Updated 30-Jan-2007 - Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico.
Volume 24 Number 1 January 1998 Issue #268 EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday January 7th 7:30 PM Casa Chevrolet 7201 Lomas NE THIS MONTH: Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher New Members Sylvan Zuercher December Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Board Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Full'a Hot Air Dennis Pleau Cars and Parts For Sale Everybody Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman Billiken Mark Morgan Coming Events Everybody Letter Bill Finke 2600 Miles, no Corvairs Jim Pittman Member List 1998 ===== MEETING TIME: First Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM LOCATION: Casa Chevrolet 7201 Lomas NE, Albuquerque NM 87110 PRESIDENT: Dennis Pleau 345-0351 SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 VICE-PRES: Mark Domzalski 867-0030 TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 MEMBERSHIP: Sylvan Zuercher 299-7577 NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 DUES: CNM (Corvairs of New Mexico): 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $30.00 CORSA (Corvair Society of America): 12 months $35.00 or 26 months $70.00 ===== "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -- Winston Churchill Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: Wayne Christgau 12/1997 Bob Carlson 01/1998 Raymond Burns 02/1998 Joseph Lite 02/1998 Frank Stadler 02/1998 Pat Kramer 03/1998 If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! While surfing the web, check out the CORSA Home Page: http://www.corvair.org ===== Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter is published monthly by Corvairs of New Mexico, a chartered chapter of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America. Contents are copyrighted in the names of the authors and CNM. Articles may be reprinted in any CORSA publication as a service to CORSA members provided proper attribution is given. All opinions are those of the authors or editor and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by CNM or CORSA. Material to be published should reach the editor by the 15th of each month. Submit material in ASCII TEXT format on Apple II, Macintosh or MS-DOS disk, send e-mail to "casa unm edu" via the Internet, or submit a readable manuscript. This newsletter was produced on a 1989 Apple IIGS computer using Super-Text, AppleWorks 5.1, AppleWorks GS, ShadowWrite, GraphicWriter III, Platinum Paint, Pointless, Harmonie and an HP LaserJet IIIP with transportation needs provided by a 1966 Corvair Corsa. ===== DECEMBER MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at 7:35 PM by President Dennis Pleau. All officers were present except Treasurer Wendell Walker who was out of town. It was announced that Bill McClelland's wife had broken her leg and will be having rather serious surgery next week. There were no new members or guests to be introduced. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as published in the Newsletter. The treasurer's report showed that CNM had $851.96 in cash and bank accounts, $745.18 in the savings account, and $5,963.99 in the investment account for a total of $7,561.13. There was no report on membership, and no Car Council report since there was not a meeting. OLD BUSINESS The Fan Belt toss was reported on. Mark said that the weather was great and he spent too much money. Claybourne said he had generator trouble in Flagstaff but got a quick fix; there were about 80 cars in the show but only two forward controls. Dennis said it was a great swap meet and a great banquet. Maybe those who went will have a piece in the Newsletter. Tri-State preparations: Tarmo has talked again with the hotels and the caterer in Lake City. He would like to have ideas as to what the membership would like to do. NEW BUSINESS The Club banner was again discussed (see board meeting notes) and the membership was informed that we will be putting up a flagpole at the Boydstons' cabin in the spring. There is another Club event and we can make a day of it. It was announced that John McMahan is having chemotherapy treatments. Jim and Heula Pittman reported on their "interesting" travel between Encino and Clines Corners during our last storm, which of course brought forth some other tales of traveling in New Mexico during the winter. Members were reminded about Dennis and Debbie's annual Christmas open house. The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM. No board meeting in December. The next regular meeting will be January 7th, 1998. NOVEMBER BOARD MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The board met on November 19th at Steve Gongora's office across from House of Covers. The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM by President Dennis Pleau. Also present were Sylvan Zuercher, Bill Reider, Mark Domzalski, Steve Gongora, Paul Campbell, Wendell Walker, Jerry Goffe and Chuck & Julia Vertrees. As a reminder, all CNM members are welcome at board meetings. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that as of 11/19/97 CNM has $1,524.63 in cash and bank accounts, $745.18 in the savings account, and $5,702.06 in the investment account for a total of $7,971.87. It was brought up that our Investment account will need to be renewed around the first of the year. Wendell was authorized with board approval to add up to $500.00 to the account to bring it to a even $6000.00 if it does not cost us a commission. Membership and the secretary had nothing new to report. OLD BUSINESS It was moved and passed that a gift certificate for to dinners would be given to the winner of the desert contest at the Christmas dinner. Everything is all set for the dinner, thanks largely to Rita Gongora. The Ike Meissner and Francis Boydston awards were discussed. The Ike Meissner award will be based on attendance and participation at club meeting and events as outlined in your "Care & Feeding" book. It will continue to be presented at the Christmas dinner as in the past. The Francis Boydston award will be based on service to CNM and its members. A panel will be worked out to determine the first recipient. It was decided that this would be presented each year at the Tri-State meeting. After the weather warms up and the ground thaws, CNM will donate and erect a flag pole at the Boydston cabin in the Jemez as a tribute to Francis and Ruth. Business cards and window cards were discussed. Steve Gongora still has a supply of business cards and will bring them to meetings for those that are out. Bill Reider presented a design for a post card that can be put under the wiper blades of Corvairs that you see around town, inviting them to mail in for information about CNM. They will go to Sylvan who will follow up as he always follows up any lead he is given. The board approved having 300 cards printed up on post card stock by Sylvan. The new printing of "Care and Feeding" is ready. We sent 100 have to Lon Wall and they will also be advertised in CORSA again. NEW BUSINESS Some work was done on a schedule of events for 1998. These are not firm as yet but the board recommends the following. February, Garage Tour; March. Mystery Rally and tour of the A T & T Museum (Steve Gongora); April, tour of the Air Museum in Las Cruces (Wendell Walker); May, Albuquerque Museum Car Show; June, Tri-State; July, International Convention, and July 4th in Santa Fe; September, Car Council Swap Meet and VMCCA Car Show or State Fair; October, fall tour; December, Christmas Dinner. We need suggestions form the membership for the open dates, and assistance in putting on the events. There has been discussion of expanding the Tri-State to include Utah and Arizona. Of course Utah was intended to be part of it from the start, hence the name TriState, but the Utah club fell on hard times for a while. Now they are up and going again and have expressed interest in hosting a Tri-State meeting. CNM, as hosts of the 1988 Tri-State, will send a special invitation to the Utah clubs to come to Lake City in June, so this can be explored further. Arizona has also expressed interest in the Tri-State which presents a couple of things that need to be considered. The first is the name Tri-State, which is minor. The second is the larger problem of distance. It would be a long, long days drive from say Denver to Flagstaff, or Phoenix to Montrose. It is hoped that the club boards can get together at Lake City and discuss this. Steve and Mark are working on a new CNM banner, the old one has not been seen since the convention. Del Patten is checking on Dash Plaques for Lake City. The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM. There will not be a board meeting in December. ===== CHRISTMAS DINNER AT THE FOUR HILLS CAFE Rita Gongora Our CNM Christmas Dinner was a great success. This year our event was held at the Four Hills Cafe on East Central and they did their best to take care of our Club. The dinner was served buffet style with a variety of dishes available. A puppet show was given as entertainment for the kids. The puppet production was set up in another section of the restaurant, and did it ever keep the kids together! The highlight of the event was the participation and judging of the desserts. Twenty-two people entered their talents, which everybody sampled and voted on. It was a tough choice because all of them were so delicious. First place was given to Emily Gongora for her Oreo Cookies and Cream. There was a tie for second place. Debbie Pleau and Tracey McMahan shared the spot for their desserts. Debbie made the pecan toffee bars and Tracey entered her pudding layer cake. I want to thank all the people who participated. That means the ones who made the desserts, the ones who ate the desserts and the ones who voted. It was a lot of fun. Thank you all for helping to make this a special and memorable event. Rita Gongora ===== FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED WANTED: 1962-1963-1964 Monza convertible BODY. Paul Campbell 881-6620 WANTED: Three (3) good splash guards for late model (goes along rocker panel) with attaching clips. Larry Blair 821-1386 FOR SALE: 1960 Corvair 700 coupe parts car. No glass. PG. $300.00 Louis Mendez 281-4247 (will deliver in the Albuquerque area.) FOR SALE: Corvair Books: 1965 Corvair Chassis Shop Manual $10.00 Corvair Technical Guide $10.00 The 1960-1969 Corvair Authenticity Series $ 8.00 How to Hot Rod Corvair Engines $10.00 How to Keep Your Corvair Alive $ 5.00 Or purchase them all for: $30.00 Stephen F. Randock 856-6040 (srandock @ audrey.lrri.org) WANTED: Late model AM-FM. Someone must have one taken out to upgrade to newer radio. Working would be nice, Multiplex OK. Dave Huntoon 281-9616 FOR SALE: Set of 1966 95-HP rebuilt heads. Rest of engine available, all standard. Gregg Armstrong 505-753-4725 WANTED: Late model air dam. Gregg Armstrong 505-753-4725 CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS ===== SEVEN YEARS AGO IN C.N.M. January 1991 Volume 17 Number 1 A Spyder convertible on the cover ushered in a new year. President Steve Gongora ran the meeting and encouraged us to keep those Corvairs shined up and running. Wendell Walker said we had $806.71 to spend. Will Davis said the Christmas dinner speaker would be Harry S Truman. Bill Reider had done research on obtaining a new batch of CNM plates and we ordered fifty. Steve reminded us we needed volunteers for the year's activities. Show-and-tell items included a CR bellhousing seal that had no rubber sealer; a leak around the stud that holds the motor mount plate, and a set of nylon strut rod bushings. This led to a discussion on the pros and cons of using nylon bushings. Rita Gongora reported on the Christmas dinner. Your editor wrote an article on the history and meaning of the Ike Meissner Award. And there were several tech tips: Replacing window glass; Fuel tank rust; Baking paint onto bolts; Bleeding master brake cylinders; Ground straps on engine sheet metal; Weatherstrip removal; Steering wheel play. We also had our traditional member roster: sixty-two members, not counting spouses. FOURTEEN YEARS AGO In 1984 our cover showed the new Pontiac Fiero, a 2-seat mid-engine sporty car. President LeRoy Rogers led the meeting. We had $341. Our speaker was Brent Dalton of the Goodrich Tire Company. Sylvan Zuercher reported on the Christmas dinner. Jim Pittman wrote part one of an article asking whether the Fiero was a worthy successor to the Corvair; this month he said the answer was an emphatic Yes! Bill Reider wrote a technical article on tires and speedometer error. George Morin told how to fix the Powerglide governor plastic gear. And a short tip described items of wheel maintenance. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO In January 1977 our meeting notes told of a CB raffle which boosted our treasury to $356. We had a list of suggested outings for the coming year. Editor Glen Thompson penned an interesting article on driving to Oklahoma City and having to stop and overhaul his FC's engine on the way. He installed a new jug and piston -- buttoned up the engine -- hit the starter -- won't turn over! It was the wrong piston! The main lesson was, don't button up an engine without first turning over the crank a full 360 degrees at least once. ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | J a n u a r y | F e b r u a r y | M a r c h | | | | | | : : : 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | : : : : : : : | 29 30 31 : : : : | | 1998 : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 7th Jan 7:30 PM Regular Meeting CASA CHEVROLET 7201 Lomas NE Wed 21st Jan 5:00 PM Board of Directors Meeting Sat 23rd Jan 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 4th Feb 7:30 PM Regular Meeting CASA CHEVROLET 7201 Lomas NE Wed 4th Mar 7:30 PM Regular Meeting CASA CHEVROLET 7201 Lomas NE =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= FULL'A HOT AIR Dennis Pleau Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! Where has 1997 gone? To start off with, I would like to thank Rita & Steve for the wonderful Christmas dinner. The puppet show was fantastic and kept the children (and a lot of the adults) entertained before dinner. The Four Hills Cafe put on a very good dinner followed by our tasting desserts for the contest. Congratulations to Emily Gongora for winning the contest. Rita is already planning next year's Christmas extravaganza. She has some ideas which she will be presenting to the BOD in the near future. Congratulations to Mark Domzalski for winning the Ike Meissner award. Not only did Mark fulfill the selection criteria of attending meetings and events, and driving a Corvair, but he went a lot further. He served as President, he helped organize a lot of the events, he is always ready to help out with technical knowledge and assistance. He has also represented CNM and the entire Western region as a CORSA director. My sabbatical has ended and I'm back to work. We made one last trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, Thanksgiving week (no not in a Corvair). On the way we stopped and saw Steve Goodman at Rear-Engine Specialists. We got a tour of his new shop in Golden. RMC and PPC were having a tech session at his shop the next day and we were going to drive down but there was too much snow on the road to travel when we didn't have to. It's always nice to see Corvair friends when we travel. I've only done a little maintenance since the last newsletter. Last weekend I rebuilt the primary carbs on my 140 and the carbs on Debbie's 110. I realized I had never rebuilt one of the carbs on my car since I had it. That's eight years and 45,000 miles. That carb has been the one with the on-and-off-again carb problems I've had since the Tri-state. Debbie's car had an idle circuit plug up. Following the tech tip found elsewhere in this issue I up jetted both cars: Debbie's to .050's and mine to .051's because of our oxygenated fuels. I think I overshot on my car and will be installing 0.50's in the near future. Both cars are running good currently. The Greenbrier has not been touched in the last month. Again, wishing you and your families a Happy and Prosperous New Year. - Dennis ===== RE: GASOHOL AND JET SIZE (VV) larry claypool (( BobSlusher @ aol.com wrote: ) In Oregon we are now getting the full strength Gasohol (our state ) allows up to 18%) and of course the 110 is running crummy. If my ) current 52 jets are great for normal fuel, what would be the ) appropriate size for winter junk gas? ) ) Bob Slusher )) My experience has been to use 52 or 53 jets with power enrichment carbs, and 53 or 54 without PE. Sea level experience, your results and altitude may vary! larry claypool ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, send mail to corvair-request @ cyclone.mitre.org with "unsubscribe corvair" as the first line of the message. Post mail to: corvair @ thunderbolt.mitre.org. ****************************** ===== NADER & SOFTWARE (VV) Seth Emerson Well I'm sure everybody chuckled over Bill Gates' remarks at Comdex. Using his PC to show his Corvair collection to Ralph Nader. Cute. I wish to point out that all is not sweetness with Ralph's crusade and the effects on the Computer Software industry might parallel those on the automotive industry. The November 19 Wall Street Journal highlighted Chrysler's minivan rear door latch troubles. It showed an embattled engineering team, facing mounting evidence showing problems with latch design, stonewalling against changes in current product because any design change might be construed as admitting a flaw in the previous product. Why would anyone make that connection? In the Nader book "UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED" Ralph devote a single chapter to the purported "design flaw" of the early model 1960-63 Corvair. Forget, for the moment, that the drawings used in the book to illustrate the theory showed suspension travel which could not take place. By the time the book had been written, Chevrolet had re-designed the Corvair with a race-bred suspension, akin to the Corvette. In Ralph's opinion, any design improvement meant that the earlier design was flawed. Although this opinion was thrown out in every court case, and finally settled by a 1972 US government Automotive test which completely exonerated the Corvair design, the effect on the American automotive industry was chilling. I submit that the effects of the "design change equals a previous flaw" on automotive engineers causes them to be reticent to move on design changes where possible product flaws are present. The engineers will say that it wouldn't be prudent to move too fast where lives are concerned - and they are right. But as Chrysler moves to replace the door latches on all of the early minivans, I'm sure a consumer group or government agency is counting the number of passengers injured or killed while their minivan waits for their place in the recall queue. Perhaps an impolite question would be who should be accountable for these particular deaths. If there really is a design flaw, the finger would point to Chrysler. But if Nader's book and product liability crusade hadn't poisoned the water in the seventies, those Chrysler engineers could have made an early adjustment, corrected the latches, and gone back to work on the 1999 Chryslers, free from worrying about punitive damages. And these people would not have died. For the computer software industry the lesson is easier, nobody ever died in a Windows 95 crash. But if Windows 98 is such an improvement, my Windows 95 product must have been defective. I should, at least, have it recalled and replaced at Microsoft expense. Perhaps Mr. Gates should be punished for foisting off millions of copies to unsuspecting consumers. If that sounds silly, and I admit it does, it will sound positively brilliant compared to the goofy pronouncements which are destined to come out of any Ralph Nader led computer "crusade". - Seth Emerson, San Jose, CA ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, send mail to corvair-request @ cyclone.mitre.org with "unsubscribe corvair" as the first line of the message. Post mail to: corvair @ thunderbolt.mitre.org. ****************************** ===== SWAY BARS AND HANDLING (VV) Seth Emerson Much has been written about sway bars on Corvairs. I have done a bit of experimentation and thought I would pass along some experience. Three different front sway bars came as OEM on Corvairs. The '62-'63s had a small one (as an option), the '64 a slightly larger one standard, and the '65-'69 an even larger one, standard. The bar itself, with some creative plastic/rubber bushing swapping, can be swapped to any other year Corvair that came with a bar. For many years, SCCA allowed you to swap a front bar with another OEM bar, but didn't allow additions. (For example, no rear bar could be added.) I swapped front bars to an early model on my '65 stock class car in 1980. True to previously mentioned notes, the car oversteered more. This was exactly what I wanted for autocrossing. The car took the SF Region F-stock title for that year. I hardly drove it on the street, though. PS - SCCA has changed the rules and now allows rear bars to be added in stock class. For the 1993 Corsa Convention in San Jose, I prepared a 1965 Corsa into a Stinger. The car had been run for several years in the SCCA Street Prepared class (88-89 Champion). I had run it with Crown bars installed front and rear. (1" front and 7/8" rear). For some reason the rear bar was off before the convention. I mentioned this to Warren Leveque at the Convention Concours. He suggested and even offered to install the rear bar before the Autocross (and did). The difference of the rear bar probably allowed several drivers to run who otherwise couldn't have. The car steered much easier with that rear bar on. With both bars on the car oversteered more than I wanted on the street, but it was perfect for the slower autocross course. Shift to Summer 1997, Lake Placid. Ken Holm had carried about everything but the Kitchen Sink home to Maine when he bought the car, including a 3/4" rear bar with which I had replaced the 7/8" one. At Lake Placid he brought the car with no rear bar installed. The final corner showed what aggressive driving could do as even my daughter lifted the inside front wheel several inches into the air. All that weight was being transferred to the outside wheels, front and rear. A month later at Lime Rock, Ken had reinstalled the rear bar and the car became much more driveable (vs. "tossable") and was a joy to drive around the road racing track. Chevy originally installed the front bar to limit the oversteering tendencies of the early Corvair. By 1965 they not only had eliminated the oversteer, they had shifted to understeer. Many US cars have slight (and in some cases, heavy) understeer. This is considered to be the preferred (safe) handling mode. If you have 250 horsepower at your command, you can usually overcome that understeering tendency with power oversteer. The Corvair is unlikely to have that much power available. So, the late model can benefit from creative swapping to give a slight oversteer under power, almost perfect for autocross competition, and some would say, just right for "Sporting" driving on the street. - Seth Emerson ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, send mail to corvair-request @ cyclone.mitre.org with "unsubscribe corvair" as the first line of the message. Post mail to: corvair @ thunderbolt.mitre.org. ****************************** ===== BUTTER PECAN TURTLE BARS From: Dennis & Debbie Pleau (dpleau @ highfiber.com) Jim, Here's the recipe for the dessert I made this past Saturday... BUTTER PECAN TURTLE BARS Crust - 2 c flour 1 c firmly packed brown sugar 1/2 c butter, softened Combine the above ingredients. Mix at medium speed, scraping sides of bowl often until well mixed and particles are fine (2 to 3 minutes). Pat firmly into ungreased 13" x 9" x 2" pan. 1 c whole pecan halves Sprinkle pecans evenly over unbaked crust. I laid them out so that there would be one whole pecan per bar, so it probably took a little more than one cup. Caramel Layer - 3/4 c butter 1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar 1 c milk chocolate chips In heavy one-quart saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until entire surface of mixture begins to boil. Boil one half to one minute stirring constantly. Pour evenly over pecans and crust. Bake near center of 350 degree oven for 18 to 22 minutes or until entire caramel layer is bubbly and crust is light golden brown. Remove from oven. Immediately sprinkle chips over all. Cool completely; cut into bars. ===== PUDDING LAYER CAKE RECIPE Tracey McMahan (John McMahan jtmacs @ flash.net) 1 stick margarine 1 cup flour 1 1/4 cup chopped pecans 8 oz cream cheese, softened 9 oz Cool Whip 1 cup powdered sugar 3 oz package instant chocolate pudding 2 envelopes Dream Whip 3 oz package instant vanilla pudding 3 cups milk 1 large chocolate candy bar Bottom Layer Melt margarine and add pecans and flour. Mix well and spread on bottom of greased 13 x 9 baking pan, forming a crust. Bake at 350 deg. until brown (approx. 15 minutes). Let cool. Second Layer Beat Cool Whip, powdered sugar and cream cheese. Spread evenly over cooled crust. Third Layer Mix both pudding mixes with 3 cups milk until thick. Spread on top of Cool Whip layer. Fourth Layer Mix Dream Whip according to package directions. Spread on top of pudding layer. Chop or shave chocolate bar and sprinkle on top. Refrigerate and enjoy! ======== Ruth Boydston asked me to share the following letter with our members - Jim Dear Ruth and Family, I wish to express my sincere sympathy to all of you at this time and my sorrow at the loss of Francis. His parting will be a loss felt by many who knew him. I would so like to be here with you at this time and to share with you in your celebration of Francis' life, however, the harvest season won't allow me to leave home at this time. I always looked forward to the annual visits that we had. We had many interesting conversations and there were usually those fun games of cards. Francis enjoyed telling about his snowmobileing experiences, and of course there was always his fascination with Corvairs. If it were not for that little car, I wouldn't have ever met Francis and I would consider that to be a great misfortune. Francis was very proud of his family and he loved you all very much. That was quite evident to me whenever he talked about you. He always liked to talk about the times that he spent at his special cabin in the mountains. I believe that it was his favorite place on this earth, but now he has another special place to be and that is with Jesus. Here on this earth he had pain and suffering, but there he will have only peace and joy, and in that we can find comfort too. May God's love and comfort sustain you at this time. Love, Bill Finke ===== OUR WINTER VACATION -or- 2600 MILES AND NO CORVAIRS Jim Pittman We have been going back to Louisiana at Thanksgiving for several years now and we don't quite have all the hills and dales and towns and turns and rest stops memorized yet, but almost. Sometimes we see a Corvair or two, but this year we saw none. We had heard about Palo Duro Canyon south of Amarillo but had never seen it. Usually we were in too much of a hurry, or else the weather was bad. This year when we got beyond Amarillo everything was fine so we turned south. Pretty soon we were going down into the canyon and on the other side we pulled off at an overlook for some photos. It was pretty enough. But let's face it, even little Frijoles Canyon up at Bandelier National Monument is more impressive. We drove on south from Palo Duro Canyon, glad we'd seen it at last but confident that we'd never need to go that way again. We ended up staying overnight at Decatur, Texas, just out of Fort Worth. We got on the road the next morning just in time to hit Fort Worth and Dallas during rush hour. The weather was good, gray but dry, and the radio kept telling about one route or another being clogged due to accidents. Since we didn't know any of those routes, we cruised along in blissful ignorance and indeed we saw no accidents anywhere. As we got closer to Fort Worth the traffic thickened and the speeds increased. Pretty soon we were doing the speed limit and a bit more in the middle lanes while commuters were passing us on both sides like there was no tomorrow. I was impressed. I did not see anybody driving unsafely -- if you consider tailgating and lane-swapping at 80 MPH safe. Well, it works for them, and they didn't run into us. Fog is a major fear of mine and we had a few patches here and there in Louisiana, but not really enough to be a problem. Running into a deer is another hazard in La-Miss, and we did see one cross the road, but fortunately didn't see any close enough to hit. It was dry for our return trip until we woke up in Sweetwater, Texas for the last leg of the trip. It was rainy -- just enough that you wouldn't call it mist. But in west Texas the roads are wide, the traffic sparse and the speeds reasonable; we had no problem doing 65 or 70 most of the way. We stopped for a great breakfast at Denny's in Lubbock. By the time we got to Fort Sumner it was snowing, not misting, but the road was too warm to freeze so I wasn't worried. But we had to decide whether to take US 84 up to Santa Rosa to pick up I-40, or go on to Vaughn and Encino and then go up US 285 to Clines Corners. I thought US 84 was not a good choice so we continued on west. We gassed up at Vaughn and at Encino we turned north. It was just barely snowing and the road was wet, not frozen, so we were making good time. Soon we came up behind a pickup truck going rather slow; he was following a snow plow that was tossing a big plume of white stuff off to the right. So that's why there's no snow on the road! We followed along behind the pickup for a while -- I wasn't about to try to pass that snow plow. Then the snow plow pulled off to the side and we and our pickup friend were now driving through slushy snow! Well, no real problem, there's still no ice under the snow and it's not very deep. But as we drive along I see a big 18-wheeler in the mirror and sure enough, when he gets a level stretch he comes around, slopping dirty, wet snow all over us. So now we are following the 18-wheeler as he goes up one hill and down another. Pretty soon I have the Civic in "2" and I'm keeping a healthy distance behind the big truck, who is crawling along pretty slowly by now. It was along about here that I began to get seriously worried. It was obvious that we were getting up into high altitude territory and even though it was hardly snowing at all, the road was completely covered, there were only three ruts and traction was marginal. Fortunately we met few vehicles going the other way. Once in a while going uphill the Civic would slide sideways a little, but I managed not to completely lose my two ruts. I kept looking at that truck and hoping each uphill stretch was the last one and hoping he wouldn't get stuck. Heula was getting sick of my saying over and over, "Gosh, I hope this is the last hill!" Just when I thought somebody had moved Clines Corners to Taos County without telling us, I saw another big hill ahead, and on the right side there were three 18-wheelers. When we got closer we could see they were stopped! Our 18-wheeler pulled to the left and passed them up and disappeared over the hill. Can we do the same? What if someone comes over the crest of the hill heading at us? Well, if they do, surely they'll be going slow enough to stop before bunting us into somebody's ranch. We crawled up the hill and went around the stopped trucks without mishap. Eventually we got to a "REDUCE SPEED AHEAD" sign (hah!) that meant we were finally approaching Clines Corners. As we crossed the freeway bridge, we looked left and saw stopped trucks, vans and cars in the eastbound lanes as far as we could see! The westbound lanes were pretty empty, though. We turned west off the highway onto the frontage road. I don't believe there was a vacant parking place in all of Clines Corners at that moment; I never saw so many vehicles parked every which way in my life. Should we stop? How could we! There was only one lane open (on the wrong side of the frontage road, but we took it anyway) and pretty soon we were on I-40, headed for Albuquerque. One lane of the freeway was relatively free of snow, but soon we started seeing 18-wheelers in the mirror and they'd barrel around us, making their own ruts through the snow and billowing slush everywhere. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Tijeras Canyon had long ago been frozen and snowed into a total slippery mess and had then been plowed over, cleared out and dried up, and we had no problems there at all. We began to see blue sky and fluffy clouds over Albuquerque beyond South Peak. And by the time we were opposite Tramway and Juan Tabo and ready to turn off I-40 there was no snow to be seen anywhere. This was the first time I drove up snow-covered hills in a front-wheel drive, automatic transmission Honda Civic with rather worn tires. I would have preferred my Corvair with four speed manual, but you gotta drive what you've got. The Civic did manage to get us through, thanks mostly to good luck. In Alaska they used to say in the Fall that the Great Kee-bird of the North was about to sweep down and freeze everything for the winter. I'd like to be able to say we faced the Great Kee-bird of the North and won. But what really happened was, we brushed by the edge of the Great Bird and were -- IGNORED. Good thing, too -- if the blizzard god had actually paid the slightest bit of attention to us I am sure we would have slid off one of those hills, and we'd still be somewhere between Encino and Clines Corners, buried in a snow drift, frozen until Spring. === CNM Member List - 21 December 1997 (with home phone, work phone and internet address) Albuquerque, NM: Blair, Larry & Kathy 821-1386 884-2215 Boyd, Wil & Betty 821-5339 Boydston, Ruth 821-1506 Campbell, Paul & Pat 881-6620 Carlson, Bob 294-2945 Goffe, Jerry & Sylvia 345-3100 262-1421 (Windowsyl @ aol.com) Gold, Robert & Anna 268-6878 761-4615 Gongora, Steve & Rita 292-5570 256-0551 (sgongora @ worldnet.att.net) Johnson, Carl 344-3178 Jones, Clint & Faye 877-2621 Knapp, Elliott 296-9421 Lubert, Harry 256-9331 884-6947 Martinek, Mary Lou & Mark 275-3271 846-3045 McBreen, Robert 265-2808 761-4615 McClellan, Bill & Marian 821-7728 821-7728 McMahan, John & Tracey 296-2998 (jtmacs @ flash.net) Montoya, George & Beryl 242-3917 Nash, Joel 884-5064 262-7097 Parker, Stephen D. 837-1849 Payne, Mickey & Billie 899-1962 Pittman, Jim & Heula 275-2195 277-8131 (casa unm edu) Pleau, Dennis & Debbie 345-0351 893-6181 (dpleau @ HighFiber.com) Price, Terry 296-3780 Randock, Steve 856-6040 Reider, Bill & Lee 299-4597 (BillReider @ aol.com) Rogers, LeRoy & Emma 294-0623 Souza, Clayborne & Karen 898-1365 884-0300 Stadler, Frank 255-7326 Stickler, Mike & Brenda 344-2039 Throne, John & Lynn Plagge 345-6762 Vertrees, Chuck & Julia 299-0744 Zuercher, Sylvan & Opal 299-7577 Cedar Crest, NM: Huntoon, David 281-9616 Corrales, NM: Scheflow, Oliver & Mary Alice 897-2611 Espanola, NM: Armstrong, Gregg & Judy 753-4725 (armcog+j @ 3lefties.com) Silva, Johnny & Veronica Farmington NM: Milner, Mack & Marleen 325-5139 Jemez Springs, NM: Edeskuty, Fred & Brenda 829-3889 Las Cruces, NM: Ward, Wayne & Judy 526-1758 (w.ward @ zianet.com) Placitas, NM: Domzalski, Mark & Elizabeth 867-0030 mobile:250-1715 (domzalski @ lanl.gov) Rio Rancho, NM: Anderson, Jon & Debra 867-0090 Lite, Joseph & Mary 892-0449 Walker, Wendell & Ilva 892-8471 (defarge505 @ aol.com) Sandia Park, NM: Patten, Del & Kim 286-6690 Wilvert, Hurley & Brenda 281-1732 Santa Fe, NM: Sutt, Tarmo & Kay 471-1153 827-6190 Taos, NM: Burns, Raymond 758-0063 Tijeras, NM: Ashton, Joe & Shirley 286-1513 828-6735 OUT-OF-STATE: Daleville, Alabama: Beasley, Robert J (beaslbob @ aol.com) 1-800-BEA-SOLV El Paso, Texas: Belt, Boedean & Chu Sun 915-821-2735 Duncanville, Texas: Bryan, Jack & Sharon 214-296-6300 Clear Lake, Iowa: Christgau, Wayne E. Melbourne, Florida: Davis, Willard & Sachiko Elgin, Illinois: Huntoon, Walter & Doris 708-464-4848 Gonzales, Louisiana: Kramer, Pat & Johnny Gilbert, Arizona: Lawless, Bill & Betty Oak Harbor, Washington: Morgan, Mark L 360-679-6754 Milford, Iowa: Parks, Bruno 505-271-2701 OUR CASA CHEVROLET SPONSOR: Chuck Coker 7201 Lomas NE 1-800-965-CASA Albuquerque NM 87110 262-8600 ==end==