The Journey East
 

Good bye, car. You have served me well:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438427

(see this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/cars-sale...ree-ish-74807/ )




Now, a public service announcement:

Silicon Valley sucks.

Seriously, the place just doesn't do it for me. It's hot, it's flat, the roads suck, everything seems old and run-down... Screw that. And, since this was my first exposure to northern Cali, I formed a pretty strongly prejudiced opinion of the area. There are a COUPLE of cool spots (eg: the Good Karma Vegan Cafe in San Jose), but for the most part, it's a shithole.

Well, it turns out that not ALL of NorCal sucks. Just the valley. (And probably the rest of the SF Bay Area.)

In fact, most of it fucking rocks. NOW I understand what Ken & Roberta Williams saw in this place:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438427

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438427

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438427

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438427



Hello, Reno.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438617


Saw a bunch of these:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438617

I'm trying to visualize how one of these would behave in reverse. I just can't see it.



Also, the Deeth Starr:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378438617



Touchdown for the night is in Tooele, UT, a charming little town just outside of Salt Lake City.

Irony:

1: NASA nationals are apparently this week, and the hotel is filled with both racers and officials.

2: The hotel is owned by John Potter, owner of Magus Racing. His car is parked inside the hotel lobby:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378444322

3: Points 1 and 2 are, to the best of my knowledge, unrelated and a complete coincidence.




Miles Traveled: 754
Fuel consumed: 52.2 gal
MPG: 14.4 (Wow!)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378445958

Can you please tell us the back story to all this or is that another thread I missed? Seriously I'm so curious what you're doing recently. Makin serious moves

Also feel lost. Plus high five for Death Star references across threads. Also 14.4mpg?!? I get almost that in my '02 4.6L stroker, lifted Jeep. Is the throttle an only on switch?

Let me make this very clear:

FUCK

SILICON

VALLEY

This town fucking sucks, and so do the people in it. I grew up reading stories about how awesome life was in the valley / Berkeley / Livermore / etc., but the reality is that San Diego is much more awesome (and much cheaper.) Everyone up here is a hipster retard. (Except for that one hipster chick who.... nevermind. She wasn't a retard.)




I nearly ran off the road when I saw it.


I'm driving a heavily loaded Penske moving truck, built on a GMC 3500 (gasoline) chassis. 14.4 MPG is fucking AMAZING economy. (See my 2010 thread entitled "The Journey West" for comparison. Admittedly, I'm not towing a car this time.)

Ah. Well that's another story. Mirror shot looked like just a Chevy truck. Not a moving truck. 14.4 is awesome. If it isn't prying why the move? Other than the valley sucks. I'm always down for ditching a shitty situation, place, people, etc. Curious what greatness is underway.

Oh, so you simply hate the area and decided to ditch it. Gotcha. I was thinking you had some baller new job or something and "starting over". You gave away most your possessions after all lol

I wonder how quick Joe would get sick of Detroit.

I'm guessing less time than it takes to drive through it.

If you find yourself near Rochester (hint: it's several exits on the NYS Thruway) in your travels, I would be honored to buy you dinner/drinks.

I'd also offer a place to crash, but you'd have to be fairly desperate to want to do that.

FTFY.

I'm confused. Joe, what do you need in a city to make it awesome? More beige strip malls?

It wouldn't take much to get sick of Detroit - I lived there in "da hood" for far too many years. Left last year for ATL and haven't looked back.

Good luck on your quest Joe.

Based on previous posts, I assume you're heading for the glorious NY tri-state area. By comparison to SD, we have about 3 1/2 hours of good weather a year. The good news is you should arrive just in time for this year's last 45 minutes or so.

It really is a good place to live, so long as you can get past the hideous cost of living and frequent-mortal-danger part. I keep trying to slink away to rural Maine, but the city keeps puling me back.

If you land in Manhattan, I'll buy you a beer sometime when I'm in town.

Hahaha! Talk about setting the bar low... You can erase all doubt about how terrible Detroit is when Atlanta looks like a metropolitan paradise by comparison.


Señor Pérez - Good luck and godsspeed on your journey East. "El que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho."

Trust me, when your cars handling capabilities are tested by its abiliity to dodge potholes and/or drunk or drug-impaired drivers. When you have to plan your tire choices in the spring like a F1 team manager (hmmm, will it be dry-weather "slicks" (worn RS3's), "intermediates" (DD comp2's), or the "winters" (Blizzak's, if a freak ice-storm is predicted) today?). And freeway entrance/exit ramps are the curviest roads within 50 miles. Atlanta IS an urban paradise!! ;)

Comin' back to Cincy, are ya?

Yes. A Chevy truck that happens to be painted bright yellow and is fitted with a large box visible in the mirror, which has the phrase "9' HIGH" clearly printed on it.




That is correct.




I'm sick of it already.




Rochester is a little out of my way, and I've got a schedule to adhere to. But thanks.




A complete absence of beige strip malls, ideally.

Also, a complete absence of Payday-loan shops, rent-to-own stores, places that specialize in installing loud car stereos, stores with the name "discount" in them, and Hyper.




That's an interesting assumption. s or so.

I just signed a lease on a 1 bedroom apartment for $2,800 a month.

As for mortal danger, I guess...




Nope.




Hahaha.

Greetings from the bristling metropolis of Lexington, Nebraska. A couple of observations:

1: This entire place smells like cow shit.
2: It has forced me to reevaluate my interpretation of the phrase "hick town."
3: What the fuck is up with this ceaseless wind?


Some good driving roads getting here, though:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517917

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517917

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517917

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517917


And I gotta tell ya, without the trailer and car hitched to the back, these gas-engined Penske trucks are actually pretty damn nice to drive! Not having all that dead mass on the bumper makes a huge difference not only in acceleration and hill-climbing, but in cornering stability and braking as well. Since I have the load extremely well-secured in the back, I've really been testing the limits of handling in this truck, and I am impressed. In the twistier sections, I was pulling away from passenger cars at a pretty fair clip.

It's kind of funny, actually. I almost never actually drive vehicles all the way at 10/10, but I feel like I'm actually doing that with this truck.



Now, this is interesting. I saw a BUNCH of these signs, about one every 20-40 miles. Apparently, I-80 gets shut down with sufficient regularity to merit permanently installed signs, as well as railroad-crossing-style barriers.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517949


Also, this guy:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517949


Oh, I almost forgot- there was this automated pancake-manufacturing machine:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517949

You just press the button, and a minute later a freshly-made pancake falls out the side. When I saw it, I thought "Hmm- I'll bet that machine consistently makes perfect pancakes." Turns out that it doesn't. The pancakes which it makes are consistently spongy, with one side consistently cooked properly, and the other side consistently sort of not quite burned, but definitely hard and cardboard-like.


I've had worse pancakes, and I've had better pancakes. If I were a statistician, I would declare it to be a .5PP (50th Percentile Pancake.)



Today's route:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378517949

Miles traveled: 745
Fuel consumed: 52.8 gal
MPG: 14.11 (Consistency is very sexy to an engineer.)

When I moved to California, I took I-80 pretty much the whole way. I got stranded just outside of Cheyenne thanks to a freak snow storm when they shut down the interstate using the barriers you describe. Not fun.

When I moved back east I took I-70 most of the way and much prefered that route (except for Kansas). A bonus of I-70 is that you can stop by FMs shop for a place to stretch your legs and lay your tent out in their parking lot to dry it from last nights soaking rain.

If you're coming through central PA let me know.

Interesting.

When I moved out to CA the most recent time, I took I-70. I got stuck in a freak blizzard around Vail Pass, and I thought I was going to die. I did, in fact, stop by FM to stretch my legs and test their (then-new) Westfield.





Sadly, no. I'll be on 80 all the way through, and I do have a bit of a slight schedule to keep to.








Oh, and I just thought of a riddle:

What do Jerry Seinfeld, Maury Povich, Charlie Sheen, Kaley Cuoco, Craig Allen and Joe Perez all have in common?

The answer will tell you exactly where I am headed (within about a 5 mile radius.)

Wait... so where are you going? Or did I miss where you said that? I'd love to do a drive through, or an extended trip through the mid-west, mostly up north into Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. Drive safe.

The riddle you must solve.

New York.
The opposite of California.

Is it?

Or was Seinfeld filmed in Los Angeles, with only a few second-unit shots (eg: the diner exterior) actually coming from NYC?

Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, DC, Baltimore?

Jerry, Kaley, and Craig all have currently running shows set in NYC. [Edit: No they don't; Big Bang Theory is set in CA.] I am not sure where Maury or Anger Management is filmed.

Also, based on previous posts and your rent figure, I have to think Manhattan.

Ok, safe travels then!

DAY 3:

Touchdown in Peru, Illinois.

And now, a word about corn.


Here is corn:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601184


Here is some more corn.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601184


And yet more corn:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601184


And more corn still:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601184






And now, I would like to speak seriously for a moment about GPS navigators.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601184

My old GPS unit, purchased around 2004 or so, was not especially advanced. In fact, it was amazingly simplistic and limited. Its internal memory was only sufficient to hold the detail maps for a few states, and thus a cross-country drive required that I hook it up to my laptop every night and load new map data into it off of an actual CD-ROM for the next day's planned journey.

It did, however, have one redeeming feature.

To wit: when travelling upon the highway, it was intelligent enough to know that if I asked it to tell me the location of nearby gas stations or restaurants, I did not care one whit about places which I had passed 17 miles ago or which were significantly off the highwway, I was interested ONLY in locations which were AHEAD of me, and specifically, those which were located alongside my projected travel route.

This brand new Garmin Nuvi, while superior in nearly way to my ancient Magellen, lacks this one specific feature which, until now, I never even REALIZED was a feature- it was just the natural way that things worked... until I was deprived of it.

And it really pisses me off sometimes.






A word about rest areas:

In the state of Iowa, there are two types of rest areas. There are rest areas, and then there are modern rest areas:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601204

Now, "Modern" is a highly subjective word. To some, it evokes an architectural movement characterized by bold and experimental designs, ranging from Brutalism to Googie to highly abstract neo-Modernist designs which resemble the Nissan Cube.

To others, "Modern" suggests a state of advanced technological evolution, which might span the spectrum from practical 21st century knick-knacks to the optimistic mid-20th century visions of flying cars and robot butlers.

In the state of Iowa, the word "Modern" is simply short for "has indoor plumbing."






And now, back to the corn:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601204

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601204

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601204

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378601204




https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378602191

Miles traveled: 626
Fuel consumed: 44.81
MPG: 13.97 (I was pushing it pretty hard today, and I spent quite a while moving at 2 MPH through a traffic jam.)

Your route is nearing dangerously close to Detroit.

IIRC that highway that runs just south of the Michigan border is a toll road/highway. Just thought i'd pass along that info if you don't know. Sorry if you already knew this.

that corn is your tax dollars at work. and even when there is no corn, you still pay for it.

fucking corn.

Detroit? He is dangerously close to the murder capital of the USA: Chiraq (aka South Chicago).

That "feature" would be amazing Joe. Seems like any navigation system on a phone does it as well. During our honeymoon, my wife and I traveled from Portland, OR to Tahoe, to Sonoma, to San Fran, and back to Portland. We continually asked for gas and food (in and out of course). It hardly ever pointed out one in front of us.

Granted, 17 miles or 10 miles or even 5 miles really isn't much on a cross country trek. But when you're driving that much and know just how far you still have to go, any back tracking at all seems like an eternity.

You're not moving jobs to Garmin by any chance, are you?

Nope. Per populous Chicago doesn't even rank.

Top two are in Michigan, with Detroit being #2.
America's 10 Deadliest Cities 2012

Number per populous = higher chances.

I spit up my coffee when I read "corn, corn, dead people".

Excellent point. Also, those cities do not all share something in common. :hsugh:

And also dangerously right through the southern Chicago suburbs. Shitty area.



Yup.

We really do have a shitload of corn in this country.



That's just the thing- I never even realized this was a "feature", since it's just how my old unit worked. Same with the Hertz "Neverlost" GPS units, which I believe were also made by Magellan. You just hit the button that said "Tell me what services are available at all freeway exits which I am approaching," and it did. But it's not like this was a special thing- there was no button for "Tell me about services which are nowhere near the projected path which I am following, or which I passed 15 miles ago."

It'd be like if you booked a hotel room online, and when you got there and checked into your room, you found that there was no bed. You'd go back to the front desk and say "What the fuck? There's no bed in my room!" And then they'd say "When you made your reservation, you did not select the 'bed in room' feature on the form." And he'd have you. Because you'd always just assumed that all hotel rooms come with beds, and you never even thought to check the registration form to see if the specific hotel room you were booking differed from your mental image of the way the world works.


Nope.




Feel free to assign props. Braineack is catching up with me in the competition for "most heavily propped user on this whole forum."

Apparently Garmin added the "feature" you desire to its 2013 models.

Garmin Launches GPS With Magnetic Mount, Amps Up In-Car Tech | News & Opinion | PCMag.com


EDIT: I can't confirm this as Garmin doesn't explicitly say which models have this feature, but my suspicion is that it's limited to the "Advanced" series of GPS units. If you purchased one from the "Essential" series, you may not have it.

Greetings from Clarion, Pennsylvania.


What a tedious, boring drive.

Here is a hotel in Chicago. You can rent a room by the hour or by the week. It has air conditioning and TV:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378688046



Here is a guy who has a much cooler race-car trailer than any of us:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378688046



Here are some live fish:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378688046



On the plus side, the hotel is on Dolby Street. On the minus side, it's kind of a craphole. The entire place smells like a Vegas casino (a mixture of cigarette smoke and despair), and the room itself is a throwback to the 1980s.

Example. There is a microwave oven in the room. It has a mechanical knob that you turn, and a mechanical bell that goes "ding" when the knob winds down to 0.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378688612


Miles traveled: 550
Fuel consumed: 35.55
MPG: 15.47 (wow!)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378688046

I would, but you refuse to drive 100+ miles out of your way to meet a nearly total stranger.


{pic of 1980's microwave}

I just donated that exact same model to my local makerspace for heating non-food items. It may be ugly and slow, but it has worked for more than 30 years. Not many products last like that anymore.

All you need is a magnetron, a metal box, and possibly a timer for convenience. Virtually unchanged since 1947, and the Speedy Weeny.

So you are going to NY then?

Love the live fish trailer. Never seen that setup before.

You're going to hold this over me for a while, aren't you? :giggle:




This is true, to a point.

You may also recall how, in the 1980s, microwave ovens gained a spectacular and well-deserved reputation for doing a really piss-poor job of cooking food properly. Meals would come out burned on one side and frozen on the other, cooking times would seem to vary wildly from one oven to the next even for the same wattage, and so on? It wasn't until the 1990s that things like diffusers, carousels, and the ability to modulate the tube to something less than 100% duty cycle, became commonplace.


Also, geek props for remembering the Speedy Weeny.



From that article:




See "Genuine People Personalities" at Sirius Cybernetics Corporation:

Most of the technology mentioned in the series are products of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, a decidedly inept company responsible for the design and creation of a wide range of robots and labour-saving devices, such as lifts, automatic doors, ventilation systems, and the infamous Nutrimatic Drink Dispenser. In the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the problem with all the corporation's products was summarised by the Guide:
The only profitable division of the company is its Complaints division, which, according to the series, takes up all of the major landmasses on the first three planets in the Sirius Tau system. The theme song for the Complaints division is Share and Enjoy, and has since become the theme apparent for the company as a whole. The main office building and headquarters for the company was originally built to represent this motto, but due to bad architecture it sank halfway into the ground, leaving the upper halves of the motto's words to read in the local language "Go Stick Your Head in a Pig."

The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation invented a concept called Genuine People Personalities ("GPP") which imbue their products with intelligence and emotion. Thus not only do doors open and close, but they thank their users for using them, or sigh with the satisfaction of a job well done. Other examples of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's record with sentient technology include an armada of neurotic elevators, hyperactive ships' computers and perhaps most famously of all, Marvin the Paranoid Android. Marvin is a prototype for the GPP feature, and his depression and "terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side" are due to unresolved flaws in his programming.



Nor had I. Those three stainless steel tanks in the front contain liquid nitrogen- apparently these fish prefer their environment to be chilly.

NM

Schedule? Blah. They can wait.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378817166

Some much prettier roads getting here:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378821074

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378821074


This was kind of amusing. It's so cute how they think that 2,250 feet constitutes some kind of mountain:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...7&d=1378821724




When suddenly:




Interesting stuff around here:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378821074


Total miles traveled: 3,074
Total fuel consumed: 211.7 gal
Overall average MPG: 14.5
Total drive time: 51 hours, 11 minutes.


This next one is especially amusing. You know how, when planning a trip, there's a tendency to say things like "well, assume that on average I maintain 60 MPH..."

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378821724

Somehow, I actually did average precisely 60.0 MPH over the course of > 3,000 miles and 5 days.

I think that probably means that I'm a boring a predictable person...



https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1378822481

I could not predict that you didn't already know this, so therefore you're not.

Yeah...well...our mountains are older!

Joe brought balance back to the EC force.

That's actually pretty amazing unless you were just barely off the highway during your pit stops. It doesn't take much stop and go driving to crush average speed.

Why was it imbalanced?


It's actually more amazing when you consider that I spent a far bit of time on local scenic roads rather than the freeway proper.

Remember, however, that the speed limit in most of the western US is 75 MPH, and since I didn't have a trailer attached this time, I was actually doing 75 for much of the trip. (This worked out rather conveniently, since the governor on the truck was also set at 75, so I didn't have to pay attention to my speed.)

when you left FL and tilted the earth's rotational balance.

I guess the real question for the journey east is if the big ass TV made it back to the west coast.

Nope. I finally made good on my threats, and the big TV is no more. Its successor is scheduled for delivery tomorrow.

That wasn't originally posted by me.

What have you done.

I still want to know what the standard deviation of this trip is (based on "straight line" globe surface arc--constant radius is acceptable).

Also, I still want to know WTF.

Joe, what do you do btw?

Welcome to the northeast, enjoy your snow.

Hell, he drove right through my town with nary a wave (Lincoln, NE) and I mean RIGHT THROUGH IT. I'm hurt.

What an asshole! :vash:

That looks like the most boring drive ever. One interstate the entire trip. Just driving.

Damn. That's cold. And you even have that Saab monstrosity as a sideshow.