I'm Gonna Be 500 Miles

This morning we're headed to San Diego to pick up our new car. After saying goodbye to Hawkgirl last night and temporarily becoming a one-car family we'll soon make it two. But before our second garage has an occupant there's quite a busy day-trip to complete.

🎵
I would fly 500 miles
And I would drive 500 more
Just to be the man who rolls 1,000 miles
To park a new car beyond my garage door.
🎵

It's nearly a 500 mile trek this morning, most of it flying, to San Diego. From there we'll Lyft ~30 miles north to Encinitas, CA, where the car dealership we've bought the car from is, then pick up our car— hopefully with minimal drama. Once the car's in our possession it's still a drive of over 450 miles home. Right now it's about 8am and we'll leave for the airport by 9. If all goes well we'll be home by 11pm tonight. If all doesn't go well, well... we've already considered contingency plans.

BTW, for those who don't recognize the lyrics above, it's a slight riff on the chorus from "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers.

Watch on YouTube

We'll see how this same-day journey of 1,000 miles unfolds. We leave for the airport in just under an hour.

Halfway to 1,000 Miles... We Wait

At lunch in Encinitas, California - 1pm

We completed the first "We're Gonna Be (500 Miles)" this morning. Our drive to SJC airport and flight to SAN were uneventful, as was our ride from San Diego up to Encinitas around noon. We arrived at the car dealership to pick up our new car and complete the paperwork. If things went smoothly we could have been out in less than an hour and beginning our drive home. But that's where things stopped going smoothly.

Actually it's not the paperwork that's messed up. That's where I thought all the risk was. No, it's the car itself. When they were prepping it this morning it started flagging a fault code for the tail light. Techs tried replacing the bulb first but that wasn't enough; the whole tail light assembly needs replacing. They were still waiting on the part when we arrived.

The salesguy suggested we could camp out at the dealership for an hour or so with free coffee and wifi. We countered that we could just walk out for lunch (there are a dozen restaurants within 0.5km) and come back later... hopefully to find the problem fixed.

Oh, and there could still be problems with the paperwork. Sometimes you have to clear one problem before you can even see the next one. 😅