I set off this morning with one goal in mind - to make it back home sunday in one piece, and in good form, with a 1989 Mazda rx7 convertible.
My day began with picking up a car trailer from Performance Trailer in Flanders, NJ. Great people to work with there, especially Wayne. The trailer is virtually brand new. A full open deck long dovetail dual axle with surge brakes, and my f250 had no problem getting it up to speed or slowing it down.
After fueling up, I set out on to Interstate route 80 heading West, the road I would be on for the next 300+ miles. Even better, it is pouring rain, and I mean POURING! I thought that because I was heading West, I would lose the rain within a couple of hours. Nope, it rained HARD for a full 300 miles, barely ever letting up. So I put the cruise control on 60 mph, and just let it cruise taking full advantage of my 12.7 mpg fuel economy while pulling a trailer - expecting a bit less with a car on it for the return trip.
I made a few stops. One rest area, which had a men's room with people in Hazmat suits walking around, made me kind of worried for my health. Hit some pretty good traffic at one point, came to a dead stop for about 10 minutes until we moved along at 2mph. It turned out that a semi tried to fit itself into a small equipment trailer.
With 66.3 miles to go, only 20 miles from Ohio, I turned North on to rt. 79. This took me to within about 6 miles of my final destination. And what's even better, turning North brought me a nice sunny drive for the rest of the way.
That was the longest I had ever been on rt. 80 at one time, and the longest stretch I had seen as recognizable to my gps. It usually displays it in segments of 50 miles or so, resetting at a major split or merge.
Over all it was a great drive. Took it nice and easy. Longest trip I have taken in my 97 f250 so far. No problems except for a CEL, but that's ok, I just passed inspection last week!
Heading to bed now, looking forward to digging my new rx7 out of the garage tomorrow and getting her on the trailer.
