trinacriabob

June 24 Viana do Castelo, Portugal - it looks sporty and expensive, but what is it? Isn't it great how people who own these types of cars are often of the "too cool for school" variety? Ponte de Lima, Portugal - I know what this is, but not the exact year! There are a few people overseas who own cars like this pristine older Cadillac and obviously have somebody to work on them. It might be plated with a historical license plate. I'm sure it is driven sparingly with that old school, all cast iron, made in Detroit big block V8. Kudos to the owner for keeping it in such great shape.

June 17 Loule', Portugal - I couldn't help but notice this car. I don't know which model of Audi it was, but it apparently has a V-10. The engine placement might hearken to the latest Corvette. Whoever could afford to both buy and fuel this vehicle in Europe has coin to spare. If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

June 14 Monte Gordo, Portugal - some people I know in the U.S. called these throw-away cars, but you wouldn't believe how many old Mercedes in great shape and running condition are seen throughout Portugal, including a few of the Irma Bunt version of the Mercedes also in Monte Gordo - they may say they are moving away from coupes and sedans in North America. However, I see new renditions of them in Europe. Maybe they have more sense and better taste. This is a Nissan product and I didn't notice its name.

June 12 Comporta area south of Lisbon, Portugal - motoring on a budget and I have no idea what it is and what powers it Aldeia dos Capuchos viewpoint over the ocean south of Lisbon, Portugal - this guy from Italy gave tours of the area in this little red Fiat convertible

Nice to hear from you, Dave. You'd expect things to change? Nope. Most of the quirks of the long-term members are fairly entrenched, which I view as mostly a good thing.

I saw this recently ... Look, it creates a shadow image! It's on a late model Ford Fusion. - - - - - It doesn't make a lot of sense. Being a single mom doesn't mean they are "pole dance" material. They can be slam dunking Oreos as they watch Oprah. Is it that they're "easier," or so the person thinks, because they need to find that replacement and, sometimes, it's a matter of urgency? Is it that someone else is paying for their support? Or is it that he flunked a DNA test and is on the hook for the support payments? I'm not sure what it means. And, also, to put this dumb sticker on a car, what a moron.

In purging bookmarks, I found this: https://www.adrenalinmotors.ca/vehicles/776/1982-pontiac-grand-prix-brougham Way, way up in Canada. They went Brougham when this car was ordered, but it has no A/C and crank windows. Someone jumped on it a while back ... sold.

Happy Bastille Day

15.5 years of LaCrosse today. Mileage woken up to this morning: 123,472 mi. I took it up north to Toronto over Canada Day (July 1) to visit a friend and then drove back down to be in the States for the 4th. The best highway mileage "tank" I got both on the trip up and the trip down was about 32.5 mpg (cruise, ~63 mph, A/C ON), so, it's telling me it's still real tight. I've regularly exceeded the EPA highway mpg when it has been "babied" on the open road. With the fairly new Michelins, it feels as solid as a bank vault. This chapter will eventually close, too. Such is life.

I am okay with this, and only this, Subaru: the Legacy sedan. A rented one once took me around the snowy roads around Lake Tahoe very competently one winter, and, thankfully, it wasn't the cliche' wagon. A Legacy blends in without much fuss and their ownership demographics seem to be better spread, but the Outback/Forester wagons stand out, at least to me. Angled front view Angled rear view They did a great ( ! ) job of keeping the infotainment touch screen under the cowl of the dashboard. I've sat in one at the dealer and I like the cabin environment.

I blame the city and the province for adopting that pronunciation - it's virtually identical to choosing to say Italian or Eye-talian. I looked for a YouTube that didn't have religion (difficult to do) in it, and this is done by Mozart and the choral pronunciation, in just the first minute, is correct: Amazing to learn that Mozart was from Austria and only lived to be 35.

I saw this a few months ago and couldn't believe it, so I thought I'd share. Naturally, the city had to apologize (apologizing is fashionable in the New Millennium) and it was pulled. CTV Regina: Jimmy Fallon invited to ‘Experience Regina’ | CTV News Of course, you'd expect someone the likes of goofball Jimmy Fallon to capitalize on this quirk on Saskatchewan's capital. - - - - - I had no clue they pronounced it this way until I spoke to someone from Saskatchewan going to college in the states and pronounced it "Reh-gee-nah," the way this imported Italian word is pronounced there and in the U.S. and was corrected by this Canadian guy pronouncing it "Reh-jy-nah." It was funny, but WTF? Change the frickin' way the name of the city is pronounced. Problem solved.

Driving up the QEW (free, not tolled) into Toronto, I drove right past the Oakville, Ontario assembly plant and there was a big sign on the side of a big industrial building about the 'Stang going electric. If it would have been an easy on-off the highway. I would have gladly taken a photo of it. It wasn't. - - - - - Random thought: I can't stand it when I go into a restroom and the toilet paper is rolled to be pulled from under rather than from over. Rural Pennsylvania is definitely green. However, some parts of the Garden State are anything but. But I'm sure balthazar lives in a treed enough area from what he has shared with us.

Isn't this the truth? Here I was, salivating at the thought of buying a new '98 Intrigue in the metallic slate blue color, sometimes even pawing them at night if I dropped by the Cadillac/Olds dealership in Bellevue! In a mere 2 years, the announcement came that Olds would be discontinued. On top of that, the Series II 3800 was the rendition of this great engine that had the cheap intake manifolds which some people caught before major damage set in. Well, I waited a long while and fared even better with the car I ultimately bought. And, yes, we should be thankful for what we have. I would have liked to have done this and that, but I really should not be complaining.

I enjoyed owning one as a second car for a while. Unfortunately, I bought it used and, even with only 34,000 miles, I think the previous owner did not break it in correctly or went the distance between oil changes. It had a problem with valve seals and a drone in the rear differential or somewhere in the rear axle. I wanted to have a mechanic look at it, but my dad was his hasty self and wanted me to just buy the car, for which he put up some of the money. The Camaro took a giant leap forward in 1974 (second generation - part B, I would guess) when they replaced the tiny circular taillamps with the wider ones that tapered as they turned into the rear fender AND brought on a slimmer canted back front grille. Then, 1975 got even nicer with the wraparound backlite. Camaro and Firebird are as Americana as it gets, and attractive, too. I have a soft spot for them in purist stock form whereas the Mustang has truthfully never done much for me.

Ok, fine, but HARD PASS on this one.

Good morning ... From New Hampshire From Virginia From Nevada, too (2 of these 3 came from reddit images!) - - - - - A little OCD humor to start the weekend ...

Keystoning is marking up on retail, and not on the wholesale price the mechanic or dealer supposedly paid for the parts they will be putting in. Get estimates up front. It can really add up if big ticket items - win for the mechanic and lose for the customer. When I had my Gabriel struts done all the way around, it was obvious he marked up on the retail cost. I grew up with this brand so I chose their Readymount for my all-in-one strut assemblies over the Monroe Qui(c)k-Strut. They seem to be working out, especially up front. That's another story. - - - - - Well, I didn't do this today, but yesterday. I had my oil changed. This small outfit went from Castrol to STP, and a lot of these oil change places are going away from Castrol and Valvoline because of the $$$. I let them put in the STP the last time, which was the first time I used them. I just changed the oil at 4,000 miles (the longest I've ever gone in between oil changes and the dipstick was only down 2 out of 5 indicator "holes," so not bad). I had gotten a good deal on Castrol full synthetic that I bought in a 6-pack from Wally World. I called this outfit to see how much it would be and they offer BYOO (bring your own oil) service at less than $30. He even threw in the oil filter. So, I've got my preferred brand of oil in the engine and it's full synthetic. I think I will do this BYOO thing the next time.

Young Austrian girl in front of an Austrian Airbus 340 in the Maldives, of all places. An aviation-loving kid posed by an airplane in 1999. Over 20 years later, she recreated the photo (msn.com) Since Lufthansa and Swiss have/had these quad jets, it would make sense that Austrian did too at some point in time.

If you go onto Google Flights and enter a city pair you are considering, it gives you that based on the type of aircraft, length of the flight, etc. It gives you the numerical amounts of CO2 it drops into the atmosphere. I guess you can even see how a different type of aircraft fares on the same trip if it's a popular route with different carriers using different aircraft.

Someone sent me this earlier today ... thought I'd share I wouldn't even want to imagine any other outcome: accent, driving on the other side of the street, a royal family, high tea, bad teeth, and did I mention the accent ...

Returning to New York Service to JFK began today, on the 4th of July Lufthansa Resumes Airbus A380 Flights To New York JFK (msn.com) Thank you for the commemorating the 4th with us, Lufthansa!

Happy holiday weekend to most of North America: Happy Canada Day (July 1) - and I drove the LaCrosse up to Toronto to visit friends - and Happy Independence Day, for which "I'll be back." Enjoy and stay safe.

Two random thoughts that occurred to me tonight ... 1 We sit there and watch squirrels scurrying around, eating what they find, and standing up on their hind legs, but if they didn't have those bushy tails, we'd find them to be pests. 2 I bought some fuel tonight and threw away a wrapper into a trash bin. I saw more than half that trash bin filled with plastic bottles. Can't they just take them home and do a recycle each weekend? Probably not. Is that too much to ask to both beautify and make the world around us more sustainable? Probably so. I'd be insulted if someone called me liberal, but, while @David is passionate about our movement toward EVs, I've got some issues with people who think it's too much trouble to recycle. There are recycling bins just about everywhere you go in Europe and even their versions of our rednecks - who definitely do not recycle - seem to do it over there.

The birthday board at the right side of the forum page indicates/d: Happy birthday to @Robert Hall Happy birthday to @bobo Edit: Happy birthday to @loki , too! There's a little bit of slush in the time zones, but close enough. Enjoy your b-days ... and many more. - - - - - I was up for 25 hours yesterday flying back to the states with delays. Thankfully, I changed planes in Chicago. Those changing planes in New York and thereabouts most likely misconnected and may have even been stranded. A friend who was coincidentally coming back from Europe on the same day was in fact stranded at New York - JFK. She just got home within the last few hours. It feels good to be home even if feeling like a wet noodle. Lots of interesting sightings ... and even some interesting car rentals.