RoundAbout: Car Culture and Auto News with a Different Spin

RoAb #47 - The 'Road Hazards' Episode

2010-08-29T21:54:24Z

Jump feet-first – with your ears – into the wild and wacky auto news of the past week with another installment of RoundAbout, #47, the “Road Hazards” episode. Up for discussion, a story about an English woman who got caught driving with a goat in her trunk; a kinky yarn about a Get your own "Save the Bowman" T-Shirtdifferent woman caught driving with a “toy” on her lap; and an Ohio police helicopter that dropped its high-dollar infrared camera causing carnage on the ground. We also go IN THE GARAGE to chat about the BMW 535i and Ford F-250 Super Duty, among other vehicles. Enjoy all that and much, much more, plus we bid an emotional farewell to RoAb founding member Zach Bowman, who’s moving on to greener pastures in upstate New York where the sun always shines and the everything’s made of candy. You do not want to miss this week’s installment of RoundAbout, #47, the “Road Hazards” episode.

Play RoundAbout Episode 47

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Featuring: Michelle Naranjo, Eric Trytko, Jeffrey Ross, Zach Bowman, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Show Notes and Ustream video recording after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

RoAb #46 - The 'Mixed Messages' Episode

2010-08-23T03:53:53Z

Nearly 10% of auto enthusiasts can't recognize the logo of this popular podcast."Turn left, right?"

"He's a gangly fat guy with darkish-blonde hair and a Danish-New England accent."

"I'm not upset."

Life is full of mixed messages, including this week's episode of RoundAbout, #46. Making this show even better, the crème of the crop, the skin of the gravy, Zach Bowman's back in the house after a month-long vacation . . . from the show, plus we're visited by a very special guest, long-time fan and Auto-Bird blogger Mood Monster Mud Monster, aka William Maley. Per usual the panel delves into a variety of weird and unusual news topics including a look at some bizarre automotive iconography, a discussion about the bad luck of one Swede caught speeding in Switzerland and chat about Chrysler's latest advertising salvo and the controversy swirling around it. Enjoy all that and more, plus some of your favorite segments including MEET YOUR ROADMATES and a super-deluxe version of HIGHWAY HEARSAY. You do not want to miss this week's installment of RoundAbout, #46, the "Mixed Messages" episode.

Play RoundAbout Episode 46

Download MP3 | | |
Featuring: Michelle Naranjo, Eric Trytko, Jeffrey Ross, Zach Bowman, William Maley, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Show Notes and Ustream video recording after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

RoAb #45 - The 'Not Going to End Well' Episode

2010-08-15T21:51:44Z

Like building a personal jetpack by strapping two-dozen bottle rockets to your back this week’s installment of RoundAbout is “Not Going to End Well.” Besides the usual suspects (minus Zach Bowman) the cast is also joined by long-time RoAb fan, Mirko Reinhardt. Up for discussion is a varied lineup of bizarre and humorous new stories including a piece about a Chinese concept bus that can drive over cars, a feature about the dwindling number of Trabants in Germany and some tips for buying a $1,000 clunker from Craig’s List. All that and more, plus a STUPID CAR TRICK doubleheader on this week’s installment of RoundAbout, #45, the “Not Going to End Well” episode.

Play RoundAbout Episode 45

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Featuring: Michelle Naranjo, Eric Trytko, Jeffrey Ross, Mirko Reinhardt, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Show Notes and Ustream video recording after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

RoAb Special - 2010 Maker Faire

2010-08-02T00:21:37Z

Click the image above for our full gallery of Maker Faire 2010 photos.

Join us for a very special, if brief, episode brought to you live-ish from Maker Faire 2010 Dearborn, Michigan. We talk about all of our transportation-related findings at the DIY fair as well as other gems like build-your-own 3D printers and iron smelters. So listen in to this special recap of the festivities and then check out our photo gallery at RoundAboutShow.com.

Play RoundAbout Special - 2010 Maker Faire

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Featuring: Eric Trytko, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

We took video too! Click the jump to see a few choice Maker Faire videos.

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

RoAb #44 - The 'Hard Way' Episode

2010-07-24T18:49:23Z

Ben gets famous the hard waySometimes you just want to walk, sometimes you’d rather pull-start the lawnmower and sometimes you feel like baking your own bread. Join us this week on RoundAbout as we salute doing things the hard way. Learn about a cool 1920s-editon GPS system that will blow your mind. Find out why running from the cops is a really bad idea. And leave it to the Japanese to come up with an absolutely absurd way of chilling and transporting a (yes, singular) watermelon. All that and more PLUS we discuss a series of brain exercises that can help older folks drive better and we learn an important lesson about moving in our STUPID CAR TRICK video segment. Check it all out on this week’s awe-inspiring episode of RoundAbout, #44, the “Hard Way” episode.

Play RoundAbout Episode 44

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Featuring: Michelle Naranjo, Eric Trytko, Jeffrey Ross, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Show Notes and Ustream video recording after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

Endangered Species in Yellowstone

2010-07-17T18:42:46Z

Internet connectivity and cell-phone service in Yellowstone National Park
is, in our experience, extremely limited, but during the trip it was nice to
know that we weren't completely cut off from the outside world. As you can
see in the picture above, the nature preserve has at least a handful of
outlets where you can get in touch with civilization. For those of you
unfamiliar with historical telecommunications devices this is a phone booth,
a semi-exposed public place where, for a fee, anyone can place a call. It's
the precursor to today's cell phone. Enjoy this majestic creature while you
still can. It's one endangered species that probably won't be around much
longer. They've been hunted to near-extinction by companies like Verizon,
AT&T and Sprint.

~ Craig

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RoAb #43 - The 'Great American RoAb Trip' Episode

2010-07-11T21:50:34Z

Well, this week's podcast is exactly what it sounds like. It's all about our much-hyped Great American RoAb Trip, in which we hit the highway and make our way to Yellowstone National Park and back. We in fact recorded this show from the highway as we were speeding home, so get ready for some "interesting" acoustics.

Play RoundAbout Episode 43

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Featuring: Michelle Naranjo, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

Ustream video recording after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6PM ET/3PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

Unexpected Classics at the Bizarre "Boondocks"

2010-07-11T06:38:40Z

Between Deadwood and Mt. Rushmore you'll find the strange attraction that is "Boondocks 50's Town." It's a weird mix that ranges from scary dinosaur statues to classic cars. It was the latter that we were most interested in.

~Ben, Somewhere in Indiana

Sampling Free Ice Water at Wall Drug

2010-07-11T04:47:32Z

Craig visits Wall Drug in South Dakota where the famous promise is a free cup of ice water for weary travelers, and, boy, are we weary. Let's see just how refreshing free water can be!

~Ben, Somewhere in Illinois

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Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

2010-07-11T02:25:44Z

Adaptive cruise control is an amazing feature. Like some Ron Popeil gadget you just "set it and forget it." With a battery of sensors, and possibly a little black magic, the system automatically adjusts your speed according to the traffic around you. In the Lincoln MKT Ford so generously loaned to us, this gee-whiz technology can even slow you down to 18 miles an hour if the traffic in front of you locks up its brakes or some jackass pulls out right in front of you. Stopping the vehicle is still your responsibility.

Altogether the system works amazingly well, when it wants to. Our pre-production Lincoln crossover had a few "issues," to put it politely, and one of the most annoying, irritating and downright infuriating had to do with the cruise control. The damn thing only worked when it wanted to. Every so often -- roughly 30 minutes or an hour -- the system would cut out and a message would flash in the instrument cluster "DRIVER INTERVENTION REQUIRED" followed by "COLLISION WARN NOT AVAILABLE." 10 frustrating minutes later the thing would work again! Talk about annoying! This electronic anomaly would be fine on a quick jaunt to the local grocery store but on a 34-plus hour road trip it's not fun. Hopefully this isn't an issue on production vehicles equipped with the technology.

~ Craig, Somewhere in Wisconsin

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Was It Real?

2010-07-10T23:06:12Z

Or was it green screen?

This entire trip has flashed by so quickly. Who knew that after a long 34 hour drive that the 3 of us would feel like it was just a dream when we arrived in Jackson Hole? Who knew that this many days later, we would be within 10 hours from arriving back in Detroit?

It has been the longest and the shortest week ever.

~ Michelle, Somewhere Headed East in Minnesota

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Devils Tower, South Dakota

2010-07-10T16:57:46Z

After leaving Yellowstone exhausted, visiting Devils Tower was a definite boost of energy for all of us. I explain why this was such a fun part of the Great American RoAb Trip for me over here. It is too schmaltzy for this site!

~ Michelle, South Dakota

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Set Your Roadways to Vibrate

2010-07-10T04:58:01Z

We turned the corner and got all excited that Eric had decided to join us after all. Unfortunately, the only thing we got was a car that made some weird farting sound.

~Ben, Rapid City, South Dakota

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Yellowstone, We Hardly Knew Ye

2010-07-09T23:29:13Z

Well, our visit to Yellowstone comes to an end. We could have easily spent a week here, and it would have been a LOT of fun with a pair of hiking boots.

And yes, it appears I forgot to smile.

~Ben, Gillette, WY

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Reserved Seating

2010-07-09T07:01:20Z

The Lincoln MKT is a tremendous road-trip vehicle. It's spacious, quiet and
extremely comfortable (as long as you're not in the third row). And part of
what makes it so easy to live with on long drives is the design of the
seats. They're easily amongst the most comfortable my bony tuckus has ever
touched. They're perfectly sculpted to support your backside and they offer
all kinds of lumber adjustability. But the real treat here is the built-in
ventilation system that keeps your derriere dry to the touch and fresh as a
daisy, even in 100-degree temperatures. Yay comfort!

~ Craig, Cody, Wyoming

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Bison Crossing, Expect Delays

2010-07-09T05:01:20Z

Yes. That's a Bison bounding our way as we clumsily tumble back into the MKT. One of the pitfalls of visiting a nature preserve such as Yellowstone is that all the conveniences of normal life can come to a halt at the whim of a single animal.

Such was the case when we were stopped for 30 minutes or so while we waited for a Bison to pass. It threw our schedule off, true, but how many times can you say that you were 30 feet away from a creature that was once nearly extinct?

~Ben, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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Great American RoAb Trip Photos are Here!

2010-07-08T19:13:07Z

Click above for a our full RoAb Trip Gallery (so far)

Yellowstone National Park is beautiful, seriously stunning, and we didn't even scratch the surface on our first day. From what little we got to see you could easily spend a month there and still not experience even a fraction of what it has to offer. Some of the natural treasures we got to witness include breath-taking vistas of the area's rugged terrain, all kinds of geysers and other geological formations bubbling, steaming and roaring with activity, and of course a small sampling of the local fauna including a bison, which admittedly from a distance looked like a pile of feces, and a mother elk with her new-born calf, an event that caused a major traffic jam on one of the park's main roads. Check out all of these photos from our Yellowstone RoAb Trip in the gallery.

Old Faithful, Big Disappointment

2010-07-08T14:39:37Z

If you know nothing else about Yellowstone National Park, you're probably familiar with Old Faithful, that steaming, bubbling hole in the ground that ejects plumes of steam and hot water at 90-minute intervals. If you ever get a chance to visit Yellowstone, let me recommend that you skip this geo-illogical formation if at all possible. It's an epic tourist trap with a small town's worth of building surrounding it. Save your time and sanity and check out some of the countless other breath-taking attractions in the park. You'll be glad you did.

~Craig, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

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Reminders of Home

2010-07-07T18:52:38Z

Even 1,600 miles from home Ben found comfort in the warm glow of his MacBook Pro 15 inch. Yeah, it’s a unibody.

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Heck Yes! Breakfast in the Tetons!

2010-07-07T18:32:08Z

It's true. We, your esteemed RoAb crew, had a pancake breakfast in the
Tetons this morning. Super cool!

~Ben, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

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