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By joel, April 9, 2010 9:32 pm

I lost my job of 2 years last month, forcing me to hold off on any trips for the time being. My new job started this last week, so hopefully I’ll be back up and running by May. The weather has also sucked since the middle of February, so that also puts a bit of a damper on things. As the weather gets better and as summer gets closer I will definitely be driving more again! I can’t wait.

I have owned my wagon since December (28th, I believe) of 2008. Since that time I have driven over 40,000 miles, mostly within Washington state (or just into Oregon or BC). About half of that has been commuting to work. Thankfully the new job is a bit closer, and I will likely be riding the bus and/or working from home more often, so the car won’t be seeing as much wear and tear as time goes on. My manufacturer warranty expired when the car passed 36,000 miles (that happened about 13 months after buying the car). I’m now on an extended warranty which appears to be very good, but I hope I never have to use it.

Anyway, I do have a few things planned for this summer, including a drive to the Spokane area for a big car cruise in the first part of May, and a group drive to Las Vegas in June for a car show there.

In the mean time, here’s one photo I took in February while driving around the Snohomish River Valley:

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By joel, February 27, 2010 5:13 am

After work (in Tukwila) this morning I have plans to help a friend with her computer this morning. Before I do that I am planning on driving back to Bothell to pick up my netbook and camera. That’s about a 30 mile drive right there. Normally, driving from Tacoma is around 50 miles and is about an hour driving time. However, I get a little bored driving up & down I-5 every weekend, so every now and then I decide to take some back roads.

This is what I think I will do this morning (click for google map):

It is essentially double the normal trip, with about 2 hours of driving, and over 80 miles. The scenery is awesome out there, and the roads aren’t bad either. Less traffic is also a nice plus.

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By joel, December 22, 2009 4:32 pm

I’ve been meaning to check out eastern Oregon for a while now. I’ve been thinking a little more seriously about it lately, and have plotted out a preliminary route. Part of the goal is to avoid the main highways, and cars, as much as possible. The other goal is to see a variety of scenery and end up with lots of photo opportunities.

Google Maps link when you click on the image.

The part that really bothers me about that map so far is highway 395. Every time I’ve been on 395 I could swear the engineers attempted to find the most boring way to drive through an area. There are often no passing zones, speed limits are too low, roads are too straight, and there are too many cars. I’m sure I’ll have to modify this route quite a bit to avoid some of the more crowded and boring stretches of road, but it will likely be worth it.

So far Google tells me this route is nearly 1500 miles and 35 hours of driving. I’m up for it..

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By joel, December 19, 2009 7:41 am

Why take the boring route that everyone else takes?

Why follow roads that use 2.5 hours of your time when you can use roads that use 7 hours of your time?

Am I crazy?

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By joel, December 18, 2009 7:43 am

I’m been thinking of taking a trip to Montreal in June. The Canadian F1 Grand Prix is back this year, in Montreal. It’s the only F1 event in North America and it’s an awesome course, so I figure this is a good excuse to see an interesting city as well.

The big question then presents itself: Should I drive to Montreal and back in my own car, or should I fly to Montreal and then rent a car for the few days I’m there. Wanting a car to drive around in while in Montreal is not a question. I definitely want a car while I’m there. It would definitely be cheaper to drive there and back (diesel is awesome like that) than to fly round-trip, however I would obviously save time, save paid-time-off hours from work, and save the wear-and-tear on my car.

However, I have been wanting to make a cross-country road trip since I got this car, and this would be a great opportunity to do so. That said, I’ve already seen a majority of the country along the preferred route (mostly I-90, before turning north). I could drive straight up into Canada and then head east from there, but this path would add time, miles, and cost to the overall trip very quickly.

Another option is to rent a car, one-way, to drive to Montreal, and then fly on-way back home. To me this seems the most practical option, but it is also the most expensive by far. All of the car rental quotes I have seen for such a plan would be astronomically high, and the single plane ticket would be higher than two for the round-trip as well. With these things in mind I have given up on this possibility.

I think I would prefer driving over and back if possible. The biggest negatives are the wear on the car and the extra time away from work. I can try to make the drives as quickly as possible, but that sort of defeats the purpose of a cross-country road trip for me. So, in the end, if I do decide to drive both ways I will need to take off around 5 – 7 days of work, similar to the time I used while in Germany this year. That is nearly half of my available time off for the whole year, so I will need to consider this choice carefully.

The least fun option, but still the cheapest, is simply to fly both to and from Montreal. I would only need a few days off from work, I would avoid putting the six or seven thousand extra miles on my car, and I could completely avoid the monotony that is driving through parts of Montana and the Dakotas.

The more I think about this the more I move toward the ’safe’ choice of simply flying both ways. It isn’t too much more expensive than driving and it avoids a lot of other ‘issues’ involved in driving across the United States.

I would certainly still thoroughly enjoy my time in Montreal, and I might even be able to squeeze some sight-seeing in when not enjoying the grand prix weekend events. Then the only concern is the large expense required to properly enjoy one’s first F1 Grand Prix weekend.

You can count on updates as June grows closer.

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By joel, September 25, 2009 4:58 am

I’m still working on the photos for the last part of the trip, including the Porsche and VW Museums, Hamburg, some of Austria, and a few other random photos.

In the mean time, I’m planning on driving to BC this weekend and making a big loop around the mountains, passing through Whistler.

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By joel, September 16, 2009 1:26 am

Real quickly here: I arrived early at Sea-Tac and got back to my parents’ place where I slept before coming into work tonight. I took my car out for a quick drive before getting some rest.

I missed my car quite a bit by the time the 10 days had passed. I also severely missed the mountains and the water. There are few places in the world like the Pacific Northwest. I can’t wait to go for a drive (yes, more driving) around this area again.

Coke tastes different. HFCS…

I’ll try to work on the photos and reports from Friday through Monday over the next few days so I can get them posted here.

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By joel, September 13, 2009 9:35 am

After the Ring:

I made my way back into town and stopped by Pistenklause once more for a quick meal. I grabbed my tripod along the way and took several night photos of all the cars parked along the roads. Once inside the restaurant I ended up being seated in the same area as the previous night, next to the same British guy I had met earlier. So we talked more about our experiences that day before heading back to our hotels for the night.

the photos from around town on my way down to Pistenklause

Burgstube

another small hotel with a few cars

another popular hotel & restaurant, with all of the Ring Runners of Sweden cars parked outside

down the hill to Pistenklause

looking toward the newer part of town… the BMW Test Center is first large “blue” building

outside Pistenklause

Oh, and this thing flew into my head while I was packing things on Wednesday night in my room. It took me a while to kill it.. it’s huge! (the coin is roughly the size of a quarter)

and some awesome snacks given to me by the dutchman

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By joel, September 8, 2009 4:11 pm

Day number 4. Tonight and tomorrow are going to run together for me, as I have made it to the Nuerburgring. I won’t want to leave.

Tonight I ate at the Pistenklaus Restaurante, owned by Sabine Schmitz’ parents. It’s not bad, and was full of ringers after their track time tonight.. and talking about tomorrow. I ended up sitting right next to a guy from the UK, and another guy who is an Aussie living in the UK, so we ended up talking for quite a while. Both had sort of decided to drive over from the UK at the last minute today. I so wish I could live in Europe, just for this

The town is packed full of Porsches. I’ve seen only a couple 911’s in Germany until today; now I’ve seen about 40, most of which are either GT2’s or GT3’s (many are RS’s as well). There are a ton of other very expensive cars here as well (surprise!). If it wasn’t so late I’d be down the hill taking night shots of GT3 RS’s on the side of the road, and of the parking lots full of 911’s, Lambo’s, and Ferrari’s.

I’m staying at Bergstube Hotel tonight. It’s just down the hill from the Nuerburg castle and overlooks the Eifel hills around the ring. I can’t see the ring from Nuerburg, but you sure can hear the cars on the first part of the track. It’s amazing. It’s a nice little hotel by the way. It’s run by a bunch of bike geeks who ride on the track whenever possible.

Tomorrow morning I’m meeting up with a few people from the finalgear.com forums & irc channel.. a sort of mini-ring meet. I’ll probably sneak a couple slow laps in the rental before heading back to rsr nurburg to pick up the Clio for the rest of the day. I get about 130km for the price, and I might squeeze in one or two extra laps if the traffic isn’t too heavy.

We’ll see though. I’m told that Thursday is some exotic car instruction day, where a bunch of rich idiots have flown their cars in from all over the world to have private instruction. So, because Wednesday is a full open day they’ll all be out driving like newbs in their expensive cars. The locals are expecting a couple crashes from that group, at the least. This means the course will be shut down a couple times.

Oh, the drive in to Nuerburg from the Autobahn is simply amazing. The only ‘negative’ is that the roads are just like every other B road in Germany: lots of speed changes, some small towns, and no where to pull off and take photos. The scenery is awesome though, and the roads are great. It’s a beautiful area; I could live here easily as long as I could get to work without too much hassle..

I did do other things today. I spent most of the day driving on back roads from Kassel to the Edertal area, bouncing from village to village while checking out the scenery. It was a fun drive, but it took way too long and used too much fuel. The car gets better mileage at 150kph cruising than it does at 50 – 100kph on the back roads. It’s a decent car for the Autobahn I suppose, but definitely not a good twisty road car. As with most newer Golfs & Jettas, this one needs better suspension. By the way, after seeing several mk6’s on the road now, I think only the GTI has any real improvement or significant change in the looks department. The biggest difference with the Golf is the headlights and taillights, and if you don’t catch those you think it’s a mk5. The biggest practical difference inside is the doorcard design, so that the power window switches are higher up (which I kind of like).

I stopped in Gudensburg earlier in the morning as well and spent quite a while there, climbing the hill in town to the site of a castle from around 1100 (if I remember correctly). The view was awesome, so I took a few shots I hope stitch into a panorama nicely.

One last note: only in Nuerburg would you have the waitress stop at your table to correct you on the names of corners on the nearby road course

I’ll post up photos tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. I won’t be in any hurry to leave this town.

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By joel, September 6, 2009 12:17 pm

I did just spend some time searching for hostels and hotels within about an hour’s drive from here. I have quickly discovered (after making a few phone calls) that many/most Hostels are closed on Sunday nights, and most hotels are quite a bit more expensive than what I paid for my nights in Nürburg. If all hotel rooms were around 30 – 45 euros it would be a lot easier finding a place to stay

So I think I may well stay here at the friend’s place tonight. I’ll get started early tomorrow and spend the next couple of days driving and taking photos.

I’ll work on my photos soon, I think.