Reminiscing about my old, original home town, as well as my many years in newspapering and automobiles, was fulfilling to my soul at a Sunday gathering at Wray (Sept. 22, 2024).
Driving a very comfortable 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE 350+ electric SUV, I was responding to an invitation from Ardith Hendrix, director, to a book-signing at the Wray Museum. My book is “2,600 Cars and a Dog Sled.”
The crowd was very welcoming and warm in the town’s museum structure just off Main Street to the east. I was born at Wray and lived there 14 years before moving to Sterling. The book is available through BudWellsBooks.com or by contacting [email protected].
Rainfall Saturday night and Sunday morning disrupted plans for an outdoor display of autos by members of the Wray River City Cruisers car club.
Inside the museum auditorium, a snippet of my talk recalled my last day of school in the 8th grade at Wray Junior High School in late May 1951. We were dismissed early, before lunch. Walking home with friends Duane Muller, Gary Jones and Leo Carson in a light rain, I mentioned fishing. Back then, Colorado had a statewide fishing season which began, I believe May 25, two or three days before we ended our school year. And the state fish hatchery west of town then reared trout and kept Chief Creek and the Republican River stocked.
As we walked and talked, none of the others seemed interested in fishing, due to the wet weather. I went home, not quite yet lunchtime, talked with Mom a few minutes, grabbed my fishing pole and bag, walked the two blocks to the river. The rainfall was a bit heavier now, I walked upstream aways, found a good-looking bend, off the backyard of Leola Conway. I crawled under overhanging branches of a large, streamside bush to keep most of the rain off me, very carefully tossing the baited hook to avoid the overhead limbs. In about 15 minutes, I caught two rainbows, hurried home, cleaned the fish and Mom cooked them for lunch.
I was president of my 8th-grade class, knew everyone in school and most of them knew me. Fast forward three months, we had moved to Sterling. I showed up for first day of classes at Sterling High School. I realized I was the least-known of the little-known freshmen class of 125 students at SHS. I went from “well-known” to “least-known,” a humbling experience, yet an experience of growth, I’m sure.
At the conclusion of my Sunday talk, Jonnie Johnson pulled his very rare 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda out front of the museum for me and others of my family to view. It is a black coupe, original, with 36,000 miles. A daughter, Kim Parker, and son, Brent Wells, accompanied Jan and me to the event, and son Kurt and daughter-in-law Tammy, enroute home to Littleton from Nebraska, stopped by.
Bob and Becky Bledsoe of the Bledsoe Cattle Co. and owners of the Bonanza Ford business at Wray attended, and I enjoyed a visit, too, with Richard Jeurink, a former partner with Bledsoe in the dealership. The Ford business still operates from the same building (expanded twice) constructed in 1944 during my dad’s ownership. I talked with Tim Wisdom, who formerly owned the Wray Lumber Company and sent me a letter three years ago regarding my car columns in The Denver Post, so meaningful it hangs on a wall in my office.
The EQE 350 uses a rear-mounted 215 kW electric motor producing 288 horsepower and 417 lb./ft. of torque with regenerative braking system, steering wheel paddles and 10-degree rear steering.
The 145-mile trip in the rain from Greeley on U.S. 34 carried us past Wiggins, onto I-76 through Fort Morgan and Brush, then back on U.S. 34 through Akron and Yuma to Wray. The Mercedes EQE 350 has a 90.6 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack, and fully charged overnight in my garage, showed 388 miles of range as we left for Wray on Sunday morning.
By the time we reached Fort Morgan late in the afternoon on our return drive from Wray, we had driven 235 miles and much of the excess driving range had been used; thus, we recharged for the final 55 miles to Greeley.
The Mercedes’ Watt-hours per mile were 297, which converts, I believe, to 3.4 miles per kWh. The SUV electric rode on Goodyear Eagle 21-inch range-optimized summer tires. Its EPA MPGe rating is 99 city, 88 highway.
Jan and I on Monday did some testing of the Mercedes’ active steering assist, lane-keeping assist and automatic lane change on paved rural roads. The safety systems were quite positive, with a good measure of caution.
With the driver assists and impressive comfort packages, the Mercedes sticker price climbed to $88,290. It is assembled in Vance, Ala.; the engine and transmission are built in Germany.