Loan Approved

Well it has been a week since I last posted, and a lot has happened. Right after my last post a phone call to the parents left me pretty dejected as they stalled on the car loan. They basically pulled every excuse in the book: we're too busy to fill out a loan app until next week, Dad should really look at the car, what are the maintenance costs of a Mini? what if you need parts?, how much is an oil change? $50, $60, maybe $70? I love how some people automatically assume that imports are more expensive to maintain. Yeah I checked with the Saturn dealership in Fond du Lac and the most an oil change would cost is $50. Plus, since the Mini runs synthetic, I'm looking at all of 2 oil changes a year. Plus the reliability of the Mini will easily surpass the beloved C-ride. But anyhow, I didn't talk to my parents after that until Monday night. Expecting more loan stalling, I was in a pretty crappy mood. Come to find out, my mom went the the credit union and got her end of the loan figured out on Friday afternoon. I quickly went into hyper mode and filled out my loan app. I headed out of work at 3pm on Tuesday to run it over to Fond du Lac and get my end tied up. This morning the loan officer left me a message that I was pre-approved for $17,000.

Tomorrow night the Zimbrick dealership is open until 8pm and the parents have actually agreed to go look at the car with me. Unbelievable. I also found out that they would like to trade in the C-ride, so I've spent the last two nights getting it in tip top shape. I should probably do a few more brakestands with it before it gets traded in. So if all goes well, I should be able to get a bill of sale faxed to the credit union tomorrow night or early tomorrow morning. Then my mom can sign for the loan on Friday at lunch and I will check out work at 2:30 make a pit stop in FDL to sign the papers and rip to Madison to pick up the Mini. My fingers are crossed, wish me luck.

Subaru Cup

Sorry it has taken me so long to get on this blog entry, but I've been super busy these past couple nights. This past weekend was the WORS race at Nordic Mt. Thankfully, my dad was able to get a running faucet and toilet going for the weekend, so we were able to camp at the farmhouse. Friday night Josh, Joe, and I all camped out on a pretty much perfect night. We even had some campfire action. Saturday morning we chilled out and grilled up some lunch. Then the rain started. I finished up lunch and headed out to Nordic before everyone else, since my race started at 2 and Joe and Josh weren't scheduled to start until 3. I got warmed up and ready to go under a steady rain. Then they announced that due to the course conditions, Comp would be starting 15 minutes late and would have a lap cut from the race, bringing the race down to 3 laps. I got lined up and who should I happen to see but none other than Erik Carlson and his buddy Andy from Marquette, MI lined up on their Rigs in Comp Singlespeed. The course was definitely slick, but the Dambala seemed to grip quite well. The three of us pretty much stuck together on the first lap with Carlson and I almost crashing on top of each other on super muddy chute. The course gradually got worse and worse as the rain continued. Coming around the start/finish line for my final lap I discovered that they were already starting the Sport riders on the course. So I spent my last lap picking through Sport riders and trying to keep it rubber side down. I ended up finishing in fifth in Comp SS with Andy coming in fourth and Carlson ripping to a podium spot in second. This was probably the funnest race of the year. The mud was a blast as I would have to ride around people falling in the middle of the trail. It was probably my best finish in Comp ever as well; a pretty good showing for the first WORS outing of the Dambala.



Tonight I headed down to Milwaukee to check out another Mini. This particular car was a 2002 with 47,000 miles and a leather interior. I got to test drive this one by myself again (what is with car dealers trusting me?), and I ripped up some city streets in the rain. Jeez, these cars are fun; I'm definitely not regretting narrowing my search to Minis after having a chance to drive one. All in all the car was pretty nice, just not quite as nice as the one I test drove on Monday in Madison for about the same price. Yesterday after work I called the Porsche dealer in Appleton to see if they could search for a Mini that would fit my criteria. The manager should be getting back to me tomorrow afternoon with his results. Depending on what he can dig up, I'm feeling pretty good about the Mini in Madison. We shall see what tomorrow holds.

Car Shopping

Ok, time for a quick blog post about tonight (I'll cover this last weekend tomorrow). I cruised down to Madison tonight to check out a Mini at Zimbrick BMW. The car was Pre-Breen-o Certified so I thought I'd go check it out. I made it down there by 5:30 and Breen and I headed in to see if we could find the salesman he had talked to previously. Unfortunately Dave wasn't there, but another lady opened up the car for us to check it out. And believe it or not, she was actually dumb enough to let me and Breen take on a test drive by ourselves. So, there was no holding back on the test drive. The interior is surprisingly spacious with a nice layout. We headed off on Rimrock Road for about a 15 min test drive. It was definitely zippy, though sadly it is probably the fastest car I've ever gotten to drive so I don't have a lot to compare it to. Either way, it seemed to pull harder in 6th gear at 40 mph than the Cavalier can on its best day. The thing handled like a freaking go kart. When I was taking the John Nolen cloverleaf exit off the belt line it seemed like it could take the exit flat out. Needless to say, I had a huge smile after the test drive. Breen, Jolene, and I then headed to Pizza Hut for some delicious stuffed crust 'roni action to round out the outing to Madtown. Hopefully I'll be making a trip to Milwaukee sometime later this week to check out another Mini there.

Check out the authoritative window switches.

High Speed Dirt

Ok, so maybe my ride didn't quite live up to the Megadeth song. It must have been at least moderately fast, though, as I knocked out four full laps (about 25 miles) in around 2 hours. Needless to say, I haven't been training like a maniac this year, so I'm trying to pack in a solid week of training before the Subaru Cup. Boy am I beat. I'm seriously thinking about changing out the grips on the Dambala. Those Salsa grips must be the hardest grips I've ever ridden and the the rigid action and hard diamond grip pattern did their best to to deliver sore hands and blisters on my palms. Tomorrow and Thursday I plan on doing some easier rides of like 2 laps. The farmhouse should be ready for some camping action this weekend as the toilet should be completed on Friday. Too bad I didn't have time to throw in a pump track this summer..........

This Old House

Last Thursday I made the trek up to Appleton to hang out with Sully, Kim, and Tim and also check out some cars. Sully and I chatted it up with the Porsche sales manager for quite sometime when we were checking out the Mini the had on the lot there. It was out of my price range, but he said he could look for something more specific for me when I got a loan lined up. Then we went to Cinders for eats and then headed DT for some pool action in the Prizm racer.

This weekend I went up to the farmhouse to put in some more work on the bathroom. By the end of the weekend we had most of the insulation in and the drywall hung. All the rough electrical is done and the floor is ready for tile. Hopefully my dad and bro will be able to head up there sometime this week and finish up the drains so we can at least have a working john for this weekend's WORS race at Nordic Mt.

With the race coming up, I decided I needed to put in some solid rides this week so I can hopefully improve my thus far lackluster results. I went out to Evergreen tonight and put in about 15 miles. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to put in four full laps (about 25 miles). Then I'll probably put in a couple lighter rides on Wednesday and Thursday nights to taper down for the race. I'm sure I'll still be bringing up the rear in Comp again, though...........

Home Improvement

This past weekend I went home to work on the farmhouse. We are frantically trying to finish up the bathroom and accomplished quite a bit this weekend. We knocked out a window insulated and drywalled, ran electrical, and reinforced the floor joists. Hopefully we can have it at least operable in time for the Nordic Mt. WORS race.

Some of the fam came and visited the apartment tonight. It was my first real family supper here with the menu consisting of spaghetti and salad and fresh bread. We followed it up with some excellent custard over at the Point.

The car search continues as I'm getting more and more excited to get a different car. I've been tirelessly searching all the online classifieds for S4's and Cooper S's. I plan on checking out the credit union in Sheboygan tomorrow for loans, so I can be pre-approved when I find a car I want. Hopefully something good will turn up soon.

Back in the Saddle

After resting the body for a couple of days after 24-9, I returned to the saddle once again yesterday. I hit up the Wednesday night ride at Evergreen and got in two easy laps with a few sprints to get the heart pumping. All in all, a nice recovery ride. I headed back to Evergreen again after work tonight. I managed to meet up with AJ Brandt on his 1FG again as I pulled in the parking lot. As we were getting ready to head off, a pack of 4 guys including Bill Street pulled in after some riding. We ended up B.S.ing for about 20 minutes before the two singlespeeds hit the trail. We blasted off 2 pretty quick laps, swapping pulls every couple sections. The Dambala just keeps feeling better and better. Running the tires at a little lower psi seems to really help it out. I felt pretty good, and AJ said he was struggling somewhat to keep up when I was out front. Whether that's true or not, it at least made me feel good. After a string of disappointing races this year, I hope I can use 24-9 as a stepping stone to give my self a bump in the race results. Hopefully I can make it happen in time for the Subaru Cup at Nordic Mt.

In other news, I'm seriously considering getting a car loan sometime soon. With Chris and Joe both hooking up sweet new whips in the last couple of months and the bike buying splurge out of the way, I'm ready to replace the trusty C-ride. I found a very nice 2003 Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Works package in green on the internet last night. It's in my price range and even under Blue Book value. I can just picture myself carving up some tight twisties while blaring some Nelly Furtado. Almost tastier than the delicious cheddarwurst I grilled up tonight.