Carmine
Old Man with a Hat
Some of you might have read my vaguely worded post about having an empty minivan in Phoenix and thought; “But this guy lives in near Detroit”… hmm… Well, this was my usual short winter vacation for me and my wife. She finds cheap flights; we get on airplane, goodbye winter. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
The future is windy
This year I said, “See if you can find something with Feb 19th, that’s the AZ Mopar club HEMI show.” Keep in mind, I’m not going for the show, but if we’re going to pick a random week to escape the cold, might as well look at some cool cars. I also use this as a chance to assess my own automotive landscape and buy something that hasn’t been ravaged by decades of salt and terrible roads.
I will now confess my secret love of Chrysler minivans. Unfortunately the one we have is showing some cancer. Not structurally-failing after 8-10 years Japanese-car rust, but “this thing is looking ugly”-type rust. So I found the pinnacle of minivans (until 2011+, which still costs more than I want to spend), a 2003 T&C Limited AWD w/sunroof. The drivetrains will go 300k (and often do as Uber vehicles). So if I’m going to keep it around a while, I want a nice clean western-example to spray with oil before each MI winter. The van was located in Hemet, California which is a pleasant ride from Phoenix with ample opportunity to stop at Carl’s Jr(s). I ask my wife if she can think of anything fun to do in CA and she answers “studio tour”. (She wants to see the Gilmore Girls set, which I will admit is a cleverly-written show…even if it doesn’t have an orange Charger that out-runs the Sheriff each episode.)
Possibly the last time these sites where photographed before destruction by the hurricane.
So I watch this particular example on CL falling from $3500 to $3300 and finally $3100. Call the guy right before we leave from our AirBnB house in Phoenix and he explains he’s only owned it 2 months and “one owner” apparently means no one else on the title, for he bought it from a used car lot. Also… $3100 is a “misprint”. Answer for that one Craigslist! In other words, I’m losing the warm-fuzzies, but I will still make the drive if only for the studio tour. On the ride out, I discover an identical T&C for $2500 inSan Diego Chula Vista and decide to skip Hemet and just run a loop of LA-San Diego-Phoenix.
I bring her to the tour (no kids under 8, so Daddy must watch our 15-m/o daughter and find a way to kill 3 hrs. in LA). But Daddy is cheap and things like the Peterson museum aren’t going to work that well with a kid either. I also didn’t think I’d need a stroller, so I limit myself to places with shopping carts. And now it’s raining. How about the IKEA store a couple miles from Warner Brothers? I need to shop for a mattress anyway and they have the best 4-wheel caster shopping carts to amuse children (like me).
And other cheap thrills.
A good time was had by all and we grab moderately-soaked Mommy from the studio tour and get on I-5. I imagine this is normally a very beautiful drive when there aren’t mudslides, 80 mph winds and trees falling onto the expressway. In fact, a limb did come down at one point and I managed to only run over the edge of it with my rental car. Funny, because minutes before I thought, “You never see these kind of large trees next to the expressway in MI”. Now I understand why. By the time you hit Laguna Beach you are right next to the ocean. My wife says “OMG, you should see the size of those waves!” To which I reply “I. Can. Not. Take. Eyes. Off. Road.” Literally one of the worst and most stressful drives I’ve made in my life, and I used to test cars for a living. Pulling Trailers. On mountains. Once during an ice storm.
The future is windy
This year I said, “See if you can find something with Feb 19th, that’s the AZ Mopar club HEMI show.” Keep in mind, I’m not going for the show, but if we’re going to pick a random week to escape the cold, might as well look at some cool cars. I also use this as a chance to assess my own automotive landscape and buy something that hasn’t been ravaged by decades of salt and terrible roads.
I will now confess my secret love of Chrysler minivans. Unfortunately the one we have is showing some cancer. Not structurally-failing after 8-10 years Japanese-car rust, but “this thing is looking ugly”-type rust. So I found the pinnacle of minivans (until 2011+, which still costs more than I want to spend), a 2003 T&C Limited AWD w/sunroof. The drivetrains will go 300k (and often do as Uber vehicles). So if I’m going to keep it around a while, I want a nice clean western-example to spray with oil before each MI winter. The van was located in Hemet, California which is a pleasant ride from Phoenix with ample opportunity to stop at Carl’s Jr(s). I ask my wife if she can think of anything fun to do in CA and she answers “studio tour”. (She wants to see the Gilmore Girls set, which I will admit is a cleverly-written show…even if it doesn’t have an orange Charger that out-runs the Sheriff each episode.)
Possibly the last time these sites where photographed before destruction by the hurricane.
So I watch this particular example on CL falling from $3500 to $3300 and finally $3100. Call the guy right before we leave from our AirBnB house in Phoenix and he explains he’s only owned it 2 months and “one owner” apparently means no one else on the title, for he bought it from a used car lot. Also… $3100 is a “misprint”. Answer for that one Craigslist! In other words, I’m losing the warm-fuzzies, but I will still make the drive if only for the studio tour. On the ride out, I discover an identical T&C for $2500 in
I bring her to the tour (no kids under 8, so Daddy must watch our 15-m/o daughter and find a way to kill 3 hrs. in LA). But Daddy is cheap and things like the Peterson museum aren’t going to work that well with a kid either. I also didn’t think I’d need a stroller, so I limit myself to places with shopping carts. And now it’s raining. How about the IKEA store a couple miles from Warner Brothers? I need to shop for a mattress anyway and they have the best 4-wheel caster shopping carts to amuse children (like me).
And other cheap thrills.
A good time was had by all and we grab moderately-soaked Mommy from the studio tour and get on I-5. I imagine this is normally a very beautiful drive when there aren’t mudslides, 80 mph winds and trees falling onto the expressway. In fact, a limb did come down at one point and I managed to only run over the edge of it with my rental car. Funny, because minutes before I thought, “You never see these kind of large trees next to the expressway in MI”. Now I understand why. By the time you hit Laguna Beach you are right next to the ocean. My wife says “OMG, you should see the size of those waves!” To which I reply “I. Can. Not. Take. Eyes. Off. Road.” Literally one of the worst and most stressful drives I’ve made in my life, and I used to test cars for a living. Pulling Trailers. On mountains. Once during an ice storm.