The Salty Seagull Eclipse Project

Resetting the Trip Odometer: A Year in Review (2023) Before the world-famous New Year's Eve "ball" completed its descent in New York City, heralding in the arrival of 2024, I went out to my Eclipse and completed my annual trip odometer reset.  Although the car is in storage now, 2023 was the first time I've really been able to drive it, and I put more than 500 miles on it! Most of these miles were making memories with my wife and son. It was a challenging year for us, with unemployment and general job instability looming like a shadow over every other bright spot. Still, those miles were truly something special, an indestructible moment of calm, relaxing bliss with the soft blur of small-town city lights streaking past the side windows and the amber summer sky melting into soft purple and blue hues. Those summer nights were truly magical. In addition to short drives, we took the car to a few small car shows hosted by our local Culver's restaurant, and, while the...

What’s Your Happy Place? I found mine last night behind the steering wheel of my Mitsubishi Eclipse. There's something special, almost magical, about driving that car on a summer's evening; being on the road as the sun kisses the horizon, painting delicate strokes of vibrant amber, gold, and crimson across the sky in such a way that only summer can. As the car glides down the road, the temperature and feeling of the air whooshing past the lowered windows changes. Like the flip of a switch, as soon as the sun slips behind the auburn horizon, the muggy haze of the day transforms into a soothing cool aromatic blend of deep fried foods as restaurant-after-restaurant blurs by. The breeze feels amazing rushing over your sunbaked, radiant skin. All-the-while, in a slow descent of fading intensity, the fiery hues of the sunset catch the hood bump, making the red paint gleam with reflections that pour like liquid light across the surface, melting onto the black dashboard and filling the...

Eclipse of the Heart:  A Fast and Furious Journey to My Dream Car The Beginning The muffled crunch of popcorn echoing throughout the theater was suddenly overtaken by the throaty hum of an engine and the assertive clack of a shifter slamming into position. As the car lurched forward, my passion roared to life, surging faster than the needle on the speedometer of Paul Walker's lime green dream machine. Moments later, as his car was spinning out of control, so was my imagination. I was hooked.  Though its time on screen was fleeting, the 2nd Generation Mitsubishi Eclipse was indelibly etched into my heart, igniting an inferno of excitement so powerful that it felt like it had blown the welds on my intake and fried my piston rings. And unlike the fleeting rush of a double-shot of NOS, this surge of adrenaline never subsided. Was I a car enthusiast? Nope. Not even close. I was a recent high school grad who didn't even enjoy driving. But on that fateful evening, my buddies dragged ...