Friday, January 25th, 2008
I don’t know how many people I told this to in the past for weeks…”I got this car on January 3 and I still have a quarter tank.” I guess I met my goal of not driving much. It does feel good to not know what the gas prices are anymore.
Well, I have bad news. The two trips to Lowe’s today forced me to put some gas in the car for the first time. I think gas is around $3.17 per gallon for the cheap stuff, if you can call it that. There are about 450 miles on the car right now and it has an 18 gallon tank. If my math is correct, I am getting around 25 miles to the gallon. That’s not bad for a full sized V6, considering I have done very little highway driving.
They sure don’t make cars like they used to…thankfully.
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Friday, November 16th, 2007
Oh, what a day. Have I ever told you that I hate wind? I never used to until we bought a house. I am sure you can guess why.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, I was going to go out and do some routine maintenance on my 1998 Honda Accord, which I did. I changed the oil, rotated the tires, fixed some minor things, inflated the tires to the proper pressure and cleaned the inside of the windows. Here are some photos…
This is the sweet V6 engine. As you can see, I am filling the engine with oil. The sweet V6 is where the car gets all is massive speed from.
This is what it looks like when I rotate the tires. I know it sounds crazy, but I still do it myself. I am not completely useless yet. Here’s how it goes…I jack up the passenger side of the car. I swap the back tire with the front. I go to the other side and do the same. Then, I jack up only the front and swap them…passenger’s side to the driver’s, and vice versa. That way it’s sort of like a “X” rotation. That’s how I read it should be done.
Yes, I got to use my new air tank again. That’s pretty exciting. The tires were about five pounds of pressure low. That’s because of the chilly weather. I need to go back down and fill the tank up again. Actually, I think I might head down to the auto place and get the tank filled up with the 125lbs. of pressure it’s capable of holding. That way, I won’t need to go back for a while.
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Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
If I had to guess, which I do, which replacement part of a car is most overlooked, I would say the rear brakes. I say this because I always overlook them. I do this probably because the front brakes do something like 70% of the braking action. I have changed the front brakes on almost all of my cars.
The problem with only replacing the front brake pads and rotors is that you are leaving the rears with compromised braking ability, meaning, the rear brakes aren’t doing their jobs as much as they should be. What does this cause? Well, it causes increased stress on the front brakes resulting in faster wear on the pads and higher heat on the rotors, which equals warping. I guess the moral of this story is to make sure you replace your rear brake pads and rotors from time to time. This will save you money in the long run.
Gee, if I only had followed my own advice, my rear rotors wouldn’t have looked like this…
Yes, that’s mine. I did the back brakes last evening. Look at the small shiny area where the pads were actually touching the rotor.
I will go over this for only one tire, since the other side was identical. First, I pulled off the tire. Then, I had to drill out the two small screws holding on the rotor. Once that was done, I took off the caliper and then the piece that holds the caliper on to the spindle. I had to do this because that piece wrapped around the rotor. I had no choice. Everything was pretty easy to take off, except for those two rotor screws. I had to scrape some gunk off some existing parts to make it easier to put on the new parts, but everything went smoothly. I would say that the whole thing took about an hour.
Believe it or not, my least favorite part about working on my car is carrying the jack from the basement to the driveway.
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Sunday, September 24th, 2006
It was about time I saw my family again. My sister, Laurie, planned a camping trip for all of us. My family was to meet at the Staunton Verona KOA Campground in Virginia.
Since I was coming from New York and I really hate driving across the George Washington Bridge (I have had enough of that), I decided to take Interstate 84 west to Rt. 81 south all the way to Virginia. 81 is a much more scenic route and I enjoy the openness of it more.
I was cruising, just minding my own business…and right when I crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, I happened to look to my left. Wham. What in the world was that?
Don’t ya love people? I am not sure what I was more curious about…the trike looking thing or the trailer. Thinking back, I am really glad I got this picture. I knew it would have a good use someday.
I arrived at the campground in my 89 Honda Accord just in time. It was about to blow up. That car had a strange problem with idling at around 3,000RPM when the engine got hot. I remember I was going out on the town once in Atlanta, GA when I got stuck in traffic. The engine started running hot so I decided to slow it down by putting on the AC. What in the world was I thinking? AC just makes the engine hotter. I had to pull over on the side of the highway and roll down the ramp with the car off, just to get some air running through the radiator.
Ok, back to business. I arrived at the campground to find a delightful setup. You really never know what you are going to get at a campground if you haven’t been there before. You can ask the people at the desk over the phone, but they will just tell you what you want to hear. “Does it have a lot of trees?” “Oh sure, we have tons of them! (10 miles away) This one was good.
They offered lots of little cabins for those who are scared to sleep in the woods (my parents) and tent sites for the brave ones (me). The cabins were probably better because you could lock your stuff up and go have fun for the day. I slept in the tent and seem to remember a nice tilt to the ground. I kept rolling to one side all night. Overall, I had a good night’s sleep.
It was great to see the kids again…Connor, Courtney and Jeffrey. Little people with a lot of energy and a lot of running around. Can you see them in this photo? Hint: look behind the trees.
One thing about this campground is very unique. Rabbits. Rabbits everywhere. Hundreds of them. I guess they keep having babies. What they say is true…I suppose.
If you are going to own a campground, you need something to pull people in. Something like a lake, a river, being close to town or…a WATERFALL!!!
There was a really cool river and a waterfall. Here is what you do: Hike upstream about a mile. Then, throw your tube in the river, jump and land in it. Get everyone else to do the same thing at about the same time. Have some fun floating down the river nice and slow to end up at the waterfall. You have to be sure to pull yourself under the water so you get freaked out a little bit by the weight of the water. This is critical. Finally, you get someone to throw you a rope and pull you back to shore. That part is optional. You can probably stand up and walk back, but my father likes to use rope. After you are good and tired from doing that a few times, go back and cook up some veggie burgers on a nice campfire.
All in all, this was a great campground and I would go back. It’s very close, if not in the Shenandoah Valley, which is beautiful unto itself.
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