Road Trip!

fintail

Pretty scenery.

I've been taking small trips to the south sound weekly since I got back. Always a pleasure to deal with 405 and 167 or I5. People drive with such skill and discipline. Just like being in Germany!

iluvmysephia1

People drive with such skill and discipline. Just like being in Germany!

Interesting way ta describe Puget Sound drivers, fin. Stirs up contemplation in me. I can be sorta sarcastic, though.

fintail

Lots of sarcasm. Drove down again this morning - it was LLC city earlier, but a surprisingly easy and mellow drive home. I was thankful.

A couple of dashcam clips (as always, select HD when possible, they are crystal clear as raw files, but youtube compresses them).

First, someone had a bad morning today, looked like no injuries anyway:

https://youtu.be/j9PLAakbxaU

And the lovely weather yesterday. Two unicorns in this shot - an RLX and a late 70s Toyota Corona 5 door:

https://youtu.be/iy0FjxoFUjI

gagrice

Fintail, what kind of dashcam do you have. I might like that?

fintail

This is what I have - I've been running it for about a year now, so it might have been replaced by a newer model. It's a fun toy.

gagrice

fintail said:

This is what I have - I've been running it for about a year now, so it might have been replaced by a newer model. It's a fun toy.

Looks like you have the latest and highest reviewed dash cam on the market. The clips posted look very good. May have to get one for our next trip to Oregon. Did you also get the rear view camera?

fintail

Yep, it comes with both front and rear. I haven't figured out how to save a file showing front and rear in one shot, or if it is even possible.

I had it professionally installed, as I wanted it invisible and hard wired. The shop recommended it - not the cheapest, but it's been working fine, and has good image quality.

gagrice said:

Looks like you have the latest and highest reviewed dash cam on the market. The clips posted look very good. May have to get one for our next trip to Oregon. Did you also get the rear view camera?

xwesx

fintail said:

I had it professionally installed, as I wanted it invisible and hard wired. The shop recommended it - not the cheapest, but it's been working fine, and has good image quality.

I think I would classify that image quality as "excellent!"

stever

Headed out of Phoenix on Highway 60 to Globe AZ to Lordsburg NM. But ran into construction notices that the road was going to be closed from 9am to 10:30, so we popped south on AZ79 to Tucson. Scenic drive that managed to flop us in town near a nursery. So we're doing the minivan imitation in the Prius on the last leg of the drive home on I-10. It's hard to see the cane cholla in the back seat in a box topped with plastic - I hope there's no sudden stops today because I already got jabbed by one of the spines just loading it into the car.

gagrice

We had lots of Cholla like below. I finally ripped it all out when one of the grandkids fell into it. Took an hour of screaming to pull all the spines out of his hand and arm. Nasty stuff. Grows VERY fast if it gets any water.

stever

My wife *thinks* the variety she got is different from the rest of them already in our yard. Sometimes she manages to buy stuff that's growing wild in the yard though and we wind up with an expensive plant label. She also couldn't resist a Joshua and another fuzzy "old man's beard" kind of cactus, but this one is fatter than the typical bearded ones.

I think I mentioned we cut one cholla up pretty good and planted the "sticks" in a row, hoping to grow a 10' long fence.

Cactus bits are an occupational hazard in our area. My neighbor used to get her spines out with her teeth, until the time one got in her tongue and didn't work its way out for four days. She invested in some good tweezers after that.

On the home leg now after some decent BBQ in Willcox. Sure love the high desert vistas with mountains in the distance.

stever

Yep, looks like home.

Guess it looks like home to a lot of people browsing here, lol.

slorenzen

Is that....BLUE SKY??!!??

We in the North West forget sometimes...Not a day has passed in December without some precipitation.

I keep telling myself we need it(which we do), but the grey skies can wear on you...

Michaell

slorenzen said:

Is that....BLUE SKY??!!??

We in the North West forget sometimes...Not a day has passed in December without some precipitation.

I keep telling myself we need it(which we do), but the grey skies can wear on you...

Clear skies today in Colorado.

But the temp is a balmy 6.

11" of snow fell yesterday. Two hours to dig out the driveway and sidewalk. I went to the Chinese restaurant last night to pick up dinner for the family.

No road trips in the immediate future.

slorenzen

Michaell said:

slorenzen said:

Is that....BLUE SKY??!!??

We in the North West forget sometimes...Not a day has passed in December without some precipitation.

I keep telling myself we need it(which we do), but the grey skies can wear on you...

Clear skies today in Colorado.

But the temp is a balmy 6.

11" of snow fell yesterday. Two hours to dig out the driveway and sidewalk. I went to the Chinese restaurant last night to pick up dinner for the family.

No road trips in the immediate future.

My son, his wife and 5 month old baby are leaving Spokane as we speak to drive to our place for Christmas. His wife texted me they got snow overnight and it's still snowing, so the trip will likely be slow going. Fortunately, they have a Tahoe with deep tread on the tires, so a good travel rig.

We will be praying for safety...

kyfdx

Michaell said:

slorenzen said:

Is that....BLUE SKY??!!??

We in the North West forget sometimes...Not a day has passed in December without some precipitation.

I keep telling myself we need it(which we do), but the grey skies can wear on you...

Clear skies today in Colorado.

But the temp is a balmy 6.

11" of snow fell yesterday. Two hours to dig out the driveway and sidewalk. I went to the Chinese restaurant last night to pick up dinner for the family.

No road trips in the immediate future.

My son is in Steamboat Springs, this week..

xwesx

slorenzen said:

My son, his wife and 5 month old baby are leaving Spokane as we speak to drive to our place for Christmas. His wife texted me they got snow overnight and it's still snowing, so the trip will likely be slow going. Fortunately, they have a Tahoe with deep tread on the tires, so a good travel rig.

We will be praying for safety...

Hah; yeah. I am flying to Pasco tomorrow night, but the weather forecast is telling me that I picked a "great" time for it. I personally don't mind (it sounds kinda fun, actually), but my brother is supposed to drive "an hour" from Pendleton to pick me up at midnight, and I feel guilty about making him drive all that way (the drive can get pretty long in inclement weather) after a long day.

Ah well.

stever

Safe travels. Too bad night driving is involved. I try to avoid that now.

Don't Be a Traffic Statistic This Holiday Season

xwesx

stever said:

Safe travels. Too bad night driving is involved. I try to avoid that now.

Don't Be a Traffic Statistic This Holiday Season

"That automatically reduces risk of accidents automatically, experts say." Sadly, it does not reduce the risk of redundancy!

Heheheh

fintail

An hour from Pasco to Pendleton would require some good speeding even in the summer. During the snow expected tomorrow good luck.

I got behind a CRV with a Tri-Cities plate frame today. Not the best driving I've ever seen.

xwesx

fintail said:

An hour from Pasco to Pendleton would require some good speeding even in the summer. During the snow expected tomorrow good luck.

I got behind a CRV with a Tri-Cities plate frame today. Not the best driving I've ever seen.

Well, I've driven between Pendleton and Tri-Cities many dozens of times, and it was always pretty much a straight hour trip. From the airport in Pasco is probably a little longer, like another fifteen minutes depending on traffic.

fintail

But to Pasco, in the snow?

Yeah, you'll get a good 15 mins from the southern Kennewick border. I have a friend who moved out there last year - the Tri-Cities idea of "rush hour" is cute.

xwesx said:

Well, I've driven between Pendleton and Tri-Cities many dozens of times, and it was always pretty much a straight hour trip. From the airport in Pasco is probably a little longer, like another fifteen minutes depending on traffic.

carboy21

Do you guys who go on long road trips , bother to check whether you have a full size spare tire which is at proper pressure and also have the car jack and lug wrench ??

I am kinda paranoid about it after I discovered that my new car bought in October had no spare

stever

Yes, upon initial purchase. I got a full sized spare for the Quest back in '99 - it came with a compact spare and we had plans to drive the TransLabrador (and we indeed ruined a tire there). I'm getting by okay with the compact spare on the current Grand Caravan and have had to use it once.

I'm kind of lax about the psi in the spare - it's not easy to get to.

On the current van I was sure a piece of the jack apparatus was missing to crank the tire down. So I went to Harbor Freight and got a "dedicated" socket extension to fit the crank.

Eventually I figured out how the jack parts worked and everything was there.

I usually have a 4 way lug wrench with me.

The Enterprise guy was good checking me out a couple of weeks ago on my recent rental. He opened up the trunk and showed me the spare and where the tools were.

carboy21

I hate the idea of completing my road trip on an under inflated donut , or being towed to a shady roadside cowboy tire guys who won't have the specific tire for my car or rip me off if they have a similar tire.

berri

I just use the insurance towing rider I have and they pick the tow and handle the cost directly. I think the rider is something like $4 or $6 per month and includes rental car when necessary.

carboy21

berri said:

I just use the insurance towing rider I have and they pick the tow and handle the cost directly. I think the rider is something like $4 or $6 per month and includes rental car when necessary.

Nice, but if the flat occurs while going to the airport to catch a flight, or in the evening when the tire shops are closed or over a weekend, you are stuck for couple of days. Also the tire for your car may not be availabe and may need to be ordered. Potential disaster for your planned road trip. If you have a full size spare, anyone can change the tire in 30 mins and you are on your way.

stever

It doesn't even have to be a full-size for me anymore - I've put a compact tire on my minivan with a full load in it and easily made it to a repair place.

Run flats have gotten somewhat better over the years. With my track record, a tweel or other airless tire could save me some grief.

carboy21

stever said:

It doesn't even have to be a full-size for me anymore - I've put a compact tire on my minivan with a full load in it and easily made it to a repair place.

.

You still have to buy a full size tire from a dodgy repair place at a rip off price or no one will be available over the weekend.

stever

True, and I've done that twice in 20 years (both times in Newfoundland, 12 years apart, go figure). At least the second full sized tire I bought was the correct size.

That said, a compact spare lets me get to a shop without waiting for a tow. And on one flat I had up around Taos a while ago, the first shop refused to fix the tire claiming the nail hole was too close to the sidewall. However, they didn't have the right size replacement tire and sent me to another place a mile down the road. My compact spare got me there, and that shop was okay in fixing the flat. Still running that tire.

We gotta change the subject - it's been a year since I've had a flat and I'm overdue.

berri

Well, my nemesis the past few years has been crap hitting and wrecking the windshield, usually road debris or something off the back of a pickup truck...it's always something!

stever

heh, we get gravel on dips in the pavement here after a rain (the dips are in lieu of culverts). I have a nice corner crack from flying rocks on our one road down the hill that's fortunately on the lower right mostly out of the way. The other few chips were fixable with one of those plunger kits from Harbor Freight.

After about three days of risky driving the county finally comes out with a street sweeper and all is good until the next rain.

stever

Waiting for the trip reports people.

@xwesx?

How was the thrift in Palm Springs @gagrice?

gagrice

stever said:

Waiting for the trip reports people.

@xwesx?

How was the thrift in Palm Springs @gagrice?

We hit about half a dozen. No Hawaiian shirts this time. Angel View shops way over priced. Revival not bad. Except they sell lots of new clothes. Well laid out and decent prices. Our favorite with great prices and lots of stuff is Jackie Lee's Thrift Shop. Second is Collectors Corner which is by far the largest and highest class of merchandise. I did get a First edition of Kon-Tiki for a buck.

We have hit thrift shops in every state from here to WA and East to Indiana. Palm Springs is the best of the best. Most are very clean and organized. Yet good prices. Even the Goodwill is worth a look. Think of rich people going to PS to die and the kids dump all their stuff.

https://www.emc.org/patients-visitors/collectors-corner/

The resort was also decent for its age. Palm Canyon Resort. Go as someone's guest unless you like time shares.

https://www.diamondresortsandhotels.com/Resorts/Palm-Canyon-Resort

stever

I hit the clearance room at the Angel View and that's where I spent my $8. :-)

gagrice

The Angel View we stopped at wanted $9 for worn out Hawaiian Shirts, that were not even good brands or made in Hawaii. We also buy puzzles for my wife. Not very plentiful in PS. More in No CA and Oregon. One place had a few and wanted 4 bucks a puzzle. Anything over $2 is a rip-off. Did buy a brand new Scrabble game with the plastic rotating board for $6 at Revivals. Have friends that need a decent set.

Did I mention the view from our lanai was very nice?

stever

It's a pretty spot for sure. You scored on the Scrabble set. The Hasbro app is pretty good fwiw if you're in to playing against the computer.

xwesx

I'm home now. The roads weren't bad at all down there but were a bit slick in patches that first night (morning). I arrived a bit late, so wasn't in until after 0100. It took us an hour and a half to get to Pendleton from there. The trip back to the airport on Sunday was an hour (yeah, okay, so my brother wasn't exactly driving the SL, but he wasn't excessively over).

The trip went well, all told. I'm glad I took the opportunity to do it. Sorry, no pics. I'm a bit of bum that way.

fintail

3 days in Pendleton? I suppose that's about enough to see it all a few dozen times over

I see the snow is mostly to the north or higher elevations there - Yakima and north of Moses Lake got a bit, Spokane of course, but almost nothing in the Tri-Cities. I wouldn't want to have to drive the passes in the next 60 hours or so.

xwesx

Yeah, I think it worked out pretty well to not drive from Seattle. I was going to do that originally, but it would have only saved about $50 in the end. I love driving in snow and ice, but maybe not so much on a limited schedule and in a rental (undoubtedly with crappy tires and none of the proper equipment in the trunk).

I did mention to him how funny it was that he drove us everywhere, when I doubt we put more than a mile's distance on the odometer with each trip we took. I walked over to a parts store to pick up the bearing separator I ordered the day prior, and they kept saying "you can take the car..." When I returned after a mere fifteen minutes, I felt justified in not taking them up on that. Hahaha.

It's amazing how much a small town like that can change in twenty years, though. I think I saw more of it this time around than I have in quite a while. Normally, we just visit for an afternoon, or maybe overnight, as we pass on to the next stop on our transcontinental trips.

I was surprised to see that there was still snow in the fields at higher elevations along I82 on Sunday. The roads were dry, but even the highway had a couple inches of snow on the shoulders in the shady areas. The temp was 50 degrees in Pendleton when we left at about 2:30 that afternoon, but was only 35 on the Washington side of I82.

fintail

Yeah that would have been a terrible drive, and you might have had to take the long way back. You'd also have to risk dealing with western WA drivers over the pass.

It seems towns east of the mountains changed more than in the west. I lived in Moses Lake as a kid, and it's a lot different now. Small towns on the west side don't seem to have changed as much. The east maybe had more modernizing to do, I guess. Cold rain here, but no real snow risk. I get to take a drive to the coast in a couple days, should just be wet and hopefully not too congested.

berri

Dealing with the Olympics? Might cause a few hassles on the way.

fintail

Nope, although I did see some snow through the Black Hills - on the trees.

The rain finally stopped, here are a couple clips. First, a nice last minute lane change:

https://youtu.be/GuE1hUfd8Vw

And no more than 2 miles from the crash I posted a couple weeks ago, another one - the Subie was smashed pretty hard, no first responders on scene yet. This one has stock music as my 5 year old niece was in the car, and I was babbling with her:

https://youtu.be/5RBD_YKBiIo

Traffic wasn't too bad, I left before the city could get bad, just a little congestion around Olympia.

stever

Here in Las Cruces, our company has the right front plate on their Taos Subaru tonight. We drove their car down the hill to dinner tonight. Got about 7 inches, maybe 8 in our driveway tonight. Glad none of our company has to be anywhere until Tuesday at the earliest. Not great tripping weather.

berri

I think Fin had the better drive

elias

carboy21 said:

Do you guys who go on long road trips , bother to check whether you have a full size spare tire which is at proper pressure and also have the car jack and lug wrench ??

I am kinda paranoid about it after I discovered that my new car bought in October had no spare

Not lately, but I wonder about the same thing. The car I bought in August has no spare. The only possible options on the car were sunroof & $500 spare tire&wheel.
I could order the wheel/tire/etc for ~$1000 or more from GM parts counter now if I wanted, but naaaaah.

So far multiple roadtrips, boston to DC, boston to buffalo. Still no spare.

carboy21

elias said:

carboy21 said:

Do you guys who go on long road trips , bother to check whether you have a full size spare tire which is at proper pressure and also have the car jack and lug wrench ??

I am kinda paranoid about it after I discovered that my new car bought in October had no spare

Not lately, but I wonder about the same thing. The car I bought in August has no spare. The only possible options on the car were sunroof & $500 spare tire&wheel.
I could order the wheel/tire/etc for ~$1000 or more from GM parts counter now if I wanted, but naaaaah.

So far multiple roadtrips, boston to DC, boston to buffalo. Still no spare.

I consider it as a travel insurance. Glad to have it when you need it
One can get non-OEM wheel and matching tire for around $200 on tirerack with mounting.

Michaell

stever said:

Here in Las Cruces, our company has the right front plate on their Taos Subaru tonight. We drove their car down the hill to dinner tonight. Got about 7 inches, maybe 8 in our driveway tonight. Glad none of our company has to be anywhere until Tuesday at the earliest. Not great tripping weather.

Steve, this picture does nothing for our plans to move somewhere warmer when the time comes. Not sure I want to show this to my wife.

stever

It's gotta be a record. Looks like it's finally let up. Here's a shot from thirty minutes ago. Two of our houseguests bugged out at 4:30 am to go take photos from the other side of the Organ Mtns. but had to come back thanks to white-out conditions.

gagrice

It is the Yupper syndrome you brought with you from Michigan. Best to just stay inside and keep the fire going. We are sitting at freezing here today. Coldest December I can remember. Already gone through about $350 in propane and several wheelbarrow loads of oak and eucalyptus. Not liking this weather. Might as well be in AK.