Happy Easter!

 



We made our second trip back to Missouri, to uphold the 25-year tradition of hosting Ann’s family for Easter and Thanksgiving.

Airplane tickets were a deal. $175 roundtrip, direct flight Seattle to St. Louis, on Alaska Air. It takes a bit less than four hours to go there, and a shade over four to come back, at least on the days we were flying.

I rented a car from Avis. It was a Toyota Camry. I’ve got to hand it to Toyota – this Camry rode as good as any big sedan, felt like a sports car driving it, and got nearly 50 mpg the whole time I had it. I thought maybe the onboard computer was fibbing, but I happened to be out of gas right before I left Columbia, so I filled it up there. Then I filled it again as I was taking it back to the rental car place in St. Louis, and I could only get a few drops over 2 gallons in it.

Gas is practically free in Missouri anyway. At $3.50 per gallon, I considered taking the Camry back to Avis and demanding a car that got worse gas mileage. It was too comfortable, though, so I stuck with it.

A solid half of the Easter crowd had visited us in Washington since we’d last seen them in Missouri on Thanksgiving. Five of them had been at our house in Tacoma just a few days prior.

The picture above isn’t just clickbait; it is a real photo that I took from the parking lot behind Best Buy, looking toward the mall. When I turned off of Stadium, I saw this vehicle pulled over, with smoke coming out and some small flames. Very quickly, there were large flames. The occupants and a couple of other people were gathered behind it, some distance away, although I’m not sure I’d call it a safe distance.

When I parked my car, the security guy from Best Buy pulled up beside me.

“Well, I don’t think I want a new Ford Bronco anymore,” he said. “The funny thing is, that is the second new Ford Bronco that I’ve seen burn.”

I texted my friend a pic, and he texted back an explanation from Gemini AI that said Broncos have a recall, because the fuel injectors can crack and spray gas all over the engine. That left me thinking to thoughts:

1. I guess having the high-voltage battery fail on my hybrid F150 wasn’t so bad.

2. Note to my friends who are scared to buy an electric car because the batteries can start a fire: Gasoline is also combustible.

Easter was great, with 23 people at our house for dinner, which if it wasn’t a record for an Easter meal, it was darn close to it. People asked if it felt weird to be home. It did not. We’ve become very comfortable being in both places. 



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