Maine to Alabama Trip Summary

[fnkngrv]

Well I left Caribou, Maine Thursday morning for my move to Montgomery, Alabama and I figured that I would share some info about the trip. The car has the following mods and I started the trip at 44,700 mi roughly:

1) AMR Lowering Springs
2) NST Underdrive Pulley
3) AFE Stage 2 SRI
4) Ultra Racing 19mm Rear Antisway Bar
5) Carbon Fiber hood (about half weight of stock hood)
6) Pennzoil 5w-20 Full Synth Motor Oil with Genuine Toyota Filter
7) Royal Purple 75w-90 Gear Oil for the Transaxle
8) 17" 13.4lb wheels
9) Falken 205/40/17 ZE-912 tires
10) Spare Tire delete
11) Full NST Shift Kit

The car's trunk was full as well as the back seat being full. The bulk of the items included:

1) Vacuum bagged:
a) 3 comforters
b) 1 queen size mink blanket
c) 2 pillows
d) Many shirts, jeans, dress slacks, heavy bathrobe, underclothes, etc
2) Bazooka Tube as usual
3) 37" Vizio LCD TV
4) 19" Acer LCD monitor
5) 16 3.5" hard drives
6) Various cables and other small electronics (bag weighed roughly 85lbs)
7) Various Kitchen items (cutlery, toaster, can opener, foreman frille, etc)
8) 4 small tool sets (full screwdriver kit, standard and metric wrench set, full ratchet set)
9) 10lb Shitzu (he moved from the passengers seat to floor, to my lap on occasion)
10) My fat ass (260lbs) ( I am 6'2" and carry my weight well)

Mapquest quoted estimate: 1659.99 miles - 27 hrs 38 min
Actual: 1670.7 miles - 25 hrs 6 min (I clocked via a stop watch for grins)

First fill up: 9.5 gal - $2.99/gal, Kennebunk, Maine
Second fill up: 8.2 gal - $2.99/gal, Bronx, NY
Third fill up: 8.5 gal - $2.75/gal, Winchester, VA
Fourth fill up: 9.1 gal - $2.79/gal, Mooresville, NC
Final fill up: 10.4 gal - $2.79/gal, Montgomery, AL

Most expensive gas price seen: $3.12/gal - Caribou, Maine
least expensive gas price seen: $2.52/gal - 110 miles north of Atlanta on I-85

Total fuel (gal): 45.7
Total fuel cost: $107.27
Avg Mileage/gal: 36.56
Avg Speed: 75-80mph

States crossed: Maine, New Hampshire, Mass, Conn, NY, NJ, Penn, MD, VA, West VA, NC, SC, GA, and then AL. (14 total)

I am pretty happy with the fuel performance seeing as how I have the mods that I do and I was hauling the weight that I was. Another item to note is that I am extremely impressed with my AMR springs and how they work with the stock dampers. Even with how terrible the interchanges were in a few states with roadway to bridges I never once bottomed out. The rear suspension was compressed to the point that the fender lip was even with the lip of the wheels.

A few other items of note:

1) Saw my first Ford Fiesta in the wild:


I have to say that it was a pretty slick looking little ride. As a side note the woman driving it was pretty cute too!

2) Had a pretty cool driving companion for a while hauling a classic Land Cruiser apparently to a show this weekend:


3) Had well over a half dozen close calls with idiot drivers. If you reside in any state that I mention don't take offense unless of course the shoe fits :
a) Least likely to use blinkers: CT and NY drivers
b) Move viewed with phone to ear: MA, VA, and GA
c) Worst tailgaters: NY and CT drivers
d) Worst drivers: Tied NY and CT drivers
e) Most likely to cross 3 lanes in a single swipe: CT

4) Worst roads: MA and NY for sure
Best roads: Toss up between CT (with exception to road/bridge sections) and NC

5) Most Yarii seen on road: VA

6) Cruised around my new neighborhood this morning and it didn't take long to find one of those cars that to me looks like a serious clown car:



Well I guess that is it...if someone has any questions feel free to chime in!

[JumpmanYaris]

damn
So where are you now?

[fnkngrv]

My new home...at least for now...I arrived at Barrington Place townhomes in east Montgomery last night.

[.Kevin.]

Post pics of your car! More photos would of been nice, but tleast that retarded ass clown car was a good laugh, I'd laugh at the owners face freely I wonder what makes them think thats 'cool'.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

6) Cruised around my new neighborhood this morning and it didn't take long to find one of those cars that to me looks like a serious clown car:

Welcome to Alabama!

[nemelek]

75-80 is a great average speed.

[why?]

i saw way too many cars that looked like that in florida. I mean you literally need a step ladder to get into the car. Just insane.