The Exploder is no more.
Jul. 28th, 2010 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinToday I drove from my house in the back woods of east Texas down to Cleveland to meet halfway a delivery of T-shirts for AnimeIowa- half WLP, half a consignment from Instant Attitudes, the people who print WLP's shirts.
On the way back... well... the main road from Livingston(ish) to Houston is US 59. Once you get north of Montgomery County it's no longer a freeway- which means there are crossovers which enable people to turn left and cross oncoming traffic to get to a side road.
Which an old man in a blue pickup truck did in front of me, far, far too close. I honked the horn, slammed on the brakes as hard as I dared (ABS doesn't work), and tried to steer in front of him (I couldn't count on getting behind him).
It didn't work. We hit.
And now my primary form of transportation, the infamous Ford Exploder, which has driven from Brownsville to Kansas City to Cedar Rapids to Chicago to Baltimore to Atlanta and a lot of other places besides... is totalled. Dead at 220,000 miles, after 11 years of being in my possession (most of which it was either broken or breaking).
I've borrowed a gas-guzzling van to make it to Anime Iowa this weekend. When I get back I'm going to have to shop around for a replacement vehicle before AnimeFEST at Labor Day, or at worst before Anime Weekend Atlanta in mid-September. I need enough money so that I can buy something reliable enough to make that latter trip without stranding me.
If you could please help, here's a page with donation links and a list of high-profit WLP items available for sale online:
http://www.wlpcomics.com/exploder.html
And yes, for the time being, I'm all right. I don't know how I'll feel in the morning... at 6 AM, when I hit the road... it's currently almost 10 PM and I have still to load the damn van... but at least I wasn't seriously hurt. Yay seatbelts!
On the way back... well... the main road from Livingston(ish) to Houston is US 59. Once you get north of Montgomery County it's no longer a freeway- which means there are crossovers which enable people to turn left and cross oncoming traffic to get to a side road.
Which an old man in a blue pickup truck did in front of me, far, far too close. I honked the horn, slammed on the brakes as hard as I dared (ABS doesn't work), and tried to steer in front of him (I couldn't count on getting behind him).
It didn't work. We hit.
And now my primary form of transportation, the infamous Ford Exploder, which has driven from Brownsville to Kansas City to Cedar Rapids to Chicago to Baltimore to Atlanta and a lot of other places besides... is totalled. Dead at 220,000 miles, after 11 years of being in my possession (most of which it was either broken or breaking).
I've borrowed a gas-guzzling van to make it to Anime Iowa this weekend. When I get back I'm going to have to shop around for a replacement vehicle before AnimeFEST at Labor Day, or at worst before Anime Weekend Atlanta in mid-September. I need enough money so that I can buy something reliable enough to make that latter trip without stranding me.
If you could please help, here's a page with donation links and a list of high-profit WLP items available for sale online:
http://www.wlpcomics.com/exploder.html
And yes, for the time being, I'm all right. I don't know how I'll feel in the morning... at 6 AM, when I hit the road... it's currently almost 10 PM and I have still to load the damn van... but at least I wasn't seriously hurt. Yay seatbelts!
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 06:56 am (UTC)Texarkana is great place to buy used cars, and one of my buddies is a wizard at picking the cherries out of the lemons. He's also a local show artist and would probably be tickled to show you around in return for the low-down on doing regional cons, if you come back through on a day he can be off.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 09:04 am (UTC)When you get back, look into a Saturn VUE. They're fairly reliable and good on mileage and since SATURN is no more, probably cheap.