Mobile Posting For Now

Sorry guys and gals, I'll have to keep this short. My internet connection has been flaky lately and it's just decided not to let me log in to Blogger, so I'll have to post from my phone. I'm sure I'll be able to elaborate more tonight, but just wanted to let you all know that I absolutely loved the comments on my last post. The level of enthusiasm for my travels is really inspiring.

The long weekend provided us with gorgeous weather and I was able to go home and get my bike back. Finally! It was a long ride home, and that seat was starting to feel pretty hard by the end, but it was still a great ride.

Well, if I try to go for a full post from my phone I'll be late for work. Update you more later. Have a great day everyone.

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

No Where To Go

Well, it's finally sunk in for me.  I have absolutely no vacation plans at the moment.  Those of you who know me best will understand how uncomfortable that makes me.  Even if it's not for another six months, I like to know that there's some escape in sight.  No light at the end of the tunnel right now though... let's do something about that, shall we?

Okay people, WHERE AM I GOING NEXT?

My greatest detriment at the moment comes from the fact that I have no more vacation days left in this year.  However, that resets on July 1st, so I don't have too long before I'll be able to take time off work again.  So we're probably looking at something in the heart of summer.

Next hurdle?  I'm still strongly considering buying a truck.  This, of course, comes at no small expense.  Therefore I'm going to have to contend with some restrictions to my budget for this particular trip.  That's not a big deal, there are plenty of places that I can go on a budget... I'm just giving you all a heads-up that my next series of adventurous blogs are not likely to come from a place like Japan or Iceland.

Iceland... that segues nicely into my next concern.  I think that if I'm going to fly anywhere I'd better make it West of here.  Flying to the East seems to be fraught with the peril of having one's flight cancelled by the natural fury of Iceland.  Not that I wouldn't like to go see that up close and personal...

Okay, so there's my criteria.  Summer.  Cheap.  West.  (Or within driving distance in which case I don't care what direction I go.)

Hmmm... I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the choices.  I'll dwell on this some more and let you know what I come up with.

Back to the concept of buying a truck!  I like to keep you all in the loop on these things, so I'll let you know where I'm at.  I went out on Saturday and test drove a new Ford Ranger.  I was happy with the truck, though driving something that much bigger than a Honda Civic will take some getting used to.  The salesman was (of course) a smarmy prick, but since I wasn't planning on buying anything right then and there I was able to just laugh it off.  I'm going to look around for other dealerships to see if I can find a salesman that I don't instinctively want to murder.  Wish me luck.

I keep looking for some competition in the light truck space, but with Ford knocking about $6000 off the base price of Rangers they've really priced themselves WELL below the competition.  I'm still looking to see if someone will cut me a deal, but I'm really starting to focus in on the Ranger as the clear winner.  That puts me in the position of starting to narrow down exactly which trim package.  The verminous little mutant who was trying to sell me one on Saturday seemed quite insistent that I go with the Sport package.  This is probably due to the fact that I didn't see any non-Sport Rangers on his lot.  The advantage to this is that it comes standard with the 4.0L engine (up from the standard 2.3L in the base XL trim package.)  Also, Ford is offering greater discounts on it, such that a Sport with the bigger engine comes out to be almost exactly the same money as the XL with the smaller engine.  That SHOULD make the decision obvious, but it doesn't.  For exactly the same money I get more horsepower, but I also consume (by the standard ratings system) about 2 liters more fuel per 100km than I would in the 2.3L engine.  So, with price being for all intents and purposes equal, I'm looking at a showdown between power and fuel economy.  Fuel economy could save a lot of money in the long run, but I have a hard time focusing on that with Jeremy Clarkson in my head screaming "MORE POWER!"

Well, I'm afraid that this might debate will have to continue later as I'm rapidly approaching the time of day where I'm meant to be leaving for work.  I hope this post finds you all well, and I'll talk to you all again next week.

Generic Post #20100511

Hey, sorry everyone, my brain takes a little while to ramp back up and get into the real world after a vacation.  As I shook off the post-travel cobwebs I gave absolutely no thought to a blog post for this week.  I'll do this as a journal though and give you my thoughts for the week, and then follow that up with the promised video of driving the Hellbender in North Carolina.  I'll do that in a separate post though since I'll probably have to leave it to upload while I'm at work.

This week brought very little excitement I'm afraid.  I did have a failed attempt to retrieve my motorcycle though.  It's still sitting in Petrolia after leaving it there for the Fontana trip.  Gray and I returned home Friday night through some truly horrible weather in the hopes that things would clear up on Saturday and I could ride home.  I actually brought some of my high-tech camping clothing so that I could layer up in warm, breathable clothes.  I was prepared with rain gear as well, and was ready for anything.  I didn't consider the wind though.  When I took a look outside on Saturday morning and saw the trees whipping back and forth I realized that a ride through the open countryside would prove detrimental to my health.  Winds in Toronto were reported as gusting up to 100km/h and were bringing down power lines.  It doesn't take too much wind to start moving that little bike around on the road either.  It was frustrating to just turn around and abandon my plan to retrieve my bike, but I wasn't willing to risk it.  I'll probably take the train home sometime in the next couple weeks to have another crack at it.

Another thing on my mind lately (which does somewhat relate to travel, woohoo!) is that I've been considering buying a small truck.  I've always been a fan of small, Japanese cars, but I think I'm getting to the point where I'd enjoy the utility of a pickup truck.  The biggest draw there comes from the fact that my motorcycle is less than comfortable on the highway even in the best of conditions, so I'd like something that I could haul my bike around in.  Also, our poor old Civic is 10 years old now, and has 266,000 km on it, so the peace of mind and comfort of a new vehicle would be nice for a change.  I've been getting a lot of support on this one from everyone except Graydyn, who thinks I'm an idiot for even considering getting rid of a car that still runs.  I'll work on that one.  I'm not looking at turning this into a car review site, but I will say that after my research the Ford Ranger is carrying a strong lead in the competition to be my first truck.  Small, dependable, and cheaper than anything on the market by a fairly significant margin.

Okay, I'll see what I can do about getting a video uploaded.  I wouldn't expect anything until tonight or tomorrow though as I'll have to leave this to do it's thing during the day.  Have a good week everyone.

Final Thoughts On Fontana

I decided to leave my wrap-up post until today so that I would get back into my usual Tuesday routine.  I may actually make another post later with a video or two that I shot while there, but they take FOREVER to upload to Blogger, so I haven't done that yet.  I may just start the upload before I head to work this morning and then complete the process tonight when I get home.

Overall the trip was a huge success.  We had some rough weather at the beginning, but it didn't take long for that to transition into perfect sunny days.  It's a terrific area to just go and relax, and I can definitely see myself returning for a camping trip.  The natural beauty of that place would only be enhanced by getting deep enough into the woods that you couldn't hear the rumble of passing Harleys, or the shrill scream of a Mini's supercharger.

It was my first time going to a car meet, and I found the concept to be pretty comical really.  It all starts to make sense once you realize that 95% of the people there have no interest in driving, it really is just a social event.  I've heard the same thing occurs in the motorcycling world, where people will organize "rides" which just consist of everyone riding to a restaurant, having a good time together, and riding home.  Looking at photos of the roads around Fontana you'll see groups of many different types of cars, and it makes me realize that there are going to be clubs for owners of just about every type of car out there.  I think for a lot of people the car is just a common denominator, it's a way of meeting people and knowing that you'll have at least one thing to talk about.  It was a fascinating thing to watch unfold from an outsider's perspective.

The drive home from Fontana was smooth and largely uneventful.  We hit some pretty heavy rain through Kentucky, but aside from that it was dry roads and light traffic the whole way through.  That was actually a bit surprising given that the weather report was calling for severe rain throughout the better part of the Eastern United States.  Oh well, it worked out well for us.  Huge stretches of the North-bound I-75 through Ohio and Michigan were under construction, but even that didn't really slow us down too much as it was well organized, and that's a big enough highway that it can afford to lose a lane here and there.  The trip back to Petrolia took us just slightly in excess of 12 hours.  With Gray and I switching off regularly it was a pretty simple drive.

Unfortunately when we got up in Petrolia on Sunday the weather report was calling for horrifying thunderstorms.  I think at one point the weatherman actually screamed "lock up your women and children the Vikings are coming!"  Given the "end is nigh" weather report I opted to leave my motorcycle in the shed and my parents' place and drive home with Gray and Susan.  Of course it was slightly cloudy, but otherwise beautiful weather the whole way home.  It would have made for an exceptionally nice ride home.  Grrr... this is why I only read printed news, live coverage of anything, from politics to weather, is always marred by this deep desire by the presenter to inject it with drama.  Printed news tends to be less focused on being a spectacle and more focused on delivering accurate information.  Okay, that's my rant for the day.  I'm still just upset that I don't have my bike.

Well, the time for me to head to work approaches rapidly my friends.  I'll leave you here and pick up again next Tuesday.  I don't know what I'll write about now that I don't have Fontana to obsess over, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.  Have a good week.