Here's just a few of the places our new car has taken us.
- Deadwood, SD
- Wall Drug, Wall, SD
- Sioux Falls, SD
- Minneapolis, MN
- Wisconsin Dells, WI
- Milwaukee, WI
- St. Louis, MO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Tulsa, OK
- New Buffalo, MI
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
So many miles!
We bought a new car back at the beginning of April. It's now the end of September and we've already hit the 10,000 mile mark on our new ride. And both my wife and I work from home. So I was sort of surprised to see that we ran up the mileage so quickly. But we love to go on road trips, and those miles add up.
Here's just a few of the places our new car has taken us.
Here's just a few of the places our new car has taken us.
Lincoln SYNC with MyLincoln Touch
We recently bought a new car. Not just any new car, but a new new car, and a fancy one at that: a 2014 Lincoln MKZ. We love it. The car has the smoothest ride of any car we've driven or ridden in, and I can't believe how much pick up it has given that it's only a 2.0L V4 Turbo. Every time we go for a drive, we literally again think to ourselves, "we really love this car." And it has zero torque steer-- our last car had enough pull to annoy me regularly. Maybe that's just a side effect of moving from FWD to AWD, but regardless, I couldn't be happier.It seems like there's never a great time to buy a car, if you want perfect iPhone integration. Apple's on the cutting edge, only recently announcing CarPlay, with automotive manufacturers rushing to implement it as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, our Lincoln has SYNC with MyLincoln Touch (aka MyFord Touch), a system that allows voice control over seemingly all of the music, GPS and environmental controls. It's worth nothing that Microsoft and Ford had a falling out over the system, and it's likely to be replaced by something else in a couple of years. (Blackberry? QNX? Are you kidding me?)
Reviews from 2012 and prior almost universally pan the SYNC system, something that unfairly haunts Google searches about the technology. Read a little deeper and you'll see that a major update in 2012 addressed just about all prior issues. People who have only had experience with prior, less well-liked revs of the software love to tell you how much they hate it. Or they'll love to tell you how much their cousin hated SYNC in their 2009 Ford Focus and what suckers we are for buying this and we're going to hate it. Because obviously how this works today and how it worked in a 2009 Focus is exactly the same. Thanks, jerk.
Forget about all of that noise. Truth be told, the SYNC with MyLincoln Touch system works quite well and we're happy with it. There's only a couple of things worth noting that I would consider to be limitations.
One, SYNC will read out loud text messages from your phone if you have an Android smartphone, but not if you have an iPhone. I'm not sure what Apple is doing differently here, but I wish they'd address it. I can't imagine it'd be hard to fix in an iOS software update, and I know a lot of people have vehicles with the SYNC functionality. (Oh wait, did this get fixed? Maybe. I will need to investigate.)
Two, programming the navigation system to give you directions is like taking a step back in time a couple of years, if you're used to Google Maps or Apple Maps, with their slick ability to say things as simple as "take me to the nearest Dairy Queen." The SYNC system's ability to understand voice commands is pretty limited, and you basically end up having to spell out house numbers and it usually ends up taking a couple of tries to get it to recognize the street name and city I'm looking for. That's not a deal killer, but it's not super slick, either.
Thankfully, there are more than a couple of ways you can work around it:
- Use your iPhone for turn-by-turn directions instead. Sync the phone up via Bluetooth before you do tell it your destination. Then, after you tell it your destination, the phone will interrupt the music as needed (over Bluetooth) to give you verbal turn-by-turn directions. The car is a little confused; it thinks it's a phone call and will show "Call ended" on the screen after each interruption. This is harmless, however.
- Use SYNC Services to help you set the destination for the car's navigation system. Push the voice button and say "Services." It'll use your Bluetooth-connected phone to connect you to the SYNC Services phone robot. After connected, say "Directions," and the phone robot will walk you through a much simpler and robust location-finding process. After it has found your location for you, it will ask you if you'd like to download the location to the car's GPS. You'll say yes, and it will silence the speaker for a moment, while performing a modem-like download over the phone, sending location information directly into your car's navigation system. This works pretty slick, and it's what I use most of the time. If you've ever had a GM automobile with OnStar, you'll see a lot of similarities here -- you can even connect to a real live human to have them look up a destination for you. (SYNC Services is a hidden gem; it is essentially OnStar for free, using your own cell phone instead of using a dedicated cell phone built into the car. I hope I never have to use the SYNC 911 Assist feature, but I'm glad it's there.)
- Use the "Send to Car" iOS application on your iPhone. Trust me, spend the $3.99 on this app. If you have Ford or Lincoln SYNC, this app performs bridges Apple Maps and your car's navigation system capably. It works like this -- set up your Ford/Lincoln owner account login information in the app once. Then you go to Apple maps, find a destination, and choose "Transit" as the directions mode, inside of Apple Maps. Apple Maps will then ask you to pick which app you want to use for routing to this destination. Choose Send to Car. The Send to Car app will open, and then you push SEND to have it relay your destination into your Ford/Lincoln owner account. How do you get this destination into your car? Easy. Just push the voice button on the steering wheel, and say "Services." As soon as you connect to the Services phone robot will say (paraphrasing), "I see that there is are MapQuest directions waiting for you, would you like to download them now?" You reply with yes, and it will download the directions to your car, and you're all set.
That third option in particular is mighty cool, and I'm sure it's something I'll be using a lot in the near future. And it was hard to find information about it online, so I decided to write it all up here, with hopes that the next person looking for help stumbles across this info here and is able to put it to good use.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Rogers Park
Kate and I rented a car for a long weekend drive to Minneapolis and back. Looking online, I found that there is a new Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Rogers Park, at 6816 N Clark Street (between Pratt and Farwell).
When making the reservation online, I found that I couldn't include the damage waiver and liability insurance in the online quote. This isn't that uncommon, as it seems that most rental companies don't allow you to include that in the online quote. This bothers me, though, because the insurance is an amorphous blob of a cost center, something they can puff up the price of at the counter to see if you're paying attention. (At least, that's been my experience in the past.) I wouldn't even utilize the insurance, but now that I have no car, why have car insurance? So, I use the car rental company's insurance when renting a car. Not cheap, but still cheaper than owning a car.
Doing my research onlilne, I found that Budget's online quotes can include insurance if desired, so I quoted it out via Budget as well, figuring that if I didn't like what I was hearing at the Enterprise counter, I'd walk and head on down to Budget instead.
Thankfully, that turned out not to be necessary. Enterprise called me an hour before my reservation, confirmed everything, and at my request, quoted me an updated price that included the damage waiver and liability insurance. (The full cost turned out to be much lower than Budget, too, even accounting for insurance.)
They provided me with a PT Cruiser, which is one of those many cars that I would never buy for myself, but it worked fine, and it was in very good shape. Very happy with it.
Long story short, next time we need to rent a car for an out-of-town trip, I'll go with Enterprise again.
When making the reservation online, I found that I couldn't include the damage waiver and liability insurance in the online quote. This isn't that uncommon, as it seems that most rental companies don't allow you to include that in the online quote. This bothers me, though, because the insurance is an amorphous blob of a cost center, something they can puff up the price of at the counter to see if you're paying attention. (At least, that's been my experience in the past.) I wouldn't even utilize the insurance, but now that I have no car, why have car insurance? So, I use the car rental company's insurance when renting a car. Not cheap, but still cheaper than owning a car.
Doing my research onlilne, I found that Budget's online quotes can include insurance if desired, so I quoted it out via Budget as well, figuring that if I didn't like what I was hearing at the Enterprise counter, I'd walk and head on down to Budget instead.
Thankfully, that turned out not to be necessary. Enterprise called me an hour before my reservation, confirmed everything, and at my request, quoted me an updated price that included the damage waiver and liability insurance. (The full cost turned out to be much lower than Budget, too, even accounting for insurance.)
They provided me with a PT Cruiser, which is one of those many cars that I would never buy for myself, but it worked fine, and it was in very good shape. Very happy with it.
Long story short, next time we need to rent a car for an out-of-town trip, I'll go with Enterprise again.
I-GO First Try
Well, I reserved a car last night, for just two hours, to drive myself down Howard to Best Buy, to pick up an order I placed online. Last night's adventure was interesting, but I'm not going to call it a success.
First, when we got to the parking spot for the I-GO car (at Morseland), the car wasn't there. I called I-GO and explained this fact to them. They called the person who was supposed to have checked in the car by now, then calls me back. "Sorry, running late due to weather, ETA 10 minutes. Do you want to switch to a different car?" No, there's only one car at Morseland, and other I-GO cars are a bit of a walk, so we'll wait it out. I-GO extended my reservation by 30 minuets, and credited me the additional time, so I'm effectively not paying for when I'm not driving. The person with the car shows up just about 30 minutes late.
OK, we're not off to a great start. First, I had to call I-GO. Would have been nice if they had actually called me and told me the car wasn't ready. That's a few blocks from home and it's cold out. Thankfully, we can go stand in Morseland, if need be. But, OK, not their fault that the last user of the car kept it longer than she said she would. Maybe she was supposed to call and tell them but did not. I hope she gets nailed with some sort of overage of fine.
So we get the car. The car is fine, I've ridden in it before, as my girlfriend, who is already an I-GO member, has rented it before. Takes a bit of figuring out to drive it, because it's a hybrid, and has a lot of buttons. It all works and we get on down the road to the Best Buy on Howard.
That's when the best/worst part of the adventure takes place. I go into Best Buy, with my printed out order pickup email ("Your order is ready for pick up", the subject line screams at me) and I queue up in the customer service line, behind people with broken laptops and people who bought the wrong iPod.
Sure enough, I get to the counter, only to find that my order is not actually ready for pickup. It's not sitting in the pile of gadgets also awaiting pickup, and the customer service rep doesn't know what it is or where it is. He looks it up and "RSS" says there is one in stock, so he hunts down somebody to go look for it on the shelf or in the warehouse. Fast forward another 15-20 minutes. Nobody can find it in the warehouse or in the store. Guess I'm out of luck, and they inform me of such.
OK, please let me speak to the manager. He pages an "MOD", and while I'm waiting for that person to never show, I call BestBuy.com customer service, who is suprised that the product isn't available. I hand the phone to the customer service rep in the store. He explains to the call center rep that he was surprised that the online site allowed the order, as RSS was less than 3 (I think this means "confirmed stock is less than 3 items"). He also says that the store does not carry this item. Which is odd, because from the context, it sounds like the inventory system says there's one in stock, but it sounds like they just simply have no clue where it's sitting, and they decided to give up on it.
OK, fine, cancel the order, thanks for nothing. So, I rented a car for nothing, to buy an imaginary thing from Best Buy that doesn't actually exist. Fail.
Oh well. I'm going to try again later today, with Circuit City instead. Hopefully the car will be ready for me when I walk over to Morseland in today's brutal cold.
First, when we got to the parking spot for the I-GO car (at Morseland), the car wasn't there. I called I-GO and explained this fact to them. They called the person who was supposed to have checked in the car by now, then calls me back. "Sorry, running late due to weather, ETA 10 minutes. Do you want to switch to a different car?" No, there's only one car at Morseland, and other I-GO cars are a bit of a walk, so we'll wait it out. I-GO extended my reservation by 30 minuets, and credited me the additional time, so I'm effectively not paying for when I'm not driving. The person with the car shows up just about 30 minutes late.
OK, we're not off to a great start. First, I had to call I-GO. Would have been nice if they had actually called me and told me the car wasn't ready. That's a few blocks from home and it's cold out. Thankfully, we can go stand in Morseland, if need be. But, OK, not their fault that the last user of the car kept it longer than she said she would. Maybe she was supposed to call and tell them but did not. I hope she gets nailed with some sort of overage of fine.
So we get the car. The car is fine, I've ridden in it before, as my girlfriend, who is already an I-GO member, has rented it before. Takes a bit of figuring out to drive it, because it's a hybrid, and has a lot of buttons. It all works and we get on down the road to the Best Buy on Howard.
That's when the best/worst part of the adventure takes place. I go into Best Buy, with my printed out order pickup email ("Your order is ready for pick up", the subject line screams at me) and I queue up in the customer service line, behind people with broken laptops and people who bought the wrong iPod.
Sure enough, I get to the counter, only to find that my order is not actually ready for pickup. It's not sitting in the pile of gadgets also awaiting pickup, and the customer service rep doesn't know what it is or where it is. He looks it up and "RSS" says there is one in stock, so he hunts down somebody to go look for it on the shelf or in the warehouse. Fast forward another 15-20 minutes. Nobody can find it in the warehouse or in the store. Guess I'm out of luck, and they inform me of such.
OK, please let me speak to the manager. He pages an "MOD", and while I'm waiting for that person to never show, I call BestBuy.com customer service, who is suprised that the product isn't available. I hand the phone to the customer service rep in the store. He explains to the call center rep that he was surprised that the online site allowed the order, as RSS was less than 3 (I think this means "confirmed stock is less than 3 items"). He also says that the store does not carry this item. Which is odd, because from the context, it sounds like the inventory system says there's one in stock, but it sounds like they just simply have no clue where it's sitting, and they decided to give up on it.
OK, fine, cancel the order, thanks for nothing. So, I rented a car for nothing, to buy an imaginary thing from Best Buy that doesn't actually exist. Fail.
Oh well. I'm going to try again later today, with Circuit City instead. Hopefully the car will be ready for me when I walk over to Morseland in today's brutal cold.
Rogers Park Carless
Well, I can't call myself Chicago Carless, because that moniker is already taken. But I can be Rogers Park carless!
Back in August, when we lost our paid parking space, we decided to drive the car up to my father's place in Minnesota. As I mentioned then, it was a trial run, of sorts.
The trial was mostly a success. One caveat: Parking the car at my father's home was a pain in the ass. That just wasn't working out, for various reasons. So, in early November, I took the train up to Minneapolis and drove my car back down to Chicago.
Parking the car on the street here in Rogers Park throughout November was a real pain. We had to park a good 8-10 blocks away, and of course, you're supposed to move it every three days. That sucked.
I have no desire to keep a car in the city at this stage in my life, so I hatched a plan to sell the car to a friend of mine in Texas. We drove down to Texas over two days, Thanksgiving day and the day after. Boring drive, but easy, and kind of fun.
Spent the weekend in Dallas, met up with various friends, ate a lot of good food. Flew back to Chicago on that Sunday.
I still owed a couple of dollars on my car loan, so I paid that off with the money my friend paid me for the car, and the clear title arrived today. I took it out of one envelope and dropped it right back into another envelope and mailed it to my friend in Texas.
As soon as that was done, I called my car insurance company (Progressive Direct) and canceled. Since I actually like them, I wasn't jerky to them on the phone and politely answered their questions. Assuming we ever buy another car, they'd definitely be my first choice for car insurance. It's always been painless dealing with them.
So now, I'm free of a car payment and free of an insurance payment. I'm free of a car, and it feels good to be carless.
Back in August, when we lost our paid parking space, we decided to drive the car up to my father's place in Minnesota. As I mentioned then, it was a trial run, of sorts.
The trial was mostly a success. One caveat: Parking the car at my father's home was a pain in the ass. That just wasn't working out, for various reasons. So, in early November, I took the train up to Minneapolis and drove my car back down to Chicago.
Parking the car on the street here in Rogers Park throughout November was a real pain. We had to park a good 8-10 blocks away, and of course, you're supposed to move it every three days. That sucked.
I have no desire to keep a car in the city at this stage in my life, so I hatched a plan to sell the car to a friend of mine in Texas. We drove down to Texas over two days, Thanksgiving day and the day after. Boring drive, but easy, and kind of fun.
Spent the weekend in Dallas, met up with various friends, ate a lot of good food. Flew back to Chicago on that Sunday.
I still owed a couple of dollars on my car loan, so I paid that off with the money my friend paid me for the car, and the clear title arrived today. I took it out of one envelope and dropped it right back into another envelope and mailed it to my friend in Texas.
As soon as that was done, I called my car insurance company (Progressive Direct) and canceled. Since I actually like them, I wasn't jerky to them on the phone and politely answered their questions. Assuming we ever buy another car, they'd definitely be my first choice for car insurance. It's always been painless dealing with them.
So now, I'm free of a car payment and free of an insurance payment. I'm free of a car, and it feels good to be carless.
Rogers Park(ing): An Update
As I mentioned before, we lost our parking space on August 1st. What did we end up doing?
Going carless!
On August 2nd, we drove my 2004 Saturn VUE up to Minneapolis and parked it at my father's house. This is a bit of a trial run; if it doesn't work out, we can always head up to Minneapolis and get the car back.
But, for now, at least, we're car-free. No parking, no problem. It's a nice feeling. So far, it's been fine. Kate has applied for i-Go, and is already finding the process frustrating.
I may sign up for i-Go or Zipcar myself, but for right now, I don't need it. Groceries can be delivered, and I can always take a cab home from Target.
We'll see if I still feel that way come December.
If this works out, I'm going to get rid of the car for good. I can always rent one if I ever need one. It'll be nice to be out from under the payment and insurance-- which I can't quite make happen yet, as the loan isn't paid off. Very soon, though.
Going carless!
On August 2nd, we drove my 2004 Saturn VUE up to Minneapolis and parked it at my father's house. This is a bit of a trial run; if it doesn't work out, we can always head up to Minneapolis and get the car back.
But, for now, at least, we're car-free. No parking, no problem. It's a nice feeling. So far, it's been fine. Kate has applied for i-Go, and is already finding the process frustrating.
I may sign up for i-Go or Zipcar myself, but for right now, I don't need it. Groceries can be delivered, and I can always take a cab home from Target.
We'll see if I still feel that way come December.
If this works out, I'm going to get rid of the car for good. I can always rent one if I ever need one. It'll be nice to be out from under the payment and insurance-- which I can't quite make happen yet, as the loan isn't paid off. Very soon, though.
Hertz, are you kidding me?
So, we traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis for a few days, to take care of some family business, and visit some friends. We're taking the train back down to Chicago, today. As we sit at the Amtrak station, waiting for the train to come in, I've been observing what goes on at the Hertz car rental desk here at the station. That's Hertz Local Edition, here at the Amtrak Station at 730 Transfer Road in St. Paul, Minnesota.
It seems like a good idea. Oh great, I thought to myself. Next time we come up here, we can just pick up a rental car at the station. I'm not the only one who has thought this would be a great idea; as I have sat here for the past hour, I have seen two people walk up and inquire along these lines.
Only to be told that one can only pick up a car between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. Which is somewhat of a problem, because the only train from Chicago arrives at about 11:00 pm every evening.
So, here's the deal. There's a train station, where you can rent cars, but not when you actually arrive on the train station on a train. Does that strike anybody else as incredibly useless?
I overheard an employee say to one gentleman, "this isn't here for the train station. It's here for the neighborhood." Can you say "missed opportunities?" I knew you could!
It seems like a good idea. Oh great, I thought to myself. Next time we come up here, we can just pick up a rental car at the station. I'm not the only one who has thought this would be a great idea; as I have sat here for the past hour, I have seen two people walk up and inquire along these lines.
Only to be told that one can only pick up a car between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm. Which is somewhat of a problem, because the only train from Chicago arrives at about 11:00 pm every evening.
So, here's the deal. There's a train station, where you can rent cars, but not when you actually arrive on the train station on a train. Does that strike anybody else as incredibly useless?
I overheard an employee say to one gentleman, "this isn't here for the train station. It's here for the neighborhood." Can you say "missed opportunities?" I knew you could!
Rogers Park: Parking?
Anybody know of any parking spaces available for rent? Near Sheridan and Pratt? We're losing our for-pay parking space at the end of the month. The building we're renting from says they need the spaces for tenants.
I'll probably walk up and down the streets around there making calls over the next few days.
Comments from original post:
The North Coast said...
There is a SF home next door to me on Pratt, whose back yard has been turned into a parking lot, and there might be a space available. Someone told me that the spaces rent for $45 a month.
The house is right next door to the courtyard bldg at 1218-1228 W Pratt. It is a huge old brick-and-stone Dutch Colonial. I met the resident once. I would suggest slipping a note under the door with your contact info, because I don't know who to contact otherwise. If you walk around the back, you can see the parking.
July 19, 2008 4:27 PM
Delete
Blogger Al Iverson said...
Hey thanks, I appreciate the tip! I will wander over and check it out.
We are thinking we might go crazy and actually get rid of the car, on at least a trial basis. (I can park it at my father's home in Minnesota and let him use it.) But, we're still deciding.
July 19, 2008 5:52 PM
Delete
Blogger The North Coast said...
I ditched my car 20 years ago when I moved here from St.Louis, and it's the biggest favor I ever did myself.
I immediately realized savings of over $4000 a year. No more payments. No more repairs and getting mauled by mechanics. No more inspections. No more parking tickets. No more sliding money equal to a month's apartment rent under a plexiglass window to the towyard troll to ransom my car out. No more coming downstairs at 8AM to discover some drunk had peeled off the entire left side in the night. No more verbal duels with car salesmen to get them to drop the price because they marked the thing up 25% the minute they saw a woman walk in the door.
You just learn to live differently. You plan your trips more. For example, I buy the bulk of my groceries, especially large, heavy items such as cat litter, once a month and have them delivered. If you need a car once or twice a month, there are basic car share organizations like I-Go and ZipCars.
The neatest thing is that if you hanker after something really sexy, like a BMW roadster or Porsche or even just a sporty Japanese car, you can rent the thing. You can enjoy cars you could never afford to own.
July 20, 2008 12:43 PM
I'll probably walk up and down the streets around there making calls over the next few days.
Comments from original post:
The North Coast said...
There is a SF home next door to me on Pratt, whose back yard has been turned into a parking lot, and there might be a space available. Someone told me that the spaces rent for $45 a month.
The house is right next door to the courtyard bldg at 1218-1228 W Pratt. It is a huge old brick-and-stone Dutch Colonial. I met the resident once. I would suggest slipping a note under the door with your contact info, because I don't know who to contact otherwise. If you walk around the back, you can see the parking.
July 19, 2008 4:27 PM
Delete
Blogger Al Iverson said...
Hey thanks, I appreciate the tip! I will wander over and check it out.
We are thinking we might go crazy and actually get rid of the car, on at least a trial basis. (I can park it at my father's home in Minnesota and let him use it.) But, we're still deciding.
July 19, 2008 5:52 PM
Delete
Blogger The North Coast said...
I ditched my car 20 years ago when I moved here from St.Louis, and it's the biggest favor I ever did myself.
I immediately realized savings of over $4000 a year. No more payments. No more repairs and getting mauled by mechanics. No more inspections. No more parking tickets. No more sliding money equal to a month's apartment rent under a plexiglass window to the towyard troll to ransom my car out. No more coming downstairs at 8AM to discover some drunk had peeled off the entire left side in the night. No more verbal duels with car salesmen to get them to drop the price because they marked the thing up 25% the minute they saw a woman walk in the door.
You just learn to live differently. You plan your trips more. For example, I buy the bulk of my groceries, especially large, heavy items such as cat litter, once a month and have them delivered. If you need a car once or twice a month, there are basic car share organizations like I-Go and ZipCars.
The neatest thing is that if you hanker after something really sexy, like a BMW roadster or Porsche or even just a sporty Japanese car, you can rent the thing. You can enjoy cars you could never afford to own.
July 20, 2008 12:43 PM
Sometimes I leave Rogers Park
Sometimes I leave Rogers Park, and sometimes I take my car with me when I do so. Then I get confused by the fact that the highways in the area are generally all referred to by names, instead of by number. Thankfully, this article exists to help guide me, in case I ever need to figure out where the "North-South Tollway" is.
My Wet Car
Here's the message that I posted to the Star Tribune's Message Board section, edited and re-formatted. At the end you'll find some pictures of my car taken the next day. Why? Because I have too much free time.
Tuesday, July First, 1997, at about 8:20-8:30 pm.
I work in Plymouth, and live in South Minneapolis. On my way home from work, I stopped at a video store on 22nd and Hennepin. When I left the video store, I drove around the block, where I hit a huge puddle in the street. The car sputtered and died. I figured it was just an ordinary semi-deep puddle and had no clue what was about to happen. It was raining quite heavily and I didn't feel like getting out of the car, so I coasted to a stop, parked illegally and planned to sit in the car, eat my take out food I had just bought, and wait the storm out. I changed my mind when I looked down to see the inside of the car slowly filling up with water. By the time I gathered up the things I thought to take with me, the water was up to the middle of the door (on the outside) so I rolled the window down and climbed out the driver's side window.
I left one window open a crack, and the other window open a few inches, soI could retrieve stuff from inside, and so the car wouldn't trap air and float away. (By this time I figured I'm screwed, the car is ruined, who cares if it gets more wet on the inside.) I proceeded to wade across the street in (by that point) hip deep water and some nice people at a youth shelter called "The Bridge" let me come in and sit down. After a while I realized I'd forgotton my cell phone, and a box of Lego bricks I bought earlier in the day. So I waded back into this water and retrieved both items, and discovered that cell phones don't float.
I watched the water rise and rise and rise. By the time I realized I could probably walk back to civilization the water was higher than the dashboard--higher than the hood of my car. That's when my tail lights went on and stayed on, underwater, until after I left. I stayed and watched it for a while, praying to god it wouldn't float away and hit somebody's nice car, and mess up my insurance. After a Dodge Neon bobbed up and down, then halting floated down the block, and my car didn't move or bob at all, I figured it wasn't going to and went to one of the restaurants there and drank coffee until one of my friends came to get me. We got a garbage bag from the video store and put it over the passenger side seat in his car so I wouldn't totally soak it. He drove me home where I showered for a really long time then threw out the clothes I was wearing. At this point it finally hit me that my car is screwed and so am I. I ended up taking sleeping pills to get to sleep, after staring at the ceiling for hours.
The next day (Wednesday) I went back to take a look at the car, push it to be legally parked, and salvage my CDs and stuff from it. The entire inside is covered with mud, twigs, leaves, dirt, and more dirt. Did I mention dirt? After seeing the car in the daylight, I decided to write the whole thing completely off--the only thing I bothered to retrieve that day was the parking pass for my apartment building. On a whim I attempted to start the car and I almost got it started -- if I really put some effort into it, I probably could get it going again. But if you could smell the inside of it now, you'd understand why I decided to abandon it.
My only question is, how can I get the city to impound this car for me? I don't ever want to look at it or deal with it again.
See pictures below.
For three of the pictures, I added a blue line along where I recall the water being. This should give some idea of what a fun time I had.
Reports I heard afterwards indicated that approximately 4 inches of rain fell in about 45 minutes. This was the most unbelievable torrential rainfall I've ever seen in my short life.
Tuesday, July First, 1997, at about 8:20-8:30 pm.
I work in Plymouth, and live in South Minneapolis. On my way home from work, I stopped at a video store on 22nd and Hennepin. When I left the video store, I drove around the block, where I hit a huge puddle in the street. The car sputtered and died. I figured it was just an ordinary semi-deep puddle and had no clue what was about to happen. It was raining quite heavily and I didn't feel like getting out of the car, so I coasted to a stop, parked illegally and planned to sit in the car, eat my take out food I had just bought, and wait the storm out. I changed my mind when I looked down to see the inside of the car slowly filling up with water. By the time I gathered up the things I thought to take with me, the water was up to the middle of the door (on the outside) so I rolled the window down and climbed out the driver's side window.
I left one window open a crack, and the other window open a few inches, soI could retrieve stuff from inside, and so the car wouldn't trap air and float away. (By this time I figured I'm screwed, the car is ruined, who cares if it gets more wet on the inside.) I proceeded to wade across the street in (by that point) hip deep water and some nice people at a youth shelter called "The Bridge" let me come in and sit down. After a while I realized I'd forgotton my cell phone, and a box of Lego bricks I bought earlier in the day. So I waded back into this water and retrieved both items, and discovered that cell phones don't float.
I watched the water rise and rise and rise. By the time I realized I could probably walk back to civilization the water was higher than the dashboard--higher than the hood of my car. That's when my tail lights went on and stayed on, underwater, until after I left. I stayed and watched it for a while, praying to god it wouldn't float away and hit somebody's nice car, and mess up my insurance. After a Dodge Neon bobbed up and down, then halting floated down the block, and my car didn't move or bob at all, I figured it wasn't going to and went to one of the restaurants there and drank coffee until one of my friends came to get me. We got a garbage bag from the video store and put it over the passenger side seat in his car so I wouldn't totally soak it. He drove me home where I showered for a really long time then threw out the clothes I was wearing. At this point it finally hit me that my car is screwed and so am I. I ended up taking sleeping pills to get to sleep, after staring at the ceiling for hours.
The next day (Wednesday) I went back to take a look at the car, push it to be legally parked, and salvage my CDs and stuff from it. The entire inside is covered with mud, twigs, leaves, dirt, and more dirt. Did I mention dirt? After seeing the car in the daylight, I decided to write the whole thing completely off--the only thing I bothered to retrieve that day was the parking pass for my apartment building. On a whim I attempted to start the car and I almost got it started -- if I really put some effort into it, I probably could get it going again. But if you could smell the inside of it now, you'd understand why I decided to abandon it.
My only question is, how can I get the city to impound this car for me? I don't ever want to look at it or deal with it again.
See pictures below.
For three of the pictures, I added a blue line along where I recall the water being. This should give some idea of what a fun time I had.
Reports I heard afterwards indicated that approximately 4 inches of rain fell in about 45 minutes. This was the most unbelievable torrential rainfall I've ever seen in my short life.
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