Trip Report

Note: Don't eat the mushrooms, this is not that kind of 'trip'
Kids, don't do drugs!

Lessons Learned:
1) Evo's Suck
2) Jason Rocks
3) Koni's + Road Construction = ooof
3) 15hours on the road is a long day
4) That road that we took a gas detour on was fun!

Things Remembered:
1) Miata Speedometers read high
2) The cruise control has a switch on the left, and a stalk on the right.

Mike and I managed to get out of Leesburg at 6:15am and made the trip down to Ashland with two stops (1 for gas, 1 for dine-in-Wendy's) in 6.5hours. It was unevenfull other than having to downshift the Fit to make it up to Cumberland, and spots of rain. Jason showed up after filling the miata up, and went over the car with a fine toothed comb. Cash was forked, signatures signed, and I taped my temp permit to the rear window. Mike grabbed a picture:

and then we bugged.

I figured the Fit had another 150 miles on the tank, which would get us 2hours for a driver change. 100miles into the 150, Mike pulled around and darted down the nearest exit. Which turned into a 10mile jaunt through the WV mountains to the advertised Exxon; Mike took it easy to save gas but I still enjoyed the jaunt.

Mike: "well this was a bust of a exit"

This also gave us a chance to discuss how fast the miata was going. On the way back to Rte 79 I had more fun with the Fit. Once on the highway, we were driving for about an hour when we pulled into a merge area where an entrance and a truck lane were funneling down to two lanes. I was in defensive 'traveling in a carvan' mode, sticking to the left middle lane as traffic stacked up; no need to get caught out in the merge. I was admittedly zoning a little bit when there was a flash in the rearview and sideview mirrors, as this registered there was a "Brrrr-rap-ap-ap-ap" that exploded in my left ear, followed by the site of Silver Evo with a flame shooting out of his 3" tailpipe doing the better part of 110mph and decelerating. He was followed quickly by a black 5 series of unknown designation. Stupid Evos.

Other than that the trip went relatively smoothly, with another pitstop just west of the Md border @ a BP with wonky gas pumps. The only other joy we had was getting stuck behind a white buick from FL that went the speed limit all the way down 15S, which caused us to get stuck behind a white working van just over the VA border that decided to do 10 under the limit. Considering how slow the buick had been going, it was rather ironic how badly he wanted to get around that van. Eventually all three of us made it around the van... and I got a chance to sample the miata's grunt :D

We made it to my house about 9:15, and then headed over to Sweetwater for a celebratory beer/food and so Mike's girlfriend could chauffeur him home. Back home @ 10:30, and I sacked out immediately. It was a long day. Now I get to look forward to fun at the DMV on tuesday! Woot!