We’re back. short story long…

Before we left we purchased a new laptop. Since I no longer have the need for high end gaming I was able to get away with an ASUS eeepc. For those not in the know look here. It is very small. Not the smallest out there, but it is small. It was big enough that I had no trouble with the keyboard other than the right shift key placement. The screen resolution was the only issue. A bigger screen and less plastic border would be nice, and for the most part, like 90% of what I need the current screen is just fine. My big complaint is that we had to get it with windows. Melissa needed to be able to use it, and we did want to be able to play Age of Mythology and once we got it we decided to purchase DeLorme’s Earthmate GPS w/Street Atlas USA 2009, with the idea being that Melissa could navigate and we could find new places to shop and to wonder while we were in Michigan. We would also be able to leave me somewhere and Melissa could take off on her own and I would worry that she would get lost in invisible border less hell that are the SE MI suburbs.They should grow grass that is the same color as the cities are on maps. Or force all cities to be shaped like little black dots. If your town is too small, tough shit it’ll have to go. It’s not on the map. The screen is a bit small for the maps, but Melissa managed.

net top GPS

and a good thing too, since the Rental car company wanted an extra $10 a day for a second driver she played navigator with the naggigator.

The Naggigator is an intersting thing. It allowed Melissa to assist me in where we were going when we were going places I couldn’t remember how to get to, or didn’t know how to get to. It also let her know how fast I was going. “Um; Hon, did you mean to be going 110?”
“Ah. Um. No?”
For the most part it was pretty good, though it did take us to the service entrance at the UofM Gardens where the wedding was. This of course led to Melissa playing with it on Thursday morning at breakfast.

By Tuesday we had visited everyone at least once and did all the shopping we needed to do. We did want to go see my sisters house out past Kalamazoo, but she and the family were going to go way north to go camping and we didn’t want to drive 8 hrs and 900 miles to get there. Melissa was looking up places to go for the next few days. On a whim she looked at the distance from Plymouth, MI to Kearney, MO where her grandparents are. “Hey it’s 13 hours to Kearney.”
“What’s the distance?”
“1,000,000,000 miles”
“Let’s see, the rental is getting approx 23 mpg, so that works out to be one plane ticket when you add in hotel fare. Lets go”
“Really?”
“yes, but we need showers first”
Thus two harmless flakes unleashed an avalanche of personal destruction.

The road trip began well enough. We loaded up the rented Subaru Impreza. Oddly this was a substitute car and conveniently was also one of the cars we’ve been looking at purchasing. It was a base model (not the WRX that we’d been looking at) but it had a 4 speed manual/automatic transmission. After driving it for over a week the only thing I didn’t care for was that first gear was REALLY slow. It is more than capable on the highway and anything over 25 MPH. But this is leading into another story. We bought a Mazda3
After loading the car and a quick stop for a headphone adapter to plug the laptop into the AUX jack in the car radio, we were on our way.
We were having a lovely road trip until we hit Gary, Indiana. I80 is normally, constantly under construction. It was actually closed. There was an exit ramp and no directions. So like Dirk Gently, we followed someone that looked like they knew where they were going. They didn’t. We pulled off of the highway to get our bearings. we decided to head south to 30 since most of the northbound entrances were closed due to flooding. There had been a LOT of rain recently. We would then cut across to 57 and take that back to 80. Simple enough. :-)
The Naggigator was going ballistic. She was also driving Melissa nuts.
RECALCULATING. pull off at exit 25 and head east, then take northbound entrance 25 on I65 to I80 west.
“It’s closed you stupid shit”
RECALCULATING. pull off at exit 28 and head east, then take northbound entrance 28 to I80 west.
“Oh real good, all the Northbound ramps are blocked”
don’t get lippy with me young lady. I’ll get you so lost you’ll wish I could reach up there and slap you
We got onto 30 and made our way towards 57. Right into rush hour and a whole lot of Trucker traffic.
I told you to turn around, but did you listen to me? no. ‘We know better than the computer’
After we got past the trucks it seemed like we were on our way. Then we hit Chicago Heights.
I can’t believe you brought me into this neighborhood. what were you thinking? RECALCULATING: turn the fuck around. exit immediately.
wow.
The recession and the economy of the lower 48 is very evident in Chicago Heights. We saw an abandoned church. It was obviously originally a bar in the 30’s or 40’s by the building design. It had been let go long enough ago that the parking lot was almost non existent. taken over and broken by weeds and small trees. Most of the traffic that was there had out of state plates. People like us who were trying to get back on to I80. At first it was a bit scary, until you realize that the windows were not boarded up. Nor were they broken, nor was there much Graphite. This wasn’t a bad neighborhood. Just really poor.
I don’t care, get me out of here please…OH whats that? It looks real nice there
As we approached the Catholic hospital The landscape changed. The grass was green. Birds flew singing songs. The traffic lights and street signs were all bright and shiny. For one block in all directions surrounding the Hospital.
That’s a croc o shit. RECALCULATING: drive faster to entrance ramp 78b and get your ass on 57 north to I80

After our detour the road trip went well We got to Kearney around 2:30 AM and I had a hell of a time falling asleep. I had had two cans of red bull to make sure I didn’t get sleepy while driving. The mattress pad at the motel was like sleeping on marshmallow fluff. I don’t like marshmallow fluff, I prefer solid chocolate bars with a bit of peanut butter in top. I did not sleep well.
The next morning we got up and went to her Grandparents place. Did I mention that they did not know we were coming? Melissa knocked on the door and couldn’t tell if she heard ‘come in’ or ‘just a minute’ So we waited. Her Grandfather opened the door. The look on his face said he would have suspected Jesus Christ at the door before the two of us. Which of course is just silly. JC was in Chicago Heights manicuring the lawn at St. James Heath Center. We had a lovely day with them. I fell asleep in a chair and woke up on the floor. Her uncles both stopped by. We then had dinner with her Aunt and Uncle on her dad’s side. They drove up 2 hours to see us. Very nice.

On Saturday we headed back. It was pretty uneventful, but nice to do most of it in the daylight. The only truly entertaining thing was that upon crossing the Michigan border you can hear all the engines rev as everyone goes from 65 mph to about 90.

Having decided it would be better to get a new car now rather than later I began my normal fretting. We were set up to get a Mazdaspeed3 used from someone. Maybe. But I had just spent two weeks in an Impreza. My butt did not fall asleep the whole road trip. The WRX version has…
I spent a day doing this to myself, back and forth. The big problem was I wanted a stick, but not all the time. I ended up going to test drive the regular Mazda3. I knew I didn’t really need the 265hp of the speed3, I just wanted it to be zippy in town. The Mazda3 comes in a 5 speed manu/matic transmission. I was very happy with it. The problem is that they only were getting a few more in. No it’s not like that, she was very helpful and was trying to assist me and was even trying to see about getting a dealer swap or possibly ordering one. There was no ordering until April as they were gearing up for the next model year. They had two more of what I wanted coming in soon. (The rest were of a different trim package).

I now have a zippy little wagon with a 5speed manu/matic leather wrapped steering wheel in a loverly old lady green gold color. With a moon roof/sunroof and a changeable origami cargo area that only the Japanese could design.