Willie Nelson would be proud. I've been on the road again. My next destination is Jacksonville, FL. Charley has just completed it's destruction of Florida. Fortunately, my grandmother didn't get much of it at all. Selfishly speaking, I'm glad it's already happened, and it's not coming when I'll be there. I'm planning on spending a few more days in Florida to vacation. I'll be heading to my Grandma's house sometime in the middle of the week. I'm watching Fox news and the aftermath of the Hurricane in Florida is amazing. I couldn't imagine losing all of my possessions and my house. I imagine, I might be better off, so much of what I do own is fundamentally disposable, but it would be hard to cope with initially.

    Let me work backwards to catch you up on what has been happening. A spur of the moment day trip, turned into much more than a 3 hour tour. I packed Fritz in my car and went to visit my friend M in Columbus. On the way, I stopped in Wheeling to fill up the car and a few minutes after I got back on the road, I heard this loud pop followed by a whip-smacking sound. At first, I thought it was a flat tire, but I was wrong. It would have been better for me, had it been my tire. I pulled into a 7-11 believing that the problem with my engine was attributable to my neglect. I was over a 1000 miles overdue on my oil change and I hoped that was all it was. It would have been better for me, had it been old oil. Because I'm fundamentally an idiot concerning my car (I sort of understand what goes on under the hood, but I'm not too good at troubleshooting), I bought two quarts of oil and poured them into the engine. It made me feel better, but the car didn't run any smoother. The guy at 7-11 assured me that my problem had nothing to do with oil. He was right, and I foolishly continued my trip, after I tucked the flip-flopping wire between two other hoses. During the next two hours, I kept the window open because I could smell gasoline. The car still ran and I was able to drive over 60 miles an hour, but it was real choppy and very loud. Once I checked in my with friend, I found a Ford dealership willing to take a look at my car.  Several hours later they had their verdict. My car had shot my number 3 spark plug out of the head. The sound I heard was the wire that was still attached  to the plug was smacking against the firewall. I had tucked it in to muffle the sound, but the fuel injection continued to push gasoline up through the vacated hole where my spark plug was previously located. I'm lucky that I didn't do more damage to my car, but I was further from home, then I was from my destination, and Wheeling is really sketchy. The analysis concluded with the sobering news that the head was stripped and it would not hold a new spark plug. The solution (according to them) was to replace the head. The head is aluminum and very expensive and the labor involved is no picnic either. A new engine would have only cost me an additional $1600. I was over a barrel. I told them to fix it. Meanwhile, I'm stranded in Columbus. Fortunately M had pity on me and took some time off of work to help drive me about so that I could make my travel arrangements . Throughout that weekend, I had the Gilligan's Island theme music in my head. After all, it was supposed to be a 3 hour tour. Too bad, I didn't prepare like the Howell's. I could have used the money.

    I was fortunate on a few points. First off, I was able to rent a car for two days for $100 and drive my self back to Virginia. Second, I was heading out of town for work and would be gone all week, thus I wouldn't need my car. Did I mention that they wouldn't be able to fix my car until the parts came in? So, on Monday, I flew down to North Carolina for work. Greensboro didn't impress me much, although some of the outlying areas were pretty. I did my thing on Tuesday and then hopped on a plane to South Carolina to do more of my thing on Thursday. While I was in South Carolina I wandered into Columbia's downtown section and found a really cool bar. I know, it sounds like an ominous beginning to a bad story, but fortunately nothing bad happened there. I just loved the atmosphere at that place. They had over a 100 available beers and even had a chalk rendition of Yoda over the bar. It was called Flying Saucer and it seemed worthy of being my Cheers, if I were living down there. Plus they had decent Pepperoni Pizza. On another night, I ate at Jimmy John's which was a really good sub place. It was obviously a chain, albeit with more personality than Subway. In between working and dining, I called the Ford dealership, trying to figure out how I'm going to get my car back. I figured that I would fly directly from South Carolina and pick it up on Friday if it was ready. Well, it wasn't. Instead I got back home and they confirmed on Saturday that it would be ready on Monday. I was planning on flying out Sunday for $308 so that I could pick up the car first thing Monday morning and go home. But then I checked out last minute deals at Travelocity and found a fantastic round-trip ticket for $287. But then,  I also had a $50 coupon, so it was only $237. Oh, I forgot to mention that it also included two nights at a Candlewood Suites hotel! What a bargain! One benefit / drawback was that I had to fly out on Saturday. So I flew out on Saturday. With the arrival on Saturday, I had a whole day on Sunday to use up and we decided that Cedar Point wouldn't be a bad way to spend it. So, I rented a car and we drove up there. It was sporty and fun, and surprisingly cheap. Cedar Point was a lot of fun. It was much cleaner than King's Dominion and they own the Peanuts license. We didn't ride a bunch of rides. Mostly we just walked around taking our time, window shopping and trading stories about the many amusement parks we've been to. It was a good day amidst all of the car uncertainty. Every once in a while you can take a vacation from life and Sunday was like that. What choice did I have? When things are so out of your control, it's time to just enjoy what is left.

    On Monday, I picked up my car and drove home. I must say, I am disappointed by the work done by the dealership. For the last several weeks my car has been running choppily. What makes me mad about that, is that when you spend thousands of dollars for work to be done, it is not unreasonable to expect them to make sure that the car at least runs smoothly after the repairs have been completed. So, this week, I took it into a local dealership to have that problem checked out, and I also needed an inspection. To pass inspection, I had to have my rear brakes replaced. Cha-ching! Say goodbye to another $450.

    What are you going do? As the costs spiral, it just gets ridiculous and you hope that the costs will cease for a while. My friend C thinks that the problem with my car was probably caused last August when I had my a tune up. They probably over-tightened my sparkplug which stripped the aluminum head (which is softer than steel heads). Over time, it wiggled and stripped the head, culminating with at tiny explosion under the hood. *Shakes head*, sigh. Absolutely amazing. I just hope that I bought another 5 years with the car.

    Following my trip down to Florida, I'll be taking a shorter trip up to Cincinnati. For this one, I should be able to see some of my relatives while I'm out there.  Well, I'm starting to yawn. Sorry for not writing sooner. Life is moving fast. Oh, one last thing. The Redskins. *Big Grin* I went to the training camp last week. It was a little bit of a kick. I'm very excited about the coming season. I may even catch a preseason game in early September. We'll see. Later!