AtomicMrX

I made a day road trip up to Omaha on Saturday to spend the day with my Mom and Dad. Mom’s birthday was Saturday and she turned a young age of 75! It was also an excuse to show off the new car to the family.

The trip went very well. I got up Saturday at 5:00 AM and left the house by 6:00 AM. I made good time and arrived in Omaha at 9:00 AM. I kept track of my milage and got a 24 MPG for interstate travel! I am very pleased with that. It is exactly what Honda reported for the highway MPG. It was a comfortable drive up and nice to see the morning sun rise as I drove. Very pretty rising up over the various fields, hills and trees.

I usually only make it up to Omaha for Thanksgiving and Xmas so it was unusual to see all the green plants and leafy trees. The wonderfully HOT weather was just a bonus! It was horribly hot. We spent the time indoors and in air conditioned cars. I took a bunch of photos of Mom’s gardens since in the Winter they look a little different - dead! I was only able to get one picture of Mom before I switched over to her camera to record the moments of her present opening. I’ll have to get the pictures from her to post here.

Click on the pictures to make a larger photo appear in a new window.

So here is the birthday girl!

And the beautiful flowers in her garden(s):

The pictures above are of Day Lilies and Roses.

I left Omaha around 6:30 PM and made it back to Raytown at 9:30 PM and boy was I ready for bed! Most of the ride back was in daylight but the last hour. And just in that little bit of time I got pelted with bugs on the windshield! It literally sounded like rain! My poor windshield is covered! I’m going to the car wash to scrape the splatters off after this posting! I could hardly see by the time I arrived home! Even the windshield wipers couldn’t get them off!

My first road trip with the new car - and it was a good one!

Well, tonight I saw my odometer roll past 1,000. My little baby is getting older with every pass of each mile. I still love my new car! I’m going to try and give it a “first car wash” Thursday night. I am trying to dodge all the rain showers we have had.

I know it’s silly but today while gassing up I got to clean the front windshield for the first time. There were so many little bugs on it I could hardly stand it. Cleaning the Honda windshield was a lot easier than the Isuzu because I could almost reach all the way across in one pass.

I’m keeping track of the MPG. I did miss the very first fill up but I’ve gotten each one since and so far I am averaging 22 MPG with most of the driving interstate. So I am below the estimated 24 MPG interstate as stated on the car info. The big test will be this weekend when the driving will be almost 100% interstate. I’ll definitely put the XM radio to use too!

I went to the DMV after work today and paid my sales tax and transfered the plates to the new car. I was there probably about a half hour so it was a short trip. I went in, took a ticket (#26) and they were working with number 19 at the time. I am glad to have that over with! Now I am officially the owner of my Honda Element.

The whole DMV experience cost me $1, 044.75. I had $1,028.46 taken care of through financing it into the car payments. Otherwise I would have never been able to get a new car.

Happy Driving!

Well my garage “make over” is almost complete. I only have to buy one more hanging rack for the snow shovels and then it will be done. I will get that next weekend and put it up. I spent about six hours last Saturday working on sweeping, sorting, organizing, and then finally hanging everything up on purchased hangers. One track hanger was left by the previous home owner, although I doubt they got much use out of it because of how it was poorly put up. They should have used screws to put it up and they used a hammer and nails! Since the shape of the track made it impossible to hammer the nail all the way to the track it made the whole thing kind of flop around on the wall. Needless to say I put it up with screws and into studs so it would be secure!

Let’s go to the pictures, shall we. Click on any picture to see a larger view of it in a new window.

Here is the side with all the garden tools. I grouped the most used towards the garage entrance and smaller tools further in (incase they fell off they wouldn’t hurt the car as bad).

Same wall looking out the garage door.

On the other wall I hung the ladders, seeder/feeder, and the trash cans.

Here is another angle of same wall, looking out the garage door.

Next to the garage-to-house door is the shelving I already put up last year and the first refrigerator I bought when moving into the house. I shoved Shannon’s huge, heavy, wooden kitchen table (in a big flat box) up against the wall and put the fridge next to it to keep it upright. I piled up on the fridge a bunch of light but rather large boxes of stuff.

Then there is the last corner of the garage that houses the two bikes stacked in a nice rack also purchased last year on sale at Target. The old lawn mower is going to be given away to a co-worker that has a friend that repairs/fixed/sales old lawnmowers.

Buying the new car pretty much set off the cleaning frenzy in the garage. The old Isuzu was slightly smaller but I hated getting in and out every day and having to squeeze through all the crap up against the walls of the garage and scattered on the floor. The old organization didn’t hold up because it was hard to get into the corner to put the tools back, and once that pattern started it just multiplied. Really there was only one or two things that I took out of the garage. I basically reorganized all the stuff on the walls and that made all the difference. It is very easy to see and reach all the tools and it will be very easy to put them right back on the wall.

This morning I spent an hour vacuuming all the dust, spiders, and spider webs in the basement. There was one in the corner behind a broom (how ironic) that was as huge as a marble and had made it’s self a web tunnel that it ran into when I approached. Let’s just say the web tunnel was no match for the vacuum! We have had an outbreak of spiders lately. We will need to keep up on the vacuuming down there to keep them at bay.

Well, I have been looking for a new car ever since I had a slight repair issue with my 2002 Isuzu Rodeo Sport. I did a tone of research for about a month and it all came to a head Wednesday.

I bought a new 2006 Honda Element EX-P AWD Automatic. Here are some pictures of the new baby! (Click on any image to view it larger in a new window.)

The back opens like a clam shell. The top half first then the bottom half like a tail gate of a pick up.

The door(s) are suicide doors and after opening the main door there is a door latch in the frame of the car that opens the “second” smaller door. The smaller door has to be closed first before closing the main larger door. This feature is on both sides and allows for a very large opening.

Here is Shannon in the back seat area and the back seats are folded up against each side of the interior of the car for more cargo room.

I got the Element with 90 miles on it and I just love it. It is so roomy inside and I can see everywhere without blinds spots like in the Isuzu. The salesman was great and took my offer on it (invoice price plus trade in). The stereo comes with 3 free months of XM satellite radio (over 100 stations of commercial free music, news, comedy, etc.). After the free trial period the XM radio part of the stereo will just stop working unless I pay for the service. I’ll still have AM/FM, CD, MP3 adapter, and I got iLink (which is on order and will be installed at the dealership next week) for free (courtesy of the nice salesman $400 worth of free). With iLink I will be able to connect my iPod directly up to the cars’ stereo and have synthesized audio voice feedback when searching through the iPod music library with the vehicle’s audio system controls.

I cleaned up my Isuzu on the 4th thinking I might have the opportunity to get a new car soon. A co-worker gave me the salesman’s name and said they had no problems and he was the greatest easy going salesman ever. They were right! I wish all my car buying was that nice. He was a little hard to understand at times because of his thick european accent. He sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger and he kind of looked like him too… very body builder looking.