Road Trip!

gagrice

No money for Moonbeam's High Speed train to nowhere. Investors are not dumb enough to throw money away. And Obama has said no way.

With the Obama administration on its way out, it seemed like a good time to nail down more long-term federal support on the assumption that Hillary Clinton would be the next president.

So the state set up a meeting to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to publicly announce a federal loan of up to $15 billion that would help build an initial rail segment from San Jose to Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield, which would cement federal support during the transition to a new presidential administration.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cash-20161224-story.html

fintail

If anyone is going out on the road tonight, be careful - I suspect there will be plenty of drunks, as NYE is on a weekend and 2016 has been a challenging year for many.

There's a chance of snow and ice here tonight, I think I will park the car now. Yesterday evening, my city slathered some roads in de-icer and some clumps of sandy dirty sludge, no doubt just enough to be washed away by any rain before the cold arrives.

Michaell

fintail said:

If anyone is going out on the road tonight, be careful - I suspect there will be plenty of drunks, as NYE is on a weekend and 2016 has been a challenging year for many.

There's a chance of snow and ice here tonight, I think I will park the car now. Yesterday evening, my city slathered some roads in de-icer and some clumps of sandy dirty sludge, no doubt just enough to be washed away by any rain before the cold arrives.

+1 on that comment. I went out around 5-ish to pick up dinner, glad to be home now.

Lucky that the weather here in Denver has been nice the last two days - only drunkenness and stupidity will factor into accidents tonight.

fintail

Fun trip to work this morning, got to drive the wrong way down a one way arterial lane due to an obstacle:

https://youtu.be/WhPFF_phxW4

(sound changed due to conversation).

Roads here are pretty deserted as people are afraid of snow, but I had to get out and try my AWD car for the first time in real inclement weather. No issues. Very few people at work today.

Michaell

fintail said:

Fun trip to work this morning, got to drive the wrong way down a one way arterial lane due to an obstacle:

https://youtu.be/WhPFF_phxW4

(sound changed due to conversation).

Roads here are pretty deserted as people are afraid of snow, but I had to get out and try my AWD car for the first time in real inclement weather. No issues. Very few people at work today.

HS friend who lives up that way posted pictures of the snow at her house. She drives a late 90's Jimmy and couldn't get out to get to work. Which turned out OK, as her boss couldn't get there, either, so they shut the place down.

How much snow fell?

xwesx

LOL! Yeah, that'll do it. I'm not sure why you don't keep a chainsaw in your trunk, but whatever.....

fintail

Some areas around here seem to have more than a foot, but no more than half that in the denser areas of Bellevue. Looks like we will get some more this morning anyway. The main roads appear clear and plowed, 405 is moving along, a few more people have trickled in to work. Tomorrow morning might be fun too, looking forward to the adventure.

No chainsaw, but I recall about 10 years ago having another route blocked by a tree.

fintail

What a nice Monday - power went out, so the office closed early. Fun times.

Everyone was obeying the 4 way stop ideal, I don't think I've ever made it through this area so quickly, it is usually a zoo:

https://youtu.be/qTHkhnkP0e4

A virtually deserted Bellevue Way, love it. Why was it? Oh, a tree was down:

https://youtu.be/c2Mour-NvhA

I have to say they did a fantastic job clearing the roads - maybe the mild temperatures helped, but this is the best I've seen relative to the amount of snow.

berri

It is like the south when it snows - you may handle the driving fine, but the other guy..

slorenzen

Fin,

I'm impressed with how quiet your car seems to be.

No CLATTER!

Down here in the banana belt of the southern Willamette Valley, we didn't see any snow at all this time.

jpp75

@fintail Nice videos, I like the music in the second one.

I was in Portland after they had a couple of snows, the temps were colder but since they don't/won't use salt the roads were a mess.

fintail

Thanks. Yep, it's a quiet diesel from the inside, not like an old 190D, but you can hear it more outside. I like the noise.

More traffic out there today, clear roads - a little icy this morning, but no big deal if one is careful. Most of the timid stay home in this, the overconfident ones are the danger.

I also took some video weekend before last, while in the fintail. The camera mount gets in the way, and I shot this with my phone via a free app, so the quality isn't as good. It also captures the sound far too loud (I guess a phone should), but for free, it works:

https://youtu.be/PXAjSXyQkmg

berri

While in San Diego, shot up to Escondido. The Deer Park Winery & auto museum is back to being open on weekends. Pretty neat place if you grew up in the Populuxe of the 50's and early 60's. Besides the cars and related ads and dealer signs, there is just all kinds of different stuff from that era like small and large appliances, radio and TV, vending machines, arcade games, cameras, gas station memorabilia and old equipment, office equipment. kitchen stuff... Don't know how long it will remain open though.

Also, while in the Old Town area of San Diego I spotted a storefront sign entitled "trains". Thought it was a hobby shop or something. Turned out to be a very nice and large model railroad layout depicting 1959. What was unusual was that half of it was a nighttime scene in the city. Lots of buildings, cars, trucks, busses from that era. Free admission, but they do have a donation box. Very well done and interesting, and I'm not even a model railroad person.

kyfdx

San Diego is a cool place.
There is an auto museum in town, as well. Nothing amazing, but worth a visit.

Escondido: Stone Brewing.

berri

Balboa Park has quite a bit of stuff. I do like that city.

kyfdx

berri said:

Balboa Park has quite a bit of stuff. I do like that city.

Yeah.. the car museum is there. Thanks for the reminder!

explorerx4

Heading to Ohio for a long weekend to get together with the family. Taking the wife's MKC. It hasn't been on a road trip since going to Traverse City last Memorial Day.

berri

Make sure to check out the weather. Some ugly stuff may be headed that way.

xwesx

berri said:

Make sure to check out the weather. Some ugly stuff may be headed that way.

It's been quite the interesting winter, hasn't it?! I'm down to ~six days to our road trip from Houston to Fairbanks. I can't wait!!!

berri

A lot of that stuff appears to be moving east

fintail

Had to go into the city this morning, here's a quick snap of something many haven't seen, the floating bridge:

https://youtu.be/82uRqhKLy3g

The "event mode" on the camera was triggered by a bridge joint, hence the short video (the next clip in the series was flat bridge driving, not as much of a view).

Michaell

Nice Depeche Mode soundtrack.

fintail

Oldie but goodie

Michaell

fintail said:

Oldie but goodie

Heading back out on tour this year. Supposed to be on one of the late night shows (Fallon?) next week.

fintail

I think the DJ was mentioning the tour right before the song (First Wave on Sirius). If history is an indicator, I will be out of town when they come to Seattle.

Michaell

fintail said:

I think the DJ was mentioning the tour right before the song (First Wave on Sirius). If history is an indicator, I will be out of town when they come to Seattle.

Richard Blade - I tried to listen to him back in the day when he worked for KROQ in Pasadena. Sadly, their signal wasn't strong enough to reach Ventura County, where I grew up.

berri

Ventura county - now there is an area that you'd expect would be all suburbs by now, but you can still find farms and orchards there.

fintail

That's the one.

I've had "Violator" in my mental playlist for maybe 25 years now. Possibly the best album ever.

Michaell said:

Richard Blade - I tried to listen to him back in the day when he worked for KROQ in Pasadena. Sadly, their signal wasn't strong enough to reach Ventura County, where I grew up.

Michaell

berri said:

Ventura county - now there is an area that you'd expect would be all suburbs by now, but you can still find farms and orchards there.

Because they passed legislation to protect the farms - look up SOAR.

Michaell

fintail said:

That's the one.

I've had "Violator" in my mental playlist for maybe 25 years now. Possibly the best album ever.

Michaell said:

Richard Blade - I tried to listen to him back in the day when he worked for KROQ in Pasadena. Sadly, their signal wasn't strong enough to reach Ventura County, where I grew up.

I rarely stray from first wave in the Jetta.

fintail

I listen to it a bit too. I have maybe 12 stations I rotate through, but a few get most of my time.

Michaell said:

I rarely stray from first wave in the Jetta.

xwesx

Ah, right.... Road Trip! I'm on one of those! I'll need to share photos later after a download, but we're a little over 2,000 miles and three days into ours.

Through Texas, no problem. Great roads, high speeds. Through New Mexico, roads were still fine. Arizona? Beautiful! I was amazed that we were at such high elevation there, and with snow on the surrounding landscape in places. We took a jaunt to the Grand Canyon, which was quite humbling. Roads through Utah were nice (US 89), though we were rushing things at that point and perhaps missed some stops that would have been worth the time.

I-15 was a blizzard for a long, long time. That slowed things down considerably. I was probably going 40-50 for at least a couple of hours, and I was passing countless vehicles. Lane discipline was somewhat scarce, but thankfully most folks figured it out eventually. I guess with 4-5" of slushy junk on the roads, people tend to forget that they're still on an interstate. Some folks may have been ridiculously slow, but at least everyone stayed on the road (that we saw).

Made it to Twin Falls, Idaho, this morning at 0300 (should have been about 2300 last night). Tired. LOL

Michaell

xwesx said:

Ah, right.... Road Trip! I'm on one of those! I'll need to share photos later after a download, but we're a little over 2,000 miles and three days into ours.

Through Texas, no problem. Great roads, high speeds. Through New Mexico, roads were still fine. Arizona? Beautiful! I was amazed that we were at such high elevation there, and with snow on the surrounding landscape in places. We took a jaunt to the Grand Canyon, which was quite humbling. Roads through Utah were nice (US 89), though we were rushing things at that point and perhaps missed some stops that would have been worth the time.

I-15 was a blizzard for a long, long time. That slowed things down considerably. I was probably going 40-50 for at least a couple of hours, and I was passing countless vehicles. Lane discipline was somewhat scarce, but thankfully most folks figured it out eventually. I guess with 4-5" of slushy junk on the roads, people tend to forget that they're still on an interstate. Some folks may have been ridiculously slow, but at least everyone stayed on the road (that we saw).

Made it to Twin Falls, Idaho, this morning at 0300 (should have been about 2300 last night). Tired. LOL

Shame that you had bad weather on I-15. The speed limit is 80 on many stretches.

How is the Q7 handling the weather? What kind of mileage are you seeing?

xwesx

Q7 has done great in the weather. We were on the all-seasons through Utah, and I was able to maintain 40-50mph, even through 4-5" of the wet, slushy, crusty snow on the road. It was a lot of work, but completely doable. I had a caravan of fans following me. They did't want to deal with the white-out, but were more than happy to follow my tail lights. Never fear, Alaskan to the rescue! LOL

Last night was another fun one. A bunch of fintail's favorite drivers clogged up I90 over Snowqualmie Pass just minutes before we were at that point, so they shut the highway down and we had to find another way. We backtracked to 97 and took Stevens Pass. Added about four hours to our trip, but was a really amazing drive. The snow through Stevens Pass was so high on the sides of the road that the massive snow throwers were barely able to chuck the snow over top of the roadside berms. It was quite a sight.

However, two really late nights in a row for us. Bleh!

We're in Canada now. Just passed through Hope, BC. More incredible scenery.

fintail

This morning I was behind a (new) Beetle going 35 on an on-ramp. They were probably headed to the pass It's a great time to be a skier right now.

Hope, the filming location of Rambo, pretty area. You'll be back in the snow soon enough, have fun and get some rest when you can!

xwesx

Houston Space Center:




From Sunday in Arizona:





Aftermath of the I15 drive (the following day in Oregon):

slorenzen

xwesx: It's a good thing you steered clear of I-90.

http://kpq.com/storm-hits-cascades-90-ellensburg-summit/

xwesx

Well, we were there! Thankfully, we didn't get wrapped up in any of those. There was no active snowfall as we passed through (or tried to pass through), but there's just no telling with these drivers. It's amazing to me how poorly many of them handle such conditions.

It might be that many of them are on the interstate, so they figure they shouldn't have to worry about such things. There was a fair bit of traffic on highway2 over Stevens Pass, and drivers seemed to have it together there.

We stopped in Smithers, BC, last night. I had a wicked headache when we arrived, so it was straight to bed for me! I'm feeling much revived today, though. Our plan is to tackle the Cassiar (highway 37) today. Should be fun!

fintail

Drive in Seattle for a few days, you won't be amazed anymore

Sounds like you are making good time, do you switch off driving with the other half?

xwesx

Yes, she drives "morning shift" and likes to get out very early in the mornings, and I drive from about noon until we arrive. I suspect I would make more miles each day if I was solo, but I can't really expect to travel as far with four of us in the car.

There have been plenty of complaints about the amount of seat time they have been forced to endure. LOL

xwesx

Yesterday morning. Filthy!

We made a short stop to visit family in Oregon on Monday, where I had sent a few supplies. So, now I put all the extras in the cargo tray. I love how these things do not adversely affect fuel economy! Our best tank so far was a little over 30 mpg, and that was Tuesday's run through the lower part of Canada with less interstate driving. I think this car's sweet spot for fuel economy is around 60-65 mph.

xwesx

Strange that it insists on uploading this one sideways. ...... ????

Michaell

xwesx said:

Strange that it insists on uploading this one sideways. ...... ????

Taken with an iPhone or iPad? I've seen that happen before

fintail

I like how fancy big SUVs like that seem to look better dirty and loaded up than strutting around the local gallery mall.

xwesx must be almost home by now.

xwesx

Yep, we're home now. Unfortunately, the car is not. It broke down about forty miles outside of Fairbanks this afternoon. I had to have it flat-bedded into town after hanging out in it for about two hours waiting on the truck.

At this point, we're just thankful that it didn't happen in a more remote location and that the temperature was moderate. Still chilly at a little below zero, but would have been a whole lot worse yesterday..

jpp75

xwesx said:

Yep, we're home now. Unfortunately, the car is not. It broke down about forty miles outside of Fairbanks this afternoon. I had to have it flat-bedded into town after hanging out in it for about two hours waiting on the truck.

At this point, we're just thankful that it didn't happen in a more remote location and that the temperature was moderate. Still chilly at a little below zero, but would have been a whole lot worse yesterday..

Here's hoping it's nothing major. Glad you were at least close to home, as you said this could have happened in a much worse location.

gagrice

xwesx said:

Yep, we're home now. Unfortunately, the car is not. It broke down about forty miles outside of Fairbanks this afternoon. I had to have it flat-bedded into town after hanging out in it for about two hours waiting on the truck.

At this point, we're just thankful that it didn't happen in a more remote location and that the temperature was moderate. Still chilly at a little below zero, but would have been a whole lot worse yesterday..

Hope it is warranty item. We just took a quick 3 day trip to Pahrump NV. About half way there the check engine light came on. Last time we were headed up to Lake Tahoe and it came on. Does not seem to affect the operation in any way. Last time it was the O2 sensor. A $400 warranty item. We are still under extended warranty on this one. So far thankful our VW Touareg has not let us down anywhere.

gagrice

Spent two days looking over the town of Pahrump NV. Probably the mecca for asthma sufferers in the USA. Also retirees are the major population. When we figure everything up for us, the COL is about half of what it costs in San Diego County. That is maintaining the same lifestyle with a 3000 sq ft home on one level with an acre of land. We can buy the home brand new for less than half of what our place would sell for. No income tax much lower property tax. Utilities are less. Electricity about 1/3rd. Most places have their own well and septic. There is a large aquifer in the valley providing plenty of water. We stayed in these very nice cottages for $85 a night high winter rates.


The desert was just starting to bloom on our trip. We stayed off the interstates as much as possible. Adds about 80 miles to the trip.

xwesx

Aside from living in the desert, that doesn't sound like a bad deal at all! Of course, San Diego is no rain forest either, but the temperatures are likely more moderated by the ocean.

xwesx

gagrice said:

Hope it is warranty item. We just took a quick 3 day trip to Pahrump NV. About half way there the check engine light came on. Last time we were headed up to Lake Tahoe and it came on. Does not seem to affect the operation in any way. Last time it was the O2 sensor. A $400 warranty item. We are still under extended warranty on this one. So far thankful our VW Touareg has not let us down anywhere.

We'll see!

Vehicle is not under warranty, but shop suspects it may be a HPFP issue. If so, I am going to push Audi to cover it since this is a known issue. They say it was resolved by the 2014 model year, but I am finding plenty of examples of this not being the case.