DaraSue and 10907's excellent adventure

[Lwanmtr]

Still love the tiger skin seat covers...the black light really makes 'em pop.

Yeah...'nother reason I like my automatic..less pedals to worry about...hehe.

Wish I coulda made it down there...and completely forgot it was this weekend, so couldnt even fly down, gawk at the running cars and come back...hehe.

[DaraSue]

Still love the tiger skin seat covers...the black light really makes 'em pop.

Yeah...'nother reason I like my automatic..less pedals to worry about...hehe.

Wish I coulda made it down there...and completely forgot it was this weekend, so couldnt even fly down, gawk at the running cars and come back...hehe.

Well, you've got another chance, because DeLorean Weekend is next month...

Today I made it into Vegas, no observed recurrence of the tach gremlin. Wondering if my temp gauge is ok because even sitting in traffic it barely got above 170. Met up with Bob, Gail and Ryan B. for lunchtime trivia and then went to check into the hotel. Skip and Gordon happened to get there at the same time I did and I got a shot of our cars in the garage before we figured out we were actually supposed to be on the next floor up.

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I found a couple of DeLorean buddies from home who had shown up too and a group of us went to the Mob Museum, then came back and picked up our badges and stuff. They had one sparkly DeLorean silhouette t-shirt left, so of course I bought it.
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We went to dinner and spent the next 2 hours talking about DeLoreans, as one does... I showed everybody my Instagram pix of my car until their eyes glazed over, lol.

Now to attempt to get enough rest to go drive out to Red Rock tomorrow...

[Lwanmtr]

Thats a nice picture of the Deloreans...but whats that white car in the background, Im more interested in hearing that one's story....hehe.

Yeah, considering weekend....kinda 'spensive..figured about $1500 with flight, hotel and rental car (which I doubt they have a delorean to rent..so a fusion?)...hehe.

Cute shirt..lol

[DaraSue]

I got to be in another DeLorean caravan today, as we drove through Red Rock Canyon. Woohoo!
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There had been some concerns about temperature, but it actually stayed pleasantly cool-ish and partly-to-mostly cloudy.

We saw some Lamborghinis and a Ferrari by the visitors center. Apparently you can rent them for $600 for 4 hours (+ $200 insurance).
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We would encounter them again down the road...
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(There were actually 4 cars here, but I was trying to snap this shot in a hurry and half the front one was out of the frame.)

Caught this shot at precisely the right moment:
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We stopped for lunch at Bonnie Springs, watched the Wild West show and then drove home in the rain. Note to self: never wash your car before any event that's more than 20 minutes from your house...

The obligatory moment: I accidentally drove for a couple miles with my e-brake on. I remember thinking, "man, that brake rattle is loud today, must be some weird acoustics out here" and then I looked down and realized my borrowed charging cable had a tag on it that was obscuring my brake light. Fortunately we hadn't been going very fast but there was a distinct smell of what I thought was burnt hydraulic fluid but everyone else identified as burnt Bakelite. The brake didn't seem to work horrifically worse than usual when I checked it in the hotel garage, but I guess we've got a topic for our tech session tomorrow...

[DaraSue]

Today was pretty laid back. Some of the other people went to the Shelby museum in the morning but I was kind of tired so I went back to bed and then drove to Caesar's to get lunch from Gordon Ramsay. Another near-miss on the 15 when I was in a lane-changer's blind spot but at least I stayed on the road this time. In the afternoon we had Mike Sheffe give his talk about automotive design and the different cars that led up to the D, as well as showing up some long-lost BTTF concept art and some of his other drawings, which was neat. He ended up staying and talking to us for almost 3 hours, with a break in the middle where Gordon had us all stand up and talk about our cars in front of the camera. I kind of wanted to hide in the corner b/c for somebody who talks for a living I'm pretty terrible at public speaking, but I ended my speech with the line "I'm way over my original budget, but the experience has been priceless!" and everybody clapped so I didn't do too bad.

Another fun thing was, we all got a set of washcloths and these shop aprons with the Expo logo and our names embroidered on them. Patty V. handed them out but I think Gordon's wife Linda might have made them? They're pretty nifty, and it was nice of those guys to do that for us.

We went up to the garage to get a group photo and some random guy who liked DeLoreans volunteered to be the photographer so we could all be in it. Everybody kind of milled around for a while looking at each other's cars. I got a couple of half-decent phone pix just before we went to dinner (although once again I'm short a car because Ron had to take Mike to the airport).

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The one on the right was testing my camera app's HDR setting. Not too bad...)

Dinner was good, probably the most people we've had all in one place so far. Everybody had a story to tell (about DeLoreans or life in general). That was the last big event, although a few people are going up to Hoover Dam tomorrow. Not sure if I'll go because I have a long drive ahead, but maybe...

[DaraSue]

Well, I went up to Hoover Dam after all, just because I'd never been there. Here we are up on one of the overlooks.

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That was the last official event of the Expo, and then I headed home. One the way out of the park I heard I weird grinding noise that sounded like it could be from the transmission while idling at a stop sign. It went away when I jiggled the shifter a little but I never heard it before or since so maybe it was something underground that just happened to make noise while I was parked over it.

The drive back was uneventful. Didn't see any more instances of the RPM jitters.

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Hit the big 33 somewhere in central UT.

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It was a fun trip, I'm glad I went! Can't wait to go back again for DeLorean Weekend next month...

[DMC5180]

What was the overall turnout for the event if you had to guess?

[DaraSue]

What was the overall turnout for the event if you had to guess?

Probably around 14 or 15 people, 5 cars. There were a couple people and I think another car that were supposed to go, but things came up. I know it ended up being a smaller scale than was originally planned, but it was still fun. Having less people made it easier to get to know everybody. Maybe for the next one the organizers should plan smaller from the get-go and try to keep the up-front costs to attendees down, since from commentary here and on facebook it seemed like that was a big thing that turned some people off.

[Lwanmtr]

Seems like it was a great time. Nice pics (specially the ones while you're driving...hehe)

[DaraSue]

Another trip to Vegas, woohoo! I didn't have any panic moments on the drive down, knock on wood that it stays that way. Haven't seen the tach gremlin since last time. Caught some butterflies, though...

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I drove down on Wed, got practically no sleep that night due to making the mistake of staying at Circus Circus again and getting a room next to a bunch of drunk fratboys.

Still managed to drag myself out to the DeLorean Weekend meet-n-greet Thursday night, where I was one of the most DeLoreans I've seen all in one place outside of a repair shop, lol.

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Friday we met up at the Bass Pro at Silverton, which was under the flight path to McCarran.

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We had lunch at Railroad Pass in Henderson, then drove to El Dorado Mine, near Searchlight. If any of you get the chance, you should check it out, because there's a lot of funky buildings and old cars and weird antique stuff to see. We did the mine tour and some of us stayed after to look around and take pictures.

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After that some of us got dinner in Henderson and then I went back to Fremont for the Defending the Caveman show. That was fun, and as a bonus a couple of us poked into the toy store at Neonopolis and discovered fridge magnets with the old Consolidated "Vanishing Breed" ad on them. Score!

Today I got going early so I could bake the cookies for the bbq and get my car looked at by Rob Grady. He didn't find any showstoppers but pointed out some relays that could use upgrading and mentioned that the clutch I have is known for being heavier than standard so I'll keep that in mind for next time it needs replacing. He looked at my gas tank a little and spotted some seepage near the fuel pump clamp which might account for the gas vapor smell every so often.

The bbq and the dinner were fun, a lot of good speakers, but the highlight of the evening was when I won the DeLorean trivia game (with a little help from my friends)!

The lowlight of the evening was when I got out of the car and noticed I'd parked in a space full of broken glass so everyone cross your fingers that I don't wake up to 4 flats tomorrow...