Postcard from the USA
Greetings from Medford, OREGON USA where Cherri and I are staying with our friends Rob and Anne Duncan. Rob and Anne lived in Adelaide way back in the 70’s and we have enjoyed their friendship ever since.
Rob has been a successful business owner since returning to the States, and being a man of many interests has turned his hand to all sorts of things over his lifetime, including gaining his pilot’s licence and then becoming an instructor, studying to become a Master Brewer and setting up a micro brewery, bee keeping, wine and spirit making, home renovator, electronics wizard, senior school science and math teacher and many other achievements and activities.
Following a serious flying incident, Rob retired from his aircraft interests and then pondered what future challenges he may pursue. Rob had been one to admire my car interests during the many visits down under over the years, so he bought a Porsche 911. Then he found a better one – a Carrera S4 Twin Turbo that had been suitably enhanced – I have driven this thing and take my word for it, it GOES! But Rob needed something to do other than drive.
Much to my surprise, I received an email from Rob a couple of years ago, advising that on a recent trip to New Mexico he had found a car in a barn for restoration. Of course I expected maybe a Corvette or similar, but lo and behold, the photos attached showed a white Triumph Stag. Of all the projects Rob could have picked, he chose a Stag!
Rob’s restoration experience is detailed within the Photo Gallery of the website so if you are interested, have a look. Needless to say, during our current visit with Rob and Anne, we have enjoyed many outings in the Stag – it is a real head turner in these parts, and Rob gets lots of admiring looks and comments from the locals. Another project that Rob has recently completed (he needed another challenge after the Stag was done!) is the conversion of a VW combi to accept a Subaru 2.5 litre boxer engine. This thing is a hoot and as you could imagine, goes pretty well.
Rob, myself, Rob’s son Matty and friend Jim (Jim has a very nice Corvette) have spent many hours in Rob’s man cave working on small projects or just emptying the fridge – blokey stuff, and a great way to spend time with an old friend.
We have enjoyed shopping at the hardware store where I found several really neat tools that I couldn’t resist, particularly at the prices, plus shopping at the Sportsman’s store where you can buy anything from the usual sports equipment to guns, ammo, crossbows and fishing / camping stuff. We went fishing on the Rogue river and I caught a 30lb salmon that took around 20 minutes to land . . . . what a Triumph! but that is another story.
We will see you soon . . . . Roger and Cherri