Not great. Not awesome. Not amazing. Just plain old Good.
Really the vacation was two vacations in one. The first (and last) was driving. I drove down to visit my friends in Texas. As the door to door driving is just a touch over sixteen hours, I broke it up into two days. Driving there and back is one part of the vacation. The other part was the actual visit with my friends.
Lemme talk about the driving fist. I already mentioned that I was going to get the car detailed... and OH MY GOD does Ginger look good when she's cleaned professionally. I get her washed at the local car wash once every week or so. More or less on my day off from work I'll consider the weather for the next few days... if it's going to rain a lot I'll hold off. If it's going to be sunny, then I'd just prefer to get the car cleaned. But that's the exterior and that's just a big machine doing it's job. Sure it has wax, but it's not hand applied in layers. And there's no clean like a clay bar clean. I don't do it personally because... well... I don't want to. I want the clean car but not all that effort, especially as it would be a weekly thing.
So the detail was great... but evidently they have closed down that branch of their chain. They have three locations and only do the detailing at the one. So once they were done with Ginger, they gave me a call and didn't leave a message. I got the 'missed call' on the phone but it didn't have their name on it, so I never considered calling them. I finally got a call later that day but it was the maintenance man. He waited there until I came in and was happy enough to run my credit card... for $109. I had been quoted just over $200, but the paperwork left with the car only mentioned the interior cleaning and therefore only had it's price... $109.
I tried to be the stand up guy and convince him that I owed over $200 but he wouldn't listen and insisted that I only pay what was on the paperwork. And trust me... this had the full detail work inside AND out.
So my beautiful car and I headed down. I had my iPod, phone and Sirius all on hand for entertainment while the trunk had my two bags and my gun case. It all fit and it all fit just fine. You know... I actually wrote this up for on a different forum, so I'm going to copy and paste that:
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MPG:
If you look at my fuelly data you can clearly see the drop I received in mpg. Instead of two lane 55 mph roads this was almost entirely interstate driving. Besides some construction and some slower spots near cities (St. Louis), the speeds ranged from 65 to 75 mph. I've always driven 5 mph above so I was cruising around at 70 to 80 mph. The drop in mpg was just about what I expected; down to 36 mpg.
The drive down was very warm. Temps in the mid 80s. The return trip was a dual headed beast... rain and storms on day one, cool temps on day two. The storms tanked the mpg but the cool temps let me go without the AC and netted me 38.1 mpg.
I couldn't be happier with these results. Sure, I could have used techniques talked about here and gotten better mpg but instead I drove it like I always do on road trips... set the cruise, turn up the tunes, and enjoy the scenery. When some car starts annoying me I dropped the pedal and speed past them... .the HyTi can easily and comfortably drive upwards of 95 mph.
Physical Comforts:
Wow. I don't exactly have a long list of comfortable cars to compare against, but this is far and above the most comfortable car I've driven. I expect to get driving fatigue in my ankles, knees, and back on any trip of 3 hours or more. I'm used to my body telling me when it's time to get off the road and stretch... my back would ache too much or my ankles would start to cramp. Not on this trip! This trip included 10, 8, 12, and 6 hours of driving. I would stop only when I felt my concentration waning, my bladder filling, or my tasty beverage emptying. On previous long trips I would have to walk around for 5 or 10 minutes to stretch my body back into a recognizable shape. This time I was fine by simply walking to the rest area bathroom or the gas station cooler. I'd get back in the car and be ready for another few hours of driving.
The AC blew true and cold. Leaving it in the 'Auto Climate Control' setting worked fine. When the sun started peeking through the windows and warming me up more, a few taps of the 'temp down' button remedied the situation without having to fiddle with the temp and fan settings constantly. And those cooled seats? WOW! I could only keep it on the highest setting for about 20 minutes at a time. I read in some other thread that it feels like you just peed your pants and I have to completely agree with that assessment. It actually grows uncomfortable... like sitting on a metal bench in winter. But dropping it down to the lowest setting was just fine for those first two hot days.
Speaking of the seats, these have hit the perfect balance of keeping my snugly held into place and letting me shift around to a more comfortable position. Whenever my back would start to let me know it needed to change position a quick tap of the powered seat (either up/down or tilting the back forward/rearward) remedied the situation swiftly.
If I had to lodge any complaint in the physical comfort department, it would be the dead pedal. I felt as though I needed another inch or two of room toward the outside of the car. But even that is a minor complaint and one that I've had in every single car I've ever owned/driven. In previous cars that discomfort would quickly grow into an ache.... in Ginger, it was a minor inconvenience in an otherwise comfortable ride.
Entertainment:
My previous car had the MFT system so I more or less knew what I was getting for this trip. Using the voice controls to switch between the Sirius stations, to the terrestrial radio stations to the iPod, to the bluetooth connected phone (where I keep my pod casts), was easy and smooth. For the most part. There were several times where I would have to tilt my head up, look 'inward', speak in-single-word-format, and shout just for the system to understand me. And even then it wouldn't understand me at times. Sadly with the lack of physical controls this meant that I had to resort to using the MFT screen. I love having that screen and it's beautiful to look at... but while driving at 80 mph it's never a good idea to take my eyes off the road long enough to line my finger up with the series of buttons just to change from the radio to the iPod. I imagine it's the microphone placement as I never had a problem with my 2012 Focus recognizing my voice commands.
The audio quality was incredibly satisfying. I didn't have to blast the music to overpower the wind/engine noise. Even driving with the window partially open (I smoke, so the windows was open a few inches many many times), I didn't have to deafen myself just to hear the dulcet tones of Terry Gross and her Fresh Air podcast. When I turned to music though and wanted to blast it... well the car doesn't have anywhere near a competition level audio system but it gets VERY loud and stays VERY clear. My musical tastes range from baroque, to jazz, from rock to rap, from country to alternative, and many other genres. My biggest complaint on radios that can produce loud music is that they can easily exceed themselves. What I mean is that you can turn up the stereo loud enough that you know you're damaging the speakers. I've had that happen before in situations like this... I'd be listening to a particularly rousing version of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto and slowly increase the volume to the max. At the end of the song I'd forget just how loud I had set it and the next song would invariably be something that would rip the subs apart. Not here. Not in the beauty of a car. I could jam out to Bach or Beethoven in one moment, leave the volume maxed, and then enjoy the ear drum damaging guitar and bass beat of Nine Inch Nails or Shaggy without feeling that I was damaging the car.
Navigation:
This is my first car that has ever included a navigation system. The previous car had Sync Services directions but that was more of a pain than anything else. On previous trips I would simply use an old paper map/atlas or better yet Google Maps and plan the trip out. I'd mark down what highways I'd have to take, and the rough distances between them and then just keep an eye on the signs and the odometer. Having a Nav system was was easier. I started out by inputting my buddy's house address in and then let the soft voice of Ginger tell me where to go. I was impressed by many small things in the nav experience.
Having the four stage information was very helpful in traffic. The first stage was letting me know what the next turn was and how far away it was (Left onto I-44 in 120 miles). When getting close the voice would chime in and let me know to turn left in 1 mile. Closer yet and it would chime in again with more specific instructions; turn left in six tenths of a mile onto I-44 West. And then that final double tone to let me know to turn NOW.
Audibly the system is good. Visually, it's even better. I loved the third 'view' option when on the highway. The left hand of the MFT screen showed the moving map while the right hand side would show the next turn and below that an ever changing information box of what the next few exits had. The exit information was particularly helpful when searching for a hotel. At a glance I could decide that while this exit does have a hotel, the next exit has hotels, gas stations, and restaurants. The only time I looked at the billboards or exit signs was when I wanted to know WHICH hotel was at a particular exit. While in the city I preferred the second 'view' option where it was the map on the left and a turn by turn set of driving directions on the right.
The best part for me though was the lane information. While driving south of Chicago and through St Louis there are many highways coming together and splitting apart. Knowing that I have to turn right in a mile is great... but a glance at the screen would also let me know that three of the four lanes would be turning right so I didn't need to quickly get over into the far right land during rush hour traffic. I didn't look too closely at the every screen like this (Rush Hour Traffic!!), but every screen it displayed showing the lane configuration seemed to match the particular 'intersection' I was approaching. It even included the road signs that I would see!
Overall I was impressed. I was able to take a 2000+ mile trip with no map or paper directions in the car beforehand. Sure, I had my phone just in case the Nav system sucked or broke, but I never had to use it.
Random Impressions:
I've mentioned in a previous post that I was a little disappointed in just how common the Fusion is. This trip did nothing to change that opinion as there were plenty of other Fusions sharing the concrete with me. BUT.... they all looked damned good! On my second day of driving I had to stop for gas at some podunk gas station in some podunk Oklahoma town. Some old timer sitting out in front of the garage/gas-station/grocery-store got up and came over for a closer look. He complimented me on the car and was very impressed when I started telling him all the features. I think I blew his mind when I told him the gas mileage I was getting.
I've finally found my car's twin. For several miles somewhere in southern Illinois I played leapfrog with another Ruby Red Ford Fusion Hybrid Titanium with medium ceramic interior.
One night at the hotel I was outside my room having a cig and I saw a guy park next to Ginger in his late 60's Corvette. I was ogling his car from my 2nd story balcony while he was ogling my car. He was far enough away that I couldn't hear him, but I distinctly saw him nod his head and mouth 'nice' as he walked away. A similar experience happened on my return trip but this time it was a Cadillac CTS.
Using the voice commands in the Navigation system to find a nearby restaurant when you don't know exactly what you are looking for is an exercise in frustration. Maybe if I had learned the voice commands beforehand it would have been easier, but by the time I got a list of restaurant types I had visually found a restaurant.
I'm surprised that there weren't more bug splats on the car. Oh don't get me wrong there are a LOT of bug splats, just not as many as I expected. That may have more to do with the time of year (mid spring as opposed to mid summer) though.
I really liked how the navigation system stayed locked in. Any time I pulled over for gas/munchies/drinks/bathroom it would be right there ready to continue the trip. I even had to backtrack several miles when I realized I had left my glasses at the last gas station and the nav system was right there giving me directions to turn around. It was easy to mute the directions for the trip back and then turn them back on when I was headed into the right direction. Even stopping for the night didn't take out the route.
The gas pedal seems to be more of a suggestion of the desired speed rather than directly being connected to the engine. During some construction slowdowns where I wasn't using the cruise control I would find myself lagging behind traffic or tail gating when I didn't intend to do so. I haven't noticed such a disconnect in my day to day driving.
Even at speeds exceeding 70 mph the car had enough 'get up and go' when required. Floor the gas pedal and I could dance up to 90 mph to pass particularly annoying drivers without breaking a sweat. It's no sports car, but it's enough.
The center console is roomy enough to keep my wallet, phone, a stack of ones (for tolls), and a baggie of quarters (for tolls), and still hold all the rick-a-rack that I normally keep there. The cubbie in front of the gear shifter is the perfect place for my sunglasses/glasses.
Having a hybrid is awesome when you're stuck at the site of an accident. There was a bad accident that required a helicopter life flight not 10 car lengths in front of me. I was stuck there for about an hour and was able to listen to my music and keep the car nice and chilly all that time without utilizing the ICE.
The trunk may be smaller than this car should have, but it had plenty of space. I didn't have to remove any of my crap back there and was able to easily fit my gun case, ammo box, big rolling suitcase and medium sized 'carry on' bag. Now if I had four people in the car, it might have proved a bit snug, but for just me it was perfect.
Overall Impression:
I couldn't be happier with how Ginger held up on this trip. She was roomy, comfortable, sleek, and fuel efficient. There are cars that could beat out any of those categories, but I don't think any car has the same wonderful combination of all those.
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That covers the driving and the car experience.
As comfortable as the ride is, there is still driver fatigue to deal with. At the end of those driving days, I was still beat. I had hoped to find some local cuisine for a meal each traveling day but that went out the window as soon as I checked into a hotel. I ended up with pizza delivery one night and Wendy's the other.
Speaking of hotels; I had planned on an average of $100 a night. If I overspent the first night, I would look for a deal the second night. On the first night I ended up at a Best Western. They only had one room available and it was a double queen room. Thankfully the clerk gave me a deal as it was a 'last minute' thing. She gave it to me at the single room price. It was clean, comfortable, nice, and only cost me $62.
The second night, seeing as how I got a deal earlier, I decided to stay at a nicer hotel. I saw that this particular exit had a Holiday Inn express, so I picked that. They too were almost fully booked and only had a single room. Unfortunately this clerk had no care about the price and charged me the going rate for the double queen room... $139.99. And while the quoted $62 at the Best Western included all fees and taxes, the Holiday Inn didn't. So that stay ended up costing me $170. It would have been a touch less, but I rented a movie (DO NOT rent 50 Shades of Gray... it's not even good as soft porn).
More than anything else, I was happy to be driving. Without the physical discomforts I normally get on long trips, it was really enjoyable.
You may have seen a comment on the last post that I broke my glasses.... that sucked. Lemme tell the whole story. I have to back up just a bit and explain driving, especially Oklahoma Driving. Driving in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri are all about the same. Every few miles there's an exit, and almost all exits have gas stations. Gas stations means fuel of course, but also a good place to just get out of the car and stretch the legs. I can buy a soda, use the restroom and take a little walk without looking like a perv or 'stranger danger' in some mall parking lot. Oklahoma though...well they have the majority of the highway (at least the highway I took) as a toll road. I knew the toll road was coming up, but figured that every few miles there would be an exit or at least a rest area. I should have stopped before getting onto the toll road, but none of the exits looked good.
Once I got onto the turnkpike, I saw the sign. "Next Exit 44 miles". Unfortunatly I saw that while passing a semi and couldn't make that last exit... so I had to go another 40 minutes without a rest. Once off the toll road it turns into an odd combination of limited access highway and country highway. There were parts that had exits and entrances and was posted at 75 mph. There were other parts that went through the middle of a town and was down to 40 mph.
So when I saw the run down gas station that had easy on/off access to the perverted highway, I took it. I gassed up, went inside and got a cold soda, and then went for a little walk. I had my glasses in my pocket and din't want them to get in the way (they're bulky in the pocket) so I set them on top of the car. I swear to God I was looking at the case and thought to myself;
"I should really stop and take the 10 seconds to open the door and toss these inside. Otherwise I'll forget them and might even drive off with them still on.... Wow is that a Porsche 911!"
The Porsche broke my train of thought and then I walked off. After a few moments I got back into the car and drove off. While getting back onto the highway I thought a car had blown it's tire as some piece of black rubber hit my window lightly.
It took me a good 10 miles to put it all together. That was no piece of rubber (That's No Moon!) that hit my windshield... it was my black glasses case. I turned around and went back to the gas station. It took me about 15 minutes to locate the broke and battered case along side the road. It was empty. It took me another 10 minutes to find one bent and battered arm for my glasses. No sign of the other arm, the frames, or the lenses.
Seeing that Porsche cost me my glasses. My Oakley frames and the lenses with every appreciable costly 'extra' beyond transition lenses. I don't, of course, blame the Porsche.. that was all my fault. To make matters worse, that was on day two of an eight day trip. I called my friend and he recommended his optometrists eye center as he knows they have Oakley frames. He thought they might be able to fix my glasses, not fully realizing that I didn't even find all of my glasses. But hey... if they had my frames, they could at least get me a pair.
Several hours later when I pulled in, they were as nice and helpful as advertised. They had my frames (Oakley Currency) with only one minor variation.... the "O" logo on the frames is blue instead of all black. Really it's only a small difference. I emphasized that I would need these ASAP as without them I was stuck with just my sunglasses. And keep in mind that my sun glasses are as dark as they can make them, making me practically blind indoors or outside on a cloudy day (did I mention that it was cloudy and rainy all the time I was down there?). So the guy without missing a beat said that he couldn't do that with my bifocals, but could get me single vision lenses the next day.
That cost me $340. My local optometrist faxed down my prescription, they ordered the lenses and the sales clerk told me he'd give me a call the next day.
The next day about an hour before they closed I gave them a call (I was staying about 45 minutes away). The woman that answered the phone told me that their lens delivery hadn't come in yet, but that the glasses would be ready to pick up on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY!!??
My silence must have conveyed my dismay. My calm voice, when I did start to speak, must have conveyed my outrage. After a bit of back and forth ("I was assured that these would be ready to pick up today... if they weren't going to be ready of today I would have gone to another shop. If no one could have gotten them done in that time I would have shipped my old frames down next day air... now I can't go anywhere else and can't have it overnight shipped because you've yanked me around for that one precious day"). She placed me on hold to confer with a colleague and when she came back told me that someone was going to stay after they closed up and put my lenses into a frame. They would give me a call first thing in the morning and they would be ready to pick up.
So they were this close (holding my fingers very close together) to being very helpful. Instead they fumbled the ball on the one yard line and almost screwed up my entire vacation.
Once I had the glasses sitting on my nose I called up my local optometrist and had them order the same lenses I had before. These lenses would only be a stop gap as I still can't really read with them on (at least nothing very small). The replacement lenses will cost me $450. So leaving my glasses on the car will turn out to be a $790 mistake.
Thank god I drove and saved $200.
Anywho, driving was fun and totally worth while (outside of the glasses fiasco).
As for the stay with friends.... well they are now really a family. Husband, Wife, and two children aged five and three. Children at that age need constant supervision. It's not as though they can tell them to go to their room and play alone. So most of my stay down there revolved around whatever the children wanted to do. Which included a lot of talking to me (I'm their 'Uncle" and they both missed me from previous trips), and a lot of watching children shows on two iPads and the television....all at the same time.
We did get to go down to the gun range... and that's going to explain the picture title of this post.
I had taken my 1911 out shooting once and it was fun. But I was really looking forward to this opportunity. I would be shooting with someone as meticulous and anal as me. Between the two of us we'd really see just how accurate this gun was. At first, it seemed to be both precise AND accurate. AT around 10 yards I had a solid two inch group while my friend's group was closer to one and a half inches. But when you shoot a semi-automatic pistol the expelled casing should be shot out over your right shoulder. Depending on how your holding it, the casing may hit the wall next to you (we were at an indoor range), or go flying over the shoulder. What it should NOT do is repeatedly shoot right into your forehead.
That's right... my gun not only Danza Slapped me, it Danza Slapped my friend and a tech at the range. We brought him in to take a look at the gun and see if the extractor was bad. He looked at it carefully and said he didn't see anything that would cause that and wanted to make sure to take out user error... so he loaded up a magazine and got smacked in the forehead on the first try.
Yeah... my gun's nickname is now Danza.
I'm pretty sure it's a manufacturing defect. It's one of the reasons you just don't get a 1911 for $300. I'm not going to do anything about it just yet. My next step will be to take it back out with my brother and his gang to simply put more lead down range and see if it happens. While it didn't happen outside before, my Brother did remember that the case did fly awefully close to his ear on several occasions. He didn't mention it because he just figured it was the wind. Well... it was... the wind was keeping the gun from Danza slapping him.
If it keeps this up, I'll buy another extractor and replace it. The part only costs like $25 for a really good one and is supposedly easy to replace. If that doesn't fix it, I'll either look at selling the gun (which would be difficult after telling a prospective buyer that it slaps you in the forehead), or just keeping it and buying another gun. Maybe I could get that Ruger Mark III Hunter that I saw at the gun shop.
Oh... one other interesting story. While heading to the target range, my friend and I decided that we should grab something to eat before shooting. The target range is in a 'questionable' area of Garland Texas... which in and of itself is a 'questionable' town. You can always tell it's great realestate when there are more bail bondsman shops than gas stations. Anywho, we figured we'd grab some grub at a local place and just get... crap. Food for food's sake and not for enjoyment. We saw a little strip mall and one of the shops was called 'New York Pizza and Kabob'. I immediatly lost hope that this would be actual authentic New York style pizza when all of their decorations were 'I Heart New York' tee shirts stapled to the walls.
But you know what... that was the best damened food I had all weekend! My buddy (who grew up in the greater New York area and has had plenty of New York style pizza) was amazed at the two slices of cheese pizza he ordered and I was blown away by the stromboli I got. The crust was both cripsy and chewy, the cheese, peperoni, sausage ratio was dead on and it was just really good tasty food. Both of our meals and sodas cost a grand total of $15. That't not individually... that's for both of them.
So to sum up, I had a great time. I'll have to plan another trip like that later in the year... maybe even drive out to visit my other friend in San Francisco. That's only 33 hours driving one way!
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