1792 miles total. Did about 800 miles to Chattanooga the first day (11 hours due to rain. my best before was 6.5 hours in a rental car).

2nd day was planning on stopping when i got into the Texas border, but decided to just go all the way to San Antonio (total 16 hours).

so I averaged about 66.37 miles/hour which is kinda pathetic, but it rained all through TN and Alabama. Was headed southwest while the storm system heading NW dropped like 5 tornados into the Birmingham area, 30 min after I left there after stopping for lunch.

here's the gas mileage stats:
5 gas stops en route

Day 1:
1st: 31.366 mpg
2nd: 31.045 mpg

the mileage here was pretty good, but i was driving at a medium pace pretty steadily due to rain.

Day 2:
1st: 29.267 mpg
2nd: 29.904 mpg
3rd: 30.667 mpg

the mileage here was a little lower, even though i was still traveling pretty slow, but I had to stop several times because of the storm as well as a lot of speeding up and slowing down.

Now i'm about 400 miles overdue for my 15k service, which i figure is ok because most of the miles since my last service are highway.

glad i got 2 more coats of z2 on while i was home.
the bra saved my front end, especially from bugs and gravel.

oh, and the tranny is fine.

 

Your car is offically breaking in.......Glad you made in one peace !

 

yeah, after having it almost 2 years, i can finally use it like a regular car for a couple months.

 

That's one helluva drive. How about that change in climate, eh? Get ready from a mild winter, you would be lucky if you saw even one snowflake. Nearly 15 years in SA and only saw one dusting one year and about an inch with ice another year.

 

i'm glad to be back in this climate. the 2nd day i was home my face was peeling and stung becuase it was so cold and dry.

i can care less for snow. leaving the car here when i go back for x-mas. brought my zaino kit with me, so hopefully i can get a couple more coats on without having to worry about rain.

 

I have to drive to Vancouver, BC every month and what I have found to save an enormous amount of gas is to drive with your cruise control.

Once you get used to using the cruise, it is really cool to not have to use your foot. I sometimes wish they had a switch on the steering to brake with..

 

Speaking of big storms, I just drove home through a nasty storm. It even hailed on my car for 5-10 seconds. That pissed me off. I could just picture the paint chipping.

Hopefully it's okay though. I don't have the guts to look until tomorrow.

 

i think i got lucky, the worse i had was rain so heavy i had to pull into a rest stop because i couldn't see and didn't feel like driving 20mph. but besides that, no hail or anything damaging.

i was on i20/59 in alabama going south-west out of birmingham, and that's when i heard on the radio that a tornado just touched at mile marker 100. i was at mile marker 77 when i heard that, so i passed it just in time.