Here in Colorado we have a very specific task that’s required when the weather finally transitions away from the icy grasp of King Winter and into Spring, with all its chaos and unpredictability: take off the snow tires. Some cars just seem to have less traction than others, so it’s common for Coloradoans to have studded snow tires on their vehicles. While they offer considerably better bad weather (read “ice”) traction, they’re expensive and not…Read More
I just realized this morning as I looked around my garage and counted one fancy car seat and two car booster seats that I don’t need them any more. My little one, K-, turned 8 last week (I even hosted a party for her pals at the local bowling alley. Solo. Yikes!) and the Colorado law for children needing to be in a booster seat states that “under 8” is the criterion. So we’re done….Read More
Thanks to the fine folk at Chevrolet, my recent road trip from Boulder, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico ended up as a chance for me to have an extended test drive of the popular Chevy Cruze, a cute little four door compact. The trip itself was about 800 miles: 320 miles, Boulder to Taos, NM. An overnight at the cool Dobson House “earthship”, then a pleasant 70 miles to Santa Fe, NM, where my…Read More
As a participant, speaker and co-organizer of the Modern Media Man Summit last weekend in Atlanta, I was perfectly positioned when Chevrolet signed as a premium sponsor to get one of their loaner cars. I got on the list and a week or so before the conference, got a call from the Chevy team asking where we should rendezvous for the hand-off. Nice! I was originally considering a drive from my home in Boulder to…Read More
I’m in Las Vegas right now for the Blogworld and New Media Expo and took a cab, as I often do, cruising around from hotel to hotel, party to party. This time the driver, Frank, was in a talkative mood and revealed some very interesting information about the economics of being a cab driver here in Las Vegas. Wondering how these guys get paid? Turns out that one of their biggest sources of revenue is…Read More
Had a nice party invitation yesterday via Facebook: a reception introducing the new 2010 model year Ford Taurus redesign, with Ford Exec Director of American Products Frank Davis in attendance. Now, I’m not a big car nut (like a few friends of mine) but I am still interested in cars and concerned about the long-term health of the American car industry as a bellwether for the national economy, so I RSVP’d yes and showed up…Read More
Since I started driving, I’ve owned 10 cars: a Chevy Nova, a Chevy Malibu, a Mazda RX4, a Toyota Tercel, a Toyota Supra, a Chrysler Town & Country, a Volvo C70, a Volvo XC90, a Toyota Prius and now, a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. That’s a lot of cars. I’ve been to auto shows and certainly have the basics of car ownership down, though I’m definitely not a car nut or fanatic. In fact, there are…Read More
I don’t know if it’s just me trying to compensate for having gone to an undergraduate school where we didn’t have a community around us (UC San Diego), but I’ve always really loved college towns. From my experiences in West Lafayette, Indiana where everything was Purdue-centric to our current home town of Boulder Colorado, built around the University of Colorado, college towns are my favorite sort of places. That’s one reason that a story about…Read More