I am a mechanic, I like ribs, and a two block long pool is pretty damn cool.

Woke up this morning and knew I had to get to work on the Echo ASAP. I'd been having some issues with the air filter, mostly because I have a K&N Filter and WAY over oiled it. A few days back, my mechanic had told me that the oil from the filter was mucking up the mass airflow sensor. They'd cleaned it, but in my haste to depart, I didn't bother cleaning and re-oiling the filter.

Well, with all of the hard driving through the mountains, the oil did a nice job of coating the sensor again, which led to sputtering and a major lack of power. As I said in yesterday's post, I had contacted Auto Zone and they had what I needed. Long story short, I changed out the filter (I didn't have time to clean the K&N today) with an el cheapo and cleaned up the MAS. I disconnected the negative battery terminal for a minute to reset the computer, shutting off the Check Engine light. I started it up and the sputtering was worse than ever.

I have a theory on this though. The MAS has a rubber seal on it. I'm thinking that when I removed it for cleaning and reinstalled it, the seal didn't fully take. However, after revving the engine for a bit then easing it out onto the road, I eventually got all my power back, leading me to believe that the seal has been fixed. Actually (and this is weird), my car hasn't run so quietly in years. At a stop sign, I couldn't even tell it was running until I hit the gas. So all is well on that front. Yay!

Now, back to the trip. I spent the day here in Glenwood Springs. I basically just hiked around the town, taking in the sites for most of the morning and early afternoon. I'd like to tell you I have a ton of pictures, but I was actually doing stuff today, so I didn't get quite as many. Deal.

This is a slight digression from the blog (like the car repair at the beginning wasn't?) but for lunch today, I had a half rack of BBQ ribs, cole slaw and green beans with bacon at a place all Rib City. The slaw was fine. Nothing special. The green beans with bacon were INSANE good!

I'm not sure exactly what they put in it (other than bacon and green beans), but there must have been a good amount of pepper, too. Whatever the ingredients were, they were great.

Now, some of you know how much I love bbq ribs. Billy's Tippin' Inn is one of my favorite places back in MI. Rib City puts them to shame. It's THAT good. Enough about this. Just check them out if you're ever here. Trust me.

As for what I did today, I went swimming. At this place.

This is Glenwood Hot Springs. The pool is two city blocks long and is the world's largest outdoor geothermal swimming pool. Now, you might be thinking that the water is warm, and it is. But it was very comfortable and I really enjoyed it.

There were a few things about the springs that I wasn't expecting. First, the water is very salty. I guess this make sense, since it's sort of a mineral hot spring, but like I said, I wasn't expecting it.

The second thing that caught me off guard was hilarious and also kinda gross. Something about the water apparently clears out your sinuses. Big time. After exiting the pool, I toweled off. While leaning over to dry my feet, water or something started pouring out of my nose. Thing is, it wouldn't stop! It was crazy.

But even crazier, it's been about 4 hours or so since I got out of the springs and if I tilt my head forward, it starts pouring. WTF? On the plus side, my sinuses are super clear right now. Yay!

After the pool, I decided to hike around a bit more. Stephanie, my waitress at Rib City, told me about a trail that wasn't too far away. She said it was a nice one that gave a great view of the city, and boy was she right.

The view was breathtaking and it was yet another place where I could just sit quietly for awhile and get lost in my thoughts.

Well, that's about it for this post. I know that it wasn't one of my best, but like I said, I was mostly just walking around and enjoying the city. Before I end this one, I just want to make a quick note.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to the spa and getting a mineral massage (I know, it's tough, but I'll manage). After that, I'll be heading to Moab, UT. I bought some climbing shoes and some chalk for my hands and will be doing some climbing and exploring. There is a very good chance that I will have NO reception out there. At all. If this is the case, I won't be able to update the blog. In part, that's why I got this entry out so quickly.

Moab is where I intend to camp out for an evening at least. Someplace where there are no people, no electronics. Just me and my thoughts and a notebook. I'm hoping this will be the place where I really get some things figured out.

Anyhow, like I said, just a note. Since this entry was pretty sparse, I'll leave you with a few more of the pictures that took around town. Enjoy. I'll see you next time.