Sunday, May 20, 2012

I've made it as far ...

... as Rachel and Darren's without any further incident, which is more than can be said for two motorists way over the frontier in the USA several miles away. Seems that there's been something of a fender-bender over there between two vehicles and both of them have caught fire.

Not every day that you see something like that, but it is worrying just how easily modern cars catch fire after an accident. I don't remember cars catching fire this easily back in the good old days when I was nought but a pup.

By the way, the photo was taken from a distance of several miles with the new zoom lens. I'm clearly going to have to work on my technique but you can see the advantages of going a-wandering in the spring before the leaves are out on the trees.

For the last couple of nights I've been sleeping out in forests - driving into logging roads and looking for clearings to park up. This seems to be the answer because i've had a couple of decent nights' sleep.All these dirt roads aren't doing the car much good though as you can see. It'll need a good wash before I hand it back.

Nevertheless, this idea of hiring a big 8-seater and converting it into some kind of motorhome is definitely the way to go on these kinds of trips. Despite the extra cost and the higher fuel consumption I've spent 14 nights asleep in the car and at a saving of about $70 per night on motel fees, that's about $1000 saved and it's that kind of thing that makes these journeys much more affordable.

Since the last time  blogged I hit the USA border and I've been basically following the roads through the mountains along the frontier. Choosing an extreme destination and setting the SatNav to "shortest route" isn't half finding me some astonishing roads over the mountains, even if there is too much haze for the camera to take full advantage of the view. But it's been sending me up and down roads like this, and I'm not complaining.

Eventually the road joined up with the road that I took in the autumn and so this part of the circuit is complete. From there I hit the highway to Rachel and Darren's. And I have my work to do here as well. Zoe, the eldest girl, has her driving test on Thursday and is a little shaky on parallel parking and so we were out for a few hours yesterday and we'll be out in a short while for another couple of hours as well.
.


9 comments:

  1. I'd be tempted to hire an econovan myself. They're quite cheap to buy so they might be cheap to rent too.

    No clue as to what those car were or why they caught fire?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes - might be a possibility but the advantage of a Grand Caravan is that all of the seats fold down flat into the floor leaving a cavernous empty space in the back for me to set up my bed and so on.

    As for the cars, one seemed to be off the road and down a bank and so I suspect a collision.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never found the Dodge Caravan to be that big. Mind, I am a bit taller and I guess that might have something to do with it.

    My SUV doesn't afford me enough space to lie flat, sadly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If I pull the passenger seat forward my bed will go full-length inside it with enough room for a couple of big tote boxes in front of it - that must be about 8 feet or so in length.

      Delete
  4. Ah... My SUV - the back seats fold forward and go flat but the front seats remain where they are.

    It's a good load space - taller than the Dodge but not as long or quite as wide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the Dodge, the seats actually fold into recesses in the flooring and so when they are all flattened out you just have a completely flat floor pan

      Delete
  5. Ah... That's a new development then. In the old Dodge Caravan they didn't do that. With my Xterra, the backs of the back seats are the floor of the cargo bay, level with the rest of the bay. The bottoms of the seats tip upward and rest against the backs of the front seats as a wall between cargo bay and front seats. I've had piles of furniture in the back of my Xterra but as I said, I doubt I could lie there and sleep comfortably.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. have a look at
      http://www.erichall.eu/images/1109/1109664.jpg

      Delete
  6. That's far in advance of the Dodge Caravan I used to drive. That one, you had to remove the seats. That was a real pain. I think I prefer vans.

    ReplyDelete