Of New Jobs, Stalled Cars, and Future Trips

Well gang, it's been a while since my last post, and as you can imagine, I've been pretty busy during that time. The whole blogging thing got slowed down, mainly because I decided to take a job for the summer, acting as Pool Director for the North Hills Country Club in Manhasset. 

A very nice pool, the members are great, I have a wonderful staff, and so far, I'm really enjoying doing this again. I've always said that there's nothing as much fun as working at a great facility with good people. Our members are quite appreciative of what we do for them, and of course, I'm trying to bring them a level of service that they're not quite used to - so far, so good. We'll check back in later in August to see if I'm still feeling this way!
Of course, no blog update would be complete without some automotive stuff, it's been an interesting summer so far, particularly with the little piece of crap (the Fiat 850). So far, I've gotten stuck on the side of the road 3 times with the damn thing. Once on a Sunday morning, when Karen and I met our friends Beth and Eddie for breakfast, we got stuck about halfway home. Next was when I took the car to Port Washington to pick up the fiberglass top that I'd left at the convertible top shop. Got stuck right next to Garden City H.S. And yesterday, Tom and I were trying to take it up to Oyster Bay for the Tuesday night show, but we never got past the west side of Eisenhower Park. Took about an hour to get the darn thing home from there. But, as always, there's some good news, I finally figured out what's going on with the car. Seems there's a lot of dirt, debris, gunk - whatever you want to call it - in the gas tank. It settles to the bottom when the car's parked, but when you start driving it, the lousy suspension makes the car bounce around, the gunk gets picked up, and clogs the fuel delivery system. Yesterday, we spotted a good tablespoon of crud in the fuel filter while we were trying to get home. So, I'll have to get someone to take the gas tank out, drain it, flush it out, and put it back in. Hopefully Mo and Ike up at Port Euro can do that for me.
The "Yellow Fish" is at the shop, getting a once over before Tom and I head out to Carlisle PA for the Annual "Chryslers At Carlisle" weekend next week. Always a fun time, the Carlisle Fairgrounds will be swarming with over 2,500 Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth cars. We'll have the usual two spots, one for the '65 Barracuda, and one for my 2014 Challenger/Cuda. I don't think we're in the market for anything crazy, like we were two years ago when I picked up new chrome bumpers for the '65 and then installed them right there on the show field, but it's always fun to walk around and see some of the great cars of the past. I'll post some photos after we're back.
And finally, I'm happy to announce a couple of upcoming road trips that will happen once we're past Labor Day (when my pool closes). I'll be taking to the road to go to Saint Louis for the National Recreation and Park Association Conference, which is always a fun and informative show. I'll get to poke around some of the route that Dad took us on during that memorable trip to Dallas back in '63. I still have his road maps from that trip, and have re-created much of that trip in the past. Then, it'll be off to Nashville TN for the World Aquatic Health Conference and a CPO Instructor School. That should be fun, Nashville is a great city, and I'll be there with all of my Instructor School friends - and Karen is planning on coming along for part of the trip, so we'll have a bit of a vacation as well.
And finally, I'm planning on taking the '65 Barracuda out on the road for a partial trip along the legendary Route 66. I've been asked to do a presentation about the mystique and the lure of the "Mother Road' for the 66th Annual Cortland College Recreation Conference this November. I want to get some new photos, have some new experiences, and share with them what it's like taking a classic car out on what is still, to many people. the classic American Road Trip.
So there you go, a quick update on things from my little corner of the world. I'm going to try and post up a few more of these updates as the summer goes along, and hopefully I'll have some good meals, or concerts, or just plain old silly things to talk about. Until then, enjoy your summer!