I've been in Moab Utah for the last two weeks and although Jeep week is over I am just getting settled in and rented a Jeep for 24 hours from a local outfit Barlow Adventures. This was my first opportunity to get off the paved paths. I'm not the biggest fan of heights so I skipped the Shaffer Trail. My wife, brother in law and spouse tackled that while I played with dog at our rental. They had a great 2-ish hours and I met up with them afterward near Dead Horse Point. We then did some more trails further away from the canyon walls. Lots of fun (one of them you cross a small creek multiple times). I feel bad because our 2021 Rubicon Wrangler with modest 2" lift and 35" tires was awesome and so much fun.

It made me think of how 99% of Wrangler owners never use them off road, a place they were so clearly meant to be. I mean on road it was better than I expected, even with the large tires aired down to 28. So imagine taking the plunge on a Wrangler, with admittedly some concessions to on road mannerisms, and not taking it off road. Either by choice, or because the local geography isn't conducive to off road driving.

Yesterday we rented Can-AM Maverick X3 RC UTVs and took on Finns and Things and Hells Revenge which are in a local state park. I'll post on that in a couple days but suffice it to say, WOW, those things are super capable. We did what I would have thought were impossible accents and terrain with relative ease. Even crazier, those same lightly modified (sometimes even stock tires) Jeeps were crawling up and down those same trails. The amount capability in Jeeps and similar off-road capable vehicles and not using it is like having a supercar and always keeping it under 50.

I guess those who use them in snowy climates get some use of that capability but even a foot of snow pales in comparison to the vast expanse available to those who really get to use it out in the wild.!! (/assets/uploads/files/1650640742679-img_20220422_091408-resized.jpg) image url) ![IMG_20220422_091414.jpg]

I went to Advance Auto Parts to pick up a fan belt for the Volvo and heater hose. On my way in I walked past an Acura MDX. As I was being helped with the fan belt the MDX owner walked in and asked the counter person for oil.

The counter person asked for year, make, model. MDX owner replied that she had a 2019 Acura MDX. I started thinking no way a 2019 MDX ate enough oil between service. Counter person asked how much oil she needed, a quart or . . .. Owner responded " I don't know it is down to 20%". I had to chime in to let he know that the message was most likely Acura's maintenance minder and that oil life is down to 20% and needed an oil change when it gets to10-15%.

Now I know how engines can get overfilled. I also learned that getting hose is really difficult. Managed to get 5/16 fuel injection hose for my heater overflow tube. I will switch it out for the real heater stuff at some point in the future.

Saw this in Oregon. Appeared to be very rust free and it was the most perfect shade of blue. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these with a single cab. It looked really good. I wonder if it's the original paint.

I finally finished putting my 1966/67 Volvo 1800 together and immediately sold it so I have less physical attachment to any one spot. Since I am pivoting on a new adventure I figured it was time to change my username. Albino Kangaroo was the best I could come up with. Side note, the new Volvo 1800 owner is road tripping it over 1,200 miles with a brand new engine. They totally lucked out by missing the New Jersey snow.

As of yesterday morning I was really keen on buying a station wagon for traveling around the country. They make so much sense! My earlier post https://opposite-lock.com/topic/34278/wagon-hunting-anyone-have-experience-with-the-vw-golf-sportswagon was filled with great feedback. I think I would have been happy with a 2020-2022 Buick Regal TourX Wagon. Unfortunately, Buick discontinued it in 2020 after making between -4 and 12 of them (it was actually made in Germany). The few on the used car sites are all in the ~$25k and up for 2018/2019 and $30k or more for the mid range tier, $33k ish for a 2020. As a couple people mentioned they were not hot sellers and at the end some dealers marked them down 10-12k.

My wife and I chatted for a bit and figured station wagons are barely popular now, forget about it when we try to sell a 2018/2019 in 2-3 years. Then I started looking at the Tiguan and once I was in SUV territory I started looking for minivans on the lot. I just wired funds for a 2022 Pacifica Touring L that I found about 3 hours away. It is probably too big for what we need but it opens up a level of comfort in terms of taking more stuff and more space for the doggo and her new crate (for when we get to Airbnb's (our new living spaces). With the wagon mounting bikes to a roof rack would be easier than an SUV but with the minivan I am going to try and just put them (2) inside, maybe on a fork mounted racks.
Side note, props to the dealer for selling $2k below MSRP. I probably called 6 dealers in my area and they wouldn't budge. At the end of 2021 some even had $2,500 market adjustments on 2021 vehicles. Even now few of these minivans are on lots. The factory is shut down from Jan 3-24th and based on other forums delivery times are many weeks due to trucking shortages. In the end we are paying $1,500 more than the base model but getting the next trim up which should be easier to sell when the time comes. Only real downside is leather seats in a Chrysler. I didn't have a chance to try the cloth ones that come in the base model but assume they would have been more comfy. On the plus side, and I know this might sounds odd, but I love the idea of basic 17" wheels over the 18" or 20" wheels found on higher trims and most competitors. I would much rather have the side wall in such a non sporty vehicle.

I can't ride but do love these. Alaska plates in southern Idaho.

As some may know I sold everything I own, including my 1967 Volvo 1800 and now travel with my wife and dog from state to state with whatever fits inside our Chrysler Pacifica (we can even fit both our bikes inside). One main reason was my wife felt life was getting a bit stagnant and we had seen most everything to see in our NJ suburb. I generally agreed but didn't want to give up some of the things I had come to enjoy in our house.

Being from NJ, one of the most polluted states one thing I enjoyed was the fancy reverse osmosis water treatment system I installed in our house. It was in the basement fed a small tap by the kitchen sink. While our NJ tap water was generally ok I liked removing the chlorine and other potential chemicals like PFOA PFAS that we had in small quantities. While the tap water met all standards, it only meets what they test for and excludes things that might not yet be known. This was especially useful as our town used deep wells and was only a couple miles from an old Ford plant where there was known pollution from dumping paint and the like, and an old military site (Nike location? though I don't recall that site having pollution).

We now stay in AirBnbs and while I am sure the water is fine; for the first couple weeks we bought bottled water. I got tired of buying and transporting, then recycling 1 gallon bottles, or alternatively driving to a water purifying/filling station every couple of days. To remedy the issue I tried to replicate my old RO system and made it even better. This is a simple setup with two pre filters, one sediment, one carbon block before the 75GPD RO membrane that I run at about 85PSI ( I have a small pressure gauge for calibration but I take it off as it isn't need for general operation) so it puts out closer to 90GPD. As we move so often I didn't want to mess around with the water supply at each location and the general fragility of plumbing and valves so I use a 24v Aquatech 8800 pump to draw and pressurize water from a jug under a slowly running tap. I takes about 9-10 minutes to make each gallon depending on how cold the input water is (colder is slower) so I run it about 40 minutes every 2-3 days to fill up four 1 gallon jugs.

The RO system takes everything out of the water and leaves you with something like distilled water. I do not de-ionize the water (some ppl do this for aquariums) as it is not suitable for drinking and is almost like a solvent without exposing it to air or other treatment. One through the RO process it leaves pretty bland water (as water has no taste) so I then re-mineralize it with the recipe below. My old house RO system had a remineralization cartridge but from what I read those don't really do as much as advertised as the water is quickly passing through generally non-soluble minerals.

To remedy this and make my own version of mineral-ish water I make a 500ml solution containing the following minerals. I then add 25g of that solution to each gallon of RO water. In practice this gives me water with about 35-40 ppm of total dissolved solids.
• .9 grams of potassium bicarbonate
• 1.36 grams of calcium chloride
• 1.88 grams of magnesium sulfate
• 1.36 grams of sodium bicarbonate

The recipe above is from https://www.teacurious.com/water-recipe and I plan to tweak it in the future. There are a number of good water calculators that allow you to adjust minerals to match the composition of commercial mineral waters. Haven't tried that yet.
The real effort to rematerialize started when I got into making espresso at home and found out that they use a standard water recipe. It's a fun rabbit hole.
If anyone is interested here are two good websites with downloadable auto calculating spreadsheets with a number of water recipes. The first one even has indicators that let you know if a custom blend will be too basic and or have too many minerals, etc.
https://www.espressoschool.com.au/coffee-watercalculators/
Direct link to their Google docs water calculator - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vk5TXlev-2tK0TJmfbrL6zTc82r8z_Cg4yD_ikvf8zg/
Here is another website that goes into how to replicate fancy mineral water -
https://khymos.org/2012/01/04/mineral-waters-a-la-carte/
Direct link to their Google docs water calculator -
http://blog.khymos.org/wp-content/2012/01/mineral_water_calculator_v6.xlsx?_ga=2.167659582.1264525401.1653676364-776272048.1653676364))))

I am playing with the idea of buying a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica, packing it full of stuff and moving around a bit. That is a story for another time. My search brought me to Patriot Subaru in Saco Maine where I saw this Suzuki Carry. I have no clue why they have them. I might call up the dealer just to find out. What a strange hydraulic bed.

Look, they have a bunch of them. $13k seems steep for something that I don't think can really keep up on a highway.

After seeing @The-Crazy-Kanuck 's post (https://opposite-lock.com/topic/52842/chitty-chitty-bang-bang-intensifies?_=1659834111417) about a week ago where he visited a steam show I was lucky enough to find one 40 minutes from Portland Oregon down in Salem Oregon.

What a great time and totally worth price of admission. Most was kerosene or gas powered. There was also a lot of older trucks and tracked machinery that was really nice to see. It's all kinds of stuff you normally would not at a regular car show that really set it apart to the point where my wife was having a good time.

I think I'm going to do a write-up on this tracked vehicle. Not steam powered but it was really cool to see in the parade.

@fractalfootwork drain the pool? I previously used these lifts and larger in a former job and already sent this to my old boss. Great find.

My wife is a great construction estimator. Any little project I start, she correctly adds on 4-6 weeks and doubles the budget. Congrats on the new gig!

@GrindIntoSecond The now the warranty is running out in a couple years and want to get that apology in early.

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko I could use some splitter guards. The Pacifica has something like 5 or 6 inches of ground clearance and I already scraped up under the splitter a little. Oh well

@MM54 this piques my interest

@barnie oh, I have no idea. Trying to figure out if it's worth having the mailbox company ship it to me.

@2-Jeeps-and-a-Mustang-wants-a-Fiata Not sure if you're joking but that would be a very welcomed USB. I'm telling you that thing shuts off at the most inopportune time, right as Android Auto is giving you an important direction.

@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4 I guess I'll have to give Johnny Fontane that role.

I'm traveling for a couple of months so I set up a mailbox to receive my mail. Every couple of weeks. I have them forward all of my mail to where I'm staying. I bought a new Pacifica in February and Chrysler sent me this mystery package. The mailbox place said it weighs 4 oz. Unlike regular letters they don't scan packages so I don't know what's inside or if I should have them send it to me.

UPS/ USPS says it's marketing mail if that helps.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with Mopar? What do you think is in this?

(What's in the box!)

Update: to be clear, I have no clue what's in this package. Trying to determine if I should have the mailbox company ship it to me with the next bits of mail I need. @2-Jeeps-and-a-Mustang-wants-a-Fiata suggestion that it might be a USB key to update uconnect, even if joking, makes me want to pay the extra bucks to have them ship it to me. I think you can update UConnect over Wi-Fi but USB key seems so tangible.

Florida. Moving from NJ (arguably one of the worst) I was in awe. We made appointment ahead of time. Showed up at the right time. Sat in a not smelly waiting area for a couple minutes. Then you go, see a person and sit at an individual desk with a person. They then fill in all the paperwork electronically for you. In and out super quick and stress free. Amazing.

NJ was the opposite, if you got to the DMV an hour ahead of opening you are 15 minutes too late. You then wait in line to get a form which was probably developed 50 years ago with tiny lines no one can see. You then fill it out incorrectly and stand in the wrong line just so you can do it all over again correctly after being yelled at by someone who's not happy to see you. You can consider it a win if you don't need to leave and come back with something else they decide you need.

Looks good. Is the new flooring waterproof? I see you have some type of OSB (oriented strand board) as underlayment and it doesn't hold up well to moisture over time. Some higher end OSB like Advantec is more water-resistant but even that would probably benefit from either a 6-mil sheeting or an an impermeable foam roll type underlayment sealed at the seams. It looks you have done a lot already so you you might want to undo some rows in the kitchen area and put down sheeting where things might get wet as you wouldn't notice the thickness.

Any flooring experts have a best practice for this?

Saw this in Oregon. Appeared to be very rust free and it was the most perfect shade of blue. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these with a single cab. It looked really good. I wonder if it's the original paint.