Coming Home
It seems strange to post about coming home before I post about my actual trip. Deal with it.
I have never flown out of Iceland before, so I worried. (I'm getting really good at that.) But Trish (my traveling companion), showed me this handy table that the FlyBus had that showed us we would get to the airport on time, so that helped a lot. Instead, I worried that they would forget us. (see what I said about being good at worrying?)
We had to be a bus stop 8 at 6 am. They actually didn't come until 6:25, which just gave me extra time to worry. Not to mention "enjoy" my last experience of Iceland wind.
I fell asleep on the bus to the airport (it takes an hour), but Trish was able to get this photo of the Reykjanes volcano.
We get to the terminal exactly 2 hours before the flight takes off which was 9:20 am, so I can let go of that worry at least. But we must check in at the Kiosk, and there are only 2 of them, labelled Delta flights only, and they are occupied by people who are not flying Delta. An agent gets them to the proper kiosk and we check in. Just as I take my boarding pass and baggage tag to the agent, the flight gets cancelled.
I talk to an agent, who says I am probably scheduled on the flight for tomorrow, but there is a Icelandair flight leaving this afternoon, and I should go check with Icelandair. The Icelandair agent says he can do nothing because Delta has to change it on their end. I end up standing around with complete strangers so we can all worry together. I muse aloud that I should download the Delta App, and someone says it isn't working. Wonderful. I sign on to the airport Wi-Fi to email Jack (It's midnight at home) to give him a heads up. And I find an email from Delta saying I'm rescheduled for the Icelandair flight at 4:45 that afternoon. And, miracle of miracles, I can make my flight to Pasco! (Perks of being a Delta skymiles member. Next time I travel, I'm becoming a member of every airline I travel with!)
I can make the last flight because of a 10 hour layover in Minneapolis, which I was going to spend with Connie and Dean. Well, now I only have 3.5 hours. So I prepare so spend some time at the Iceland airport, since I am not going back to Reykjavik and experience Iceland's wind.
Just so you know, it is 560 steps around the check-in areas of the airport and it takes 7 minutes to make that circuit.
And there is a place I can get coffee and breakfast. (Next time I'm gone for this long, I'm going to give up coffee. Half of what I had on the trip was substandard, and several were absolutely deplorable. Even worse than Pepsi.)
At 12:30 I check in for my flight, and I discover that my bags are only checked in through Minneapolis, there are no stickers printed that go on random places on my bag, and no baggage claim check. Plus it only printed a boarding pass for the first flight. OK, not to worry, the agent will fix that.
In the meantime, I talk to a woman originally from Pakistan, now living in New York. We chat about all sorts of things, including exchange students (somehow they always come up when talking to people in airports), emergency room visits, the weather, the fact that I'm from Washington the State and not DC (that comes up a LOT). That conversation continued until security, in fact.
The helpful Icelandair agent said that I had glued my claim check to the baggage tag. (That's what you get when amateurs are in charge of things.) But they have no agreement with Delta about handling baggage, so I will have to retrieve my bag in Minneapolis and check in for the Delta flight there. And, since I have 3.5 hours, that is plenty of time.
Good news! I get to worry again!
So, armed with a baggage tag applied by a professional, I head off to security. I spent most of my Icelandic crowns on 2 t-shirts and a puffin and lunch. I only have 522 crowns left, so I'm pretty proud of myself.
I have to go downstairs for the gate...and the helpful agent says there are no bathrooms down here, I have to go back upstairs. Fine. This time I talk to a young man from Sweden who is spending the year at a University in the Minneapolis area. And of course we talk about being an exchange student! He also doesn't understand how people can live in 40 C weather (that's 104 F). Minneapolis is only 90 right now, but it feels hotter due to the humidity. I kindly agreed with him, but did not inform him that he will learn to live in the heat in, well, 7 hours.
We scan our boarding passes, then we go upstairs, then we go downstairs, (really?) and then we board a bus to the plane.
I'm actually seated on a row that is next to the official exit! So I plot, for the last half hour of the flight, how to get to my bags and be off the plane efficiently because I am still worried about how fast I can negotiate the Minneapolis airport.
In the meantime, there were no clouds over the southern tip of Greenland, and I have these pictures:
So, after sleeping for 2 half hours, watching "Oppenheimer" and "Big Bang Theory" and finally getting some knitting in, (it was so hot in Brno and Vranov that knitting with wool just wasn't an attractive option), we land in Minneapolis. And I am first off the plane! (This has never happened before!) And I am first in customs! (this has happened before) And I am first at baggage claim! However, my bag was NOT first. But I was not worried yet.
Then I realize I am in terminal 2 and I need to go to terminal 1. First I had to wait for a tram that also went to downtown Minneapolis. (A helpful stranger told me it would stop at Terminal 1 first.) Then I had to go through an unmarked hallway and down an escalator to get another tram to the Departures part of the terminal. That opened into another marked (good!) hallway, up some escalators, through some doors, and finally to Delta check-in. (If I had known that it would take so long, I would have worried harder earlier. Oh well, lost opportunities.) I honestly lost track of all the escalators and stairs. Finally, armed with my boarding pass to Pasco, I can banish my last worry - that the flight would be oversold and I would have to stay overnight in Minneapolis. I did have one pair of clean underwear and socks, and even a clean t-shirt (from the airport in Iceland), so I pretty much ensured that wouldn't happen.
Well, to finish up, I got home on time (midnight, PDT, 7 GMT), although I didn't sleep on the flight and probably only slept 4 hours total after being up for 27 hours. But since nothing was scheduled, it didn't matter and I didn't worry about that.
But I didn't get to see Connie and Dean. However, I have a voucher from Delta that will cover most of the cost of that flight!
Kitchen Shenanigans
Our kitchen remodel adventures actually started 24 years ago, when I decided that we needed a bigger house and thus kitchen and Jack went along with it.
I designed the kitchen layout myself, which it why Things Went...Slightly Wrong. But only slightly. I decided that I wanted a corner sink, and saw a double sink affair shaped like a V, except with a 90-degree angle instead of the 60-ish angle of a V. The faucet sat in the middle of the V. Two problems arose right away: too small a sink (even though there was 2 of them) and the faucet could be swung around so that it sprayed water all over the counter. (And floor.) I had drawn the layout on quadrille paper (who needs an architect?) and meticulously counted the squares. And was off by one. (who needs Quality Control?) This meant for the last 24 years that the refrigerator door hit the counter when it opened. You couldn't open the fridge very far when loading the dishwasher. (Now that I think of it, unloading it either. But I usually unloaded it when no one was home, so at least that really wasn't an issue.) I learned to live with these. A third problem reared its ugly head later: If the vegetable drawer near the hinge needed cleaning, I need to empty the entire fridge. (OK, not the door or the freezer). It was amazing how the definition of "clean" ...expanded.
Another thing that will become important (cue the ominous music): The contractor put the dishwasher in right next to the sink. This means you had to be less than 6 inches wide to load the dishwasher from the sink, which, as you remember, (seeing it was only the last paragraph) was in a corner. The contractor had a "D'oh Moment" when I pointed this out. He had installed a heating vent under the cabinets, and now was looking at going under the crawlspace and moving that around and retiling things. After some consideration, we told him not to move it. If it got too cold in the winter, we would have him come out next spring. It has never gotten cold enough to worry about, but the dishwasher is sitting above open heating ductwork. (repeat ominous music)
Nine years ago (2016), we replaced all the countertops and I changed the sink to one single sink. Only now the faucet was further away from us. Our backs had started to complain whenever we had to use the sink for an extended period of time, like washing dishes by hand. But at least I have a decent sink, it took some effort to run water on the floor (it did happen) and Jack does the hand dishes.
Fast forward to September of 2022. I broke the dishwasher. I pulled the door right off. (Sometimes I don't know my own strength. Other times I am painfully aware of my puny, weak little female muscles.) I went into our exchange student's bedroom and told her "Good News! You didn't break the dishwasher! I did!" Then I left for the weekend to a quilt retreat. Jack got a new dishwasher and had it installed. Yay Jack!
In January of 2023 we noticed the fake wood floor of the dining room buckling. (OK, it's engineered wood. But that still means it's not quite real wood.) To make this long story only slightly shorter, the dishwasher installer, who is a professional, had mated a metal screw hose with the plastic on the dishwasher, damaged the plastic threading, and the dishwasher leaked from the get-go. It took four months to find it because it was leaking into the heating duct. (remember the ominous music?) When that got filled, plus the ducting insulation, it bubbled onto the flooring. Well, we got someone to fix the dishwasher junction with some kind of plastic tape, then hired someone else to remove the ductwork and cap the opening. The workers got the ductwork outside without spilling it into our basement (which has already had 2 floods). The place got dried out and we hoped the floor would return to normal.
In September 2023, we finally agreed that the floor needed replacing, and that went off without a hitch. (Well, except they told us it would take two days and it only took one. But some people will complain about anything.) The person in charge poked the underlayment where the tile floor met the new "wood" floor under the tile floor of the kitchen and told us, "You'll need to replace that in a year or two."
My first thought was "I can get rid of my corner sink!!!"
In January, we contacted several people to get bids and settled on one, CTC Construction. With their help, I chose floors, cabinets, countertops, a backsplash, and drawer hardware. They did all the scheduling of workers and helped me keep track of what was going on. And, because of their expertise, everything ran fairly smoothly.
As a quilter dealing with colors I'd like to interject a note about current trends in colors. I had a choice of browns (dark Brown to off white) and blacks (black through grays to white) for almost everything. I could have had cabinets that were a dark navy or dark green. But everything else, flooring, cabinets, and backsplashes were either in the brown family or the black family. Granted, I did not want a yellow kitchen (I had one in 1977) or avocado appliances (had those too, 1986-1992), but really? Laminate countertops come in any color you ever wanted, plus a lot that you don't (like bright yellow and avocado), but I'm done with laminate. So I looked for contrast and choices that didn't fight each other.
So, having chosen a granite (special program, half the normal price, 6 choices, fortunately one worked), I was pointed to the wall of backsplash samples. Blacks, grays, browns, white...and 1 option of color: dark teal. And it worked! (There was no red, yellow, purple, orange, or green options.) Several CTC people complimented me on my choices, and one said I should be a design consultant. When I accused her of telling that to all her clients, she rolled her eyes and said "No." I have to admit two things: one, when your color palates are that limited, results will tend toward boring; and two, some people shouldn't be allowed to dress themselves.
In choosing drawer pulls, I ran into the same problem: choice of gold, silver, or bronze. All plain Square plain, round plain, squarish round plain, roundish square plain, oval plain...you get the idea. I think people are designing to the lowest common denominator. I swear these were the only ones that had any pattern on them at all.
The workers were pleasant and did good work, which means they showed up on time, did their jobs, and laughed at my jokes. The tilers were especially memorable, partly because this was the first time they had put the square tiles in the floor on the diagonal, (Really? no one has even that much imagination except me?) and partly because of the backsplash. While all the tiles were the same color teal, there were 7 different designs. (One of which exactly matched a friend's shirt.) He (the tiler, not my friend) was really worried about no two designs touching each other, and I told him not to worry. (Telling people not to worry doesn't work.) So I showed him one of my quilts hanging in the next room, which has 20 different reds, and two of the same fabrics STILL landed next to each other. I'm not going to make a scene about it! I know better! And don't you worry about it either!
I spent about three weeks without a stove and decent coffee. I'd made a lot of chili, jambalaya, stew, chicken soup, and frozen leftovers in individual portions, (Yay for reusable sour cream containers!) (And flexibility, because I didn't label anything!). I also got several frozen dinners because they were on sale. One is still in the freezer because the others were so bad that no one wants it. After the cabinets were in, I had a stove, and now I didn't have to put up with substandard coffee.
Then the countertops came in a week early! But there was a delay about the dishwasher, because this is when we found out about the damaged threads on the connector. A part was ordered, and installation was scheduled...three weeks out. But there was a cancellation, and we got it fixed after only 1 week. In the meantime, we continued to use paper plates and cups. (Milk in a paper cup works. Water in a paper cup works. Apple juice in a paper cup works. Wine in a paper cup does not work.) (Well, it works for Jack. But we all know he has plastic tastebuds.) Bonus: we used up all the cheap plastic ware that we had accumulated ordering all that takeout from restaurants during Covid!
Look! The Fridge Door Opens!
No Corner Sink!
For some reason, Laurie seemed to think I need a really colorful wooden spoon last Christmas. And I guess I do! (It's the top one.) And I got gifts from Korea and The Czech Republic and Italy and my third place finish at the chili cook off at church.
Well, now it's all done. Now that I have been using it for a bit, I've already decided on things that need changing.
Christmass 2023 Letter
Dear Friends and
Family:
We find that God
has continued to bless us this year!
Deki continues to
do well and has his last visit to Seattle next month. At that point, he is expected to go on the
survivorship program, where the Seattle Children’s Doctors come HERE for
visits. (OK, they do visit all the other
survivors also.) Way cool. We are tired of obsessing about driving
Snoqualmie Pass in snowstorms…like the possibility in January….
Jack is still not
retired. He improved from his ministroke
of 2022, and went back to work 3 weeks later, and they are even giving him more
projects, and he gets to work overtime.
Marion was finally
able to return (after 3 years!) to the English camp in The Czech Republic, to
lots of cheery greetings and hugs. Well,
also teaching English, games, liberal distributions of candy, and such. Was it because of the candy? We will never know for sure, because she will
ALWAYS bring candy. But she stayed for 2
English Camps this time, and is looking forward to returning.
We had a great
time with Yasmin: trips to Seattle, the
Oregon Coast, back to the mountains, lots of talking and playing cards, and
then said a teary goodbye. But
wait! This year she is in New York City! We can still chat on the phone!
But now for the most
recent news:
Tuesday, November
21st of November, Edalynn Circe Minerva was born to Laurie and
Chris, at 34 weeks gestation. She got to
stay in NICU for a week, then in Peds, and is now home. One of God’s little miracles here. Babies do not eat, breathe, or poop in the
womb. This occurs at birth, normally
after 40 weeks. But Edie (so far the
leading nickname) had to learn to do all that early, and before they would send
her home. She is doing well, and the
boys are ecstatic! (Just wait until she
gets into their stuff…)
Edie wanted out on
a day when: Marion was supposed cook a turkey
for an ESL potluck, go and set up and take down the potluck, not to mention be
there for 4 hours, and pick up Connie and Dean at the airport. Now she had to add watching 4 boys to the
list. It all worked together wonderfully!
(Mostly because she gave all the ESL responsibilities to someone else.) Connie got reacquainted with the nephews and
Dean got thoroughly acquainted. (We are
looking forward to more visits from them in the future.) And Marion even worked in an eye appointment!
(Secondary cataracts.) It was originally
scheduled for December 14th, then
Laurie scheduled the c-section for that day.
There was a cancellation, Marion got an appointment on November 22. Kind of ironic…but more audiences for the
brand-new baby pictures!
We hope all is
well with you!
Jack and Marion
package from Brazil!
Horseback riding in the mountains
Proud Mama
Happy Place
"Who is this guy?"
Complicated Quilts Require Complicated Stories.
Two years ago, when I finished this Lone Star (8 by 8 diamonds, 15 different fabrics) with at least 90% points matching, I felt that I had reached the epitome of quilting. Sure, there were other techniques to learn, but this required precision piecing and I had conquered that.
Then I realized that I did have something else: the Dahlia Quilt, with curved seams. So I started playing around with it in my mind.
I made Jack pick the colors, since we started having disagreements about that. How can I be married to him for 40 years and not know that he disliked turquoise? So, he picks yellow, which he had previously sneered at. (Well, he lets me buy expensive quilting tools, so OK.) (Plus he stopped complaining about the size of my fabric stash.)
I took it to a quilt retreat last fall, and it went together so easily it was ridiculous. The seams were not curved very much, so I almost didn't need to pin them. But I did. There were only 96 points to match (as opposed to 368 on the Lone Star), and I missed 3 of them by 3/16 of an inch, for a 97 percent match rate. It only took 2 days, and opposed to 2 weeks for the lone star.
This is important for later: Our Brazilian exchange student Yasmin, saw the dahlia when I brought it home and said they were Brazilian colors. (And has anybody ever noticed the similarity between the Brazilian flag and Washington State flag?)
The only part where it was harder was the very center. I had 16 seams coming together in a point. This means 32 layers of fabric just in the seams. It made such a cute little volcano! And that is why there is a circle of fabric in the center! (This is an old quilter's trick. If you see a fabric circle or diamond or sometimes a button, it may be hiding some pretty ugly piecing or quilting! In one case I saw, a lightning bolt hid the quilter's son's scissors experiment.)
Then to square up my circle. The directions that came with my template set said to sew two pieces of fabric together to get a 58 inch square. Then turn the edges of my circle under and sew it on top....see the outside points of the dahlia? That's 5 layers of fabric to turn under...into 10 layers. So I painstakingly drew a 53 inch half circle on the fabric and sewed it on. This is simple. If you have a surface that is about 60 by 40 inches. Which I do have, but, as many people have heard from me, I only get on the floor for my grandchildren. I also needed a 60 inch compass, which probably exists. For a price. So I made do with a 38 inch square coffee table, and a string taped to a pencil. (Note to self: buy tape that isn't ripped by a string.)
And it miraculously lay flat!
About this time, the quilt guild is asking for quilts to be submitted for its local show. So I asked Jodi, my quilter (it does sound like she belongs to me) when I would have to deliver it in order to get it back in time for the show. The answer is March 6. So I proceed to make 76 flying geese for the next border (The anal retentive among you will notice that there are only 56 in the border) and start the next border.
Along comes February 16, the deadline for registering quilts. This was quilt number 363, 8 hours before registration ends. They like to have over 400. So I entered it. I still needed to finish the piano key border and make 28 12 inch flower blocks. Entirely doable, especially because there was another quilt retreat the weekend of March 2-5, which meant sewing all day every day.
I decided to make 4 of each flower block -- and, because Yasmin had said they were Brazilian colors -- 4 soccer balls. And then I figured out that I only needed to make 24 12 inch blocks! Even better! So I went off to the retreat with 8 blocks to go and 2 soccer balls that needed fixing. The second to last flower block to some time to put together. The last one I sewed together ALL four wrong, and spent 40 minutes fixing only one, ending at 10 pm Friday night. Things were not looking good. Talking to Jodi, she said she didn't actually need it until Friday the 10th.
I dislike pressure, so I put the quilt on time out and instead worked on a couple of community service quilts for the rest of the weekend. Happily, I might add.
Jack and Yasmin said that last flower block didn't look like a flower, and they liked it better sewn together wrong anyway. So, by the end of Sunday the 5th, I had resigned myself to not putting the quilt in this years show.
Then I had a revelation: the only reason I needed flower blocks is because I wrote it on the quilt description for the show, and who reads those anyway? (I was in charge of putting them on the quilts just before the show, so I could always put it above everyone's eye level. Problem solved!) So I spent Monday making a Jacob's ladder (for Jack), a Marion's Choice block (for me), an Exploding Sawtooth Star (because). Those 20 extra flying geese? 18 of them went into a Wild Goose Chase block. Which this was beginning to feel like anyway. I put the two good soccer balls in and two flower/non-flower blocks in. I had the whole quilt together by Wednesday the 8th.
I delivered it to Jodi, and told her if she ran into problems not to worry about completing it on time. I needed it back on Monday the 20th so I could put the binding on.
The first problem we ran into was the backing, a 108 wide piece than shrunk a few inches after washing. My quilt was 98 by 98 inches. I told her I could piece the back with the leftover blocks I had. But we didn't need to worry about that after all.
She ran out of one thread, and, by calling around, discovered that it was discontinued. On Thursday, March 16, she advertised for it on several platforms. Someone saw it, called a friend who called a friend who was on the Oregon Coast. This person called her husband, who found it in her stash. Her husband gave it to friend number 2, who got it to Jodi Friday the 17th. Jodi had a previous commitment on Saturday the 18th, but she finished the quilt on Sunday the 19th. (She ended up meeting both of them at the quilt show, so the whole circle of life thing is complete.)
I TOLD her not to worry. She never obeys me anyway.
I finished the binding on Tuesday at 9:00 pm, so Jack and Yasmin were available to hold it up for a picture I could put on the label. And here it is!
So that is the story of this quilt. Plus a few closeups
I am never entering an unfinished quilt in the quilt show again.
I said that 5 years ago.
Christmas Letter 2022
Dear Family and Friends:
Well, once more we get to write a not normal Christmas letter, but
this time for good as well as bad reasons!
First the bad [well, not as bad as could have been]: Jack suffered a mini-stroke in October,
putting all sorts of plans on hold. The symptoms were mild enough that Marion
considered them within Jack’s normal range. Four days later, he was slurring
his speech at work, and so they insisted on taking him to the hospital. He
stayed in the hospital for the standard two nights. He actually took Marion’s suggestion
to take the next 3 weeks off to see if he got better. It worked. Except for
crappier typing skills everything is pretty much back to normal [as far as Jack
was ever normal].
In May, Connie got married in Minnesota, and of course we went back
for the wedding! Jack traveled by air
for the first time in decades, and got pulled aside for a TSA pat down both
directions. Marion is not sure she wants
to fly with him again. We took a day to
go to Willow River State Park in
Wisconsin.
In August, we welcomed Yasmin from Brazil, who is just delightful! She has introduced us to soccer, Brazilian
style. Which means it gets noisy during
the games as she tells the team how to play.
And “Get up because you are not hurt!” Miraculously, they somehow hear
her and take her advice. She fits very well into our family, and even
has a sister the same age as the grandsons.
She is experiencing a winter with actual snow and subfreezing
temperatures, but very much looking forward to warmer temperatures!
In January, we went to Seattle to get Deki’s port out. We decided to go a day early, which is good
because ALL FOUR ROUTES to Seattle were closed the next day: Three by snow, one by a landslide. When we went home (by way of Portland), the
passes were still closed. The landslide had cleared but we were blocked
by flooding on I-5. So ... we detoured
our detour and made it home in only nine hours.
And then, the next day, we all (Jack, me, Laurie, Chris, and all 4
grandsons). Got covid.
Through it all, we have seen God’s hand in timing
and graciously answering most prayers with a “Yes.”
Connie, Dean, and In-laws
Jack and Marion at Willow Falls, Wisconsin
Yasmin is an ice hockey fan too!
Now officially....old.
Jack's adventures started Saturday the 15th, when I was happily sewing in the mountains. Yasmin noticed he was off. I got back Sunday about 4 and noticed he was not talkative, but otherwise normal. Not talking, for Jack, is normal. He did drive a little slower than usual. Monday he cooked 1 inch steaks the same amount of time he cooked 1.5 inch steaks.
Tuesday morning he forgot what he was doing a couple of times. They started noticing things at work. Wednesday at work it was enough for them to force him to the emergency room, telling him that it was probably a UTI and a pill would fix it. He called me at 1:30 and said he was about to be admitted to the hospital overnight for observation
Well, that upended the days plans.
He got all sorts of tests: x rays, MRI, CT scan, blood tests, urine tests...and the results are (drum roll please) he had a microstroke, probably because a bit of cholsterol broke off and went into his brain. The prefix "micro" doesn't sound very serious, but the doctors are worried that he would have a more serious stroke, hence the stay in the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours. (It was actually 46, unless you count the 5 hours in ER.)
During which I made him play cribbage. All in the name of physical therapy: small muscle control, hand eye coordination, cognitive ability, etc. (He won 2 and I won 4. That is a little higher win rate for him than normal. He's fine.)
Now we go back to normal life albeit with blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and a different diet. (I finally get to use the word "albeit!")
We have joined the ranks of those who know they need to worry about their diet.
Driving In Strange Places
I have 250,000 miles on my car. I have, over the last 2 1/2 years, become experienced at driving to Seattle and back, lately all on the same day. I have decided that 7 hours in the car in a day is my limit, less if I can't spend the middle hours out of it.
So, when Connie and Dean announced their wedding in Minnesota, with 23 hours of driving one way (not including potty stops), I did not even consider driving. That is 3 days minimum in the car each way. In an old car. Through the Rocky Mountains in May, which is worse than the Cascades because most passes in the Rockies that are higher than most mountains in the Cascades.
Just checked: In the Rockies, there are 56 passes over 12,000 feet, an additional 8 over 13,000 feet. Mt Rainier, our highest spot, is 14,410 feet. Mt Adams is 12,281 feet, Mt Baker is 10,781 feet, and Mt. St. Helens is 8,363 feet, but it used to be 9,677 feet. See? A lot of Rocky Mountain passes are higher than most of the Cascades! Only Rainer is taller! (For my European friends, please substitute . for ,!)
Jack said we should rely on Dean and Connie for driving because we don't know where anything is. But I said we should rent our own car and rely on my phone's GPS. I won. When we got to Minnesota, the only choice of car was a Mitsubishi Mirage. There are a lot of adjustments to make when you are used to driving a min-van. For one thing, the rearview mirror was where I am used to having a clear windshield in the mini-van. Space is another. Getting up out of the car. I came up with the following good things about the car:
1. It is easier to park.
2. Is is bright blue.
I almost added gas mileage, but almost any car is going to beat a 14 year old minivan with 250,000 miles on it. For example, a brand new minivan. And I was also going to say it is bigger than a Smart Car, but that also seemed pointless.
Well, on to our adventures with the mile markers and exit signs. The GPS got us lost first thing because I didn't have the volume up, and the roads between the airport and our hotel were marked with two sets of highway numbers. (Actually, the GPS also led us astray on the way back to the airport, but whatever.)
Freeway exit signs in Washington (and Oregon, where I do 99% of my driving) are sensible: The exit numbers correspond to the mileage on the highway. So you know, if you take the (now very familiar) exit 31 at North Bend on the way to Seattle, you have 31 miles left on I-90 before it ends at I-5. We (and Oregon) also have mile markers every mile, so you don't even have to keep track of mileage with the odometer. Having driven in Massachusetts in 1989, I knew that not all states were so enlightened. There they labeled exits sequentially, with miles between, say exit 5 and 6. I hope someone in Massachusetts took it upon themselves to change this, but probably not.
We went to Willow Creek State Park in Wisconsin. It was a little over an hour drive, so not a problem. We set out from our hotel, which was off exit 10 on I-494. Watched the exit numbers go down to 1...then straight to 60. We thought we must be in Wisconsin now! But we weren't. Then exit number 250 went by. Hey, surely we are in Wisconsin! But we were still in Minnesota!
This was clarified at dinner the next day: exit numbers are dependent on which county you are in.
I think I like Massachusetts's method better.
Never did see any mile markers.
Well, Here is the Rental Car, anyway. And Jack.
