Oh, deer!

Whenever I get a new car I take it on the Parley’s-East-Emigration Canyons Tour.   It’s about a 25 mile (40 km) drive on roads ranging from I-80, a 6 lane divided highway with a 65 MPH (105 KPH) speed limit to a winding canyon road past homes tucked away in the trees, requiring one to slow down to 30 MPH (48 KPH).  It’s a great way to learn the capabilities of a car.

And yesterday I learned the stopping capability of Lil’Blue.  I was in Emigration canyon, the aforementioned winding canyon, travelling about 45 MPH (73 KPH) in an area between the pockets of houses in the canyon.  It was dusk and out of nowhere, completely mesmerized by my headlights, appeared a deer.  In the middle of the road.  Mind you, this is not really rare here in Utah.  The mountains are full of deer and it’s common to see them in the subdivisions at the foot of the mountains, especially in the winter when the deer come down to forage for food.

I’ve just never had the pleasure of seeing them right in front of my car when I traveling that fast.  But, thanks to laser speed reflexes, good brakes and dry pavement, the front end of my car did not meet the side flank of that deer.

In the words of Holly, the deranged computer on Red Dwarf, “Even with an IQ of 6000, it’s brown trouser time.”

Conversations with myselves

or MPS* meets Nikon with a remote shutter. Click HERE for the rest of my 2am insomnia pictures.....

(*Multiple Personality Syndrome aka Split Personality)

This beats that little remote control car.....

I watched them move one of the I-80 bridges across 13th east tonight. I was out in the convertible around 10 pm and saw that 13th was diverted into the Shopko parking lot, so decided to see what was going on. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera along, because they were moving one of those huge bridge peices. The weird thing is that they were moving it from the west, towards where I thought they go, over to the east side of 13th, where they are building them. Who knows what the reason was, but it was almost like they had grabbed the wrong bridge and had to bring it back to swap it. I could be wrong. Anyway, it is an awesome sight. I'd been watching it from the time is came around behind the Red Lobster, it was cruising it's way north bound when I noticed something really, well, funny, and really wished I had my camera. Now, picture a bridge. The width of 3 freeway lanes and a long as it needs to be to get across a 2 lane city street. Huge, heavy, a shitload of concrete, rebar and I beams. Underneath it are what look like huge legos with wheels. They're at least 10 feet tall, 6 or so feet wide, long enough to span the length of the bridge and there are 3 rows of them. (my stats may not be completely accurate, I wasn't allowed out there to measure, they had us standing a good distance away, and it was an hour and a half ago.) Anyway, massive. And I look at the front of the bridge, down by the wheels, about 10 feet in front. There's a guy with a little remote control box, wired to the wheels, and as I watch I realize he's driving the damn thing. Just like one of those cheapo remote control cars we had as kids, except it's the size of a house.

At least I figured out how they get the bridges across 13th east - up the westbound off ramp and then down the westbound on ramp. I wonder how you'd report a collision between a bridge and the Red Lobster to your insurance company?

'Splodin tires and replacements.

This afternoon I headed over to Danny's house to see what I could do with the LTD. He had all the tools I needed set out in the garage, including the compressor. Took me about an hour to get the two stuck bolts off, put on the spare and even reinflate it. Bring it down to Discount Tire and get 3 new tires put on (I replaced the front ones a couple months ago, but I did get a new spare) the car. Took about an hour and $300, but the car rides much better now. And I can trust it on the freeway again, 'though I didn't drive it home on the freeway because it was 5:00. Never would have made it up to speed anyway. Well, if you want to see the pictures of the exploded tire and the pictures I took while waiting for the tires, click HERE.

Blowout on I-80.

The other day I call Adele (also known as Pam, the Spanish teacher I met my first year teaching) to tell her that the LTD is not only legal and insured, but that I had just had a bunch of work done on the front end and I had deemed it road-trip worthy. So we decide to take it for a drive up to Ogden and get dinner at a little place across from where she works. Today we stop at the Tesoro on 33rd and 23rd, grab a couple of drinks for the road (just soda) and head out. Everything's going great, it's not too hot anymore (this is around 7 pm), the car is running great and Adele is having fun with the camera. We head up 23rd, enter the freeway heading west and cruise past 7th east. I'm in the middle lane as we get to the State Street exit, so we can veer left and merge into I-15 north. Ever wonder why it's referred to as a "tire blowout"? 'Cause when it blows out, it's an explosion. I thought the whole back end of the car had been blown off. Happened right as we got onto the bridge over State. After I said it, I did it, and then took my foot off the gas, (without slamming on the brakes) and started moving over to the right side. Completely, utterly on cruise control, running on instinct because I don't remember thinking anything until we got stopped in the break-down lane. But we made it safely. I got out on the passenger side, found out that the tire that blew was also on that side, meaning I'd at least have the car between me and traffic when changing the tire. Except that when I got the spare out, although in excellent condition, it was flat. So I called Rae, who came to our rescue and brought us, and the tire, to the Chevron to fill up the spare. Stroke of good luck : the tire held the air, it's flatness was due to sitting for so long, not a leak. We get back to the car and I start to take off the lug nuts, which are on there pretty tight. Real, real tight. I have to stand on the lug wrench to loosen the lug nuts, and 2 of them still refused to loosen, just started rounding the nuts. This is where I decide "F" this, I'm not fighting these lug nuts on the side of the freeway, with the sun already setting, cars whizzing past us at 70+ and honking their horns like we've chosen to be there. (Yes, like I was happy to be there). Called a tow truck and had it towed up to Dan & Rae's house (anyone that knows my driveway knows why I had it towed there). So, now it's sitting down at their house, I have to figure out a way to get the tire off (shouldn't be too bad there), then take it somewhere to get new tires put on the back (don't trust the other one now) and figure out what I'm going to do about the damage to the car - click HERE to see the pictures. And thanks to Dan, Rae and Adele, who all made what could have been a disastrous experience not so bad. It's great having a family and friends that I know I can count on, love ya all.