Getting Back to an Old Hobby Part 1

Recently I have been feeling like I want to wrench on something in the garage again. As you may remember, in the past I have been pretty handy with working on cars and have had a lot of fun doing it. I am going to start a series of posts dedicated to my old hobby.

Nov 2002: First, a 1984 Subaru Wagon. The EA-81 cars, called that due to an engine designation, were getting harder and harder to find. Back then, if you could find a EA-81 car with a good body, it didn't much matter if it ran or not. I began my search on e-bay. The closest and nicest one I found was outside of Philadelphia. I persuaded the owner to end the auction early for $300! The car was in great shape but had blown head gaskets. I knew where I could get a donor motor and had a friend that could tow the vehicle, so off I went!

Here is what awaited me:


After a lot of sticker peeling it was pushed into the garage and the work began:

Several weeks later, Gini visited and I was tooling around in the backyard!
One night, I even got stuck in the backyard. My buddy Chris Clark came to the rescue. His F350 Super Duty even got stuck. Thank god Kimmy was there with the Pathfinder. Chris Bazzano offered to pull with the Pathfinder.
By summer, the car was cleaned up, and actually was pictured in the 2003 Ultimate Subaru Message Board calendar with this picture:
When we moved to Las Vegas in March 2004, the car was sold to a friend. I miss it.

Trip to the UP

Ok, so it's been a long time since I posted. I have been thinking lately and recently motivated to begin posting again. I have decided to make this blog a place to share all of the fun places I visit while traveling for work.

I recently traveled to Michigan. I was excited to hear that there was a job in Marquette, MI. Marquette is in the upper peninsula, a place I had always heard was beautiful. My friend Kevin had always told me how he worked in Michigan and had crossed the Mackinac Bridge. It is a 5 mile span which crosses the Straits of Mackinac, the junction of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.


I decided to head up to Sault Ste. Marie for lunch, I had always heard about this town on the edge of the Canadian border. It was about 60 miles north of the Mackinac Bridge, and I had some time to kill.
If you look in the distance, you can see the Canadian flag on the other side of the fence.
Now, on to business. Here are some pictures of Marquette, MI, on the shores of Lake Superior.
Yes, I took this picture....
And of course, you have to eat the local food specialty. Up here it's fudge and a stuffed thing called a pasty. Pasties are filled with your choice of filling, mine had steak, potatoes, and rutabaga. It was awesome!