Get this thing going

At long last I've got the car ready and I've headed on for the star line, on the northwest tip of Sansara.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hikuelo/69/236/23

When I arrived, this was the scene that greeted me.

The route I picked is spouse to be a scenic one, so first I'll go down to the far south on the snow covered mountains before tracking back up and to head to the far east where the journey will end.

But before I turned the car around and get started, I thought I might have a look around to see what I could find.
If the whole point of this trip was to show just how volatile and ever changing Second Life is, I'm not on to a good start, because just on the side of the road I found a store named Almitra's, by Almitra Blair which seemed just like a time capsule.

In all fairness she hasn't logged in since 2013, although her husband (by the time this was written) did logged in just a month ago.
But still, even back in 2013 everything here was already too far outdated, prices range from 45L$ to 250L$, crazy money for what's on offer.

On the other side of the road the place was at least more recently built, all basic prims, but still, all neatly placed.

Because it looked like a private place, I decided to leave immediately but it didn't matter, because on the other side of the water I spotted something that looked interesting.

I went further inside only to realize it was a train station. Those are always interesting, and surprisingly filled with stories.

But as I went further inside I stumbled across something that frankly left me without any words.
On the station there wasn't just an actual train station with running trains, there was an area dedicated to help new comers and more than that, two memorials.

Garth FairChang which passed away in 2009 and Elmer Voss that passed away in 2008.

That's the actual year I joined Second Life, 2008. I've spent more time than you think on these memorials.

Somehow this gave me a taste of my own mortality, one certain thing I have is that I'm gonna go one day, I wonder how people will remember me, I wonder if anyone would ever make me a memorial like these.

Fresh off the paint shop

And with the new lick of paint, and everything screwed back together it's job done.

Picking a color for a car is a big job all on its own, and you can always go a million ways, at the end I went with black because unlike every other color, it never goes out of style.

Turning what used to be a rust bucket like this around was never gonna be easy, but, with all the work put in this car is gonna be able to stay away from the crusher for many years to come.

With everything ready all there's left to do is pack up and start the journey.

Ready for the paint shop

It took a while but this thing is now ready for the paint shop.

The entire engine compartment and gear box had to be rebuilt from salvage parts from a donor car.
The naturally aspirated 4.1 liter engine features a 6 cylinder layout, 2 valves per cylinder. It develops 155 bhp at 4200 rpm, and maximum torque of 235 lb ft at 1600 rpm which is delivered to the wheels by a 3 speed manual gearbox.
And if that sounds awfully under powered for such a huge engine on today standards, it's because it is, not only that this car has a curb weight of 3870 lbs, which in short is quite a lot. So you either have to be a complete lunatic to have one, or own an oil company.

But then again it would be heavy because it's not exactly what you'd call small.

The wheelbase is 119 inches, it's 54.5 inches high, 79.5 inches wide and 213.3 inches long! More than twice as long as a dreadful Smart ForTwo!

As for fuel consumption, lets just say it has a 24 Gal (US) tank that is always getting empty every time you blink an eye.

When it was original released power steering and power breaks were optional extras, and if that sounds bad enough, you probably don't wanna know that all four wheels were fitted with drum breaks.
Luckily all of those are an easy fix, and if you can forget about fuel consumption and no available parking spaces big enough, you'll end up with a car that puts to shame anything that's coming out today with bag loads of character.

Now I just need to wait for it to come back from the painters, and fingers crossed they'll do a good job.

The one I'm gonna take

To tell the truth, I don't really like sports cars.
Most people would call them "dream cars" the reality is, they just aren't.
You can't get inside them because they're small and too low, you can't get out without being a gymnastic and you always look silly trying to.
You can't see out the back to reverse or park and you can't leave it parked anywhere without having it being drooled on and scratched.
Any paint job, nut, bolt or replacement part costs an arm and a leg. You can't take any shopping in one because there isn't room for anything, hell, not even room for your legs. You can't go over speed bumps or you'll scratch the nose, and as for the insurance, that's just ridiculous.
All of this means the natural habitat for a sports car is on the garage under a cloth, and on the day comes that you wanna go take it out to get your significant other to the opera, the battery will be flat...

So for a road trip, forget about it, specially one you're spouse to take your time an enjoy.

With this in mind, I went back to basics. When I think about road trips, I think North America, and their classic 60~70's cars.

Because I was still not really sure which one to take, I've decided to go for a walk and while I was on it, I've found this:

Now most people would keep walking but if that's just surface rust, you can bring it back up from scratch, even if it's missing a door, and a seat, and a wheel, and the tail gate...

And the whole engine...
But no matter, nothing a shopping trip can't produce, and with a bit of spit, polish and some elbow grease this thing will be brought back to life in an undisclosed amount of time by an undisclosed amount of people...

The only thing there is left to do now is get it on the work shop, and cue the A-Team theme music!

Picking up the Motor

As a petrol head it shouldn't come as a surprise that I own several dozens of cars on my Second Life, on that aspect I'm a bit like Jay Leno except for every single detail, so, what am I gonna drive on this trip?

I could go for an oldie but goodie 59 Chevy Biscayne:

Or maybe something with less a dozen years, 73 Plymouth Duster perhaps:

Something not as old can only be good, right? Right? Yeah, right... and by the way I have the sneaking suspicion this isn't gonna be the worst picture I'll post on this blog before the end of the trip:

A sensible person might pick out a BMW 7 Series instead, with bag loads of power, comfort and room:

Maybe I should look into something more sporty, looking into Formula 1, McLaren has the highest hit rate, they won one in every four Gran Prix they've ever entered:

Or I could always listen to the 10 year old inside of me and go with something like this, it's just a Volkswagen but they like to call it Bugatti Veyron:

The choices are plentiful as there are lot more where those came from, so I might have to do a bit of a rethink.

Looking up the place

After I've decided to do it I went ahead to the oldest library I could find to search in the dust covered scrolls for some information about the oldest island on Second Life...

And after I sneezed all I could from all the damn dust I threw all of that away and cracked the smartphone instead. Either that or I might have asked my personal assistant to do it, my memory is a bit hazy on that.

Either way, this is what turned up:

It's from 2008, which in SL years makes it about 100 or so years old, but most importantly it shows the road network in red.
Now I have on good authority that that has remained unchanged, which kinda spoils the fun before it begins since those roads are probably the oldest thing on the island, but anyway, I have my mind set for a road trip and I'm gonna make one.

And while I think about a route, maybe I should start thinking about what car I wanna take.

The Begining

If I had to describe Second Life in one word, it would be volatile.

The amazing speed of which sims are put together and taken out boggles the mind.
We've all been there, today we're at a place we quite enjoy, making a mental note to come back later, for some pictures perhaps, and the next day there's not a trace of it anymore.

Recently I've had my 7th Second Life birthday and among other things that got me thinking, there has to be some places in Second Life as old as that, places forgotten where no one has set foot in in years.
As strange as it may sound, I find this idea somewhat appealing and that got me an idea, why not go on the oldest main land island and go on a road trip?