Hazards of I-5 during Tomato season.  They're not prevalent up here by Sac
just yet - passed cucumbers yesterday (not on the pavement but in a truck
thankfully!).  My car is filthy as we've been working on my house so I
haven't washed anything, and Syncro is quite ill - getting new heads because
we can't decide what other motor we would put in it.  Syncro needs to take
tourist friends to SF real soon so I am calling the shop today to make sure
they're making progress.

My husband was annoyed because he just washed his Freightliner with all the
chrome and huge Texas bumper; down south by Kettleman City a tomato tub
passed, leaking all that dirty water crap.  I don't feel so bad I haven't
washed my little bug - the minute I wash it a tomato tub will pass me!

I'll be working back in SF and be a BART rider for a while - Ms. Syncro will
do BART duty.  Sac. is ok but believe it or not I miss the Bay Area.  I
won't be battilng the ag trucks so much.  Actually I like passing the big
hay trucks - all the hay gets stuck in my grille in the bug, and I look like
I belong at my house where all the alfalfa and oat hay is flying around!

Got a new horse from my stepdaughter - a Standardbred harness racer just off
the track; his name is Falcon.  So I have all modes of transport around my
house!

Buckarette

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 2:56 AM, BenT Syncro <syncro@gmail.com> wrote:

> OK, so most of you guys already know that I bought that rusty bucket that
> was posted on Ebay back in April. I waited for a transport company to get
> it
> for me but two months of waiting for a spot on their trailer was too long
> for me not to mention the seller. I figured, what the heck. I hop on a
> commuter flight and drive it home myself. Seller says it runs fine and just
> doesn't go very fast -- right! I thought 55mph-60mph can be tolerable. Very
> little else was mentioned about the van despite my incessant questioning.
> Yeah, yeah. Why buy it then? Who knows? Maybe because I didn't have one
> yet.
>
> Anyway, here it goes:
>
> 1) 9:40am walk to BART and catch train to Oakland.
>
> 2) 10:40am arrive at Oakland and catch Airbart shuttle to Oakland Airport.
>
> 3) Clear security and wait about 25 minutes to board flight.
>
> 4) 11:40am plans shoves off the gate and eventually get flying!
>
> 5) 12:45pm we're in Burbank.
>
> 6) 1:00pm seller picks me up.
>
> 7) 1:25pm we are at the car.
>
> 8) 1:30-3:30pm we take out junk out of van and get registration squared
> away
> at DMV.
>
> 9) 3:45pm I'm on my way home but not before stopping for fast food 2 blocks
> before the freeway entrance.
>
> If you're still reading to this point, I'll get to the story behind the
> subject line.
>
> 10) Get on the 170 Northbound. I think that was the connector to I-5.
>
> 11) I'm the freeway 6 minutes and I spot several CHP cars and motorcyles
> FLYING in the southbound direction.
>
> 12) Ahemm... I'm doing maybe 45-50mph on the slow lane. Speedo turns out
> not
> working. Crap!
>
> 13) Whoosh! I just got passed my a southbound car ON THE SHOULDER! This guy
> was going nearly twice my speed the wrong way and practically off the
> pavement.
>
> 14) I consider myself lucky as they missed me and they are taking away any
> CHP guys (and gals) who might tag me for being the slowest vehicle in
> Southern Cali.
>
> 15) About an hour goes by maybe 1.5 hours, I'm heading uphill at an OK pace
> though consistently getting passed by the slowest of the big rigs.
>
> 16) Then it hit me! There is an active geyser to my left. For those who
> don't know, the LT35 has an Audi 2.0 inline-4 between the driver and
> passenger.
>
> 17) I just pulled over figuring there is a callbox in front and being where
> I stopped. I just need more water. Callbox behind me is OOS. In front
> destroyed by some vehicle.
>
> That concluded the first part of the trip. No choice but to waste another
> call to AAA+. I figured since I am using one of my 4 calls for the year,
> I'd
> get some mileage out of them. I asked to be towed 100miles towards home.
> They make me wait nearly 2 hours for a driver to free-up.
>
> I head back home at 75-80mph on the flatbed. Yeeh-Hay!!! Free gas and
> 2hours
> save. I get dumped at Kettleman on I-5 which is more than 100 miles from
> where I was because the tow guys felt guilty about making me wait. I slip
> off the flat bed with a full reservoir plus a jug of water given to me by
> the tow guys. This is when it starts to get interesting again.
>
> 18) NO sooner had I started on my drive that I see what appears to be knee
> deep of blood red stuff on the freeway ahead of me. SPLAT! A Mini Cooper
> makes contact and skids off the road. All traffic ahead of is all of sudden
> going even slower than my 45mph. I had to hit the brakes too. Oh yeah,
> air in the brakes. Carp! Carp! I almost hit the damned TOMATO tub sitting
> across I-5 completely blocking my lane and part of the left lane. We all
> sort of scoot around the mess while the CHP sorted it out. I found out
> later
> that CHP completely closed the freeway for the clean-up. It was nice that
> traffic got slow enough for a while that I felt part of the crowd.
>
> 19) Construction ahead for 38 miles. Argh! Oh well, everybody slows down
> and
> I feel normal for driving 25mph like everyone else.
>
> Eventually traffic sped up and left me again. To make a long story short, I
> arrive in South San Francisco at 4am. I'll bet even a normally aspirated
> Vanagon could have passed that day  -- and the next.
>
> The LT is here now spicing up my neighbor's lives. I parked it way down the
> street around the corner hoping that they won't discover it's mine right
> away. It didn't take long. They're keeping an eye out for me and my tomato
> smashing green monster. Pics of the big ugly to come soon.
>
>
> BenT
>