Beautiful Places

I'm lucky enough to live in some of the most beautiful country in the world. I get out and enjoy my surroundings as often as possible. I walk a beautiful canyon trail almost every day for my exercise, and we take short road trips once in awhile to enjoy the beautiful National Parks close to our home here in Southern Utah.
No matter where we live, there is some beautiful country near most of us, anywhere in the world. From the posts I see on Twitter, I know most of us have some favorite places we like to drive to and enjoy. Thanks to the many forms of social media, we can share photos of these special places with the rest of the world. I have been to some of the places I see posted on social media, and the memories are made fresh in my mind. The many places I haven't been, the photos I see make me wish I could visit as well.
Life is much too short. We all need to get out and enjoy the beautiful places near us, and as many of the far away places as we can make it to. Get out and enjoy. This is a beautiful world we live in.

On a drive, a few months ago, through the beautiful Zion National Park, near our home in Southern Utah.

This is "Darwin's Garage"

Yes, that's what I call my blog, but there is a real "Darwin's Garage", actually three different garages in the last 37 years. It's one of my favorite places to spend time, keeping my cars clean and detailed, as well as keeping the garage itself neat and clean. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I do keep things pretty clean and organized around here.
In my first garage, about 30 some years ago, I built high performance engines, restored a couple rare muscle cars, and performed mechanical upgrades to my racing cars. A lot of work was performed in that garage.
My second garage was the largest I have had, so far anyway. It was a nice big, heated, three car garage, with epoxy coated floor, and nice big windows. By the time I had that garage, it was more of a detail shop, and not so much mechanical work was being performed. Although I did still do oil changes, tire rotations, and some modifications to my performance cars.
My current garage, here in Southern Utah, is not as big as my last garage, and is mostly used to keep my cars clean and detailed. I perform very little mechanical work these days. It's a nice garage, with finished and painted walls, epoxy coated floor, and decorated with many of my automotive signs and racing treasures. I do greatly enjoy the time I spend out there.
Anyone interested in my automotive history, and past drag racing and street racing experiences, can check out my book at: Grab Some Gears

This is me, enjoying time spent in the real "Darwin's Garage".

Warmer Climate

As winter sets in over much of our half of the planet, and I see the reports of nasty cold weather happening to many of my friends, family, and Twitter associates, I'm glad I live in a warmer climate. It makes it much easier to enjoy my cars all year around.
I spent most of my life living in colder areas, and dealing with snow, ice, and freezing weather.  It seems like the cold weather lasted almost half of the year, though in reality, it was probably more like four or five months. But, it was way to much time to put up with weather that hampered my enjoyment of my cars. Though I drove my performance cars year around, there were many days that they had to stay in the garage, because of snow and nasty roads.
We've had this home in Southern Utah for eight years now, though we have lived here full time for less than four years. Even when our primary home was up north, I kept my best performance car garaged down here, so I could enjoy it when I was down on weekends and holidays. I quickly grew to love this climate, and couldn't wait to live here full time.
As many of my Twitter friends and associates talk about putting their performance cars away for the winter, it makes me appreciate my warmer climate, because I remember vividly what it was like living in the snow. I'm very happy I live where I do.
For more of my automotive history, you can check out my book at; Grab Some Gears

My Mustang and our Southern Utah home town. Snow usually stays on those distant mountain tops.

Finding Solitude

The end of the year, the holidays, the colder weather, and all that come with it, has always been a hard time for me. I have never liked crowds, dealing with a lot of people at one time, even like parties or large family gatherings. "I am a loner" !
We always hear that many people experience depression around the holidays. I think most of them are probably people who would like to be around other people, but find themselves alone around this time of year. I used to work with a single guy, who's whole life centered around his work environment, and everyone he associated with were the people he worked with. When the holidays came around, and everyone had a lot of time off at work, he spent the days home alone, and I think it was very hard on him every year. I know he got very depressed.
That's not me. I like my time alone. That's when my batteries recharge. I love it especially when I have something to do that I enjoy, like keeping my cars clean, keeping my house and garage clean and neatly organized, or just out walking in a beautiful, quite place, on a nice day. These things I enjoy doing every chance I get.
This year, at the end of a very stressful last seven months, I've needed that solitude more than ever before. I especially enjoy my walks in the canyon. I find myself taking more notice of the beauty and quiet, more than I ever have before. I do enjoy that time, and cherish it, and thank God for it.

Me,  enjoying the beautiful Snow Canyon State Park, near my home in Southern Utah.

Drag Strip Days

Readers of this blog, and those familiar with my book, may know that I was a street racer for over 40 years. During those years, I also spent quite a bit of time on the "legal" drag strip, racing my cars in the "street legal" classes. This went on for about a ten year period, between 1987 and 1997, and I still have a lot of the time slips, and a trophy, from those days. During those years, I ran four different cars on the drag strip near my former home in Northern Utah.
In the last couple years, we had a drag strip here in Southern Utah. I went out and watched the racing a couple times, thinking about running on the strip again in my 2015 Mustang GT. About the time I was ready to try my luck again, they closed down the drag strip, and started construction of large industrial buildings on the site. That was the end of that, and for my return to drag racing.
A lot of thing changed in my time away from drag strip racing. Now days, you see a lot of different vehicles, other than the classic muscle cars that used to dominate the racing. You now find way more large, hopped-up, diesel pickup trucks, than the muscle cars of the old days.
Just like the move from muscle cars to hopped-up turbo imports among the street racing crowd, I guess everything changes, even if it's sad for some of us "old-timers", that's the way it goes.
Anyone interested can check out my book at: "Grab Some Gears"

Vintage photo of me on the drag strip in my 87 Mustang,  in the late 1980's.

Shelby GT500

A few years ago, I owned a 2007 Shelby GT 500. I had ordered it from Ed Kenley Ford in Northern Utah, my favorite Ford dealership. The GT 500 was being brought back for the first time since 1970, and I had been on the waiting list since they were first announced. It was almost a year until the details were all finalized and they started actually putting in orders. That dealership would only be getting one Shelby GT 500 for the 2007 model year, and it would be mine. I picked out the color and options I wanted, the order was placed, and 6 months later, my new Shelby arrived.
I think I always knew that it may be a once-in-a-lifetime car for me. Being something special, I tried to keep the miles down, it was always kept clean and detailed. It was never driven is the rain, and was kept covered when in the garage. After we bought our place in Southern Utah, the Shelby was kept in the garage down here most of the time. I could drive it all year around in this climate, and I came down here often.
I made some performance upgrades while I owned the Shelby. It had an after-market cold air induction system, cat-back exhaust system, and some special trim items and the like. It was tuned to about 575 horsepower, and was a thrill to drive. I had it up over 150 MPH on a lonely stretch of  deserted Nevada highway one summer afternoon.
I owned the Shelby for about six years, and it had only 12,000 miles on it when I sold it. The main problem was, I'm a car-guy, and I like to drive my cars. I didn't want a "collectors item" that I felt I couldn't just drive as much as I wanted. When I sold it, I ordered a new 2013 Mustang GT to be my daily driver performance car.
Car enthusiasts may want to check out my book: "Grab Some Gears - 40 Years of Street Racing". Just follow this link; Grab Some Gears

My 2007 Shelby GT 500 , in the Red Rock country of Southern Utah , about 7 years ago.

What's Next ?

Over the last couple years, the miles have really started to add up on our 2014 Dodge Charger. This is mostly due to numerous 2000 mile trips to Washington state and back, from our Southern Utah home. The same situation was happening with our gray 2013 Charger, which was an all-wheel-drive model. We sold that gray Charger to our son, and replaced it with our current white 2014 we found at our local Dodge dealership.
These are excellent cars for many reasons. They are very comfortable to travel in, very roomy, even with rear seat passengers, and have plenty of trunk space. Our 2014 also has a performance tire/wheel package that provides excellent high speed highway handling. Equipped with the 300 horsepower V6 engine, and 8-speed automatic transmission, it has plenty of power, and also gets over 30 miles-per-gallon highway gas mileage.
I have always been a "car-guy", and the looks and image of my cars are important to me. The Dodge Chargers are among very few 4-door cars that can pull off the "muscle-car" look, especially with the 20" chrome wheels of our white 2014 model.
Now, as the miles are adding up, I'm starting to think about what I might get to replace this car when the time comes. I want it to be something with all the qualities we love about this one. What's next? That may be a tall order to fill.
Car people may want to check out my book; "Grab Some Gears - 40 Years of Street Racing". Just follow this link to read sample pages; Grab Some Gears

Our favorite traveling car,  our 2014 Dodge Charger.