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sailing the San Francisco Bay on my Nacra 5.8 catamaranThis is an update to a post I published a few years ago. You can go see that one if you wish: https://www.teddunlap.net/who-am-i/, but I republished it below to save you the trip. A little bit older for sure, slower, wiser, and now with a few more experiences under my belt. Ohmygosh, I am probably 15 to 20 pounds lighter too, having discovered fasting as a healing and fitness tool. I have also worked on the estate, which now suits us a lot better than it did in January of 2019. I got to scratch my sports car track time itch for the first time in 35 years. This year I […]
The background on this car … I was an enthusiastic, radical, seriously competitive Sports Car Guy for most of my life… okay, still am. For 20 years THAT CAR was a 1956 Porsche Speedster barn find – a very rare car that was lightweight and lent itself for high performance driving … Just what the doctor ordered. It also became highly valued in the collector market and its sale in 1999 financed my escape from The People’s Republic of California. After about 16 years sports-car-less, I picked up a very-well-prepared autocross car that was vintage, collectable, lightweight and ticked all the boxes for this enthusiastic, radical, seriously competitive Sports Car Guy. I spent a lot of time and money […]
My big deal of the decade, several decades, and in particular this year was two days of flat-out driving on a road racing course. I share my journaling of it with you here. I spent last weekend at the Utah Motorsports Complex (UMC) on and around their road course. It was created by a local tycoon to exercise his vast collection of vintage race cars in the company of fellow enthusiasts. In other words, a track facility developed by an enthusiast FOR enthusiasts. Most of us were built for something; having unique strengths and interests where we are slightly or noticeably better than most. My natural exceptionalism seems to be high performance driving. Though life did not hand me […]
That is what the National Auto Sports Association (NASA) called their Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) March 25-27 track event. In a pell-mell rush, I got myself, my gear and my car down there for some quality track time. The video on the right is a narrated slide show of selected photos from that trip. First the bad news: The newly replaced rear main seal in my engine leaked oil onto the new clutch disc so I could not get much of the acceleration from my engine to the pavement … and was quite distracted trying to feather the throttle enough to keep it together during my first and only turn on track. The Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) Outer Track […]
I recently posted Gone Fishing using that phrase as a metaphor for my particular breakaway from the normal, everyday life. Here I use a much more accurate title. Racing is most accurately described as a competition wherein one tries to go faster than another. I will not be in a competition, but rather just running the track as fast as this man and my GT50 machine care to go – which is a whole bunch faster than normal people would drive within their comfort zones. I expect to get my ’87 Honda CRX around 115-120mph in the straight between TURN 15 and TURN 1, before braking hard for a corner likely to require me to be going 35-45 in […]
Normally clear studio surfaces speak of a cluttered life I am pulling out of my garage in one week… heading south to Utah Motorsports Complex for National Auto Sports Association’s March Madness. I am transitioning from The Beast to a much nicer, newer Z-71 optioned Suburban, The Z-Wagon. The Beast had an antenna farm on the back 1/3 of its roof and capability of running half a dozen amateur radios at a time on numerous different frequencies. I am putting some time, thought, energy and money into adding one multi-band radio to The Z-Wagon. Additionally there are numerous mechanical fix-ups that go with replacement vehicles. I initiated and had to manage a local emergency-preparedness radio exercise I called “Light Up […]
I have registered for “March Madness” March 26th-27th in High Performance Driver Education group 1 (HPDE 1), which is the only option for drivers who have not driven with NASA previously and who do not possess a race car driver’s license. In this group we have an instructor who shows us the track in their car, then rides along in ours making sure we understand the rules, the track and how to drive where there are no speed limits, overtaking only where allowed. At some point along the way, first timers shed the ride-along added weight, but are still watched a bit for adherence to expected norms. Early March 25th, I expect to unload into Garage #7 which I reserved […]
I have been waiting with great interest for plausable stories regarding the missile warning issued to Hawaiians. For 32 minutes cell phones, televisions, Internet, highway message boards and other available media warned them to “Take cover incoming missile”. We are supposed to believe the official story that someone slipped on a banna peal and bumped the button triggering this message as they attempted to break their fall… or something as lame as that. For no particularly good reason, I am reminded of a book I read 30 years ago, The Day We Bombed Utah. Needless to say, as long as they are not present, any people and any place are expendable to the ruling elite. What did NOT happen in […]
In responding to my daughter who felt our Montana reunion last summer was a disaster, I found I could not share most of my thoughts. They would be quite unhelpful. Her San Francisco family of three along with an Idaho mother in-law and her brother’s Utah family of eight rented a vacation lodge. While there were some frictions there, they increased when that group combined with the Bitterroot elders, and further while visiting the homesteading family of six. I realized in the 1990s I did not fit the California culture, and, significantly, that I could somewhere else. Shopping online I found a more appropriate community, moving to Idaho late winter 2000-2001. A dozen years later I snuggled into an even […]
This morning I discovered Eric Peters’ website. Perhaps a half-generation younger, he is strikingly similar to me in many ways. He clearly understands and has plenty of experience with high-performance driving for the sheer delight in the act itself. He also fully comprehends The Nanny State efforts to remove joy, individuality and thinking from our lives. Best of all, he can express that and more with written words. His car- and motorcycle-guy stories are like reading my own with names and places changed to protect the innocent guilty. We both understand that speed limits good for cement trucks and motor homes are not real-world relevant to high-performance bikes and cars guided by skilled drivers. Con Brio driving focuses an alert […]
planting a shade tree for the lad and his family Missy was the most awesome daughter chatting with her dad My kids making me laugh till I hurt 4-generation Dunlap men Andrea and Deedra at Dad’s wedding Dad and Daughter sharing a strong bond The Daughters arrive! On holiday with The Roy Dunlaps October 2002 – Roy Dunlaps my girls Deedra turns 21, learns to shoot pool […]
Building and operating your own website is easier now than ever. The tools continue to evolve in power and in their accessibility to the non-geek market. There are a few ‘secret handshakes’ and tricky bits to getting started, but in four easy lessons, I can have you comfortably running a website of your own, on your own. The classes are every Thursday in March from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in the Darby Library meeting room. There are currently FOUR students excited about taking the class, but Darby Adult Education requires a minimum of SEVEN to make it go. These four future webmasters need company. Student fees are $16 regular and $8 Senior. Domain purchase online on the first day of […]
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