hey all, I came back late last night after spending a good portion of the afternoon at Jim Husted's shop. Just to illustrate how dedicated or crazy I am, I drove 5hrs from Tacoma, WA to Redmond, OREGON which is definitely a story in and of itself. The 2 1/2 hrs freeway driving was uneventful, but when getting off 84E and traveling down statehiway 26, I started to question my sanity. The scenery is majestic with winding roads and small sprinkles of humanity at rare intervals - just enough to make you realize that a breakdown is gonna be a 2day walk if you cant hitchhike. For me that would mean having to explain to my bosses why I didnt show up to work after they paid for travel to Tacoma and just finished a round of layoff. I especially got worried during the first leg of 26 which is a 2-3way logging route with tall pines lining either side of the roadway reaching far up to only allow a sliver of sky to peak through creating this erie green and brown tunnel. The signs labeled the area as a safety zone with snow tires required and the road crew still had pockets of snowpiles. This was when I first started questioning, 'what was I doing? what if a stupid deer pops out and I wreck my rental?' These imagined scenarios kept getting worse, but I pressed on. It eventually opens up to winding roads along canyon walls with danger falling rocks signs, sheer drop offs, clear mountain rivers meandering at its base, and eventually views of MT Hood towering overhead with its ominous snowcapped peak sparkling whiter than any cloud in the sky. Its funny how a little paranoia can distort these awe-inspiring vistas from WOW to "uhh am I gonna be in trouble?" But that all passes when I get to the high plains and get an uninterrupted view of flatland surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains on the horizon. This is truly a breathtaking view.
That's just a little taste of what Jim has to go through to make it to civilization and John W. to travel down to Redmond for a motor run. It aint no easy jaunt. I finally made it to Jim's shop after he had just gotten word about Killacycle's latest and greatest record to date - the 7's in 07. He was beaming like a proud uncle. At this point, the interview started and I realized that I made several mistakes- I didnt bring a taperecorder and found out the limited knowledge I had of motors compared to Jim. Once Jim "Motorman" Husted started talking on motors, I couldnt jot down fast enough info. It was like I was a gasser next to a high RPM advanced timed siamesed motored racer that just realized the tree light dropped as the racer zips down leaving me in the dust. It was all I could do to keep up was follow Jim around the shop and give out occasional grunts of acknowledgement as he talked. In fact I forgot where I placed my notebook down several times while following Jim from one piece of shop equipment to the next. And Jim does all this by himself. So during the course of the interview got to know about him, his start, some about John and him, a little about motors [that I could write down], future siamese motor plans, Jim's words of motor wisdom, Jim's many other talents, and there must be some special caffinated blend in his coffee or partake of his go juice if you want to keep up. Which BTW if anyone EVER says Jim is getting rich from helping EV-ers, truly has no clue about reality. Jim, when you read this, thanks for a great time. Lyle __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
