My Recent Road Trip - I trust my 850 with over 230,000 miles on it.
#1
06-21-2013, 11:58 PM
My Recent Road Trip - I trust my 850 with over 230,000 miles on it.
Last month I was invited to a conference in Salt Lake City. I really wasn’t going to go but I got to thinking, I can take my wife to visit a lot of her family so why not. I could also take the opportunity to see some good sights and chisel away at our bucket list. So, I planned a 4,500 mile road trip with the promise to my wife that I would take her to see Mount Rushmore.
So off we went, through OKC the day they had their real bad tornado. I went through there in the morning because tornado’s rarely strike in the morning. Boy was I shocked at the gas prices, already up 40 cents per gallon from Little Rock AR.
The first day I drove 930 miles to Albuquerque. No problems other than my gas mileage was lower than I wanted it to be, 26 mpg. While there we visited my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and a few other in-laws. Grandmother is now 95 so it was nice spending time with her. While there I replaced my front 02 sensor hoping to get better gas mileage.
A few days later we drove to Phoenix AZ. Went through the Tonto National Forest. Wow there was some beautiful road there. Got a little better gas mileage but only 27 mpg. That trip was about 430 miles. Speed limit was between 65 mph and 75 mph most of the way. About 2 hours after I arrived at Phoenix, my brother-in-law took me to CA so we could fish all night (not sure why but that’s how they roll). So we went to the Salten Sea and caught so many tilapia that my arms were hurting so I stop fishing after a while. The next morning we went back to Phoenix. Stayed a couple of days there and moved on.
Our next destination was to visit more family in Vegas! On the way there we went to see the Grand Canyon. Oh my goodness, that is a sight to see. Worth the detour (that day we drove about 520 miles). I really didn’t like back tracking out of there but what the heck. On to Las Vegas we went. Got settled in Vegas around 1 am, in bed at 2 am, phone was ringing at 5:43 am to let me know that our tour bus to the Hover Dam was scheduled to leave at 8:00 am. The tour lasted till about 4:30. Boy was I tired. Didn’t know that the Hover Dam wasn’t made for the electricity. Learn something new every day.
A couple of days later we set off to Salt Lake City UT (425 miles). As soon as we hit UT I seen my first 80 mph speed limit sign. Some of the most beautiful road that I have ever seen, the closer we got to SLC the more beautiful it got. Nice canyons, mountains and flat lands, great blend. Stayed in SLC for 4 nights. Attended the annual Send Out Cards convention. Lots of fun and great weather that time of the year. I had the pleasure of meeting a guy that contacted me through SwedeSpeed. We had a great milk shake and I got to see his yellow T-5R. Pretty clean but he was working on making it perfect.
Now for the long haul. The plan was to go to see Mount Rushmore then stay the night close to there but my wife wanted to press towards home after she seen the mountain. So we drove from SLC to Mount Rushmore, 480 miles. Learned a valuable lesion about DROID based GPS on that run. When you set the phone to navigate to a destination it downloads the route and uses the phone’s GPS to track you on the map’s route. So while I was traveling, I decided to shut down the navigation to allow my phone to charge quicker. When I approached a intersection, I decided to re-launch the navigation but it would NOT show me which way to go because it could not connect to the internet to down load the driving directions. Ouch!!! I got directions from a gas station at the interchange. After seeing Mount Rushmore, off we went towards home. I was able to make it to Sioux Falls SD, another 370 miles. Boy was that a long day.
Stayed the night in Sioux Falls then went to Lincoln NE. Probably the shortest travel day that we had the entire trip, 235 miles. We stayed there for a couple of day (with great friends), got to tour the Corn Huskers stadium and see a few other sights.
Now for the drive home, 615 miles. While driving through Kansas City I spotted the Big Foot of T-5R’s, a green wagon. I pulled up to the car to get the drivers attention and while waving out the window he looks over and recognizes me from my videos. That was funny. He posted my sighting on SwedeSpeed.com.
All in all it was a great trip. Other than gas, most places being 50 cents more than what Little Rock sells gas for, my only concern was tires and a clicking noise that I first noticed in Phoenix. While in Vegas I checked it at my brother-in-law’s house. I thought it was my drivers side inner tie rod end link gone bad. Now, about 3,000 miles later I believe it to be my drivers side cv axle. Starting to click now in turns.
Not many people will just gas and go in a 18 year old car with over 230,000 miles on it but it didn’t bother me a bit. If I were able I would be on the road again right now, part of my family is having a wing ding in NY and I would be there now if possible. I’ll post a picture of that 80 mph speed sign when I get a chance. By the way, my wife is still talking about the trip, she had a great time (mostly talks about seeing Mount Rushmore).
So off we went, through OKC the day they had their real bad tornado. I went through there in the morning because tornado’s rarely strike in the morning. Boy was I shocked at the gas prices, already up 40 cents per gallon from Little Rock AR.
The first day I drove 930 miles to Albuquerque. No problems other than my gas mileage was lower than I wanted it to be, 26 mpg. While there we visited my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and a few other in-laws. Grandmother is now 95 so it was nice spending time with her. While there I replaced my front 02 sensor hoping to get better gas mileage.
A few days later we drove to Phoenix AZ. Went through the Tonto National Forest. Wow there was some beautiful road there. Got a little better gas mileage but only 27 mpg. That trip was about 430 miles. Speed limit was between 65 mph and 75 mph most of the way. About 2 hours after I arrived at Phoenix, my brother-in-law took me to CA so we could fish all night (not sure why but that’s how they roll). So we went to the Salten Sea and caught so many tilapia that my arms were hurting so I stop fishing after a while. The next morning we went back to Phoenix. Stayed a couple of days there and moved on.
Our next destination was to visit more family in Vegas! On the way there we went to see the Grand Canyon. Oh my goodness, that is a sight to see. Worth the detour (that day we drove about 520 miles). I really didn’t like back tracking out of there but what the heck. On to Las Vegas we went. Got settled in Vegas around 1 am, in bed at 2 am, phone was ringing at 5:43 am to let me know that our tour bus to the Hover Dam was scheduled to leave at 8:00 am. The tour lasted till about 4:30. Boy was I tired. Didn’t know that the Hover Dam wasn’t made for the electricity. Learn something new every day.
A couple of days later we set off to Salt Lake City UT (425 miles). As soon as we hit UT I seen my first 80 mph speed limit sign. Some of the most beautiful road that I have ever seen, the closer we got to SLC the more beautiful it got. Nice canyons, mountains and flat lands, great blend. Stayed in SLC for 4 nights. Attended the annual Send Out Cards convention. Lots of fun and great weather that time of the year. I had the pleasure of meeting a guy that contacted me through SwedeSpeed. We had a great milk shake and I got to see his yellow T-5R. Pretty clean but he was working on making it perfect.
Now for the long haul. The plan was to go to see Mount Rushmore then stay the night close to there but my wife wanted to press towards home after she seen the mountain. So we drove from SLC to Mount Rushmore, 480 miles. Learned a valuable lesion about DROID based GPS on that run. When you set the phone to navigate to a destination it downloads the route and uses the phone’s GPS to track you on the map’s route. So while I was traveling, I decided to shut down the navigation to allow my phone to charge quicker. When I approached a intersection, I decided to re-launch the navigation but it would NOT show me which way to go because it could not connect to the internet to down load the driving directions. Ouch!!! I got directions from a gas station at the interchange. After seeing Mount Rushmore, off we went towards home. I was able to make it to Sioux Falls SD, another 370 miles. Boy was that a long day.
Stayed the night in Sioux Falls then went to Lincoln NE. Probably the shortest travel day that we had the entire trip, 235 miles. We stayed there for a couple of day (with great friends), got to tour the Corn Huskers stadium and see a few other sights.
Now for the drive home, 615 miles. While driving through Kansas City I spotted the Big Foot of T-5R’s, a green wagon. I pulled up to the car to get the drivers attention and while waving out the window he looks over and recognizes me from my videos. That was funny. He posted my sighting on SwedeSpeed.com.
All in all it was a great trip. Other than gas, most places being 50 cents more than what Little Rock sells gas for, my only concern was tires and a clicking noise that I first noticed in Phoenix. While in Vegas I checked it at my brother-in-law’s house. I thought it was my drivers side inner tie rod end link gone bad. Now, about 3,000 miles later I believe it to be my drivers side cv axle. Starting to click now in turns.
Not many people will just gas and go in a 18 year old car with over 230,000 miles on it but it didn’t bother me a bit. If I were able I would be on the road again right now, part of my family is having a wing ding in NY and I would be there now if possible. I’ll post a picture of that 80 mph speed sign when I get a chance. By the way, my wife is still talking about the trip, she had a great time (mostly talks about seeing Mount Rushmore).
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