Hey, sorry everyone, my brain takes a little while to ramp back up and get into the real world after a vacation. As I shook off the post-travel cobwebs I gave absolutely no thought to a blog post for this week. I'll do this as a journal though and give you my thoughts for the week, and then follow that up with the promised video of driving the Hellbender in North Carolina. I'll do that in a separate post though since I'll probably have to leave it to upload while I'm at work.
This week brought very little excitement I'm afraid. I did have a failed attempt to retrieve my motorcycle though. It's still sitting in Petrolia after leaving it there for the Fontana trip. Gray and I returned home Friday night through some truly horrible weather in the hopes that things would clear up on Saturday and I could ride home. I actually brought some of my high-tech camping clothing so that I could layer up in warm, breathable clothes. I was prepared with rain gear as well, and was ready for anything. I didn't consider the wind though. When I took a look outside on Saturday morning and saw the trees whipping back and forth I realized that a ride through the open countryside would prove detrimental to my health. Winds in Toronto were reported as gusting up to 100km/h and were bringing down power lines. It doesn't take too much wind to start moving that little bike around on the road either. It was frustrating to just turn around and abandon my plan to retrieve my bike, but I wasn't willing to risk it. I'll probably take the train home sometime in the next couple weeks to have another crack at it.
Another thing on my mind lately (which does somewhat relate to travel, woohoo!) is that I've been considering buying a small truck. I've always been a fan of small, Japanese cars, but I think I'm getting to the point where I'd enjoy the utility of a pickup truck. The biggest draw there comes from the fact that my motorcycle is less than comfortable on the highway even in the best of conditions, so I'd like something that I could haul my bike around in. Also, our poor old Civic is 10 years old now, and has 266,000 km on it, so the peace of mind and comfort of a new vehicle would be nice for a change. I've been getting a lot of support on this one from everyone except Graydyn, who thinks I'm an idiot for even considering getting rid of a car that still runs. I'll work on that one. I'm not looking at turning this into a car review site, but I will say that after my research the Ford Ranger is carrying a strong lead in the competition to be my first truck. Small, dependable, and cheaper than anything on the market by a fairly significant margin.
Okay, I'll see what I can do about getting a video uploaded. I wouldn't expect anything until tonight or tomorrow though as I'll have to leave this to do it's thing during the day. Have a good week everyone.
3 comments:
Sucks about the failed bike retrieval. Hope you get it back soon. As for getting rid of a still functioning car, remind Graydyn that he can hang on to HIS Civic for as long as he pleases. I will find some links for you, I have seen several posts on various message boards about small trucks. The Ranger is up there on the value scale, just keep an eye on fuel economy some engine/trans combos use just about the same amount of fuel as a full size truck. I would also go for 4X4, those little trucks can be tricky in the winter without it.
Sorry Gray but with that many kms on the car it's bound to start having problems. My Civic is 13 and has 105K on it and now spends most of it's time in the garage as I bus it to/from work.
I'm sure there are lots of good deals on small trucks. Check out CBC's Marketplace for tips on buying used vehicles, and also check the Cdn. Black Book for vehicle values.
I tried to find those threads but it seems like the search function on both I checked out is not very good.
I did find this tough.
http://www.minidomore.com/mini_cooper_towing/motorcycle.php
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