Miata Mailing List: September 1999, Message #176

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I got back from a 5,400 miles roadtrip in my Miata a few days ago. Talk about
fun.  Top down most of it, I don't think I'll ever get the tangles out of my
hair.  At least the sunburn's peeling.  I jsut changed the oil, the 5,400 miles
interval is a bit more than my usual 3,000 or less.  Should have put synthetic
in, but I didn't think about going so long before I could change the oil.  And
I can't justify synthetic when I change it at 2-3k miles, so I don't usually do
it.  The only problem I had with the car is that the two exhaust hagners
holding up the muffler broke.  I bought a bunch of hose clamps which worked
pretty well for a temp fix until they fall off.  Then I stopped, put more on. 
Nice to have hangers back.  Actually, come to think of it, I only put one of
them on, as I haven't gotten the other torn one off.  Any tricks for getting
the #$%#$ things off?  They go on nice and easy.  Guess that makes sense. 
That, and my squeaky brakes, when I'm not applying the brakes.  I'm
scared of playing with the brakes.  I'll have them looked at when I get the
tires rotated/balanced and an alignment job.  And I'm not sure about my clutch
salve cylinder.  The clutch pedal has been feeling a bit funny lately, and the
clutch resivoir has dropped an itty bitty amount.  If I knew where the heck the
slave cylinder was, I'd probably just replace it.  I ought to at least bleed
the clutch, I would guess, but the funny clutch feeling went away.  It was
barely noticable and felt like somone had poured coke on the pedal mechanism,
and let it dry.  It felt stick.  Not that it stuck at all, it just felt sticky.
 Hard to describe.  The trip was great.  I got a speeding ticket in Cairo Il,
even though I wasn't speeding.  Guy pulled me over becuase I was in a
convertible with the top down.  He said I'd changed lanes without using my turn
signal.  So?   Actually, I'd SWERVED to avoid an accident.  Someone pulled
in front of me, and practically stopped, while I'm going 40mph.  Which is what
I told the cop.  Which is why I got a speeding ticket instead of a wreckless
driving ticket.  (It was a 30mph zone.  I'd thought it was 35-40).  I'd prefer
the speeding ticket, in any case.  I got a parking ticket in Chicago, just
becuase I'm a stupid Texan who didn't know there was a such thing as
rush-hour parking  I passed a dark blue miata on the side of the road with its
owner on the phone in Il.  I honked and waved, he waved back .  I had to stop
for a train, he caught up, rolled his window down (my top was down), and said
"Nice car!"  Was the first Miata I'd seen on the trip.  Saw a few in Chicago,
but never while in my car.  From Chicago, I headed to Wisconsin, saw some neat
country side, unfortunately, I also had to smell it:)  I tried to go to Canada.
 BIG Mistake!  I didn't have the right insurance card.  I thought I did, as my
father sent it to me.  He mistakingly sent me the wrong one.  So the guy at the
customs office searched the car in its entirety, went through every piece of
luggage, everything.  Took forever to repack the whole car.  Only, he never
checked under the hood or beneath the top boot.  Gee, if I were smuggling
something, how hard would it have been.  THEN told me that he wasn't going to
let me into Canada, and that he was going to be nice enough not to have the
Ontario police write me a $5000 ticket for driving in Ontario without
insurance.  (That LONG drive, 50 feet accross the border to the customs
office).  Anyway, that didn't give me a good impression of Canadians in
general, even though the Candians on the list (Keith, I'm sure there are others)
have been EXCEPTIONALLY nice.  The guy was a real butt, and while I realize he
can't let me into Canada without insurance, but he could have accepted the fact
it was an honest mistake, and be nice about it.  On top of that, I WAS insured,
just didn't have the proper proof.  So, we just drove along the Canadian border
all the way to Glaciar National Park in Montana.  I drove accross North Dakota
flat out, unless I was near a town.  On the roads I was driving, there was
NOTHING.  Anyway, I flew over a hill (uphill, so probably 105-110) and there's
a state tropper in the left hand lane.  Ooops.  She pulls me over, and I'm
thinking, "Great, now I get to spend time in a ND jail, they revoke my license,
yadda yadda..."   And do you know what the woman who got out of the state
trooper car said to me?  First words out of her mouth.  "Hey there, how are you
doing?  Can I see your license and registration please?"   As I'm getting them
for her, she says, "I'm not going to write you a ticket.  This is becuase I'm
having a good day.  I'm just going to write you a warning for speeding too
much.  I saw this little red thing fly ove the hill, and I got you on rear radar
going too fast."  I'm like, "But..  I .. uhh..  you're not giving me a TICKET?" 
"Nope, not going to...   But, if you'd walk back with me to my car while I call
it in, it would be easier that way.  So I'm following her back to her car
wondering if this is an exotic method of arresting me.  Nope, I sit down in the
passenger seat, she calls it in (while asking me a few questions), hands me a
warning that says "excessive speeding".  I was amazed.  So..  Not ALL cops are
bad!  I dunno if she really got me on radar or not.  There was no reading on it
when I got into her car.  That was nice.   We headed south, saw Yellow Stone,
drove through Colorado, New Mexico and back to Texas.   The trip, over all, was
a blast.

As for my latest adventure with a woman on the freeway...  She reported the
wreck to her rental car agency as a blown tire, so I don't have anythign more
to worry about there.  That makes me happy.

Well, guess that's all for now, see you guys!

Berck