Catching Up

Life was a little disrupted over the last week or so. As mentioned before, Kim and the kids were out of town for a little more than a week. When I get the chance to stay behind, I tend to fill in my schedule with a bunch of things I wouldn't get to normally do. My goal is usually to find a good balance of three things: Work (Professional), Work (around the house/cars) and Fun. Happy to say, I succeeded. Since the real maintenance work on the Benz is complete, I did spend a lot of time behind the wheel. It was sunny and in the high 70's for most of the week, so we're finally being rewarded for the crummy winters over the last two years.

Related to cars, but unrelated to the Benz, I did make a road trip for work last week. I had to see people down near Hood River, about 60 miles East of Portland. Since it was a longer trip, I took the BMW, as it is more comfortable, has a better stereo, and gets better mileage. Gas prices being what they are, I decided to try and maximize my mileage for the trip down and see what I could do with regards to efficiency. I pretty much kept to the speed limit and was able to forget about the A/C for drive down. I was impressed with the mileage for the trip, and the odometer milestone that I achieved just as a arrived at our meeting place made for a neat picture.

Yep - 34 mpg at an average speed of about 67 mph for the trip down. Unfortunately, on the way home, the outside temp had approached 90 degrees. As much as I tried, going without A/C for more than a few minutes was not an option, so my mileage for the return trip dropped to 30.5. Still pretty good in my book. As fun as the roadster is, there is something to be said for the newer engines in cars.