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We had a wreck. More correctly; we had two wrecks. One was in Washington D.C. where someone rear-ended our rental, so it was not really an issue. However, the one the week we got back was kind of a "big deal". For one, it caused an injury to my wife's thumb which required surgery, and secondly, it totaled the Honda.... our much beloved, 40mpg, 2008 Civic Hybrid. May it rest in peace.
I've come to the conclusion that I hate car shopping!!! That's weird for me since I used to love it. That should be obvious for a person who's owned a VW GTI, a Honda CRX, an Audi 90 and even a BMW M5, but now...... I absolutely detested the experience! It's not that I've lost the touch, I haven't. I was able to identify a good price, good mileage, on a good car.... That wasn't the issue. It's the circumstances, that's the problem.
I'm a man with a ball and chain! Let me start from the beginning:
- We got the insurance part squared away and they paid out about what we were expecting, $4400.
- It was decided that we'd just spend that amount on a car and no more since we're paying on the "new" Tahoe still for 3 more years. So the logical thing is to get something that'll bridge the gap, then get another vehicle after the truck is paid off, at which time, my son will be about driving age and will need a car. So we were really shopping for him.... 3 years ahead of time!
- We liked the Civic and the kind of gas mileage that it got. It makes a good pairing with the rather large SUV, that's the other vehicle.
- We're still a family of four, with rapidly growing kids, so 2-door cars or trucks were "out".
- It needed to fit my wife's list of needs and avoid her dislikes (read prejudices). That would include anything boxy, wagon, minivan, weird brands (sorry Subaru or anything European), or "cheap", which leaves Honda and Toyota. Neither one of us are Nissan fans and the rental, which was a Nissan Versa reinforced our opinions.
So, a Honda or Toyota of similar year as our '08 Civic with less than 150,000 miles was on my list. Oh yeah, we both dislike my father-in-law's Camry, so....... Accord, or Civic. She decided the Accord was too big, which...... led us right back to where we were 6 years ago when we bought the Civic. A Civic!
You know; Craigslist is a wonderful thing, and I've been able to find all manner of useful stuff on it over the years. And this occasion was no different. I was able to find 2006 to 2010 Civics by the dozen. I will have to say that "Salvage Titled" cars and the "Coupe" version were a pain in my behind, but overall, it wasn't too bad.
The problem was that, although I could find cars I wanted..... at a good price, they'd sell before I could get off of work to go and look at them! This happened with about 5 different vehicles, and DFW is a big place, so just getting over to them was a problem as well.
...... but yesterday, we scored! We finally got a a 2006 Civic with 94,000 miles on it before it sold. So we bought it. Does it have warts? Ah..... it's a 10+ year old car..... enough said. But it will work. Pretty much everything important works on it. It has the regular gas engine, which is something that I liked. Not that I was unhappy with the Hybrid (the gas mileage was great), but there's a reason they only warranty those batteries for 100 to 150K miles. The replacements for them run between $2000 and 4000. We already ran across a 2006 Prius with a bad one. Research showed replacements from Toyota was a cool $3960..... ouch! They were asking $4000 for that car so the battery replacement would have doubled the price. We paid $3950 for the Civic with less than 100,000 miles on it. Those engines routinely run to well over 200K. There should be enough life left in this car for 3 years with mom and then more with the boy. Good thing I listened to my wife and saved the expensive Weathertech mats out of the old Civic. Maybe she was telling me something.....
The "Family Truckster", well, actually....the family Civic Hybrid got to take a little trip this past week..... to the tune of 3 states in 3 days! We had already planned on making a little Texas triangle during out Spring Break, which was going to entail driving from DFW to Amarillo (about 7 hours) to see my wife's grandfather, then down to Carlsbad, New Mexico (about 5 hours down to Artesia where we planned to stay the night), through Carlsbad, New Mexico, on to Lubbock, Texas (about 4 hours) to see friends and attend a wedding, then home (about 7 more hours). As you can see, travel in this part of the country is calculated in hours instead of miles (or kilometers), so you can see how much of a day it's going to chew up. If you do this type of driving, even occasionally, you might want to consider a Hybrid. With the exception of driving through the "haboob" (33 mpg), I routinely got between 42 and 44 miles per gallon in the fully loaded car driving typically at 77 or 73 miles per hour (depending on the speed limit). That should fully explain why we drove that vehicle vs. our Chevy Trailblazer SUV!
However, the hand of God intervened and we received word of a death in the family which required our presence up in Cherokee country, in eastern Oklahoma (almost to the Arkansas border). So, instead of leaving on Tuesday, we left on Sunday. DFW to Stilwell, OK (about 6 hours) for the family needs, then, from there to Amarillo (about 8 hours), since it didn't make sense to go back to Dallas first.
Yup, that's right; just west of Oklahoma City where the land flattens out significantly, the wind started to really pick up.......and all that, that implies out in this part of the country. In fact, we would find out later that, gusts were up to 60mph! So, inside of your head, imagine, driving a fairly lightweight car, with a constant crosswind (almost completely 90 degrees most of the time) of about 40mph, with those gusts, plus the road looking like this most of the way. Let's just say it wasn't much fun.
The 5 plus hours, the following day, plus the 3 plus hours of the day after that mostly looked like this.....when we were lucky. You might want to ask why would I subject myself and the family to this.
You might have heard of Carlsbad Caverns, some of the most extensive naturally occurring cavern complexes in the world and a National Park. Over the last 40 years, I've probably been there at least 15 times, but for my kids, it was just the right age to go. Just one instance of seeing my 10 year-old son with his mouth open and no words coming out would have been enough, but it rendered him pretty-much speechless for several hours! If you haven't taken your young kids to Carlsbad, it's well worth the hours of desert driving. I do have a couple of recommendations, especially if your family is as nerdy as mine. Stop in Roswell and tool around the curio shops specializing in "the Incident" surround the alleged 1947 UFO incident and ensuing "cover-up". We then drove down the road and stayed at the particularly clean and efficient Legacy Inn, in Artesia. Very nice for a microtel style hotel. How does one keep himself/herself sane during all those hours of driving?
The most important daddy device known to man! Given that it's an Apple device, you long time readers know that it takes a lot for me to make that pronouncement! Our original 30Gb iPod video that I bought my wife years ago was literally bursting at the seams. So, when I upgraded her laptop to the T500, I also cleared off my 80Gb Classic and moved her account to it. Basically, our entire library of music is on this device and we can just grab it when we head out the door. The battery easily goes 7-8 hours on the more extended drives and so generally doesn't require charging.
For anyone who has traveled with a 10 year old, OR a 7 year old, much less a 10 AND a 7 year old, then you know that long hours in a car are challenging. We handle this with a twin attack. Our kids have been trained from a young age to read..... a lot, so they each carried 3 books, we also had their tablets along for the ride. One had her iPad2 and the other had the Android version ThinkPad tablet like the one I use. We also have a little 7" screen'd DVD player for some of the longer stretches (more than 3 hours). The wife was similarly equipped except that along with her Hi-Tech iPad Air, the decidedly Low-Tech crocheting needels and yarn as well.
As for me, I rarely go anywhere for more than a day without my travel computer; the ThinkPad X301. Then of course, since we were going as a family to interesting places; that required the serious camera; the Nikon D300.
Some of you might think it's excessive, but I also carried my ThinkPad Tablet, identical to the one my son uses, except mine has more storage capacity. This is my reading device, as well as quick "look-ups". It might sound crazy, but we used virtually all of these devices every place we went and most every day. The camera being the only one that didn't get consistent use, but when I did use it; I used it A LOT, such as in the Caverns.
The technological surprise of this trip? My wife's new iPad Air has completely eliminated the secondary small "pocket camera" that people used to always carry. She didn't even take her Nikon S8100 along. I strongly suspect that it will continue to gather dust in the coming years.
Coming from the "no surprise at all" category? It's of course, the increasing reliance on the integrated GPS system. Even when I didn't need it, it was reassuring to watch yourself making progress across the plains or deserts. Such is the state of the modern vacation. Same places. Different equipment.
Tomorrow, we're leaving for what seems like a yearly trip to San Antonio. For many years, we went there because the kids were in the Sea World age. You know, too old to just go anywhere, but not old enough to do a lot, and certainly not old enough to have the attention span to go to adult types of attractions! Although, at 7 and 10, they are old enough to go somewhere else, we are headed back to good ol San Antonio because my wife has a math teaching conference there this year. Which is a good opportunity for me to discuss what a Frugal Propellerhead carries on a trip that involves many hours of car riding.
We'll start with the fact that the car involved will the the Civic Hybrid, so space will be at a premium. At least we're only going to be gone for 3 days so their won't be a ton of luggage.
I'll start with my main camera; the D300, which I'll mount with the 18-200mm (27-300mm eq.) and the 50mm/f1.4 for low light situations. One of my main destinations will be the famous San Antonio Zoo as well as the neighboring Japanese Garden at Brackenridge Park. And of course, there will be the obligatory trip to Sea World as well, so these situations are ideal for that camera with a superzoom lens.
You can see in this comparison why, the Panasonic GF-1 will probably also make the trip as the evening "walk-around" camera as we stroll the Paseo del Rio.
....And as if there was a question; the X301 will go on it's very first family trip taking the place of the X300 which was the veteran of many over it's years. This in the company of the little Targus card reader and my 6G iPod will allow me to dump, review, edit and post pictures while we are gone. The iPod of course will function as my in-car music jukebox as well.
Both of our ThinkPad Tablets will probably make the trip, serving first as "in-car" entertainment for the 5 hour drive, then for my wife to take notes on during the conference.
My son will probably want to take his Sony Bloggie along with his 3DS and my daughter will probably take her Nintendo DSi. These are what we call, parent sanity devices.
You might be thinking: that's a crazy amount of electronics for a 3 day trip, but hey, look at it this way..... how much is quiet and serenity worth? Remember..... 10 hours in a small car and 3 days in a hotel room!
