Bicycle built for two.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I'm writing to you poolside, utilizing the fine free wireless internet access from our hotel.

It's my first vacation away this year. We decided to meet K's friend (who is visitng from Japan) in Mackinaw. (Mackinaw or Mackinac, does it really matter?) Anyway, so yesterday we made the semi long drive up north. I think we probably drove about 5 hours or so.

This time, instead of taking my car (or K's), we got a rental car from our friends at Hertz. I signed up for a Ford Forkus, but instead we got one of the new Fusions. Apparently, at the location I was picking up, they didn't have Forki, so I ended up getting a Fusion (a free upgrade, the woman at the desk told me).

At first, I wasn't too happy about the upgrade. I was thinking, bugger car, crappier gas mileage, etc. But it turned out to be the nicest rental car I've ever driven. It's pretty loaded - Sunroof, leather, steering wheel radio and climate controls, trip computer, auto temperature control, heated seats (not helpful in the summertime, but still), the whole nine yards.

So then I didn't mind not getting the Forkus too much :)

As a sidebar, here's my review on the Ford Fusion:
It drives pretty nice. The ride is quite comfortable and feels pretty solid at speed. The interior is well appointed, complete with a swanky analog clock that reminds me of the Infinitis that they ripped the idea off of. The stereo has really good sound. I liked being able to control the radio and environment controls from the steering wheel. The trip computer was quite nice. I liked being able to see my average speed, miles to empty, and average fuel economy. Oh yeah, I also like the ricey style taillights too.

And now the things I don't like (heh)
The car's a tad underpowered. It feels like it's struggling on an on ramp, and it lets you know it because it's quite noisy). The steering wheel controls are nice, but it's just a cluster of buttons along the inner spokes of the steering wheel. The button face variations are very subtle - I found myself looking down to read the button every time I needed to control something.

I think that's pretty much it. The car was really comfortable to drive and ride in (I didn't hear any complaints).

Did I like it enough for me to buy one? Probably not.

But it did make me want to get a nice luxury car :)

Oh yeah, so here's the worst part - The driver's side door didn't lock with the remote. You can lock it manually, but if you try enough times, you can get the door to open anyway.

Lovely.

So where was I?

Oh right. So we drove up to the bridge, and crossed it. Got to St. Ignace around 5 ish. We did some touring around town, just checking out the sites to see and whatnot. It's a pretty nice (but rather small) town.

We stayed at the Super 8 - St. Ignace.

(to be continued)

New Tire Smell

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

I finally broke down and got new tires for the car.

I love that new tire smell.

It's gotta be up there with like new car smell. Now my garage smells like it too :)

On a nerdy car geeky note, I switched it up this time from the Dunlops and went with the Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S this time. So far I like them. Don't know if it's placebo, but I can tell a difference.

-Kirk

When dollar stores go bad

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Went to the local dollar store by K's place yesterday. Like I've said before, I love the dollar store. You never really know what you're going to find.

Apparently, sometimes you win, and sometimes you get stinky stuff. Literally.

Parking all day long outside with the windows rolled up in the sun does not make for a good smelling car. Unless you have the infamous bake your arse leather interior, you're pretty much going to be reduced to a mildly stinky car smell once the new car smell goes away.

My car lost it's new car smell about 14 years ago.

Anyway, so the friendly neighborhood dollar store had quite the potpourri (no pun intended) of smelly products for your car. I'd had good luck with smelly spray for the house, so I figured my luck would continue with the car stuff too.

Not so much.

Along with other silly purchases like glow sticks, a nut cracker, and a soap dish, we ended up buying 3 car smelly products.

One was this "oil" based smelly liquid that was wicked into what looks like a very small tampon (to be honest, that's what it looks like) and the scent gets released to the air through magic.. It contained a clip that you could use to clip on to your air vent. I was a little skeptical, but K had purchased a similar product a while ago that worked pretty well. So I put my faith in the dollar store and thought I'd give it a try.

I chose "strawberry."

After leaking all over my hands and not clipping securely to my air vent, I was ready to throw it out. Very disappointed. Not giving up hope, I decided to take it home and put it in the kitchen. I figured it would be safe since it would just sit on the counter, and not be at the mercy of crazy starts, stops, and turns.

The story just goes downhill from there...

So then we bought these two little plastic containers of smelly gel beads. They looked super cool. Like salmon roe, but in fun tropical colors, and named scents like "melon" and "spring breeze." Not only did the gel beads look cool in the plastic container, but from the name, K and I had visions of driving off into the sunset, smelling of melon in my car, and smelling spring breeze in hers. (ok it may be the other way around, I kind of forget).

So ok, back to the story.

We opened up the green smally gel balls with "melon" smell. At first, it was ok, but then things quickly turned sour when it started to smell like old lady bathroom scent when you got too close. But eventually, that's all i could smell.

Not pleasant.

OK OK, so I have to admit, my faith in dollar store smelly stuff for the car had completely been destroyed. But I still had a flicker of hope, figuring that we just got a dud.

hmmm. if only we were so lucky.

So then K opened her container of sky blue "spring breeze" smelly gel balls. Again, it smelled ok for a second. Then it had a familiar smell that I coudn't really place. It took me a second, and then I knew exactly what it smelled like.

Urinal cakes.

Needless to say, we don't have any of these air fresheners in the car. I still have the oil based air freshener in the kitchen. Only bad thing is that you have to stick your nose up to the tampon thingy to actually smell strawberries.

So the moarl of the story, stay away from dollar store car air fresheners. No matter how cool they look.

-Kirk

End of the vacation glow

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this evening.

Just a few notes before going to bed.

Love the week vacation, dread the thoughts the night before going back to work. That's always a buzzkill, that's for sure.

But I had the vacation glow. All the way up until my afternoon meeting. Then, like a car screeching to a halt, the pre vacation crustiness returned.

Begin old and crusty.

For some reason, I've been addicted to diet soda pop. (notice how I threw both in there to be neutral).

I find myself actually craving it. I think it's the hot summer days, or just how I love salty food. But I will actually crave some soda pop just out of the blue. (shrug)

I am a big water fan, will always be. But there's something about a nice sweet carbonated beverage :)

-Kirk

Let's stay together.

Hi all,

Hope you're doing well this morning.

I'm on vacation all of this week and it is already half over. How depressing. It's been the first week I've had off since my trip to the homeland in December, and I absolutely love it. I wish vacation could last forever.

Now I just need to plan my next one...

Last week was not so fun. It ended better than it started though.

Just some music video musings:

• I like the video for Daniel Powter's Bad Day. It's very cute and clever - Something that I miss in videos today.
• What the hell happened to Def Leppard? What's with all these recent songs? Remake of a 90s song? Come on. What happened to the good old days where you poured sugar?
• Christina Aguilera's Ain't No Other Man is catchy but the music video seems very familiar - Didn't she do a video like this already? Is this part two?
• I've always been a part time Bon Jovi fan (liking some stuff, not others)- But Who Says You Can't Go Home is quite a catchy tune. I like it.
• James Blunt has had 2 really good singles so far. His videos are rather unique so I dig them.

-Kirk