[chopper]

This is sort of a good news/bad news post. ERA #297 has been sent to a new home in Connecticut. Interestingly, the new owner lives about 20 miles from the ERA factory, so I guess it's sort of a home coming for the car. The car was shipped out to Connecticut via Horseless Carriage transport last Wednesday. The new owner is a previous Cobra dude and a member of this web forum, who recently sold his E-M and was looking to get into an ERA, so it all seemed to fit nicely.

Two things prompted the sale. Jan is in the process of getting her pediatric clinic up and running, and we needed the cash to help her defray initial expenses for the business. She has a site selected and the contractors are already doing the interior build-out to install the necessary amenities. She has hired a pediatrician and (if I am up to speed, a big IF) a couple of nurses, and plans to open up her clinic on the corner of Apache Trail and Idaho Road in Apache Junction sometime in February. We just felt that the financial priorities at this time should be on the clinic, and the equity in the car will help her cover initial expenses until everything gets up and running.

Second, I've found that my job has involved an increasing amount of travel over the past couple of years. This has dictated that the Cobra has sat for longer and longer periods of time in the garage, and it just seemed to be a major waste. As an example, I would like to have been with you guys on the run to Tortilla this morning, but was instead driving back from some late afternoon testing down at Ft Huachuca and didn't get back to the house until around noon. It's all been a bit frustrating but that's life in the big city. The ERA represented about eight years of some relatively intense work and expense, and as usual, it seemed that just as I was getting it set up the way I wanted it, it was time to sell. I plan on getting back into the game in the future, once the clinic and my job situation sort themselves out. The wish list is for either a Daytona coupe or a Cheetah (no boos, please). I told the wife that the proceeds from the sale were a loan, not a gift, and I will be around to collect in a couple of years. Till then, I'm looking for a mint-condition Honda 650 Nighthawk for use as a weekend toy. I plan to hang around the site here, but Jan and I will miss the morning runs to Tortilla Flats and especially the Christmas parties at Herschel's.