Home from Spokane: Blue Skies and $5 Gas

Northwest Return Travelog #17
Back home - Mon, 2 Aug 2021. 9pm.

This evening we returned home from our long weekend trip to Spokane and the Inland Northwest. For much of the flight home we could see nothing of the ground below us. Everything was covered with smoke from wildfires. As we entered the San Francisco area, though...



Blue skies! Wispy, white clouds high in the sky! Visibility for miles! $5 gas!

LOLwut? After we landed at Oakland airport (the pic above was taken from the airplane on approach) and started driving home we passed a gas station where fuel was selling for over $5.00 per gallon. Had prices shot up that badly in the 4 days we were out? Enh, not quite. I think it was just a next-to-the-airport gas station taking advantage of its location. But gas here in the Bay Area is more expensive than in the rural northwest. Up there many stations charged about $3.59/gal for regular grade gasoline. Here it can be from $0.40 to a dollar higher (or more) depending on local economics.

We got home-home, as in pulled the car into our garage, just before 8:30pm. That was after we stopped for dinner at a favorite local restaurant. Once home we quickly unloaded the car, sorted our gear and laundry into the proper places, and started winding down for the evening. This four day trip has been just long enough to call it a vacation; but now it's back to work tomorrow.

Car "Fixed", Still Fails Smog Check

It's been good news/bad news on the car front the past few days.

Bad news: Our Xterra failed a smog test on Tuesday. Repairs would cost over $1,200 and could go higher.

Good news: The car was fixed mid-day Thursday, and the bill came to "only" just under $1,200.

Bad news: The car failed the smog test again on Friday. Twice.

The reason for the failure was quick. The technician hooked up a scanner to the car's computer via the OBD-II port and it immediately reported that the oxygen sensor was not registering.

"What? I just got it fixed!" I exclaimed.

"You just need to drive it around a bit longer first," the tech explained. "Come back later today."

So I did, and that's when it failed a second time. Second time Friday, that is. Third failure overall. The oxygen sensor still wasn't reporting.

"Wait. I'll print you instructions," the tech offered. And he came back with a detailed list of driving instructions to make all the sensors register. It reads like one of those childhood games of patting your head while rubbing your stomach. "Accelerate to 53-60 mph (56mph is best), then hold the exact speed for at least 3 minutes, if you move the accelerator start over, then come to a stop and accelerate to 30 at least 2 times in 10 seconds, then...."

We drove the car today and I tried to follow some of those instructions. Do you know how hard it is to drive at a constant 56mph for 3 minutes anywhere on the roads in this area? I mean, I did it on the freeway, but at times it felt dicey with how many people were whizzing past me at +20mph. And we'll see on Monday— when I go in for test attempt four— if any of it helped.

Update: the vehicle passed smog the next Monday.