Robert Hall

Today spotting---my '87 Mustang GT. Got it out this morning and took it for a spin on my birthday. I still enjoy driving it, doesn't quite feel the same as it did when I was 20, though. But for better or for worse, I'm not the same as I was at 20...

Yes, we had rented a Mercedes A-class with a manual at Avis at the Rome airport. Day tripped down to Pompeii, Sorrento, around the Amalfi Coast. Lake lunch in Positano. It was one of the most scenic drives of my life…

I remember the fast food at an Autogrill on the Autostrada from Salerno to Rome having decent food...that was 20 years ago.

Sounds horrific. Last time I was in LA in '15, I had a Tahoe...before that, maybe a 350Z rented at LAX 20 years ago (when I visited So Cal from '08-15, I drove over from Phoenix).

Nice K reverse-N

Yeah, yard guy was out about 3 weeks ago, we discussed plans for this year...started this week since I was on vacation last week...the front hadn't grown much, the back was getting big in places...lots of rain this Spring. Trees just started blooming in the last week..

Got my first yard mowing of the season today...love the smell of fresh cut grass...thinking about planting a few new shrubberies this year..maybe some Arborvitae..I'm fond of Thuja Green Giants. Alas, got a lot of pollen in that air this week..Caddy was clean Sunday when I got back from vacay.

My vacation this past week didn’t pan out as planned, had to take an abbreviated trip closer to home. Spent the last 3 nights in Marietta, Ohio down on the Ohio River. Took the scenic route today up Ohio Rte 7 to my childhood hometown of Steubenville and out Rte 22 to 250 around Tappan Lake to I-77 then back home to the CLE area. Took a couple scenic drives around Appalachian Ohio back roads Fri and Sat, my CT6 performed great on windy, hilly roads for such a big car. It’s really a great road trip car. Averaged 27.7 mpg over almost 600 miles. Saw some interesting cars on the trip—an orange 70 Mustang coupe and a clean black ‘71 Chevelle. Saw many dead and dying old cars in the backwoods fields and hollers. Near my hotel, saw this red Thunderbird, orange MGB, red 1st gen Honda Insight (haven’t seen one of those forever), and a white C8. Also saw sternwheelers and barges on the river. Fun, restful little getaway.

And it has the awful trendy gray/black window trim and garage doors...barf...generic crap. A lot of the new construction around here looks like this, whether condos or McMansions in suburbia.

Ah, yes..the joy of taxes...mine were more complex than usual this year w/ the sale of a house, purchase of a house, and lots of taxable RSU income. But capital gains worked in my favor so I actually got small fed and state refunds, but owed regional tax.

Nice interior. Front is very similar to Buick’s new design language with the big grille and low headlights.

Beautiful weather this weekend after a stormy few days. Went for a scenic drive yesterday, saw a sharp apple green '69 Chevelle 2dr and a bright blue '65 Chevelle 2dr sedan. Also a very clean late 90s Camaro Z-28 in dark red w/ a black roof. Parked at a couple overlook parks on Lake Erie, stormy and windy, big waves.

For the Avenir version (or bring back the Limited name) they need to do the grille like the '58 Buick with a sea of chrome squares..

Nice interior...that front end, though...angry generic robot look, kind of a Lexus knockoff The greenhouse w/ the quarter window kickup is very similar to the XT6..

Reminds me of when I test drove a 1990 Miata when they first came out...my late older brother was a Mazda/VW salesman then, we were around the same size and it was a tight fit w both of us in w/ the top up...

Speaking of 90s Mitsubishis, when I was at a startup in 2001 a coworker had a sweet red 3000 GT V-4 Spyder. That was a sweet car...don't think I've seen one since then..

Sadly, a real dearth of affordable coupes today. So many out there in the 90s. Had a coworker with one from around '97 that was a purply blue, had another coworker in the early 00s that had a silver 01 or so. Nice little cars and w/ AWD made good year round cars in Colorado. Rode in them in lunch trips and one particular memory w/ the '97 was to see perhaps the worst movie of the last 30 years, 'Battlefield Earth'...4 coworkers stuffed in the Eclipse, got stuck in afternoon traffic, got in the theatre during trailers and ended up in the front row on the side..so watched a movie with lots of odd camera angles from an angle.

Beautiful spring weather today. Driving all 3 cars around. Took the Mustang for a quick spin this morning, got up to 70 in I-90, hit a few winding back roads. Took the Caddy out to lunch at a excellent Vietnamese restaurant, hit the winding scenic Chagrin River Road which winds through some of the most expensive NE Ohio real estate (Gates Mills, Hunting Valley, Moreland Hills, Woodmere). Saw several nice Corvettes and Porsches of various vintages, and a gorgeous black XLR-V rolling top down.

Going to be in the totality for the solar eclipse tomorrow here in NE Ohio...a few songs I'll play during the eclipse, probably my favorites mentioning the sun... Audioslave--Shadow on the Sun U2--Staring at the Sun The Beatles -- Here Comes the Sun

With spring in the air, looking into waterproof bluetooth patio speakers so I can enjoy my tunes outside (already have bluetooth speakers in the hot tub that I use when I'm relaxing in there). Lately, been listening to a bit of everything ...first the new..discovered this band when listening to a modern indie rock channel on Sirius XM the other day--'The Beaches', an all-female band from Toronto--this single 'Edge of the Earth' is very catchy...great guitar and harmonies. And of course listening to plenty of classic and 80s rock--Robert Plant both solo in the 80s and with the incomparable Jimmy Page in 70s Led Zeppelin... 'Ship of Fools" 29 Palms: Little by Little: LZ 'In the Evening': And probably my favorite LZ track--the heavy, bluesy, locomotive feel of 'When the Levee Breaks'.. Mix it up with some obscure 80s I love--'The Whole of the Moon' by The Waterboys.

Got my license plate the other day, looked into removing front bracket, would leave 5 holes. May try plugs eventually. Currently using this metal logo plate I got off eBay.

Dominate (or)

The sedan was China only apparently.

That was also another example where the sedan and non-wagon 5dr hatchback are the same length. I don't recall if the US got the sedan version or only the hatchback...traditionally US market wagons had more rear overhang than sedans and thus were longer...but it's been a long time since there have been many examples of traditional sedan and wagon body styles in one model range in the US (since the 80s-90s when GM had the A-body and B-body still around, or Ford w/ the Taurus/Sable for several generations, etc...)

Yeah, then there are cases where the hatchbacks that are the same size as the sedan, like the Mondeo where w/ the last generation the sedan and liftback were virtually indistinguishable in profile. The wagon version may have been longer.