drivetofive

Odometer (ILX):  18,628

Odometer (Legend):  516,913

Tonight I drove 140 miles round trip for a medium strawberry malt at DQ.  Typical!  I needed to stretch my highway legs a bit so I met up with my friend Will there.  He lives in Tucson and drives a 2011 Camaro.  Picacho Peak’s DQ, right off Interstate 10, seemed like a logical midpoint between the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

And the malt was worth it.

The Legend is running great but did give me a check engine light on the return leg.  I suspect (in fact, I’m almost entirely sure) it’s related to a “code 12” (EGR system) fault.  The EGR system on this car has been serviced regularly but I think it might be time for another check-up.  The car still ran great!

Tunnel Bucket List

As a follow-up to the Road Bucket List that I put together a month or two ago, I also have a fascination with tunnels and bridges.

Check out this link for a list of some of the coolest places I’d love to take my Acuras.

Another one that didn’t make the Jalopnik top 10 list is the Gotthard Road Tunnel.  At 10.2 miles long, at one time it was the longest tunnel in the world.  It’s now in 3rd place.  Guess it’s time to get my passport renewed and research car-shipping methods!

Alaska Round Two?!

I received an email this week that had the wheels in my mind spinning much like the wheels on my Acuras do.  Back in 2006, my longest-ever road trip in the 1994 Legend was from Phoenix, Arizona to Fairbanks, Alaska – totaling around 7,600 miles round trip.

Upon arrival in Fairbanks that May (and unaware beforehand of exactly what types of vehicle services would be available there) I was happy to find a Honda dealership.  Well, technically it was a Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Scion, Kia, Mazda dealership!  Kendall Auto changed the oil on my Legend before my dad and I started the return leg of our adventure.  I hadn’t heard from this dealership for years, until receiving this follow-up email this week entitled “Exclusive Savings for your Legend.”

Maybe it’s time to grab a current copy of the Milepost and start trip planning.  Roll up there in the ILX, re-create some of the routes I took in the Legend?  Who’s down for a carpool or caravan?  Here’s what rush hour looked like on the Alaska Highway for us back in 2006.  Traffic was pretty intense!

Welcoming A New Half-Million Miler

Back in July, I met Steve Stone who drives a black 1963 Corvette with a lot of miles and a lot of history.  At the time, his car had 487,000 on it.

I extend to Steve my congratulations on hitting 500,000 miles in his car this year!  Following is an excerpt from an update I received from him a couple of days ago:

We still needed around 1,000 miles to turn the half million mile mark, so this last week we went to Ely, MN and back. We turned the half million mile mark on Wisconsin highway 12, just south of I-90, I-94 and the Wisconsin Dells.  This year we have traveled the Vette around 20,000 miles (so far) and visited 27 of the lower 48 states. We also attended numerous shows and car events.

ILX News & Weekend Updates

The results are in, and the ILX gets 5 stars in crash tests!  Pretty nice performance there.

This weekend I hosted a couple of friends who were visiting from out of town.  My friend Scott from Dallas was one of them.  I met Scott during a cross-country NALM road trip in the Legend in mid-2011 and he attended the Drive to Five celebration last November.

Saturday was car clean-up day.  Matt did a detail on the 2012 370Z and Jeremy worked on his 2006 GX470 while the ILX looked on and waited its turn.

Weather was unusually cool for this time of year with highs in the low 60’s.  We took a hike up “A” Mountain – also referred to as Tempe Butte.  This 1,500-foot elevation hill has a giant yellow A painted on the side in support of Tempe-based Arizona State University (ASU).  (This picture pulled from Google Images)

The hike only took 15 minutes but afforded us some great views from the summit.

There’s a jokester in every crowd.

Jeremy raced us back to the trailhead and pulled the ILX around to pick us up.

First time this ILX has had 5 people in it!  A tight squeeze for a compact car, especially considering that Jeremy (driver’s seat) is 6’6″ tall.  But, Jeremy still was able to get comfortable and he commented on his approval of the smooth-shifting manual transmission.  With temps having dipped down a bit, we also put the seat heaters to use.  The ILX shuttled us around in comfort AND style.

Sending Scott on his way at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport this morning.  Come back to visit soon.

Happy Veterans Day to my readers, and may your holiday travels be safe and scenic.

This entry was posted on November 11, 2012 at 9:00 pm and is filed under ILX, Legend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.