A Nice Day to Get the Wheels Turning

Saturday, 28 January

A 50F (10C), blue-sky day offered the perfect setting to take the Phaeton out for this newbie to ‘earn her wheels.’  Seeing as how I’ve not ever driven anything bigger than my Toyota Highlander, taking the Phaeton out for a ‘traffic-less spin’ was quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself.

We did my first coach-driving test at the special events center, located not far from where we store the Phaeton.  The site offers a big gravel lot, as well as a second lot that is used for event parking.  And the bonus — a three-lane, slightly curvy road with little to no traffic on non-event days.

In fact, we didn’t encounter any vehicles and there were only a couple of speed-walkers cutting through the site on their way to a nearby regional park.  Since Mui told me I didn’t get extra points for knocking them over, I left them alone to continue their exercise :-)

After we ran through the dashboard- and controls-recognition portion of the lesson, I took the coach out of its parking spot, thus completing my first turn without hitting any of the other stored vehicles.  After Mui was comfortable with my maneuvers, I asked him to leave the coach and help me run through some turns by giving me directions using the two-way radio.  In the parking lot, I practiced tight turns, zig-zagging between the lanes.  Then it was time to get on the three-lane road and head towards the gate.  The curvy-road was good practice for using the mirrors and staying between the lines when not on a straight-away.

You will have noted in the video that there are no shots of me making turns or doing other maneuvers.  Mui was rightfully paying attention to what I was doing instead of running the camera :-)))

All in all, I’m pleased with the results of my practice session.  I still need to better understand (feel?) where the tires are and when to start making my turns.  On one of my turn-maneuvers, I recognized that the tires were going to go off the pavement if I continued.  With Mui’s concurrence, I backed out of my predicament by putting the coach in reverse — something that had not been on the agenda for today’s lesson!  A few more practice sessions and I’ll be ready to try a real drive on a straight-away with traffic.

By the way, you might have noticed in the video that the air vents are taped-down with masking tape.  It’s part of our mice-deterrence system.  You see, Mickey’s cousins have stopped by the coach quite a few times since we put the Phaeton in storage.  They’ve all fallen for the traps Mui set up around the driver’s seat, however, so none have been wandering around the coach or building nests (and the basement is rodent-free as well).

Since the traps laid out around the rest of the coach have been undisturbed, we figured the mice might be coming in through the vents.  We haven’t had any visitors since we taped them down. Is it the closed vents or the cotton balls dipped in peppermint oil that have kept the mice away?  We can’t say for sure.  But it doesn’t matter as long as they keep their ‘partying’ outside our home.

After I had my fill of driving the coach, Mui took over the driver’s seat and we went to Fannon Petroleum to top off the diesel, and to give the wheels a real chance to turn.  We put the coach into storage with a full tank, but Mui’s been exercising the generator every two weeks, so we needed about 15 gallons to fill ‘er up again to protect against algae build-up.  (The price has gone down .05 cents to $3.79 since our last fill-up in September.  Keeping fingers crossed the downward trend continues.)

Once Phae was tucked back in, it was time to eat our snacks.  It was simply too nice to sit inside the coach.  We didn’t, however, feel like taking out our patio chairs and we didn’t want to go find a picnic table somewhere (too hungry).  Instead, we practiced the ‘sundowners’ approach we enjoyed in the African bush when we went on our photo safari — we used the hood of the Highlander as a makeshift table.

I guess we can call this our ‘snackdowner’!
No alcoholic beverages, though; we still have some driving to do.

On the way home, we made a detour to check out a park Mui had found when he was running errands one day.  The Ellanor C Lawrence Park is managed by the Fairfax County Park Authority and is on land donated by David Lawrence, founder of US News and World Report, in honor of his wife.  In addition to hiking trails, the park offers historic ruins, a pond, a restored mill, and much more.

We parked at the Walney Visitor Center, which is housed in a restored 1780 farmhouse.  The building was closed, so we didn’t see the interpretive exhibits.  Instead, we went for a walk, starting at the trail that winds around some historic buildings and ruins before heading through a heavily forested area to reach the pond at the other end.  It was a light, bright setting for a walk through the woods today, but when the trees are leafed-out I bet the canopy keeps out most of the light.  We enjoyed our brief time at the park, but it would probably be more interesting to visit when there are interpretive programs available.

Clockwise from top left: Illustration of the outbuilding with an inset of the foundation; what remains of the outbuilding foundation today; illustration of the ice house (nothing but a stone-lined hole remains today); interior shot of the smokehouse; the Walney Visitor Center; and the smokehouse (rebuilt by the park service in the mid-1990s).

There was no signage here.  I can only guess this is the site of the kids’ program
entitled: “American Indian Life in Fairfax County”.

As this winter’s ‘yo-yo weather’ continues, we’ll try to find some more fun things to do in the coming weeks.