First let me say I am a night hawk. My profession and my personal preferences dictate that I'm always up late. Anyway this moring at 5:00 AM I was laying in bed trying to go to sleep...and couldn't. So I decided to go for a short "drive". Long story short it ended up being a 9 hour, 360 mile motoring adventure. Me and my MINI bonded big time. It was great getting some alone time. One thing is for sure- I love my MINI more today than I did yesterday!

Here is a shot I took with my lousy camera phone coming down off of one of the mountain passes I went over-



My MINI performed BEAUTIFULLY. Here's a quick snapshot of my adventure-

I started out at my home in Salt Lake City and headed south to highway 89. Followed this road all the way to Mount Pleasant where I took a little side detour up Maple Canyon and did a bit of hiking. I then took highway 31 over the Manti-Lassal mountain range and dropped into Huntington and Price, UT. Then went north on highway 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon and then back up to Salt Lake.

Here are my trip stats-

Miles Travelled - 361.2
Average Fuel Economy- THIS IS NO LIE - 40.8 MPG!!! (and its a MCS!)
Average Speed - 52.7 MPH

Here are a few notes-

The active carbon filter on my auto AC really helped filter out some of the agricultural scents while driving through certain turkey-farming areas.

It was my first long trip in my MINI and I was very impressed with the comfort of the seats, the road noise level, etc...

As always, superb handling on those twisty mountain turns.

I'm amazed that I got such great fuel economy. Granted I was driving quite reserved to see what I could get out of each gallon.

It's really funny how certain others on the road react to my MINI. For example- this happened more than once- I pass a much larger vehicle and oddly they seem to be upset that such a little car "bested" them and so they feel they must pass me just to prove their superiority or whatever. I kind of have a hard time with people who use F-350s and such as daily commuters now.

Those of you wondering about my MINI, its stats are at the bottom in my tag.

HAPPY MOTORING EVERYBODY!!!

 

Damn, a 9 HOUR drive bc you could not fall asleep ? HAHA. I really want to pull one of those off as well. Makes me wonder if i will last. On top of that , where do i go ? lol

 

Hahaha..I was planning to do a similar, albeit smaller, trip tonight to release all the tension accumulated over the week but the cops and SWAT are all over Atlanta tonight. Heck, I saw two cops flying past with their sirens on at more than 50mph in a small side street...I guess something is definitely wrong.

 

Sounds like a great time. Rediscovering that it is all about the trip, not the destination. Life is a highway.....somebody should write a song!

 

You had more fun than I did, but Tuesday I drove more miles just taking my MCS in for service and picking it up. The worst part was that half the miles were in a Honda Accord rental, and the miles on the MINI were during rush hour in Silicon Valley. The NAV did manage to guide me around traffic jams though.

 

Was is scheduled service or were you having problems???