(no subject)
Things have gone wrong before, but never like this.
I was on top of the world this morning, figuratively and literally. I ate breakfast at the top of an extinct volcano, with a view of rolling plains dotted with volcanic outcroppings in a 360 degree panorama. My car was getting ridiculously good mileage, humming along in better shape than I'd ever seen before. When a minor electrical glitch popped up (disabling my cigarette lighter outlet; I think there may have been a short but no fuses were blown), I solved it with some awesome ingenuity and handyman skillz. I was feeling positively AMAZING.
Got to Colorado Springs, decided to try and find Pikes Peak. Missed it but ended up on another lil mountain canyon road in North Cheyenne Cañon Park. There was a dirt road that headed from there through the mountains to the highway that connects with Pike Peak, otherwise it was many more miles back and around the long way. So I took the dirt road. It got pretty steep, like really steep. With the extra weight I was carrying, I was having difficulty keeping revs up in 2nd gear, so I had to run for quite a while in 1st gear near the top of my rev range, though I kept it around 1000 below redline. It was heavily washboarded, which led to a lot of jangling and bangling. But soon I noticed that something else was chattering: my engine.
Thankfully I made it to the pass fairly quickly, and was able to descend in gear fairly smoothly. Got down to pavement and a 3-street intersection, called AAA, got towed to a garage, AAA set me up with a discount car rental, took a taxi to the airport because by this time the airport was the only Hertz location open, got a 24hour rental, found a coffeeshop with internet computers thanks to Kami, Hotwire.commed the cheapest motel in town for 2 days BUT THEY GAVE ME THE ADDRESS FOR THE WRONG ONE. They provided the address for a Days Inn just down a street a hopskip, but put the reservation through at a Days Inn 5 miles away. Got lost so many times in all the stages between, using 3 different maps to figure out where I was. 6 hours passed between calling AAA and getting checked into the motel, which is THANKFULLY just 2 miles from the shop my car's at. Spent an hour going back and forth in the rental Yaris moving luggage and my computer to the motel room, and now I'm spent. Shower, sleep. Augh.
I was on top of the world this morning, figuratively and literally. I ate breakfast at the top of an extinct volcano, with a view of rolling plains dotted with volcanic outcroppings in a 360 degree panorama. My car was getting ridiculously good mileage, humming along in better shape than I'd ever seen before. When a minor electrical glitch popped up (disabling my cigarette lighter outlet; I think there may have been a short but no fuses were blown), I solved it with some awesome ingenuity and handyman skillz. I was feeling positively AMAZING.
Got to Colorado Springs, decided to try and find Pikes Peak. Missed it but ended up on another lil mountain canyon road in North Cheyenne Cañon Park. There was a dirt road that headed from there through the mountains to the highway that connects with Pike Peak, otherwise it was many more miles back and around the long way. So I took the dirt road. It got pretty steep, like really steep. With the extra weight I was carrying, I was having difficulty keeping revs up in 2nd gear, so I had to run for quite a while in 1st gear near the top of my rev range, though I kept it around 1000 below redline. It was heavily washboarded, which led to a lot of jangling and bangling. But soon I noticed that something else was chattering: my engine.
Thankfully I made it to the pass fairly quickly, and was able to descend in gear fairly smoothly. Got down to pavement and a 3-street intersection, called AAA, got towed to a garage, AAA set me up with a discount car rental, took a taxi to the airport because by this time the airport was the only Hertz location open, got a 24hour rental, found a coffeeshop with internet computers thanks to Kami, Hotwire.commed the cheapest motel in town for 2 days BUT THEY GAVE ME THE ADDRESS FOR THE WRONG ONE. They provided the address for a Days Inn just down a street a hopskip, but put the reservation through at a Days Inn 5 miles away. Got lost so many times in all the stages between, using 3 different maps to figure out where I was. 6 hours passed between calling AAA and getting checked into the motel, which is THANKFULLY just 2 miles from the shop my car's at. Spent an hour going back and forth in the rental Yaris moving luggage and my computer to the motel room, and now I'm spent. Shower, sleep. Augh.