My father owned/crew chief’ed a very successful snowmobile race team in the mid/late 80’s…“Team Kyotee”. Back then, the aftermarket selection for snowmobile drag racing was a fraction of what it is now, leaving most parts needing to be R+D’d/built by some of the innovators of the sport. Well, my father was one of them, and the 100’s of trophy’s that they won prove it. So, I surprised him with this earlier today…
Priceless moment!
Good shit man. Memories for the rest of your life being made. Hopefully I get to see the car run some day
Awesome.
Wow, that was a good one Travis!
Smokies
Priceless look in his eyes today at the hospital when he saw the burnout vid and update pics!
That neighboring F bod was probably in heaven.
I’m going to post a winter summary post after we run the car (I won’t go to the track without him), but in the meantime, let’s just say we lost him for a very brief moment last Friday AM. So, here is my dedication to that moment, and to the resurrection of this car-
awsome vid man i hope ur dad pulls through and u guys get to run the car together
and its awsome this build is dedicated to him
I hope all goes well, and dad has a full recovery… I have enjoyed your thread and look forward to updates WHEN you take your dad to the track!
Sorry to hear about your dad Travis. Let me know if you need anything.
I think the hair on the back of your head grew a little longer when you did that burnout. I know mine does everytime.
Good luck with dad. I’m sure he is itching to get out of that hospital.
Well, the day that I thought was never going to come is here, and I still can’t believe it as I type-
It’s race day.
Back in early November when the mods to the car started, I projected a laid back winter where myself and my father could enjoy our Saturdays or Sundays working on the car together. Well, that did happen several times, but not without HUGE obstacles.
Everything until Jan 1 was pretty smooth, until my mother fell on the porch and broke her hip. She was obviously hospitalized for quite awhile for the surgery/recovery. Now, she’s finally home as of a few weeks ago and doing ok, but who took the real ‘fall’ was my father.
Due to past similar occurrences, I was not too surprised when he started to go days without sleep without my mom present in the home. Not that hard to believe when you separate people that have lived side by side for nearly the last 40 years. As the sleepless nights went on, his voice started to sound ‘watery’, and he ended up in the ER here in Ticonderoga. They quickly discovered this his kidneys had gotten to the point that they required serious attention. We knew his kidneys were failing for awhile, so again, not a shocker.
So, off to GFH he went. Now, the care his kidney problems got there was great. But, however, they didn’t seem to care that he was going days without sleep (he was up to about 2 weeks at this point), and decided to treat him as a crazy old man, he is, lol, but they didn’t treat the sleep. He also fell there and complained of back pain afterwards. They also did not address that to my satisfaction. So he came home from GFH on narcotics, and ‘crazy people pills’.
Well, he did not last long at home. About 5 days. Came home, no sleep, and constant wandering around the home. I brought him to CVPH in Plattsburgh. They quickly found a compressed vertabre in his back, and didn’t agree with several of his meds. The back injury was so mild (and he’s so old), so they didn’t do surgery, but he’s got some serious duty pain patches that do help while it heals. He stayed in Platts about 2 weeks, slept some, but never a full night. This brings us to the end of Jan…
I patch things together for about 7 weeks or so. He has several ER visits for various issues. One of the main ones being the constant need to move his legs, and wander around. Not a concern for us young guys, but he’s not exactly stable on his feet sometimes, so the wandering presents a tripping hazard. So, he’s diagnosed with ‘restless leg’, and given meds for that. The med’s never seemed to help, and all of these ER/DOC visits are just adding more and more meds, higher and higher doses.
This brings us until mid-March. At this point I have the worst week of my life. He’s completly unmanageable. I stayed up with him for 5 days straight, ensuring that he didn’t fall and hurt himself. Got to the point that I had to help him wander. After 5 days, he ended up stark naked, and wandering around the house with cat shit on his feet. Enough was enough, back to Platts.
He’s admitted a few Thursdays ago, and I come home and get 6 hours of sleep. The phone rang at 5AM, I rushed for it. Knew it could not be good. They said he had an incident, and rush to Plattsburgh. I did. What basically happened was all of these extra meds overloaded his system, his blood pressure went thru the roof, and he had a seizure.
We lost him for a few brief moments.
So, that Friday, me and my brother sit in ICU with him. He’s sedated, and on assisted breathing. They run test thruout the day, and all is coming back well. By 3PM, he’s off assisted breathing, and no more sedation meds. He’s still sleeping when I leave, but stable.
I went to visit the next day and the son of a bitch looked better than ever. He had no idea what happened, and I was not about to bring it up. Obviously he’s got a hosp stay in front of him. Once he was determined to be stable, he goes to a part of the hosp that’s like a ‘holding room’ for nursing home placement.
So, I visit him 2x a day, before and after work, and on weekends. He’s better each time I see him. The nurses say he’s in general sleeping better, and the aggitation/urge to wander is lessened by some new meds. His med list is much shorter now.
I do all the nursing home paperwork, and come to find out, since he’s dylasis, its’ much harder to get him in a home, since due to whatever reason, dylasis guys need a private room. They basically tell me that someone has to die before a room opens. That would leave him sitting in Platts, not even able to go outside, for months, or fuck, more.
I talk to his doc and nurses, and confirm that him getting better is just not in my head. I say that he deserves a shot to come home, and everyone agrees. I got him home yesterday, and of course, all he wanted to do was look at the car.
So we fire it up, and I take him for a ride. OFF nitrous, he yells “HOLY SHIT”. I tell him…
What do you expect, YOU built it, I only cleaned it up and made small improvements!
We get home, and he’s wandering. Come to find out, the wandering is actually related to dylasis. But, he’s fairly stable on his feet, and very good mentally. I gave him his PM meds, the wandering slowed, and he went to bed at 9PM. As I write this, it’s 630 and he’s STILL sleeping. Gonna load up, and get him up around 730, and leave for the track around 8-830. Don’t have a lot of time there today, but I’m hoping to get 4 or so passes in.
Thanks for the read guys. I’ll update later when we get back. I’m obviously hoping for that 10 second pass, but no big deal if it does not happen. That would be just icing on the cake. I’ll enjoy the day with my dad-and the passes down the strip with him. I printed out a pic of him, and it’s going in the pass seat of the car. I don’t see it leaving the vehicle anytime soon…
-Travis
Real life rep to you man. That’s a very tough situation to be in and I really feel for you and your family. Best of luck at the track today and I hope it’s everything it should be. Stories like this are what its all about
Best of luck to you today Travis. I wish I could have gone, but I made previous obligations that I could not break. Just a day out with your dad is the main focus of today but I still hope you get it in the 10’s to put that icing on the cake! You worked hard at it and made some serious improvements, I am sure you will reach your goal today. Goodluck again and cherish the day my friend.
wow Travis. That is absolutely great news. I’m glad your father is better!
Good luck today Travis and sorry I couldent help, belive it or not I did really want to go.
It sounds like you’ve been through a lot with your dad, and as said real life plus rep to you, its not easy being a young adventurous guy like yourself to take care of someone, most people can’t handle it and don’t bother trying liek you have. Regardless if your dads all there or not and knows exactly whats been going on with everything, I’m sure hes proud of you for sticking by his side and not just giving up.
I hope that I’m able to stick by my parents side and be strong enough if it ever comes to a point where their not doing so great.
