I know it’s been awhile since I’ve made a regular old blog post, but I’ve been busy. We got a replacement vehicle for Fjord, we now have Duke in our line up. I’ve been out sourcing books for our FBA business which we now have over 1500 books in our store. Since it’s the slow season for Turo, I’ve picked back up driving for Lyft throughout the day (guess where I am right now lol… ✈️) and we’ve just generally been busy preparing for Winter & wrapping up Summer.
Thanks for stopping by, and look forward to weekly food reviews which I have scheduled to come out weekly on Thursdays (love technology & the ability to schedule posts) and look forward to some more consistent communication going forward.
Fjord is probably on her way to the big pic a part in the sky.
RIP Fjord
Was on my way to Redmond at dusk a few nights ago and all of a sudden the gas pedal stopped working and I looked up and the windshield was black (turn out it was the hood), had a deer jump out on Hwy 97 N a few miles south of Redmond.
I’m ok, couple banged up wrists and knees, and a bruised thigh, can’t say the same for Bambi. Be warned this next pic is pretty gruesome.
Well I can finally announce the addition to the fleet for Lexi our 2019 Lexus UX 250h F Sport! And what a journey it was to get her here in Central Oregon which is why this post is 2 weeks late.
My journey started off in the Carvana App where I was searching for a new vehicle to add to my Turo Fleet, we looked at a lot of different types and models of cars and SUVs. Being in Central Oregon we knew we had to take advantage of both the Winter tourism season as well as the Summer. With how well Mitsu has performed for us this winter (She pretty much lived at Mt. Bachelor since December) we knew an AWD vehicle was in the picture. We looked at some older Tesla’s but the price just wasn’t quite right, we looked at another Ford Escape Hybrid, but they were just too hard to get, and prices were higher than we wanted them to be, I tried really hard to get a Kia Sorento Hybrid, but finding an AWD one within 1000 miles was difficult, and when I did, the dealership was hard to work with online. I didn’t want to put another Subaru on the road in Bend, there’s already enough of them. Then we saw Lexi, and we knew, she would be ours, and I just can’t turn down an Orange car!
I went through the process through the app, and I have to say it really was as easy as they say it is, the last part was a $699 delivery fee but I knew they had those Car Vending Machines so I I explored that option. The vending machine this car would be delivered to was in Lehi Utah so I checked plate tickets and gas prices and I could fly out to Salt Lake City and drive back for less than half of what the delivery was, total no brainer. I set up the pick up date and had to wait until the end of March for my appointment date.
The night before pickup I was sent a text to upload a selfie holding my license, a copy of my insurance card, and sign the digital paperwork, so I sent that off and went to bed. We woke up and I got dropped off at the airport and I quickly got through TSA, go a cup of coffee and a muffin, and sat down to listen to a podcast while I waited for boarding. And then… it happened.
Ring Ring went my phone, it was Turo, an hour before take off something was wrong with Lexi, her headlights didn’t turn on. I was stuck, do I get on the plane and risk it? Do I stay home? I can’t waste this plane ticket, I have to push on. So I did.
I landed in SLC, great Airport, awesome Art.
Took the Train to the train station. The App worked really good to get me to the next hub, then it stopped working, and I missed the connecting train. Unbelievable, 30 minutes to the next train, so I called a Lyft to get me to the AirBNB.
Art at the Train Station
Got to say, had a great AirBNB stay, if you are ever in the Salt Lake City area, check it out.
I woke up the next day and headed to Carvana to see what was going on, was it just the bulbs (Which Carvana didn’t have the tools to fix), or was it the electrical? But first, I needed to charge my devices, and myself which I did at Beans and Brews Coffee House. Decent Coffee, fast chargers.
Back to the car. I get there and explain to Carrie at the front desk what was going on, she said she’d get Ash who was assisting me to come talk to me. I got to say, this Ash guy came at me super sideways from the start, saying that they took it to a dealership, but they haven’t had a chance to look at it, and I shouldn’t have flown out here, and they won’t pay for me to stay in a hotel while they diagnose it, and it could be weeks for the to happen, and I shouldn’t have flow here and I should have got delivery.
I was absolutely aghast at how poor his customer service skills were, but remained calm and listened to what he had to say before he said he’d go back and check on if there was an update.
Carrie IMMEDIATELY apologized to me for his tone and behavior, saying to pretty much ignore everything he said, I could tell why she was the face of this Carvana as soon as he left. She called whoever was in charge there and let him know what was going on, and how Ash treated me and told him she was going to call the dealership and find out what was going on. The dealership pretty much told her they’d get to it when they got to it, but that wasn’t going to be any time soon. She called a Lexus dealership close by, explained to them the situation, and got them to agree to do a diagnosis within the hour of delivery. UNBELIEVABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! Carrie got her co-worker to drive her to the dealership, picked up Lexi and took her to the Lexus dealership for the diagnostic. Kinda awkward sitting there with the dude waiting on Carrie to get back.
Defiantly was cool, but defiantly wasn’t easy.
Bad news, it was the electrical housing. Good news, Carrie’s boss put me up in a hotel for 2 days while Lexus got the parts and fixed the headlights. Whew, what an experience. Here’s a good look out my hotel window at the Utah Mountains.
They also had a social so i got to check out some of the local beers.
Well, they re-set my appointment up for 3:30 & checkout was at 12, so thankfully the hotel let me chill in one of their lounges and I listened to some podcasts while I waited to walk down to Carvana and then it came. The text, it’s ready, it’s working, I can go home! I started my walk down to Carvana.
And I arrived.
Do you see it? It’s in the upper right corner.
Signed the paperwork and now it’s time to drop my giant Carvana Quarter into the vending machine and GET MY CAR!
FINALLY! Big shoutout to Carrie and team for making this happen!
Time to get some Culver’s and drive home!
This post has taken too long to upload, so I’m ending it now. Book Lexi here! Do it now!!!!
We’ll it’s been awhile since I’ve posted and I have quite a few updates to go over.
First, didn’t work today, it was snowing and honestly, I just wanted to stay in and be warm, also the other night we were watching the EPIX show Pennyworth, and I had to explain Scotch Eggs to my SO, then today I had to make them cause she’s never had them. It was a pain in the ass, but they were well received.
I was kind of disappointed earlier this week as I was picking up Mitsu from a Turo rental, and my next booking cancelled, this was her 3rd cancel, so I wasn’t too put off as she sounded like a hassle, but I was sad I was missing revenue for this weekend.
We took the Escape Hybrid into Ford for a recall servicing, so I was happy I still had Mitsu but once the snow hit I just wasn’t up to working today. But the good news is someone booked Mitsu for the weekend, so tomorrow I need to go get her cleaned up and ready to go. I have some more Turo news to share at a later date 🙌🏽
I don’t have any brewery or restaurant reviews upcoming, but I am working on two things. One is I’ll be compiling the Great 8 list of the best 8 places to get X (burger, taco, ice cream cone, etc.) it is currently under construction, and second I couldn’t believe with all my planning I haven’t reviewed any coffee shops! As a rideshare driver, I like a good iced coffee with an extra shot to get me through long mornings, or evening sessions, so look for 3 coffee reviews to come up this week while I’m stuck waiting for planes at the airport.
Like I said a lot has gone on since my last post, so hopefully this rides you over until I hit you with a Java overload of posts to keep you up to date on where the best coffee is in town!
So I’m working on getting my business set up, cell phones, internet, website ads, etc. we had a winter storm come through this week, so I took an extra day off to avoid the -3 to 20 degree F weather. I ordered a cell phones from Verizon and planned to port over 3 additional numbers. After 3 hours in the store I left with 0% progress. Not really impressed with Verizon’s inability to migrate numbers from a company they own (Visible) to their phones.
I’m in a few Facebook groups in starting your own business and reached out to someone who worked for them who gave me some advice. Will report back what happens.
So it was 73 degrees the other day, and I haven’t played disc golf since Halloween, so I had to get out and enjoy it. Boy am I out of shape 😂😂😂 but playing by yourself your walking pace is much faster than even playing with a friend, which I did today, a day that was supposed to be partly cloudy and like a high of 55. Well…. Didn’t turn out that nice.
Yes, that’s snow.
Yeah that’s snow, and I was wearing shorts and a half zip up pull over thin sweatshirt. 🙄
It was good to see good friends and get some exercise though! Have a tournament coming up at the end of the month, I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hi everyone, I’m sitting at the airport currently waiting for a fare to take back to a Bend and though I’d take this time to put out my first post to introduce myself a little more.
I’m a native Oregonian spending time in the Valley, Portland, California, and Central Oregon. Growing up I was into sports like most kids growing up in the 80’s/90’s and was a big fan of the Portland Trailblazers, Jerome Kersey was my favorite player. I played soccer, basketball, and baseball mainly, and later on in life enjoyed playing video games, mostly on the NES with favorites like Solomon’s Key, Metroid, Castlevania, Super Mario Bro’s 2&3, and Master Blaster. I spent some time collecting NES games and have over 170.
I’m an avid Disc Golfer, and hold the position of Chief Financial Officer at my local club, La Pine Disc Golf Association, and look forward to playing in my first sanctioned tournament this year.
I’ve recently got back into watching baseball, and have always enjoyed watching the Olympics.
You’ll also find me enjoying local food and drinks around & can see those reviews on my other blog.
I’m currently driving for Uber/Lyft & Hosting on Turo which I’m trying to venture out on and increase to a fleet.
Thanks for visiting and look forward to more inside looks on my life Rideshare Driving & Turo Hosting!
Rideshare Rex 