Now Playing: [link]


Gonna head south again... aprox. 750 kilometers of roads separting me, my car, and our destination. Then, more 750kms to get back home. It takes me nearly 8 hours to get there. I love to spend so much time driving!
It's one of my favorite joys in life, spend a day on the road. Driver and car, as one single entity.

Ah, why yes... the car.
Despite the crash, the Gol is working normally.
Thankfully!
So, I requested some price quotes and, from what I found out, the repairs will cost something around US$ 800.
That's almost nothing.

IF-I-HAD-EIGHT-HUNDRED-DOLLARS-AND-LIVED-IN-THE-USA-I-COULD-BUY-A-CAR-WITH-THIS-MONEY-WATTAHELL-WHEN-IT-COMES-TO-CARS-BRAZIL-IS-REALLY-AN-EFFING-EXPENSIVE-PLACE-TO-LIVE

Ok, the car needs some repairs. It's lame to get involved into such stupid situation.
But let's be reasonable... this is more of a "let down" than an actual "problem".
Let's move on and see how everything is sorted out.

----                                                  
----UPADATE: FEBRUARY 09th 2013
----

After aprox. 8 hours on the wheel of the Gol, I'm in the south.
The car proved that the crash didn't affect its mechanical parts.
Its current wheels must go though. It's been a couple of months since I found out that they're damaged. The whole set.
Thanks to that, the steering wheel vibrates gloriously when the Gol reaches speeds between 80km/h - 100km/h... weakening between 110km/h - 120km/h.
Problem to be solved as soon as I get my hands on a set of wheels that was sold with the Gol GTI ([link].

However, these wheels are quite rare to be found. I spent a couple of weeks driving around my city, looking for that set. Not only no one has those wheels, most of the stores told me "Ah, the wheels of the GTI? You'll be lucky if you find them! These aren't common nowadays. Have you tried the internet?"
Why yes, I have. But the prices are stupid.
Early this week, I found a store where they told me "We have those wheels. But they're at our other store, in another state. They're second-hand wheels, of course. We can repair and repaint them for you, and we'll have the wheels in here by the end of the week."

The crash took place on tuesday.
I also had some other issues that will now take most of my February afternoons away.
Plus... my vacations from work are over.
Busy, busy week!
The wheels didn't arrive by friday.
I hope to get my hands on those wheels when I get back home next week.
And I hope to get my car repaired ASAP.

----                                                  
----UPADATE: FEBRUARY 13th 2013
----

Just for the sake of updating this journal.... I'm back home.
After more 750 kilometers of roads, the car's still working well, just the vibrating steering wheel that keeps vibrating.

The first part of the trip (going south) was quite intense.
Rain all the way! At one point, the Gol started to aquaplane. As a driver, I never experienced such thing. It was quick, but the car aquaplaned.
I was going straight, a couple of cars were in front of me, when the engine started to rev up "on its own" but the speed didn't increase. It was like I was pressing the clutch: the car feels more light and somewhat "snoozy".
My reaction was automatic. "Hold the steering wheel firmly. Do not turn the car. Don't brake. Release the gas pedal slowly."
The Gol regained grip shortly after.

Later that day, still heading to the south, the road gets bumpy for some miles. The asphault is in poor conditions. And because of the rain, water covered the potholes partially. I noticed that the Vectra B in front of me didn't care much about the potholes, thus showing me where the potholes were. I spent quite some time behind said Vectra, negotiating with the potholes and wondering why (and how) some drivers don't give a s*** about the car. Oh well.

Still on this bumpy section of the way, I looked ahead. A corner. Nothing much about the corner, actually.
On the oncomming traffic, I saw a black Volkswagen Fox driving into the grass.
I thought "Hmmm there must be a dirt road there, he's probably going to a farm or whatever... WHAT?" and I saw that there was no dirt road. The Fox had the front wheels locked and pointing in vain towards the tarmac. The car was sliding on the wet grass on the side of the road, heading to nowhere. "Oh F...". As I passed the Fox, I looked at the mirror. He managed to slow down and was about to get back to the road. I slowed down. The Vectra in front of me slowed down. What I wasn't expecting was the truck in front of the Vectra to stop. The road barely had a shoulder, and the truck decided to stop. "Whatthewhyisthat?" The trucker was probably going to check if the Fox's driver was ok. I saw the Fox stopping and starting to reverse. I knew the driver was ok. I just don't know what happened, I don't know the reason why the Fox lost control. Maybe the trucker saw everything, I really don't know.

Just a couple of miles ahead, the road comes to an end, some sort of junction.
A yellow Fiat Stilo was parked on the grassy area in the middle of the junction ([link], the trunk was oppened, full of stuff. A woman was walking away from the car, and a man was nearby, talking on the cellphone. Someone sure got distracted!

On the last miles of the trip, as you approach the city of Londrina ([link] the road gets awesome. The tarmac is in perfect conditions, it's my favorite part of the travel. As you get closer to Londrina, traffic gets more dense, but doesn't spoil the fun.
What also got more dense was the fog. "Challenge is always welcome!" I said to myself.
Yes. I love this kind of challenge.

The sun was shining on my way back home today, and I didn't have any surprises... apart from a flock of birds that decided to cross the road in front of me, while I was passing by a biker. I couldn't do much, and I hit one bird. I saw it on the mirror. The bird didn't move. The biker didn't react to the birds, so I guess nothing hit his motorcycle.