The Search Continues...The Car

When I decided to retire there were two things that I intended to do. First I intended to ride my motorcycle from Portland Oregon to Portland Maine. My second goal was to purchase a Cadillac CTS so that I could see America in comfort when I was not out on the Harley. I made the trip from Portland to Portland. Now for the car...
About a year ago I was watching CNN, FOX, CNBC or MSNBC while on a treadmill at the gym. After interviewing the panel of experts with their ratings of new cars, the commentator ask each of them what they drove. They all drove Cadillacs and claimed that the CTS was one of the best made cars in America. (Maybe GM gave them all Cadillacs to drive, who knows.) I also found that Consumer Reports gave the CTS a favorable rating. I decided about a year ago that this was the car for me.
I got home August 6th and after unpacking, almost immediately began the search for a car. First I went on line and found all of the Cadillac Dealers within 125 miles of Silverton. I then looked at the inventory of each dealer.
I had decided to wait until the 2011 models were on the market to try and find a new 2010, thinking that the dealers might be more anxious to get rid of the older model. I wanted a red car with black interior. All wheel drive was a must. I was flexible with other options.
The first place I went was Capitol Auto Group in Salem since it was close and their on line inventory showed photos of what was available. I explained to the salesman, Mark Crawford that I was going to buy a 2010 CTS, I just didn't know who I was going to buy it from or where I was going to get it. He pointed out what was available and the options of each vehicle. He was polite and friendly and not at all pushy. He never asked for phone number or last name. I liked that.
I continued my on line search and eventually went to Vic Alfonso Cadillac in Portland and looked over their inventory. Once again the salesman, Tom Leiner, was very polite, friendly and helpful and not at all pushy. Now I'm becoming suspicious of what has happened to the American car salesman.
I returned home with a head full of car facts. After researching dealer costs on Edmund's.com I called other dealers asking about their inventory and learned that most did not have what I was interested in.
By Friday, August 13th (great day to buy a car) I narrowed my choice to two; a red one in Portland and a black one with black interior in Salem. I called Tom and the red car had been sold to a dealer the night before.
At about 4:00 PM Kelly and I went to Salem to test drive the black car. We learned that the cost of this car had been reduced by several thousand dollars due to manufacturer incentives to clear out the 2010's. We had been expecting to pay in the neighborhood of $50,000 for the car and were pleasantly surprised to find this was listed in the mid 30's. We bought it and were out of the business by 5:30 PM which I thought was amazing!!! But the story gets better.
Saturday morning Kelly's mom told her that there was an ad in the Statesman Journal for a 2010 CTS at Capitol Auto Group for $2,000 less than we had paid for ours. The car pictured in the ad was red but as I read on I saw the vehicle identification number for the car that was actually for sale....and it was the same as the car we had purchased the day before.
I called salesman Mark who told me of my that he would have the Sales Manager call me Monday.
Monday morning at 11:00 AM the phone rings and it's Jamie, the sales manager at Capitol Auto Group. He explains to me that the ad in the Statesman Journal was a typo on the papers behalf and that the number should have been 35 and not 33...
Now this is where the cynics begin to mutter as I tell the story with "Sure it was the paper's fault" before they hear what else he said...
Jamie said, "The ad in the paper was a typo on the part of the Statesman Journal but we will honor that ad and as soon as your check clears the bank we will send you a check for two thousand dollars".
Now is that great or what? I have wandered all over America trying to find out what makes this country tick and once again it is proven to me that it is the people of this country that make it everything I had hoped it to be. It makes me proud to be a part of this community and very proud to be an American.

Day 15 The Ride Home

I left my motel and 1/2 block later I was in Oregon. The ride home was uneventful but I took that time to reflect on what I had accomplished.
I had set out 15 days earlier to ride across this country to find out what is America. I started with three goals in mind; to visit a friend I had not seen in 42 years, to visit my father's grave in Utah and to reach a geographic destination, all of which I accomplished. All along the way I found nothing but nice, helpful, caring people. The only two times on my entire trip that I witnessed bad behavior were both by foreign tourists verbally abusing people that were trying to serve them.
A few people stand out as having gone above and beyond, like Candee Kitterman the Postmistress in Wall South Dakota who not only shipped my computer and boots home, but carefully wrapped and packaged them for me. Jamie Innes the service manager of Nashua Harley Davidson in Nashua, New Hampshire who made getting my bike serviced and back on the road a priority as well as technician Todd Smith who did the work. And then there are a whole lot of truckers who let me ride in the shade of their trailers while crossing the desert and the plains and provided some relief from the blistering sun.
The most important aspect of my 7408 mile journey across the United States and back was the time I had to recount the first 62 years of my life. I do believe that I relived every significant event that I have ever experienced. After all of the self reflection, evaluation and critique I am OK with where I have been and who I am. Like everyone who has taken risks in their life I am not without regret but I do not have a life of regrets. All and all my life has been like this trip. It was never about getting to New Hampshire, Maine, Utah or back home. It has always been about the ride, and I have had one hell of a ride. Thanks everyone who followed my journey and for being my friends.

Day 14

I hung around Utah until I thought the weather was breaking and headed out west again. I saw some weird art by the freeway near the Great Salt Lake which is depicted in the photos of the big yellow tower with strange orbs on it.
I rode out to the Bonneville Salt Flats speedway in hopes of seeing a rocket car or the Worlds Fastest Indian but the only other vehicle out there was the Worlds Fastest Winnebago. I decided not to make a run and turned around.
I was making pretty good time in Nevada despite high winds. As I crested a hill with my throttle screw set at about 78 miles per hour, I passed a very nice Nevada Highway Patrolman. He wanted to chat, so I pulled over. He said that I was going 86 in a 75 zone and that he found it curious that I sped up as I passed by him. I pointed out the disadvantage of the manual "cruise control" and how going down hill requires an adjustment, which I had failed to make. He sent me on my way with a promise to keep it under 80 on the interstate which severely reduced my total miles for the day.
By nightfall I had turned north from the Interstate and found myself on the Nevada-Oregon border. I found a forty dollar room in one of the two motels in McDermitt Nevada where I spent the night.

Day 13 a few more photos

Day 13 Denver to Salt Lake photos

Day 13 Denver to Salt Lake - Wind, Rain, Hail and Lightening

Today my weather luck ran out..I left Limon headed for Denver. It was a nice morning and a pleasant ride. Denver was really hazy and I couldn't see the mountains until I got to them. I had to stop and put on my coat when I got to the Eisenhower tunnel at the summit. At 11,000+ feet, it was cold. Once I crested the Rockies the sun went away and the storms began. I took 42 pictures trying to catch a lightening flash but missed the all. More importantly, they all missed me although they looked to be striking the ground. The wind was so strong at times that I had to slow to 40 and lean into it. Several times ice the size of hail fell from the sky and even with my rain gear on felt like a shotgun blast to the face and ribs. A few times it looked like the storms were over and I would take off my rain gear, only to find that the road changed directions into another storm. I gave up and left it on.
When I got to Selina Utah I headed north toward Fairview to visit my father's grave. He's buried in a cemetery that reminds me of one from the old west. It is up on a hill, overlooking the small town of Fairview.
I finally made it to Springville, a town south of Salt Lake at about 9:00 PM and checked into a hotel. There were some really obnoxious people checking in before me, giving the clerk a hard time. When it was my turn I told her I would take any room she had, even the laundry room. She put me in a suite for only $89.00. Very nice.
I am attaching some pictures of my ride. They are of my view of the Colorado Rockies from my bike, a gold mine, the summit, a Colorado canyon, riding in the storms and eastern Utah.

Day 12 Dodging Storms & a sign to Mexico In Missouri.

I checked the weather channel and it's web site before leaving St. Louis this morning. I had hoped to go to Dodge City Kansas today but it and Denver were under a severe weather watch. I guess this crappy weather explains why every state I have traveled through has been so green. Even South Dakota and Kansas were green.
I set my sights on getting to Colorado to see my buddy Bill Burnett who lives in Colorado Springs and works in the X-ray department at the Air Force Academy. He and I were buddies when I worked in Manteca. He was a reserve. We got divorced at the same time and rented a house together. After I moved back to Oregon he married the love of his life, Rosie and they eventually moved to Colorado. They are camping this week so I got no answer when I called their cell phone. Probably no service up in the mountains.
Anyway I rode from St. Louis to Limon Colorado, a trek of 730 miles. I like riding so much that I enjoy the time I spend looking at things and cleaning out my mind.
I have discovered that everyplace I have gone I have encountered nothing but nice people. I figured that along the way there would be some unpleasant people but so far, not a one.
Of course a lot of my contacts are my stop every two hours for gas. All I have to say is , "Sure is" and thanks because everyone says the same thing. "Pretty hot to be riding one of those things today". And "that'll be $3.15 for two bottles of water". Maybe tomorrow I'll mix it up a little and instead of saying, "Sure is" I'll say, "Beats the hell out of hopping around on a pogo stick" or something like that.
Another one of my mindless thoughts today was that I didn't know what the word crotch was until I was in high school..I always though it was crouch. It wasn't until I learned the real word that i realized why my little league coach liked me to tell about the time I got hit in the couch when I was playing catcher. He had me tell all of his buddies the story. I believed they thought the story was funny and didn't know they were laughing because I was an idiot. OK. Why did I think of this out in the middle of Kansas.. It was when some guys on crouch rockets went blasting by the opposite direction of the freeway.
Anyway the last 45 minutes of my ride was my windshield was so splattered with bugs I had to stop and wash it off. There was a line at the gas station..cars, trucks; everyone was washing off bugs.
I checked into a hotel, did my laundry (bug splattered pants today and a gasoline spill on my other pair yesterday) and I'm ready for bed.
It was over 100 degree's most of my ride today. I put a bottle of water in my leather pouch on my windshield so I can take a swig while I'm riding.
If I don't see Bill tomorrow, I'm heading for Utah to the cemetery where my dad and his sisters are resting.
I took a picture of miles and miles of Kansas and the only cloud over I-70 today. The rest were south and west.