It was great to have some time to get caught up with people I only get to see once or twice a year. And to talk about things I generally only mull over in my own mind. In this case it was all VW stuff, with a little photography thrown in. And I really enjoyed it.
Folks like Jim and Brian and William talking through diesel stuff (and helping me fix some things). Jim helping me get the wiring for my news gauges closer to being done. And of course Jerry with his awesome cheese surprises! This time he had some fried Mexican cheddar in addition to his assortment of smoked cheese. That's the short list... it was a great weekend and I really enjoyed making new friends as well as rekindling older friendships.
I've posted a couple of galleries on facebook so I won't repeat that (they're on my FB page) and a playful YouTube video from the track. Here's the link:
Here are a couple of photos from the weekend,one at my campsite, one at the track entrance, and the other on the track (taken by Joel Cort).
The other thing I've been working on is getting some additional gauges installed and working. I finally accomplished that today. It's been weeks in the making with lots of learning along the way. It feels great to have completed this project...
I've been working to make sure my business systems meet my expectations (at least from an IT perspective) and I've been slowly making some improvements. The latest enhancements included getting some 3TB drives for local backups and a third NAS to do remote replication.
The new drives are SATA III and my old dock didn't support that, it was a cheap upgrade. And 3TB drives for just over $40 / TB is a steal. So some new drives and a new dock. I took a bit of fussing to get the NAS to recognize the drives and so I spent some time in root access mode making mods to the linux OS until I got it right. A new backup has been running for much of the day, I expect it will be done by the morning and then incremental backups will kick in again. It's been a couple of months since I've been able to do a full backup, the upgrade in NAS capacity blew my backup model out of the water.
I'm not satisfied with that though, it's too error prone for getting off-site copies of critical data (it relies on me remembering to do something manual and actually doing it). So today I got a 3rd NAS which is identical to the second one; a Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ V2. I only have 2 drives installed in it so with the x-RAID 2 enabled it's only 3TB of available storage. That will do for a few months though and I have 2 additional bays so I can increase it to match the primary NV+.
I'm preparing #2 to begin async replication tomorrow. When the two NAS are in sync I'll move the new one off-site and enable remote replication over a VPN. That, coupled with versioned snapshots to a set of USB drives, should keep me going for a few years.
It felt good to put the IT hat on again for a little while and come up with my operational model, implement the design, troubleshoot a little and see it in action. Maybe because I was doing it for myself...
Two ReadyNAS NV+ V2 and a USB dock
An update: I'm getting ready to head to the States tomorrow and will be there a couple of times within a month so I'm activating my wifi. Seems I'll be heading to BestBuy to upgrade to a 4G device, they have them on sale for 1/2 price. Here's my minor detour to enable this additional upgrade : )
I've worked on bicycles for years and love them. The simplicity and elegance always strike a chord with me. It doesn't take many tools to do the basics, a few wrenches and hex keys. Owning an old VW camper is another matter.
Of course I knew what I was signing up for when I bought Babe, the first year was one of getting all the important stuff done so she'd be reliable. That was a bunch of time with a mechanic, learning along the way too. Now that I have a little more time I'm starting to do more work myself and it feels great. Before heading to Quebec for the races I did my first oil change, easy and very satisfying.
Next up was acquiring some oil pressure and temp gauges and matching senders. I got the right parts, didn't have the right wrench though. The original ones require a 24mm wrench, much larger than what I have. And I think much larger than I think they should need, they are only 10mm bolts. Anyhow, it meant a trip to get Dave to lend me a hand extracting them. It didn't take long, and in the process Jim (who did the actual work) also installed the new ones. So far so good.
I've arranged to get some help doing the final wiring while I'm in New York next week (I'm headed there for Westies at Watkins) and as part of getting ready for that I spent today under my camper running a set of wires from the engine compartment to the front. I made sure to clamp the wires carefully, I used split wire loom to make sure they wouldn't get abraded from vibrations, and left an extra loop just in case some future mod is needed.
New senders and the new wire coiled and waiting to be connected
What I didn't do was drill a hole through the front to get the wire inside. For that, I'll want to make sure it's in the right spot and done the right way so that will happen along with the final wiring.
Still, it was a good start. And I doubt those jeans will ever come clean so they now are my official "grease monkey attire".
New house battery and wiring modifications, oil & filter change, new gauges, who knows what I'll be capable of next! lol
The third edition of this great weekend of racing is now in the books, including some historic moments and some personal moments. It's taken me a while to get settled back in, to wrap up all the coverage, and to digest all that transpired. I'm now getting around to writing about it.
This year I didn't have the same amount of time as last year, my schedule was a day shorter at the beginning and it seemed to make the entire trip feel much more compressed. Tight.
A tribute to Eddy
Still, I made a point of getting on the road with a good attitude thanks to the custom decal my friend Greg made.
I got off to a good start and made it to around Trois-Rivières before looking for a campsite. That put me a couple of hours from Quebec so I knew I would get there in time for my first event. The campsite wasn't anything special and it was pretty much deserted. In fact as hard as I tried to find someone around who I could pay by the time morning came around and I'd had my coffee I just packed up and got on my way.
The hotel in Quebec was not the same as previous years however it was right at the start/finish so that was great. And it's always nice to stay in a chateau : )
My room looked out over the VIP area by the finish
The streets were closed to cars. Not horses or bikes though
What was the same was the parcour... it's a tough course with steep climbs and fast descents. The final grind to the finish is used for the Sprint Challenge and it must take a lot out of the racers legs to do multiple sprints up that. This year's winner (Zach Bell of Spidertech) only came to contest the sprint, leaving the WorldTour races for his other teammates.
Matt Goss tweeting about being @ the sprint challenge
Matt Goss
@mattgoss1986 Sep 6
Sitting in the tent for the start of the sprint
challenge here in Canada reminds me of the track days. Rollers, sprint
efforts & skinsuits!
The QC race day started foggy and moist. It had rained the night before but the forecast was clear of precipitation. I got to the press center early after having dropping off some magazines for Ryder @ the Frontenac. Some friends from Belgium had asked for a photo of one a rider they've billeted and so for a change I gave someone my camera to take a shot of Matteo with me in the frame.
Early morning on race day in Quebec City
With Matteo Trentin
It was a busy day filled with great moments. Meeting up with Andy and Molly definitely fit into the great part of it. They're from Massachusetts, we have a common connection through a client and as it turns out Molly was a tour guide with Steve Bauer back in 20044 when Andrea and I went on our first Tour de France trip. Small world.
The peloton in old Quebec
Quebec is a beautiful city... if you haven't been there you should go and if you have you know it is (and you should go back). I always look for a different photo to try to show that and for 2012 this is the one...
Just a few of us...
After finishing my work for the day I was too exhausted to go out for a meal, so I missed getting to my favourite crepe place (le Billig). I will make a point of fitting it in for next year though! I did get my fresh pastries in the morning before hitting the road to Montreal for the next part of the event. A stroll through an old cemetery is part of the trip. Down hill and then back up is the rest!. That plus a very windy trip... driving a VW camper in a strong cross wind is not something I enjoy doing!
I got to Montreal just fine though, and early enough that I went out for lunch with some of the commissaries I know. Anne, Ed and Steve were just heading out so I tagged along and we had a great Montreal meal at a fish and chip spot (ya, I know... but go to Brit & Chips and tell me you don't love it!). I had some interviews lined up for the late afternoon / evening and so I relaxed a little until I was able to connect with these busy folks. The chat I had with Michael Barry of Team Sky after his announcement that he's retiring is now online and I think it's a good piece. Here's the direct link:
I have another that hasn't been published yet, stay tuned for more info when it is online.
Then it was race day, again. A short trip up to the start/finish area, a little time getting organized, and back to work.
Team Sky
Montreal
Well, done for the day again. Except my accomodations were a couple of hours away. I had a firm reservation though and so I knew it would all be good. And of course it was... getting caught up with Jackie and her kids is always good.
Reserved parking
It feels great to be home. And I will be home this weekend, no commitments to travel. Next weekend thought... that will be heading down to Watkins Glen in the finger lakes region of NY. Looking forward to a VW camping event!
Since then another Armstrong has been in the news as he passed away, the one who was the first man on the moon. Don't confuse the two, or mix them up with Neil Young as some of the media did as the news broke. I see people tripping over themselves in the rush to get news out and having made the same sort of mistakes (on much smaller stories!) I do have compassion for them even as others point a finger.
So on that note I'll move on to Grafton and the Shelter Valley Folk Festival. This past weekend saw the 9th edition and from all accounts it was the smoothest to date. The weather co-operated and the talent they had lined up was awesome.
I volunteered at this event last year and enjoyed it. I volunteered again, as part of the advance site crew and enjoyed it even more. I was there setting up the big-top tent for hospitality. And I was there for most of the week leading up to the festival setting up tents, cleaning chairs, distributing tables and getting the main stage ready. And camping at the top of the hill during the week as we all got it together.
Meeting some of the other volunteers was awesome. The electrical crew, security, and other parts of "advance" are filled with dedicated folks! The people who work in hospitality and make sure we all eat well deserve extra credit... the food alone is worth the volunteer time! And the evening campfires are too. It was great to listen to some of the other volunteers (like Jordy) who muscle their way through the day and still have the energy to pluck a guitar and sing a song as the evening unfolds.
And then there's the festival itself... last year I missed a lot of it and so I only had a few photos and a small selection of videos to put on YT. This year I had all my time done and got to enjoy the event to the fullest. For me that included taking lots of photos and some videos, I'm still going through them all but I have a small early gallery to share. I'm off to Quebec City and then Montreal this week so I won't finish this all up until I get back in a week or so.
And for the record, I'm looking forward to this last major work trip... I love QC and look forward to spending some time there. I know I'll go to my favourite crepe spot!
Gregory Hoskins
So... some photos. These are a few of the 1500+ I took and don't include any of the video work, stay tuned for more!
