Road Trip!

andres3

tjc78 said:

I love those kind of drives. My last trip to Idaho was like that... wide open and cruise set on 89.

I got to drive in Montana during the “reasonable and prudent” times (no speed limit). Fun.

I drive according to my internal code of "reasonable and prudent" regardless of the current legislatures mood in writing the current laws.

xwesx

andres3 said:

tjc78 said:

I love those kind of drives. My last trip to Idaho was like that... wide open and cruise set on 89.

I got to drive in Montana during the “reasonable and prudent” times (no speed limit). Fun.

I drive according to my internal code of "reasonable and prudent" regardless of the current legislatures mood in writing the current laws.

While not necessarily the most reasonable or prudent approach, it does supply us with a lot of stories on the subject!

You mentioned in the other thread that you and your wife went through with the car swap plan.... I didn't think to ask over there: How does she like this arrangement?

andres3

xwesx said:

andres3 said:

tjc78 said:

I love those kind of drives. My last trip to Idaho was like that... wide open and cruise set on 89.

I got to drive in Montana during the “reasonable and prudent” times (no speed limit). Fun.

I drive according to my internal code of "reasonable and prudent" regardless of the current legislatures mood in writing the current laws.

While not necessarily the most reasonable or prudent approach, it does supply us with a lot of stories on the subject!

You mentioned in the other thread that you and your wife went through with the car swap plan.... I didn't think to ask over there: How does she like this arrangement?

She got the last laugh. At the end of the Kia lease in a year, she doesn't want the VW Alltrack back as I had planned, she wants a NEW car!

xwesx

andres3 said:

xwesx said:

andres3 said:

tjc78 said:

I love those kind of drives. My last trip to Idaho was like that... wide open and cruise set on 89.

I got to drive in Montana during the “reasonable and prudent” times (no speed limit). Fun.

I drive according to my internal code of "reasonable and prudent" regardless of the current legislatures mood in writing the current laws.

While not necessarily the most reasonable or prudent approach, it does supply us with a lot of stories on the subject!

You mentioned in the other thread that you and your wife went through with the car swap plan.... I didn't think to ask over there: How does she like this arrangement?

She got the last laugh. At the end of the Kia lease in a year, she doesn't want the VW Alltrack back as I had planned, she wants a NEW car!

You might get the cake, but she's gonna eat it! Hahhahah

fintail

I am off for a week using some PTO, and have a few smallish road trips on the agenda. I've already taken two of them - over the weekend I visited my alma mater for a stroll down memory lane, and yesterday I went out near Hood Canal to visit some spots my family liked to go when I was a little kid, and get some pics for my mom. The first trip was uneventful - traffic was fine, no issues at all. Yesterday's drive out was a mess - took 3 hours to get there, which is almost twice as long as usual. 405 was worse than expected (going against the flow should have been better) and 5 was a mess, with several semis crashing in the rain in Tacoma (it never rains here, I can see how it surprises people) several hours earlier, and typical snails pace cleanup. Here I am well over an hour in, about 25 miles from home:

https://youtu.be/9xVb29vZtKg

Funny thing, the drive back was smooth as can be, Bremerton to Bellevue in about 70-75 minutes.

xwesx

Hahha! It feels like you put it in slow motion.

iluvmysephia1

Bremerton ta Bellevue in 70 minutes is booking pretty well because that's a long haul, man!

fintail

It felt like slow motion. Bellevue to the Narrows was maybe 2 hours - then it was smooth sailing.

On the way back, put cruise at 70 and just enjoy the drive, even the Tacoma Dome area wasn't too bad for more than a couple minutes.

iluvmysephia1

Yeah seems that the Tacoma Dome area moves along pretty well with maybe a titch of a delay on the accelator near the Fife exit.

fintail

That area is maybe slowly improving, but can still be quite the jam. I swear it has been under construction for the past 20 years, with no apparent end in sight. Someone is making $$$.

ab348

That is something I don't usually get to see here, creeping along on the expressways, except for the usual trouble spots at rush hour during the week when bottlenecks cause traffic to back up. I was surprised a few times while traveling in the USA how bad it could get. Years ago I was trying to get from Hartford CT to Portland ME and used I90 and I495 to try to skirt Boston. What I didn't realize was that it was a holiday weekend and traffic just crept along for miles and miles, an absolute nightmare. A few years ago I was trying to drive to Williamsburg VA from Norfolk on a Sunday afternoon and I64 would just suddenly slow to a crawl for no apparent reason in spots. I guess maybe it was beach traffic trying to return home, but am not sure of that. Tend not to see that in these parts with a lot fewer people living here, unless there is a road accident. Up here they now tend to close the expressway entirely when that happens and you have to detour onto local roads which can get very congested.

fintail

I think these days, traffic is a mess everywhere where masses of people want to live/there are jobs. This is definitely one of those areas.

Funny thing about the creeping along - traffic had stopped for an instant earlier. This triggered the "eco" function, which shut down the car for a split second. This tricked the dashcam into thinking the car was parked, and it remained in "parking mode" for several minutes, not realizing the engine had started and the car was moving ahain.

tifighter

If you pass through Tacoma, it is worth a stop at Griot's Garage. They had some fun things on display last weekend:

fintail

Griots had some cool bikes on display the last time I was there, too. Also a discount for MBCA members. I like their microfiber wash/cleaner and their spray wax for the old car.

I hit the road again today, I'll end up with rounding up to around 1000 miles in a week by the time the weekend is over. The weather was amazing today, more like early summer than mid October. Compare this shot with the slow motion from Monday in the same location - no traffic problems on the drive today:

https://youtu.be/SkcZHx76CdQ


Might be hard to see as the files switched over when the idiocy began - white Challenger with Army plate frames (represent!) made an abrupt multi lane exit at JBLM, fortunately those around him were attentive:

https://youtu.be/Lm8tCXgCkMY

Drove by a serious crash in the oncoming lane shortly after it took place, authorities not on the scene yet. Two trucks were pretty much destroyed, one might have rolled. I saw an elderly looking person being helped out of the most mangled one, so I hope they were OK, but still a hard hit:

https://youtu.be/5qyUzJyNXBI

xwesx

Eventful!

boomchek

tifighter said:

If you pass through Tacoma, it is worth a stop at Griot's Garage. They had some fun things on display last weekend:

If I had known about Groits I would have stopped by when I took a road trip from Vancouver BC down to the Oregon Coast one weekend this summer. On the way back we stopped at LeMay's car museum in Tacoma. Really cool place, my son (who's a car fanatic at 9 years old) loved the place, and so did I.

Having said that we just came back from LA (flew down, rented a lousy Corolla there). Main purpose was Disneyland but I made sure to incorporate a visit to Petersens Museum, as well as stopping by a few of the high end dealers, once again mainly for my son. We managed to stop by Ogara Coach where they had two Chirons and a Pagani Huayra in the showroom.

fintail

Hey boomchek, nice to see you again. I think many old posters are still around.

boomchek said:

Having said that we just came back from LA (flew down, rented a lousy Corolla there). Main purpose was Disneyland but I made sure to incorporate a visit to Petersens Museum, as well as stopping by a few of the high end dealers, once again mainly for my son. We managed to stop by Ogara Coach where they had two Chirons and a Pagani Huayra in the showroom.

berri

Tacoma is really an old car fan paradise with that and the two Lemay locations. Well worth the drive down I-5 from Seattle. The town has some decent restaurants too.

fintail

And via the gentle climate in this region, you might even see some old cars on the road.

tifighter

They have a cars and coffee meetup at Griot's on the first Saturday of each month. I caught the end of one once and was surprised at the healthy turnout. Some pretty esoteric stuff there, as well.

ab348

tifighter said:

They have a cars and coffee meetup at Griot's on the first Saturday of each month. I caught the end of one once and was surprised at the healthy turnout. Some pretty esoteric stuff there, as well.

I was never a fan of getting up early on a Saturday, sadly.

fintail

That's also the closest thing I know of to a legitimate Cars & Coffee in this region. Roughly a 45 minute drive from me early on a Saturday makes it tough. MBCA had a meeting there a couple years ago, which is when I visited.

tifighter

There's also one at the Shop in Sodo, but it's pretty hit or miss in my experience. Griot's was more interesting to me...I'm not all that impressed with a Gallardo wrapped in baby blue, but others probably think differently.

fintail

I didn't know about the Sodo one. I know there has been an attempt at organizing one somewhere in north Seattle too, but with mixed results. The "Seattle chill" stereotype about the social life of this area seems to carry over into car culture. On the eastside, the closest thing is "Exotics at Redmond Town Center", which is actually the antithesis of a bring-what-you've got C&C event - 90%+ of it seems like a show off contest for tech/financebros and the devilspawn of residency purchased via sketchy means.

fintail

Had to head north today, the way home on 405 was chock full o fun. Got stuck in a nice big backup due to a car fire involving a 78-80 Monte Carlo, I feel bad for that one:

https://youtu.be/CQ7gc6xb5Q8

Not 10 minutes later, northbound backed up due to a crash:

https://youtu.be/LwaCIOsXqXE

But by then it was smooth sailing all the way home.

fintail

From the cars & conversations forum, speaking of "drivers" in this not always first world-y area not knowing how to merge, I forgot about this gem when I cleaned out the SD card:

https://youtu.be/77ApznzIvGI

I was calmly merging in, allowing room for the Camaro, taking turns, then I hear the roar of an inbred driving a diesel pickup with workplace/company logos and numbers all over it, who floors it and zigs around. Funny thing, later he got stuck in a middle lane, and threw up his hands when I passed, as if to say "what you honkin at?!?". He later fell behind out of my line of sight. If I was a jerk, I'd call his employer and send him this, but knowing this region and so many of the trades who are allowed virtual immunity in an area with an overheated construction market, his boss is his uncle or daddy.

xwesx

That was pretty ridiculously blatant. These cameras always make other vehicles look further away than they really are, so that truck must have been right on top of you.

The sad thing.... you almost forgot about it (which tells me that stuff like this is unreasonably common).

fintail

Too close for comfort, I definitely didn't have any honkers remorse. Had he gone for a brake tap, I would have sent the clip to the company on the truck.

I still like how he raced forward, then got stuck and backed off. Maybe he was having a bad day and cooled off.

And yeah, driving around here is a gong show. Usually slower speed stupidity, and I swear signal use decreases every day.

andres3

fintail said:

Too close for comfort, I definitely didn't have any honkers remorse. Had he gone for a brake tap, I would have sent the clip to the company on the truck.

I still like how he raced forward, then got stuck and backed off. Maybe he was having a bad day and cooled off.

And yeah, driving around here is a gong show. Usually slower speed stupidity, and I swear signal use decreases every day.

Do you apply the equation of (severity of offense)X10 + 1 second for honking?

fintail

It might be something like that. All honks aren't equal. A quick toot might be to wake someone up who is sleeping at a light or straying into my lane. A few seconds to someone who virtually stops in a turn or blocks an intersection (had one of those today). And longer for more egregious acts. It's the PNW equivalent of someone from NYC, locals are deeply offended by horn use.

andres3 said:

Do you apply the equation of (severity of offense)X10 + 1 second for honking?

berri

While your in Chicago Fin, get used to the John Belushi looking guy with the extended horn blast waiving the middle finger furiously

fintail

I drove through Chicago early this morning. Everyone goes 75 in a 55, I like it. Tailgating seems to be out of habit rather than to irritate, I had no problems.

Then on to Iowa, where population density allows for little real traffic. It seems many don't understand cruise control though, played what I call the yo-yo game (passing and being passed multiple times) several times.

jpp75

@fintail What did you get for a rental?

Edit, just saw the JGC in the other forum. A good car for the trip you're doing.

berri

So Fin, switching from the PNW to the Midwest - putting on some poundage from all the fast food

fintail

I'll need to try to not visit Culver's too often

A pic from today, dirty Jeep in front of a funky old piece of architecture now famous via the internet, "The Gobbler":

berri

Weather looks like you're right at home

fintail

I brought it with me for sure, messy day yesterday. It finally stopped raining this morning, at least for most of the day. Should be better when I am in Chicago tomorrow for the rest of the week.

fintail

Even after a rough morning, I kept to my itinerary and walked around downtown Milwaukee, mostly the touristy Riverwalk areas. It was a nice day before the rain moved in:

berri

You know that's a great town for German food, sausages and festivals.

fintail

I've noticed numerous buildings with German themed signs or architecture. The red stone Romanesque style turn of the century buildings are similar to what was being built in Germany at the time. Some old single family housing also has the look, some pretty houses here, although sometimes in rough areas.

fintail

Visited a good filming location today:



Watch out for that first step, it's a doozie.

berri

Sounds like you are having a good time despite the Milwaukee smack!

fintail

Trying to make the best of it, no use being annoyed after it is done. Now I am also in hypochondriac mode about every little ache and pain.

I was on the road all day today in the fun that is Chicagoland. Honestly, the only part that seems worse are road conditions. Same traffic nightmare and goofy drivers, just in their own ways.

Astute viewers will recognize this house:



I also saw one of my favorite Frank Lloyd Wright houses:



It's getting cold here.

xwesx

What happened.... car crash?

tjc78

I know that house.. but let’s keep everyone guessing more ...
next hint:  theme song is by Frank Sinatra! 

fintail

Check the Rental Car Experiences thread. I had a mishap in a Jeep.

xwesx said:

What happened.... car crash?

atlaswyn

I kinda miss going on a road trip but my work keeps getting on my way. I do have rest days but I sleep through it because of fatigue.

jpp75

I love that Frank Lloyd Wright house, but even with @tjc78's clue I couldn't tell you what it's associated with.

Michaell

jpp5862 said:

I love that Frank Lloyd Wright house, but even with @tjc78's clue I couldn't tell you what it's associated with.

It's the house from the TV show "Married … with Children"

xwesx

Darn it, Fin.... another thread to follow?!

That's quite a mishap, though. Perhaps good, perhaps bad.... those sorts of crashes tend to be the most surprising simply because they are so unexpected and "out of nowhere". I mean, you might be wary of crossing or turning traffic on a right like that, but being hit from behind on the right? Where did THAT come from?! /sigh

By "perhaps good," I mean that often people are less prone to injury when they don't see a crash imminent and, therefore, do not have a chance to involuntarily tense up before the impact.