First Road Trip
 

Wife and I getting ready for our first road trip in the Z. Heading to Socal from the Bay Area. Anything I need to know or be aware of before leaving?

pee before you go so you don't have to stop.
if your wife talks a lot bring some duct tape.

Do not drive during the weekdays between the times of 2pm and 7pm on the freeways. You will be stuck in traffic and lots of it. lol

Make sure to double check blind spots and double check other cars lane changing.
Although I know how to drive quite proficiently and have never had a ticket or accident (not saying im a goody two shoes with this car, I think if a person has this car and is on this website they have fun with the car); I do have to say that a lot people down here closer to the LA area really don't have any situational awareness on the road.

Check TPMS and set to spec. Also WOT from time to time :D

No No No

Gaffers tape works better.

i did a 3k mile road trip over 10 days and it was great! had a 600mile drive in a single day too and car had no issues.

wash/wax before leaving. check tire pressure. bring a pint of oil, octane booster (due to a few stops possibly having no premium or unposted octane premium like in my case), bring spare tire pump incase you need to top up, check your spare.

edit ~ apply rain-x before, bring some if you feel the need. bring a bottle of QD and a few MF to wipe your windshield down during your pit stops.

bring the car outlet so you can charge on the go if required and anything else you may need.

and lastly make sure your wife is good with a gps... i did a lot of doubling back due to break down in communications :shakes head:

Completely forgot the jack handle is missing in my car thanks for the reminder!

Don't think that is going to be necessary in california lol

it also makes removing bugs a lot easier especially after being caked on. i usually designate a specific MF towel to windshield wiping. spray a bit of the fluid then wipe away :bowrofl:

Tape up the grill to prevent rock chips

OP I'm actually moving up north and will be doing the So Cal to Sac drive tomorrow. LA traffic is horrible. I agree with birdman, no situational awareness in So Cal. There was intermittent construction on the 5 thru middle of no where last I did the drive 2 weeks ago. Whatever GPS says plan to add an hr to it.

I happen to really enjoy the drive. My fiance did it with me the other week and she said it was comfy, she just hates long rides so got irritable. But its a fun car for the drive. Especially since its 70mph for a good portion of the trip

Pretty much huh Johnny?
Seems like chickens with their heads cut off with be a step up from a lot of LA area drivers.

I'm about 45 mins west of Sac. Was there for the 4th. That heat is killer man. Don't know how people deal with it.

I'm leaving here around 4AM on Friday to avoid most of the traffic. Hoping I'll be in Beverly Hills by 11AM with 1-2 stops

It shouldn't be too bad, like you said maybe 1 or 2 stoppages.
Depends on what freeways you decide to take too

probably 5 all the way

Did you top off the blinker fluid? I ran out last time while in LA... :/

i woudln't 'schedule' stops. stop when you need to because you're not trying to play hero.

if you're tired, take a break. hungry? get some food, etc etc...

That's the plan. And were just gona take stuff to snack on cuz fast food get gross.

Some of you are way too extreme lol. I would just haul *** from time to time, don't ride behind 18wheels or next to. Those rocks will **** your paint.

Enjoy! :driving:

if you can stop at farmer markets pick up some jerky!

during my road trip we stopped in small towns along the way to grab food from the locals.

we ate fastfood only once during our 10 day adventure :happydance:

i nonchalantly did in my vomit post:roflpuke2:

well i am just about to take off and head up that way. i will let you know how the drive is and construction parts

made it to LA in 4.5 hours! Hit a new personal top seed of 155 on the way and got to teach a GTO a lesson. Defiantly the funnest drive I've ever had. And thank go for radar detectors.

Very Nice on the timing! That is not bad at all. And I love how a GTO regardless of turbo tried to keep up lol. They only cars to ever actually keep up with me are a 335i an sti and a 5.0L gt500 mustang (more of the backend)
WRX's and WRZ's are done for lol.

Make space between you and other cars.. you dont want little rocks flying around and take it slow... CA cops suck

I definitely tried to. Especially big rigs. I think I was just over excited since it was my first road trip in this car. All the thumps up and "nice car" comments from random people probably also added fuel to that lol: happydance:

What route did you take? I did that two yrs ago but started from San diego to San Jose. I took CA-1 from santa Barbra to Monterey then hwy-17 to San jose. Beautiful and when I get back to cali will do it again but all the way to mendacino. Plus I am going to assume the roads aren't washed out since cali is getting so much rain.

I went from 680 to 580 to 5 south and the same route back. Not the most scenic but it was the most convenient.

We are getting so much rain its not even funny. We are a flooded state. But no lol the drought is getting pretty bad.
Sadly we hear about parts of the country that are just being flooded by rain and how they don't want anymore rain. We are sitting over here like "We'll take it... " :inoutroflpuke: