John_H in Panama City, Florida (pix) - Page 2

smart fortimo · 10-04-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_H

I'm safely in Orlando - lets see if it'll stick!

As a resident of the South for 17 years, I can tell you that sooner rather than later...

you be sticky

Timo

smart fortimo · 10-04-2009, 12:40 PM

BTW, JH, glad you had a safe trip

**Wdhitch** · 10-04-2009, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sato7

what meet is this? maybe I'd like to tag along

Bit of a drive from Jax but I'll send you the info.

bigcritter · 10-04-2009, 11:56 PM

John H.....glad that you've arrived safely in Orlando. As for what Timo had to say, I only have SIX words for you........air conditioning.....air conditioning.......air conditioning!

From someone who lived in LA (lower Alabama) for half my military career, it gets really, really HOT there in the summer. Hopefully, you'll have time to acclimate since you're getting there this time of year. Shorts & t-shirts at Christmas time is nice, but when summer comes, you go from air conditioned home.....to air conditioned car.....to air conditioned work/office; thus the six words mentioned above!

It's a nice area, though, with lots of stuff to see and do. Good luck! Stay in touch.........here & on FB!

briansmart · 10-05-2009, 11:08 AM

John_H was doing a cross-country drive? Cool! I've wanted to do one in my 450. Where can I find more info about this? Specifically, was it pleasure or work or something else?

John_H · 10-05-2009, 11:52 AM

The drive itself was a pleasure: a long-anticipated move back to the east coast from Oregon.

While I never anticipated making a cross-country trip before this year, driving from Oregon to Indiana for a funeral then down to Florida in my Z4 was remarkably pleasant. The idea of taking a little more time in my trek and drive the smart out was more appealing than shipping it or renting a uhaul and dragging the smart. I went the southern route, stopping in Vegas for a couple nights and visiting a few SCOA members along the way. My only real complaint: too many bugs.

I also realized where the smart lacks a little which is the topic of a recent thread on SCOA and an earlier thread (revisted) on area451parts.com: the lack of ability to maintain speed at higher highway speeds (going up grades) by downshifting when 5th gear won't keep up. The paddles are an easy fix to the situation, hence no real complaint.

What else would you want to know?

fpage77 · 10-05-2009, 12:08 PM

I think he thought you were doing some kind of group cross country trip. John_H you better come to the TOTD run next year.

briansmart · 10-05-2009, 12:40 PM

Thanks John_H. I was just curious as to what inspired the trek.

**Suze** · 10-06-2009, 07:16 AM

He John - how about the trip stats?

How many miles? days? miles per day? and MPGs???

John_H · 10-06-2009, 08:32 AM

My GPS trip status showed 3844 miles (which I thought was a bit high) over 7 travel days with the longest drive being about 12 hours from an early stop in Medford OR (I didn't sleep the night before but hoped I could make a longer daytime trek) to Las Vegas but I preferred the 8-10 hour stints.

Because of the 70-80mph highways - many with grades - I wasn't impressed with what my mileage appeared to be. I haven't run my receipts through a spreadsheet, fuelly, or fueleconomy.gov but the apparently non-stellar results didn't entice me to get that done when I finally got my "real" computer back up and running. (Thank you UPS! Oy.)

I have yet to connect the GPS to the computer to see if I can import the trip details.