Business

Thursday was a "take care of business" day for us.....we had unfinished business down in Flagstaff, and had originally intended to head back south to Flagstaff first thing Thursday morning in the Newell to have the rest of the work done on the VW (air bag light) and then head east on I-40.  The new plan was to drive the Beetle down to Flagstaff, get the work done and drive back, and that is what we did, and that was how it worked.  There was no sign of Mr. Jello, but Miss Serendipity showed up everywhere we turned.

I guess I could just sign off with that and you would pretty much know how our day went, but where is the fun in that for anyone?  So, here goes.....

We managed to be in the car a little after 8 am, and heading south on US 89.....first task was to top off our tank with 92 octane......don't remember if I mentioned it, but our little 1.8 turbo requires 92 octane, which is, as you know, a "little" more expensive than 87 octane.  The good news is that since we had the "knock sensor" replaced our mileage has kicked up from 25 mpg to just over 30 mpg!  That is about twice what we got from the T-Bird on a good day.  We took on just over 8 gallons and continued our roll south.  

TLE and I had agreed I would drive the 80+ miles to Cameron, then she would take us the last 53 into Flagstaff.....on the return we would reverse our field with me driving the 53 miles back to Cameron, and so forth.

I had called ahead to Jeff Ford at Findlay VW letting him know we would be getting there between 10 and 10:30 (our original appointment was for 1 pm) and hoped he could get someone to work right away on the car.  He said they could, and we arrived just after 10:30.  The drive south was completely uneventful.

Jeff had arranged for their seat buckle specialist to handle the job of replacing the seat belt buckle assembly, and said it should take about 90 minutes.....wow....not bad.  We decided to walk over to Home Depot where I knew I could easily kill 90 minutes just browsing down the tool isles, and TLE headed next door to World Market to do the same.

I found a few things I could use, including a 20 foot long tow strap with a 7,000 lb. capacity......after our incident the other day in the sand down by the beach I realized I was completely unprepared for an emergency in the VW, so in addition to the tow strap I went through both my tool bags after we got "home" and assembled some rudimentary tools (an assortment of screw drivers, wrenches, etc) to carry in the VW.

Just about the time I finished my browsing I got a text from TLE that I should come over to World Market and check out their brew selection, so I did.  They did, indeed, have an interesting beer selection, and we picked up a few 22 ouncers of beer I have not seen before, and as they are sampled you will be treated to a review of same

We arrived back at Findlay VW just before Noon, and a few minutes later Jeff came into the customer lounge to tell us our car was ready....wow again!

Since it was still so early we decided to run a few errands, including our on going search for replacement filters for our "Zero Water" purifier (like Brita, or Pur).  Usually we find them at Target, or Walmart, but in both Page and Flagstaff we had struck out.  After striking out at Target in Flagstaff we decided to walk across the parking lot to Chili's for lunch whilst TLE made a few calls around town looking for someone who had the filters in stock.....just before lunch arrived she found out Bed, Bath and Beyond had them, and they were just down the street a block or so.....wow, one more time!  We split an "Old Timer" burger and a house salad, then headed over to Bed, Bath and Beyond for the filters.  As it turns out Bed, Bath and Beyond is just 2 blocks from the Goodwill Outlet store we visited earlier in the week, so we stopped there to browse....TLE scored a couple of shirts, a cool jacket, and I a thermal long sleeved top....$1.59 per pound we paid $5.60 total for these four items.

By the time we finished in Goodwill it was 2 pm and time to make the 2 hour run home.....as planned I drove the first leg, and TLE the second.....we arrived just after 4 pm having taken care of our "business".

The only picture I took all day was of the last light hitting the mesa to the east of us.....the light from the sunset lit them up nicely for this shot.

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