Year: 2002

The Taurus Diaries

Lexington Park, MD to Lexington, VA. Today was a beautiful back-road jaunt through the middle of Virginia. Made a stop in Richmond to visit a cousin of Donna’s. We had a couple of hours to kill before we could get together so we visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Nice place to visit and it was in very good shape considering the drought that central Virginia is in the middle of. After lunch with cousin Suzy & her daughter we finished the day’s journey by heading west on US 60, a very straight road with lots of ups and downs until you hit the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then it winds it way to the top where it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway and then winds itself right back down into the Lexington area. The Taurus didn’t do to bad on the twisty roads, a set of higher performance tires and I’m sure we could have given some of today’s “sports” cars a good run.

That night I went to my second high school football game ever. The last one was almost 29 years ago while in my senior year of New Britain High School. Some friends and I snuck into the Thanksgiving Day game with our big cross-town rivals, Pulaski High. Tonight I “snuck” into the game between cross-county rivals, Rockbridge County High School and Parry McCluer High School. Stuart is the RCHS Marching Band Drum Major and tonight was his first football game in that capacity. Mom Sally is the president of the Band Booster Club, so she asked us to come along and help out. We followed the tractor pulling the trailer of band equipment down the road into the field to keep stuff from falling off. We just waved at the guy guarding the gate as we walked on by. Later that night I thanked Sally for helping fulfill a life-long dream of being able to get backstage somewhere by just saying, “I’m with the band.”

Ford Taurus

Time to pick on the rent-a-car. All of these items are minor gripes and I’m sure if you actually owned a Taurus, you could get used to them. The radio volume knob is too close the shift lever. At least ten times in the past 6 days I have inadvertently turned the radio volume down when shifting into Drive from Park. (I will give Ford points for actually having a round knob for volume instead of the usual up or down buttons.) The car had an in-dash CD player which was nice and about 2 days into the trip I noticed a button for selecting a disc number. Ooh, maybe this car has one of those multi-disc players that is right in the dash. Nope, would take the second CD I tried to feed it. Why, if you don’t have that option, is there a button for it? There is a big hesitation when the transmission shifts from first to second that is disconcerting. Kinda like riding in a manual transmission car with an inept driver. The power window lock out switch is in the wrong spot or it is sitting too high. It is right below the four window switches and it is easily turned off or on when used the other switches. How come the driver and passenger floor wells are not flat all over? This is a front wheel drive car right? The back quarter of each foot well is raised an inch or so near the transmission tunnel. Feels kinda funny when using the cruise control and you put your feet flat on the floor, one is higher than the other.

The Taurus Diaries

Rutherford, NJ to Lexington Park, MD. We took the Garden State Parkway all the way to it’s southern end at Cape May. We arrived just in time to catch the 11:00 PM ferry to Lewes, DE. We then cut across Delaware to Maryland. While passing through Annapolis I thought it might be neat to stop into see the visitor center on the Naval Academy. We made our way through the narrow streets to Gate 1. The nice little Petty Officer at the gate said that you couldn’t drive in; you had to park outside and walk in. Fat chance of finding a spot, so we just continued our drive. We picked a stop in Lexington Park because this is where Donna and I meet while we were in the Navy some 20-odd years ago. Patuxent River Naval Air Station’s mission has changed from a Naval Test Pilot Center with a couple of small squadrons to a large Naval Air Warfare Center with nearly 18,000 people working there. Consequently the sleepy little town we knew is now unrecognizable behind the 6 lane road lined with every franchised restaurant known to man and 4-story glass & concrete buildings with cryptic names. Well, I guess Donna and & have changed a bit since 1975 too.

No Doubt

Caught the latest No Doubt Video on VH1 this morning. Didn’t catch the title, but it was kind of a catchy tune. I was having a hard time following along with the song though, too many quick-cut, in-your-face close ups of the top half of Gwen Stefani in tight T-shirts or cleavage baring tops or her jumping up and down, backlit, on a bed in a semi-transparent skirt. I’m sure the 12 year-old boys love it, but it made me long for the simple blue dress with white polka dots of the “Don’t Speak” video.

The Taurus Diaries

Another Short day, New Britain, CT back to Rutherford, NJ. We took the scenic route, stayed on I-84 until we crossed the Hudson River and traveled down 9W and then drove the Palisades Parkway until we hit I-80. We found a neat “Miata” road, NY 318, north of West Point. It hugs the side of Storm King Mountain with nothing but a low rock wall preventing the plunge into the Hudson River hundreds of feet below. We stopped at West Point and did a quick tour of the museum and gift shop at the visitor center. They wanted an hour and a half of our time and $7 a piece for the real tour, so we declined.

Crappy Tires

I can’t wait to get back in the Miata. The tires on this Taurus slip and slide when cornering in the wet, which it was for the first 3 days of our time together. Now that it has dried out they squeal like stuck pigs on the dry pavement. They do alright in a straight line though, wet or dry. This car would handle a lot better with some sticker rubber (or maybe I should stop treating it like a sports car, hee-hee.)

The Taurus Diaries

Spent most of the morning driving around visiting stores looking for stuff for Donna & I, my mom and Diane. At lunchtime Donna & I cried “Uncle” and went back to the hotel for a nap. Dinner tonight was stuffed shrimp and was consumed on the porch again. Afterwards Donna & I followed Diane & Allen to get ice cream in Berlin. Allen’s Integra needs a new muffler; he sounds just like those rice-boys with their chrome coffee can mufflers. Glad we only had to follow for a short distance or weren’t riding in the car.