Blogging from another country

We're in Canada!

I didn't have much time to blog much about the wedding planning, but it all paid off -- our wedding was amazing. I can't remember ever being happier than I was during the ceremony, except for possibly the day after our first second date, when I learned that Steph liked me back.

This is the second day of our honeymoon in Toronto. Yesterday we walked around a lot. We went to Barbara Ann Scott Park, where there's a round outdoor rink; I stood on the concrete where it would be in the winter. We shopped at Winners, which is like a TJ Maxx or Marshall's, and I got a cute flowered shirt. Steph got a hat at Le Chateau, and I liked a shirt there but didn't want to pay $50 for it. We bought a small stuffed moose because we completely failed to bring any monkeys with us (except Hector, but he's too big to carry around and photograph). Maybe they'll forgive us if we bring them a new friend. We bought a book at Indigo about how to be Canadian. We walked through several other stores and had a good time looking around, and we found a brick labyrinth and walked it. We both thought of putting one in on an empty lot in our neighborhood; I'll mention it to the board when I get back. We had dinner at Elephant & Castle, which was just okay -- I mean, what kind of place fries their pretzels?! -- and we saw the movie Baby Mama in the evening.

Today we took the subway to Union Station and then walked to CN Tower. The view there was really neat even though it was overcast. I especially liked looking down on clouds. After we had our fill of admiring the view, we took a tour at the nearby Steam Whistle Brewery. It's a microbrewery that brews one kind of beer and does so in a very green fashion. The bottles are made with 30% more glass so they can be used 30 to 40 times, whereas regular bottles can only be used 10 to 15 times. All the energy used there is provided by wind turbines and hydro power. In addition, they have one of the only women brewers in North America. After we rode the subway back to the hotel, we ate dinner at an excellent Vietnamese restaurant, and now we're hanging out in the coffee shop downstairs at our hotel.

Tomorrow we go to City Hall at 2 pm to get married!

And we're home.

We arrived home around 7 pm this evening. The drive was pretty uneventful today except for a severe rainstorm in Illinois. The rain was so heavy at times that I couldn't see the car in front of me (and it had its lights on). I seem to encounter that kind of rain on almost every return trip from Roswell on that particular stretch of road (although it's usually closer to Indiana). The animals were all happy to see us.

Today is Phoebe’s ninth birthday. She has 81147 miles, 21000 of which have been put on while driving to Roswell, NBeast, and other VW shows. This was her fifth Roswell and my sixth. (She doesn’t know that we missed two; she tends to break things when she finds out she didn’t go.)

Stats:

17 days
5126 miles
9 states
3 check engine lights (read by Howie, John Steele, and Rich)
1 window regulator
1 mass air flow sensor (installed by John Steele)
1 vacuum hose (courtesy of John Steele)
1 new tire (changed by John Steele and Jerry)
1 dog and 4 cats who are very happy to see us!

On the road back

After lots of exciting travel, we reached the end of Route 66 yesterday. We walked around Santa Monica Pier for an hour or so and then drove up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway towards Earl's house. There are parking spaces along the road at some points where people can pull off to visit the beach or surf. We stopped at one and climbed down the rocks to the beach. I had never seen surfers in real life before -- it was really neat to watch. We walked on the sand and waded in the water, and I called my dad to tell him that I was in the Pacific Ocean. (I think he's enjoying hearing about my trip because he took a similar trip with my mom in 1971 in their '67 VW Bus. He has a story from several of the places we've stopped.)

We continued on to the tiny town of Ballard and Earl and Syd's house, which is adorable -- Syd is so creative. After looking at Earl's VW collection and inspecting the travel trailer he insists is his next project, we drove into Solvang and ate at a Danish place. My dinner included cucumber salad and red cabbage, two of my favorite Czech foods from childhood.

This morning as we were leaving the hotel in Lompoc, John pulled up next to us and tried to clear Phoebe's check engine light. The cable between the car and the computer wasn't working, so we drove down to Auto Zone with John and with Rich and Kathie, who happen to live in Lompoc. The machine there read Phoebe's code as P0171, which is a somewhat generic code that may indicate a loose gas cap (which I'm sure is not the problem, as I always tighten it four clicks or more), a vacuum hose, or many other things. John pulled my engine cover off and spotted the worn vacuum hose right away. Auto Zone didn't have any 3.5 mm hoses, but John had some silicone hose in his tool box. It took him all of two minutes to replace it, and Phoebe ran better right away. (Mark G., you were right.) Her light hasn't come back on yet, so I hope everything is fixed now.

I should mention again how wonderful John has been. He not only changed my vacuum hose, changed my flat tire (in 107-degree heat), and replaced my mass air flow sensor, but also worked for an hour and a half in very hot weather to get Earl's car back on the road yesterday after a similar hose problem that ended up melting parts of the spark plugs. I believe he also helped change Rich and Kathie's fuel pump at the VW dealer in the Albuquerque heat. Without John, many of us would still be sitting by the side of the road waiting for AAA and trying to figure out how to find a competent mechanic in a strange town.

Tonight we're in Kingman, AZ. Our goal is to make it to Santa Rosa, NM, tomorrow evening in order to be home on Tuesday at a reasonable hour. We should be able to get on the road earlier tomorrow morning (the vacuum hose took a little time this morning), and the drive will all be on I-40, so we won't have to worry about California traffic. Off to the hot tub....

Friday afternoon update

We're hanging out at Not of This World Cafe in Roswell this afternoon after going to Target for car wash supplies (couldn't fit them in for the trip out) and washing Phoebe, which is difficult with the water here. She's very streaky -- it's more obvious on a black car.

Last night we arrived in Roswell around 6 pm after driving from Tucumcari. The Blue Swallow Motel was great, and we walked to a little diner for breakfast with Lisa and Jason and then went through the dinosaur museum before getting on the road for Roswell. We had a really nice drive and stopped for a late lunch at a shiny silver diner that resembled a railroad car.

Phoebe got incredible gas mileage on the way here -- if she's completely full, she usually goes 100 miles with the needle on Full, 200 miles at 3/4 tank, 300 miles at 1/2, and 400 miles at 1/4. There are three dots between each quarter of the gauge. Steph snapped a photo at 167 miles and the needle had not even hit the first dot under full. I'm hoping for another 500-mile tank, but we'll be doing a fair amount of in-town driving this weekend, so that may not happen.

We unloaded the car at the motel and walked over to Tia Juana's, a local Mexican place where everyone who arrives on Thursday usually goes for dinner. (I've never arrived on Thursday before; the Eastern caravan traditionally arrives on Friday.) A nice time was had by all. I got almost nine hours of sleep last night, so I've been feeling a lot better today. Tonight is the Sky Watch party and the Pod Glow cruise. I realized today that I might be able to weave a glow necklace or two through the holes in Phoebe's wheels.

Sunday recap

Apparently I can blog only a certain number of characters from my phone. Anyway...

Lisa and Jason arrived in Indianapolis very late Saturday night, and we had breakfast at the Canary Cafe with them and Britt and Marie. They came to see our house. Lucy was happy to see her Lisa, and she even made friends with Jason. We got on the road to Chicago a little after 3:00, and after lots of traffic, we arrived at Summerfest around 7:45.

Unfortunately, Phoebe's check engine light came on while we were waiting to get on I-90. It had been off since she went to Tune Tech, so I had hoped that the problem that caused it had been solved. I immediately called Susan Hester to see if anyone had a VAG-COM tool, but she didn't know of anyone who'd brought one, so I called the ever-reliable John Steele, who had of course packed his. We'll meet him in St. Louis tonight and see if Phoebe's still throwing the P3191 code. She's had lots of fuel injector cleaner lately, so I don't think it's a clogged fuel injector -- I suspect an oxygen sensor or maybe a mass air flow sensor (though she doesn't feel sluggish at all).

In Chicago, we parked in a garage that had curved ramps going up to each level. I had to turn the wheel almost to the full lock to get up the ramps, and it was only after we got to the top that I learned that the ramps were two-way -- if you meet another car, one of you backs up (!). Coming down was equally scary, as I came close to bottoming out at the end of each ramp. Steph has a picture.

I got to drive a Smart Car! It's much bigger inside than it looks, and I didn't feel like I was driving a tiny little box. You can set the transmission in automatic or manual mode (and even switch between them on the fly). The shifts were a little clunky in automatic mode and somewhat smoother in manual mode. The Smart Car guy who went with me on the test drive said that he treats it like a manual even in automatic mode and lifts his foot off the accelerator when he wants it to shift. This helped. The engine is not particularly powerful at 72 horsepower, but the car could keep up with traffic. It has a small cargo area in back with a tiny pull-out cover.

After having dinner outdoors at a local restaurant that seemed to have every kind of food, we made our way to Joliet. There are 12 NBs here! We start off at 9 am.

Blogging from the hotel

I'm in Madison, WI, for the Careers Conference. The conference has been great -- I've attended several interesting presentations and met many interesting people. I felt like I finally know enough about careers to make attending the conference worthwhile to me, and thanks to the clothes Steph got me for Christmas, I finally felt like I looked like I belonged there. I'm on a public computer, so I can't post my picture of the clothes.

You see, my laptop and my suitcase are on a shuttle to the airport. They were keeping my stuff downstairs until my shuttle, but they mistakenly put everyone's stuff on the earlier shuttle. Fortunately, they have the Internets in the lobby and I have a book in my bag. Also, the earlier shuttle will be returning before I have to leave.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the conference and I hope my boss will send me to another one soon.

Update: The shuttle driver brought back my luggage and apologized profusely. I was, of course, very understanding, especially because they had the Internets in the lobby and I had a book with me.