This past Saturday, I woke up at 9 AM to drive to the suburbs of Atlanta for a cousin's wedding. As I was located about three hours away, the plan was to arrive around 1 PM (leaving at 10 AM) at the hotel where everyone was staying.

I've found that I-85 doesn't have a lot of traffic on it before noon on Saturday. That condition, coupled with a newly-cleaned throttle body as of that Friday, meant that I got a chance to see how fast I could get the Brick moving--the speedometer needle distinctly went past 110 mph (180 km/hr) before I backed off. All it took was a long, flat, straight area that got me up to a little over 100 under my own power, and then a dip at the end, which allowed the weight of the car to pick up that last little bit of speed. I backed off going back up the hill, satisified with my little test, and I settled into a very nice and smooth cruising speed of about 85 mph. The Brick performed admirably.

After getting turned around numerous times near Duluth, Georgia, I finally found the hotel, having spent four hours in the car. I went to the wedding, took off around 8:15 PM, and I made it back home right under three hours later.

I had a little more driving to do that night (college party, you know how it goes), and in the end I spent probably about eight hours in my car that day, with the distance traveled being around 500 miles.

Now, I know lots of you guys take the Bricks on cross-country road trips quite often and have probably spent in excess of twelve hours straight in your car, but up until recently, I haven't had many opportunities to drive my car for long distances at all. My college is only 200 miles away from home, so my longest trip as of yet had been those three hours going to school or coming home. Additionally, any road trips that had been taken were done in other cars because my car has almost always had some sort of problem ever since I got it--broken odometer gear, sub-par headlights, non-working tail lights, and other things. This past summer, though, I cleaned up and fixed all of those things and more, and I can finally say that my car is fully working, for all functional purposes. As a result, this trip was the first one I've undertaken in which I felt completely at ease with my car.

Consequently, I had a good day Saturday. The car was comfortable, of course; the music was good, as I enjoyed my stereo system to its fully ability; and the Brick performed well, both in being pushed nearly to its performance limit and in its general, easy cruising qualities. I eagerly look forward to many more miles covered in this wonderful car!
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'89 244 GL -- 106,520 miles (see profile for info on car)