Oracle of Delphi

6900 all told by time I get back to Delaware on Wed.

I missed you too blu!

Where to begin, well simply at the beginning, this trip had been planned for quite a while. We left Delaware and headed south on I-81 picking it up in West Virginia. Drove the 1st day to Knoxville, TN where my wife's sister lives and where the PCS 1st gave us trouble with the key locking or being grabbed by the ignition. Had AAA come and get the key out, on to Texas the next day. Always like to see those warning signs on I-10, for alligators. Stayed a few days at my mother's in Texas, we had a great visit with her. I seem to miss Texas a little more as time goes by. But wouldn't you know it the key issue reared it's ugly head again in Texas the night before we left, this time I fixed it, or so it seems, since it didn't give us another problem so far. Left Texas and moved on to Las Vegas, I was hoping for a little luck in Vegas, since the PCS was averaging anywhere from 11 - 13 MPG, I won a little not a lot but left with more than I came with, which is always a plus. Then on to California. This is where our plans went to hell in a hand cart, we were all over Cali, my wife just couldn't get enough of it, and yes we had our 1st earthquake experience. We eventually crossed over the border into Mexico and headed south into Baja California on MEX-1, Baja is one beautiful place. However we lost our laptop in Baja when my daughter through her own neglect allowed the laptop to get wet, and not just wet, but in salt water no less, the machine tried to work, but more often than not would not boot up and made strange noises. This left me with just my iPhone. I was not happy. We headed north after about 3 days in Baja, back into the US, the border crossing back into the USA was a 2 hour affair, with 3/4ths of that just sitting in traffic. We then proceeded up the Pacific Coast Highway, beautiful scenery all along the way. We eventually made it to Oregon, spent the night there and the next day exploring the local sites of Portland. Then started to head East/South East on I-84 into Idaho. We ended up in Ketchum, ID, where we did some mountain and trail biking, one of my passions in life. We spent the next day in Craters of the Moon Nat'l Monument just resting up for the long haul East. We took I-84 to I-80 East. We saw a American Bald eagle sitting in a tree in Wyoming, truly an impressive sight. We also crossed over the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, as we went higher in elevation the PCS temperature gauge slowly started to rise too, I was relieved as we started to go down the other the side of the Rockies. I've always flown over them but never driven through them, they reminded me of the Andes in Quito, Ecuador. The next few days we went through Nebraska (FLATTTTTTT), Iowa (CORNNNN). We bypassed Chicago, I didn't like the looks of that traffic, and we spent the night in Gary, Indiana, home of the Jackson 5. We moved on to Detroit the next day where we spent some quality time with some friends of ours. Our laptop was replaced in Detroit and I have to say, always back your data up to a Network drive, by doing so, I saved my ass. We have moved through Ontario, Canada and we are now in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. We just love the old city. We are heading south tomorrow into NY state and eventually to Long Island, NY to see my In-Laws (Out-Laws), then on to Delaware, before returning back to work. There is so much, to see in North America, if you get the chance, go out and see it. It's spectacular, people for the most part are warm and friendly and curious, the PCS has Street Rod plates which is Delaware's version of antique plates. I got many comments about the car and the plate and about Delaware, one man said he loved Delaware, it has all those mountains.

You need to know a US GM employee that will give you the discount, is my understanding.

Search me?

Once again I did not look at a Flickr account, I received and email. You make a lot of assumptions and generalities about me and what went on and who and what I am, you seem to do that a lot and not just with me, just part of your MO I'm afraid. I have many British friends, as I am a member of a UK gaming clan, just because I said you're Anti-American, doesn't mean I'm Anti-British, as most of my British friends would claim the opposite of me. I don't pick my friends by what flag they fly, as there are people on this forum and that I know personally in real life who live in other countries, that I am very friendly with. I am overjoyed that you have family and friends, but getting along with them as long as they have a dose of common sense is the rub, it's common sense in your eyes only, it seems. I'm not so sure you get along pretty much with anybody, as wherever you go the same old MO rears it's ugly head, you just can't help yourself. You bring chaos wherever you roam. You may be asking yourself where is my evidence of this? Allow me to introduce Exhibit A. Feel free to read all of it, but I would suggest you start reading on page 5 and read though to page 9. I found your views enlightening to say the least, and so will all those that read it! It gives insight into you and how you operate. Same MO wherever you go. Seems you have authority issues too, you don't like mods who also post in the forums they mod, you do know that is a pillar of C&G, don't you? I personally enjoy the moderators views. http://forums.motortrend.com/70/1062007/th...tors/page5.html Exhibit B. Same old aatbloke. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.p...10#post13477010 I think you have me beat in that regard. :AH-HA_wink:

Are you IN or OUT?

I saw a GM sponsored TV add for Saturn, oh my!

Ball bag for bowling

Sonic, America's Drive-in. Link: http://www.sonicdrivein.com/

Jamie LaReau Automotive News July 28, 2008 - 12:01 am ET DETROIT — General Motors is allowing U.S. employees the opportunity, through July, to offer an employee discount to any one person they choose. The program is not as broad as GM's 2005 Employee Discount for Everyone event. It's an effort to boost sales, talk up GM products and clear inventory, a company spokesman said Friday. An employee discount provides substantial savings. For example, a Buick Lucerne with a sticker price of $34,200 would have an employee price of $29,758.03 after cash incentives, said a GM spokesman. Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080728/A...paign_id=alerts

Craig Trudell Automotive News July 28, 2008 - 12:01 am ET With its dealers struggling to sell vehicles from a brand that might be sold, General Motors has paid Hummer dealers early bonuses and is in talks to buy out stores. "Hummer is quietly getting dealers to sign off on their stores and making deals with each one," Tim Kelly, a Hummer dealer in Chattanooga, Tenn., told Automotive News. Kelly said GM is "tiptoeing through a legal minefield" by trying to shed Hummer, trying to avoid the lawsuits that ensued when it killed Oldsmobile. He said he doesn't think that dealers "are going away without a fight, but I think GM is handling it the right way by making peace with each dealer, one by one." In early June, GM had said it was considering "all options" for Hummer, including sale of the brand. Last week, a GM spokeswoman wouldn't say whether GM is making bonus payments or is buying out dealers. But several dealers confirmed that GM is buying out stores from owners. One owner said he is holding talks with GM about selling his store but had signed a confidentiality agreement. GM came to dealers' aid after putting Hummer on the chopping block. GM tweaked its Standards for Excellence bonus program, paying Hummer dealers second- and third-quarter bonuses in advance as if they already had achieved them. The bonuses were paid based on dealers' performance in the second and third quarters of 2007. While the amount paid differs among dealers, the average bonus is at least six figures, dealers said. The bonuses paid under the program "can be substantial," said Ed Williamson, a Miami dealer. Williamson said GM made the changes to get its dealers through a sales plunge. In June, Hummer's U.S. sales fell 59.3 percent to 2,072 units. Williamson's store, Williamson Cadillac-Hummer, sold 31 Hummers in June, tying for the top-volume dealership in the country for the month. When business was at its best in 2006, Williamson averaged more than 100 new Hummers a month. "There's no question that there are some people out there that might have considered our truck," Williamson said of consumer attitude in recent months. "If they're thinking GM is going to sell it, they might not have come in to look." Adding to their struggles, dealers said, much of their best sales staff fled their Hummer lots after GM put the brand up for sale. Hummer dealer Mike Daugherty said he cut his sales staff in half since GM started shopping Hummer. Daugherty said $4-a-gallon gasoline took away about half the business at his Hummer store in Sacramento, Calif. The other half disappeared after GM announced it might sell the brand. Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080728/A.../807280338/1078

Jesse Snyder Automotive News July 28, 2008 - 12:01 am ET Plunging Toyota sales paced a dreary June for Europe. All mass-market auto groups lost volume in 28 European markets last month as sales fell 7.9 percent to 1.43 million passenger vehicles, said ACEA, the European automakers association. June results pushed Europe's first-half sales to a 2.0 percent decline, to 8.34 million units. But the Toyota brand's 17.7 percent decline in June, coupled with an even steeper 25.6 percent loss at Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus luxury brand, was the worst result for the month. For the first six months, Toyota Motor was the only automaker with a double-digit loss in Europe, down 12.3 percent. Toyota's fuel-efficient Aygo minicar and Prius are up a bit, but most other Toyota and Lexus models are down this year. Europe's six largest automakers — Volkswagen, PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, Ford, General Motors, Renault and Fiat — all lost sales in the first half. The only major players in Europe with first-half gains were BMW, Daimler and Nissan, the latter of which soared 25.9 percent to almost 200,000 units this year. Daimler gained 2.8 percent through June. Its flagship Mercedes-Benz brand was off 0.1 percent for the first half, but Smart brand sales jumped 30.5 percent on full availability of a new-generation ForTwo. The BMW brand gained 6.2 percent, and with the new Clubman model pushing Mini sales up by almost one-fifth, the group rose 8.3 percent overall. Geographically, Europe's first-half results are mixed. Among the five biggest markets, Germany and France managed modest gains compared with down markets in the first half of 2007. But the United Kingdom was marginally down, and Italy and Spain fell sharply. The best regional market was the new European Union. The 10 post-2004 EU members for which ACEA has data (excluding Cyprus and Malta) posted first-half sales of 611,543 vehicles, up 6.9 percent. Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20080728/A...paign_id=alerts

Lions

The green just screams, Bö®gÉr, Bö®gÉr, Bö®gÉr!

I don't know what time zones y'all are in, but Happy Birthday!

Hairy Toes

I never saw one, but I was not a Buick fan then.

Head

Why on Earth would I want to know about that? I will get to the bottom of the e-mail soon enough. There is a war going on inside GM and I have a few enemies, odd as that may seem. I'm sure you know all about having enemies aatbloke. Here's the long awaited emoticon. I aim to please!

I like how they raised their rates 59% last year, and we still have the same lousy service.

I think Ron Zarrella had it in for Oldsmobile too.

He's been removing them, I don't know why.

I'm making perfect sense, I received an e-mail that the UK car was not going to be scrapped along with a pic. As for the Swiss car, I at first didn't care if it was scrapped or not, but have since changed my mind and I am working to have it sent to the States. Nothing has changed from what I told the few people about the special engine back in the late winter of 2007.

Nahhh, she is loaded to the hilt though. The trunk is completely filled and I have some things in the back seat too. She looks like a jet ready to take off with her nose pointed high in the air. Air force