Wedding bells in Las Vegas

Yesterday morning in Page, Az, we all found invitations to a bar in Las Vegas. Not sure exactly what to expect, we figured it was simply a tour gathering. (nothing wrong with that!)

Well, not quite. Two couples were married, in a drive through chappel, in their sevens! They had this planned before the tour. The best man sat in his car be hind them, with the guests in their cars in the third row. Allan showed us some photos on his camera, if anyone knows where they are posted please let me know.

Wedding bells in Las Vegas

Yesterday morning in Page, Az, we all found invitations to a bar in Las Vegas. Not sure exactly what to expect, we figured it was simply a tour gathering. (nothing wrong with that!)

Well, not quite. Two couples were married, in a drive through chappel, in their sevens! They had this planned before the tour. The best man sat in his car behind them, and a few guests were in their cars behind that. Allan T. showed us pictures on his camera, and said they are posted somewhere.


Posing for a photo with Pete.

Mav & Viv, happy couple #1.

Sid, Bernie, and Allan, the happy trio.

John & Esther, happy couple #2.

Congrats to both couples!!! One question, was Elvis at the ceremony?

Yet more pics

Since Bernie is too tall for the stock setup, he has a cut down windshield and extra tall roll bar. That means lots of wind in the face, so he wears a helmet. Good for lots of stares as we go through small towns :)



Tunnel in Zion.

Time to wake up! Page, Az.

Misc pics

Following Bernie to Monument Valley


Mike B.'s VERY trick car, from Dubai.

Packing up in the morning in Page, Az.

A few spare parts

More group pics - Page Az

Group Photo in Page, Az

I was out on a shopping spree, Walmart and Radio Shack, when I got the call. Hurry up, we are doing a group photo at the hotel.

Rocky Road

Lunch view at Monument Valley. I had a Navajo taco :)


In the two photos above, you can see Steve and Mary, Ian and Anita, and their cars. in Monument Valley. That is the rocky road they drove on. We had dinner with Mary last night, and she said they could see me up top waving at them, due to my bright red rain jacket.

A few rocks, so what?

Monument Valley has a road to take you closer to the scenery. A big sign says not for low clearance vehicles. That did not stop Steve and Mary or Ian and Anita, no sir!

We stayed up top and watched them slooooowly drive down the path. They stopped at a scenic spot, and you can just make them out in the pictures.

...Well, I tried 5 or 6 times, cannot post pictures on blogger tonight. I'll try again in Las Vegas.

Pics from the road

Mitch enjoying the view.

No big deal, just an engine swap.

Why am I smiling? Good friends to help me fix it :)

Dad enjoying the trip.

Moab, Utah to Page Arizona 9-28-05

What a day, what a beautiful country we live in. Today we drove 300 miles in the Birkin, once again with Gert & Rosemarie, Dick, and Bernie.

We were not on the road very long, when I pointed to dad the left front cycle fender was vibrating more than it should. Sevens have a bad habbit of breaking fender (wing) brackets, but I have never had the pleasure. Well, today was my day. We hit a section of road construction that was quite rough, and the bracket completely broke and it was bouncing around on the tire. We stopped in the next town. Fortunately Dick had a spare, but it was of different design and we had to persuade it to fit :) Thanks Dick! Gert also had a few bits which helped to get us back on the road, very much appreciated.

The group then headed to Monument Valley. This is what I picture in the old westerns movies. Absolutely fantastic scenery. I'd like to return one day and take more time to exlore, instead of buzzing through as we are doing.


Here we are parked at lunch. Gert knew a place near Monument Valley. We had Navajo frybread, and a fanstastic panaoramic view from our table.


This was taken from the visitor center. The road below was said to be rocky, but I know at least two sevens went down there. Pictures in the next post.

Here is dad, cool as ever :)

Various photos of tour happenings...

Why does this site always reorder my photos? Oh well...


Above is Steve W.'s turbo. He has a habit of tearing into his car every night in the hotel. The first day he was on tour, he drove perhaps 10 minutes and had an engine fire. Evidently oil leaking from a line to the turbo. No worries he said, and sure enough he fixed it and drove on.



This is the parking lot in Vail. I'm not sure who that is zooming out this morning, perhaps Ian? Poor Ian, his luggage carrier broke on the way to Austin, and he dragged his luggage behind him for a time. He managed to find a place to weld it together, and then I learned someone backed into him and bent the carrier. All is well though, metal can be unbent :)



Parking lot in Moab. Most cars came in muddy and wet. When I pulled in, Steve B. hit my car with the hose, thanks Steve :) Several people actually washed their cars with soap! Mav had a neat fold up bucket that he carries with him, so he can wash his car when the urge strikes him. I was happy for a splash of water. That is my car on the left under cover.


Dad and Bernie discussing the route. One nice thing about this part of the country, you can see the weather all around you. It was raining in the direction of our next leg, so we planned around it. We got rained on anyway :)


Steve W.'s car again, in the Vail parking lot. We parked next to each other, and I nearly tripped over his radiator. He has the head off, at a shop to weld up and machine the damage caused by detonation from low octane fuel. Then he told me there is another head on the way from England, just in case! I asked him how he feels to always be working on the car (and he is always smiling!) He said "I'll either have a good drive, or a good fettle, so I can't loose."

I'll try to take more photos of the main tour group. Usually my camera is in the boot, so I take pics when we stop and walk around. Most days we travel with the Birkins, all from the US. A few days we drove with the Saga group, and hope to join up with them again.

Arches National Park - Moab Utah

Today we drove from Vail to Moab. We were the first at the hotel, checked in, and went to Arches National Park, just a few minutes from the hotel.

What a fantastic place! Dick and I walked down one of the trails, and could easily have spent hours. Around every turn was a new view, each better than the last. We left dad and Bernie up at the top, so we figured it best not to camp out for the night. Of course they had the cars and the keys...





The park is full of this type of formation. Reminds me of the Coyote and Roadrunner :)



Here is the famous Delicate Arch. It was a 1.5 mile walk to the arch itself, so we settled for the shorter trail to the arch view site.

Offroading in Vail - Jeep tour

Yesterday, in Vail, Bernie, dad and I went on a Jeep ride up into the mountains. The highest we went was around 12,500 feet. I have to admit, the ride was rough and I felt sea sick, until I moved to the front seat.



Above is the base camp where we had lunch. It was so quiet and peaceful, we all wanted to stay there for a week.


This is a few steps from the base camp. They stock it so kids can have some easy fishing, but dad seemed quite tempted.


View out the front of the Jeep. I didn't get any good shots of the rough trails, we were bouncing all over the place.

A day in Vail

Vail, Colorado is an amazing place. It is an unabashed tourist trap of the highest order. We are here at the perfect time to see the aspen trees turn their golden color.

This morning we went on an offroad Jeep tour. The going was fairly rough, and I started to get sea sick. We climbed to over 12,500 feet, and they view was breath taking (literally, I was short of breath).

Today's pictures will have to wait. Tomorrow we are getting an early start to Moab. Good chance for rain, we may get wet for the first time on this trip.

Michelle took the picture of the two funny looking guys in Durango, on a cold morning heading out for Vail.

More Video - Mountain Pass

I was too busy at the wheel to record which pass this is. We had several today, and on tape they all look similar. I can tell you that this was between Durango an Vail ;)

http://www.leben.com/~mitch/videos/birkin/tour05/mountain_pass_9-25-05.wmv

On the next leg of the tour, I will try turning the camera backwards and see how that works out.

Slumgullion Pass, Elevation 11,361 Feet

Slumgullion Pass is in Lake City, Colorado. We stopped at a scenic overlook, and ended up looking more at our cars :)






Today was a fantastic day of driving. We had 4 mountain passes over 10,000 feet. The car ran very well, and traffic was fairly light for most of the day. We drove 380 miles, and are happy to be in Vail!

Durango pics

Brian and Jerre with Scott. Jerre did not want to let go! :)

These two people are very generously supporting the tour, following behind in their RV, always ready to help. Brian makes the Ultralite, http://www.wcmultralite.com/
Thank you both so much!


Here is a typical scene on tour, working on our cars in the parking lot. Steve had a noise in his front wheel, and the collective helped to sort it out.


Ahh, what a beautiful parking lot!

Silverton, Ouray, with Michelle

Michelle decided to brave the cold and wind, and head up the mountains with me in the Birkin. She had a great time!


We first stopped at Silverton, where we met my parents and Scott. They took the bus up, and later went down on the train. It is a beautiful ride, I'd like to take that train one day.




Second stop was Ouray. Three mountain passes to get there from Durango. We were behind several slow busses and trucks, which made for a boring drive (well, in comparison to having the road to yourself). The way down was much quicker, must have been the time of day.