On The Road Again...Again

Trudel is fixed and she's raring to go - I leave tomorrow morning. It would be easier to write that the cause of the white smoke was massive engine failure rather than what actually happened, but I'm man enough to admit when I've made a mistake. A day before I started to see the white smoke, I was driving along I-40 in Arizona when the car suddenly lurched forward in a way similar to when you're running out of gas (not that I've ever run out of gas, and I certainly never ran out of gas on the Bay Bridge going into Oakland causing a small traffic jam). I pulled over at a rest stop to check fluids and give the car a break. I found nothing wrong, so I moved on. Then the white smoke. It turns out that I didn't put the dipstick fully into it's resevoir, causing stray oil to escape and fall onto the manifold, where it promptly started to heat up, hence the white smoke.

So the good news is that there's nothing wrong with the car. The bad news is that I'm an idiot. I guess it's only natural that since there's been so much trouble with the car thus far that my dad and I would jump to the worst possible conclusions about what the problem could be, and our overreaction came at a steep price. Life Lesson Learned: Always jam your dipstick as far into the hole as you can.

And in case you think I met an Oprah doppelganger and she's not really traveling the country on a road trip doing strange things, check this out.

So 4000 miles later, I'm finally leaving L.A. I guess it's all part of the experience, and I'm absolutely ready to leave. It's been a nice break being at home, showering in a nice shower, sleeping in my bed, and having a comfortable, sanitary toilet on which to do the things that one does on a toilet. But the open road is calling, and adventure awaits. I've got a biosphere to check out. I'm heading out on I-1o in a mad dash towards Texas, with perhaps some stops along the Mexican border. As always, if you know of an attraction or town that you've been to and is worth a stop, please let me know. I'm always looking for some new place to jam my dipstick.