3 posts tagged “solar car”
Tell us a true story that proves it really is a small world after all.
Submitted by havybeaks.
Since it's my question I better answer it!
In the summer of 1997 I had just finished my second cross-country solar car race in Colorado Springs and my family had driven out to watch my team cross the line. After the race we did some sightseeing, which included a drive to the top of Pikes Peak. Very spectacular place!
Wandering through the gift shop a woman spotted my jacket (which stated "Michigan Solar Car Team") and asked me if I attend the University of Michigan. It turned out that she was a grad student at UM so we got to chatting. We were both surprised to learn that we were neighbors! She lived in the same apartment building as I did at the time.
What's crazy to me is that I lived there for a year and never noticed her before. Did we pass each other at the mailbox and just not realize it? All of those opportunities to meet at UM yet where we ultimate make our acquaintance is on top of a mountain in Colorado. Heck of a place to meet a neighbor!
Over the weekend our car - a Subaru Forester - is getting the clutch repaired. At 90,000+ miles it's about time, and this is the first major repair on the car. A friend at work who used to run a clutch and axle repair business is doing the work for $200 to $300 less than the dealer would've charged, and he's servicing more components, too. Great deal!
The problem is that this is our only car, so we had to rent one for the weekend. My company offers group discounts to a variety of consumer products and services and rental cars is one of them. National boasted a 20% discount so I tried them first. I called the reservation hotline and talked to "Ralph" and his heavy Indian accent. He barely spoke English and after 15 minutes of screw-ups I finally had enough; besides, they were only offering about 5% discount for some reason. So I called Budget (which also offered a discount through my company) and got set up with the right deal in a couple minutes.
All was cool until today when Amanda and I picked up the car. Or should I say cars... I crammed myself into a Pontiac G6 and drove 15 miles to the repair shop where Amanda dropped off our Forester. On the way there I had trouble driving in a straight line! I had to turn the steering wheel about 15 degrees to the left to drive in a straight line, yet doing so with a continued drift to the right! But if I steered any further left, I was in the next lane. This car only had 8,000 miles on it, and the brakes were squealing, too! The G6 is a piece of crap. I know I'm a tall dude but I could barley see out the windows because the roofline is low to provide a sleeker exterior look. They call it a midsize car but I had more room riding in my friend's Ford Festiva in Germany!
We drove back to Budget and asked for a new car that didn't have steering problems. I was pleased that they upgraded me for free to a Ford Taurus - ahhhh, legroom! It's not a bad car but not a great one, either. The ride home was uneventful until we pulled into the garage and Amanda said "hey, what's that hissing sound?" The right rear tire was leaking air!! What the heck?! We get right back in the car and drive back to the rental office, about 20 miles away via the back roads since I wasn't about to test the tire on the freeway.
The guy at the counter was rather surprised to see me yet again, but he had no problem giving me another car. This time we got a loaded Pontiac Grand Prix - climate control, leather seats, the works. Somehow we made it back home and the car is still working fine - whew! In my entire life I've rented maybe three or four cars, and now today I went through just as many!
The worst part about the whole affair is that in all the confusion, I accidentally left my sunglasses case in the G6. Normally I wouldn't care about a little case but this particular one I received as SWAG during one of my solar car races in college (ironically it was a promo from GM, the race sponsor) so it was sentimental to me. Oh well. At least I fit in this car, the wheels work, and it goes in a straight line.
P.S. Why can't I tell stories briefly? For some reason I can't help but to go into details. Hope you all enjoyed it!
Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 5 facts about yourself. Then choose 5 people you want to tag and list their names. Then leave a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged.
My "facts" might not be as interesting as those of Een, who tagged me, but here goes...
1. In college I was heavily involved with the Michigan Solar Car Team, spending anywhere from 20 to 140 hours a week on the project. So busy was I that for my first three years in college I never studied for a single exam! I worked on both the Solar Vision (1995) and Wolverine (1997) teams.
2. When I was 8 years old the movie "Ghostbusters" was popular. One day I was playing with my two younger brothers and two cousins (boys) in our backyard when we had to "go". We lived out in the country and usually didn't bother running inside to use the bathroom. Well, the five of us decided to emulate the Ghostbusters heroes - we all stood in a semi-circle and tried to "cross our streams"! The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man didn't stand a chance!
3. I used to be a serious tennis player in high school, somehow making varsity as a sophomore. Right before the start of junior year's season, I quit. The coach was a jacka$$ and our teammates rooted against each other - they all wanted higher standing on our team rather than defeating other teams. I joined track and was slow - in my first race I got lapped by our best runner in the 1-mile (it's just a 4-lap race!) but when I came around for my last lap, none other than that best runner was cheering me on!
4. I logged 60+ hours as a student pilot in high school and college and was a couple steps from getting my license when I ran out of time and money. I resumed with two flights in August 2001 when Amanda and I lived near DC... after 9/11, however, training flights in the area were banned for months. I haven't piloted since.
5. In high school my friends and I used to TP the houses of classmates. One day six of us decided to TP a friend's minivan on his birthday while he worked at McDonald's. We stayed up all night in a garage popping popcorn using a half-dozen air poppers with the intent to fill his vehicle with popcorn and then wrap it in TP. The next day, boldly in broad daylight in a busy strip mall parking lot, we commenced our mission. Minivans being rather large, we only managed to fill it two feet deep. No matter, we began wrapping. The entire operation took about five minutes. We had just finished covering the entire van and put a big red bow on it when we heard police sirens in the distance. Lots of them.
In no time a couple cops showed up and demanded our IDs. One of my friends was anti-authority (anti-everything, really; he just liked to rebel) refused and the cop was about to cuff him when I forced my friend to surrender his ID. When the cop realized it was just six of us TP'ing a car, he called off the rest of the police. I admitted to being the ringleader and the officer pulled me aside to chat. He informed me that 911 had received several calls from shoppers saying that "huge gangs of teenagers" were "bashing cars with baseball bats and setting them on fire"! The entire city of Ann Arbor (population 100,000+) police department was put on full riot alert and every on-duty and off-duty officer had been called to respond!!
He also advised me to remind my friends to always follow an officer's instructions - he had nearly arrested my rebellious friend! After explaining our story to him, he chuckled and said "You know, that's the best damn TP job I've ever seen!" He then asked me if I knew anything about a house getting TP'ed the previous weekend near our high school. I lied and said no - we had TP'ed that house! He believed me, then reminded us to clean up our handiwork before driving away.
The entire AAPD was on riot alert coming after us, then they complimented our illicit deed, then I lied to them, and then they were gone - all within a span of ten minutes!
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Last but not least, I tag the following folks:
Katiebell
Laurel
Nevada Mountain Bear
complexkiki
wefloat (are you still out there?)
