TO RANTHAMBORE TIGER PRESERVE

We're on the road again. And Ranvir  points out  how the truck drivers decorate their trucks.The tassels and plumes and artificial flowers are a tradition among drivers. If another driver is assigned that truck, they don't remove them.  I've seen the passenger side, alternate driver, sitting cross-legged in the window. It is built into their genes to sit that way. Each of our  bus drivers has a helpful alternate.  He must apprentice for 4 to 5 years. Ranvir tells us that bus drivers get used to air-conditioning and during monsoon, they suffer terribly in their own homes without it.
We see this group of women and a boy in a small town. Colorful, always. One town we went through, the women had to cover their faces outside because of their in-laws, a stricter Muslim sect, but not as strict as those who require the black hijab that completely covers the face.

And, as always, you find the camel, or donkey treading the same road as these huge, fast buses and trucks. Pretty amazing that there are so few accidents.

Before we left for Ranthambore for another long five hour bumpy drive, we visited a museum with hunting and war weapons. They were all under glass and I didn't take any photos. Killing instruments best forgotten anyway. This is probably out of sequence because I improperly divided my pictures while unloading.

I know we stopped at a McDonalds on one of the long drives and I was fascinated with this woman's long, beautiful hair. Inside the restaurant was a group of women who were rewarded for taking skills classes of some sort. They were celebrating with a lunch at McDonalds, something none of them could afford on their own.
I have to cut this short and finish it tomorrow when we reach the Tiger Preserve at Ranthambore. I had good and bad news from my surgeon yesterday. My left shoulder rotator cuff cannot be repaired. I have to have a complete shoulder replacement. But, it can wait a year.  That is the good news.
Ciao

AUTOMOTIVE FIRSTS

The new EPA ratings netted the Nissan Leaf a 99 MPGe, and the Tesla Roadster 119 MPGe. Their latest all-electric competitor, the Mitsubishi i, has been rated at an impressive 112 MPGe, with an estimated 98 miles of all-electric range. Now that is encouraging. I can't recommend enough the website :  http://gas2.org/ 

I signed up for email notifications and find some amazing work going on around the world  with new technologies and automobiles. Beating big expensive oil sounds much more possible whenever I read Gas 2.0.  Understand that the MPG figure with the small e is how miles per gallon is translated into an equivalent electric range.

We take our comfortable rides for granted, but here are some automobile firsts:

The steering wheel first replaced the tiller in 1900 on the Ohio Automobile Co. Packard Model C.
New York issued the first license plates in 1901.
Oldsmobile had the first speedometer and a car called Gobron-Brillie hit 103.55 mph in Belgium soon after in 1904.
The first reported stolen car was reported in St. Louis in 1905.
Prince Henry of Prussia invented the windshield wiper in 1911 and had it fitted to his Benz.
Gulf Oil opened the first drive-in Gas Station in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1913.
The first drive in restaurant opened in 1921, the Pig Stand, in Dallas, TX.
Denver took delivery of the first car designed especially for police work in 1922, a Cadillac. It was called a bandit chaser with a gun rack, two rifles and two searchlights.
Car radios were first sold in 1929 by Motorola.
On July 16, 1935, Oklahoma City put up the first parking meter.
Oldsmobile introduced the automatic transmission, its Hydra-Matic in 1939.
The 1939 Nash offered air conditioning as an option. Dubbed the Weather Eye.
Bucket seats were first placed in the 1955 Corvettes and Thunderbirds. 

Air conditioning didn't become a standard until many years later. I remember a 1961 Dodge with air conditioning that consisted of a bucket the driver filled with  ice placed on the hump between the driver and front seat passenger. A small fan plugged into the cigarette lighter and blew "cooled" air into the interior. When the ice melted, you had to stop somewhere and fill it up again. What a hoot. But those bucket seats, now those were comfortable and sexy. Wow!