Today I struck 200k. At 200,015 I broke down.
My little girl becomes a woman. But it's as if she went from age 17 to age 68. My girl went all "Y2K" on my ass and had herself a heart attack.
I had a meeting up in Oceanside this morning which was about 35 miles away from my house. I calculated that by the time I got up there, I had about 28 miles to go until it turned over to 200k. So instead of getting back on the highway and drivinng straight home, missing photo opps of the turning gears, I decided to make a day out of it.
Ironic interjection #1:
When I finished my meeting up in O-side, I was only a few miles from Oceanside Motorsports. I haven't really had a thorough checkup since my last cross country trip, so I gave them a call to see if they had time on the schedule for a visit. Just cause I was in the neighborhood. Naturally, they were all booked up today, no visit. But I did schedule one for later this week.
Back to the drawn out boring story:
So I drove around the Coast Highways, 101, in and out of side streets and stuck close to the ocean. Had a great day of driving, and explored some new parts of North SD County that I haven't seen yet. I manage to pull off into a neighborhood for the turnover. Got some great pics of my little girl becoming a woman:
I like this pic: a perfect diagonal stripe between 199999 and 200000:
And finally:
I continue along my merry joyride through the coast. I'm feeling that she's running better than ever, and I decide to have a little fun with her on a few hills. At mile 200,015 I suddenly notice I've lost power steering. "Hey why is my park brake light on?" "Wait, all my lights are on" Then I see the temp needle climb rapidly towards the red as the smell of burning coolant and oil creep into the vents. As the smoke starts seeping out of the hood, I thought this is it. This is the end. I have an engine fire. I pull over, shut her off, grab what I can out of the car, pop the hood and stand the fuck back. I already put it into my head that the car was done for and prepared for the worst.
Luckily I overreacted. The smoke subsided and I took a look under the hood. Looks like the alternator belt snapped completely off, and sent the steering belt off it's teeth. It was just the belts. The t-belt and water pump should be fine, and hopefully I caught it in time before the heat did any real damage to the head. Luckily I was only about 5 miles from La Jolla Independent. Had the car towed over there where it's resting comfortably for the night. Should be picking her up in the morning with fresh belts.
I gotta say the timing was perfect. After 2 years of ownership, 40,000 miles and 3 cross country trips, this is the ONLY time she's ever broken down on the side of the road. She saw her age creep up on her and said "you know what, dude, I need a break." She'll wake up in the morning and realize that she still has her whole life ahead of her.
And hey, I ain't mad at her. I love her even more, and I can't wait until I see those numbers turn to 300000 then 400000 and so on.
My little girl becomes a woman. But it's as if she went from age 17 to age 68. My girl went all "Y2K" on my ass and had herself a heart attack.
I had a meeting up in Oceanside this morning which was about 35 miles away from my house. I calculated that by the time I got up there, I had about 28 miles to go until it turned over to 200k. So instead of getting back on the highway and drivinng straight home, missing photo opps of the turning gears, I decided to make a day out of it.
Ironic interjection #1:
When I finished my meeting up in O-side, I was only a few miles from Oceanside Motorsports. I haven't really had a thorough checkup since my last cross country trip, so I gave them a call to see if they had time on the schedule for a visit. Just cause I was in the neighborhood. Naturally, they were all booked up today, no visit. But I did schedule one for later this week.
Back to the drawn out boring story:
So I drove around the Coast Highways, 101, in and out of side streets and stuck close to the ocean. Had a great day of driving, and explored some new parts of North SD County that I haven't seen yet. I manage to pull off into a neighborhood for the turnover. Got some great pics of my little girl becoming a woman:
I like this pic: a perfect diagonal stripe between 199999 and 200000:
And finally:
I continue along my merry joyride through the coast. I'm feeling that she's running better than ever, and I decide to have a little fun with her on a few hills. At mile 200,015 I suddenly notice I've lost power steering. "Hey why is my park brake light on?" "Wait, all my lights are on" Then I see the temp needle climb rapidly towards the red as the smell of burning coolant and oil creep into the vents. As the smoke starts seeping out of the hood, I thought this is it. This is the end. I have an engine fire. I pull over, shut her off, grab what I can out of the car, pop the hood and stand the fuck back. I already put it into my head that the car was done for and prepared for the worst.
Luckily I overreacted. The smoke subsided and I took a look under the hood. Looks like the alternator belt snapped completely off, and sent the steering belt off it's teeth. It was just the belts. The t-belt and water pump should be fine, and hopefully I caught it in time before the heat did any real damage to the head. Luckily I was only about 5 miles from La Jolla Independent. Had the car towed over there where it's resting comfortably for the night. Should be picking her up in the morning with fresh belts.
I gotta say the timing was perfect. After 2 years of ownership, 40,000 miles and 3 cross country trips, this is the ONLY time she's ever broken down on the side of the road. She saw her age creep up on her and said "you know what, dude, I need a break." She'll wake up in the morning and realize that she still has her whole life ahead of her.
And hey, I ain't mad at her. I love her even more, and I can't wait until I see those numbers turn to 300000 then 400000 and so on.
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