Everyday Driver

Day 5 – Park City, UT

Up early as usual and walked over to a bagel place in the shopping center next door to the hotel. It sounded tempting because I used to love a nice bagel. The only one near me in Fairview that is any good is in downtown Portland, and it isn’t worth the effort to go to it. I cannot not recommend this enough, my bagel was very dry, and the one slice of ham was razor thin.

Today was Park City’s Cars and Coffee, and it was just a 1/4 mile away, so I walked over to check out the cars. A really nice mix of cars that ran the gamut from a pristine ’65 Beetle to a well-patinated Porsche 356 of the same vintage. There were several Corvettes of varying vintages, a Lambhorgini, and lots of small Japanese hotted-up ones from every manufacturer. There were even a couple GTIs of the same model as mine.

I was surprised when a red Lotus Emira drove in with a familiar face; it was Todd of Everyday Driver. I worked my way over, introduced myself, and told him I was coming on the Utah Adventure. He asked what I was driving, and I told him, “A GTI, but I didn’t bring it because it was filthy from the trip.” He said, “Go get it, this is a very low-key event, and that is not an issue.” So I did, mine made 3 GTIs. You can’t see it in the photo above because I was on the lower level. If you look closely at the blue Mitsubishi that is right in front, you’ll notice it has an Oregon plate. I never did find the owner so I could ask where in the state they were from.

The Red Sox chance of getting a Wild Card spot is still the same even though they have lost the last 2 games. They have only six games left to play in the season, and it is actually mathematically possible for them not to make it, but it will take a miracle. They would have to lose all six and have to have one of three teams not lose any.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

 

Day 4 – Park City, UT

With no post offices to find, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I mapped out the route, and it could be travelled 99.9% on the Eisenhower Interstate System and would take roughly seven hours. You know me; I abhor an interstate, but selecting “Avoid Highways” left me with a 12-hour trip. And that even included 30 miles of I-84 in Idaho and over 100 miles on frontage roads right along the interstate. If I wanted to not do any of that, and go on a bigger loop, there was an over 13-hour option.

I did get off of I-84 in Burley, Idaho, to cut off a big chunk of interstate, but my plan was foiled by my poor planning. I got into Utah, and when I turned onto UT-30 to circumnavigate west around the Great Salt Lake, there was a sign that read, “Next Services 89 Miles.” A quick glance at the gas gauge made me turn around and head east back towards I-84.

One of the last parts of the drive was 45 miles or so of some sweet twisty roads from Morgan, UT, back down to I-80 that totally made me forget all about most of the 400 miles of interstate.

Red Sox chances of making the Wild Card round in the 2026 playoffs: >99.9%

 

Another Minute and a Half of Internet Fame

The Everyday Driver podcast has been a must listen ever since 2018 when I started listening to it while I did my daily walk when Donna was at the gym swimming. Now a days it is my audio companion while riding the exercise bike 2 of the 3 times a week I do so. They actually do 3 episodes a week, but one of them is just the audio of something off their Test Drive channel on YouTube and I’ve already watched the video.

For the two original podcasts they do each week they post a note on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter asking for questions that someone might want answered. They can’t answer every one of them, so they cherry pick the ones they are interested in answering. Back in May of 2019 they actually answered one of mine. Well, it happened again.

The photo above was yesterday’s Bing Wallpaper, it is of Park City, Utah which happens to be where our intrepid Everyday Driver guys reside. So, yesterday when I saw their anybody got questions post on Instagram, with tongue firmly in cheek, I added this to their list, “Park City is the Bing wallpaper of the day and I’m trying to find your houses on there…”

Here is the audio of them answering my “question.”

Car-y Truck or Truck-y Car?

We have been tossing around the idea that we need a different vehicle to take advantage of the outdoor activities that abound in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The lowered Miata is a no-go on anything but a nice smooth road and the Mini has a bit more ground clearance, literally like maybe an inch or so more than the Miata’s three.

We don’t want to do serious off-roading like rock crawling or anything, but we do want the ability to turn down a forest service road and drive a few miles to a trailhead without poking a hole in some vital bit of our car.

Our first thought was Wrangler. We had a real nice experience with a Rubicon we borrowed from Crazy Dave’s Car Rental. So much so, that we currently have a ginormous 5-gallon water jug in the living room we have been tossing change into labeled “Jeep Jar.”

But the Jeep is probably more hardcore than we need. A mid level SUV is not the most desirable vehicle on my list, but would be a good compromise. Donna has always wanted a small pickup for its utility, but today’s small pickups are anything but small.

An intriguing option is a couple of new vehicles that are just appearing on the market that are a mashup of a small SUV and a pickup truck, AKA Trucklets1. They are the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz. Below is a video from my new favorite car guys comparing them both:

The Everyday Driver guys did separate reviews of the two crucks2, so here are their takes on the Santa Cruz and then the Maverick.

17.8 mile drive take a walk at the Running Y Ranch.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 13

 

And I’m James™

While I’m still a big fan of Everyday Driver and enjoy their YouTube video car reviews along with occasionally listening to their podcast, my latest car review obsession is Throttle House. I hate to give credit to a computer algorithm, but I have to thank the the YouTube version for the discovery of this channel.

It all started with one guy, a Canadian named Thomas Holland, who bought an E46 BMW in 2016 and started posting videos about it. This progressed from “How To” videos to comparing the BMW to friends cars, to reviewing new cars for a Canadian car magazine to reviewing cars as a YouTube business. As the videos move forward they become better and better, but still just a guy talking about cars. They really became something else when a recently emigrated English fellow named James Engelsman joined him in 2018.

Now, the two of them (along with 3 other full time employees) produce a professional grade video of 15 to 20 minutes in length each week. There is typically a brief 2 to 3 minute scripted humorous intro “skit” inspired by the car or locale. This is then followed by both of them driving the car along with discussion of the design of the interior and exterior. There are also track tests and comparisons of old and new versions of the same auto.

Plus they have an “Extra” channel that includes unscripted quick car reviews and other random stuff. All of their content is made with their unique humorous interplay of good friends really enjoying what they do (or they are better actors than car reviewers.)

Today’s post title comes from their “patented” lead in to the driving portion of the videos and they sell a t-shirt in their store with this phrase on it. I considered buying one, but hesitate because people who see me in it will think that is what my name is, unless of course they are one of their nearly 2 million subscribers. I really like the hoodie, so much so, that I’ve actually considered dropping $55 on one. Maybe for my birthday.

If you would like to see an overview of how it started and then over time transformed to its current iteration, I’ve got a playlist of 6 YouTube videos for you or just go straight to the Throttle House channel and enjoy.

7.5 mile round trip to to take a walk in the park this past Monday.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 12

 

Everyday Driver Bingo

So for practically every Tuesday and Friday morning walks since sometime in May I have been rocking the Everyday Driver Podcast on my walks. So that is around two dozen hours of listening to these two guys talk cars. They also have a show that runs on Motortrend TV first, before ending up on Amazon Prime, so I have been watching those when they air and the old ones on Amazon, so there have been about 28 episodes of that I’ve seen. They also have a YouTube Channel with a literal crap ton of videos, of which I’ve watched a bunch of.

Needless to say, I am familiar with their work. The other day while walking and listening to a podcast I had a crazy idea. But I then quickly realized my database skills are not as good as I thought, so all I managed to create was my one demo. I emailed it to them at their gmail address and told them to feel free to run with this idea and sell ’em on their Amazon Store.