Day 2,3: Twin Falls to Glendive to Winnipeg

(Backdating this post so it lines up to when I originally intended to post it)

The drive from Twin Falls to Glendive was annoying but tolerable. It rained a lot, though there were periods of sun. Sadly it was cloudy when I went through Butte, so I couldn't see the giant Butte'er Jesus on the hill (the internets tell me it's actually a statue of Mary, but it's not easy to tell from the interstate).

The drive from Glendive to Winnipeg was a lot rainier. I think I passed a tornado or two after Grand Forks, and had lightning strike objects within 200ft of the car at least 3 times. I also just barely made it through Morris, as the road through town had started flooding, and was at least 8 inches deep by the time I waded my car through it.

And, to cap it all off, the rain was bad enough that it even stripped some of the paint off my hubcaps.

Huffing Fumes

On Monday I took my car in for its usual spring service, and one of the tasks that the techs performed was to rotate my tires. Usually this is a good thing, but in my case it rotated the wobbly tire back to the front where I'd be able to feel it in the steering again.

Now I've had trouble trying to get this fixed before. I, and my mother before me, have taken the rims in to get straightened countless times, and each time they come back claiming they're straight as an arrow but wobbling just the same. I decided to get to the bottom of it myself, so with some minor assistance from Father I jacked up the car and spun the wheel to see what was up.

It was no surprise whatsoever to see the outside of the tire wobbling back and forth quite visibly. What was a surprise was seeing the rim itself spinning straight as an arrow. Apparently the tire itself is mis-shapen. So, new tires are clearly on the menu.

But that's a blog post for another day. You see, while I had the car up, father commented on the shoddy shape my hubcaps were in, with their peeling silver paint not even hiding half of the gray plastic underneath. I'd been intending to repaint them, but since the hubcaps are secured to the wheels by the lug nuts, it's quite inconvenient to remove them. (Though I am happy they're securely retained at all other times)

Today I decided that enough was enough, and I headed over to Canadian Tire and picked up some supplies: a fine grit scuff pad to clean/sand the hubcaps, some latex gloves to keep my manicure clean, and a can of Krylon Fusion Nickel Shimmer to do the deed.

As with any paint job, prep is everything, and I spent a good half hour or so wet sanding the grime and loose paint off the hubcaps with the scuff pad. In hindsight, a medium grit scuff pad probably would have been more effective.

The paint itself went on quite easily, in about 4 or 5 quick light coats on each hubcap. After painting the first hubcap I took a before and after shot, for your ogling pleasure.

The paint dries to the touch after 15 minutes, and "dries" after 1 hour, but only actually fully cures after 7 days. I'll probably leave the hubcaps hanging in the back yard until tomorrow before putting them back on. (Partly to let the paint cure, partly because I feel like having a little lunch and then a nap)

What once was dented, now is shiny

Just got my car back from the body shop yesterday afternoon, and they did a splendid job of removing the sister-induced dent, as well as repainting the mirrors and replacing the cowl.

About 1/3 of my car now looks brand new!

Oops

So I was chipping ice of my windshield this morning, and I accidentally put the ice scraper through the cowl, which I discovered is made of a plastic that's apparently quite brittle in this weather.

Oops. It's not a very important piece, but all the same I would have preferred not breaking it.

Oh well.

Damnit, Jim!

I'm a mathematician, not a mechanic!

Well ok, I'm a perfectly decent mechanic too, just not when it's -30c outside. My car was also sharing my distaste for the cold weather, so I took it in for a service to discover that the battery was only putting out 228 of its rated 575 CCA. $178 later ($110 for the battery, plus misc labour) and it's all good as new again.

I also changed the end on the extension cord for my car, and installed the interior car warmer. The former task was made more interesting by the fact that the outlet tester I had grabbed to double-check the wiring was actually broken, and the latter task was made more interesting by the fact that the cord inside my car was an absolute bitch to plug the warmer into. Took a good 5 minutes of wrestling before I managed to cram it in.

I probably should have done all this in October. Oh well.

Exams are Over

I'm a winner!

Also I need to get my car serviced so it actually starts in -30 weather.

Up and down and up and down

My car window works again. Total damage was about the same as estimated, about $275. Got a free car wash out of it too, which is good 'cause there was some bird shit on the side that I was meaning to clean off.

Well bugger

The power window on my car broke, and in a very inconvenient way. It seems that it ate the worm gear so now my window won't stay up.

Needless to say I'm not pleased by this turn of events, but I've located a Hyundai dealership near by and I'll be dropping it off to get fixed early tomorrow morning.

I'm glad it didn't break the day before I left or something, though. That would have been much more annoying.

At least there's a fairly good chance of finding a replacement part quickly, what with this being a reasonably large metro area and all.

The price tag

Gas mileage for the trip. Dollar values in american.

Winnipeg to Fargo: 386km, 240 miles
8.287 Gallons, $3.499/gal, $29.00. 31.37 Liters.
28.94 mpg, 8.13 l/100k
12.1c/mi, 7.51c/km

Fargo to Bismarck: 314km, 195 miles
6.672 Gallons, $3.479/gal, $23.21. 25.26 Liters.
29.24 mpg, 8.04 l/100k
11.9c/mi, 7.39c/km

Bismarck to Glendive: 317km, 197 miles
5.509 Gallons, $3.449/gal, $19.00. 20.85 Liters.
35.76 mpg, 6.58 l/100k
9.65c/mi, 5.99c/km

Glendive to Billings: 381km, 236.74 miles
9.014 Gallons, $3.439/gal, $31.00. 34.12 Liters
26.26 mpg, 8.96 l/100k
13.09c/mi, 8.14c/km

Billings to Livingston: 185km, 114.95 miles
4.945 Gallons, $3.439/gal, $17.01. 18.72 Liters.
23.25 mpg, 10.12 l/100k
14.80c/mi, 9.19c/km

Livingston to Dillon: 227km, 141.05 miles
4.573 Gallons, $3.499/gal, $16.00. 17.31 Liters.
30.844 mpg, 7.63 l/100k
11.34c/mi, 7.05c/km

Dillon to Pocatello: 326km, 202.57 miles
6.981 Gallons, $3.299/gal, $23.03. 26.43 Liters.
29.02 mpg, 8.11 l/100k
11.37c/mi, 7.06c/km

Pocatello to Twin Falls: 188km, 116.82 miles
5.004 Gallons, $3.399/gal, $17.01. 18.94 Liters.
23.34 mpg, 10.08 l/100k
14.56c/mi, 9.05c/km

Twin Falls to Battle Mountain (incomplete fill): 401km, 249.17 miles
5.527 Gallons, $3.799/gal, $21.00. 20.92 Liters.

Battle Mountain to Valmy (top off): 24km, 14.91 miles
3.577 Gallons, $4.199/gal, $15.02. 13.54 Liters.

Twin Falls to Valmy: 425km, 264.08 miles
9.104 Gallons, $3.957/gal, $36.02. 34.46 Liters.
29.01 mpg, 8.11 l/100k
13.64c/mi, 8.48c/km

Valmy to Sparks: 324km, 201.32 miles
6.586 Gallons, $3.799/gal, $25.02. 24.93 Liters.
30.57 mpg, 7.69 l/100k
12.43c/mi, 7.72c/km

Sparks to Mountain View: 435km, 270.30 miles
8.463 Gallons, $3.899/gal, $33.00. 32.04 Liters.
31.94 mpg, 7.36 l/100k
12.21c/mi, 7.59c/km


Winnipeg to Mountain View: 3508km, 2179.77 miles
75.138 Gallons, $3.584/gal, $269.30. 284.43 Liters.
29.01 mpg, 8.11 l/100k
12.35c/mi, 7.68c/km

Tomorrow is a bit behind schedule

Ok, so I'm a bit late on this blog post. It turns out that the place I rented wasn't nearly up to my expectations with regards to cleanliness and clutter in the common areas, and it really bummed me out. Also, I've been having difficulty accessing my money at home in a useful way that translates into paying rent.

Things are kind of slowly working themselves out on both counts, but it's still a work in progress.

Back to the travelogue though. The drive through Nevada was fairly uneventful, though a tad bit on the cool side. There was a thin dusting of snow to be seen in the ditches most of the way, but nothing like the weather problems of the day before.

I also picked up and/or just noticed another stone chip, over on the right hand side of the windshield again. Oh woe and despair, my poor windshield, how scarred you've become in such a short time on this verdant jellybean.

I really can't overstate how uneventful driving through Nevada was, especially considering what happened when I hit Reno, right next to the California border. You see, something strange happened here; all the cars grew California licence plates, and all the drivers turned around in their seats and started driving with their ass with a cinderblock on the gas pedal.

This transformation was not alone. The road itself even changed its nature. Gone was the freshly sealcoated asphault and carefully doweled concrete of the I-80 in Nevada, replaced by (I swear I'm not lying) *rutted* concrete absolutely riddled with cracks. Arnie very much hasn't been wasting any taxpayer money on road repairs.

I also had the lovely misfortune of passing through Sacramento right at the peak of rush hour... Here's a hint: don't do that.

Oh I've seen fire and I've seen rain...

I lie of course, all I saw today was snow. Miserable, mucky snow. When it wasn't blinding me in a curtain of white, it was melting on the road, then spraying up on my car and freezing on contact, turning every vehicle on the road into an ugly brown icecube.. and if it wasn't doing that, it was melting and evaporating with such vigour that it created a nice layer of fog just on the highway.

Also I got a small stone chip in the upper right of my brand new windshield.

Had Arbys for lunch, a delicious Reuben with a side of curly fries.

I had to take a detour through Rigby before going through Idaho Falls, since the interstate was closed for some reason.

Staying in a Motel 6 tonight in Twin Falls, ID. They charge $3 for internet! The nerve.


View Larger Map

Tomorrow I'll hopefully roll into Mountain View.

Edit: Forgot to mention this: Twin Falls is really beautiful. They've got this big canyon thing and all, definitely worth taking pictures if you're the picture-taking type (I'm not).

I'm in ur country, stealing ur jobs!

So, I'm in Glendive, MT for the evening. Customs went very smoothly, the border official that issued my Visa seemed more concerned about filling out the forms correctly than figuring out if I was a terrorist or not.

Some things of note:

1. I passed someone riding a bike down Pembina Highway that looked an awful lot like Tyler. I'm not sure why Tyler would be riding his bike down Pembina on a Saturday morning, so I'll just assume it was his evil twin.
2. The Hardees Jalapeno Thickburger is divine bliss, though not quite as good as the chili cheeseburgers I had with Bob on Friday.
3. The curbs at gas station entrances have a sneaky way of hiding in shadows when you're tired from driving. No damage done, thankfuly.
4. Someone west of here is making a whole lot of money selling boom lifts to someone east of here.
5. The Theodore Roosevelt park looks like it would be really pretty at sunset. Sadly it was mostly cloudy by the time I got there.
6. Strong tailwinds make for awesome gas mileage.

Today's journey:


View Larger Map


I think tomorrow I'll try for Twin Falls, Idaho. It's a few more hours driving than I did today, but I'll be on the road earlier and I won't have to spend an hour waiting at the border.

I can see clearly now

My lovely jellybean now has a new windshield, and all is right with the world... except it's supposed to snow on Friday: I'm not terribly thrilled about that.

More car fun

I managed to get a stone chip in my windshield the other day. I was driving down Gateway when I heard the ominous "thwack" of a stone hitting the windshield. I took a quick look to see if I could see a chip anywhere, but none was to be found.

So today I'm out grocery shopping and I pull into the superstore parking lot, and I see this odd glint on the windshield. I get out to take a closer look, and I finally see a stone chip right on the shaded part of the windshield just behind the rear-view mirror, and a nice big crack going half way down.

Oh well, good thing I got the low deductable with the cheap windshield replacement option. It was getting kind of sandblasted anyway. I'm going to see if I can get the body shop to do a few rust touchups around the windshield while they're replacing it too.

Wheels, wheels, wheels

So my lovely jellybean was giving me some trouble this past week, ever since I got the tires rotated. Basically I was getting a pretty heavy shimmy coming though the steering wheel, leading me to believe that one of the wheels was bent.

But, as it turns out, they weren't! I dropped of my car at Winnipeg Wheel Works with instructions to check, straighten and paint all four wheels, and when they were done they informed me that all my wheels were straight, but due to some balance and tire wear issues, the tires just needed to be remounted in a different position to straighten things out.

So only $120 later (for the paint, balancing, etc) I've got a smooth rolling car once more. I'm happy.

Life at -35

So I discovered on Thursday that my lovely little Jellybean doesn't like starting when it's been left out all night in -35c weather. It didn't even like starting when I had it on the booster cables with father's truck, which makes me think that synthetic oil might be in its future next winter.

Thankfully it's warmed up considerably since then, and promises to be reasonably mild for reading week, which will see me relaxing in blissful peace until the 25th.

Hell^WWinnipeg has frozen over

Temps this week were almost down to -40c with some wicked wind chills. I bussed it on Monday and Tuesday, but after almost losing a few limbs to frostbite I decided to drive on Wednesday and Thursday.

I did at least discover that my car will start just fine at -30c without being plugged in, which is a good thing.

Thankfully the cold snap has unsnapped now; I just hope the relative warmth lasts a little while this time.

A little cheaper this time

So I took my car in for a bit of service this afternoon, though mostly for an oil change. Thankfully it came out quite a bit cheaper than the last time I took it in for a quick service.

I had the washer nozzles re-aimed, got a new valve stem cap put on, got the oil/filter/etc done.

I didn't get the speedo fixed, since in this particular model of car it involves replacing the whole instrument cluster and probably not getting it any more accurate. I'd rather spend the $200 on buying a new set of 10% larger wheels and tires. It's on my list for next fall after I make millions in California over the summer.

I also didn't get the brake pulsation fixed, because it's probably just due to the wheels being bent again, which is another thing that will be fixed by getting new wheels and tires next fall. I'll probably still keep the old rims and put some 10% larger winter tires on them, since slightly bent wheels don't really matter that much for winter driving.

The only other thing on the list for next fall is getting some rust patches patched over before they eat my whole car... Assuming the car doesn't explode before then, but I think that should be fairly unlikely.

Total damage was only $30.34. Sweet.

Gas Mileage, Vancouver to Winnipeg

Gas mileage for the return trip.

Vancouver to Cache Creek, 327km

20.556 liters for 5.52 l/100k

$23.00 ($1.119/l) for $7.03/100k

Cache Creek to Revelstoke, 296km

20.755 liters for 7.01 l/100k

$23.02 ($1.109/l) for $7.77/100k

Revelstoke to Calgary, 428km

30.023 liters for 7.01 l/100k

$31.04 ($1.034/l) for $7.25/100k

Calgary to Brooks, 186km

15.002 liters for 8.06 l/100k

$15.53 ($1.035/l) for $8.34/100k

Brooks to Swift Current, 325km

23.170 liters for 7.13 l/100k

$25.00 ($1.079/l) for $7.69/100k

Swift Current to Regina, 251km

18.221 liters for 7.25 l/100k

$20.02 ($1.099/l) for $7.97/100k

Regina to Moosomin, 223km

18.204 liters for 8.16 l/100k

$20.01 ($1.099/l) for $8.97/100k

Moosomin to Winnipeg, 370km

22.458 liters for 6.07 l/100k

$23.00 ($1.024/l) for $6.21/100k

Overall, 2406km

168.389 liters for 7.00 l/100k

$180.62 ($1.073/l) for $7.50/100k

That's 33.6 miles per gallon. Again, best mileage in the mountains, go fig.

Freakishly Large Birds

So this morning I wake up and take a look outside, and there I see my car, sitting there as normal... with a giant white spot on the hood.

I look again and there's no doubt about it. There's a round white spot about the size of a pancake, just on the near side of the hood. I start wondering what kind of giant, mutant bird could drop such a load on my car as I venture out to find...

Well, turns out that it's just a slightly warmer patch on the hood where the dew didn't collect overnight, and so when I looked at it from my window, it reflected the white clouds in the sky, while the rest of the car was matted by the dew and just looked green.

Curse you, physics!