Gassing up at Boyle's

Had to stop at Boyle's on the way home from work yesterday to gas up.  The odo was reading 2238.7 miles, a little over 210 miles since the last fill-up but the reserve light had not come on.  I don't generally like to push it over the 200 mile limit between fill ups but this time the count got away from me.  I also don't like to gas up the Bullet at Boyle's, although I generally do my regular cars there, because they are only full serve and just put the hose in the tank and walk away to take care of other customers.  Thankfully, they know me there so the kid that runs the pump let me fill-up by myself without his "help".

The tank took 3.419 gallons.  With 210.5 miles since the last fill up, the mileage on this tank was 61.56 mpg.  Again, I figure the low mileage is due to this tank being mostly taken it with the commute to work and not on long runs.

In the evening, my wife and I took a short turn on the MG.  Nothing far, just out to 252 on Newtown Street Rd to Sugartown and back on Church.  It was a nice evening, already dark but the temps were high enough so as not to freeze in the open car.

This morning I rode the Bullet to work although there is a threat of rain but I will be riding it home at lunch and putting it in the garage behind the MG.  It hasn't rain yet but I don't want to risk the afternoon possibilities because the sky is looking a little ugly.

Took this pic to keep track of the gallons since the pump didn't print a receipt but I liked the reflections in it.

Safe and sound before the rain.

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Riding to West Chester

The DK Diner in West Chester

 Yesterday afternoon we picked up the car from Gene's after they took care of the horn issue.  Harold, the mechanic at Gene's, said it was a simple issue of some wires having come disconnected when they installed the new horn button and he didn't charge me for the work.  I can imagine that if I had tried to fix it myself, it would have taken me three days and who knows how much aggravation.  So Gene's was the best answer.

After we picked up the car we took a ride up Goshen/Strasburg to the DK Diner on 3.  By the time we got there, around 15:00, the place was completely empty and we had it all to ourselves.  Lunch was good but I like their breakfast better.  We sat in a window booth and we could see the MG from there.  I was interesting to see several people pull over and walk around her trying to figure out what kind of car it was.

At the DK Diner in West Chester

After lunch, we stopped at the Wawa on Gay Street in West Chester to gas up.  I put 7.334 gallons in the tank, not filling it up because when close to completely full gas sloshes out of the top through the gas cap.  This is something that I will have to see about fixing soon.  Either by replacing the tank or seeing if it can be fixed.  At the gas stop, the odo read 2503 miles and the trip odometer was at 259.7.  I did not reset the trip odometer last time but I calculate that we ran the car for 189.2 since the last fill up.  From there we simply returned home using the same Goshen/Strasburg loop.  The weather was great, cool and breezy with temps in the low seventies.  At one point, shortly after leaving the Wawa, I lost my baseball cap because of the wind but I was able to make the block and come back to pick it up.  My EGA pin was destroyed, I suspect someone ran over the cap, but the cap it self did appear any worse for the wear.

This morning, on my way to work on the Bullet, I noticed that the odometer there was at 2222.2.  I need to gas up today because I am very close to the 200 mile range.

2222.2

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Montse Video

My friend Carles sent me this short video from our little ride on Saturday evening.  This is the first video I have of Montse so it's very exciting.

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Ellis Preserve, Old Cameras, and Llamas!

Saturday we had a friend visiting so the Bullet stayed in storage and the MG stayed in the garage for most of the day.  Early Saturday evening I took our friend for a short spin around the neighborhood.  He took some video on his phone which he promised to send to me so when I have that I will post it here.  It was a cool evening so we didn't go very far or stay out very long.

On Sunday morning, after I took our friend to the train station in Philly, we took a little spin up Goshen/Strasburg.  It was really cold and despite having the heater running full blast we decided to come back home without going any further.  

In the mid-afternoon, I took the MG to Ellis Preserve to try out an old Minolta XD-5 camera that I've had laying around for a while.  The pictures in this post are the result of that shoot.  The camera is over-exposing by at least one stop so I adjusted the levels in Photoshop to get the results you see here.  I like the camera so I will adjust the exposure settings and test it out again.  On the way out to the Preserve, I ran across a blue Maserati on Goshen for the exotic car tally.

The exotic car tally now stands at 6 Ferraris, 2 Lambos, 3 Maseratis, 1 unknown, 1 Cobra, 1 Bentley, 1 DeLorean, 1 Tesla, and 1 MGA.

Later that afternoon, after 18:00, my wife drove me out to the storage area so I could bring the Bullet home to have for the week's commute.  I was rather cold by then, so I just rode straight back home with out any side trips.  On Monday morning the temps were down to the mid 40s so the Bullet stayed home until the afternoon when I used it to go back home.

Llamas!

Today the temps were much higher, in the low 60s in the morning and up to the mid 70s in the afternoon, so the Bullet did the whole commute.  After supper, my wife and I took a ride on the MG down Church Rd to Sugartown and 252 to pick up the developed film at Ritz Camera.  On the way back on 252 we took a detour through Grubbs Mill out to Goshen.  It was early evening, the light was beginning to fade and the Harvest Moon was low and golden in the sky.  The ride was beautiful through those country roads.  We stopped in front of the llama farm because they were out feeding and I took a phone camera shot since I never seem to have a good camera handy when they are out.  

Tomorrow, I'm taking the MG in to Gene's.  I've fooled around with the horn, trying to get it fixed, but I haven't been too successful.  I hope they can get it fixed quickly.

To see the Montse Flickr set, click here.

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The General Lee in Catalunya

Pep Enric and the General Lee

If you survived late 70s-early 80s American TV then you have to be familiar with The Dukes of Hazzard.  That show had two good things going for it; Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) and the General Lee.  The character of Daisy Duke spawned a fashion trend for the eponymous shorts worn by young ladies which appears to be height of fashion in Spain today.  But that doesn't seem to be extend of the Dukes of Hazard's contribution to pop culture in Spain.

While wondering around in Tarragona, we came across this scooter dressed up in General Lee livery.  It doesn't look like it could handle the back roads of Georgia as well as the original but maybe Catalan streets are more suited to this model.  My grandson enjoyed it tremendously and asked to have his picture taken next to it.  Why the scooter had a Rising Sun pattern done with reflective tape on the inside cover is a mystery but it was pretty cool.



  

Rising Sun

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The Bullet and the Midget

 Not the greatest pics since they were taken with my phone and the photo quality of that camera is pretty bad but, since I didn't have the pocket camera with me, these will have to do.

I know we won't have a chance to ride either one this weekend because we have house guest but I wanted to have the MGTDr handy just in case.  I commuted to work this morning on the Bullet and at lunch I took a ride out to the storage area to change it for the MG.   I left the office and went out County Line Rd to meet with Upper Gulph Road.  I took a left there and followed Upper Gulph, past the dogleg with King of Prussia Road, to its meeting with Conestoga.  I kept on Conestoga to Howellville Road for a left and then a right at 30 to the storage area.  I had never done this ride before, either on the Bullet or in any of my cars, and it is a really good way to get a long way West on 30 without going through some of its heavily congested areas.  I will definitely keep this route in mind when making that trek.

On the way back, on the MG, I followed the same route in reverse except that I made a left on Glenn Ave to Old Lancaster Rd to find the end of Conestoga.  I missed that but turned around a couple of hundred yards down the road to get on Conestoga.  I was cool and overcast during the whole ride.  At some points it looked like it might rain and then a couple of minutes later the clouds would break up only to gather up again.  Despite the threat, it didn't rain either during the ride or on the way back home from work.  Fall is definitely here, this morning the temp was 54 degrees and I bundled up with a sweater under my suit jacket because I knew the wind would cut right to me.  I guess that the temps through out the day have been in the high 60s but because of the overcast it has felt much colder.  Weather aside, the next 3 weekends will be busy and there will not be a lot of time, if any, for riding so my season my be effectively coming to an end.  My plan is to continue commuting until the highs drop below 55 at which point all the fun is gone and there is no point.  I will probably take the Bullet to Joe's for winterizing in the last weekend of October if everything works out and the Parcae allow it.

The official PA title for the MG came in the mail today.  I was a little worried about this because my friend had tried to change the title from NJ to PA before and the Commonwealth, in its infinite wisdom, had not done it for whatever reason.  So that when he transferred title over to me, it had been a NJ title.  That's over, now I'm just waiting for the registration stickers.

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Commute Notes/Evening Ride

Not in the habit of posting on my commute but on Tuesday I had two exotic car sightings so this is an exception.  On the way to work there was a silver Maserati stopped at the oncoming lane of the Spring Mill and 30 intersection and at lunch I saw a yellow Ferrari on a flatbed tow truck at the same intersection, going east on 30.  I debated whether to count that but I decided that it is an exotic and that I saw it while riding the Bullet so it's going in the tally.

The exotic car tally now stands at 6 Ferraris, 2 Lambos, 2 Maseratis, 1 unknown, 1 Cobra, 1 Bentley, 1 DeLorean, 1 Tesla, and 1 MGA.

After work on Tuesday, I took a little ride out my favorite loop but first I rode back to work on my regular commuter route because I thought I had left my camera in the office.  It turns out that I did not even take my work bag in to work so it was time away from the loop for nothing.  I did go back the long way, via Ithan Rd, just for the change.  Once on Sproul I followed that out to Goshen for a hard right over the Darby creek bridge.  I stayed on that all the way up to Duttons Mill for a right at Sugartown.  My intention was to take Providence from Sugartown but again, not being sure if Providence linked before or after Duttons Mill, I overshot that intersection and had to cut through The Institutes to get to Providence.  From the I went back to Goshen for the way home.

Another beautiful day to ride, cool enough for long sleeves under the mesh but not uncomfortable.  There were some high scattered clouds but no threat of rain and because of the hour, I started the right at a little after 19:00, it darkened fairly quickly.  I noticed that the high beam indicator light has gone out so I will have to have that replaced next time I go out to Pottstown.

On leaving for this ride the odo read 2100.5 by the return it was at 2127.8.

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