This is the good stuff

Nothing pressing to do today – so I washed my black Cali and took ‘er for a drive.

This is a couple weeks ago, on Mt. Hood

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Seems like every time I go for a drive, it’s east into the Columbia Gorge, so I went west today and followed the river downstream to Rainier and drove over the river into Longview, Washington.  I drove about 120 miles and did not bring my camera  – lots of good shots for another time, but absolutely none today.  Today, it was just a cruise – seeing the sights and riding on roads I haven’t been on in a long time… and listening to my Kick-Ass 458 watt stereo.  Specifically, to the satellite channel called "80’s on 8".  I guess I’m kind of an 80’s kind of guy.  Not a Yuppy, god no.  Not sure what I was or am, but I’m very sure what I am not.

I’m a School bus driver.

Although I’ve taken that persona off for the summer, it’s a good one to assume – people remember how they were to the bus driver and cut me breaks, sometimes on the road, but more often in person.  I love to drive though, and have been "suffering" somewhat- I was hitting 75 miles a day in my bus during the school year, and a 100, counting my mileage to and from the bus barn, but the last few weeks?  Not much driving at all, really.

Well, except for a couple of trips into the Gorge, I mean.

I’ve owned more than a dozen cars now, most of ’em old and used up, but I’ve had new ones to drive the last two years – the ’08 Caliber that I bought last year, and the ’09 that I traded the ’08 up on.  The ’08 didn’t have much in the way of options on it – I really missed power mirrors, and the toneau cover that covered the area under the back hatch and kept evil eyes off whatever was under it – I WANTED that.  The Black Caliber has pretty much power everything – windows, locks, mirrors, and an automatic transmission.  Cruise control.  Heated seats.  (I drive for a living, I should have a NICE ride)  The toneau cover.  A by golly for real sunroof.

And, no small thing, the best stereo set I’ve ever had anywhere, home or car.  Nine speakers, subwoofer, high wattage – THE BEST.

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I think one of my favorite cars was a 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger that I had for a few years in the late 80’s, early 90’s.  It was a really cool lookin’ two door hard top, with a nice vinyl roof, and a slant six motor in it.  I put about 55,000 miles on that one.  In my past, it was important to me to see how fast my cars would go, and this one would hit about 105 before it topped out.

(It’s not good to do that with tired engines,  I learned from my car experiences, and the new car?  I have no idea how fast it’ll go – the speedo does go to 120, but I want my car to like, last forever, to be the last gasoline engined vehicle I buy.  I am treating my black cali right – it’s gonna get synthetic oil at 6000 miles.  No flooring it (much))

Anyway, the Swinger:

(this is a 1973 model – the 72 was a little different)

I had a good 35mm camera in those days, but it sat in the closet a lot and I don’t have any pictures of my ’72 Dodge Dart – I found this on wikipedia.  I have taken megs of pics of my black Cali, just cuz I can now.

I got a lot of use out of the Dart and had a lot of fun driving it.  One thing that I didn’t like on it was that it had four wheel drum brakes – easier to lock up at the wrong times.  It was a good cruiser though, and as long as one drove like there were idiots on the road, you were ok. I sold it for what I paid for it… and sometimes wish I still had it.

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Back in the 90’s, this was my fantasy car:

1998 T-Bird.

I ren

ted five of these through Hertz and National.  T-Birds and Cougars – they were, I thought, the perfect two door coupe.  Solid, heavy, powerful, refined – tooo cool.  My fantasy car was a ’95 Thunderbird Supercoupe, the one with the supercharged V-6 and the highest horsepower of any T-Bird ever made.  A Supercoupe in Teal Blue – I thought it was THE coolest car ever made, and wanted one… and I drove T-Birds and Cougars as rental cars when I could.

I had a Cougar (same car, basically, just Mercury’s version of the style) in Death Valley once – I had flown into Portland from Japan and rented a red V-8  cat, and drove it the thousand miles to visit Jhni in Big Bear.  Going north again after a week or two, I drove off the most direct route and headed through Death Valley to see what I could of it.  I came upon a miles long line of motor homes – slooooooowly cruising through the desert.

It was like, totally unacceptable to crawl along, especially since my big cat had a V-8 heart.  I topped a ridge behind the long lineof slugs and had a view completely across the next valley – nothing coming.  "Let’s see", I thought, "what this car’s got", and put my foot into it and swung out around the motorhome in front of me. 

I am here to tell you that that 4.6L V-8 pushed that cat past the loooong line of motor homes at 104 miles an hour – it was governed.  Looking at the tach at that speed, she should have made 140 – Hertz knew about people like me, I guess.

As I passed every one of those motorhomes, I waved – at 104 miles an hour, I gleefully waved goodbye as I blew past those slugs.

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I knew one road really well, I-15 from LA to Vegas.  I went back and forth on it many times in the early 80’s, in cars and vans and towing horses – back and forth enough to know the road pretty much by heart.  Zzzyx road makes a good stop – it’s about half way between LA and LV.  Middle of nowhere, road goes no where – but off the highway – a good stop.  I got a 1972 Maxda RX-2 after my first car, a ’70 Mustang died, and put more than 3000 miles on it before I paid a dime on it – back and forth on I-15.

(another wikipedia steal)

My RX-2 was white, with the high beams X-ed out with black tape… for the look   Foglights, and Cruise I installed myself.  A pretty good car.  My Caliber kinda reminds me of the RX-2.  Sweet.

I got about 68,000 miles out of this car – up and down both coasts, east and west, and drove it across the states three times.  It had a Rotary engine in it – kind of thirsty around town, but on the highway, it got near 30 mpg, and it was FAST.  I was once driving on that desert highway, Walkman plugged in my ears, plugging along at 55, the speed limit then (yeah, even though Nevada was pretty much a "drive as fast as you want" state, I was driving economically) and was just pugging along.  I was getting close to Seachlight, on the Nevada/California border, when a black Mercedes Benz passed me like I was going backwards.  He was BOOKIN’!  Flew by me and off over the horizon and he was gone in less time than it takes to write.  Wow!

WTF?  Wow!

Not even a few minutes later, my rear view mirror lit up with every cop in the state of Nevada’s red and blue flashing lights.  I pulled over and more cop cars than I could count whipped by me at full speed – their V-8’s were makin’ sweet music as they rocketed by me.  I dazedly got back on the road, trying to tune the radio to a Las Vegas station to find out what was going on – and had to pull over again as another herd of cops roared by.  I finally got the story off the radio – someone had stolen a hot rod Mercedes – faster, the radio said, than any cop car, and the city and the county and the state cops were all on his tail (musta been a slow day for them – EVERY cop car in Nevada looked to pass me).

Can’t outrun a radio, no matter what kind of motor you’ve got in your car – they caught and stopped that stolen car at the border.  Looked to me like every California Highway Patrol in SoCal was there, and there were three helicopters flying overhead.  T’was all over when I got there, and lines of cop cars going east to Las Vegas passed me going the other way – and I plugged my way back to Pasadena, glad to be like, on my way.

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I didn’t have a car for a long time after I crashed mine in 1998 – killed the car and nearly myself, and must have broken a mirror – it was seven years before I got another car of my own.  I had a 1990 Plymouth Voyager that I got in 2005 and used for distributing the newspaper, and got over 30,000 miles out of it before it’s life ran out – she blew a head gasket, and I had to beg rides to work last January (2008).  I had been working for the same pl

aces for years, and my credit was apparently not too awful bad, because a fellow bus driver took me car hunting one weekend, and I drove home in a brand new Dodge Caliber.  I had been thinking "used", myself.  I had rented several kinds of cars in the 2000’s and was kind of looking for a Chevy Impala:

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I rented two of these in 2005 – they were nice cruisers, and I was thinking that I could stand owning one… but when they offered me not only a new car, but a ridiculous trade-in amount for my as yet sight unseen van, I jumped at the chance to have a NEW car, one I didn’t have to give back in a week, a 2008 Dodge Caliber SE+.

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I had thought about a PT Cruiser – they look cool, and I had sat in them at auto shows and liked the feeling of room inside them, but I rented a Dodge Caliber in 2007 and drove it 3100 miles in the week I had it, and liked it so much that when I had a chance, I bought one.

I put 15,000 miles on that blue Caliber, and treated it right all it’s life with me.  There was nothing wrong with it…. but I wanted more in the same car, and so, one day this Spring Break, I drove into the dealer’s in a blue Caliber and out in a black one, completely loaded.  (ok, well, not COMPLETELY loaded – no in-dash GPS system for my car)

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The meaning of this piece’s title:  I drove out US 30 today, out the Oregon side of the Columbia River to Rainier and crossed the river, and drove back on I-5 and I-205, and was cruising along, cruise contol set, A/C on, "80’s on 8" on the satellite receiver at good volume, and thought

THIS IS THE GOOD STUFF.

This, right now, right here, is the good part – life is good.

 

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