drivetofive

Odometer:  499,054

Look at that number 5 just getting overly anxious to reveal itself.

I started the day off with a flat tire this morning.  In all my travels (knocking on wood here) I have never had to change a tire on the side of the road.  I’ve only had tires go flat during the night, like what happened in this case.  I had a good sized screw in the left rear tire so I threw on a spare.  I don’t use a donut spare tire, either.  I have a full-fledged factory 16″ wheel and tire.  In fact on my biggest road trip this year, the coast-to-coast CA to NJ adventure, I took TWO spare tires. I’m an Eagle Scout after all, so my motto is to always be prepared.

The car is screaming for a wash & detail and I hope to tackle that this upcoming weekend.  I’d touch up some of the rock chips on the front end but I fear I’d need a gallon or two of Desert Mist paint and it’d probably end up looking worse than it already does.

Here’s a fun flashback pic.

Seeing double?  You’d better believe it.  Back in May, 2006, my friend Branson from Salt Lake City bought an Acura Legend that looked like an identical twin to mine.  His had an automatic transmission, though.  We had so much fun cruising around the streets in our lookalikes.

Can you tell which one was mine?

Today’s look-back is an extension of a post I published several weeks ago, discussing about how being into cars runs in my family.  Long before Honda and Acura were around, my great-grandfather Merrill V. Hansen and his wife Della were pioneers in the automotive realm.  They opened the very first gas station in Logan, Utah, located in the beautiful Cache Valley of northern Utah.  I felt it appropriate to dedicate a post of my blog to Grandpa Hansen and his legacy.

A crisp winter morning on Highway 89-91.

Grandpa Hansen’s station offered Texaco fuel at one time, and then Chevron later on.  My uncle Jeff remembers Grandpa telling him that in the early days, gas was delivered using horse-drawn equipment.

Here are some other pictures from over the years that I’ve been able to dig up of Grandpa’s service station.

He and Della lived in the home just south of the station.  The highway has since been widened, raised, and had a guard rail installed so that the home appears to have “sunk” alongside.

Grandpa Hansen with my grandmother, Marilyn, as a baby.

I wonder how much he was charging for gas back in those days?

Late 1970’s here in the background:

My dad’s 1968 Chevy Nova in the foreground.  He had about a dozen different engines in that thing.

To my knowledge, this is the last picture we have of the building before it was finally bulldozed.  You can see that it had been overtaken by a huge 3-bay warehouse next door which still stands today.  The little station to the left is now just a memory.

I’d like to also pay tribute to my great-grandma, Granny (mom’s mom’s mom).  In her later years she loved being chauffeured around in my Legend.  Granny passed away this past April at the age of 98 years young.  “Be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you,” she’d say.  Always full of wit and wisdom. Granny was also a Honda fan, actually.  She drove a white 5-speed manual 1984 Honda Civic S hatchback well into her 80’s.  It didn’t even have power steering!

This picture is from about 2004 when I picked up Granny at her home to go to church on Sunday morning.

And another from 2006.

Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, 2007.  She still looked great and was as sharp as ever.

Here’s a picture when I picked Granny up to take her to Thanksgiving dinner in November, 2008.  I’m happy to have spent a few of my miles driving around with such a classy lady in the passenger seat.

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