July Challenge - Day 1

The day did not begin until about 5:15 pm, due to the packing of the moving truck. It made for a very long day and worse yet got us started just in time for rush hour in Tampa. Luckily there were no backups.


You'll remember from the planning post that the first leg of this trip was fairly flat, with hills only topping about 200 feet. With that said I'm pretty pleased with the first day's results. This picture was taken with the engine off at the end of the day. The top right gage on the ScanGauge labeled CTM is Current Trip Mileage - 40.2mpg for this leg. You'll notice on the car dash just below the service engine soon light (on the tach) is the distance travelled today of 163.4 miles. The official results will come tomorrow when I fill up the tank for Day 2, but I'm very close to the what I expected.

Some key obstacles that I'll be fighting throughout this Challenge:

1) No cruise control. Especially in the flat lands it would be nice to have, but I'm driving with a very sensitive foot. Slight variations make a huge difference, so I'm hoping today's experience will prepare me for a better day tomorrow.

2) I'm actually loaded down with boxes from the moving van that did not fit. I was expecting a relatively empty car, but instead the entire backseat is full as well as the trunk. I'd estimate an extra couple hundred pounds of weight.

3) No power windows. The temperatures in Florida today were in the 90's and I'm not using air conditioning. That means that the windows are down. The only problem is the occasional Florida rain shower!! Today I only had a sprinkle - just enough to get my arm wet (as if I wasn't already soaked from the heat)! If it really starts to pour, I'll have to pull over to close the windows...


Tomorrow I'll be driving through Atlanta in the early afternoon - hoping to time it around traffic. The day will end in Nashville, barring any problems.


More updates to come.