Lucy and I are going to Houston tomorrow, to buy bookshelves at the Ikea store. Even with the price of gas, I'm getting a great deal on bookshelves. And if you saw my house, you'd know I need bookshelves. Desperately.

So this will be the:

first roundtrip road trip
first time I take the rear seats out
first time I load her up with cargo

I feel the need to give her a quick bath today. This time I will get after all those places that hold water, creating spots.

Lordy, I love this car. I'd drive her to Alaska if I could.

Hellcat: Enjoy your trip. Take along some good music, turn that awesome audio system way up and go into cruise mode. Sounds wonderful. Think I will go somewhere this weekend just to enjoy my new ride.

I agree about loving this car/SUV/truck/Van (what is this vehicle anyway?). Speaking of driving to Alaska, my sister lives there and I am thinking seriously of driving there next year. I will be fully retired then (I hope) and it just seems like a real adventure, especially in Rascal.

I know how you feel about giving Lucy a quick bath. I picked Rascal up on Monday and have washed him every day since. Of course, I live on a dusty, gravel road so it is necessary if I want to see him shine. Last night I spent close to an hour just getting the windshield totally clean. They must put something on the glass at the factory or at the dealership because I had a very difficult time getting all the smudges to come off. Its sparkling now, however.

I will look forward to reading about your trip so have a safe one.

Kim---Drive to Alaska.....you can do it!!! It is a trip you will never forget and nothing will ever compare! Trust me!!

IKEA rules! Part of my motivation for getting the E was an experience with buying a futon from there, and not thinking through the process of getting it home in my girlfirend's Honda Civic. Needless to say, it did not fit INSIDE, so we sort of lashed it on top. It was a scary ride home, but we made it. You never know when you might need some extra cargo room, and that's one big reason why I love my E. I recently had to move the same futon across town and it fit perfectly in the Lunchbox. I was happy with the ease of removing the back seats., and the space is cavernous. The way they flat-pack everything there you should be able to fit plenty of stuff.



Enjoy H-town, it's supposed to be sunny this weekend!

Kim-

Ooooooooopsy.....I forgot to say that I hope you and Lucy have a very happy and safe trip to Houston! :lol: :lol: :lol: And do a little shopping for moi!!! I need to get back up to Chicago and make time to go to Ikea!

Getting the rear seats out is a pure-dee bitch!

Gah!

My first time I was irritated at Lucy!

I went to the Honda dealer and said "Haaaalp"! I had done everything right and but there was this one tiny little yellow doohickey on the latch that goes into the side wall that just wouldn't let go. They made it look SO simple.

Challenge: getting them back in!

We'll see how that goes!

Later, taters!

http://www.click-smilies.de/usersmilies/einzelusersmilies/eclipsee_steering.gif

Hellcat on her way to Houston!

Yes, and do not forget to take step-by-step pictures. (Waitaminnit!!! THIS phrase has gone a bit TOO far!!) Anyway, Hellwench, have a good trip.

Ger

Well, I already related that getting the rear seats out is a pure-dee bitch. I followed the directions and in fact had the seats pretty much detached, but something wouldn't give - a small yellow piece on the side latch. The salesman at John Eagle Honda said it helps to fold the seat leg under and to approach the seat from the opposite side. I'm perhaps a klutzy Hellcat and probably was going about this all wrong. That's kind of me - I can 'book' understand everything but put me in action and sometimes I'm goofier than Gomer Pyle.

Oh well!

Here was yesterday:

Up at 6. Who knew there were 2 six-o'clock's in a day??

On the road just at 7:45

Stopped in Huntsville, temporary home of Darlie Routier, at IHOP for breakfast at 10:30

Houston and Ikea just after noon.

Car impressions:

A little noisier without the seats inside. I also like to describe the highway drive as "smooth, but not zombie smooth." You know what I mean? It's not a bumpy ride, it's not an effort to drive or ride in the car at all, but it's not like driving an American car that has no road feel, no sensation to it, and you might as well be a zombie on autopilot driving it. The Element is a very human car. All your senses - well, maybe not taste - are engaged in it.

Very little traffic and plenty of get up and go to pass pokealongs. Really a pleasant morning drive.

The Wonder that is Ikea:

Mom loved Ikea. You either love it or hate it
.
Much discussion and measuring of bookshelves.

Half of humanity was in Ikea yesterday (their twice yearly sale).

Got the bookshelves (Billy).

Also: couple of rugs ($4.95 and you can say goodbye to disgusting stinky old rugs, man that's just cool), baskets to hold schtuff on bookshelves, a pillow, a desk lamp, and Mom bought a purple footstool for my father's aching old feet.

Car impression:

Loaded bookshelves (2 - 31x78 flat packed) into Lucy. They fit (even if they rested on the console between our seats).

The Element got several admiring stares from fellow shoppers at Ikea. The Element should be the official car of Ikea.

A couple next to us in the loading dock was from Ft. Worth. They had their Avalanche completely full of stuff. I sense a whole-house redo. It was his brother's Avalanche and he said driving it was like driving a bulldozer. She has a CR-V and likes the Element. They've been thinking of a Pilot. I said "Drive this. You'll love it." So, even in the hot humid madness of the Houston Ikea loading zone, I'm pimping the Element.

The drive home.

Houston hot. Houston humid. Houston mosquitoes. Houston stupid drivers.

Conroe. Cracker Barrel. A surprisingly tasty grilled chicken salad and infinite glasses of sweet tea, and the sweet tea is exactly the reason I stopped there.

From Conroe (about 40 miles fromt the Ikea) it was 200 miles home.

Car impression, or should I say, confession:

I don't know how to use cruise control, really. I've been shown more than once but it makes me very uncomfortable. Like "I'm not in control of the car! Help!"

BUT I should learn how to use it confidently and make myself use it because after mile 400 my leg cramps.

Getting home:

Home at 7:30

Richard, my teenage kid neighbor friend, bless his rippling teenage muscles, helped me unload heavy bookcases.

Dropped Mom home.

Went to the drive-thru beer store because I was just too damned tired to get out and walk into a 7-11. It's truly shameful to pay $6 for a 6 of Bud but then, I would have paid $20 for it because I was just that tired and a Bud does an old tired body good.

Home. Clothes off. Bud good. Flop. Crash. Snore.

Car impression:

I doubled my mileage on Lucy in one day. I consider her officially broken in now. Even factoring in the gas (which was about 21 mpg if I'm figuring right) and our snacks, I came out better on these shelves in terms of price, also in terms of what I can do with them, than just about any other alternative that I could find (Skandia, Office Despot, etc.)

Small scuffs on the back tailgate panel from the loading of the large bookcase cartons. Unavoidable but unfortunate. I believe I can take some Vinylex to it and it'll be almost unnoticable.

What a great car to take on any sort of shopping excursion. If you're home improving, you need an Element. Period. Paragraph.

Oh look, I have bookshelves to assemble.

Hey, margaritas at Hellcat's house for people who show up to help with bookshelves!

As I was SAYING.... :twisted:

Even figuring in the gas (and I think, just a rough guesstimate, my gas was about 22mpg, 98% highway) and our quick meals, that I came out better on the shelves than I would have without the road trip. Have you gone to Pottery Barn lately? Or anyplace with furniture? Geesh. Expensive. Ikea rocks for affordability.

Which brings me to the final point about the Element:

If you're home improving, gardening, building, hobbying, dogging, whatever, you can only do better when doing it with an Element.

My road trip to Ikea confirms: I have the best damned car in the world for me.

Hey look, I have bookshelves to build. :shock:

Margaritas at Hellcat's house for anyone who wants to build bookshelves! :lol:

Two 6 o'clocks in a day????? You've got to be kidding.

Sounds like a neat trip. If I lived closer, I would take you up on that offer of Margaritas but alas, I must now go outside and start building my back walkway. Just returned from Home Depot with several pieces of 2"x6"x8' and 2"x10"x8' pressure treated lumber as well as many very heavy stepping stones. All this brought home in my new E. Lord, I love this vehicle. I will give you a little hint. If you carry 8' lumber, you either leave the hatch open and prop the end of the lumber on the tailgate or you close the hatch and leave the tailgate down. I chose the later and at one point when I took off from a stoplight, I also hit a bump and the hatch opened. No harm done as I pulled over, put it down and continued with no further problem. I must now figure how I can tie down that hatch. Honda provided no place to attach a tie down so I must get innovative for future 8' lumber purchases.

Enjoy your bookcases and watch those Margaritas. They go down awfully easy. Think I'll go have a couple before starting that walkway.

Will be taking my E to Vermillion, Ohio (up by the lakes) over the July 4th holiday for a wedding. It will be the first trip for us and the guys(our dogs).
Can't wait to see how the trip goes and what kind of mileage I get.

BTW- Happy Birthday Kim ( a few days early )

<So, even in the hot humid madness of the Houston Ikea loading zone, I'm pimping the Element.>

I KNEW IT!! THE LUCSIOUS HELLWENCH IS A PIMP!! LORD LOVE YA, GAL!!

GER

Kim-

OMG I am so glad I am not the only one that feels out of control when the cruise control is on....I will admitt it scares me half to death. My husband uses it on the E when we have gone on our trips to Chicago and I try to fall asleep so I don't freak out!

The only time I have used cruise control was on a road trip from Chicago to Mystic, CT....it was a solo trip in a full loaded GMC Jimmy and boy oh boy was it fun! I think that car had like 8 or 12 different setting for the headlights!

I find that I also tend not to use my cruise that much, but I think it helps break up the tedium of a long trip not using it. One important point about cruise however is that you should never use it during rain. My understanding is that if you hydroplane the car does not understand and the cruise continues to increase your speed. Leads of course to very dangerous situation. Just something to keep in mind.

Cruise control is the best invention for automobiles since air conditioning. If you do much highway driving it is a Godsend. Touching the brake or the gas or the cancel button will turn it off. If you see a tight situation developing, just step on your brake as you would most likely do under any circumstances. It sure does give your leg and back a rest on long trips.

[quote:3da180b764="bush555"]HEMan speaks the gospel...

A recent drive from California to New York taught me the many virtues of cruise -- not least, a good protection against speed drift in states where law enforcement is, shall we say, more exuberant...[/quote:3da180b764]

Indeed, especially good through the little towns with the 25 mph signs and the town cop. It's soooo hard to drive that slow.

I will give cruise control a try.

Someone can come show me how to use it, perhaps.

I am, sometimes, a scaredy-Hellcat.

Kim-

Let me know when you find a willing teacher, I'll come to TX for a lesson or two!!! :lol: :lol: