Today I got up and said good-bye to Tracy. I loaded up the car and started the drive home. I had originally planned to visit friends and family further South on the East coast but I wanted to make it back to Dayton by Friday evening for the first day (out of two) of my 10 year high school reunion.
So what's my big concern today? Oh, that's right. Not having a back window for a 9 and a half hour drive back to Ohio. The weather forecast showed the Northern 80% of Pennsylvania was going to get rain. Great. I figured that if it started to rain I had three real options.
1. Drive faster and hope the rain would just shoot off the car.
2. Find a gas station with an awning and wait it out.
3. Use the GPS to find a Lowes or Home Depot and buy some plexiglass to cover the hole.
At a gas station in Jersey a guy came up and complimented the car. He noticed the back window and I explained what happened. I told him I was just going to wing the next 9 hours in the car. His first comment was how fast do you think you need to drive to have the rain stream off the car. That's a vote for option 1 above!
To save anymore suspense... I lucked out. At one point I almost had to put on my windshield wipers. And then that was it. For once I didn't want it to look overcast when I was driving. I wanted it to get sunny. I got what I wanted for the last half of the drive. With the sun, though, came the heat. I had the air on full blast but it was still warm due to the huge hole at the back of my car.
So I am back in Dayton. The traveling part of this epic time off has come to an end. I will attend my class reunion and make some notes on the number of states visited, a list of family and friends I have seen, total miles, etc. soon.
Mileage: Starting 81,508 & Ending 82,092= 584
States Visited: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Getting Jerzed Once Again: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Today started as every other day has started here in Jersey. Many of the doors don't latch tight in the house. Including the one in my bedroom. Opal has figured this out. Every morning when my alarm goes off I grab my phone, hit snooze, and turn it from loud to vibrate. As I drift back to sleep, Opal pushes the door wide open and the zoo enters the room.
Today is one of Tracy's days off. She gets Wednesday and Saturday. She therefore considers her Wednesday to be her Saturday. I made my way downstairs and realized Tracy had just gotten up also. We let the dogs out and sat on the back patio for some time talking and enjoying the nice weather. Considering the heat wave, it was downright pleasant outside.
We finally decided it was time to get some food. Apparently Jersey is known for their diners. This was news to me. We stopped at one a few blocks away that looked like an old-school diner: the outside consisted of shiny metal. The food was great. When we left the diner I asked Tracy if I could drive her Subaru WRX. It's a fun car.
We then went shopping at Trader Joe's, DSW, and PetSmart. It was fun just dinking around. Tracy was all excited to have a shopping buddy. When we got back to their house she started to marinate some chicken for dinner. Tommy arrived home shortly thereafter. This was the first time he had seen her since 11 AM on Sunday. It was after 6 PM on Wednesday. Craziness!!
Before we started to cook dinner I told Tracy she needed to drive the Cobra. The two of us set out and I drove first. Earlier in the day the mini-mirror conversation came up and I told her I would get her a set. We drove for maybe 10 minutes looking for an auto parts store and, after no luck, I pulled into a parking lot to turn around. I was going to let her drive and, since the top had been up so far, I thought it would enhance the experience to put it down. (The main reason I wanted her to drive the car is because Tommy started looking up convertible Cobra Mustangs after I let him drive it Sunday. If she likes it that will certainly help his odds.) It didn't even cross my mind to check to make sure there was nothing hanging over the back seat.
The curse of Jersey strikes again. I have had 3 convertible Mustangs and have never had a problem with the top before. I have never carried a pull-up bar in my car, either. As the top was going down I didn't hear anything unusual. No creaks or anything. Then there was an explosion. It sounded like a shot gun going off.
I immediately knew what it was. For a second I hoped the cause of the accident was my camcorder. It wasn't. I had left the pull-up bar (which I brought to use on the trip... and only used once) slightly over the back seat and as the top came down, the window caught the bar and the window smashed out. The carnage is below. Tracy couldn't believe how calm I was. At that point, why get upset? I immediately called a Ford dealer but the service people had left for the day. We drove back (top down) and Tracy loved it. I hope to see Tommy in a convertible Mustang soon.... :)
By the time we got back, Tommy had dinner ready. He couldn't believe it. Neither could I. We looked up prices and we found a cheap window for around $200 (part only). After dinner we had to clear out his garage to make room for the Cobra overnight. We scooped up the glass wearing leather garden gloves and then used a shop-vac for the rest. Tommy cut his elbow. When we were done we watched some TV and it was time for bed. I said my goodnights to Tommy at this point. I figured I would see Tracy in the morning.
Mileage: Minimal but Expensive!
Stayed at Tommy & Tracy's
Picture of the window:
Picture of Tracy and the window. I sent this to Tommy as we drove back:
Today is one of Tracy's days off. She gets Wednesday and Saturday. She therefore considers her Wednesday to be her Saturday. I made my way downstairs and realized Tracy had just gotten up also. We let the dogs out and sat on the back patio for some time talking and enjoying the nice weather. Considering the heat wave, it was downright pleasant outside.
We finally decided it was time to get some food. Apparently Jersey is known for their diners. This was news to me. We stopped at one a few blocks away that looked like an old-school diner: the outside consisted of shiny metal. The food was great. When we left the diner I asked Tracy if I could drive her Subaru WRX. It's a fun car.
We then went shopping at Trader Joe's, DSW, and PetSmart. It was fun just dinking around. Tracy was all excited to have a shopping buddy. When we got back to their house she started to marinate some chicken for dinner. Tommy arrived home shortly thereafter. This was the first time he had seen her since 11 AM on Sunday. It was after 6 PM on Wednesday. Craziness!!
Before we started to cook dinner I told Tracy she needed to drive the Cobra. The two of us set out and I drove first. Earlier in the day the mini-mirror conversation came up and I told her I would get her a set. We drove for maybe 10 minutes looking for an auto parts store and, after no luck, I pulled into a parking lot to turn around. I was going to let her drive and, since the top had been up so far, I thought it would enhance the experience to put it down. (The main reason I wanted her to drive the car is because Tommy started looking up convertible Cobra Mustangs after I let him drive it Sunday. If she likes it that will certainly help his odds.) It didn't even cross my mind to check to make sure there was nothing hanging over the back seat.
The curse of Jersey strikes again. I have had 3 convertible Mustangs and have never had a problem with the top before. I have never carried a pull-up bar in my car, either. As the top was going down I didn't hear anything unusual. No creaks or anything. Then there was an explosion. It sounded like a shot gun going off.
I immediately knew what it was. For a second I hoped the cause of the accident was my camcorder. It wasn't. I had left the pull-up bar (which I brought to use on the trip... and only used once) slightly over the back seat and as the top came down, the window caught the bar and the window smashed out. The carnage is below. Tracy couldn't believe how calm I was. At that point, why get upset? I immediately called a Ford dealer but the service people had left for the day. We drove back (top down) and Tracy loved it. I hope to see Tommy in a convertible Mustang soon.... :)
By the time we got back, Tommy had dinner ready. He couldn't believe it. Neither could I. We looked up prices and we found a cheap window for around $200 (part only). After dinner we had to clear out his garage to make room for the Cobra overnight. We scooped up the glass wearing leather garden gloves and then used a shop-vac for the rest. Tommy cut his elbow. When we were done we watched some TV and it was time for bed. I said my goodnights to Tommy at this point. I figured I would see Tracy in the morning.
Mileage: Minimal but Expensive!
Stayed at Tommy & Tracy's
Picture of the window:
Picture of Tracy and the window. I sent this to Tommy as we drove back:
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