Parents Visit - Part Two - Arboretum

Minneapolis is home to a large arboretum which is a great place to take photos of wildlife and flowers.  We spent almost a full day there wandering around.

Some flowers:

Wildlife:

And some general shots:

Parents Visit - Part One - Voyageurs and Beyond

My mum and dad came to visit me in Minnesota.  A couple of years ago we went to the North Shore area, around Duluth.  This time I booked a a cabin near Voyageurs National Park:

Voyageurs is on the Canadian border, home to Kabetogama lake.  Around the area, there's plenty of hiking, forests, rivers and of course, lakes.

This is my first time getting out and about with my new (to me) Olympus OM-D E-M1.  I'm very impressed with the ease of use, and the resulting pictures.

Looking across the lake from the resort, there was Echo Island:

Some evidence of previous roads near the Ash River trail - there's a great logging trail that runs along the south bank of the lake to Vermillion Falls:

And the waterfall:

And now just some general shots of the wildlife, trails and views from the Voyageurs and the Superior National Forest:

Some ferns unfurling:

Some birds:

These butterflies were everywhere:

And probably the closest I'll get to a bald eagle:

And finally a shot of the lake at night.  Sadly I didn't get any good shots on a clear night.

First Drive

It's alive!

The new Momo Prototipo looks perfect in my eyes:

And some general shots of the car prior to it's maiden voyage.

Drove from the garage to my apartment.  Everything works fine, the car feels great to drive and is an absolute blast.

Seats and Bumper

The bumpers finally arrived, about 7 weeks after ordering them.  The company only sent one set of mounting hardware, but whatever.  I'm never using them again.

The initial fitment was terrible - one side looked like this:

The other like this, with a nice 2" gap:

On the rear of the front bumper, there's a bracket to mount it with:

There was no way I could physically get my fingers behind that.  Frustrated, I left and decided to head back another day, and sent some emails to the supplier.  They didn't respond, cementing their place in the "never use again" bin.

Today, I figured I'd have another go at the front bumper.  It felt pretty flexible.  With some cable ties holding it in place and slowly pulling it into position, I was able to get both ends tight against the car:

Much better, although not exactly the flush fit I was hoping for:

During the last couple of weeks, I've also recovered the seats.

Take one seat, undo all the bolts:

Strip off the old upholstery and try not to breathe anything in:

Put the new one on and secure in place:

Do the base:

Repeat for the other side:

Much better.  They're back in the car now, but I don't have a picture of that.

The final thing I'm waiting for is a new steering wheel.  The hub arrived today, so I decided to tackle removing the old wheel.  In my MX5, that took about 3 hours of constant pulling, pushing, levering.

In the 280Z, I rattled the bolt off, gave the wheel a tug and...

That's the new NRG hub with a Momo bolt pattern, just waiting for the new wheel.  You can also see the new Joyfast knob fitted in this picture, and some of the seats!