Dehli India, Chandin Market by Richshaw

Dehli is the capitol city of India, a diverse, swarming polyglot of people, vehicles, shops and sights. I traveled with my Grandson Theo, who posed with our Dehli City Guide, Manju, as we loaded into bicycle rickshaws at Chandin Chowk Market.

Here members of our group load in with a pre-arranged group of rickshaw drivers. Otherwise we'd be besieged by any driver trying to pick up a customer. The rules are, traffic is heavy, the driver may make a sudden stop. Brace your feet and hold on tight.

As we begin, it is a bit disconcerting because our driver is going against the flow of traffic. Doesn't it matter what side of the street you drive on?

We are soon in the midst of the traffic and we are astonished at how varied and interesting the traffic is. Cars, along with trucks and people walking, motors, and tuk tuks, the green and yellow motors that serve as cabs are mixed together in what seems an impossible ability to get anywhere.

Vendors walk among the traffic selling goods if they can.

This is just business, nothing unusual.

Traffic is slow. No one gets hurt and at some point you realize that driving a car might just be impractical.
These school boys, you know by their uniforms, are not the least bit upset by being crowded into a rickshaw and holding on to the outside.

There are times the rickshaw is practically touching a tuk tuk and at one point a car was calling up to our driver,  indicating he wanted him to watch out for his side mirror which he was covering with his hand to avoid a miner collision.

At an intersection we see one of those famous "loads" you see in pictures on the internet. People here work very hard and they carry impossible loads.

We are getting closer to our destination but traffic never let's up.

The rickshaws take us to Jama Masjid, the biggest temple in India where 25,000 people can worship in their square. We will return by bus. More Tomorrow.

VOLKSWAGEN NOSTALGIA.

Downtown Murphys was host to a Volkswagen show. I had not read the local newspaper and it caught me by surprise. Our only city lot was filled row upon row with Volkswagens.

Some of them are pretty strange critters I'd never seen before.

What?

See what I mean?

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to car talk, but wisps of conversations came my way, the guys, talkin' engines and restoration tips.

The parts guys were all lined up in one corner, showing what extra "stuff" they are willing to part with.

I was more attracted to folks with camper vans since I travel a good deal myself and they looked like they were having fun.

A lift up gives a person some stand-up room.

And, inside, a bed, and sink and stove. A small version of a motor home.

In this similar camper van, a guy and his son had their bed in the couch position and were enjoying music and had a pot of water heating on the stove.

He took out the old vinyl and replaced it with bamboo. Cool!

Just about everybody of my generation either owned a Volks or knew someone who did. And, most had a ride in someone's "Bug" if you didn't own one. My husband and I owned two Volkswagen's for a very short time each. I found this Karmin Ghia, and older model than ours was.  We owned it for about three weeks, a brand new Ghia, beautiful bright yellow, and it was t-boned on the way to work in Pleasanton. We never replaced the Ghia. I don't remember what we bought after that.

The second one we owned, looked just like this without the brows over the eyes. It was as cute as the bug, like a miniature van. We bought it second-hand and the thing blew-up on the road late at night returning from a big dinner at Castlewood Country Club, out Niles Canyon, also near Pleasanton. We had to hitch a ride home. I think it was called a "Fastback."  It was pretty small for a big guy like my husband anyway, and we got rid of it soon after.
I enjoyed boppin' around looking at Volkswagens. If you click on the picture below, it will take you to the 34 pictures I took. Maybe you can find your favorite Volks in the mix.

2014-3-9-Volkswagen Show

LOOKIN' FOR A NEW RIDE.

I gotta fly out of Ontario, CA. airport this morning, back to my permanent abode and take up my other life. I’ve been looking for a new ride of some sort. This one didn’t look like it was going much of anywhere.


I kinda liked this one, it has personality, a definite nose and a couple of eyes. And, red is a good color. But if someone asked me what kind of car is that?  I wouldn’t know what to tell them. Anybody know?


Ah,  this one looked perfect to drag home and use as my artsy car. But, Jim said , “That ain’t gonna happen.”  What a drag.


Then I found the perfect set of wheels, a nice roomy van and a perfect color. I love it. Whoo, whoo!. I’d wear my little pink hat and flashy black sweater with sparkles. This is it!  But it wasn’t for sale. Dang!


We are parked in Fontana at an American Legion, and this beauty was in a junk yard next to us. Jim kind of drooled over this one. Neat running board. He owned one just like this in 1951. And, it has wheels that look like they move. An Aha! moment. We found it.


But, the junkyard dog wouldn’t let us near the fence. We couldn’t even find out if it was for sale.  You might think I’m kidding about this little guy. He scratched and strutted and scooched up dirt and barked a lot. He was definitely protecting his territory. And, I wasn’t about to challenge a junk yard dog. Hope the Bronco makes it to the airport on time.

FLOTSAM AND JETSOM

I had an appointment to see a specialist in Lodi, CA. and in the parking lot was this eye catcher.


It may represent youth, or the future, or...whatever. Look at it amid a sea of white, grey, and  two black cars. To me it says LOOK AT ME! I couldn't resist taking a picture.


I ran from errand to errand yesterday without much time to do anything more useful. I have a rosary plant I got from an aunt in the 1960's that manages to struggle on. Nearly killed it several times. While cleaning up around my sink, I noticed it had bloomed. After all these years it decided to bloom? Of course the blooms are so tiny, the cropped picture shows the plant bigger than life-size. You can see three more blooms starting on the stem. It brought an unbelieving smile to my face.
Then cleaning up little bits and pieces of useless information on my desk, I ran into stuff I'd tucked away, and here was a pillow menu.


Have you ever?  Are we elitists, or what?

Other useless flotsam and jetsam hanging around my desk are interesting names I see on the road and I'm always curious about how they got their name:
Sour Lake, Grandfather Rd.,Hungry Horn, Flathead River, Lone Elk Trail. I guess Lone Elk Trail is self-explanatory, but why just One Elk?

When we are on the road, I always want to stop and find out about curious names. It must be an old Indian legend,  but the motor home doesn't stop for such small stuff.
In the car, I can stop sometimes on a whim. So yesterday, I took this picture of a mailbox:


The Cheshire Cat. Cute. I have dozens of pictures of cute mailboxes. I'm ever planning to do something clever with my own. Ah!  Some day.

MY PRIUS IS A CHAMP.

I guess a day is never really lost if  you learn a lot, and I did. On my way to pre-register at the hospital, my 2001 Prius’s check engine light went on.  I managed to round-up alternative transportation to the hospital. When I returned, I had it towed to the Toyota Dealership in Modesto.



The next day, at Toyota, the head mechanic turned me loose with no charge after resetting the engine light computer. “We can’t find a thing wrong with this engine and we checked everything.” I took off and 30 minutes down the road, the check engine light went on again. I returned to Toyota. They were really terrific and fast-tracked me through since I came from so far away. This time he concluded that my main battery pack is beginning to fail and will need replacement sometime soon. The battery was guaranteed for eight years and 100,000 miles. I’ve far exceeded that. But, since it is still running…hmmm! Should I wait until it just quits?

Jim, in the meantime, did research on-line about battery life and the great engines Toyota is famous for. He sent me reams of information and we came to the conclusion that $2200 to replace the pack with a battery recycle credit, gives me another run at 150,000 miles. Much cheaper than a new car. Plus, the new battery technology is better than the old. Yes, I learned a lot about a car I love. Especially since I get 44.5 per gallon in winter, 47.5 in the summer, and 52.7 when I’m out of the mountains. That mileage has never diminished in the 11 years I’ve owned my Prius.



It was after 2:00 and I stopped for lunch and a brew in Oakdale.


And near home, I caught this beautiful rainbow. I guess that is a good omen! I think my Prius is a champ and will get a new battery pack.

OH BOY! SOME ADVENTURE!

Some adventures are questionable,  like this one:

Returning from Sonora, I stopped at a gas station. The driveway is practically a block long, how can you miss it?  A sweeping curve is not sweeping. It has an impediment, a curb. Pop!  I hit the curb with my back right tire.

Road service arrived. Vic's guy was terrific.

He said, "Happens all the time. You think your back end will follow through. I've hit that same curb myself.  That driveway was widened and they didn't do it  right."  True or not, he made me feel better about a lousy and expensive fix. He told me the tire got pinched and isn't fixable.

My consolation prize?  A meltingly beautiful sunset.  Life is beautiful.

AIR CONDITIONED CARS

There was a time when air conditioned cars were an expensive add on from the dealer. We thoroughly enjoyed our 1972 Pontiac Convertible and didn’t get an air conditioned car until 1976.  In fact, in Southern California, you could buy a car from the dealer without a heater, which we did, once.  Who needed it?
A Bay Area friend of ours bought a brand new 1961, (I believe it was a Chrysler) with an  air conditioning unit, to take a trip from California to Boston. The device was a square container of ice mounted on the hump over the drive shaft with a fan attached to the cigarette lighter. The fan blew air over the ice to cool the air. It worked until the ice melted.  Every couple of hours, our friends had to stop and buy a new block of ice.  It was a  hoot and convinced us air conditioning would never be a standard part of a car. Now, I can’t imagine being without it. Which, in a round about way, is where I’m going this morning, to have my air conditioning repaired. A hose is plugged and condensed water wets the carpet on the passenger side when the air conditioning is running.
And carpet in cars?  Don’t get me started.
Yesterday, I experimented  with pictures around my yard to see what I could come up with and I can’t say that the following close-up has much appeal…

…when the leaf itself is so pretty.

-

However, I liked this close-up shot of a gold pan.
Maybe because a gold pan wasn’t meant to be as pretty as a leaf.

The cables on Jim’s bike made an interesting shot. Kind of reminds me of when we were kids. Pageant magazine had a  monthly photo that required you to guess what the original object was from the close up. The answer was in the following issue, always a month away. No one in the family ever guessed an object correctly, but we loved trying.
The weather will soon turn wet and cold. We’ve enjoyed these sunny fall days.

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CAR

My friends, to know where we came from it may interest you to see a picture of the oldest car in the world that is still running.  And, it runs on water.
Commissioned by French entrepreneur, Count de Dion, and built by Georges Bouton and Charles-Armand Trepardoux, the 1884 De Dion steamer was nicknamed “La Marquise” after the Count de Dion’s mother. Measuring just nine feet in length, La Marquise features twin compound steam engines, “spade handle” steering and seats four people “dos-a-dos” (back-to-back). The seats are located on top of the steel tank, which holds 40 gallons of water, good for about 20 miles; its sophisticated boiler, fed by coal or coke, can be steamed in 45 minutes. Of course, it has to stop every 20 miles to refill the water tank, but isn’t that a gas!  (Pun intended)  The car is currently up for auction.
Hydrogen “steam” technology is making some headway, but electrics are far an away the choice for the new cars all over the world.
I’m so into the new cars, the electrics and the possibilities. There are literally hundreds of them out there. But, our good congress people don’t support new technologies with much effort because half or more of them are too busy bickering and beholden to the oil companies. Too bad we can’t fire the whole bunch and start over with new rules.
Take a look at some of the innovative cars in other countries:

A British car conversion, powered by coffee grounds.

A sporty Chinese electric that may or may not be built by Ford Motor Company. Hmmm!

This is BMW’s electric scooter. I own an electric scooter, and a Prius. But this scooter is much sexier than the one I have. Hoo, hoo!
France will put 4,000 new sporty electrics on the road in 2012.  (Couldn’t find the picture.)
The prediction is that electrics are going to be the cars of the future. They are getting better and better. There is an ECON show going on in Missouri where home conversions are on display. One couple converted their Opel from a Youtube video instruction.It isn’t that hard, folks.
I’m in Wilsonville, OR. visiting Portland with a very competent Real Estate person over the next couple days. So, I will try and find the innovative technologies I promised in yesterday’s blog.
If you are really into new technologies, try Gizmag Emerging Technologies Magazine online and Gas 2.0. where most of this information came from.