Tomorrow we say goodbye to the city of roses and hit the road -- at first a week of short segments of driving through southern Oregon and California. TTT plans to meet her academic advisor in Fresno on the 3rd. We then visit a friend of hers in Pasadena on the 5th, I pop in on friend Josh in LA. Then back to Virginia, where we may visit some regular readers of this blog. It could be you. Keep your light on. We get around.
Anyway, cleaning up and consolidating tonight. I added sorbate and sulfite and racked (siphoned) the plum wine into 2 liter soda bottles -- very drinkable, actually. Yesterday I also made a pot of Portuguese fisherman's stew, a thick tomato based cod and salmon dish my mom makes. I added the works -- mussels, since they were on sale, linguica sausage, chick peas. With a bunch of colds in the house, it was quite the thing. I didn't offer the wine but the soup seemed popular with everyone but the kids. But, and I am not exaggerating much here, they eat only sugary cereal, milk, and waffles with artificial maple syrup. Which is a shame, because Kairi is a great cook, and my limited repertoire is rock solid too.
I have left and entered Portland too many times this summer on I-5 and I-205. Although I tend to criticize life on this side of the Coumbia River, in Washington state, it also feels like home, and we will miss our surrogate family here.
More thoughts as the trip unfolds.
Automotive notes: The trusty Subaru is nearing 120,000 miles. For what it's worth, that number was always been the benchmark quoted to me, i.e. An American car is built for 80,000 mi before it needs major work, Japanese cars are built for 120,000 miles. I had a Toyota once with 190,000 miles on it, but the only thing original on that one was the chassis. Hopefully the legacy of gentle driving on this Legacy is enough to allow it to get through another 4,000 miles, though I am prepared for anything. The German Ford back home has seemingly imploded just by not being driven for a few weeks, then being driven by friends and family -- we have sunk $300 into it these two months to fix various problems sight unseen.
Meanwhile, today in Belmont, I thought I would get the fuel filter on the Subaru replaced, just to get maximum gas mileage and show the car that I care. There is a Jiffy Lube where I had had an oil change and where the staff seemed professionaland efficient. Not today. A lengthy wait in a cramped lounge with bad coffee ensued, during which there was an incident -- the not so on-the-ball staff broke the fuel filter mounts on a car a woman also about to hit the road for a long trip had brought in for routine part replacements. One of my personal paranoias -- not specifically this but scenarios where doofus forgets to replace the oil plug and my engine fuses. Fuel filter and broken was all the words I needed to hear. As I quickly departed, they were on the phone with the dealership asking what part they needed to order.
2 comments:
Hopefully, your trip will be safe and pleasant as on the way out. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday afternoon of the 3rd - my friend leaving for S.A. that a.m. and giving me time to change sheets! I've also bought a blow up bed for kids which Morgan might like ; ) ----Diego and friends. TTT said you wanted to be in NY on the 10th?
Hope you and TTT will have some time to write along the way!
JiffyLube, the only place that can pump two to three extra quarts of oil into a transmission and so I never visited them again. But then again the Ford dealer here put ten glow plugs into an eight cylinder diesel engine, or so tried to charge me. :-) It was reason to either change oil myself and leave fuel filter changes and such to a good repair shop. Besides the fuel filter is not an easy change in my truck, and maybe not in the legacy either. Anyway after a visit to JiffyLube I had difficulty shifting. I thought they had somehow opened the drain plug on the transmission and drained the oil. I was expecting a major repair bill. When I got to the jobsite, I opened the fill plug to check for oil and I opened an oil well. Later at home at Haymarket I checked again, got a bit more oil to flow out, but the transmission shifted well again and did so for the next 200 thousand miles. That was then end of my relationship with J lube.
I think Japanese cars do better than 120K. My first Toyota traveled over 250K with only brakes and tires needing attention. BR took care of an oil leak and while the motor was open he also recommended to change the water pump and timing belt at that time, only because of the 180 K. I already had the expense of the oil leak and that way he saved labor to open everything again. The maroon Tundra I traded at 140K with no problems. It had been fully depreciated and I got the itch for a new one. I would think the Subaru should be fine if it rests without use for your use on the next visit.
As for Fords, they have not been quite the same as Japanese vehicles. I don't know about the European versions, but here you used to joke to Ford fans about their "fix or repair daily" rides. I wish I had gotten an Izusu stake truck instead of the Ford.
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