Spyder Trek

The 2ZZ spyder was one hell of a car. I sat at 80 mph for hours on end. Then she gave me speeds that would get me put in jail in some parts of the country. And to all the pussies that complain that the Spyder is not a car that you can travel with because it does not have room for their tampons, well they just don't know shit! I hauled two weeks worth of clothing in two duffle bags, DSLR camera bag, Dell projector, 3 sets of shoes, a few bags worth of trinkets for the kiddies, spare tire, tools kit, gallon of prestone coolant, gallon of prestone windshield washer fluid, two quarts of Castrol Titanium something or another oil, 100CDs in case, small ice chest for cold drinks, three bags of pretzels and a few bags of doritos. Sleeping bag, and a 6'x6' blanket. And my computer bag. and I still had room if I needed it. When I was in my twenties I traveled across the USA a lot between Bradford Pa and Phoenix / San Diego. It was a lot easier back then. I would drive from Bradf...

$751.24 spent on fuel 193.036 gallons of gas used 6074.9 miles (actual was 6097.4 as I forgot to reset the trip meter a few miles in a couple of times. I left Trip B on for the whole trip which got the higher number. My totals were gathered from my blog postings.) and I managed 31.47 mpg on the whole trip.

144.5 miles $16.38 4.245 gallons I made it!!!  I love my toyota mr2! 10 years old and not even a hickup! 6097.4 miles! 10 more mile til I am home

245.5 miles $27.08 7.402 gallons weather is much cooler. Car seems to have a lot more power in these conditions.

262.0 miles $30.53 8.014 gallons

272.9 miles $32.45 8.563 gallons Longtown tn. Woohoo!  Back to the land of 93 octane

254.6 miles $34.76 8.277 gallons Really muggy in arkansas. But no rain this morning.

302.2 miles $34.58 9.102 gallons Storm brewing

238.7 miles $26.80 7.054 gallons

Fuel 233.4 miles 90 octane... I hate altitude! $29.35 7.527 gallons

Woke up to this... an empty parking lot! My goal today is to make it to and a bit past Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Memphis would be better, but that is seventeen hours away! Todays cartoon of the day was passed to me by Scott Hainstock on Facebook...

Left San Diego this morning around 9am local. Now sitting in a Holiday inn express in Grants, New Mexico. I got some bad fuel in Gila Bend Arizona. Under load on initial throttle input the engine would pink like crazy for about a second or so. Temps in the Valley of the Sun were around 98 degrees F. So I stopped at a WalMart in North Maricopa County and picked up some 104 Boost. It worked. I am averaging 80MPH with sprints to higher speeds. I also had a hell of a head wind for most of the late afternoon trip. I'll fill up in the morning, but the odo is around 240 miles and I have 1/2 a tank left... so that should be in the 30-32mpg area for the Flagstaff to Grants NM run. Rain developed as I was coming into New Mexico. I was in a three-car caravan, we were doing some nice speeds. I made up HUGE time with that run. But when the rain fell, they kept going, I slowed as my wide 235s and 215s and the light weight don't make for fun rain driving. They did well, I just ...

198.3 milesa 24.61 miles 6.479 gal

$23.16 5.941 gal 166.1 miles

El centro $34.80 8.152 gal 241.1 miles Hotter than something very hot here in el centro. Lunch at the box. Everyone speaks Spanish here. I have yet to hear english. I had never seen the border wall. Pretty darn big and you can see it from the highway. Only seen a couple of chp. But have seen at least 15 border patrol cars and a homeland security bus. I love the desert more than anywhere.  Well except for france. . Love france.

Fuel 8.679 gallons $34.53 217.10 miles

More specifically, Mira Mesa. I grew up in this small community in the north of San Diego city limits. We moved to this area from the North Clairmont area (just 5 miles south) in 1971. Mira Mesa Wiki I left in 1981 only to return a few times over the last thirty years. The changes to the area over the last twenty years have amazed me. Though the neighborhoods have not changed that much, the demographics have. A few people still live in the home that they purchased new on my block, my father included. Visited a longtime friend that has lived in their home since new, and her home was they same as it was the day I left in 1981, still neat and tidy, of course some things had been updated over the last 30 years. But the overall feel was the same. It was a bit surreal. Now my fathers place looked the same, except he had replaced the weeds in the front yard that I meticulously took care of as a teen with a desert look with cactuses and sand. Looked a bit out of place in the green of Mi...

$31.77 7.984 gallon 246.2 miles From California Trip 2011 I arrived in Mira Mesa, wow, it has really grown. I really have not been back and looked around the place since 1993. Big change. They put speed bumps on Capricorn Way! That was a surprise. I was not looking. Airborn in a sports car sucks! Went and visited my other Dad. He did not recognize me. In fact it took repeating it several times... it was a weird meeting, though we have not seen each other in almost 20 years. He looks old, wonder how I looked to him... Saw some old family friends. That was a joy. Talked about old times, brought up to day on their children. Fun times with them. Camped out at a local Hampton Inn. Tomorrow I head out to my brothers on the other side of the county.

Set off car alarms pulling unto shell! 268.2 miles $35.30 8.697 gallons Spyder trip so far... my MPG went down a bit. I suspect the crappy fuel that California gets is the reason. I detect detonation at low RPM. Since I use 93 and 94 octane maybe the ECU just needs a good reset to use the 91 stuff here. So far I have spent $402.21, traveled 3298.5 miles and averaged 31.83 MPG with a Toyota 2ZZ-GE in a 2001 MR2 Spyder. I honestly stuck the speedo at 70 all the way down I5. From California Trip 2011

$33.02 8.154 262.10 Now headed down ca20 then to i5

William D. Strong, Jr.'s location@6:44am,7/4 California http://m.google.com/u/m/AnQtdz