Ophelia changes over the years

Ophelia Photo by Mike Harrington. Wendover Raceway, Utah December 2001

Throughout the years Ophelia and I have gone everywhere together. We've been to Utah twice, Paso and Vegas so many times I can't count, and obviously all over Southern California. We've also raced both on the track an on the street. She's not the fastest vehicle in the world, she does high 17's low 18's on the track but ya gotta figure she doesn't do to bad for a long roof that weighs close to 5,000 lbs.

So with that in mind this little tid bit is also about some changes that we've gone through together in away.	Artist WILLY FISHER (A.K.A. Daddy-O-Designs) and his wife Molly stayed out at my place for a few days a couple of years ago while they were on the road. This was back in 2003. We were all going to do a couple of shows together to display our talents and Willy needed to get some art work done before we packed up.

While Willy was waiting for paint to dry on some of his projects he asked me if he could lay some stripes on Ophelia. Man was I honored and I told him he could go for it! The art work was beautiful and something very unique. A nice Change for Ophelia. Only thing is if you look at the art work now, over the past couple of years it too has changed. The paint is faded and Ophelia's hood is starting to lose the base coat of primer that was put on her several years prior.

So Change when one wants, can be a good thing! The deal I have a hard time with is unexpected change. Like losing a good friend to a death, or a lover that has changed their feelings for the other. Ophelia's been through a lot of changes since I've owned her and most of them were either pre meditated or small mishaps on the road that I could fix myself pretty quick, well that is except the time where I blew up her transmission in Ely Nevada, but is another story.

Well this last one was totally unexpected and I'm very happy to say that although it's taken me some time to get Ophelia back on the road again. For me, it really is very upsetting when Ophelia is down. It's like having a sick child or sumpthin'.

The story:

So on July 3rd 2005 besides getting no sleep, spending the last few weeks in front of this computer trying' get the RF Party primed for the next Saturday; My buddy Bengt calls me says "Hey dude why don't ya get away from that place and come out to Maxtons (Local Hang out) and relax for once".

I figure, "ya know he's right".. So's I go down to the place, and have myself a pretty good time. Hook up with some friends, meet some nice girls have a couple drinks (stayed sober); It's gets to be about 1:00am and I figure I should head home. Well the desert roads out here are long and desolate, they go on for miles without a stop sign in sight, one can really open up the jets and fly.

I have no Idea how fast I was goin' but Ophelia can really rip if'in ya let her go. I gott'er tach pretty much figured out, when cruising on the hwy she's doin' a little over 80 mph at 3.2K, well the tach was readin' about 4.5K so she was a flyin'. I let off the throttle cuz I know'z there's was a stop about 1/8 of a mile up ahead. Now when ya let up off the gas her pips rap like heck and she sounds bad... Well all of a sudden I hear a "pop" that was not part of her normal song. Her mill got really ruff and all out of sorts, I tried to limp her down the road a bit but then she gave up the ghost.

The smell of burning oil permeated the air, so's I pop her hood, and throw some oil in her real fast like so's she don't freeze up. The temp gauge reads around 220, I open the radiator relief, no back pressure, so's I look inside and she's as real low, I puts about 2.5 gallons of water in her, but it's like passin' right through her, I check the dip stick and I'z got the brown goo blues, so's I think's it may be a blown head gasket. But that didn't make any since, she should of kept goin' for awhile so I look under her carriage and I'z got a puddle of oil the size of lake Michigan under her.