Monday, June 13, 2016

Random Thoughts

The journey so far has been relatively short (less than 800 miles), taking us from Charlotte to Fort Morgan to New Orleans.  Be that as it may, I have had plenty of time to reflect on a few things:

1) Why do more drivers not use cruise control? It's so useful. All I have to do is press a button and the car maintains a constant speed ALL BY ITSELF! It's truly incredible.

2) As much negative press as diesel has gotten lately with dieselgate, the engines are pretty incredible.  My Jetta is weighed down and packed to the brim (smartly packed to the brim though, I have to say) AND has two bikes on top.  So basically as un-aero and as heavy as a four door sedan can be and I still averaged 39 miles to the gallon from Charlotte to Fort Morgan (600+ miles). That's pretty impressive in my mind.



3) The Southeast is littered with billboards, but especially the Gulf Coast. Personal injury attorneys are near the top of Gulf Coast advertisers.  At least their slogans are somewhat interesting:

"One call, y'all!" - Morris Bart
"One click, that's it!" - Morris Bart

It's pretty sad, however, that the reason the profession as a whole has a slightly negative tint cast on it is because of ambulance chasers like that...


4) Rain-X is incredible.  Can anyone describe to me how it works? All I know is I spray that stuff on and I become mesmerized by the beads of water that scoot up my windshield.

5) I've driven through Atlanta so many times I'm scared to try and count it (en route between NC and LA, VA and LA, etc) but wow does it suck.  Even with "low traffic" the sheer volume of vehicles (pronounced veee-Hickles, not veeecles, now that we're solidly in the South) makes going through the city stressful and eventful.

6) It is SO FLAT once you're south of Montgomery.  Seriously.  It's amazing.



I mean, LOOK AT THE ELEVATION CHANGE! It's literally 0ft.

The lack of elevation change is nice for speed, but the humidity and dew point offset that by quite a bit and turn the overall running experience (in the summer) into a bit of a...well, not a negative.  But definitely something worth thinking slightly negatively about I suppose.

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