Well I took the Z on its first road trip and it was a great trip, other than 2 incidents.

1. On my way back from Texas (took me 801 miles to leave the state) Anyway, I have the Valentine 1 on, and a trucker keeps passing me going between 75-80. I pass him back because I don't want a busted windshield. I am doing 75 in a 70.

I am chatting with the wife, not paying attention and damit, my V-1 went nuts, and I see a State Trooper coming the other way, he slows and proceeds to do a u-turn in the grass in middle of the highway. At this point, I tell the wife I just got busted. My V-1 goes bezerk from the rear and I see him catching up. He gets behind the trucker and turns the lights on. I was so relieved, I just knew I was busted.

2. I am almost out of New Mexico heading into Colorado and its a dark two-lane road. I was going about 70. I hit a curve in the road and couldn't see whats ahead. I get around the curve and I see this huge deer, looked like an Elk. This animal was huge. Anyway, it was in the middle of the road just staring at me and not even moving. I had about a second to react or the wife and I were toast. Luckily, no one was coming the other way because thats the only way I could go. Either hit the deer or the guardrail.

Just thought I would share my road trip fiasco with you guys/gals.

Car got 27 MPG the entire trip. BTW, my car was a totally different car below sea-level. I was impressed.

 

That sounds like a pretty good trip. Just a little bit of advice: I don't know if it was dark in New Mexico but be very careful rolling out in the dark. I almost hit a moose on I95 in Maine at night time. The only thing that saved me was that I was trying to figure out what was floating above the road(it turned out it was the moose's eye). I can't wait to take my first trip in the Z. I want to from Maryland to California to B.C, Canada all the way to Nova Scotia, Canada and back to Maryland.

 

sounds like a good trip, glad to hear you're both ok and the Z didnt act up on you! I might be taking a pretty good road trip soon too and thats encouraging. 27 MPG is nice too!

 

hurahn, when you come through Nova Scotia, come into the states via the CAT ferry and stay at my hotel in Bar Harbor, ME. It's a gorgeous town and Acadia Nat'l Park is beautiful.

 

Thanks. I usually plan my routes and not where I stop. The last time I went through there I missed the last ferry of the season. Lets just I was more than a little pissed off.

 

I have a similar story. I was on my way to the Fingerlakes in NY going about 85-90 the entire way. It was pouring outside, so there weren't any cops out. I was passing a car on the left when I look in my rearview mirror & see flashing lights right on my ***. I turn to my wife and tell her, "they got me". I speed up to pass the car on my right in order to pull to the side of the road. As I get into the right lane & start to pull to the berm I see the vehicle with the flashing lights begin to pull to the side of me. My first thought is that he was going to pull in front of me & slowly bring me to the side of the road. I then look over at the vehicle & see that it was a Suburban EMS vehicle. I almost crapped my pants. I then resumed my speed of 90 mph.

 

There are few things as frightening as a moose sighting on the highway. I used to do a lot of skiing in New Hampshire during the winter, and all the highways in the White Mountains have "Brake for Moose" warnings every so often. I remember seeing the remains of a moose collision on the news one night....car was so totaled you'd have thought a semi-trailer hit it.

 

You saw BIG FOOT !!!

 

i'm guessing you took the same roads i do to get from colorado to texas, 287, 87, and I-25? You're right about the car feeling a whole lot different down here at sea level. At 10,000 ft in colorado i thought my car was a pig. I got 24.8 mpg on my trip 2 weeks ago but thats because i averaged 90mph most of the time.

 

Below sea-level?

Could you elaborate? Did you go to Death Valley?