I’m packing to head to Dallas and realize that I need another car. Not a different car, but another one. And I’m saying this as I have a choice of at least 3 or maybe more different cars to drive. Man, we American’s are never satisfied.

Right now, what Trudi and I drive are my diesel Ford van and a Honda Insight. Pretty opposite ends of the spectrum. I bought the van close to 4 years ago specially for cyclocross. If I just took two other riders with me, that is 6 bikes. All six fit inside no problem and it gets pretty descent mileage, close to 20 mpg, driving on the highway. I have nearly 340,000 miles on it now.

The Insight is super, super small. It is mainly for driving around town. It gets somewhere in the 50+ mpg range in town. But, trying to travel in it, with just one bike is a hassle. Especially a bike my size. There is no room for luggage, Bromont, anything.

I also own two old VW pickup trucks. Both 1964, one a single cab and one a double cab. Plus a couple Saab Sonnets. The Sonnets and double cab haven’t ran for a while and are in garages. The single cab was the first car I ever bought, back in 1977. I plan on restoring them all eventually, but eventually always seems to be further away than it was the day before.

I only buy used cars. Usually, pretty cheap used cars. I paid $4000 for the diesel van and have driven it nearly 200,000 miles now. I like that about diesels. It is extremely difficult to work on, but that was known when I bought it.

I need a medium size car that I can take two people, plus Bromont, two bikes, plus luggage. I rented a small minivan in England a few years back. It was a Kia something and driving at super fast highway speeds, 90+, it got nearly 40 mpg. I don’t understand why there isn’t something available like that here in the US. It is nearly impossible getting another that carry anything that gets in the high 30’s for mileage.

When Dodge came out with the Caravan, back in the 80’s, they had a 4 cyclinder, manual transmission model that got over 35 mpg and that was over 30 years ago. Since then, our worrying about fuel economy has went out the window. Sometimes I wish that gasoline prices would just go up to $5 a gallon and stay there. That way, automobile manufactures would be “forced” to make something that the public would demand, a bigger vehicle with great mileage. But, the way I buy cars, it would still be a few years down the road before I ended up with one.

By the time I pack a couple sets of wheels in, there isn’t much room left for anything else.

I’m sick. I’ve been feeling pretty weird ever since I left California. When I got to Louisville I was pretty beat and had some issues with my left leg. It sort of felt like I had a bad sunburn on the front of my thigh and my butt. Plus, my butt muscle felt like I’d fallen on it and it was deeply bruised.

I was waking up feeling sick, a headache, a little dizzy, etc. I rode like shit both Saturday and Sunday and didn’t really recover. Driving back on Monday, my butt was so sore when I got home that I could hardly touch it. So, I’d thought I’d give it a couple days, but yesterday enough was enough. The pain was too severe and getting worse hourly.

So, I went to the doctor and he said I had shingles. He’s right, it seems. I don’t have a huge rash yet, but all the other symptoms fit exactly. I was on a downward slope, so I hope to stop that. I’m still thinking about driving up to Iowa for Jinglecross tonight, Saturday and Sunday. I haven’t figured it out exactly, but can’t see not going.

Riding on the road the past couple days, I’ve felt like shit. My lymph nodes in my crouch are huge. Maybe I should leave my bike at home? That would make me not race. I’m not sure standing around in the rain is good for shingles either. I’m really not sure what is good for shingles. Catherine and another guy both had shingles this past summer and it really didn’t seems to slow them down much. I’m not feeling very good though, so I might have to read up a little more on it. I’d never heard much about shingles and now it seems to be coming up everywhere, even in my body.

It is supposed to be dry tonight and then rain the whole weekend. I hate missing a muddy, technical race, which is what this venue will be. Mt. Krumpet, descending, is pretty treacherous when it is wet. The problem is the slog up to the top. It seems to be that way more than not nowadays.

At least I have some explanation why I was riding like crap in Louisville. Other than that, this is a minor disaster. This season, geez.

One of these is 5 times a day. Wonder what that exactly means? Wake up at night and eat one?