Fall drops in on Steamboat; car show, fame fete revisited
I woke early
Monday morning in Steamboat Springs to 35-degree temperature and snow on the hilltops a half-mile away; Tuesday morning, no snow, though temperature was down to 32. Jan and I were there with Brent and Tina Wells. We returned home via Walden and Poudre Canyon. Fall colors in all their splendor are upon us, a wonderful time to take a drive.
Electric Garage Busy: Jan and I returned to the Denver Auto Show at Elitch on Friday afternoon of last week; it seemed the busiest attraction was Xcel Energy’s Drive Electric Experience, which offered drives in allelectric vehicles. And busiest of the six electrics, according to Colorado Auto Dealers Association Boss Tim Jackson, was the Ford Mustang Mach-e.
Others available for testing were the Polestar2, Volkswagen ID.4, Volvo C40, Kia Niro and Nissan Leaf.
Garry Edgar: While walking about the car show grounds, we sat down inside the Paragon tent for a visit with Garry Edgar, president and founder of Paragon, a Boston firm which was producer of the show. Edgar came to Denver in 2008 when Paragon first contracted for the show. He reminisced with us of his youthful days back in the ‘60s, when he owned a high-powered Plymouth Grand
Fury Sport and several other Mopar products powered by the famed Hemi 426 V-8.
Brownlee Automotive: Anthony Brownlee, who served as chairman of the automotive hall of fame proceedings, heads Brownlee Automotive, based in Castle Rock.
He was on stage at last week’s Hall of Fame dinner to greet each of the 51 inaugural members. Brownlee for seven years was general manager/ partner of Land Rover Denver before founding Brownlee Automotive. His firm owns and operates Yellowstone Motors in Powell, Wyo., a Toyota and Chevrolet/buick/gmc dealership, and credible rumor is that he will soon announce purchase of a second dealership in another part of Wyoming. Of his Powell location, Brownlee said it also serves the Cody area, which is 40 miles away. Powell and Cody are in northwest Wyoming.
Hometown papers: Wray Gazette, Sterling Journal-advocate and
Greeley Tribune mentioned me prominently with stories of the Hall of Fame selections based on information provided by the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. I was born at Wray, lived there until moving to Sterling for my freshman year in high school. My first newspaper job was with the Journal-advocate, where I continued until moving to Denver in December 1967 for big-city newspapering. We retired to Greeley in 2005 and for a few years I wrote weekly automotive columns for the Tribune.
One more note: After being introduced on stage and receiving my award, I walked down ramp and was surprised to see the smiling face of Cheryl Burnside waiting to walk me back to my family’s table.
She was a classmate of my oldest son, Kurt, at Ranum High School many years ago. Thank you, Cheryl, who was representing PEO, a woman’s organization, as a volunteer. More than 600 attended the gala dinner.