But I didn't get any good photos because I was on the wrong side of the car for the trip to the trailhead we hiked at Glacier National Park. Going-To-The-Sun-Road road was a bucket list item for me and I got to experience it. Possibly best known for the opening credits to The Shining as the road to the Overlook Hotel, it really goes over Logan Pass and connects East Glacier and West Glacier. Someday I will drive it myself at stop at more scenic overlooks, but that proved unnecessary on this trip.

I was glad I wasn't driving though when I got back from a long hike 8,000 feet above sea level and 2,200 feet above the trailhead off Going-To-The-Sun Road. Over the course of 10 miles, I ascended Siyeh Pass near the top of Matahpi Peak.

The path we took up was incredible but not overly difficult. It starts off as a climb through increasingly frequent alpine meadows full of Glacier Lilies separated by beautiful forest with burbling creeks and streams fed by glacier runoff.

Then the path switchbacked up a dry craggy trail in the midst of a boulder field. It was above the timber line and was devoid of most plant life.

Eventually the path cut along a cliff and out onto the highest point with a breathtaking view of the valleys below. But it was at this point that the adventure really began.

Fortunately, we had some time to relax at the top and try to ignore the enormous pile of rocks tourists had used to unsuccessfully try to steal the show from the magnificent unspoiled wilderness.

See that lake? We needed to make it to where Going To The Sun Road passes it. The trail became increasingly difficult on the way down. Snow blockage was present but wasn't too much of an issue except in one place.

This shot shows the only place where snow posed a challenge. There was a place to cross it lower down to reach the trail that was significantly less sketchy but I still wasn't fond of the experience.

The geography on the south side of the mountain was much more conducive to diverse plant life. It was still above the timber line but the scruffy grass and beautiful flowers sprouting out from among moss covered boulders between gushing ice cold streams was possibly one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

This gave out to dry rocky terrain and grassy slopes depending on where you were in the valley we descended. The diversity in the terrain was incredible! You can just make out the broad expanses of burned land we had to pass through at the end.

Honestly a rather depressing sight. I was fine up until this point but I got pretty badly sunburned by the lack of shade here.

The verdict? The most beautiful place I've ever been by a longshot and easily the most intense hike I've ever done. 11/10 ultimate bucket list item.

I recently took an overnight road trip with my family to New Orleans to pick up a puppy.

I already made a post on the cars I saw while there.

https://opposite-lock.com/topic/4087/dots-the-cars-of-new-orleans/16

But now, it's puppy time!

Meet Arlo, a 9 week old whippet pup! He's just the most adorable thing while also being suspiciously well behaved.

Don't be fooled, he's an adorable sleepyhead when he's not frolicking around the yard. Arlo's also pretty large for a whippet puppy.

Fortunately, he gets along great with our other whippet, Turkey, who's six years old.

And to send off this year, have the show quality whippets from that litter. There were two pet quality whippets to choose from at the breeder's place outside New Orleans and I believe we chose well.

Bonus puppy picture to anyone who can figure out why we named him Arlo.

I replaced the automatic transmission fluid and front brake pads in my car. It doesn't sound that impressive, I know, but it was more involved than you might expect.

The principle problem I had to face is that the transmission doesn't have a dipstick but rather a weep hole that only functions when the car is completely level. And is helpfully located behind the driver side wheel. AND neither my two jackstands nor my craptastic floor jack can fit under the car on level ground.

This is all the way down. Look at how tight of a fit that is! But even then, the jackstands I borrowed that are lower still won't fit and the car has to be perfectly level front to back and side to side. How does one do this?

I'll admit, this was marginally sketchy getting it standing even on all four corners, but the fact that two patio pavers is the exact right height for the low jack stands to fit under seemed too good to be true.

Oh wait, it was. One is inexplicably shorter than the other. I made up the difference with the floor jack on the side with no tire and let the short jackstand act as a safeguard in case of jack failure.

Anyways, draining the old stuff wasn't the difficult part. The ATF that came out was brown like pre-emptively changed engine oil but not black like many of the videos I watched. so I figure I caught it just in time. I have no idea the last time this was done.

This stupid weep hole instead of a dipstick was why this was so hard in the first place. The car must be entirely level for it to work. I put in 2.8 quarts with the engine off before it dripped then I turned the engine on and added 1.7 quarts when it started to drip.

And I swapped the front brake pads while I was under there. The rear drum brakes didn't need anything but you can clearly see the front disks weren't doing their best job. Pretty even wear on the rotor, though it might be time to change them soon.

The car stops so much more confidently now. It isn't running out of puff late in the travel like before. I'm sure I could have squeaked some more life out of them, but the quality of the drive is much improved. And I didn't notice any clunky shifts or slippage from the automatic and it seemed to hesitate less on upshifts. I'll have to get some more seat time to be sure, but I feel today was a huge success.

I saved a crap ton of money too. All in, I have a little under $90 in this repair and I'd be looking at quadruple that for a shop to do it. It's my first real "big" wrench and I'm proud of my work.

@hugz Reason 1:

Reason 2:

Reason 3:

Reason 4:

Reason 5:

So it turns out the answer is just almost always Miata.

It's a 2008 Volvo XC70 with 140,000 miles on it that's in better condition than I might have hoped.

For $5,000, you can do a whole lot worse in the land of fully depreciated European near luxury cars. There is a good deal of sun damage around the car but it's evident it was well taken care of for most of its life.

This particular one is a green 3.2 with the tan interior. The exterior is actually in excellent shape. I know some of you expressed concern over the mismatched headlights but I found no evidence of crash damage anywhere. No overspray, missing trim, color gradients, or anything that I could see.

Minor scrapes and dings. Only major one is this blemish on the side and some scuffs on the plastic bumpers. The paint actually is in fantastic condition.

The mirror caps have some clearcoat failure. It's clear this car spent a lot of time outside.

Which should have wreaked havoc on the notoriously fragile tan interior. But somehow hasn't? Don't get me wrong, there's a good deal of sun damage on the plastics. But usually this leather gets all dry and cracked but it's actually still supple. Someone cared enough about this car to condition the seats several times.

It's got freakin' push button start! This is the future!

The biggest issue with this car is that it's dirty. The thing needs a very thorough professional detail. The seller does a lot of mechanical work on his own but doesn't seem so adept at the cosmetic stuff. Yes, that's a lighter, but not a hint of smoke smell.

The list of recent work includes a fresh timing belt and water pump. This thing drove like it was brand new, tracking straight and true and rocking some impressively firm brakes.

The seller had been using it as his daily for the past two weeks which does give me confidence.

Well, when he wasn't driving this Jeep Grand Cherokee that he swapped a Mercedes diesel into himself. That gives me some confidence in his abilities but the car will get a thorough check with our Volvo indie soon.

So, yeah, I really tried but I couldn't get them to take it for a PPI. It makes me a little nervous honestly but we drove it a while with no problems at all. It needs new tires and some cosmetic work but was a rather impressive example of the XC70 for its age. The only issues I could find were ones all Volvos of this vintage have with nothing really caused by owner neglect other than a need for a detail. And since a Volvo of this vintage was literally the only option for some reason, the sagging headliner, sunburned plastics, and dubious build quality are something I couldn't avoid.

So thus ends the remarkably short tale of needing to replace an unreliable Volvo with much cheaper reliable Volvo. But the car really did impress me. It feels like what the XC90 should feel like: immovable and solid. This thing was unshakable on the tight winding high speed roads the test drive was on. And it was comfortable, quiet, and not-slow. It wasn't fast, but I thought the linear torque curve of the 3.2 suited it.

Anyways, I'm excited about this latest acquisition, even if I won't get to see it again for several months. Ask me anything and feel free to share any concerns you might have.

Fellow Oppo and collegiate @Taylor-Martin dropped by yesterday on his way through Atlanta. We saw some cars, some graves, and an accident.

He couldn't get to where I was waiting because a car had rear ended another car and was blocking traffic. The driver was so traumatized by the airbag going off she didn't want to move the thing, so he offered to. Problem was, once it was rolled back out of the way, the parking prawl and handbrake refused to function, meaning we couldn't disengage ourselves from the situation. Some nearby rocks chocked the wheels and we were off. What a nice man.

We ended up at Oakland Cemetery for a bit, but it's not as pretty in the winter.

Took a wrong turn and ended up at the famous Krogg St Tunnel, which I've never been to before. It's quite an experience, being rather long and rather dark plus having every inch covered in street art.

Now, for the cars. This has got to be a classic Mini, but I don't think it's the red one I saw a while back.

Then we saw a very nice bright yellow Land Rover Defender. @Just-Jeepin would approve.

Not only is it yellow, it's a rather uncommon LHD Defender 90 with only minor modifications. The few I do see tend to be ludicrously overdone four door high budget restomods. Plus, this one was a manual and most of the ones I see tend to be LS swapped ones with the accompanying GM slushbox. It probably is still rocking its original powertrain, which is a rarity in NA Defenders in my experience.

Anyways, I can confirm his TSX Sportwagon named Iris is quite a beauty and was clearly living the #wagonlyfe carrying all that camping gear.

Masks were worn, fun was had, and good was done. What more could you ask for? Oppos are the best people.

@mark-tucker said in A good chuckle at the tire shop:

how to drive a stick not a prerequisite for working on cars?

Because very few normal cars have sticks anymore. I recall someone having trouble at a Mercedes dealership because they haven't sold a manual car in so long they had to call someone in on their day off.

GM and lighting the reverse lights up when you lock and unlock.

But yeah, Ford and their keypads and capless fuel fillers. Ugh.

. . . but they're poorly framed and in portrait mode. Still, I'm grateful because otherwise I wouldn't have learned someone is crazy enough to drive this Datsun 410 wagon to Costco.

I've cropped them to spare you the pain of portrait mode.

There can't be too many wagons left in this good of condition. It's a very nice restomod.

The script on the side says Bluebird which was the name of the car in Japan. Was this a trim level in the US or something? Or is it just an aftermarket touch?

I can appreciate the fact that I got three angles from my dad. The red on gold wheels really works well here.

You really don't see non-Z Datsuns on the street. Considering I'll be up very very very late tonight working on a school project, I'm glad I've been able to start my day with receiving intel on this interesting wagon.

@ttyymmnn I really love the irony of this one. Because as a result of thinking about how to maximize their life, they've actually limited themselves to a single sidewalk square for several hours.

@rallydarkstrike That's a very wide bolt of lightning. Unless it's the exposure.

@ranwhenparked said in DOTS:

so a lot of the loophole advantages of a 3-wheeler were no longer relevant. They weren't cheap,

They were never really cheap as Minis cost more and are undeniably better at being a car. The license loophole is curious though. Is it really better than a motorcycle for how much more expensive they were?

@highlander said in My own version of this or that 1970's 2-door land yacht's:

You chose, chose carefully, because only one of these beauties can fit in a 3 car garage will be driven back by me at the end of the summer

Toronado all the way. It's a vastly better car.

It's also owned by a Honda N600 owner.

@ranwhenparked said in DOTS:

@whoistheleader Carb'd engine, manual choke, 4speed manual, solid rear axle, BOF construction, for small cars, it was getting to be archaic in the 80s, but kept on through 2002 (though in pretty limited numbers toward the end). The interior was basically unchanged from 1973, and I think the basic body shell was also the same

I think the interior is perhaps the most surprising. That extremely 70s layout with complete contempt for ergonomics never looked good. But even in the 90s that just have been hilariously bad. How the heck did they sell any in the 2000s?

@taylor-martin said in Do You Want A Job Writing About Cars?:

@brickman If you can do thorough research, you'll be able to explain why the car's good too, and that's good enough.

This actually sounds like something I'd enjoy a good bit. I like research and I enjoy polishing some turds of a sentence. I rarely have the time to proofread and correct posts that I make here, but I'm pleased with the writing I'm capable of producing when I care to.

The hours are the problem. I can't swing a full time job with those hours right now. I might apply just for funzies though. And 9-5 what time zone? 3 hours a day I probably could make work. I'm surprised the schedule isn't more flexible given the nature of the job. I.e. total time commitment per week with logged hours.

@svend I find it shocking the Robin lasted as long as it did. It was pretty ancient tech with well known flaws by that point, even if they weren't exactly as prone to rolling over as people might think. More of a refinement issue with the driving experience.

@ttyymmnn said in This Date in Aviation History: July 21 - July 23:

When no buyers came forward to purchase the 767, it was dismantled, and aluminum from the plane was turned into souvenir keychains.

Where can I get one of those?

What a crazy story. Now I presume those calculations are all computerized and totally not at all subject to hacking and glitches. That would be a really subtle way to commit terrorism.

@akioohtori I've only seen one Esteem wagon in recent years. Not nearly as rare as the mythical first gen Lancer Sportback, of which around 1,000 were sold in the US. Curiously, I saw both on the same corner a few weeks apart.

@ramblinrover That ashtray is amazing! Looks a lot like the streamlined front of a Chrysler Airflow actually. It also mimics a lot of Buick grilles if I recall.

@lanciere said in DOTS: Old Olds:

@whoistheleader All the GM sub brands basically had their own engines until the late 70s- early 80s or so. I'm sure people threw fits about losing brand identity and whatnot, but it didn't really didn't make sense.

I forget how late that sustained. Didn't Olds use one of their engines longer than most though?