{"id":2561,"date":"2017-03-16T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2017-03-16T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T10:00:42","slug":"new-york-to-missouri-and-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/16\/new-york-to-missouri-and-back\/","title":{"rendered":"New York to Missouri, and Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over a week ago, I returned from a my solo road trip. I drove from Rochester, New York, to Springfield, Missouri, and back. It’s a 16 hour drive each way, which I spread over two days each way. A lot of time spent in a car, but it was worth it for the time I spent with friends there.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_01\"<\/p>\n

This was my setup in my car for the drive. Two GoPros, one pointed out the windshield taking a timelapse, and another pointed at me in case I wanted to do any other recording. On the passenger seat is my Chromebook for playing music and viewing directions, which I also had printed out. On the passenger floor was a bag of important stuff: snacks and Mountain Dew.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_02.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The biggest event of the drive to Missouri was my car, a 1997 Honda Civic, finally hit 200,000 miles. It happened at about 12:22 pm central time on I-70 west about a half hour east of St. Louis. First time I’ve gotten to see an analog odometer do a full six-digit rollover.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_03.jpg\"<\/p>\n

My coworkers had taken bets on when my car would break down, because, unlike me, they didn’t have much faith in my car enduring a long trip. I almost completely proved them wrong by making it all the way to Springfield before my car broke down. I was turning into a parking lot when I heard a clunk and pressing the gas wouldn’t make me move, so I just coasted into the lot, pushed my car into a parking spot, and called AAA.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_04\"<\/p>\n

I had brought tools with me, but I didn’t bring a real jack, jack stands, or an axle nut socket, or I could’ve attempted to do the repair on my own in the parking lot. Buying those probably would’ve cost about the same as having a shop fix it, and I was with a friend, so as much as I hate having to hand my car over to someone else to work on, it was the better option. I called a local Honda dealership, but they were closed, so I chose to be taken to a Firestone that was next to the local mall, giving us something to do while we waited.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_05\"<\/p>\n

As I had quickly deduced, my left front outer CV axle joint had blown. It was not at all what I expected might fail me on this trip. If anything, the main possibility was the timing belt might go, because it’s due for a change now at 200,000 miles. I’m really lucky that this happened when I was in a city and not out on the open highway. I’m going to replace my right axle soon just to be safe.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_06\"<\/p>\n

The drive home was equally uneventful, except for some heavy rains after dark leaving me driving by the taillights of the semi in front of me. On the second day I paid a visit to the Summit Racing store in Akron, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n

I’d never been around most of these kinds of parts, so I just spent a couple hours looking around and taking it all in. I really want an old project car. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n

\"2017_03_16_14.jpg\"<\/p>\n

If I can leave you with two tips for taking road trips, here they are. Get AAA. If you break down and are close to a repair shop, you can get a free or cheaper tow. You can also get free paper road maps, which I did use a couple times when my directions failed me. The other advice I would give is skip the fast food chains and find the local diners. I got some great food for the same price and didn’t have to go far out of my way, and I didn’t eat any hamburgers.<\/p>\n

Overall this was a long drive, but it was fun and well worth it. I won’t take another drive this long soon, but I do want to go on another trip next year.<\/p>\n

\n

New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Mechanical Malarkey stickers available for $5<\/a> anywhere in the US!<\/p>\n

-Dan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just over a week ago, I returned from a my solo road trip. I drove from Rochester, New York, to Springfield, Missouri, and back. It’s a 16 hour drive each way, which I spread over two days each way. A lot of time spent in a car, but it was worth it for the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-car","category-on-the-road","tag-road-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}