Confessions and Lamentations

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
07/05/2019 at 13:15 • Filed to: None

(I was keeping this title in my back pocket for a more important post, but what the hell.)

First, to reward y’all for putting up with my grumbling, some road trip finds I haven’t yet posted. All two of them.

Countless years ago I read something by a wise man that said, paraphrased: I ride a motorcycle until I stop being terrified, at which point I sell it.

I don’t know how motorcyclists do it.

If I’m away from the interstate highways for any length of time, like I have been for the last week, getting back on one topless & doorless in fast, heavy traffic is absolutely nerve-wracking.

Especially since I often drive with a crippled roll cage so I can more easily drop the windshield. One screwup like this and I’m in really bad shape.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Which reminds me, I think it’s time to bite the bullet and install a proper roll cage for the front half of the Jeep.)

The rest of the time, though, I’m bored as hell. Interstates are the absolute worst.

Anyway, just needed to vent a bit.

In happier news, I saw both a Comanche and a modern Gladiator on the road this morning. Neither are common, but all of the other Jeep trucks are so vanishingly rare that seeing another model today is effectively a lost cause.

I also committed to buy a broken XJ, until I discovered the seller had meant to mark it as an automatic. My forlorn quest for a manual SUV continues.

There’s an interesting Cherokee an hour from home for a very reasonable price, but it’s two-wheel drive. Unlike Wranglers, where you’d have to look really hard to find a 2WD vehicle, there are quite a few such XJs out there.

Hoping to see !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! tomorrow on my way home, but I haven’t heard back from the seller.

And that’s my update from Kernersville, North Carolina. Time to continue the boring/terrifying drive west.

( Update : oh, hey, I just realized I’m done with interstates for the day! And I have my first trip through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel to look forward to. The day’s looking up.)

DISCUSSION (8)

Captain of the Enterprise > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 13:45

I feel you on the safety front. I drove a scooter for the first time and I don’t like being on normal roads. I got t boned last year when a work van ran a red and hit me at 50MPH in my Corolla and I don’t even like being in a car sometimes anymore.

CalzoneGolem > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 13:58

I’m clumsy AF so I stay off a bike for my own safety.

One motorcyclist dismissively said to me , “Oh, it’s as safe as riding a bicycle.”

I’ve hurt myself riding bicycles ... a lot.

VincentMalamute-Kim > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 13:59

I ride a motorcycle until I stop being terrified, at which point I sell it.

It was fun when I started and I gradually became terrified, at which point I gave it away to the kid next door.

One of us is doing it wrong.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 14:13

Years ago, when I had to take the E21 out of service, my only transportation was a motorcycle. I’d ridden around city streets for years but never any serious time in the highways. I knew I had to conquer that fear so I jumped on near my house and got off at the next exit, panicked. Since this was going to be my only means of transportation I tried to think of the worst place to ride, and decided to go to downtown LA at rush hour.

It was a little scary at first but I got used to it. I even did a little lane splitting, and other than bumping a few mirrors I was fine. Since that time freeways have not scared me. I had a similar thing with needles, so I decided to donate platelets, and did that for a year and a half until I moved. When you get large bore needles j abbed into your body every two weeks you kind of get used to it. Now I have to inject blood th inners on a twice daily basis and I don’t even think about it.

Bicycling? That’s another story. I’ve had people intentionally run into puddles to splash me, dumbfuck rednecks smacking me in the head with a rolled-up newspaper, etc. Heck, the first week I had my new bike I wound up in the hospital because of a low-speed wreck in which I ripped my shoulder right out of the socket. Then there was being trapped behind an open-top truck hauling, uh, solid waste matter from the sewage treatment plant - yuck.

Party-vi > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 14:54

I get a kick out of driving the Willys w/o doors across the Bay Bridge to the Eastern shore. It really hates to do anything over 55/60mph so that’s a really good trip.

Just Jeepin' > Party-vi
07/05/2019 at 14:58

I have another confession: driving across bridges gives me the constant feeling something’s about to fly out of the Jeep and be lost forever.

I’m just a neurotic.

Just Jeepin' > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 15:02

For $2k I could buy two XJs and merge them...

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/lebanon-96-jeep-cherokee-228k-miles/6924353923.html

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/brownsburg-2001-jeep-cherokee/6926632669.html

Probably another 1000 in labor but I could part out what’s left . Tempting.

Party-vi > Just Jeepin'
07/05/2019 at 15:09

Well see you keep stuff in your Jeep. I solved that issue by keeping my tub empty and bringing nothing with me ever.