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Out on the Highway

I haven't gone for a ride in my Vibe very much lately, so I thought I'd take her out on the road towards Bragg Creek just to get out of the city. Plus it's like fucking 30° out and humid as hell, so it was nice to turn on the air conditioning and cool off.

The first part of the road has a 80 km/h speed limit, which goes up to 100 km/h about halfway. So I set my cruise control to 80, crank the a/c and relax. Not too much traffic, it was very nice. I go past a sign that says something about construction, but I don't get to read the whole thing and I'm not sure if it says anything about the speed limit. Then I see a cop on the side of the road pointing a radar gun straight at me! Eek, am I speeding or am I cool? I have no fucking idea, but he never pulled me over so I guess I was good.

On my way back, I'm on the stretch that is 100 km/h and there's a guy way behind me. The speed limit changes to 80 km/h, so I slow down to the speed limit, knowing what's up ahead. The guy behind me doesn't want to slow down and starts riding my ass. Then he decides to pass me. On a double yellow line. Going around a corner. Right where the cops have their radar set up! I had to laugh, that was too funny. Unfortunately, he saw the cops in time, slammed on the brakes and ditched back behind me, avoiding a major ticket. He passed me shortly thereafter, which was useless because I was still right behind him when we hit the city.

Now I'm back home and it's fucking hot in here. Damn!

Vulcan

I went for a drive out to Vulcan today. It was a nice drive, took about an hour and fifteen minutes each way. I managed to figure out how my cruise control works and it works quite well! It's nice to just set the speed you want and not have to push on the pedal for hours at a time. I just have to get used to dropping out of cruise when the speed limit changes so I don't get nailed for speeding. On the other hand, it does maintain a fairly constant speed, so you won't get nailed for speeding when you drift over the limit going down a hill. My Vibe seems to be driving nicer lately. I'm not sure if it's just because I'm getting used to it or because it's almost "broken in".

First Fillup

I drove out to Banff today, the longest drive in my Vibe yet! I was running low on gas, but I thought I could get back to Calgary before she went dry. Well, I took Springbank road back by accident and my empty light came on at 529 kilometers on my odometer. I was out in the boonies with nothing but fields for miles and miles, so I just kept driving, hoping I'd hit a gas station before she died. At 560 kilometers I finally found a gas station! At least now I know how far you can go on "empty".

I filled up with regular [87 octane] 41.915 litres at 82.9 cents/litre for $34.75. If I calculate my current odometer reading [560 km] divided by my fillup litres [41.915l], I get 13.36 km/l. Of course, I'm not sure if the first 24 km on my car was from the original fillup or if it came from a bit of gas in the tank before that, if you know what I mean. So I don't know how accurate this calculation is, but it should be pretty close. Converting to American miles per gallon using Google's conversion numbers, I get 31.43 MPG. Not bad I guess, since most of my driving was in the city. And the fuel efficiency is supposed to increase as the car gets broken in. Beats the hell out of what I used to get in my old '78 Monte Carlo, that's for sure!

And on my first fillup, as I was trying to leave the gas station, this old man in a Porsche, not only cuts me off, but keeps backing up right towards me! That old bastard would have hit me too, if I hadn't laid on the horn. Bastard!

Polished Pontiac

Washed and waxed my car today. I think they washed it at the dealership, and they did a decent job, but they missed a couple spots. I made sure it was cleaned real good and then waxed it real good so it's really shiny now. Too bad there's so much dust in this town, my car is covered with a good layer of it already. I also scotch-guarded the seats and car mats. Now the day is almost over and I never got to drive anywhere! Oh well, maybe next weekend I'll get a chance to take her out on the highway. [Long weekend!] Oh yeah, I also took off the dealer plate holder. I hate that stuff, at least they didn't put on any stickers or badges. I would hate to scratch my paint taking that shit off.

My new car!

I finally got my new car today! It's a base 2006 Pontiac Vibe, Abyss black, 5 speed standard. No extras really except for the power package [power windows, door locks, cruise control] and the 3M treatment for the front end. Now I just have to get used to driving a standard again, I must have stalled it 10 times already! The worst part is that my parking spot is on an incline so it drifts backwards if I don't drop the clutch right away. I think I might start backing up into my spot just to make it easier. I did notice a scratch on the hood when I first picked it up today, but they buffed it out pretty good and it was only a small scratch to begin with, but still...

Update: Oh yeah, I got the car at 0% financing and 0% down, at the max time period [48 months], so that helped a lot. They tried to sell me on 60 months at 2.9% financing, but I was like "Are you crazy man???"