Taxi Trek Day 2: Surprisingly Smooth Sailing Except For The Wiper Thing

Even though my journey started yesterday, in a 15-hour slog from North Carolina to New York, I suppose our official start to our cross-country taxi journey began today, as we left from New York City and will head to Los Angeles, so we can finally figure out just how much it’d cost to take a NYC taxi across the continent, between the two majorest cities on each coast. That’s a big part of it, of course, but the real reason I think, of course, is to see if this hapless, once-essentially-dead 375,000-mile cab can make this grueling journey. And you know what? I think it can.

I wasn’t quite as certain yesterday, when a recurring missing/hesitation issue was causing me some concern, and my crudely-rigged air-conditioning system crapped out. But as the day progressed, I was able to fix both, first by some judicial application of a process professional car mechanics call “ignoring the problem,” and the second one by using better quality wire, a fuse, and a switch in an equally janky but more reliable fix.

Before we set off in the morning, I decided to check on the oil, just to be safe and also because David reminded me to do that during yesterday’s drive, which I promptly forgot then remembered in the morning. Incredibly, the oil looked like this:

Dear lord, would you look at that golden nectar? Is there a beehive in the engine block, and I’ve just sampled some Royal Jelly? Not an ounce of oil seems to have been burned, and based on the clarity and color of this oil, I think the inside of this engine is doing a lot better than what its external appearance would suggest.

That’s not to say I don’t still have my concerns about things; for example, David and I did replace the alternator with a good used one, but I just noticed the center wire in the connector doesn’t seem to be so much, um, connected:

Concerning, sure, but I’m not so sure how much I need to worry about this, mostly because everything works and I’m seeing a steady 14.5+V from the alternator when the car is running. From what I can gather, one connector is to the warning light, one is ignition current, one battery current. I thought middle was ignition, but the car starts and runs, so? I’m just going to never touch or look at this again, I think.

I do need to flip around the on/off plate on the air conditioner compressor clutch switch on the hood, since it’s backwards. This is just my reminder to do that.

 

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Pretty sweet hype reel, right? Griffin shot that as we were leaving the city.

Overall, today’s drive went remarkably well! The taxi drove fine, holding 65-70 mph with no real problems, though wind does like to push this thing all over the road, sometimes quite alarmingly. My half-assed A/C kept churning out the chilliest of air without trouble, though I did take the rather prudent precaution of using a few slices of Superior Electrician’s Highly Structural And Heat Tolerant Aero-Rated Painter’s Tape to keep my external wiring in place:

Yes, yes, that’s looks good. Seeing something like this lets everyone know they’re dealing with a finely-tuned, precision-engineered machine, and that commands respect.

There was one issue we ran into, which revealed itself when it started to rain; it rained on the first day drive, too, but the wipers weren’t doing this. The wiper blades I had were awful, but the wipers themselves were well-behaved. Matt put on some new wiper blades, which were infinitely better, but maybe the quality of these new blades caused the wipers to panic, because they soon began to fight with one another:

What this GIF doesn’t show you is the sound, the sound of the driver’s side wiper going THWOK THWOK THWOK against the A-pillar, over and over again. Soon, the wipers fought themselves into a stalemate and stopped, wrapped in one another’s fierce embrace. We pulled off the highway and under an overpass to sort it out.

The gentleman you see obscured by the hood is our very own A.Barth, who met us for the last leg of our journey to the Autopian Reader Meetup! He also brought us a bunch of emergency supplies and some tools, because he knows we’re idiots. A.Barth, come out and say hello!

He also helped us get that stubborn driver’s-side wiper free!

Soon we had the wipers repositioned and their nuts tightened (one was just finger tight!) and they began to behave as wiper brothers again, no longer wiper enemies, and we continued on our way, no longer fearing the rain.

I did see a few notable cars en route, including this plucky little Smart with a drift-stitched front fender that gave it a tough, Frankenstein’s Monster’s City Car sort of vibe I enjoyed.

I appreciate how at least one of the gas stations out here had a bucket of flowers by the pumps. It’s a nice touch. Wait, are they plastic? That’s kind of ruining it, maybe? Maybe not? Now I’m conflicted.

Hello, lover!

Eventually, we made it to the excitingly-named Plain City, Ohio, right off the banks of the Unflavored River and by the Unscented Foothills, where there were many wonderful Autopian readers and their spectacular cars waiting for us!

Really, it was incredible to see everyone. And not just people, there were some goats in attendance, too:

And speaking of goat, remember the book/movie The Men Who Stare At Goats? We sort of had a variant of that at the meetup:

More importantly, check out this stunning AMC AMX that an Autopian with impeccable taste brought:

It was perfect. Easily better than new, with a custom 3D-printed roof spoiler and a custom color-keyed grille badge and just immaculate all around. And, of course, the yellow/black stripe livery is one of my favorites.

Look at this engine: you could, and perhaps should, eat off it:

Check out the interior, too:

That speedo seems to have a hashmark for every solitary MPH? And look at the pedal setup:

That’s a hell of a lot for your feet to do! Parking brake, high beams, the windshield washer pump (I was asked not to push this but I admit, my foot was already inching its way over to it), clutch, brake, gas. Six foot-operated controls!

Fantastic door cards, too.

There was also this majestic old Buick that had been pulled from a barn and maintained its perfect patina. And, of course, people enjoyed the NYC Taxi! Look at this happy dad and daughter, bonding over a game of Frogger in a cab:

Look at all that joy 16K of RAM can bring. It was just great to meet fellow Autopians! Look at all the excited gesticulations going on here:

I wish I could remember what the hell our AMX driver was telling us, but I seem to be pretty delighted.

Another Autopian gave us a jewel-studded license plate frame, likely worth millions, if I had to guess. Here it is on the car:

Nice bit of bling for the old workhorse, right?

Really, it was absolutely incredible to see so many Autopians, and one even gave us a fantastic lemon-merengue which we assaulted in the hotel after the meetup. It was sublime. Thanks so much to everyone who came to see us and show us their cars, to A.Barth for accompanying us and lending a hand and supplies, and just to everyone for being so supportive of our silly endeavour.

Oh, and the tally on the meter, from New York to Plain City, came to a whopping $2,880.50.

Today we hit an air-cooled VW show! I’m excited!

If you want to find us, here’s the map! Today we head to stop 3!