So my journey from the deep south was quite a trip. 1141 miles and 16 3/4 hours later I made it to my home town in NJ. The trip was relatively uneventful, save one event, but we will get to that a little later. I had some repairs to do to the car before making my journey. I spent the Wednesday prior in the garage doing a laundry list of repairs including replacing a cv axle, changing out the manual gear oil, tire rotation and balance, an induction service using Wynns products (check out the video...I through it together real quick before leaving), fixing my passengerside air bag (the light has been on and off for the last couple of months), and I also replaced the TCS/ABS sensor on the driverside (having traction control and ABS might come in useful in the snow). It was essentially destroyed a year and half ago when I converted the car over to 5 lug. You have to pull the sensors out to get the bearing out, and well lets just say that after 5 years of being in its home, it was not coming out! The car was much smoother and virtually all of the vibrations in the car were gone. Dare I say that my 03 with now 211k on it feels like new?
Whoop, Whoop....
Thats the sound of the police!! Thats the sound of the Beast! While these are lyrics from a song of one of my favorite hip hop artist KRS-ONE, it was also true in my case. I did not intend to be pulled over and I'm not sure anybody really does, but this is my story. I had been traveling on Rt 95 for sometime through Florida, Georgia, and I was in South Carolina when I was travelling with the flow of traffic. We were all doing about 80mph in a 70mph. Well the road opened up and I think my foot went down to accommodate its soreness. I had cruise control on for quite sometime (which is why I have beef with the R-Spec Coupe!!!) but the last couple hundred miles or so it was jut not safe to do so. So while my ears were soaking up the wonderful sounds of Metallica's "And Justice for All" album, my foot got comfortable and without realizing it, I was going a tick quicker then I really wanted to be. Then of course you see the Sheriff in the middle of the highway...look down and say "Shit!" and sure enough he came out. I was a lone sheep in the middle of two travelling groups. I was perfect prey for the wolf. The officer was nice about it and knocked it down quite a bit and the fine is, dare I say cheap, in comparison to Florida fees.
Idiot free?...
I also hit some traffic as well. Which should be expected on such a long trip. This time it was just north of Fredicksburg, VA. There must have been an accident of some sort. So for 45 minutes I sat in bumper to bumper traffic. I traveled a whopping 5 miles. All I could think about was "This is killing my time!", but I guess that is what happens when people follow to close. Even when the flow first slowed down I heard at least two separate crashes around me. I had the correct distance and did not smack the guy in front of me and because I knew the person behind was riding my butt, I purposely put more room in between us. Thank goodness, because if I had stopped any faster, the mini van behind me would have kissed my rear bumper. The picture was taken Florida at about 80mph with a really old lady behind the wheel of the Lincoln. You can clearly see that I'm at the proper 3-4 car lengths and they are obviously not. This was also the case, at night even, when I hit that traffic...idiots.
I must say that my MPG's were getting better and better with every fill up. My first fill up was an average of 28 mpg's. While my second fill up was 30 mpg's (that is even with the going "plaid" moment) Third was higher still at 32.9 mpg's. I was thinking about this while I was driving. What is changing? The gas? Maybe it was my Cold Air Intake sucking up cooler air? The car definitely came out of the toll booths a little quicker. Maybe the car just need to clean some crap out? I'm not sure, but I'll take it!
One last thing, I thought for sure that I was going to be sore and beat up after this trip. It simply is not the case. The Tiburon seat I installed some years back is till quite supportive and comfortable. I feel great this morning.
So while I do say goodbye to others and beautiful sunsets, I will be saying hello to others. A new chapter has opened up and I am ready to read it!
I must say that my MPG's were getting better and better with every fill up. My first fill up was an average of 28 mpg's. While my second fill up was 30 mpg's (that is even with the going "plaid" moment) Third was higher still at 32.9 mpg's. I was thinking about this while I was driving. What is changing? The gas? Maybe it was my Cold Air Intake sucking up cooler air? The car definitely came out of the toll booths a little quicker. Maybe the car just need to clean some crap out? I'm not sure, but I'll take it!
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