Road Trip!

berri

Well, those blue WA state trooper uniforms with the bow ties look more like they belong at a soda fountain

fintail

Even with the bowties, I think WSP generally does a good job. I think various Sheriffs depts seem to get the most bad press.

imidazol97

fintail said:

Got back home earlier today, car started and drove yesterday and today like nothing happened. With around 6 hours of high speed driving since the initial hiccup, maybe things will be OK now. I will keep an eye on it. I'll be driving on the highway more a bit in the coming months, which may help it too.

I've had the car for 2.5 years without a peep of any kind til now. I will chalk it up to a quirk unless it happens again. Something like an E500 would be a different animal, assuming it is a mid 00s car, those were not the zenith of MB quality, and can be a maintenance chore. MB has long had hoods that open wide, too, even the fintail can do it. I think it would open even a little more, but was close to the ceiling.

Drive back to the rat race wasn't as nice as the way down - awful traffic in Tacoma where I think some parts of I5 have been under construction for more than 20 years. Quite a few LLCs as well, and I think I saw only one cop in 3 hours.

Good luck. I hope it doesn't let you down again. My concern is that driving short drives where the drain rate is high on the system and the time doesn't recharge the lead acid battery fully, I would expect you would have noticed slow cranking as the charge on the battery dropped bit by bit. The starter sound just won't quite be the same. That's the usual fail mode for batteries here for me. They fail in summer rather than dying in cold start winter weather.

My understanding of up-to-date charge control systems is that they measure the amount of charge drained from a battery and adjust the charge rate to put that much back in quickly. Rather than following the voltage to determine state-of-charge, they follow the actual quantity of current used.

I'm sure MB has improved the system from the E500 neighbor HAS. He moved, but I believe he still has it because his wife loved the premium auto to drive around in.

fintail

I was thinking I'd get a warning light of some kind, but I guess not. I'll be driving at least a little more on the highway on weekends from now on, maybe that will help. I didn't notice any cranking issues - this modern diesel doesn't behave like the stereotype - pressing the start button is more like turning on a motor, it might crank once, then fires up. Old diesels can take several cranks.

Keeping a complex 00s era MB on the road has to be a labor of love - love of the car or wife. I think those tended to be air-suspended too, which is an even higher factor of potential fun.

imidazol97 said:

Good luck. I hope it doesn't let you down again. My concern is that driving short drives where the drain rate is high on the system and the time doesn't recharge the lead acid battery fully, I would expect you would have noticed slow cranking as the charge on the battery dropped bit by bit. The starter sound just won't quite be the same. That's the usual fail mode for batteries here for me. They fail in summer rather than dying in cold start winter weather.

My understanding of up-to-date charge control systems is that they measure the amount of charge drained from a battery and adjust the charge rate to put that much back in quickly. Rather than following the voltage to determine state-of-charge, they follow the actual quantity of current used.

I'm sure MB has improved the system from the E500 neighbor HAS. He moved, but I believe he still has it because his wife loved the premium auto to drive around in.

fintail

Got up early and hit the road to get in a short stick and puck, as the rink is open in the snow. One thing in the lot was different from the others:





The only actual car in the entire line of sight - elsewhere SUVs, CUVs, pickups, brotrucks. There was a Subaru and an old Accord hiding in another part of the lot. Who needs a SUV? No problems at all even on snow covered roads, but I like to think I am at least marginally more skilled than some of the nervous souls on the road here.

berri

Washington should go back to green colored license plates. The current ones don't really reflect the state. Well wait, white background and possible record snow this winter

cdnpinhead

Arizona has something like 153 different (I'm exaggerating to make a point BTW) plate configurations (kids, birds, one-armed veterans, etc.), so the old days of being able to determine the state of the car in front of you are long, long gone, at least here in the hellhole.

That said, the typical snowbird plates are still pretty consistent: Minneapolis, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and that's just on my drive back from my haircut this afternoon.

fintail

The last white on green plates for WA were issued in 1962, then it was green on white until the 80s. CA and OR now both have retro plates as a special style, maybe WA could reissue those. I'd maybe consider it.

berri said:

Washington should go back to green colored license plates. The current ones don't really reflect the state. Well wait, white background and possible record snow this winter

Michaell

cdnpinhead said:

Arizona has something like 153 different (I'm exaggerating to make a point BTW) plate configurations (kids, birds, one-armed veterans, etc.), so the old days of being able to determine the state of the car in front of you are long, long gone, at least here in the hellhole.

That said, the typical snowbird plates are still pretty consistent: Minneapolis, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and that's just on my drive back from my haircut this afternoon.

Both my wife and daughter have the special plates, that they've transferred to different cars over the years. Wife has early childhood plates, daughter has Colo State University.

xwesx

Currently hanging out in Erie, PA. We picked up our rental in Pittsburgh, then drove up yesterday. Lots of rain, snow, wind... COLD! As I have said numerous times, I much prefer truly cold temperatures to marginally warm temps combined with an excess of wind! Temps today were about 25F, but wind was as much as 40 mph and very gusty. Brr.

Anyhow, this vehicle we have is a Canada-spec Hyundai Santa Fe. They were going to put us into a Ford Edge, which sounded great to me, but then came back and said, "there was a bunch of stuff in it, so I figured I better leave it unless I wanted to get an earful later on today...." Hahah. The guy offered us an Expedition or a Suburban instead, but seeing how we were heading into downtown Pittsburgh, and the wife was likely to drive part of our overall trip, we nixed it on size.

Looking back, I probably should have taken a closer look at them! Why? Well, the tires on this Santa Fe are just garbage. After spending the morning in an automotive version of a Slip & Slide, I called the company to find out what they could do to remedy our complete lack of traction. They tried a lot of different tactics, including "they're all like that," "we don't have anything else," "maybe you're just not used to driving on ice," blah blah blah. Eventually, they conceded that perhaps I knew what I was about here, but that their company policy is that tires are not replaced until 4/32 (which, BTW, is ridiculously low for any tire in winter conditions). They referred me to a local tire chain and said that is their contractor, and that I was welcome to take the vehicle there for an inspection.

I looked it up, and there is a location "0.2" miles from where we are staying. Score! I slid it down there and had them check it out. Sure enough.... the front tires were at 4/32. So, the rep at the service facility coded it all up (took a good fifteen minutes to get through the process, too) and then we waited for a response. Finally, a call comes in asking for the mileage. Being a CA spec, it is in kilometers (about 85,000), which he explained. The guy on the phone said, "well, I need miles." So, rep says, "well, let me Google that FOR YOU." Hahaha. Came back with something like 52,000 miles.... The guy says he'll follow up in a few more minutes.

A half hour later, he calls back to say that the company will not authorize tire replacement, that the vehicle is way too old (miles-wise) to remain in their fleet, and that they are going to auction it after I return it. The store rep commented, "Not approved! Apparently it doesn't matter whether you die over these tires in the meantime, just get the car back to them in one piece so they can auction it without any further investment." LOL Great. Thankfully, the rear tires, which must have been replaced at some point, were at 8/32, so he swapped those onto the front so that I would have at least some chance of traction. No charge. I left a tip in thanks.

Still crappy traction, but worlds better than what I had with those worn out tires on the front. Small victories, I guess!

xwesx

Oh, and since we're on the topic of plates... Ontario plates on this one. No, they're not a special issue.

EScott

Karen_S said:

When I was a kid, our vacations were always a road trip to various state and national parks. All seven of us slept in my Dad's canvas tent that was only meant for four people. We had most of our meals at the campsite prepared over a wood fire or the camp stove. It was an inexpensive and fun time, even if my brother's feet always ended up in my face by morning.

Now? Who can afford the luxury of a road trip with gas prices pushing towards $5 a gallon? What are your vacation plans this summer?

HAHAHA! True that! My plans are of avoiding the sun and going to someplace cold. I am really tired of the heat. Hope you have some fun plans this year, too.

fintail

From where did you rent? I'd probably have refused it based on miles alone, and then the tires yikes. Take it back and deal with driving one of those tanks.

Most miled up rental in my memory was an Enterprise Galant ages ago that had something like 50K on it, but it was surprisingly clean, a local car. I recall other cars in the 20K mile range that had been thrashed, a Kia especially that had warped hubcaps and destroyed carpeting. Not something for a road trip.

xwesx said:

Oh, and since we're on the topic of plates... Ontario plates on this one. No, they're not a special issue.

fintail

A couple snow clips. First features a rare sight in this area, a stand-on bulldozer/excavator thing clearing snow:

https://youtu.be/Ayt5gLLcfIM

This area had a minor dumping, but when I was there 24 hours later, main roads were clear. I was back there today, and they had probably close to a foot Monday-Tuesday, main roads are fine, side roads are still iffy.

Closer to home, this BMW E66 seems to have encountered some problems. We had an episode of heavy wet snow for several hours:

https://youtu.be/EcYKtHVJf-M

xwesx

That second clip is what the area looked like last Monday when we were there. Quite a bit of heavy wet snow on the roads. We were able to take the light rail from the southern terminus into downtown. We hopped off at something like Pioneer Square or similar (me and names.... ugh). Anyhow, we had tickets (expensive, at that!) to visit Smith Tower that Sunday night, and we arrived just a smidge before 6pm. They advertised as being open to 9pm. We get there.... and the doors are locked! There's a sign that says they're closed due to the weather, which a pleasant 35 degrees or so, with light winds and a little bit of snow spattering here and there. For us, amazingly nice weather.

We waited around the doors for a bit, me lamenting the $100 or so spent on the failed adventure, and my wife just torn up about not getting to see this little bit of history. A couple came out the doors, so we seized the opportunity to go inside. The lady at the desk just pointed outside when my wife asked why they closed early.... and then she says, "It's the weather. We couldn't justify staying open. It's just too dangerous." Incredulous, my wife said, "What? It's really nice! So warm, too!"

Hahhaa. Perspectives! Anyway, the people were really nice and let us poke our noses around the building a little. We did not get to go out on the observation deck, but it was still a good time.

xwesx

As for our rental, yeah, I probably should have considered more of the factors before accepting it in Pittsburgh. More things to check off the list of concerns as far as rental cars go. The vehicle is in surprisingly good condition for the miles. I, too, have had rentals with sub 20K miles and the vehicles looked far worse for the wear than this one does.

But, by the time we recognized some of the shortcomings, we were already well out of the Pitts area, and I think that our options here in Erie would just be downhill from what we have. With the tire rotation done earlier in the week, it behaves much better. Still, though, I am certain that the struts are just done in the rear end of this thing. I guess it won't be ours (or Enterprise's) problem very soon, though. /sigh

If I was really gung ho about it, I guess I could stop at the Pittsburgh airport tomorrow when we are in the area for a museum exhibit, but I'm not sure I want to take the time. For what we're paying for this rental, I probably should, though!

berri

If you rented it from a nationwide chain like Hertz, they should swap it out at any of their outlets if you are not satisfied.

fintail

I had no problem swapping out Hertz during my latest trip/rental odyssey. I always inspect body and tires etc before I drive off, too.

Good job on saving the day in the snow, xwesx. People here freaked out - supermarkets were ravaged, when the snow hit everyone left work at once and jammed traffic, etc.

xwesx

I suggested the swap out to my wife yesterday as we were heading to Pittsburgh again (we drove back down there to go to the Carnegie Science Center, as they had a traveling Leonardo daVinci exhibit available). She laughed and asked if I was serious. I said, "sure, why not? We're paying for it either way!"

She figured we were fine with what we had, and she also didn't think we would hit any more snow on the trip. Well, we were about fifteen minutes north of Pittsburgh on the way back to the shores of Lake Erie when it was snowing again. Lots of slush on the highway, several crashes (a couple rather entertaining to see, though I do hope there were no serious injuries), etc. Slowed us down somewhat mostly due to the inconsiderates clogging the left lane even though they weren't driving any faster than the folks in the right lane. Car did okay. Still, super squirrelly compared to how any of my vehicles would have done.

xwesx

Oh, speaking of Seattle area again..... The hotel where we stayed near the airport, a Best Western, was pretty neat. It is an older design (I[m going to guess probably 1970s?), but the layout an amenities are so much more inviting than hotels built nowadays. They had a game room in their basement, which included a small pool and hot tub, but also had a shuffle board table, fooseball, and a nice ping pong table! They had a counter with complementary drinks (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc), so it was fun to lounge around for a couple hours after our light rail outing and play games, sip cocoa, etc.

Most hotels now have little exercise rooms with a bunch of machines plugged into little televisions, maybe a pool, and definitely not any games like that. This place wasn't much to look at from the outside, but was really welcoming inside.

cdnpinhead

Time marches on, but it's nice to remember when things were better, as I can. The local scold will be heard from, perhaps.

tjc78

xwesx said:

Oh, speaking of Seattle area again..... The hotel where we stayed near the airport, a Best Western, was pretty neat. It is an older design (I[m going to guess probably 1970s?), but the layout an amenities are so much more inviting than hotels built nowadays. They had a game room in their basement, which included a small pool and hot tub, but also had a shuffle board table, fooseball, and a nice ping pong table! They had a counter with complementary drinks (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc), so it was fun to lounge around for a couple hours after our light rail outing and play games, sip cocoa, etc.

Most hotels now have little exercise rooms with a bunch of machines plugged into little televisions, maybe a pool, and definitely not any games like that. This place wasn't much to look at from the outside, but was really welcoming inside.

When I traveled heavily in the early 2000s, occasionally in some pretty rural areas I’d encounter a hotel similar to that. There can’t be many left.

fintail

I had to drive up and down 405 a couple times yesterday - LLC heaven, and just like a longer trip up and down 167 on Saturday, way too many trucks in the left lane acting as large pylons. Zero enforcement, of course.

The hotel mention makes me think of a Shilo I stayed at in Beaverton OR a few years ago - a sprawling time capsule stuck in maybe 1976. The place was on a huge park-like lot with a pond and fountain, set on hills, and the dining area was extremely retro, unintentionally so, but very well kept. With Portland being hipster mecca now, I am sure the place is well known.

andres3

fintail said:

I had to drive up and down 405 a couple times yesterday - LLC heaven, and just like a longer trip up and down 167 on Saturday, way too many trucks in the left lane acting as large pylons. Zero enforcement, of course.

The hotel mention makes me think of a Shilo I stayed at in Beaverton OR a few years ago - a sprawling time capsule stuck in maybe 1976. The place was on a huge park-like lot with a pond and fountain, set on hills, and the dining area was extremely retro, unintentionally so, but very well kept. With Portland being hipster mecca now, I am sure the place is well known.

It has come to my attention that some law enforcement folk are so ignorant of driving hazards, that it may be the reason they don't enforce left lane camping. It is possible some are unaware of the dangers of speed differentials, and see drivers in the left lane impeding traffic as an annoyance, and not a hazard. Of course, that couldn't be further from the truth, but this might be why law enforcement is not working well in the USA by any objective measure.

fintail

I think LLC enforcement is just too much work. I sometimes question the claims about many citations being awarded for it.. On the LLC subject, I passed 2 on the right today, unfortunately both were MBs.

A couple random clips on this lovely sunny day after a particularly harsh February - first, this Trooper with no brake lights other than CHMSL was really bugging me, I have seen a few cars like this lately:

https://youtu.be/ApjuyWbneXk

And something seen all the time, a last second decision:

https://youtu.be/fsXE0OocS8U

elias

Looking forward to mega-roadtrips this year, Boston to minnesota and Boston to Denver, Meteor Crater, california, via Minnesota. Diesel cruze for #1 roadtrip and Chevy SS Sedan for #2 especially if 87 octane cost per gallon remains lower than that for bottled tap water. btw, I see more and more robot/autopilot cars lately on my road trips and commutes. Question: How long before "autopilot" cars are restricted to the rightmost lane , or an entirely separate roadway?? (Recently I see the Boston highway commutes getting slowed and more dangerous daily due to all the robot/autopilot/Teslas crawling in the middle lane, open road ahead and 10^N cars stacked up trying to pass on left and right but with excessive speed difference inbetween lanes preventing safe lane-changes. Human drivers get stuck/frustrated and pass the robot car hogging middle lane, immediately cutting back into the middle, causing the robot-car to slow down even more, increasing the dangerous speed delta between lanes.)

xwesx

Those aren't mega road trips. Come on, Elias.....

berri

No, they're YUUGE

fintail

In a few days of driving, my anecdotal observations tell me LLCs are much more prevalent in WA than BC. In BC, the timid slowpokes seem even slower, but they mostly keep right.

I also had it proven to me that Global Entry/Nexus is worth it. Crossing the border in Blaine, the plebe line had a ~40 minute wait, with what seemed like a mile long backup. Nexus was no wait, I virtually ambled up to the gate, had a pleasant brief question from the agent, and was on my way.

ab348

This may be a first for a Road Trip post: a historical road trip from 35 years ago.

Back in 1983 and '84 my best buddy from college and his wife were living in Windsor, Ont. for his work. He invited me up to stay for a few days in early fall of 1983 and we went to a couple of Tigers games at old Tiger Stadium. That was an experience for an innocent country mouse like me and I enjoyed it. The next year in late May I planned a vacation around a trip back there for a few days and then some driving around the Midwest to Chicago, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. I wanted to catch ballgames in the first couple of places and wanted to visit Indianapolis Motor Speedway while practice for the 500 was underway. I did and the trip was great, except that my camera broke while at the Speedway, so no pics from there or any of the other places after Detroit.

I scanned these pics a couple of weeks ago and put them in an album on Google Photos. There are some pics of the Henry Ford Museum from '84 along with the Detroit Zoo and Tiger Stadium. There are 2 or 3 from the trip in '83 when we went to see the Lions play the Bengals at the Silverdome, which taught me 2 things: pro football is far better to watch at home on TV than in person, and I could not take action shots of the players with the film I was using back then.

Here's the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4z1Ne6TYsmEjHCkJA

fintail

Fun to see cars at Henry Ford that I saw there back in November. That place was a highlight of a long and sometimes exhausting trip.

xwesx

Very nice! Thanks for sharing the photos. You had some good quality ones; many times it feels like looking at old photos when one looks at old photos, but many of these were of fairly solid quality!

It seems almost unreal seeing the Lions photos in the Silverdome. That place is just a hulk now (maybe even torn down by this time?), and it is hard to imagine it with so much life within.

xwesx

Oh, yes. Here we go:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ywpUnb6DdM


If you notice the packed parking lots around the dome.... those are all Volkwagen TDI buybacks! VAG leased the property for storage (one of many such sites).

berri

Interesting, "Implosion" and VW TDI's

elias

for my 10k miles of driving across USA twice this summer, which car to select?
- 2017 chevy cruze stickshift (50+ mpg diesel, has spare wheel+tire)
- 2015 chevy SS stickshift (22 mpg E10, 25 mpg pure gas, tire cost may exceed fuel cost, no spare wheel but i carry 2 spare tires!).

kyfdx

Steve Elias said:

for my 10k miles of driving across USA twice this summer, which car to select?
- 2017 chevy cruze stickshift (50+ mpg diesel, has spare wheel+tire)
- 2015 chevy SS stickshift (22 mpg E10, 25 mpg pure gas, tire cost may exceed fuel cost, no spare wheel but i carry 2 spare tires!).

Diesel

tjc78

It’s only money .. take the SS and tear up the road 

fintail

Upgraded the dashcam for the new car, as the prior one was approaching 5 years old, and tech has advanced since then. Now I am running one of these

I'll drive a bit tomorrow, and try to remember to submit a clip.

xwesx

Nice! I'm looking to get one of those for the Q7. The 750 I have in the Forester from last year are discontinued, so pricing doesn't seem like I really save anything over the current tech, and the frame rate differences between front (60 FPS) and rear (30 FPS) really drives me nuts. It makes doing a PIP video a true pain.

I need to check the settings on it to see if I can scale back the front cam's frame rate to 30 as well. In a practical sense, I don't think I'll lose *that* much by doing so.

fintail

Quick clip - this stop was performed 100% by the car, with me cringing and holding my foot above the brake. Still gotta get used to that:

https://youtu.be/Znj5vHZItSo

Sound quality is amazing anyway. Big difference with the 4K on the new camera is file sizes - it produces yuuuuge files, to the point where my 4 year old laptop gets a little unhappy playing them. Not sure if I will kick it down a notch just to make it easier, that way I can get more on a card and I doubt I will lose much.

kyfdx

Brave...

ab348

Playing Fintail-era music in the modern car will confuse us.

fintail

I have the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s Sirius XM stations in my presets. 50s was in the rotation at that point - a song I think I might actually have on the playlist I listen to in the fintail when not listening to the AM (mostly) oldies station here.

I am new to the semi-autonomous features, some of them are unnerving or a little annoying (I have already disabled the auto speed limit thing, got tired of it freaking out in school zones on Saturday).

xwesx

Yes, brave indeed! I really don't think I would use the auto features at all, even if available. I just don't want to get used to having the car do things like that for me, then get into a vehicle that doesn't do them and "forget" about the difference.....

fintail

That might be a good thing about the features on this car - you have to actively enable them (essentially like setting cruise control) each time you drive, it doesn't default to them, so there is less room for assumption. I do notice, however, sometimes the steering assist will switch itself off with little warning. That feature is both fun and quirky - works really well sometimes, but gets confused sometimes, especially if a lane splits in a curve, or the lane markers are hard to discern. I think it is made for highway cruising rather than in-town driving, though.

imidazol97

fintail said:

That might be a good thing about the features on this car .

I missed what new car you bought. Would you do a review please?

fintail

Lease was ending on the Bluetec, I decided to move on and hitch myself to a larger payment for the next 3 years. E450 wagon. Unusual car with "luxury" trim (grille, hood star, softer suspension), only one I saw in national inventory with the exact same spec:



Picked it up a week ago yesterday. Most expensive car/payment I've had, which still makes me feel a little odd. I've been meaning to take a gallery of pics, but weather and free time haven't cooperated. Maybe this coming weekend if I get a dry day. It should be a good road trip car, I'll be going on a few hundred mile trip next month.

imidazol97 said:

I missed what new car you bought. Would you do a review please?

imidazol97

Congratulations on the new ride.

berri

That one will stick out... like what's s wrong with that SUV's suspension man

fintail

Thanks. I am sure I bring down both the age and wealth stats for the typical E wagon driver