blog – My Road Trip

Always wanted to live in Florida

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021Russ

… and so I moved to West Palm Beach recently.

For the first time in my life (well Singapore doesn’t count because the street course only ran 1 time a year for the F1 GP) I have a race track across the street from my job. How could I not take advantage of that opportunity?

So far I’ve only done a few events at PBIR – Palm Beach International Raceway but I’m hoping outside of the slow summer season things will pick up and become a little more interesting. Either way it’s a perfect escape from everyday life in “paradise” which honestly Florida has been anything but.

Besides the track work has been keeping me busy. Outside of work it’s been incredibly frustrating not being able to find reasonable accommodate for 2 months. Things are incredibly expensive, which I didn’t really expect especially outside of the busy tourist season even in the times of Covid-19. I thought by now I would have had an apartment, have converted my license to Florida and bought a car locally. Instead I’ve been optimizing my frequent flier miles and points on hotel stays bouncing around every couple of days to get free night and savings here and there. And am shelling out a small fortune on a rental car… I remember bragging years ago how cheap rental cars were in South Florida, but they sure aren’t $10 bux/day any more.

Still I make the best of it. Have been cruising up and down A1A whenever I get a chance. Exploring different beaches, checking out new cuisines, and shopping for cool Hot Wheels.

If the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix ever takes place next year I’m hoping to be a part of it. Though having driven to South Beach once just when I got down here I am making no further plans to visit Miami/Miami Beach as the construction down there makes it an absolute mess. Not worth the effort considering there are so many other beautiful parts to visit from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm and Jupiter.

Hoping things will get better with time here in South Florida.

Blast from the past: Crown Victoria Police Interceptors & Drag Racing

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020Russ

One of the things I enjoy about Facebook, besides the ability to stay in touch with people I’ve met around the world, is it’s memories / anniversary reminders. Today’s comes from almost 20 years ago… back in my Ford Crown Victoria days, when I used to buy old cop cars at auction. This particular 1999 Police Interceptor model I modified a little, with a lot of help from my friend Pat who mounted an Allen supercharger on it in my driveway.

At one point I got invited to participate in a little drag racing shootout by Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords magazine and in turn invited a few other friends along to participate with their Crown Vic’s and Mercury Marauder’s.

It’s a bit funny and very nostalgic thinking back to those days. I was still a broke ass college student that used the proceeds of my very first full time job to shell out a few grand on Magnaflow exhaust and the supercharger. I remember the agony it caused when I blew up the overdrive band on the original automatic transmission. Replaced it only to blow it up again being foolish on the highway on the way to the drag strip. Ironic I spent another grand on my camera gear from Canon, the body and lens that I hardly ever used and in fact left at my cousin’s house in France and never picked up since. Now I’m shooting far crappier pictures for my blog with a cheap hundred dollar phone camera. But those were the days!

The MM&FF connection grew out of my side hobby building an SVT registry for the Ford Special Vehicle Team product owners like the Mustang Cobra, Contour, Focus, and the F150 Lightning. The only thing I owned from that line up were 1:18 scale models of the Terminator Cobra and the 2000 Cobra R which I still have in my collection.

I remember trying to organize some local events for the SVT owners but they included anything and everything Blue Oval that would show up. (otherwise I would have excluded myself from the meets with my CVPI). The hobby bloomed further with my trip to Australia and their version of the SVT crowd down under: FPV. Sadly I didn’t buy any FPV models to bring back to my collection back home. But it was some of the best time of my life spent hanging out with owners in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and even Perth.

I really miss those days! Good memories…

Welcome!

November 22, 2020November 23, 2020Russ

Thanks for visiting my blog.

This web site has gone though many iterations of my ever evolving hobbies. From travel to motorsport marshaling, my Miata adventures around the world and finally my Hot Wheels collecting. The latest version will continue in that tradition. The old site is still online but information on it is not particularly relevant in this day and age. Thanks to the pandemic my travels and motorsport marshaling have come to a screeching halt. The Miata was crashed into a year ago and replaced with a junky Wrangler which I don’t really feel like writing about because it would mainly consist of animosity towards Jeep engineers. And the Hot Wheels hobby is mostly a facebook group thing for those that are strictly interested in die cast models.

But here we are. For those that are interested I will share my thoughts on an ad hoc basis about my favorite hobbies: Travel, Cars, Racing and Collectibles… be sure to share your opinions in the comments on stuff that you’d like to read more about. And again thanks for stopping by!

–Russ