I was in Colorado over the weekend,

But, I bet you had more fun.

On the way to Lubbock to see my grandparents on the way, I had a tire go down. It didnt blow out, so I put on the spare and plugged it while in Lubbock.

We leave lubbock the next morning and drive to Colorado Springs. We stopped a couple of times for food and gas, and nothing seemed wrong. When we got to the hotel in Colorado springs, I could smell something wierd. Like a burning, but I thought it might have been one of the restauarants around the area. After we checked in, I tried to start the car and nothing. So I got out, and noticed smoke coming from the right rear reflector. I pulled out a screw driver and took it out. I added lights to the reflectors, and it had rained, so I thought that might be an issue. The smoke was coming from the top of the hole, not near the light. So I checked the battery and it was very hot, and the smoke was coming from the vent hoses.

I researched miata.net and found out autozone sells a battery that fits and is agm. So I went the next morning and bought one. We drove to Vail and attended a wedding the car ran flawless. As we came backt two days later, we decided to go to the top of Pikes Peak. Going up, the road turns to dirt and has some eroision that makes the road almost have "rumble strips" like on the side of the hghway. Well going up a 25 degree road and bouncing up and down, caused the new battery to move and touch the bracket. It shorted and melted a hole in the top of the battery about a silver dollar size. It melted to positive terminal cover, and the negative wire had the cover meletd off of it.

I figured out that the battery had touched the bracket and thats what caused the problem, not the alternator or something else. That was somewhat good news. I was going to repositiong the bracket and tighten it down, but then the bolt for the bracket snapped in half. So the ranger got some water bottles and I used those to wedge the battery in. We got it off the mountain and got a new battery.

I am finally back in Fort Worth, and am going to retap the hole to put in a new bolt.

Other than all that, the trip was fun. Too bad I missed the Dyno.

Good to have you back in one, unmelted piece!

Did the altitude zap your cars power??

I was in Breckenridge about 3 weeks ago and my car was pretty sluggish in the altitude. I ran across some of those washboard roads too.

I got my best ever mileage though, 31 to 33 mpg's each fillup. Ran about 75-80 most of the way, with AC on..

Glad you're back! I tried out the restaurant while you were gone (didn't know that until I got there!). Very good time. Great food. Great staff. Two thumbs up, give everybody a raise.

That sucks about the batteries. When it rains, it pours!

Yeah, those arent cheap batteries. 80 a pop, and the first one didnt have a warranty after it melted its self, since it was my fault.

Yeah, my car felt like it had a super charger last night. The cooler than normal night air here, with lower altitude made it fly. I was going right around 28-30 mpg, but I had the ac on most of the time. When I went to durango in May, it was slightly higher than 30 mpg.

Evil, thanks for coming in, glad you enjoyed it. Probably wont give a raise to anyone(I am a cheap bastard) , but glad you enjoyed it non the less.