Turns out, quiet race cars aren't too bad!

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

The "pause" button clicked on in 1957, and somehow, it remains as it once was.

Paul Miller once again graciously hosts a bunch of diverse gearheads.

Remember when I traded my WRX for a Fiesta ST eight months ago? Well, I have a WRX again. Let me explain. 

I finally visited my ancestral home, and I'm ready to go back immediately. 

Oh yeah, spring is starting too. But that's a close second. 

I wasn't chased by a ghostly truck, nor did I suffer a severe misfortune after touching its bark. It's creepy, though. I'll give it that.

Not everything about Ellis Island was full of stereotypical promise and possibilities. Sometimes it ended here, at the contagious disease wards. 

Despite the cold, turnout was good at November 5th's Cars and Coffee in Florham Park, NJ. Big thanks to the resourceful Ferrari 355 owner who used his engine to keep a box of coffee warm. 

I'm paranoid by nature. I always look for the negatives before the positives, and so it went when I picked up my Fiesta ST. I was afraid that after two weeks, I'd be over the "honeymoon phase" of owning a "slower" (but newer) car; I'd want my Subaru WRX back. Two months in, though, and it's clear: my trepidation was a tempest in a teapot. This is one of the best cars I've ever driven.

And, we're back to urban exploration! My first-ever visit to Staten Island proved to be worth the trip. The New York Adventure Club hosted a great gathering inside Gateway National Recreation Area, which includes Fort Tompkins and Battery Weed, two of the oldest military installations in the country. While not completely abandoned (the National Parks service does basic maintenance), they've been left almost totally in the condition they were when shut down. 

My New England sojourn wasn't limited to photographing some seriously fast cars -- I found enough time to explore around me, in both familiar and unfamiliar places. 

The rogue pebble was hurled into the air by a Mitsubishi. Or maybe it was a Subaru. It whizzed through the air, thoroughly enjoyed its trip courtesy of the laws of physics, and ricocheted squarely off of my cheekbone. If I hadn't felt fully "present" at the 2016 New England Forest Rally until that point, I sure did right then.

Around this time last year, I got a chance to legally wander around the Scranton Lace Company. I walked away with a few neat photos, I suppose! This time around, though, I packed up my Rhino slider and decided to shoot some video. I think it came out pretty alright. 

Seriously, hats off to the Paul Miller team.

Friends and cameras go well together.

No, it's not the Pentagon. It's pretty neat, though.

Wednesday was quite a night -- I tried a beer I've been waiting on for years, I saw some old friends from college, and I enjoyed some fantastic music from Function for Fiction's Brendan "Herb" Campbell. The things that guy can do with a delay pedal is incredible!

A few weeks ago, my eyes skimmed the margins of Facebook and landed on a local Cars and Coffee group link. I joined it, and my tenuous attention span whisked me away, on to the next little crumb of Internet cake. This past Friday, a reminder popped up about an upcoming group meet, which I initially forgot about. I'm officially glad I remembered.