It's Bike week in Laconia!
I don't care, I'm sober & have a new, very cool car.
I just want to drive

I left my house in Northern Mass @ about 8PM.
From Mass I drive up Rt. 13 to where it joins 77 North of Goffstown.
I cross onto Jewett Road to 9/202 west for a few miles to 103 north.
A few miles up 103 gets me to 127 north in Contoocook.
127 N (what a roller coaster, I had to let her rip) to 132N.

132's so fun north of Gaza that I got clocked at 66 in a 40 zone D'OH!
It's an area with no houses, the cop was reasonable and I'm a personable guy so I talked him down from a $200 ticket to $75.
It's a smooth, twisty road with lots of up/down/around small hills.
It was a blast but I hope I can remember how much fun it was while I'm paying the surcharges.

132N to 104E to 25/3N in Meredith.
3N to 25bE to 25E to Black Cat Island bridge to take a whizz into Lake Winnipesaukee.
Back on 25 to 113E to 16N to The Kanc.
Interstates are only good for getting home as quick as possible after I have my fun.

A biker hit a deer on 13 north of Milford (biker & bike were ok, deer wasn't) and the Cavalier in front of me on 132 (until I passed him) just missed one.
I almost hit a skunk on 127 but he kept his eau de cologne to hisownbadself.

A big-guy moose (obviously a guy ) took his time getting off The Kanc near Conway and 2 of his cousins were chomping leaves over near Lincoln.

My "get some friggin gas!" warning came on at the switchback at the summit.
That was at about 420 miles into the tank
I coasted down into Lincoln (99MPG!) but had to crawl her to North Lincoln to gas up (2AM in NH).
28.3 MPG over the course of 429.5 miles.
That was mostly backroads including some "spirited driving", some mountains, a few towns and about 100 miles of Highway.
Very nice mileage!

After gassing I reset the avg MPG, avg speed and trip-meter 1 and set the cruise-control yawning down I93 to I495 to 10 miles of backroads to my driveway.
Avg MPG 31.5 highway over 145 miles.

I love my HHR and drove her 620 miles in the last 1½ days!
NH is a great place to drive roller coaster backroads and see wildlife.
Gotta get me some Brembos!

BTW - Later this summer I'll drive up to Garfield Falls to swim and Magallaway Mountain to hike up to the fire tower..
That's off of Rt.3 south of Canada, just north of Pittsburg, NH & Moose Alley.
Look it up, it's a great two-fer.
Another two-fer up they-ahh while your at it is to drive up Rt. 145N from Colebrook to Pittsburg.
Beaver Brook Falls, rolling hills with farms & woods and smooth, twisty road.
It's very beautiful.
But return by Rt.3 and stop for a burger at the diner on the west side of Rt.3 in either Stewartstown or West Stewartstown (I forget but there's only 1 diner).
Great cheap food if you like good burgers and onion rings.

 

39 views & no replies.

Your mother told you "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"?


Don't tell me that no one has anything to say about any of the roads, waterfalls, varmints, Interstates, towns, attractions or anything I mentioned.
First speeding ticket story?
Am I in the right forum area for road trips?
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Haven't had the chance to read the whole story and look at the links. I'm currently drugged up for an abscessed tooth so trying to read that long of post right now is impossible

 

The stepson went through that a while ago.
I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Maybe Rush Bull**** or Newt Gangrape.
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I just got the XM activated today.
I feel compelled to make sure it works in every corner of The Berkshires in Western Mass and The Green Mountains in Vermont.
Right now like
And yes, that would be on secondary roads.
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Here in Quebec city, we are fortunate to have 2 terrestrial XM repeaters, and we never lose signal at any time.

I like XM, and would never go back to listening local radio stations (they're crap anyways).

 

I like XM too.
I never even had an antenae on my GSX.
I always listened to CDs or memory sticks through USB.
It was cutting out pretty bad but I *was* in the boonies most of the night.
It worked great on the Interstate but I don't use them unless I'm in a big hurry or going cross country.

 

1114 miles on my HHR!
I got her @ 7PM on Tuesday with 180 miles on her.
I put 934 miles on her in 56 hours.
That works out to about 17 MPH since I got her

I'll bring my camera next road trip to catch her turn 1234 @ 123 MPH j/k

Tonight I drove out to Greenfield Mass then hopped on I91 up to White River Junction, Vt.
Across NH using 4, 4a, 4, 127, 13 to gas up in Leominster, Ma.
I gassed it @ 456.9 miles on the odometer. wow
It worked out to 29.0 actual MPG.
Sweet.
I put 15.75 gallons in.
Owner's manual says it's a 16.2 gallon tank.
No suspense, I still had a ½ gallon

She also turned 1000 miles old right next to Mascoma Lake in west central NH with Rock And Roll Stew by Traffic cutting in/out on XM Classic Vinyl.

OPIE & ANTHONY ARE ON XM 202!
OPIE & ANTHONY ARE ON XM 202!
OPIE & ANTHONY ARE ON XM 202!
They have their own channel & it's called Virus.
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Cool story. I have had my HHR SS Red 5 Speed for two weeks, flew to Texas last week, and have driven 2000 miles since getting it. I would like to travel on those roads. I live in MI, and we are having a great summer. We have some nice curves and hills, but nothing like what you have out there! I am getting anywhere from 28-36 (if there is a tailwind). I am not looking at mods yet, but we shall see down the road. Have you changed your oil yet? My first one, I was not prepared for the filter only change out. It is cool that they have only a filter, but I wanted to put a remote one on and possibly an oil cooler, but since there is no external filter, I am not sure how to do it.

Enjoy the great car, and great story and detail! My travel is just boring commute right now to Detroit area. Not the prettiest. One trip north on some nice hills, but I let my son drive (his first adventure with a stick) and the great thing about the SS, is that the thing has so much torque, that it is tough to stall it out. He is also proud enough to not want to screw up his "dream car" for when I pass it on after a couple hundred K.

Love the car!

Jim

 

Hey thanks and, uh...

to the coolest forum on the Internet!

The hills and curves are fun but it's still a blast just tooling down the highway listening to my presets on XM.
It's hard to keep out of the skinny pedal though.

No oil (or filter) change yet.
I'll be doing my own so I should get the manual out of the car and mark my calendar for approximate maintenance dates.
I'm sure there are threads on the forum here describing any unusual maintenance features.