Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Old School II



We drove 528 miles in 10 hours and 15 minutes today. Before leaving, I outfitted the Ford Escort (FE) with my patented security system of "The Club" and a double-locked trunk. To double-lock the trunk, I installed a couple of chains--one attached to the inner roof of the trunk, one attached to the floor of the trunk--and padlocked them together. When padlocked together, the trunk can only open a couple of inches. I don't know how much safer this makes the contents of the trunk, but it allows me to worry a lot less than I would otherwise.

Installing this security system reminded me of the previous car I installed it in: my 1996 dark blue 4 door Toyota Corolla. I was inspired to Christen that car "Old School" after seeing a 70's Cadillac in Hyde Park with "Old School" written across the trunk. And this memory has inspired me to Christen the FE "Old School II".

The drive today was pretty uneventful. We left at noon and drove straight, with breaks for lunch and dinner, to Knoxville, TN. We drove out 66 to 81, and 81 to 40 to Knoxville. We listened to an episode of Car Talk and an episode of This American Life.

If I have internet access tomorrow night as well, I hope to be able to report having visiting some interesting sites en route to Memphis.

2 Comments:

Blogger Nat Hansen said...

Do you have iPod & car stereo compatibility?

11:22 PM  
Blogger Charles P. Everitt said...

Does the OS II have an ipod interface?

Yes. I bought a TransPod and so far it's been working well. It has an FM transmitter, which worked even in the DC area, although I did have to change the station once as I drove across town. With some jiggling, I was able to get a Radio Shack cassette adapter to work in the previously-recalcitrant tape player and it sounds better, so now I have the ipod plugged into the TransPod for power and the cassette adapter for sound. It doesn't sound perfect, partly because the stereo itself doesn't sound that great (OS I had a great stereo, until it broke and I replaced it with a junky model with no bass in a last minute purchase before a trip to Memphis), and partly because all of these ridiculous interfaces affect the fidelity significantly. Why can't they just put a line in input on the dash?

So, yes, have compatibility and lots of Car Talk, This American Life, and other books on tape to listen to.

5:35 AM  

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