Road trip over. No incidents. Livermore to...
07-10-2010, 03:53 AM
#1
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Road trip over. No incidents. Livermore to...
Sedalia, MO and back again. Roughly 1950 miles one way. Drove from Flagstaff to Livermore today. Left a few minutes after 11am Flagstaff time and have been home maybe 30 minutes. Call it 12 hours though I stopped at a Black Angus restaurant in Bakersfield and had a margarita, green salad, bread, butter, lemon grilled prawns, coffee and a couple of mouthfuls of strawberry cheese cake.
The dirty girl is sleeping, all the hot bits ticking as she cools down.
Gets a bath tomorrow while I'm doing laundry.
But not even going to unpack the clean clothes in my suitcase.
Head out Monday evening for north of Seattle. Taking the Turbo cause my boss knows I hate to fly. I got news for him. I don't mind flying if I'm flying (driving) the Turbo! Hehehehe.
Going to see if I can get car in Monday AM for an oil/filter change. Almost 5K miles on this oil/filter and to where I'm going is over 700 miles one way so that's close to another 1500 miles. This would put this oil at around the 6K mile mark if I left it in. Not the end of the world. Still I'd like to leave with fresh oil. Checked oil level and a bar is all the level has dropped over the last week's worth of driving.
Was hot all the way east and back, hot and humid. Had climate control on all the time, save the last 10 miles or so when outside temp dropped to 64F and I shut off AC and just the vents to supply outside air to the cabin.
Coming from Flagstaff this AM and in places close to Kingman and points west was running in ambient temp of over 110F. I think in places it got up to 115F. I took some pics but too tired to download and post.
Oh first long trip with Garmin nuvi NAV unit. Nice. I know the way but still handy to have. Gives voice guidance on what exits/turns to take, distance to go, time of arrival, elevation, speed, and speed limit. I like gadgets so this is cool. Oh, used it to find an italian restaurant in Topeka and when that proved to be temporarily unreachable cause of fireworks display had it find another one. Easy peasy.
Another example was today coming up 99 and had Livermore as the destination. I usually run up 99 but the NAV unit kept wanting to have me cut west over to I-5. Finally after passing maybe 3 or 4 suggested turns took the next one. Nice two lane black top through central valley. Only one 35 mph zone in town called I think Alpaugh. But 35mph zone not even a mile long. Made good time and didn't get lost. (Got so lost one time in central valley fog I had to stop and ask directions.)
Once on I-5 traffic rather light and was making good time but down to 1/4 tank of gas. Punched up gas stations nearby and found a handful about 5 miles up the road. Nice. Takes the anxiety out of the unknown. See, there's a stretch of I-5 about 200 long miles that looks all the same. I usually when I cut over do so on 46 and when I come out on I-5 I kind of have my bearings cause I go this route often enough to be half familiar with it. But this time I was sort of dropped off in the middle. I didn't know if a gas station 5 minutes away or 50 minutes away. But the NAV unit told me 5 minutes.
It is great to be home. But looking forward to the run up to Washington starting Monday afternoon. Got to be in a place called Lakewood 8am Wednesday. Actually 10 miles away. Motel room reserved in Lakewood but the people I'm supposed to hook up with -- along with some management people from where I work -- are located 10 miles away.
Added pics:
Luggage: Everything goes in car. Missing? Laptop case, but it fits in behind drive's seat back.
Dusty: I have several pics of dust blowing across road. On way back last night ran into cloud of dust cutting from 99 to I-5. Horses in a corral kicked up the dust.
118F: It was hot! In places. Like everywhere between Livermore and eastern destination and back again. But between Needles and Kingman this was the hottest.
AC: Because of the heat -- see pic -- above -- why I love this. Ahhhh.
Central valley: Flat. Featureless.
Sincerely,
Macster.
The dirty girl is sleeping, all the hot bits ticking as she cools down.
Gets a bath tomorrow while I'm doing laundry.
But not even going to unpack the clean clothes in my suitcase.
Head out Monday evening for north of Seattle. Taking the Turbo cause my boss knows I hate to fly. I got news for him. I don't mind flying if I'm flying (driving) the Turbo! Hehehehe.
Going to see if I can get car in Monday AM for an oil/filter change. Almost 5K miles on this oil/filter and to where I'm going is over 700 miles one way so that's close to another 1500 miles. This would put this oil at around the 6K mile mark if I left it in. Not the end of the world. Still I'd like to leave with fresh oil. Checked oil level and a bar is all the level has dropped over the last week's worth of driving.
Was hot all the way east and back, hot and humid. Had climate control on all the time, save the last 10 miles or so when outside temp dropped to 64F and I shut off AC and just the vents to supply outside air to the cabin.
Coming from Flagstaff this AM and in places close to Kingman and points west was running in ambient temp of over 110F. I think in places it got up to 115F. I took some pics but too tired to download and post.
Oh first long trip with Garmin nuvi NAV unit. Nice. I know the way but still handy to have. Gives voice guidance on what exits/turns to take, distance to go, time of arrival, elevation, speed, and speed limit. I like gadgets so this is cool. Oh, used it to find an italian restaurant in Topeka and when that proved to be temporarily unreachable cause of fireworks display had it find another one. Easy peasy.
Another example was today coming up 99 and had Livermore as the destination. I usually run up 99 but the NAV unit kept wanting to have me cut west over to I-5. Finally after passing maybe 3 or 4 suggested turns took the next one. Nice two lane black top through central valley. Only one 35 mph zone in town called I think Alpaugh. But 35mph zone not even a mile long. Made good time and didn't get lost. (Got so lost one time in central valley fog I had to stop and ask directions.)
Once on I-5 traffic rather light and was making good time but down to 1/4 tank of gas. Punched up gas stations nearby and found a handful about 5 miles up the road. Nice. Takes the anxiety out of the unknown. See, there's a stretch of I-5 about 200 long miles that looks all the same. I usually when I cut over do so on 46 and when I come out on I-5 I kind of have my bearings cause I go this route often enough to be half familiar with it. But this time I was sort of dropped off in the middle. I didn't know if a gas station 5 minutes away or 50 minutes away. But the NAV unit told me 5 minutes.
It is great to be home. But looking forward to the run up to Washington starting Monday afternoon. Got to be in a place called Lakewood 8am Wednesday. Actually 10 miles away. Motel room reserved in Lakewood but the people I'm supposed to hook up with -- along with some management people from where I work -- are located 10 miles away.
Added pics:
Luggage: Everything goes in car. Missing? Laptop case, but it fits in behind drive's seat back.
Dusty: I have several pics of dust blowing across road. On way back last night ran into cloud of dust cutting from 99 to I-5. Horses in a corral kicked up the dust.
118F: It was hot! In places. Like everywhere between Livermore and eastern destination and back again. But between Needles and Kingman this was the hottest.
AC: Because of the heat -- see pic -- above -- why I love this. Ahhhh.
Central valley: Flat. Featureless.
Sincerely,
Macster.
Last edited by Macster; 07-10-2010 at 11:33 AM.
07-10-2010, 09:43 AM
#2
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No pics?
07-10-2010, 10:40 AM
#3
Rennlist Member
Glad it went well with no incidents. If you don't mind me asking, why did you pick Sedalia, MO as your destination? Relatives?
By the time you get back from Wash. you will have driven over 5000 miles.
By the time you get back from Wash. you will have driven over 5000 miles.
07-10-2010, 11:36 AM
#5
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Thread Starter
Tentative plans to head back again in mid-September.
Sincerely,
Macster.
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07-11-2010, 09:41 AM
#11
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Nice run, I found that the traffic for I-5 thru the central valley is faster and has more courteous drivers than hwy 99. 99 has a lot of left lane road hogs going 5 mph slower than the speed limit.
07-11-2010, 12:09 PM
#13
Race Director
Thread Starter
My experience varies. I have run into left lane road boulders on both roads.
I was surprised though this last trip cause traffic on I-5 -- going north anyhow -- was rather light and I could run at the limit almost all the way. Just a few times caught behind a big rig passing another but even then it was just a short interruption of my at the limit driving.
BTW, I can offer a bit of an excuse to those left lane road boulders: The right or slow lane in many places is just too damn rough. (This is true not only on I-5 but 99, I-40, and other freeways in my local home area.) I like to maintain lane discipline and stay in the right lane unless passing but many times I find I have to move into the fast lane cause the right lane so rough it feels like its going to hammer the car to pieces.
However, I do keep an eye out for any vehicles coming up from behind and try to move over when I can to let them go on past. Besides I like a "rabbit" out in front to possibly trigger radar/laser and give my V1 a chance to warn me.
Sincerely,
Macster.
07-11-2010, 12:15 PM
#14
Race Director
Thread Starter
Agree!
In defense of the central valley it has its beauty. My photograpy can't do it justice but the colors from the setting sun (the pic was taken facing sse) are very beautiful.
Further south (and north) where the valley is narrower on clearer days one can see the mountain range to the west and the Sierras to the east. Sometimes snow is visible on the higher peaks of the Sierras as it was earlier this year when I was down that way.
Sincerely,
Macster.
In defense of the central valley it has its beauty. My photograpy can't do it justice but the colors from the setting sun (the pic was taken facing sse) are very beautiful.
Further south (and north) where the valley is narrower on clearer days one can see the mountain range to the west and the Sierras to the east. Sometimes snow is visible on the higher peaks of the Sierras as it was earlier this year when I was down that way.
Sincerely,
Macster.
07-11-2010, 01:55 PM
#15
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I'm glad you had a good trip. But I cannot help but think that with the cruise control set at 73 MPH on I-5, the trip could probably have been accomplished more easily, more comfortably, more cheaply and possibly even more quickly in just about any other car (given that just about any other car would have been less conspicuous to the authorities).
Stephen
Stephen