mndsm's new... (toy)olla!

ROFL! So, we met Yamaha for a lunch. Packed my cake hole full of wings, again. Drank beer. It was good beer. I'm going to have to chronicle the beers I drank. The last one was unreal. Turns out, Yamaha's name isn't Andy. Went and got a new battery for the corolla, 40$ out the door at interstate. Now eating a burger and watching liam neeson threaten terrorists. The last leg is tomorrow. I am ready to go home.

He just left for the Chicago leg.

I AM THE CHICAGO LEG!

2 hours flat from Indianapolis to Kankakee..... Is that fast?

Yes, yes it is.

So.....full.......

He has left and is on his way home.

You guys eat gummi bears?

In reply to Richard Nixon:

No, just delicious burgers.

ive been trying to follow your journey while i was away on vacation and none of the pictures were loading for me. but i am home now and all caught up.

weird. for some reason this whole time i thought the wagon was a 5 speed but its an automatic. I am sure it is much nicer than the loathesome cvt versa i was stuck in for a week. never again. that thing has to be built for fleets mostly, because you should be smacked if you actually buy one.

failboat wrote: I am sure it is much nicer than the loathesome cvt versa i was stuck in for a week. never again. that thing has to be built for fleets mostly, because you should be smacked if you actually buy one.

Nah. They sell them at the dealership. The Note and Versa are both ridiculous cheap and the dealerships sell them in the same clothes as the rental/fleet companies buy them.

Thom, you home yet?!?!

745pm CST I landed at casa de mndsm. I'll give you the lowdown later. I'm not entirely sure but I'm fairly certain I set some sort.of record. I need sleepy.

And the saga moves to chapter 2

failboat wrote: ive been trying to follow your journey while i was away on vacation and none of the pictures were loading for me. but i am home now and all caught up. weird. for some reason this whole time i thought the wagon was a 5 speed but its an automatic. I am sure it is much nicer than the loathesome cvt versa i was stuck in for a week. never again. that thing has to be built for fleets mostly, because you should be smacked if you actually buy one.

I thought it was a 5 speed until about two weeks after I bought it.

1100 miles, 3 tanks of gas, 6 mountain dews, countless amounts of water. Total time back around 15 hours including gas stops and a dead battery in Columbus Ohio. Not included was the 2 hours spent commiserating with sbf in Kankakee over one of the better burgers I've experienced. Bacon, egg, barbecue pork, cheese. Excellent fries too. The car was excellent. I burned out a turn signal somewhere in Illinois, and that whole dead battery thing- but it was trouble free. Car returned something like 35mpg at 80+ mph. With a load of stuff. And 195k on it.

First things first, the thank you's. Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Sky render for the deal on the car and transportation of it to my parents. Failboat for the killer deal on the wheels and the sweet memorial plate. I may re-use that. Swank force one for the couch and the beer and the wings and the cat to pet on and the leg work to get the battery deal sorted. 40 bucks was a killer deal. Yamaha and Mopar for coming out and keeping me entertained. Sbf for the gigantic burger. It was a helluva time.

Second- the things we need to address. There appears to be some mystery wiring under the hood. Has a couple fuse blocks in it. Thought it might be for the fogs, but that circuit appears to still work. Speaking of the fogs, I need to un-berkeley myself that. I went ahead and tore it all up like 4 seconds after I opened the car the first time. The stereo. The head unit is rad but I don't have the slightest idea how it works. I need instructions..... Its disco as berkeley. Also, speakers. I need new speakers. I think I blew up the toyolla ones somewhere in Wisconsin. And a horn. The horn, it no work. I need the beep beeps. Loud as humanly possible. I'm thinking quad hella-tones. Srsly. Next, window tint. Minnesota laws regarding tint are silly. Wagons count as SUVs and vans. Which means, only my front two windows have to adhere to any form of the law. And I already have a 20% prescription, so this car will get 5 on all but the front 2. Is gonna be dark. I need this to prevent blindness.

On the wish list-

Coilovers. Fender flares.
Itbs. Hids. Rally armors. Etc.

Truthfully I don't know what's next. The hood is a blank canvas. Markers are cheap. You can probably put two and two together. I will also be contacting my sticker people in the next couple days to get something made that made me laugh for a good 20 miles outside of Madison. There may be a limited run of them available. You will want them. I think this is the perfect car to take cone dodging. I may do that. Stay tuned.

Things I learned on this trip-

Rt 30 through the pa Appalachian mountains is one helluva acid test for a car. I was skurred.

Apparently no one got the memo- the left lane is mine. I own it. It belongs to me. If you are in it and slowing me down, you need to move.

Merging is apparently something they don't teach east of the Ohio river valley. Who the berkeley stops at the bottom of an on ramp? I almost died.

I repeat, the left lane? Mine. I cannot stress that enough.

You can cover an impressive amount of road in liquid deer when you use an 18 wheeler as a distribution device. I had no idea you could debone an entire doe at 80mph.

On that same note, there is some creepy chud somewhere in Appalachia stealing squished deer heads. I saw probably 10 bashed deers sans head. Now I would say it was due to the accident, but the wound was too clean. Someone is decapitating these things.

Illinois drivers annoy me the least. They understand the left lane. Its mine. They share it, but they hammer. I have O problems with this.

The Ohio turnpike wasn't as scary as people made it out to be. I saw more cops in Wisconsin.

I'm still a sucked for cheap roadside attractions. The dells damn near waylaid me for a whole extra day.

Left land brewery nitro stout may be my new favorite beer. Holy E36 M3.

Seriously. Damn.

Who doesn't like a nice zombie deer mount?

bgkast wrote: Who doesn't like a nice zombie deer mount?

Yeah apparently that's a thing out east.

One other thing I learned, I want one of those giant international truck things they make out of box trucks. I want it so I can roll coal on brodozers because it will be epically funny.

Years ago while driving through PA, after witnessing numerous instances of bad merging, we coined the term "Pennsylvania merge". We've been saying that now for the last 20 years. The Pennsylvania merge, is to go really fast on the on ramp and then just hope that there is a spot to merge into. It is really important to neither look nor signal. Just give her some gas and slowly wander over to your left until you are in a traffic lane. I think in PA it is the responsibility of the people already on the interstate to move out of the way and make a hole for the mergers. I haven't driven in the state of PA since somewhere in the late 90's so maybe times have changed and now the mergers have learned that the classic PA merge is not effective, so they figured they would try the opposite technique which involves just stopping on the on ramp.

mndsm wrote: Things I learned on this trip- You can cover an impressive amount of road in liquid deer when you use an 18 wheeler as a distribution device. I had no idea you could debone an entire doe at 80mph.

Thank you for this. The whole post really, but especially this. I laughed. I smiled. I read it again and laughed again. It's been a rough day and that giggling made it better.
Can't wait for build part of this.
Carry on.

mazdeuce wrote:

mndsm wrote: Things I learned on this trip- You can cover an impressive amount of road in liquid deer when you use an 18 wheeler as a distribution device. I had no idea you could debone an entire doe at 80mph.

Thank you for this. The whole post really, but especially this. I laughed. I smiled. I read it again and laughed again. It's been a rough day and that giggling made it better. Can't wait for build part of this. Carry on.

I'm glad I could help you out with that. I've been told in the past I have a way with words, and that wasn't just a judge telling me to shut up or go to more jail.

BUILD CONTENT-

I went downstairs to check out some things today and introduce it to the herd. It and the mx6 seem OK with each other. The ms3 is a bit of a princess, so it will take time. Kinds of like cats. Or ferrets. The prism thought of it as kin, so that was easy. The mini is still on punishment.

I did however do build things. I figured out what I broke in the wiring for the driving lights. As it turns out, the fused wires off the battery are I'm fact the constant power for the fogs. I know this because I went and reconnected the switched power inside the car, and no ligjts . traced it back, and there she blows. I need to reconnect that and I should be golden.

I also found the dead signal. Left front bumper. I fix tomorrow.

Gibson and I danced to ixnay on the hombre, while I listened to the acoustics in the car. Need new speakers. Bad.

I was actually going to swap wheels, but then I realized I didn't have the right lug nuts. And I didn't have a spare set. And new ones were expensive. So.I'm just gonna wait a bit and get gold ones. Because bling bling.

Last but not least, I did talk to my sticker person. Waiting on proofs. She seems to think what I want is easy. Stay tuned.

So do you sticker bomb your windows?

30 through PA is my choice "avoid the turnpike fees at all costs and get some hills and twisties in the process" road.