Sunday, July 06, 2008

Auto maintenance 101

antifreeze

Austin and I are topping off the coolant in the Subaru Forester on a trip yesterday to Memphis.

We made a gas/restroom stop just north of West Memphis, Ark., on I-55 and noticed the engine smelled very very hot. We found the oil was down 2 quarts and the coolant was low, even though the oil warning light hadn't come on and the temperature gauge was in the normal range.

So I bought a couple of quarts of oil and a couple of gallons of coolant. We put all of the oil and a little of the coolant in, then drove on to the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis where we wandered through a couple of miles of a hodgepodge of rather unremarkable exhibits. It reminded me a lot of the chaotic collection of crap at the House on the Rock at Spring Green, Wisc.

When we came out, we checked levels again and topped off the coolant again (photo above).

The Garmin Nüvi 200W GPS unit guided us to Graceland, where we cruised the parking lot and decided to flee for home.

After years of scorning GPS, I'm becoming a convert. It took all of the hassle out of navigating in a strange city and made the trip much more enjoyable.

Once back in Jonesboro, we stopped at Andy's for refreshment, bought some Sam's Club steaks and came home for a grilled steak dinner and the movie "King of California" courtesy of Netflix.

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