Lets see travel post and a car post,  now combine them?  Well not really.

While Mom is off gallivanting in Europe,  I 'borrowed' her car and gave it some TLC.  At first I thought I had Jenny's car.  With all the car seats, toys, blankets and kids clothes in the car.  Checked again, nope this is Mom's car, I am pretty sure.

Started early  - You know pre winter stuff, wash and wax..

Had lots of scuffs and scrapes and scratches.  I will suggest she parks away from people from now on.  I removed quite a bit of  paint that wan't hers on the doors, obvious door dings.  

I am not amused at these scuffs.....That means buffing.

Some more....

Ok, I can fix this.

Yea this is better

Ready to go.  So after claybar and washing and polishing and waxing we have the final product.  I then 'unborrowed' and brought it back home.  

24,901 and 238,900
Just numbers I suppose.

What I f I told you that one was the miles to the moon and the other around the earth at the equator. Then if I told you that Tracys Subaru went more than 12 times around the world or is one third the way back from the moon?
Well it would be the truth as that little wagon, er truck hit 300,000 miles today.

I think I went through the numbers a while ago, but that's 37 oil changes, over 11,800 gallons of gasoline for a total cost of $31,423.27. That's $6000 more than what we paid for the car.  24 tires.... you get the idea.  

I think that's pretty remarkable.  And it's still going.

  

Mama Mia!

Hey , Mom finally worked up the courage and bought her European vacation.

Fast forward a few months to the date of departure.

I stopped by to take her to the place where the coach would pick her up to take her to the airport.  We chatted for a while and made sure she had everything.   Just about ready to leave, she kiddingly  said, "I should go to the bathroom an throw up before I leave".  Yes she still was quite nervous.  Can you blame her?  When was the last time she traveled any distance without someone with her; family or friends and this was to a whole different continent.  Well I got her off to the bus, like I was sending one of my kids off to school for the first time.  Waves and kisses from the bus and off she went.   

Got a text a few hours later that she was already having a good time (only at the airport) and she should be fine with her group.  Ahh they grow up so fast don't they?  Haven't heard from her since, and I think that is a good thing.  

Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pictures when she gets back.  Wonder if she will do it again?

Bikes

I used to believe in a lot of things and as I get older, I have become more jaded and skeptical. Karma, one of the last things I hoped really existed has left the building for me.

Why? Well, maybe chalk it up to bad luck or bad timing or who knows what else, but it seems like this household doesn't catch too many breaks. We pretty much earn everything we have, and its sucks when things go wrong.

3 weeks after we left Joel, on 9/11, his bike was stolen; lock cut and bike gone. People really suck. Now he has to hump it an extra 25 minutes on foot to classes for now. We will watch Craigslist and ebay and check with the police and campus police but I think it's never going to be found. Hopefully the claim I put in on the credit card I used to purchase it will will be approved and we will have some money to get a new one. I doubt it will be as nice, but hey thats life. Maybe I should steal one back. Enforce my own Karma.

Anyway, I took my bike out for a ride yesterday. Gorgeous day, low 60's sunny. No bugs.

 I drove to New Fane only to find a bike race going on. So I drove the extra 20 minutes to Greenbush instead. I had never been here before,  I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was more difficult than New Fane, but by how much?

There are 4 loops on them system and to do them all will be about 9 miles. I did 1, 2 and 3. When I came up on the option to start four or loop back on 3, it was a no brainer. I was not ready for 3 more miles of this. I had already used all 24oz of water and was sucking wind pretty hard. I would say that this trail was at least twice as difficult. Why? Well it wasn't for elevation gain, but the technicality of the trail, it was harsh. So many rocks and small boulders and mostly on ascents and descents following hairpin turns. It was hard to stay upright. I did, but there were a few moments where I wasn't too sure about that.

Difficulty aside it was a nice set of trails. Lots of narrow in between trees and 98% under tree cover. The trails were marked better than New Fane too. I will have to build up my stamina more before I hit this again. Oh I forgot to mention the occasional tree down in the trail. 3 out of 4 I was able to jump over. This last one, not so much.

Its hard to see the scale in this picture but that 'log' almost came up to my waist.  Not going to bunny hop or climb over this one.  

After the ride was over, I realized how close I was to the Parnell Tower.  Never have been there,  I said what the heck,  it is on the way home.  The Parnell Tower is a state park with a 60' high observation tower on top of a 1300' hill.  You can see Sheboygan, Lake Michigan and Holy Hill (35 miles away) from here.  Pretty cool, we should come back in about 2-3 weeks to see the fall colors.

Anyway, if you want to see the trail ride I did, the next post (below) has a link to the trail and the details behind it (like my avg heart rate of over 150!)  Click view details and also choose satellite maps .

Greenbush trails

Pumpkin Rant

You know how we (the royal we) all get sick of the Department stores shoving Christmas down our throats well before Thanksgiving?  It seems that Halloween (fall in general) is getting in on the act.  

Halloween express stores are starting to open.  Starbucks is already shilling Pumpkin Spice lattes and even what used to only be a 2-3 week occurrence in October is now a already on the shelves.  Ima talking about pumpkin beer.

Seriously, the leaves are still green, the kids barely went back to school, there has been no frost on the ground or even the specter of chilly nights. The NFL has not even played one regular season game.  Where do these places get the pumpkin from already?  C'mon folks lets ease up a bit,  Fall will be here in good time, summer is still hanging around and really if we push fall so fast, what is after that?  That's right, winter.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Back to school

Long weekends are good, they could have been a bit more sunny. 

This after a storm rolled through Sunday.

Alas, that just means school is right around the corner.  Time to put all that time of preparation to good use.  Clothes, supplies, attitudes...all come in to play today.  

Kiki had the early bus 6:40 am.... She was up and ready to roll, today.  Tomorrow may be another story.  First day is always the easiest.  

And of course Tracy made Joel take a picture of his first day of classes last week.