Fire & Ice Extreme RC 4x4 Challenge 2014

2014 is here. January was a blur of work and more work.  First event of the year is the Fire & Ice Extreme RC 4x4 Challenge 2014 held at Moon Rocks here north of Sparks.  Moon Rocks is a popular local 4WD destination, but on this Saturday, it was all about the mini RC 4x4 rigs.  My friend Brad came over from Sac and lent me his spare rig for the day.  I had a lot of fun driving his truck.  It was a lot more challenging than I thought, and I can't wait to get my rig finished. Justin missed out.

All in all, I enjoyed it. After participating in this competition however, I realize I don't like the pressure of holding up the crowd.  Meaning, it would have been more fun to bring up the rear.  I didn't like when all the rigs got bunched up together and there was no where to stand.  Otherwise, it was fun.  I am not sure my Gelande II can do these types of challenges, as it is very tall and more designed for scale overlanding.  We'll see.

The weather was nice for the first half of the day, then just after lunch the wind picked up something fierce.  It was literally a sand storm out there. Still, beats the shit cold everywhere else in the country! Thanks to Linda, we had a photographer for the day snapping pics of the action.  Here are some of them.

Mike's rig catching air.

Rest In Peace 2013

As yet another year passes, we age, and become closer to becoming skulls.

R.I.P. 2013

The following post is a selection of black & white photos taken last month at an old sleeping garden we found while traveling through central California. These were shot with my Nikon FE2 on 3200 speed black & white film. Cemeteries and film means getting back to your roots.

It was late in the day and shadows grew long...

Hitting the road instead of the turkey...

This year, we just needed to get outta dodge for a few days.  We loaded up the new Trooper, and drove in a south-westerly direction to get outta the cold.

This would be highway 50 south of Lake Tahoe somewhere...

Negative Scans from 2013

Hopefully I will post some more before the year is over, but here is many months of black & white photos I took on various trips this year, in no particular order.

Mendocino.

Happy Halloween!

Catching up with some photos...

Before Halloween, we had to make a flyer for our friends at For Pet's Sake, a local rescue group where Luigi came from.  These are some of the shots from the shoot.

Luigi is not terribly fond of being dressed up, but what can I say, this is is what married folks without children do.

Long Beach & The Queen Mary

Last weekend we took a trip through the barren wasteland also known as I5 between Sacramento and Los Angeles to enter the Impulse into the 9th Annual Japanese Classic Car Show.  The event is heald in Long Beach, and the official hotel (if you can call it that) for the show is the Queen Mary.

The single port hole window in our room, that was more like the servants quarters than a $169/night hotel room. :/