In just over 30 hours we’ll be climbing into the limo that takes us to the airport. The first leg of our trip will take us from the friendly confines of O’Hare to the urban expanse of Los Angeles. We will spend a day and a half there and then we will be on our way to the land of Kiwi.

We have quite a bit planned during our trip, but I expect as much to happen unplanned as planned. Instead of talking about all of those plans now I have committed to writing about the trip each day. I’ll take a few minutes each morning or evening and try to share a little bit of my experiences. I’ll even combine them with pictures taken that day. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get online while I’m abroad. I know that internet cafes are common in some parts of the country, so I’ll see what I can do.

I read a very interesting article today. Edmunds.com hired veteran journalist Chandler Phillips to go undercover at two new car dealerships in Los Angeles. The result of Phillips’ adventure is nothing short of amazing. If you’ve ever bought a new car and gone through the hassle of haggling with the salesman knows what a futile effort it can be.

At times Michael became very excited as he thought of new things to teach me. At one point he said, “Oh! This is a good one! This is how you steal the trade-in.” He looked around quickly to make sure no one overheard him. “When you’re getting the numbers from the desk, they’ll ask if the customer has a trade-in. Say it’s a ’95 Ford Taurus. And say you took it to the used car manager and he evaluated it and said he would pay four grand for it. If you can get the trade for only three, that’s a grand extra in profit.

We bought a new car earlier this year and it was interesting to see the parallels in my own experience as the buyer. The article opened my eyes to the car buying process in a way I didn’t expect. I’ll be better prepared the next time we go to buy a car. I won’t be nearly as trusting of the salesman, no matter how personable he seems to be. It’s an intimidating process, especially when it gets down to the financing process. Forewarned is forearmed.

During the summer of 1999 Dena and I drove through a small, dusty town in New Mexico and stopped at the Old Fort Sumner Museum which perported to hold the one, true grave of William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. It was a small tourist trap with the requisite gift shop and handful of antiquities. Behind the store was a small, fenced-in field that contained, among other things, a chipped and weathered grave marker.

The debate over the final resting place of Billy the Kid has been around for years. The battle is now reaching a fevered pitch, as reported by MSNBC. Local officials are now petitioning to have the body of Billy the Kid’s mother in an effort to extract DNA in order to settle the controversy once and for all.

The part of the debate I find interesting is the historical importance of the identity of Billy the Kid versus milking the tourist value of the 122-year-old legend. Personally, I think this boils down to a regional battle between the various groups that claim to control the true grave of the kid. Whichever is proven to be the true resting place of the legendary marauder will become more popular than ever and the losers will fade into the background. It would be nice to know the truth, but there is a certain beauty in the mystique of an unsolved mystery.

Last week’s debacle combined with my newfound love of C# lead to me deciding to switch the site over to .Text, a blogging system written in C#.

I’m still making adjustments to the layout. I’m not a CSS expert, so I’ve hacked together a working style. I’m also working to add some features to .Text that I think would be useful. I was able to import the old posts but the formatting is screwed up. I’ve kept the old site up until I can get the formatting issues dealt with.