forward to these posts. Entertaining AND educational: no zombies in the caves, cow patties on the road are bad. Stuff I wld never have otherwise known (or even thot to ask abt)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z3 Stalker Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Just a quick post with some photo's, I'm sure Randall with give a more detailed update. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzempel Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the photos Stewart. My camera battery died, and I neglected to bring the charger. Today was another fun day. The day started early, with Bob standing at the S&B Auto Parts counter bad fuel pump in hand. Nothing in the catalog matched, and none of the numbers on the pump matched anything in the computer. Finally, after examining and rejecting several potential pumps, some internet searching on the old iPhone found the right pump,,,which just happened to be sitting on the shelf. Which I think is amazing, since the original pump came out of the commonly available (cough, cough) Buick Grand National Turbo. It was his lucky day. Bob started reinstalling his new pump as the rest of us took off for a repeat of the Needles Highway. This time, we drove in the reverse direction, and had fairly light traffic. That made it even better. Just about the only hiccough was towards the end of the highway when several Corvettes came up the road the other way. It was nice to be in a narrow car, since those guys had no idea where their wheels were, and they refused to find the edge of the road. Sheesh. There are about 400 of those plastic fantastics in the Black hills right now, there's some sort of national rally not far away. So far, it appears that C5s are most represented followed closely by C6 and only a few C4 and earlier cars. many of the drivers have expressed interest in our cars, and one C6 Z-06 owner admitted that he would really rather own a Seven! Following Needles, we played tourist at Mount Rushmore. As always, it's an inspirational sight. It did appear, though, that there were more people in the gift shop than actually looking at the memorial.... Bob rejoined at Mt Rushmore, and we scooted off to Keysotne for lunch. It seemed a good time to eat something other than deep-fried whatever or burgers, so we parked at one end of town and walked to the mexican restaurant at the other end. What a horrible tourist trap that town is. The food was unremarkable. After lunch, we returned to our cars only for me to discover that I had a flat tire. Close inspection failed to reveal any obvious reason for the flat, so Dion used his "Air Buddy" (or something like that--it's a little rechargeable hand held tire air pump,,,pretty cool if you ask me,) to put a few pounds in my tire. When I had enough, I drove around the corner to a gas station that had an air hose. As I fought the hose's non-functioning chuck, I discovered that it was my valve stem that was leaking. I managed to get a few more pounds of air into the tire and seal it with a metal valve stem cap borrowed from Stweart. We lit out again, and traversed some very beautiful, very twisty, and very hot roads. It was, nonetheless, supremely enjoyable--except for my under-inflated front tire that was doing really bad things to my steering. I was luck to be able to get within 2 or 3 degrees of where I was aiming, and the tire trammeled on imperfections like a steam engine on steel rails. We crossed the Iron Mountain Highway, with its famous pig Tail Bridges. I've never before seen, or driven, curves greater than 360 degrees. It was a blast. Except, of course, for the flat tire. And the RVs. I cannot believe that people were actually stupid enough to tow huge trailers on that highway. There are plenty of straightish highways to get wherever they want to go to drop the trailer and return with just the tow vehicle. Idiots. In any event, we soon found ourselves on one of those straightish highways towards Custer and our now traditional Happy Hour across the street. Even though I had been placed protectively in the center of the line, once we hit that highway, everyone zoomed past as if to say, 'screw him, it's happy hour time...." Until next time.... Edited July 16, 2011 by rzempel correct spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBOLT Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 I look forward to the updates also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHKflyer52 Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Thanks for the posts as they are great and I look forward to reading the groups next adventure and the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 OK, the final photo goes into my "favorite se7en photo" category! I am surprised the parking lot at Mt R is so empty. Shdn't it be jammed? The roads sound fantastic, the traffic less so. Still, it's hard to beat "supremely enjoyable":)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted July 16, 2011 Author Share Posted July 16, 2011 It was actually pretty crowded at Mt. Rushmore but we parked at the top level that was just filling up. Otherwise, the popular roads like Needles and Iron Mountain obviously had a lot of (slow) traffic but most cars pulled over after a while. Also, the scenery is so nice that you really don't want to race them 10/10, not even considering the wildlife that has a bad habit of jumping onto the pavement. Other than the two famous highways here are ample other back roads with no traffic to speak of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Thanks for the updates with photos, it looks like a fun time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzempel Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 This morning was magnificent. Together, w e performed a Symphonie Fantastique in the local mountains. The combined ribbons The further we went, the of the Iron mountain Road, Needles Highway and Old Hill City Road provided the score directing tone and tempo. We started early...before the Corvette crowd had finished their frapp' 'cappucinos and decaf latte's. The sun was low, the shadows long, an the dew still on the grass. There was virtually no traffic as we attacked the Iron Mountain Highway. Our engines sang happily as we seemingly ignored physics flying low around the turns. Our Seven's voices rising and lowering in halleluias of joy. Their tones ranging from gravvely Satchmo growl, pulling out of unexpectedly slow corners, to a soprano wail powering through fast sweepers. Crescendo followed crescendo, building to a heavenly chorus. The angelic tenor voices of our Sevens were accompanied by symcopated basso profundo of passing Harleys. Occasional piccolo duet of song birds. Cattle guards providing drum-roll percussion background. The tenor voices joined in the tunnels, creating a song so magnificetly sublime that Pavorati would weep from joy on hearing it. All too soon, we returned to the Motel. As we shut off our engines, the lingering memory of the magnificent melody seemed to echo through the sudden stillness. Until next time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z3 Stalker Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Some organizing more photo's taken over the week. I would like to thank Slomove for organizing this adventure and all participants for making this a very memorable event. My part in this is over as I head back to Calgary on Sunday morning when others continue on. Until next time, regards to all. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z3 Stalker Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 I am having trouble attaching photo's through this connection, I will try again later Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Automoda Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Made it home safe and sound. Not even a wrong turn. But the head wind ruined my milage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75TwinCam Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 Glad to hear you made it safely. Did you have pie for dinner? Or perhaps a Turtle Puff? (Incriminating photo to follow . . . ?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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