... what bugs me about Vermont. It's a lovely place and you should come visit -- really! -- but the weather is always a crapshoot. Today, more gray and drizzle, but at least it's not cold.

The weather forecasters here are perennial optimists. They have to be. So "partly cloudy" is code for "You'll be darned lucky to see the sun today!" "Chance of rain" translates to, "Good weather for mushrooms."

I remember in Big Bend when the opposite occurred. There, "10% chance of rain" was their hopeful phrase. They said that every day when we were there in February, and we never even saw a cloud the entire time.

Yesterday we got the big service on the Nissan. At 30,000 miles an expensive service interval comes up: automatic transmission flush, coolant flush, oil change, rear differential fluid change, engine belts, numerous systems checks, and many small part replacements (radiator cap, distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs, engine air filter, fuel filter, wiper blades, cabin microfilter) Some of these items only apply when you've been towing, as we have.

We just put new tires on last Thursday, also. Between the tires and the 30,000 mile service, the total is over $1100. It's a hard bill to swallow, but our experience has shown us that preventative maintenance is absolutely essential, given all the miles and desolate areas we travel through. I talked to Bert about it over dinner on Sunday night and he felt the same way. "We maintain the heck out of that truck!" were Bert's words -- but when you roam the country for months on end, utterly dependent on one vehicle, it doesn't seem like skimping on maintenance is a wise idea.

Today our local car (an elderly Honda Prelude) is in the shop for its inspection. The poor thing is 15 years old, burns a quart of oil every 500 miles, has a tough case of rust along the passenger-side rocker panel, 144k miles on the clock, and it is due for an expensive timing belt replacement and an exhaust pipe.

Every year at inspection time we consider whether to fix it again or push it off a cliff. But despite its flaws it runs beautifully, gets great gas mileage, and is a lot of fun to drive. I haven't seen much on the market that can compare under $16,000 (new). Eleanor says if it were a vintage Airstream I wouldn't hesitate to dump $10k into it to restore it and keep it on the road. I suppose that's true, but a 1991 model is not vintage, either. It's just a cool sporty car that I could probably replace for $2000 with a rust-free one from the south. So today is decision day ... we'll know more when the garage calls and tells us what is needed to get it to pass Inspection.