It was 31 years ago today......

That's Oppo's own @Rusty-Vandura on the left, my Best Man.

Where things went somewhat off the rails. Fifty-four-year-old me would counsel twenty-three-year-old me not to have an open bar at the reception, or to at least make sure to eat plenty of food.

The getaway car, my 1988 Fox wagon. Don't have the car, but still have the wife. Good times for sure.

I posted earlier today that my son, touring with his college band in Dublin, tested positive for Covid and would have to quarantine in Ireland for 7-10 days. After his positive antigen test, he opted to take a PCR test. Well, the PCR test just came back NEGATIVE. Presumably, that means he can travel tomorrow and come home. Still waiting for confirmation, but this is potentially hugely good news.

From my neighborhood email group:

I got carded at a liquor store, and my Blockbuster card accidentally fell out. The cashier said never mind.

Always having a camera in your pocket can come in handy from time to time. We were playing concerts this morning for school kids, and I was walking back into the hall after a coffee break between shows and happened to look up. I thought the clouds and angles of the hall made for an interesting shot.

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@Photography
@Rusty-Vandura

I think the average age is just about right, too.

Full size photo at Shorpy.

It's graduation day. My oldest is graduating from high school. He will be attending the University of North Texas in the fall, where he plans to pursue a degree in Aviation Logistics.

Taking up ALL the spaces!

As some of you know, I flew to CA with my family to go to Disneyland and then a family reunion in Santa Barbara. Then I got (mild) covid while my family stayed negative, so I put my family on a plane back to Austin, then rented a car so I could drive my infected ass back home so I wouldn't have to quarantine in CA for 10 days.

So here is a recap for those of you who are interested.

Before I picked up my rental we witnessed an old guy trash two cars at the In-N-Out parking lot where we had stopped for lunch and plane spotting. I wrote about that here. Here's a cool UAL 787 I took a picture of.

I got a new-ish Bronco Sport (updated after @nickhasanexocet educated me on the difference) for a rental. Don't ask me what year it is. I don't know, and it doesn't come with an owner's manual. It has about 25k miles on it, which somebody thought was a lot of miles for such a new rental. I wouldn't know. It has Rhode Island plates, so somebody presumably drove it to CA, and I'm taking it half way back home. It looks like this:

Somebody asked me which engine it has. It has this engine:

While leaving LA, I saw a cool 747 from Qatar, and this beautiful red VW on a hauler. I'll talk about it later, but just look at how big the Bronco's hood looks from inside. It's massive. Also, traffic around Riverside sucks tofu balls.

I got to my hotel in Scottsdale and drank some beer. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be sick, but I just spent 8 hours on the road. Screw it. Oh yeah, I drove from LA to Scottsdale on one tank of gas, with 40 miles to spare. And that wasn't even in the Econ GORT Mode. A bit more on that later.

My family finally got home, albeit about 2.5 hours late. They pulled into the house at 3 am local time. Thanks to SWA for sticking with the flight and not canceling it. I'm pretty sure they flew right over my head but none of us knew it. ( @GrindIntoSecond )

This pretty green Jag-yoo-are was parked near me at my hotel in Scottsdale. I also saw this cool old man van while trying to find a McDonald's that Goggle didn't know was closed for remodeling. Thanks, Goggle.

Then I started driving East on US 70. Super cool road, not too much traffic, great scenery. Here is a tunnel I drove through. There's that big hood again.

Near a town called Miami, AZ, there are huge mines, copper, I think. Looks like there is a deep history (see what I did there?) of mining in the area, plus absolutely ginormous piles of tailings. Or whatever you call that stuff they pile up so neatly. The local high school in Miami has a great big dump truck outside and a huge pile of tailings behind. Most of the mines seem to be run by Freeport-McMoran. Lots of people in Austin think it is an evil company. I can't say, but I think they probably have shitloads of money.

Near Globe, AZ, on the Apache reservation, I saw a seaplane. I was astounded.

I was so astounded I posted about it right on the spot. You can read it here, plus the excellent information other Oppos found on the plane.

Saw some cool Army stuff. We were headed towards Ft. Bliss, after all.

At a rest area near Las Cruces, I saw this giant road runner. I also got to watch a truck driver empty his pee bottle in the parking lot.

Finally coming into TX, I was treated to 80 mph speed limits. Yay!

Those speed limits were great until this happened. It happened a lot. Boo!

East of El Paso, I drove into some rain showers, and was treated to a double rainbow that went all the way across the road. I got to drive under it. Super cool. BTW, taking a panorama photo with an iPhone while traveling at 80 mph is very hard, and I don't recommend trying it, even with cruise control. That said, the Bronc tracks very nicely in a straight line. Very stable on the road.

Pulled into Van Horn, TX at about 9:30. It was confusing because all day long Goggle had been telling me that I would be there at 7:30, and I hadn't taken the time zones into account. I was so confused that I pulled into the wrong hotel. I did get to see this truckload of what I can only assume are old drop tanks, maybe from a C-130.

Now I'm at the correct hotel in Van Horn, and drinking more beer. About 7 hours tomorrow and I'll be home.

A few of you have been asking about the Bronco. I like it, generally. Still haven't gotten used to the huge hood. It's kind of like driving an aircraft carrier, or a shoe box. Seats are pretty comfortable, though the dead pedal is too steep. Controls are pretty intuitive, though they are like Lego instructions and NOTHING has words on it. You have to figure it out based on the picture, and there is no manual in the car.

This is my first foray into Apple Car Play and I really like it. I find Ford's integration to be miles ahead of Nissan's. The Altima drove me insane. Every time I tried to turn up Siri the radio came on. I eventually got it sussed out, but the Bronco never did that to me.

Generally, the inside is austere, which is good. Not overblown or overstuffed. I still intensely dislike the dial shifter, particularly when trying to execute a quick three-point turn. Also, there's no place to rest my right hand while driving. Surprisingly, it comes with an actual switchblade key, not one of those horrible f**king fobs, but when you push the button to flip out the key and go to put it in the ignition, you find that it is off by 90 degrees. You can't just flip and insert, you have to flip, rotate your hand, then insert.

Despite being an intensely analog guy, I found I liked the optional digital speedo better. I find the dial hard to read, with numbers spaced in 20s rather than 10s, though 70 is straight up, which is helpful. Engine is peppy enough, though it is definitely happier cruising than getting stomped on. I managed almost 28 mpg today, with half the drive in ECO GORT mode and half a day of interstate driving.

I'll be happy to answer any other questions you might have, or entertain requests for photos, but please remember that my observations are completely experiential and focus on the ergonomics and the overall personal driving experience, as I don't know much about the technical side of things. I'm better off telling you about that Albatross.

I think that's enough for tonight. Gonna see if my beer in the sink is any colder.

@drVanTraveler

Thunderball for the Vulcan. Being the age that I am, I am a big fan of the Connery Bond movies, a little less for the Moore films, and everything between Moore and Craig is a blur of forgetful movies. I thought the reboot with Craig has been a fantastic series, particularly because Eva Green.

@Vondon302

Did you ever see the miniseries of The Odyssey starring Armand Assante? I thought it was really quite good, and as faithful to the source material as it could have been.

@foghat1981

"I must be dreaming...."

@foghat1981

1. From Russia With Love

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly

She's probably standing on a box, too.

@amoore100

I get that it's a concept, but holy shit, that thing is ugly.

@ash78

But does it have a way to put a f**king advertisement on it?

These things suck majorly, but still not as bad as the pumps with TVs on them that blare brain dead pablum at you while you are pumping.

@ash78

So is it easier to pump while you're talking on the phone? Or easier to set the lock so you can go sit in your car while it chugs gas into your tank?