Sunday drive
Feb. 24th, 2003 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikI spent Saturday in at work and also getting some news that has made me thoughtful and somewhat, well, distant from things. I had hoped to road-trip christen the new car by a trip to Yosemite or similar, but that just wasn't in the cards. After FUBARing my Saturday, I tried again sunday.
I woke up late on Sunday, but this time I wasn't scared about why; I just accepted it. At this point there were two choices: Get Out Of The House and enjoy the day, or sit inside and stay all tail-twitchy over things that nothing can be done about. I decided the former was much better for my mental health.
We (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revar, chipotle and myself) were going to shoot for Pt. Reyes, a closer target. First we needed to get food and do a Fry's Run. The other roomie had brought back the GPS gear so I could finally test it in the Element and I needed to buy some enabling cables and other car-electronics fiddlybits to make things work. Fry's is always a great place to goof off with buddies, so we took our time. Lunch was a driveabout of finding a bank before settling on bad choices of fast food. Then I remembered I'd forgotten the camera, so we went back to the house to get it.
It was now late enough that Pt. Reyes wasn't going to happen before sundown... and it was bleary overcast anyways. Instead we did the Mt. Madonna loop that I usually motorcycle on. The trick this time was to take even-more-wiggly little lines on the map than I do when on the bike... and we found some great ones. Pictures were taken of a few things along the way, including one showing how my earring-decisions finally turned out. I also got a few more pics of the Element, including some interiors for the friends that asked me after my last journal entry.
First, I'll get the Element pics out of the way:
Then, the one pic of myself that came out good. The earring is at it's 'goal' size: 00ga grommet with a 4ga ring through it. If anything I might go for a slightly larger diameter (but not gauge) ring to go through the grommet.
And finally, two that were taken of the lovely Mt. Madonna Road that stretches from Redwood Retreat Road to Skyline:
There are a few other scattershot photos. As always you can find them in reverse chronological order on the by-date index on the imageserver, where all the images I add scroll by as they're added. The rest of the photos were done byrevar; mostly scenery from Skyline boulevard of some old barns and a rather pretty set of vistas overlooking Watsonville. I'll leave those for Revar to post if desired.
The route was down through Uvas canyon, up Redwood Retreat road to Mt. Madonna road. This turned into some rather good gravel/dirt up a nice windy mountain grade. For the first time I could feel the rear wheels doing their 4WD thing. *gets that good-shivery feeling* I like. The Element handled it quite well, traction-wise. The only complaint so far is that it's best for 2 people on the chumbly stuff. The rear seats are directly over the rear axle. Passengers there tend to get a little beat up on the backside. Sorry about that,chipotle...
Once atop the coastal range we tooled up and down Skyline a bit while Revar got photos. Mt. Madonna road winds back down into Watsonville and plays out onto Hazel Dell road. That loops behind the foothills on that side through some lush micro-valleys until it rejoins Highway 1 near Aptos. We dropped down to the beach to buy some refreshments at a beachfront convenience store. We did our mandatory "honda commercial" time, sitting on the tailgate drinking soda at the beach. w00t. Keeping with the theme of avoiding usual roads, I took us back across 1 to Soquel, then to Soquel-San Jose Road. This is the 'old highway 17' and took us all the way back up to skyline, and down Old Santa Cruz highway to the Lexington Resevoir. This dumps out into Los Gatos and not long after we're home. A measly 92 miles, but just about all of it was insanely twisty-chumbly. Even the iron-stomached Revar was starting to get a little carsick near the end, as was the driver *looks woozy*. Normally I do these kinds of roads on the bike and the natural lean of the bike is much easier to adapt to than the unnatural flat-turning of a four-wheeled vehicle.
Most amusing moment: Taking out the moonroof in the back of the car, so Revar could stand in the back, upper body completely out of the top, to take pictures while we tooled down the Watsonville side of Mt. Madonna. I wish we'd had a big ol' plexi-bubble to put up there to Pope-mobile him. :)
In the end the Element has turned out to be a great day-tripper car. The ergos are good (bumpy-road blues for backseaters aside), temperature control is excellent, engine is scarily quiet, highway tire noise low, and wind-noise not too bad. The audio system r0xx0rz (ahem) and with the XM and full iPod the selection can't be beat. The occasional stares and 'wow what is that!' talks with people en route is always fun, though I know from experience with Revar's new-beetle that the 'new model' wonder won't last long. My only personal complaint is that, must like my old TransSport, the center console annoys my right knee over time. This can be solved by keeping a small, strategically positioned pillow on board (which is exactly what I had to do with the old TransSport). One possible concern is the driver's seat is a bit creaky. To draw another parallel -- over time, my weight plus road motion outright broke the TransSport's driver's seat, which had to be replaced for $400. It took 2.5 years to break, though. This seat is creaking in the same way, but a little moreso. I'm thinking within a year I'll be replacing the driver's seat. If so, I'll have the replacement strengthened at a welding shop. I know one that does that kind of work . Yay, the joys of being a fat bastid.
I'll jot up more Element trips as they occur. As I'd like to keep the vehicle's use down to below 15k a year (doable with how much I ride the motorcycles) they shouldn't be as common as the motorcycle trip reports. I need to make an LJ icon for the little car... but gotta figure out which icon to sacrifice to do so.
I woke up late on Sunday, but this time I wasn't scared about why; I just accepted it. At this point there were two choices: Get Out Of The House and enjoy the day, or sit inside and stay all tail-twitchy over things that nothing can be done about. I decided the former was much better for my mental health.
We (
revar, chipotle and myself) were going to shoot for Pt. Reyes, a closer target. First we needed to get food and do a Fry's Run. The other roomie had brought back the GPS gear so I could finally test it in the Element and I needed to buy some enabling cables and other car-electronics fiddlybits to make things work. Fry's is always a great place to goof off with buddies, so we took our time. Lunch was a driveabout of finding a bank before settling on bad choices of fast food. Then I remembered I'd forgotten the camera, so we went back to the house to get it.It was now late enough that Pt. Reyes wasn't going to happen before sundown... and it was bleary overcast anyways. Instead we did the Mt. Madonna loop that I usually motorcycle on. The trick this time was to take even-more-wiggly little lines on the map than I do when on the bike... and we found some great ones. Pictures were taken of a few things along the way, including one showing how my earring-decisions finally turned out. I also got a few more pics of the Element, including some interiors for the friends that asked me after my last journal entry.
There are a few other scattershot photos. As always you can find them in reverse chronological order on the by-date index on the imageserver, where all the images I add scroll by as they're added. The rest of the photos were done by
revar; mostly scenery from Skyline boulevard of some old barns and a rather pretty set of vistas overlooking Watsonville. I'll leave those for Revar to post if desired.The route was down through Uvas canyon, up Redwood Retreat road to Mt. Madonna road. This turned into some rather good gravel/dirt up a nice windy mountain grade. For the first time I could feel the rear wheels doing their 4WD thing. *gets that good-shivery feeling* I like. The Element handled it quite well, traction-wise. The only complaint so far is that it's best for 2 people on the chumbly stuff. The rear seats are directly over the rear axle. Passengers there tend to get a little beat up on the backside. Sorry about that,
chipotle... Once atop the coastal range we tooled up and down Skyline a bit while Revar got photos. Mt. Madonna road winds back down into Watsonville and plays out onto Hazel Dell road. That loops behind the foothills on that side through some lush micro-valleys until it rejoins Highway 1 near Aptos. We dropped down to the beach to buy some refreshments at a beachfront convenience store. We did our mandatory "honda commercial" time, sitting on the tailgate drinking soda at the beach. w00t. Keeping with the theme of avoiding usual roads, I took us back across 1 to Soquel, then to Soquel-San Jose Road. This is the 'old highway 17' and took us all the way back up to skyline, and down Old Santa Cruz highway to the Lexington Resevoir. This dumps out into Los Gatos and not long after we're home. A measly 92 miles, but just about all of it was insanely twisty-chumbly. Even the iron-stomached Revar was starting to get a little carsick near the end, as was the driver *looks woozy*. Normally I do these kinds of roads on the bike and the natural lean of the bike is much easier to adapt to than the unnatural flat-turning of a four-wheeled vehicle.
Most amusing moment: Taking out the moonroof in the back of the car, so Revar could stand in the back, upper body completely out of the top, to take pictures while we tooled down the Watsonville side of Mt. Madonna. I wish we'd had a big ol' plexi-bubble to put up there to Pope-mobile him. :)
In the end the Element has turned out to be a great day-tripper car. The ergos are good (bumpy-road blues for backseaters aside), temperature control is excellent, engine is scarily quiet, highway tire noise low, and wind-noise not too bad. The audio system r0xx0rz (ahem) and with the XM and full iPod the selection can't be beat. The occasional stares and 'wow what is that!' talks with people en route is always fun, though I know from experience with Revar's new-beetle that the 'new model' wonder won't last long. My only personal complaint is that, must like my old TransSport, the center console annoys my right knee over time. This can be solved by keeping a small, strategically positioned pillow on board (which is exactly what I had to do with the old TransSport). One possible concern is the driver's seat is a bit creaky. To draw another parallel -- over time, my weight plus road motion outright broke the TransSport's driver's seat, which had to be replaced for $400. It took 2.5 years to break, though. This seat is creaking in the same way, but a little moreso. I'm thinking within a year I'll be replacing the driver's seat. If so, I'll have the replacement strengthened at a welding shop. I know one that does that kind of work . Yay, the joys of being a fat bastid.
I'll jot up more Element trips as they occur. As I'd like to keep the vehicle's use down to below 15k a year (doable with how much I ride the motorcycles) they shouldn't be as common as the motorcycle trip reports. I need to make an LJ icon for the little car... but gotta figure out which icon to sacrifice to do so.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-24 02:00 am (UTC)Nice picts, too. I do so miss it up there.
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Date: 2003-02-24 06:28 am (UTC)Mischevious smirky Tug! Very piratey.
*hides*