In a recent blog post, I asked for help with the headaches I was getting when driving certain old cars.

I noted that I had purchased a CO meter, and that the interiors were all reading well within acceptable limits.

Your responses were immediate, numerous and helpful. Let me provide an update.

It’s been unseasonably warm in Oregon, so this past weekend we took the opportunity for a quick run to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and the Lodge at Ka Nee Tah.

Set in the Central Oregon desert, near the Deschutes River, the lodge has a hot spring-fed pool, along with waterslides, hiking trails, miniature golf and enough other activities to keep a five-year-old going all day. We even managed to secure a reservation for one of the last raft trips of the season down the Deschutes River and through the world-famous Whitehorse rapids.

I’m on my way home from Columbus, Ohio, where the 43^rd annual BMW CCA Oktoberfest has just concluded. The week-long annual event is like Disneyland for BMW owners, and it’s the kind of event that car clubs all over the world aspire to put on.

I’m just back from the 18^th annual Oregon Festival of Cars, in Bend, OR, and this year’s event was as much about the journey as the car show itself.

For the past year, our 1967 Alfa has defined reliability. Built by engineer Dave Rugh as a daily driver for his wife Colleen, who used it for twenty years that way, it simply goes and goes.

In fact, weekend before last, Alex drove it to Tacoma and back (over 300 miles) without a hiccup.

But all that changed on Saturday.

Old cars can be a pain in a lot of ways, but some of mine give me a headache. A real headache. And I’m wondering if I’m the only one who suffers from this, or if someone else has figured out how to solve it.

I know, the first thing that comes to mind is carbon monoxide, how old cars run rich, and the bad sealing around trunks and windows, and all the holes, large and small, that have developed in the body structure over the years.

But with some of my cars it is more than that – and, I’m the ONLY one driving them who gets the pounding in the temples, slight heartburn, etc. – everyone else drives them and doesn’t notice a thing.

Chess Pieces in the SCM Garage Are About to Get Shuffled

As my daughter, Alex, pulled out of the driveway this afternoon in our 1967 GTV, en route to a 500-mile Labor Day weekend road trip, her parting words to me were, “Don’t buy too many cars while I’m gone!”

Last week she referred to me as the Cat Lady of Collecting. My feelings were hurt, so the only way I could make myself feel better was to post on Facebook that I was in the hunt for a vintage BMW 6-series (aka a Shark). With each new listing my enabling friends sent me, I felt a little better.