only two weeks ago i had sold my
dedicated out run mini because it had always been just a temporary solution until a full upright came along. well, i didn't have to wait long, because one showed up on ebay.de shortly afterwards. however, i was still hesitant, until an arcade friend of mine contacted me regarding that out run. he wasn't sure whether he should go for it because of space reasons, but since i had a different transaction to do at least in the same direction, i told him i'd pick it up no matter what. if he wanted to have it later, he could - if not, i'd keep it for myself
.
here's what's coming up
when i looked out of the window the weather conditions were worse than the last ...
... and something had "grown" in front of my kitchen window!
they look dangerous - be careful not to stand underneath them when it's starting to thaw ...
holy iciclony - almost 1 meter in length!!!
downstairs, i had trouble finding my car
germany = one giant freezer this time of the year
the seller's location is not too far out
but after seeing my car buried under tons of snow, i though "why not do this roadtrip in style?". so i got my ferrari out from the garage and "grabbed" a nice blonde who was just passing by - let's go!
i hate driving behind trucks in those weather conditions - especially when your on the road in a convertible
as i've stated before, i had some other business to attend to in the area and this "business" was prominently displayed as i was getting closer!
as always, you might be wondering where i'm going and what i'm doing here, so let me go into greater detail. i have a couple of spare monitors "lying around" in my apartment (and at the storage) and they are not well-organized (mildly put).
they're always in the way somehow and i'm no fan of my cats climbing around on my monitors (danger of skeleton cats
)
i've been on the lookout for a big solid storage rack (which doesn't cost a fortune) for quite a while now, but without success! i was thinking of something like that
a got a tip on a german arcade forum that i should try my luck at one of germany's biggest home depots - bauhaus!
upon entry, i was greeted by a nice christmas tree full of cards with christmas wishes. bauhaus was running a lottery drawing where you could put your christmas wish on one of their cards, attach it to the christmas tree and if you're lucky be presented with your favorite christmas gift on december 24. of course, i couldn't resist, so i made my wish ...
... and put in on the christmas tree!
inside, i found a couple of storage racks
this one was too expensive for my blood (although the measures were perfect), but it had another disadvantage besides the price: you can't set the individual shelves wherever you want, their placement is limited
next to it was a smaller version which would allow precise shelf placement - and i liked the price much better!
as you can see, it can carry a lot of weight as well. although it looks small on the following picture, it's pretty big in reality. the decision had been made and so i loaded it into my car!
time to hit the road again
look at those santa clauses
as you can see on the roadtrip map above, i took two different routes to / from the seller's location. i didn't do this on purpose, i made a navsat programming error (choosing the shortest, but not the fastest path first). because of that, i had to leave the autobahn pretty early and continue on main roads. i wonder what happened to those traffic lights
although the shorter route took much longer, it passed directly through a unesco world heritage site -
the upper middle rhine valley, added to the list for a unique combination of geological, historical, cultural and industrial reasons. i had never been here before, but the sights along the road were breathtaking with a lot of old castles high above the rhine river!
right before the seller's location, a small road branches off from the main road and winds up the hill for one final view into the beautiful rhine valley
"you have arrived at your destination!"
looking a little bit harry potter-esque
here i am already at the seller's place with a first view of the out run upright cabinet
of course, i had to give the game a go to see if everything's working
because we were alone (just the seller and me), i was only able to take one more picture. as you can see, the cab was down in the basement and had to be carried up that narrow flight of stairs. we had one problem: because of the metal foot piece, we couldn't get a trolly underneath the cab (not enough space), so we had to put two rails on the stairs, put the cab on its back and push it up. believe me:
it was damn hard!!!
had to do a little bit of rearranging because of the storage rack already in the car, but eventually i was back on track
anyone care for some
sheep-riding?
i wonder if they feel the cold
back on the autobahn ...
... i passed by frankfurt airport
leaving on a jetplane
but i was not heading home directly, i was meeting up with a friend to spend some relaxing hourse here
sauna paradise
a couple of hours and "throwing water on the stones" later it was already dark outside - let's head home!
one country, four counties, 478 kilometers, 11 hours 12 minutes on the road (with a lot of sauna time) - this roadtrip is OFFICIALLY OVER! but before i end this report, i have one final task to finish. remember: the storage rack!
a first positioning test during construction
and here we are: i'm perfectly happy with that solution
