Cars – chuck.goolsbee.org

Reverse Cannonball, days 2 & 3

Left Green River Wyoming at dawn and drove through Wyoming and all of Nebraska stopping in the Omaha area. Just me, and the big trucks rolling down I-80. Weather was perfect. Clearly a big snowstorm happened a day or two before, but now just a mix of high clouds or sunshine. It sprinkled on me once or twice the first day. I knew this was the last of the 80 MPH speed limits, as the landscape changed from “western” to “midwestern”. From Omaha to Chicago I had nice clouds keeping the sun from being too intense. Stopped to hit the gym in Des Moines. Then rolled on across Illinois, where I met Christopher for dinner. We went to a BBQ restaurant for some REALLY good BBQ (something impossible to get in the PNW!) He had a pulled pork sandwich and I had a Rib & Sausage plate. It was delicious and the company was excellent. Always nice to see him.

The hotel near his work where I usually stay was charging over $300/night for some reason, so I found a much more reasonable hotel, that happened to be downtown. He met me there after work and I drove him to the BBQ place and then home where we exchanged gifts (some LED lights for his bike from me, and he gave me some gifts he brought home from Japan for his Brother Nick, and his wife Izzy whom we are seeing in Portland next weekend.)

Slept like a log and planning on another dawn departure. Shooting for somewhere in Pennsylvania for Saturday night.

Sears Tower from the walk to my hotel from the parking garage.

Reverse Cannonball

I’m sitting in a pre-dawn Diner in Green River, Wyoming eating an omelette waiting for a little daylight before I hit the road again. Yesterday I left home in Mom’s old Mercedes heading east. The eastern two-thirds of Oregon is all US20, which is a two-lane 55MPH highway that traverses the northern edge of the Great Basin, before going up and over into the Malheur River canyon to Ontario, Oregon where it meets the superslab of I-84. It’s a fun road for high-speed dashes, but honestly after my deer encounter in the BluBaru a few weeks ago I’m being cautious with this car and ride the speed limit. I know that once I hit the Interstate it will all be 80MPH speed limits until I hit Nebraska a thousand miles east.

The rest of the day is riding this car’s exceptional “Distronic” Cruise Control on the Autobahn through Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Some traffic through Boise and Ogden, but otherwise just me and the big trucks. I take advantage of the new Costco in Nampa, Idaho to fill up the tank. But otherwise only stop for potty breaks (including two at those empty “Ranch Exit – NO SERVICES” exits one finds out here in the west.

I have driven these roads many many times since the mid-80s so I am very familiar with their character in every season. I know that once past Rock Springs there is a many hundred miles of nothing so book a room in Green River before sundown and sleep a good nine hours.

My next adventure…

A few weeks ago I did my little sister a favor and helped her sell my mother’s Mercedes-Benz E350 wagon. It is a 2012 car, and my father bought it for her new. He kept every single record, including the Munroney window sticker, maintenance records, and even his notes from when he called the dealer to research the model. My mom drove the car until 2019 or so. I even drove it when I visited her in the assisted living facility she spent her last years in. My other sister lives about 40 minutes away so my driving of that wagon was limited to a shuttle trip on Houston freeways between those two spots. It sat for a few years while mom rarely drove it. In fact on one of my visits I bought a trickle charger for the car’s battery because it wasn’t getting enough use.

My little sister bought the car from mom a few years before mom died and she used it for commuting in Seattle until very recently. She asked me about selling it. I even considered buying it as my ski car (the Brown Subaru Outback that at one time belonged to Nick) was reaching its EoL with close to 300k miles. But I ended up buying that Blue Subaru you see in other posts. I’m glad I didn’t because this Merc is WAY too nice to suffer being my ski car and dog hauler!

It has very low miles and has been meticulously maintained by my father and my sister. I suggested to her that we sell it on BringATrailer, because I know these E-class wagons have a cult following and that platform would be the best place to have them find it.

Boy was I right.

The auction was a best possible result, in much the same way as when I auctioned my Dad’s 280se 3.5 almost a decade ago. Multiple bidders interested in the car and a result that beat our expectations.

Caught up in the enthusiasm of the auction I offered to drive the car to the auction winner, no matter where in North America they happened to be. At that moment the two highest bidders were in Washington and Colorado, so not really a big deal for me. A one or two day drive respectively. Well, of course the winner is on the east coast. So this week, I’m driving mom’s Mercedes almost coast to coast.

I’m planning to leave at dawn Wednesday. The plan is to drive only during daylight, and only have two planned stops: one in Chicago to see my son Chris, the other at the destination when I deliver the car to its new owner. I have a ticket to fly home early Monday, which is refundable/flexible should I have any issues.

But feel free to follow along. If I can find all the components I will set up the Timelapse rig. I will also post pics and stories on Instagram @chuckgoolsbee. Join me!

Subaru is home and whole again.

A bit of drama, as my insurance company declared the car a “total loss” despite the damage being very minor (grille, hood, and radiator and it’s bracket being the extent of the damage.) This meant that the body shop the insurance company chose could not fix the car. They paid me about 75% of what I had paid for the car just a few months before, and I brought my flatbed trailer and took the car to an independent shop.

That shop was willing to work with used parts, the most expensive and majority of the repair being the hood. He found one from the same color car, with a similar patina. I think it looks great.

Since it is my ski car it will likely spend the summer just being a dog hauler.

Spring Shop Projects

I stupidly committed to going to a car show this weekend. Now I’m trying to get some projects done on a compressed schedule. I was hoping to bring (and registered) the Jaguar. However it has spent the past couple of years atop my four post lift snugly slumbering. I pulled the M6 out from under it, which was a project in and of itself. Both cars had their batteries out and sitting on tenders. I didn’t want to start either up right now, so I had to push the big coupe out. Initially wasn’t able to move it more than a few centimeters. Aired up the tires, which were all low (~16psi) and it rolled much easier. Reinstalled the battery and checked that the dash lights up.

The three foam pads under the hood/bonnet are very dry and will disintegrate instantly if touched. I have had a new set for a while, and I guess it is time to install them. Should be a quick job, just vacuum off the old ones, remove the left over adhesive underneath and apply the new ones. Amazing how fast the old ones suck right off the underside of the bonnet with the shop vac!

Meanwhile with the Jaguar I remember that I have to replace the carburetor floats. I bought some new ones made out of some high-tech synthetic material from SNG Barrett a few years ago. I go to my stash of Jag parts upstairs and for the life of me cannot find them. I remember exactly where they were in my old shop! Oh well. I will search for them in the morning.

In other car news, I helped my little sister sell my mom’s old Benz Wagon on BringATrailer this past week. I had considered buying it from her, but my use would be for a ski and dog shuttle, and this car is just way too nice for that task. My old Subaru is a far better option. Anyway, my pitch to sell it on BAT rather than any other method worked just as I promised my sister; those wagons have a cult following out there and I knew BAT was the place to find them. We experienced the best possible outcome with multiple parties very interested in the car. It is going to its new home soon.

A matter of “when” not “if”…

That is, hitting a deer when living in Central Oregon. I have been living here for over fifteen years now and have somehow avoided hitting one, despite probably a thousand close calls. Well, I finally ran out of luck.

Heading into town for an appointment, driving down Northwest Way and this buck came running full speed in front of me. I was maybe three car lengths behind an SUV and two other cars were heading the opposite direction. I never saw the deer as he jumped between the two northbound cars and then right in front of me. I was full on the clutch and brake pedals as fast as I could, but physics won. I hit the buck broadside. His hip hit just above my driver-side headlight, his shoulder hit the grille just inside the headlight on the other side (pushing a bracket into the radiator.) Grille destroyed. Hood buckled. Radiator leaking. Poor buck was in shock. Compound break of his femur. Head injury from hitting the ground (or maybe that mailbox, I’m not sure.) I was fine. I immediately called 911 and asked for the Sheriff to come euthanize the buck. The tailing northbound car stopped, as she saw the whole thing. Checked on me. Within a few minutes another car stopped and asked if I needed a gun. I said I had called the Sheriff but if she had one, it would be helpful. She walked from her truck and handed me a pistol. So within a few minutes of his injury, the buck’s suffering was gone. Lady took back her pistol and drove off. The other lady came and gave me a hug. I needed that. Sheriff showed up about ten minutes later. A while after that Linda came with the truck and a tow strap to get the car home. I didn’t want to drive it due to the coolant leak. Now it’s just insurance and body shop. And time of course. Sort of ruined my day.
Oh, guy in a pickup came by and took the buck home (legal in Oregon.)

Update: Insurance company being difficult, declared the car a total loss, despite the minor damage. ???????

I had to retrieve it from one body shop and bring it to a different one. The car will now have a salvage title, but since I plan to drive it like every other winter beater Subaru I have owned, that is until it mechanically expires. (The last one was hauled the the wrecking yard after a year of ominous knocking coming out of the driver side cylinder bank, at well over 250k miles on the odometer.) This one is just too nice a spec (full leather, manual, wagon, top spec) to let it go due to this level of damage. Hell, I don’t care about the paint, so long as it gets me around in winter until I can’t drive anymore!

I’m not in the Epstein Files, but…

I write a lot, in many places. One of which is Quora. Give me a follow there if you’re interested. Anyway, another writer I follow there answered a question about the Epstein Files, stating that he searched for his name there and it came up. Why? Because apparently Epstein was a Quora user and received their daily & weekly digest in his inbox. If your writing has ever been included in their digest, which mine has, it might be included in one of these huge data dumps from the Department of Justice. So, my curiosity piqued, I went to the DOJ Epstein Files website and put in my last name. Being cursed with a unique name is a blessing sometimes, as you can avoid haystacks and needles.

I didn’t find me, but what I did find was quite curious and certainly an clear indication that Trump’s DoJ is trying their best (though with obvious ham-handed tactics and execution) to be very biased and obviously political in their redactions. How? In Epstein’s emails are many more digests of financial, economic, and political newsletters going back decades. I have a distant cousin who is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and who briefly served on the White House as an economic advisor around 2010-2012. He and I have exchanged a few emails over the years and I even had breakfast with him at the White House in 2010 when I was in northern Virginia for work over a period of many weeks. His name (and mine since we share the “Goolsbee” surname) comes up in Epstein’s email inbox a lot. Not directly, but mentioned in news and commentary about the economy an news out of the White House, in all these email digests that Epstein was subscribed to.

In those digests I noted hundreds of redactions which were very easy to understand in the context of the subject matter of the article. “GOP” “Republican” and names of Republican senators and representatives. No redactions of similar names and positions from the Democratic Party. Worst of all, I have found the word “Don’t” redacted in multiple places, which makes zero sense, until you realize that the text string is “Don T” (in other words “DON(ald) T(rump)”

When viewed in a completely unrelated to the whole Epstein/Pedophilia context, these seemingly random redactions of words become very clearly intended to cover up anything related to our President and anyone close to him having anything to do with Epstein.

Bondi and Patel are party to a wholly partisan, complete coverup of a conspiracy of sex traffickers, foreign intelligence operatives, and blackmail. They clearly want to pin it on their political opponents while hiding their own political masters. It’s right there, a searchable using my last name. Go have a look for yourself.

Oh, and here’s a funny, timely meme: