Thursday the 19th. Preview.

Thursday, Meet my Nephew Grant and his friend Jacob for breakfast, and start to plan our strategy for the upcoming few days. We head for the convention center, do some finale set up and have lunch at Giordano’s Pizza. We order 2, one for now and one for tomorrow! Stuffed Pizza is the best! Oli and I are on our own for Thursday, the show has a preview night, 5-9. It’s great! A very nice crowd, a great way to start our Chicago fund raising effort.

To Chicago

Thursday 8.12.10 We picked up the Penske truck and car trailer.

Friday 8.13.10 we take to the open road. First stop North Carolina for a visit with the family. Chris and Annette, Mummy and Deaddy. Dinner and then back on the road.

Destination, Chicago Comic Con! But first we drop the car off at DMC Midwest for a visit with the DeLorean Doctor, Dave Swingle, Saturday afternoon. My brother Joe and his wife Judy pick us up at the truck drop off and we have a great Italian dinner in the pretty town of Crystal Lake, IL.

Sunday we make a trip to the Apple Store for some assistance with our phone and have dinner with my Brother Eddy and his daughter, Stephanie. Did you know that Webber Grill has a restaurant? They do and it was good!

The company made it even better!

Monday we spend a good amount of time at the DMC garage. Oli and I test drive the car to make it heat up, but the weather is so nice that it’s not until we return to the shop that she overheats. Engine trouble, now what do we do?

We discuss the options for engine replacement and repair and with 200,000 miles on the old engine, the logical choice is replacement. We decide on a stage 2 engine, for better performance and for the plain fact that it comes with a new stainless steel exhaust system and water pump. We’ll be replacing the a/c compressor and a/c hoses along with the hoses for the engine. A lot of work to get to, but now we wait for Houston to rebuild, modify, powder coat and ship the new engine. At least we know that the car can run short distances and we decide to leave her at the garage until Wednesday when we have to load into the Rosemont Convention Center.

With these decisions made we can now enjoy some time in Chicago!

Tuesday we drive into the city for a foodie tour. First stop: olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. Interesting. We 'drink' small cups of different flavors.

Now the spice store, green peppercorn for me! Now for lunch at the Polish deli, perogi, sandwich and a fudge brownie!!!! Now a stroll through Old Town past Second City, then to the Jewish Deli for a marble rye, a stop at a tea shop and a walk through the zoo. The weather is perfect. We finish up at Oz Park to see the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow statues, very nice indeed.

Over heating!

So. I changed out my thermostat after the Cincinatti trip, but before the Oklahoma trip. It was purchased at NAPA, and was set for a slightly higher temp than what a DeLorean engine should have. So, my preventative measure compounded the problem. New thermostat installed today! I enjoy working on the engine more and more as I get more familiar with it. I like to try to sound impressive by telling Terry that I had to remove the 'air intake manifold' to access the waterpump and themostat. :)
Tested the new part, and I noticed the fans were not coming on. Fortunately, I also ordered an otterstat, which tells the fans when to turn on, if the car is sitting, stopped in traffic. Swapping that out, it seemed to work like a charm! I've heard that overheating an engine can easily 'toast' the otterstat, so that is an important thing to remember to change out.
Fans come on now before the needle even hits the first mark on the dial!
New thermostat with new seal, repaired or replaced a few hoses, tightened hose clamps, new otterstat, new coolant tank lid, and fresh antifreeze. -Also bled the radiator of any air bubbles, as required on DeLoreans. *Gotta burp the baby.*
Next time leap, we'll be visiting our friend and official DeLorean service center owner Dave Swingle to have old hoses replaced with fancy silicone ones! No more blowing out rotten hoses. Also replacing our A/C hoses which will work much more efficiently too and I'm looking forward to that.

Saturday: The big day!

Saturday comes quick; the show floor opens at 10. We are there and ready. Grant and Jacob depart at 12, what a fantastic help they were! Debbie and Gary stop by and help for a portion. We have a couple of show volunteers helping as well, thanks to a great guy named Spat! But the greatest gift was Barbara; Mary’s sister spent the whole day with us and helped us have the best day ever in our fundraising history! A photo op with John Schneider (Smallville and the The Dukes of Hazzard.) Exhausted but buzzing with excitement we have dinner with Barb and some catching up.

August 18

Wednesday Joe and Judy drop us at the garage and we ready for the drive to the convention center. We make it there safe and sound. Locate our hotel and load the car in. Easy load in, once we find the right door. (Guard One: 'Go to guard Two.' Guard Two: 'Go back to Guard One.') !
We have a 20 x 20 booth so we set the tables, get some pipe and drape and hang our banners. Polish the car and depart for a date with Billy Elliot. What a fantastic show! The subject matter is dark; coal miners strike, fighting in the streets, Margaret Thatcher puppet show and a 13-year-old boy named Billy that can dance! Awesome scenery, amazing use of stage and very talented performers. Oh yes and music by Elton John! After the show my gal Mary drives us back to the hotel, with a stop and steak and shake for a sandwich and some visit time. Had a wonderful time, Thanks Mary☺

We left home at 5am this morning heading west towards a fundraiser in Oklahoma.
About an hour and a half into the drive I noticed my temperature gauge rising.
We stopped when coolant steam started jetting out of the overflow tube of the expansion tank. We sat and let things cool down a bit, and added some bottled water we had with us. Went down the road another mile or so and the same problems occurred.
AAA to the rescue. (We requested a flat bed, as we've heard this is better for DeLoreans.)
After getting towed back home, our friendly neighborhood garage discovered a cracked coolant cap and loose belts, both of which may have caused us the problems.
We replaced the cap, tightened the belts, topped off the coolant, did a pressure test, frantically fixing everything, and tried again. We had a narrow window of opportunity to make the 20+ hour drive.
An hour out of town, a coolant hose blew, this time, great billows of steam pouring out of the exhaust vents, creating a spectacular visual effect! Yeah, I know. Wish I had taken a picture of that, don't you? Please accept my apologies. I was a little distracted.
Fortunately, the next exit was close, and we coasted down the off ramp into a very small mom-n-pop's convenience store. By now, it was lunch time, so taking a cue from our DeLorean Jedi master Bob Zilla, we took it as a sign. We ordered a couple of hot dogs and drinks and chips and just cooled ourselves off while the car finished it's show in the parking lot.
Later, I was able to make the repair myself, good enough to get us back home, but something is making the engine run hot and I don't know what it is.
(Besides this blistering weather!) A fun thing about the cooling system is whenever something happens, you really need to let it cool down for about 45 minutes to an hour before you can even work on it. -Or else risk getting scalded, of which I'm not a big fan. Normally, our D is trouble free, and you'll rarely find a blog post about unexpected problems, compared to the number of uneventful trips we've taken. But this particular episode has shaken me up. I'm always praising the car's performance and really don't like for it to be seen on the bed of a tow truck, or broken down on the side of the road. It just perpetuates the myth that DeLoreans are not good cars, which couldn't be further from the truth. It's a machine, that requires regular maintenance and care, and I know it's just a matter of time before I unlock the mystery of why the engine is unhappy right now.

Douglas Sonders Photo Shoot!

Terry and I have never had the honor of being part of a professional location photo shoot, so this was quite fun experience.
Douglas Sonders is a celebrated photographer with a list of high profile celebrity and corporate clients that will blow you away. Even more impressive are his amazing photos.
We met Doug in Celebration, Florida during the exotic car festival a few years back, and he had an idea of doing a session with the time machine to create images which could be used to promote our drive to cure Parkinson's.
His busy schedule has him flying all over the world and we figured that if it was meant to be, the opportunity would present itself someday.
Well, on Saturday, June 26th, 2010, it did!
It was more than a six hour shoot, with a location swap in between, and Doug assembled a team of talented folks to help, along with renting generators for the lights, and hauling a huge load of equipment to make the car look it's finest. He arranged the location and contacted a lovely model named Emily, to create a female version of the character 'Marty McFly' from the movie. To add further excitement, he lined up a professional pyrotechnics guy to set up flame trails behind the time machine.
Keep in mind, these blurry snapshots are from my camera and not Doug's! He's in the editing phase of the shoot and we hope to see the results of his work in the near future.
Our thanks go to Doug and everyone involved who gave of their time and talents for this project.
Here's a LINK to Doug's site, and below is a little behind-the-scenes video I took of the process of Doug capturing the DeLorean time machine in the outer Washington DC area.

Kevin Pike

Terry and I met Kevin Pike this past weekend at the DeLorean Car Show in Lexington, KY.
Kevin was the special effects supervisor of 'Back to the Future' and was responsible for the physical construction of the time machines in the movie.
He shared a few stories and was generous enough to grant us this video clip for the mission!

Back to the grocery store. . .

Terry and I got to help celebrate a grocery store chain's anniversary. Amelia's is in the northern area up in Pennsylvania and their prices reflect those from the 1980's! They thought having a DeLorean would be a good symbol of the era.
Note the pavement background, the stainless steel background for the products, and the fonts used!
A lot of detail went into this commercial and I think the production company did a great job with the effects!
Here's the commercial:

Amelia's Grocery

Sunday we start to plan for the possibility of running out of photo paper, no need to worry, because it seems that most people brought their own cameras and we had just enough paper to get through the day. Lots of fans, including a female Marty McFly! Another visit with Alan and our friends Tom and Amy came by to say hi. Tom is a wonderkid when it comes to Back to the Future and the Delorean Time Machine. It was fun to hear him answer the publics questions! The show wound down really fast, it was 4pm and then we were packing up because it was 5 pm. With the car we like to be out of the convention halls as quickly as possible, to avoid fork lifts with boxes, carpet rolls and vans blocking the drives. So with a quick hug goodbye to Alan we were out and on our way to 95 and home to our puppies. We took a new route, 95 was backed up so we took 40, it was slow going at times, but we made it past Baltimore and stopped for the night at the Brown Motel, with 15 international rooms. We got the last room, China! When traveling in a time machine you never know when, or where you might end up!

Saturday starts off with a rush that doesn’t slow until about 6:30. A great day for fundraising. We start to worry that we might run out of photo paper, so Alan starts calling around to see if there is any in the Philly area. No luck there, but we make it through the day. Now we are about to run out of hand-outs. Our friend and sponsor, Stephen Clark has been kind enough to supply items for these outings. I hope that we are able to attract some business for his web store at BTTF.net. The Fire Marshall stops ticket sales at the front. The convention center has reached maximum capacity, so -the organizers extend the show one hour. Long day, with lot’s of happy people who got to sit in a DeLorean Time Machine.

Friday: First day of the convention begins at 12, at least that’s when the doors open. Folks were still setting up when we arrived at the hall. Lots of comic book vendors and artists, I guess that’s expected. Some toy and collectable vendors, a lot of comic book stalls and a number of celebrities. After a quick walk about, (I bought a leather pouch), we readied the car and the doors opened to a nice sized crowd. People made their way to us and we took a good number of photos. I enjoyed the visit from warriors from '300.'

Alan Erush, a friend that lives in Philly, came to help out. A very nice day, easy pace, fun pictures and then dinner with Alan and his wife Sarah at Appleby’s. We had such fun just talking and laughing. Then back to the hotel for some rest.

Load In

Thursday is load-in day. We search for a car wash and give the D a really good scrubbing. She is bright and shiny. With a few loops around the block we find our way into the convention center loading dock. After a short wait, as the staff inspects the car, checks the gas level, and finds out where we belong, they direct us to our space #753. We have 4) 10 x 10 booths that land on an end aisle. The show has had a ticket sale surge and the organizers are hoping for a great show. So are we! We arrange for electricity and pipe and drape. Sign papers for all the union stuffs, and prepare the car for a work out. There are a few early donations from volunteers and staff, which bodes well for the show already!

To Philadelphia

Philly comic Con
Wednesday, June 9^th, 2010

Traveled from Myrtle to Joppa PA, with a pit stop at King’s Dominion for a couple of thrills! Sometimes you just need to scream and yell and roller coasters encourage such behavior. In Joppa, we're starving and find a Chinese buffet serving frog legs. A snack you don't see every day. We then crash for the night, worn out by rides and marathon eating.

Quilts, and going back to 1980.

Recently I had the enjoyable opportunity to do a different kind of time traveling.
My friend from way back in Junior High School, Robin Ballew Culbertson, contacted me through Facebook earlier in the year.
First, let me tell you a little about Robin. As kids, we had several classes together, and many of the same friends. Robin was extremely academically gifted and we tended to travel in the same creative circles. While I was often anxious and tended to use 'broad strokes', her artistic skills exhibited a mature patience and meticulous attention to detail. I've never told her this, but I would often take my cues from her, watching to see how high she would 'set the bar', when it came to class projects. One of my favorite memories about Robin was when the two of us collaborated on a marionette production of 'Pinocchio' together. Her craftsmanship just blew me away, and she challenged me (without even knowing it.)
Another memory is when we did a rock and roll puppet show with several of our other partners in crime, -and unwittingly filled the classroom with noxious green and red fumes from smoke bombs.
The less said about that, the better. (But boy, Mrs. Tate was MAD!)
Fast forward to February of 2010.
She wrote: "I am planning on doing a customer quilt show in the spring, and one of the ideas I had was to perhaps tie it in with your DeLorean time machine and your [Team Fox] efforts. I want to do the quilt show as a fundraiser for charity, but haven't settled on which one."

Well. I don't know anything about quilts, and at first, the idea seemed like a stretch, even for a time traveler. But Robin had sincere interest, and, like back in our school days, I knew anything she's involved with would have outstanding results. And those results could help us in our mission to find a cure for Parkinson's.
We corresponded back and forth and came up with a date and time. And as predicted, the event was wonderful. She took out display ads and alerted the media. She lined up sponsors to reward winning entries with prizes, including a Baby Lock Grace Computerized Sewing Machine.
(I think the word 'Grace' is so appropriate.)
And even though she felt a little nervous about it, Robin even appeared on a local television show to promote the event.
The quilt entries were amazing, and I've now been properly introduced to this art form. The folks who came out for the 'kick off' were so kind and generous and encouraging. Several people came out to the Asheville Cotton Company for the first time to see what the DeLorean was doing there. And one guy even came dressed as Marty McFly! After talking 'horsepower' and 'MPG' with some fellas, I even convinced them to step inside and check out the quilts! Another long time friend, Conrad Shirk, came by with his family to say 'Hi.'
Afterwards, Robin and I enjoyed a BBQ lunch together and caught up on 'old times.'
Now that all is said and done, I'm thrilled to share that Robin and her hard work resulted in a donation of $2331.57 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research!
Check out her website that describes the event and even displays photos of the winning quilts! -And if you're ever in Asheville, North Carolina, be sure and stop in at the Asheville Cotton Co. and say 'Hi' to Robin.
Even if you don't sew, you'll consider yourself lucky after meeting such an exceptional, fun and generous person.
-Oliver
(7th grade.)

Fund Raising in the Smokies!

AdventureCon, Tennessee's largest collectors show, will host the DeLorean Time Machine in Pigeon Forge May 28, 29, and 30.
Take pictures with the car for free, or sit inside for a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, through TEAMFOX.
Also: Limited edition lithograph celebrating the 25th Anniversary of “Back to the Future" will be available, signed and numbered by the artist.
Hours are:
Friday 12pm - 7pm
Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 11-am-5pm
Pigeon Forge Convention Center,
Parkway, Pigeon Forge, TN. 37863

The Daily Buzz video, part 2

The Daily Buzz video, part 1

Quilt Show Fundraiser Press Release!

Asheville Cotton Co. will host a Customer Quilt Show and fundraiser on Saturday May 8th, 11am to 1pm, in the Parkway Center (Harris Teeter Shopping Center) at 1378 Hendersonville Rd. in Asheville, NC.
All winners will be chosen by Viewer's Choice, so everyone has a chance to win, regardless of skill level!
All proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
As part of the festivities, our Quilt Show will get started on Saturday, May 8, 10a-1p
with a special appearance by the DeLorean Time Machine as made famous in the popular "Back to the Future" movie trilogy! Make plans to come to see the car (bring all the kids and husbands) and come see the quilt show. A special 25th Anniversary Back to the Future poster signed by the artist will be for sale, and you are encouraged to bring your camera to take pictures of the car. You may take pictures at no charge, but we will ask for a donation if you wish to sit in the car to have the photo made.
http://www.ashevillecottonco.com/Pages/Customer%20Quilt%20Show%202010/Quilt%20Show%20Press%20Release.htm

Vulcan Con Day 3

Saturday, May 1^st
After a quick set up, we start taking pictures right away. Great people, today is the costume contest so the group is quite colorful! Sally Kellerman and Catherine Hicks both pose with the car. Very sweet. Chris Lloyd did a Team Fox promo for us,
which was taped for us by Hatch; I’m so excited to see it. We were able to catch Chris’s talk, which was very good.

The audience’s questions ranged from Addams Family to, of course, his Klingon appearance in Star Trek. He was asked how he got the roll of a bad guy and his response was he wasn‘t sure, but it might have been that no one else wanted to endure 4 hours of make up! He also spoke of Roger Rabbit, and enjoying the opportunity to play a bad guy -and there’s talk of a sequel! When asked if he ever took any souvenirs home from the set of Back to the Future, an audience member shouted: ‘Mary Steenburgen!’

Our friend James was kind enough to make a lunch run to McDonalds for us, gourmet Big Macs! And for dinner we all ate at a nearby Italian restaurant. We enjoyed the conversation and the meal. James owns a DeLorean and has a fun job where he makes and maintains a variety of movie props. Boy did he and Oli have fun stories to share.

On the final day, Sunday, things slowly came to an end. Everything was packed up, we said our thank you's to our wonderful hosts, and pushed the time machine back the way it came. (Though Mr. yellow shirt was not seen, we hesitated to start the engine while inside.)

It was a good fund raiser, and a nice chance to see Christopher Lloyd again.

Vulcan Con Day 2!

Friday, April 30, 2010 With a quick walk around the corner we enjoy breakfast at Waffle House. After our breakfast we stroll over to the West Shore mall, Sears is the anchor store, with some restaurants and well that’s all we see, because we have just received a message from Mitch of the Daily Buzz and he needs us to reach him ASAP!Oli has been trying to contact Mitch for a possible story on our return trip home and Mitch is excited to host us at 6am Monday morning. The Daily Buzz has been a favorite morning show of ours for years!

The Vulcan registration won’t open until 5pm, but the hotel is loaded with guests, most of them firefighters here for an Olympic type competition, but when I asked one hung-over-looking fellow how it was going he said ‘not so good, it’s more of an Olympic drinking type competition!’

We do take some pictures of non-Vulcan guests. And some Vulcan guests. We have a DVD playing on the cars TV but it’s skipping so Oli starts work on a back up while I make a call to my Tampa connection. Mike Womack, a friend of ours for years now, (he’s only 15) lives in the area and came to our rescue and picked up some blank DVDs for us. We visited with him and his aunt. Both were kind enough to sit in the car for a photo, which led to a rush of other guests wanting their picture taken too. Thank Mike and Aunt Karen for being our demonstrators!

The evening for us ended around 8:30 when the lobby became so crowded and loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. We packed up our gear and said our goodbyes and headed out to Charley’s Steak House next to the hotel. They’re famous for their aged steaks and rightly so. Dinner was great and now it’s time to rest up for day 2. Over 800 guests expected with about 100 registering today. That means we’ll hopefully be taking a lot of pictures and raising record awareness and funds for Team Fox!

Vulcan Con!

Thursday April 29^th, depart for Tampa, 5:30 am. Driving under a full moon, bright in the early morning sky. Roads are clear except for some patches of fog. I’d like to say the sunrise was beautiful, but I can’t because this trip found me nodding off a lot! Oli drove like the mad man he is and I slept. He even took a picture of me catching flies! Well, I took one of him after our first gas stop enjoying a banana; re-fuel, as he would say.

Our regular path is 95 south to 4 to Orlando. This time we veered west at Jacksonville to 10 – 301 – 75 and we were in steamy hot Tampa. After a bit of hunting we found a self serve car wash and gave little D a bath. Then on to the hotel, where the crew at the Double Tree were waiting and ready to load the car into the hotel lobby via the rear entrance, (through two banquet halls and one heck of a 180 degree corner into the lobby. Oli drove most of the way, until ‘yellow shirt man’ let it be known that you cannot run an automobile in a hotel in Florida. So we pushed it the rest of the way, yes pushed it around the tight turn. After some clever maneuvering and the moving of the lobby furniture, she was in place. A quick plug-in and clean up and we were ready for guests.

Javier and Fernando were happy to see the car in place as they arrived, unloading their gear. The hotel staff has been great and we really look forward to meeting all the Star Trek people, Klingon, Vulcan and more!

After a dinner of Papa John’s pizza we relax to some TV and well-deserved sleep!

Parkinson's Unity Walk Video!

Central Park Unity Walk!

We're off to New York City for the 16th Parkinson's Unity Walk.
It is the largest grassroots event raising Parkinson's awareness and funds to find a cure, and Terry and I have registered! We're more used to slipping into a time machine than a pair of walking shoes, but we're going to give it a try! Terry is excited about meeting some folks she's met online, and aside from the MJFF Round Table Discussions we've attended, this will be the first large gathering of Parkinson's interests that we've been to. Every time leap is different, and this one is no exception. There will be stories to blog about, I'm sure. -But that will come, -in the future! :)

Vulcan Events

We have been invited to attend this event in Tampa, Florida! Christopher Lloyd will be the featured guest, and it will be great to see him again. The BTTF.com DeLorean Time Machine will be on display and we will be raising awareness and funding for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Come have your photo taken in the drivers seat! The limited edition 'Back to the Future 25th Anniversary' posters will be available for autographs too!

Celebration Exotic Car Festival

We're excited about attending this upcoming festival. This year it is benefiting the Special Olympics and there will be several new movie cars including the Michael Keaton Batmobile!
The car show part of the festival is free, so come and enjoy!

The British are coming!

x

I received an email last year from a fellow named AJ who had plans of coming to America with his friend and driving across the country to all 50 states! (I can relate!)
He wrote that he would very much like to see the time machine when they pass through the south, and I politely responded that if we were in town, we'd be happy to meet him -whenever the time came.
Well, Wednesday AJ and his friend Shaun actually showed up! They have been through 15 states so far, and he said seeing the time machine was the best thing yet!
Terry and I had a dinner date, so after some quality time answering questions, posing and taking photos, we wrapped the international encounter up!
They both kindly made donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and we parted ways having made new friends! Safe travels!