Stargazer's Garage

I finally uploaded the pictures I took on Sunday. Before the day was over crashfx and I stopped at Krispy Kreme for a little pick-me up. Cascade Loop Run Pictures

Welcome to the official site of the Twilight Drive-In We went to the drive-in theatre Sunday night to watch Cars and Empire Strikes Back --I mean-- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest . It was a lot of fun and here are a few pictures I took. Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod mount so the pictures are a bit shaky.... Here we are all setup with chairs, blankets, and popcorn! Cars is an awesome movie! It was a nice night with a cresent moon and we were able to see the stars come out. I even saw a shooting star! Intermission! They still play the old fashioned cartoons (including the weiner and bun routine). Two of the girls were able to stay up and watch the entire movie. Before Empire Strikes Back started we got the kids back into the car and they were able to sleep the rest of the evening. Empire Strikes Back ended about 2:20am and we got home just after 3. We're going to try to make it back to the drive-in theatre one more time before the summer is over.

We went on a cruise with about 20 other cars (mostly Subarus) through Washington State from Burlington to Winthrop and looping back through Leavenworth . It was a fun drive. Although the average overall speed was probably higher than the Alki Beach cruise through Chinook Pass, there were stretches of road that were quite congested. My wife and I took a lot of pictures, and I'll post them up I soon as I can.

VWvortex Forums: Pixar forgot a car I haven't had a chance to see Pixar's "Cars" in the theatre yet, but one fun offshoot that I've seen on several automotive forums is people transforming their own cars in the same style. So in that spirit, I made my own attempt. The thread at VWvortex Forums has a lot of great examples--much better than my own--but it was fun making it :biggrin: Click here to see the "before" picture.

More to come....

I took this picture last night. I discovered that the roads around here aren't very smooth :0)

I was bored this afternoon and couldn't wash the car in the rain, so I took some new pictures of the Auto Taser on the STI. I used different shutter speeds from 5 to 15 seconds for various effects. The photos are un-retouched except for resizing. Note: I've had this Auto Taser for a long time, but it has since been discontinued by Taser International (the same people who make taser guns). Below is what it looks in daylight like when the Auto Taser is set off: This is what it looks like in the dark (Auto Taser is armed, hand bumps steering wheel, siren is set off, electrical arcs begin, Auto Taser is dis-armed): I have a few more pictures taken in my Toyota Sequoia here on this page: Auto Taser - May 24, 2004 Additional information about the Auto Taser: CAN RUBBER GLOVES BE USED TO PREVENT ELECTRICAL CONTACT? The AUTO TASER easily penetrates ordinary rubber gloves. The TASER technology can penetrate leather and thick clothing as well. The AUTO TASER can penetrate even automobile...

Whoo-hoo! The center caps for my new WedsSport wheels arrived today. They were supposed to have been shipped with the wheels, but weren't. When I called Gruppe-S about it, they dealt with it very professionally and said they would send them out. I expected the center caps to be plastic and much smaller--these ones are almost the size of tea cups! At least there's no chance of them popping out while I'm driving and now the wheels look much better. The only issue is that tomorrow I have to get different sized hub rings because the center caps won't fit over the original ones (73mm X 56.15mm).

Here are a few more pictures from the Subaru meet at Alki Beach on Sunday. I really like this first picture because I don't normally get to see what the rims look like when I'm in motion :0). This shot was taken by FunkMasta. This next picture shows me driving under the Chinook Pass archway, the final destination of the cruise. Just beyond that point everyone turned around and went to the ski area parking lot for the last of the group shots.

It was an awesome meet with 109 Subarus showing up at the main event and 49 going on the cruise to Chinook Pass in the afternoon. This was the largest and best organized car meet I've ever attended and it was a blast! Click here for pictures.

I had another late evening wash today. This time it was in preparation for the second annual Subaru meet at Alki Beach, Seattle . It's a huge get-together with a lot of cars attending. There will be a cruise to Chinook Pass afterwards and I'm hoping to get some good pictures. A group of cars from Canada will be cruising down together. I bought a bottle of Eagle One Wax-As-You-Dry and tried it out tonight because Consumer Reports gave it some good ratings in their July '06 issue. It's not a very durable wax, but because it is so easy to apply it can help maintain the car's finish. I figure if I use it each time I wash, I should be protected pretty well. I did the wheels with it, too. I'll guess I'll be able to see what it looks like tomorrow in daylight.

I took this picture this afternoon under the Pacific Rim restauarant in Coquitlam. It's an HDR image using 3 exposures.

To follow up on my earlier post with pictures of the 2006 roof spoiler working to increase downforce, I found another picture that actually shows the trunk spoiler working, too: here .