life BS too much driving
It's been a long day; woke up way too early after not sleeping well (because hotels, shared walls, loudness) and realized that some of the car places I was thinking about going to in SoCal were in fact, East of Sacramento. Which is all well and good, but set them lower on priorities given that there are other cars in SoCal I want to test drive still.
Hopped on BART, sans luggage realizing I had "more time" to pick up a rental car from OAK and then drive back to the hotel to grab my stuff, and seeing 3 SF/SFO bound BART trains that were all "standing room only" I was grateful I didn't bring my luggage to take up more room. Albeit, when I finally got on an OAK/Berryessa bound BART train, it was much less crowded, so maybe I could have brought my luggage after all? I dunno.
There was a girl asleep, with her cat, on the rental car shuttle at OAK that the driver spent quite a while attempting to wake up, kind of hilarious. The cat seemed amazingly docile at being picked up but clearly not really enjoying things either.
I used some car rental aggregator thingamajig to book the rental car (rather than Rent-A-Relic in Berkeley which seems pretty decent on the whole, but they do mileage charges after 150 miles or so; so trying one of the bigger rental chains which has "unlimited" mileage seemed as if it was going to be more cost effective given my present plans), and when I showed up to the "dollar" car rental booth, there was a sign redirecting me to the Hertz rental booth. The guy signing me out thought I was intending to test drive one of their cars to drive when I told him what I was doing and uhh, no, but apparently they have a different location where they also sell cars? So I dunno, maybe?
Finally got on the road, circled back to my hotel, grabbed my things and checked out and began the sojourn south, with a stop at my mailbox (alas, the check from the car insurance claim was not there though it's been 7 days; I guess we'll find out later!) and continued South.
Stopped at Cultiva in San Juan Bautista which is a farm to table vegan joint. For the first time ever, I happened to hit the window on their lunch special and thoroughly enjoyed their lentil soup and "Alma" half sandwich combo. Alas, they were out of tamales, but they did have freshly squeezed orange juice. I also purchased some strawberries since I guess they were just harvested? Pretty tasty!
Continuing South (and forgoing stopping at my storage unit since I realize I will be making another trip there probably on Thursday) I eventually stopped at the Vreamery in Paso Robles and they have a really amazing blue camembert (everything is vegan) that I tried a small amount of and would probably buy more of were it not so expensive! The owner greeted me happily and told me about some strange PG&E issues she's encountered at their warehouse space or whatever speculating maybe DOGE cutbacks had something to do with it? I dunno! Their PoS system is one of those that texts me about "points" and "expiring soon" but apparently I had sufficient points (or 10th visit or something) that I got $10 off my purchase, so that was neat I guess?
Continued further South and stopped in Avila Beach to enjoy soaking in some hot springs for an hour or so (they gave me an extra 15 minutes for "free" because they booked me in one of the tubs sort of at the top of the hill/stairs). Super relaxing and especially since the hotel room I had booked the previous evening/morning had no hot water?
Intermittently (because I have no active SIMs and am beholden to open WiFi, intentionally) I had been texting a friend in SoCal to see if he might be able to meet up this evening for dinner or something, but it turns out he's leaving for India for work for 10 days tomorrow! So that timing isn't going to work out. Still nice to exchange some pleasantries and get his perspective on cars (last week I test drove a car similar to one he used to own and another model similar to one his dad used to own, so he had more insights into them than someone who is just trying to sell me something).
Eventually stopped at Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park and did some grocery shopping and dined in their cafe. Super polite service and their "chikn" pot pie (served with a side of beets with pecans and kale) hit the spot!
Drove around a little bit afterwards before finding someplace with open WiFi (no luck with a library I had put in the navigation because they were closed or the range or something; but did find a Starbucks that was still open after 21:00 local time because they have a drive thru and it's LA-adjacent I guess?) to figure out booking a hotel relatively close to some dealerships which have vehicles I want to test drive in the morning rather than deal with too much morning commuter traffic. Finally checked in about quarter to 23:00 local time.
I'm exhausted. Thankfully, there were no major incidents while driving and only a little bit of stop and go traffic between Canoga Park and the hotel (closer to Riverside) due to road construction + a stalled van or something?
I saw hella CHP on the road, especially from Santa Barbara through Ventura (my guess is they've got quotas to fill or something?).
The rental car has "adaptive" cruise control, which is weird a.f. but vaguely convenient if overly cautious I guess?
I didn't check the odometer once I got to the hotel this evening, but earlier in the night I had already driven over 400 miles (more than 640km: and approximately $75 in "mileage" charges if I had used Rent-A-Relic; though maybe it would still be better to support them as a "local" business? I dunno.) today.
And I haven't even done any test driving! That will be tomorrow. Hopefully I can sleep better? I dunno. The hotel room air felt very stale (I opened a window to freshen it up and then closed that and turned on the AC to cool things down) and it's extremely close to a freeway. ;-/
But, it's "cheap"? I guess? Everything seems insanely expensive to me these days. Last week I test drove a couple of Honda CRVs and the asking prices for such things at dealerships felt as if it was more than double what I paid for a new Acura MDX for my ex-wife which was pretty premium; arguably a lot nicer than the CRVs (though I guess not hybrid circa 2002 or whenever that was). I think there's a lot more going on than just "inflation" I think the automotive industry is entrenched with greed. But, what do I know?
Here's hoping the drive to test drive some more unusual cars tomorrow was worth it, because I am probably going to be driving back North by early afternoon if I can.
Hopped on BART, sans luggage realizing I had "more time" to pick up a rental car from OAK and then drive back to the hotel to grab my stuff, and seeing 3 SF/SFO bound BART trains that were all "standing room only" I was grateful I didn't bring my luggage to take up more room. Albeit, when I finally got on an OAK/Berryessa bound BART train, it was much less crowded, so maybe I could have brought my luggage after all? I dunno.
There was a girl asleep, with her cat, on the rental car shuttle at OAK that the driver spent quite a while attempting to wake up, kind of hilarious. The cat seemed amazingly docile at being picked up but clearly not really enjoying things either.
I used some car rental aggregator thingamajig to book the rental car (rather than Rent-A-Relic in Berkeley which seems pretty decent on the whole, but they do mileage charges after 150 miles or so; so trying one of the bigger rental chains which has "unlimited" mileage seemed as if it was going to be more cost effective given my present plans), and when I showed up to the "dollar" car rental booth, there was a sign redirecting me to the Hertz rental booth. The guy signing me out thought I was intending to test drive one of their cars to drive when I told him what I was doing and uhh, no, but apparently they have a different location where they also sell cars? So I dunno, maybe?
Finally got on the road, circled back to my hotel, grabbed my things and checked out and began the sojourn south, with a stop at my mailbox (alas, the check from the car insurance claim was not there though it's been 7 days; I guess we'll find out later!) and continued South.
Stopped at Cultiva in San Juan Bautista which is a farm to table vegan joint. For the first time ever, I happened to hit the window on their lunch special and thoroughly enjoyed their lentil soup and "Alma" half sandwich combo. Alas, they were out of tamales, but they did have freshly squeezed orange juice. I also purchased some strawberries since I guess they were just harvested? Pretty tasty!
Continuing South (and forgoing stopping at my storage unit since I realize I will be making another trip there probably on Thursday) I eventually stopped at the Vreamery in Paso Robles and they have a really amazing blue camembert (everything is vegan) that I tried a small amount of and would probably buy more of were it not so expensive! The owner greeted me happily and told me about some strange PG&E issues she's encountered at their warehouse space or whatever speculating maybe DOGE cutbacks had something to do with it? I dunno! Their PoS system is one of those that texts me about "points" and "expiring soon" but apparently I had sufficient points (or 10th visit or something) that I got $10 off my purchase, so that was neat I guess?
Continued further South and stopped in Avila Beach to enjoy soaking in some hot springs for an hour or so (they gave me an extra 15 minutes for "free" because they booked me in one of the tubs sort of at the top of the hill/stairs). Super relaxing and especially since the hotel room I had booked the previous evening/morning had no hot water?
Intermittently (because I have no active SIMs and am beholden to open WiFi, intentionally) I had been texting a friend in SoCal to see if he might be able to meet up this evening for dinner or something, but it turns out he's leaving for India for work for 10 days tomorrow! So that timing isn't going to work out. Still nice to exchange some pleasantries and get his perspective on cars (last week I test drove a car similar to one he used to own and another model similar to one his dad used to own, so he had more insights into them than someone who is just trying to sell me something).
Eventually stopped at Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park and did some grocery shopping and dined in their cafe. Super polite service and their "chikn" pot pie (served with a side of beets with pecans and kale) hit the spot!
Drove around a little bit afterwards before finding someplace with open WiFi (no luck with a library I had put in the navigation because they were closed or the range or something; but did find a Starbucks that was still open after 21:00 local time because they have a drive thru and it's LA-adjacent I guess?) to figure out booking a hotel relatively close to some dealerships which have vehicles I want to test drive in the morning rather than deal with too much morning commuter traffic. Finally checked in about quarter to 23:00 local time.
I'm exhausted. Thankfully, there were no major incidents while driving and only a little bit of stop and go traffic between Canoga Park and the hotel (closer to Riverside) due to road construction + a stalled van or something?
I saw hella CHP on the road, especially from Santa Barbara through Ventura (my guess is they've got quotas to fill or something?).
The rental car has "adaptive" cruise control, which is weird a.f. but vaguely convenient if overly cautious I guess?
I didn't check the odometer once I got to the hotel this evening, but earlier in the night I had already driven over 400 miles (more than 640km: and approximately $75 in "mileage" charges if I had used Rent-A-Relic; though maybe it would still be better to support them as a "local" business? I dunno.) today.
And I haven't even done any test driving! That will be tomorrow. Hopefully I can sleep better? I dunno. The hotel room air felt very stale (I opened a window to freshen it up and then closed that and turned on the AC to cool things down) and it's extremely close to a freeway. ;-/
But, it's "cheap"? I guess? Everything seems insanely expensive to me these days. Last week I test drove a couple of Honda CRVs and the asking prices for such things at dealerships felt as if it was more than double what I paid for a new Acura MDX for my ex-wife which was pretty premium; arguably a lot nicer than the CRVs (though I guess not hybrid circa 2002 or whenever that was). I think there's a lot more going on than just "inflation" I think the automotive industry is entrenched with greed. But, what do I know?
Here's hoping the drive to test drive some more unusual cars tomorrow was worth it, because I am probably going to be driving back North by early afternoon if I can.