Cars and commuting

Remember last year when we got stuck along the side of the road south of Albuquerque when the van did this:

It’s a broken exhaust manifold. Well, it turns out the van has two of those things, one on each side. And apparently Nissan didn’t do a very good job of making them strong enough for a camper van.

On Sunday we were on our way to Albuquerque in the van when we realized it was making that same noise again. Last time we broke a manifold it started making noise in about Hatch, New Mexico, and we made it to just south of Socorro before it gave out completely. This time it started making noise in about Hatch again. Déjà vu! We imagined being stuck along the side of the freeway just south of Socorro. Again!

And the weather was miserable. It was hot with extremely strong headwinds and crosswinds, with dust and smoke in the air despite occasional sheeting rain. We just held on tight and kept driving, the noise from the engine growing louder and louder every minute. Would it hold together until we reached Albuquerque, or would suddenly give way, drop to the ground and drag, leaving us stranded along the side of the road again? It was very stressful. We were so relieved to make it to Albuquerque!

Here we are driving towards our neighborhood, having just left the freeway. Our engine was gleefully announcing our arrival.

Here we are backing up into our driveway, sounding like a fleet of motorcycles, vroom, vroom! I’m sure our neighbors were impressed (not). But the lizard on the wall was surprisingly unfazed.

So yes, we’re in Albuquerque again. And stuck here until we can get the van fixed.

After a year and a half of John mostly working from home, the project he’s leading is now in a stage where he needs to be onsite a lot. It really doesn’t have much (or anything) to do with the state of the pandemic. It just has to do with equipment he needs in this stage of his project.

We’re guessing this particular stage of his project will be done this summer. Then going forward he expects approximately 2-3 periods of about six weeks each when he needs to be onsite in either Albuquerque or the CA Bay Area.

Earlier this month he flew out for a week and a half without me, but he didn’t enjoy the flight at all. There’s not a direct flight, so it practically takes as long as it does to drive. And air travel is a bit of a mess right now. The industry hasn’t caught up with the sudden increased demand. Flights are late and people are grumpy and everything is under-staffed. So we’ve decided to go back to driving.

We’ve been doing the Tucson-to-Albuquerque commute in the camper van. During the pandemic the van was handy because we have our own sink and toilet and didn’t need to use public restrooms. It doesn’t matter as much now. The van is comfortable, but it doesn’t get very good gas milage. And we don’t like putting so much wear and tear on the van, which is supposed to be for vacationing, not interstate commuting.

So…drumroll…we’re thinking of getting another car. When I met John back in 2005 he had three cars. I remember wondering what kind of guy thinks he needs three cars, LOL. But they all had different purposes; a 4WD Jeep for the backroads, an old AWD Subaru for commuting from Placitas into Albuquerque in snowy conditions, and a sports car because, well, I guess you don’t need a reason to have a sports car.

We don’t have any of those cars anymore, but we still have plenty of cars. I have an older Mini Cooper in Tucson. Then there’s the camper van of course, which you hear so much about. We also have an old pickup we use for upkeep of the rentals, and moving, and landscaping, and remodeling. It’s currently in Tucson. The day before we left for Albuquerque this week, John came home from Home Depot with an impulse buy of 5 big cement planters, each weighing some ridiculous amount.

They were a good price and our backyard in Tucson is barren. We’re going to put them between the pool and the wall, where there isn’t really room to put anything into the ground – it is paved almost to the wall.

In addition to the Mini Cooper, the camper van and the pickup (all older and purchased used), we also have a fairly new Toyota 4Runner. I believe John had high hopes of exploring wilderness areas in it, but since we bought it I have not felt well enough to do any tent camping, much less actual backpacking. So we’ve just been van camping instead.

Hopefully someday we can get back to the more extreme (and less comfortable) wilderness trips. We’ve been pushing the van too hard I think, taking it on extremely rough back roads – it’s just too big and heavy for that. And it’s rewarding us with cracked manifolds! It’s really the 4Runner we ought to be taking camping out in the middle of nowhere. We could commute in the 4Runner too, but it doesn’t get very good gas mileage.

Speaking of gas mileage, I had hoped that our next vehicle would be fully electric. But it is 458 miles house-to-house, which is too far for a fully electric vehicle. It’s not an easy 458 miles either. Elevation and weather, especially wind, can decimate our milage, and sometimes we face fairly extreme winds on the trip. And we don’t want to worry about having to recharge.

It’s not a great time to buy a car (it’s not a great time to buy anything right now except maybe masks). But John says that used hybrids are a reasonable price, because many people who previously were in the hybrid market are now opting for fully electric vehicles instead. With a commute of nearly 500 miles, a hybrid would be perfect for us.

I told John he could get anything he wanted. I just have two criteria. It needs to have good visibility and it needs to be reliable!

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