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Comments
kcram - Pickups/Wagons Host
I'm thankful for the 3+ feet of snow waiting for me on Friday!
Just the 5 of us for dinner. MIL didn't want to drive down from Colville, first set of holidays for us since my Dad passed. It will be a nice, quiet, family day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheers!
Paul
I'm actually going to be crazy and do some doorbuster shopping. Not 4am, but maybe 8 or 9am.
I set the preferences for "fastest time" and "no tolls." The directions until northern NJ was great. It was a different route from what I would have normally taken, but the roads were great with little traffic. The we got into northern NJ...
For god knows what reason it directed me to Staten Island. Hey—that's NY—and there's a toll! ...And it's the wrong direction! ...And on one of the worst travel days in the year!! What's up with that???
Once I got into Staten Island, I missed a turn, as I was so frustrated. I then had to take city streets almost all the way to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
To make a long story short, I hit all 5 boroughs of New York City (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx) before the Garmin got me out of there—and this was at RUSH HOUR(s)!!!! What a mess! I lost probably 3.5 hours, if not more. It resulted in us getting so tired that we eventually pulled over in Connecticut to get a motel room (this is drive we normally do in 1 day).
Hope the trip home is better.
Bob
-Frank
P.S. Bob- I feel for you. I bet you were ready to scream!
I bet the GPS was just reading traffic from all directions, and kept adding detours.
You can go to Tools/Avoidances and turn the Traffic avoidance off for the way home. I think it will still *warn* you about upcoming traffic, but it won't change your course. That's useful because you can plan your rest stops.
My DH was up EARLY chopping and getting some things done - relish trays, cheese and meat snacks, getting the turkey ready to go in the oven ... I did the cornbread dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potato souffle, chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy ... he did the brussel sprouts and collard greens ... (the grocery store made the sweet potato pie with the toasted coconut topping and the pecan pie) ... mother-in-law brought delicious cheeseballs and deviled eggs ...
We had husband's parents, his two boys (19 and 21), my daughter and her two boys (14 and 10), and another daughter, her husband, and their 6 month old (boy) ... great time was had by all ....
Hope you guys all had terrific 'turkey days' with family!
Champagne beheading
Instructions
Oh, yeah.. get a sword, too."
:surprise:
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Coming home the Garmin again got goofy as we approached Hartford, CT. It wanted to send us down towards the NYC area, which we didn't want to do because of all the traffic (we had "no traffic" and "no tolls" again selected in our preferences). So for miles it kept "recalculating" which drove us nuts. After a while we just turned off the route feature.
At some point—and with a map at hand—we let it do its thing again. This time it sent us across the Saw Mill Parkway in NY, and across the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was kinda neat. However, it put us on some back roads around Suffern, NY. It was also getting dark around then, so I was not happy. Eventually we ended up on I-287 south, which we were looking for. Yeah, we found our way, but it was pretty sloppy on the Garmin's end.
After a while on I-287 south we intervened again, as it was sending us towards Perth Amboy—which was the problem we had heading north on the trip up. So opted to take I-78 and disregard what the Garmin was telling us, heading toward PA. Once we did that, things were fine.
Also, at some point in CT, the Garmin just froze up! We had to turn it off and then back on. After that it was fine.
The Bluetooth was not perfect. When I used "Voice Call" feature, it had a hard time understanding the name I called out. I think this is a bigger problem as the car is moving at highway speeds. Because there is a fair amount of road noise, I think that interferes with the GPS understanding commands. It probably works best when the car is not moving, as there is no road noise then. Maybe if you have an ultra-quiet car, like a Lexus, it may not be as much of a problem?
The handy "Lane Assist" feature is not available everywhere. In fact it only worked in MD.
Even with these problems, I'm much happier we had the Garmin, than if we didn't have it. The GPS was great in locating a motel in CT, in which my son was staying for the night. That was a piece of cake for the GPS. It also helped locate the Manchester, NH airport, in which we had to drop our daughter off at; as well as get us out of there, and heading home.
All in all, it was a very long drive for one day—12 hours. Heading to NH and back to MD we put on about 1300 miles.
Bob
everywhere we stay along the way we have either wireless or wired internet connection so we can check things out and even make reservations ahead if we need to .. or we can always stop in a coffee shop or deli where wireless is available ...
one of these days, I'm sure we'll succumb and buy one more gadget ... geeks that we are!
and along those lines ... DH bought me a netbook back in April for my bday present. I have loved it .. an HP Mini, but it only has the 16 GB flash memory as a "hard drive". I just need more if I'm going to use it for work-related chores, and with the houseful we have, I find myself doing more and more upstairs and away from the desktop computer and needing the capability of having at least some of the MS Office programs ... soooooo ... after only 7-8 months, DH has already ordered my xmas present ... a Dell Mini with the 160 GB hard drive .. found it on a "deal" site the other day for $229, new from Dell. (No, I'm not a 'geek', why do you ask?)
It's that kind of thing in which the GPS really shines.
Bob
Nicholas
And probably safer than deep frying a turducken.
IMHO, just pay the tolls and save yourself plenty of headaches.
Tolls weren't the issue. The horrific Thanksgiving traffic on the NJ turnpike, Delaware Memorial Bridge and around NYC was what we wanted to avoid. By selecting "no tolls" I was hoping it would avoid those areas—and it did for a while.
I think (?) I may have found a solution for future trips... If I add a "way point" somewhere in PA, near Harrisburg or Wilkes-Barre, that would trick/force the Garmin into that area, which would then likely put me on the route I was hoping for.
Bob
Going way around was what my in-laws used to do to avoid DC to Boston. They would grab 64 in Richmond to 81 through Harrisburg and to Scranton. From there, 84 to 87 to 90/Mass Pike.
It's the retired people/I've got all day/everyday is Saturday route.
But the couple of days around T-day in the northeast is a hell ride no matter what IMHO. The Mass Pike westbound had a 40 mile backup on Wednesday afternoon.
Yeah, a bit longer, but sooooo much nicer on busy holidays.
Oh, that 40-mile backup on I-90 on Wednesday? I saw it, but fortunately it was in the other direction. There was an accident in which an ambulance was involved! When we passed it, the backup was maybe 10 miles, but growing.
Bob
BWI to MHT is $90 each way on Southwest!!
Beside, the only thing worse than driving on a holiday is flying. My daughter was to fly out of Salisbury, MD; to Philly, where she would have transferred planes to fly to Manchester. Guess what? The flight from Salisbury was cancelled at the last minute. Her fiancee had to drive her 3 hours to the Philly airport in the rain on Wednesday! Not fun...
Bob
Even better, though, you can plan your route using Map Source software on the computer, and download the route to the device, instead of just the destination. That gives you total control.
I haven't done that yet because mine are cheaper models that don't have that capability. I think yours does. The 700 series models do.
What I suggest is turning off the Traffic avoidance. It will still warn you about the traffic on your path, but then YOU decide whether or not to detour. So you maintain control.
That's how I'm using my Nuvi 265wt.
I created them not as "Favorites," but rather as "Routes," and saved them thusly. Now bring on next Thanksgiving! I'm ready!!
Bob
My record worst was 10 hours from MD to Norwalk, CT. :sick:
I guess what I mean is the NJ Turnpike may have been even worse than what you drove through.
The new "routes" that I just set up said 550 miles, each way. The original route, without way points, and up the NJ turnpike, etc., was 515 miles. So the route with the way points is a bit longer in terms of miles, but so much nicer to drive.
I've been driving the NJ turnpike on Thanksgiving holiday for almost 40 years, as my father/mother-in-law lived in Great Neck, LI. It was a nightmare every time, and getting worse. No more...
Bob
The WRX averaged 27.3 mpg, according to the on-board mpg read-out, with about 95% being highway driving, and with average speeds being a little over the speed limit. I suspect the "actual" mileage was probably a bit closer to 26 mpg, as I've found the on-board read-out to be somewhat optimistic. Still, not too bad for a performance car.
Bob
It was very warm last Friday as well (27F), which gave me the chance (and I seized it!) to butcher rabbits. I only had seven to process, but it had been a couple years since the last time I did it, so I was a little rusty and it took me about an hour.
Moving from Texas to northern Indiana was an eye-opener in terms of climate, weather, and SNOW. Reading some of your posts helps me appreciate our "moderate" climate here ...
27F was warm enough to be outside for an hour and a half (an hour of which was spent actually butchering) without gloves on.... which would not be possible (for me) at, say zero or -10, which is the temperatures we were having for the month prior to that brief warm spell.
People don't think that 35F is warm, but when temps are normally around -10F, it really is warm. Let's say temps in your neck of the woods are normally around 40F this time of year. If, suddenly, you were to get an 85F day, would it seem warm? :shades:
Cheers Pat.
Hope you are better at not getting high-centred.
(Yes I know it's been posted before, but it's my home town so I'm allowed.)
I didn't think Americans ever ate rabbit. Coming from the UK, I have had it a few times. There's a longstanding family joke about the 2 legged rabbit that resulted from an overzealous skinning. Long story, but it involves my Nana's second husband getting it from one of his mates at the pub and prepping it. Suffice to say the legs were later found still in the skin. You do know what else they do in Pub's right?
(Just not quite this early in the season ....)
Car continues to be a blast...when i'm allowed to drive it, that is. Ride is rough, probably like an STi. Cornering is amazing. I hope to get a little auto-x in next year, we'll see. I'd love to really wring this thing out.
Along that same vein, rabbit meat is rather difficult to find if you are looking to buy it from a store. My family raised them for a while when I was a child. When the opportunity came up to give it a go about six years ago, I was all for it. The rabbits we had at first were not bred as meat animals, though, so the cost-per-pound on them was too high to maintain (about $6). We stopped raising them for a short while, built a small barn to house them and chickens, then started our operation up again using Californians.
I just ate some rabbit breakfast sausage this morning.... yum! Rabbit is very lean, white meat and has an excellent, mild flavor. Our cost on this meat was about $4 a pound, and we should be able to get it down lower (I'm shooting for $2-$3) once we get into full swing. Here is a photo of our "operation" as it was in September - we still need to install four more hutches like the one pictured, but are having a tough time finding the wire....
The second champagne attempt resulted in a much cleaner break.
M&R Asti... reminds me of my early '20s..
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-Frank
Did you make sure to have the seam facing up? And get it nice and cold?
And yeah, it was cold and I followed the seam down. I was quite pleased with how the Asti attempt turned out.
My '02 OBW (Sept '01 purchase) rolled 75k the other morning. It is a balmy 15' F tonight, so unfortunately she will stink of leaking gas tomorrow morning. You can calibrate a thermometer by it. Since having the HG done (yes, again... but SOA stepped up to the plate once again and covered it), I've had problems with all those little fuel rail hoses and clamps. You just cannot keep pulling them apart and expect to achieve a seal. I guess I'll have to make a day of it eventually and replace the entire dozen of them.
Anyhow, enough griping. I still smile when I drive this car.... especially in bad weather.
OK, enough for now. Maybe I'll pop back in fewer than 6 months... Ha!
Steve