Midnight Cheese

Update 7/30: Jeff got the job done. We attended a nice ceremony and reception in Bangor and met lots of nice folks. Many had traveled as far as we did and even further.

The stock of Cadillac Mountain Stout has also been secured and lobster has been consumed by all. The best part of Bangor has been the weather. An amazing mid 70s for highs.

Update 7/29: DC and Baltimore traffic was a breeze this morning. We drove right through Philly and NYC with minimal traffic. I-95 took us right through the Bronx.

The Bronx from I-95

For whatever reason, Connecticut was the trouble spot. Between 2:00pm and 7:00pm traffic was ridiculous. Bumper to bumper most of the way inside and outside of the largest cities all the way to Massachusetts.

New York City Skyline

Philly Skyline

The worst part of the Northern portion of the trip was the crazy amount of tolls we had to pass through. States imposing tax/tolls on the Interstate system just doesn’t seem right. I guess the people up North don’t mind. That’s something you won’t see in the South, however.

Toll in New York State

Update 7/28: The drive from Florida to DC was really quite uneventful. We stopped at South of the Border (just South of the North Carolina line) which felt like a 1960s/1970s era tourist trap. Lots of statues of gorillas, flamingos, and Pedro in a sombrero.

South of the Borderder just South of the North Carolina border

Update 7/28 8:37a: We’ve repurposed the trip into the most epic beer run ever.

Update 7/27: Flew into Jacksonville and picked up the minivan which is a light blue Chrysler Caravan. We’re calling it the Blue Beauty. Got the CB/WX radio installed for maximum information consumption as we make out trip northward. Here’s an image taken from the air, plus some HD footage taken from the plane:

The events this summer include a road trip from Jacksonville Florida to Bangor Maine to attend Jeff’s wedding. 6 of us are piling into a mini van for this epic 2,700 mile drive over the course of a week or so. I’m going to be adding updates to this post. Photos, video, etc. Our progress can also be tracked on the embedded Latitude module above. You can also follow along on twitter.

The fun starts tomorrow afternoon when I fly out to Jacksonville. Check back often!

Rolled over 150,000 miles yesterday. It took almost 4 years to add another 50,000 miles from the 100,000 point, bringing my yearly average down to almost half that of 4 years ago. Here’s to another 50,000!

Final Update: The car made the trip just fine. I have a good weekend of detailing ahead of me. The car must have sat under a tree for some time and needs a good wipe-down outside and in.

There seems to be a bit of sludgy debris in the cooling system which was probably stirred up with the replacement of the water pump. The temperature read a bit high during the first 50 miles or so of driving, but has normalized since then. A flush may need to happen soon. That seems to be the only major issue. At 38,000 miles, the Acclaim should have some good driving time left in it.

Update 9:00p: We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow. The car has been driven around town off and on today. It feels strong. We’ll be stopping about half-way in Johnson City to visit a friend. Hopefully we’ll make it back home before dark.

Update 11:30a: The Acclaim is in hand. It needs a good scrubbing, but everything runs smooth. The location we picked the car up from had a Tesla Roadster sitting in one of the bays. Very cool. That’s te closest I’ve been to a Tesla. I think it’s presence is a good sign for the Acclaim acquisition.

The Acclaim is without spare tire and locating a spare wheel on a Saturday is a challenge. May hit up a junk yard. More to come.

Update 6:30a: The plane awaits: http://twitpic.com/16xmrp An Acclaim fun fact: The Acclaim was rated third in reliability behind Accord and Camry in 1995.

We’re flying up to Baltimore in the morning to pick-up and turn right back around with a 1995 Plymouth Acclaim with only 38,000 miles on the odo.

It’s a unique find, but ultimately will extend the life of the Mooth fleet as all three of our vehicles are at the 150,000 mile mark. The Taurus will likely be retired.

Hopefully updates to this post will be frequent as we make our way to Baltor and back with our new old car.

Nissan was showing off the Leaf this evening. I snapped a few photos below. I like the prospect of driving an all-electric vehicle. The price needs to come down a bit, but for around-town applications, the Leaf sounds promising.

Unfortunately, Nissan wasn’t showing off the motor or the battery pack tonight. That will have to remain a mystery for the time being.

This weekend I’ll be driving down to Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans event. Seeing some great cars and races aside, the secondary goal is to regularly post photos and updates to this blog and Twitter.

We’ll be camping without access to the power grid, so I’m working on a solar setup to charge batteries and maybe power a small electrical device or two. We’ve got a 100 watt solar panel tied to a cigarette/car outlet for plugging in DC devices. I have a 100 watt DC to AC inverter that will be tested. So far, the solar panel will power the inverter, but with a lack of sun this past week, I haven’t been able to draw enough energy to power an AC device off the inverter. With the way the weather forecast looks, we may not see any sun while we’re down there.

Last year, with several thousand people at the track, AT&T’s data network was very spotty. So updates are all dependent on AT&T having gotten their network together. But weather and crappy networks aside, the race will be lots of fun!

More to come with pics of our setup once we get to Road Atlanta.

With the NY Times reporting a surge in riders on mass transit systems, I decided to research the feasibility of riding the bus from La Vergne to work.

Driving distance using a car is 15 miles leaving at 8:10am taking roughly 25-30 minutes in the morning, 30-45 minutes in the afternoon. (Leaving around 5:30pm.)

The bus requires driving my car 3 miles to get to the nearest stop in the morning. Once on the bus, one transfer in downtown Nashville is required, adding on an extra 5 miles for a total of 20 miles one way. I would have to be at the stop at 6:30am in order to get to my final stop at 8:15am then add another 10 minute walk after that, putting me at work at my normal time of 8:30am.

To get home I would have to leave work at 4:00pm to catch the last run back to La Vergne arriving at my final stop at 5:45pm. This results in a 6.5 hour work day.

So, riding the bus results in a much longer commute, and assuming my calculations are correct, fare costs nearly twice as much compared to driving. $3.50/day vs. $6.13/day. That’s using a 31 day pass for the route in Nashville, plus the special fare to ride the Murfreesboro/Nashville line(96X) from La Vergne into downtown. The 96X fare isn’t included in the 31 day pass.

Driving into work this morning I noticed a car some distance ahead with these tail lights that were terribly unique in their circular appearance. I sped up to catch the curious vehicle and as I hoped, came right up on not one, but two brand spankin’ new Nissan GT-Rs cruising down Murfreesboro road. One red, one a grayish color.

The cars had Tennessee Manufacturer/Dealer plates and judging by their route I’d guess they must have been shipped to the Nissan plant in Smyrna and were being driven up to Nissan North America Headquarters in downtown Nashville.

What amazing looking cars. The large diameter on the exhausts is unexpected, but noticeably imposing. The cars were being driven ultra conservatively (40mph in a 45) so I was unable to hear much from the engines.

I caught just a brief glimpse of the front of the red one, but not enough to really form an opinion. I followed behind them for several miles but ultimately had to turn off as they continued into downtown.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my good Nikon with me, but here are a couple shots from my camera phone.