Out For a Week

V

Vic Willman

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Hey guys, forgot to mention earlier, that I'm going to be off the board for a little over a week. I'll be back in town, on Monday, May 2nd.

Going to Detroit, to visit a female cousin who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She's always been one of my favorites, and I want to go see her while she still knows who I am.

From there, I'll be heading for Indianapolis to spend a day or two with my wife's relatives.

Then back to Jersey. Its about an 1800 mile round trip. It'll be a little hectic but I've done it before with my motorhome, which didn't go down the road very fast. This time I have my 2010 "X-BOX" (Scion xB), which can more than keep up with traffic. So maybe it won't be quite as hectic as before.

If any of you know the big hill on I-270, outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, with my 4 cylinder Toyota motorhome, I was going 17 miles an hour, at full throttle, by the time I got to the top. My xB has the same displacement engine (2.4 liters) as the 1987 motorhome, albeit a lot more powerful, it has about 50 more horsepower, and its much more efficient - with a WHOLE lot less weight and wind resistance, so we'll see how it does.

Happy Easter everyone, and see y'all a week from from Monday!
 
Hve a safe trip Vic. I am very sorry to hear about your cousin. It's a horrible disease I have been dealing with my Mom's progression since my Dad passed away.
I have a feeling the new car will eat that portion of the highway up!
Bill
 
Well I'm back, family is doing remarkably well. My cousin is on Aricept (sp?) and some other new drug, and has a few bad days on occasion, but mostly has good days. Her short term memory could be better, but whose couldn't? She was complaining to me one day, that she has an MBA, and these days sometimes has trouble balancing out her check book... But she just turned 82, so she isn't doing all that bad, all things considered. Hell, I know people in their 20's and 30's with no apparent mental impairments, who can't balance their checkbooks...

When I mentioned I-270, outside of Wheeling, WV, I was wrong - it's actually I-470, the Wheeling Bypass. And yes, I made it up and down that big hill at 70 MPH in cruise control, without any downshifting. Big difference from the motorhome! The new car is our "little car" that I drive 99% of the time. Wife has a bigger Toyota Sienna minivan that is faster and rides more comfortably, but doesn't get as good gas mileage as the little X-BOX. So in the interest of gas mileage, we took the little one. Plus, we wanted to see how we'd manage comfort-wise on a long trip with it.

I paid as much as $3.99/9 for regular unleaded during the trip, but didn't go over $4.00 anywhere - it DID take some "selective shopping" for gas however, and I was sweating a few times about running out of gas, before finding a station with pricing more to my liking. According to the onboard computer in the car, I got 33.2 MPG on the way back from Indianapolis. Those computers aren't all that accurate, and while I didn't do an actual mileage check, the miles per gallon was probably more like 28 or 29. I estimated that it would have cost me about $100.00 extra for gas, if we took the other car. We're planning on taking a trip to Kansas in July, and will take the bigger car then, just for the added comfort.

Gads, when I first started driving I could get a whole fillup for less than it costs for a single gallon these days. In 1960 when I used to commute to school 95 miles round trip per day, it rarely ever cost me more than $3.00 to full my tank with regular.
 
Wife is interested in something like that, grumble, grumble. Doesent it have a choppy ride on the freeway? noisey??
 
It has a short wheelbase, so it's bouncy on bad pavement, but not bad on a good road. It's quite small in overall size but one of its major benefits is that the back seat is quite roomy; it can carry 4 people in comfort - without having your knees in your mouth. Plus, it has an oversize engine - and it runs like a deer! (and not a John Deere, either)

Here's a review that I wrote on it, when it only had 6000 miles on it - gas mileage has not improved and it now has 28000 miles on it:

http://www.carsurvey.org/reviews/scion/xb/r127986/

The 2011 models now have (2) backup lights, instead of just one - otherwise, they seem to be identical to my 2010 model. Fair amount of engine noise during acceleration, as there isn't a whole lot of insulation in it. But after coming up to speed, it isn't bad at all.

Also, it's a Toyota with their legendary reliability. (Notice that once GM and Ford started showing a profit again, all the complaints about runaway Toyotas died off almost instantly? Hmmmm, I wonder why that was?)
 
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