Three of the five Bentleys

Coffee stop

After the heavy rains and flooding we started the Colorado Grand today driving from Conifer to Vail where everybody is gathering. Derek MacNeil is my trusted co driver again, his second Grand. Leaving Conifer I turned over the steering wheel to him to get his brain adjusted to the Bentley gearbox. After about 45 min he found all the gears without brushing the teeth, he even managed to shift from 4th straight into 1st, we stopped for coffee and I could relax. There is still a bit of monsoon moisture left in the atmosphere, so we had a couple of sprinkles, but we should be basically dry for the rest of the week.

Some 250 people participate in this event, 100 cars plus board members, motors/state troopers who keep us safe, a mechanics crew, luggage van, photographers and a film crew. The Grand is celebrating its 25th year and we have 25 pre war cars, incl 5 Bentleys. They are: 1923 3 litre Steven & William D Binnie, 1927 6.5 litre Ron & Ryan Rezek, 1928 41/2 litre Thomas & Kathie Rutishauser, 1931 4-8 litre Kurt Furger & Derek Macneil, 1931 8 litre Mark Hyman & Bryan Joseph. We just went to the drivers meeting and the chief state trooper warned us not to overtake a school bus with flashing lights or cross a yellow line under any circumstances. The penalty is a trailer back home.

Today we experienced temperature swings of 40-80-50 degrees. Left Vail around 8am heading thru Glenwood Canyon and over McClure Pass into Paonia for lunch, southwest of the state. It was around 40 degrees in Vail and sunny, so we headed out early morning thru the picturesque Glenwwood Canyon.

Our first pass of the tour took us over McClure Pass into an agricultural valley where lunch was served in the small town of Paonia, 400 inhabitants. The ladies of Paonia made all the food...homemade cooking and lovely desserts, brownies, peach cobbler, etc. The kids had a day off school and helped with the serving, a very friendly lot. Locals, some with their old cars, came out in droves to admire the cars in 80 degree weather. Each town hosting lunch along the Colorado Grand route receives generous financial support from the organization for a community project and a $5000 college scholarship for a local graduating high-school senior. So the organization is always very welcome by the locals inhabitants.

After lunch we headed towards Grand Junction over the Grand Mesa, climbing from 5000 ft to 10.000 ft. Had to stop on the top to put a jacket back on as it cooled down to 50 degrees. 20 miles before Grand junction we hit heavy rain on the I-70, no exits, so we had to drive on in shorts and got very wet! Had to change drivers on the fly as Derek's glasses and googles were fogged up. By the time we were in Grand Junction arriving in the parking lot the sun was out again and we started to dry up. All part of the fun!

Great cars

Last night after dinner we walked around the parking lot, always good fun to see and hear what happened during the day. Several cars were worked on under flashlights, a 1955 Maserati 300s race car stopped functioning when it started raining and had to be trailed in. After checking the magnetos and replacing the 12 spark plugs, 2 plugs per cylinder like the Bentley, the car started up again and the crew went off for a bottle of wine, most of the time it is simple stuff. Up to 40% of the cars get worked on a run like this. No wonder some folks bring their own mechanics along. We have done 350 miles now and are running good, spending $95 in gasoline a day or about 23 gls for 250 miles. The Grand is usually known for its expedient driving, not so yesterday. Heading from Carbondale towards McClure pass we were 4 cars (incl our Ghost collegue Sam in a 300SL) and our own trooper behind us ..we were waiting for the thumbs up, only to be surprised by a local police car pulling up in front of us escorting us to the next county line in slow motion!

Great motoring today. We drove from Grand Junction into Utah along the Coloado river into Moab. Derek took the wheel first and enjoyed the empty roads so much that he forgot to take his foot off the gas pedal leaving a dozen other Granders in the rear view mirror. This run is one of the ten most scenic roads in the US as the road runs directly along the Colorado river. There are no guardrails (no room) and beautiful red sandstone formations left and right of the road. We all stopped along the way to take pictures. Lunch was in Moab, the weather a perfect 80 degrees. Like yesterday a great event with home cooking served outside in the park while the high school brass band entertained us. From Moab we ran back into Colorado on fairly fast roads. In Norwood, 20 miles from Telluride, we put on our wet gear as black clouds gathered. It did not take long for the rain to start, fortunately one of our motors ( trooper on a Kawasaki) escorted us, so we could follow his red lights thru the tight canyon. We are staying at the Peak Hotel in the ski resort area, the modern part of Telluride which has covered parking, a great relief. Tonight we will dine in old Telluride taking the Gondola down into the old down town area.

A couple of cars already had to be trailered home, including one of the five Bentleys... it had an overheating problem which could not be resolved. The tour breakdown service works very well and if one is unfortunate enough to loose a car, Mercedes is providing five new AMG cars to allow the participant to proceed on the rest of the tour!

Another great day of motoring and for a change all in the dry!! We were on the road for 11 hours. Drove into the historic old town of Telluride with another Bentley and took some pictures, then proceeded to Ridgeway for coffee at the True Grit Cafe ...the John Wayne movie was filmed here. All the towns folk were out and about and we entertained the people who were admiring the cars. We then proceeded to Cerro Summit between Montrose and Gunnison, only to get held up for 30min due to road construction. The subsequent run to Lake City, in the heart of the San Juan mountains, was wonderful motoring along the Gunnison river with the aspen trees starting to change color a little bit. Lunch in Lake City on the lawn was great with hundreds of people coming out. We only left at 3pm and enjoyed an extra coffee, cookie and cigar. Derek drove back to Gunnison, always followed by a trooper, but he got very good feedback as he only touched the yellow line a couple times, not too bad for guiding a heavy vehicle thru 100 tight bends.

Arrived in Crested Butte around 5pm with the sun behind us, spectacular scenery. The remaining four Bentleys are running well, some points needed adjustment and we have a small oil leak between the engine and the dynamo which is in the front of the car - this can be fixed later. Our other mishap was my blown away cap, the troopers tried to recover it but the Grand Gazette which we get every morning reported that it looked like a run over beaver and it was not worth recovering.