Akira - a Grand (marquis) Adventure

Thru Chattanooga now and into Georgia for good

Boys have moved onto a movie on the laptop

John Welsh said:

Youre more than half way already!  ( or just a quarter of the entire trip, ha ) 

Making good time. 

 

We found it.  SUPER busy.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

So, with 12 hours into what will likely be 20 hours is your co-driver a proselyte to the church of Gen2 Prius or a non believer?

Home safely. Butts are sore from sitting.

More details tomorrow, heading to bed

MyMiatas said:

Well we all know now they won't get mugged. :0D

About a week ago, my buddy and I showed up to the same driveway in an Uber at night, hoped into a Porsche and drove away.

Not a peep from that one.

Interesting note, I drove the highest mileage car to pick up what will become the lowest mileage car in our fleet.

Prius:

Marquis:

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

MyMiatas said:

Well we all know now they won't get mugged. :0D

About a week ago, my buddy and I showed up to the same driveway in an Uber at night, hoped into a Porsche and drove away.

Not a peep from that one.

 

That's a bit of foreshadowing for my buying experience.

Enroute to Atlanta I sent an updated ETA for our arrival to SKJSS (Klayfish) and got this surprising response:

Turns out he wasn't home, so this became the most unique car transaction I've ever made:

Here's some arrival pics

We aired up the tires, and hit the road north bond.

Had to hit the gas station, and decided I should probably check the oil.  And was good.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Don't know how I missed this one.  That was a really quick turn around.

I see the faces are still smiling in the "after" picture!  Seems to have gone drama free.  With an 8 hour drive each way that would typically be at least 8.5 hours with gas and pee.  Start at 5:30a and finish at 11:30p = 18 hours and some additional time to "complete the sale."  You made great time.  I see that the "complete the sale" portion was much shorter than I would have thought.  Before knowing that, I wondered if every occupant of the vehicle got his own Qt sized Gatorade bottle to therefore keep the rest stops to a min.  Ha.  

I see at one point you had both boys.  This means the co-driver was driving alone.  Not having met the boys, I wondered if that lone-driving was a curse or a blessing.  Ha.

I'd be texting Klayfish......get the money? get the money? get the money

oh, good...

Driving a new (to me) car for the first time I didn't pay attention to the route GPS was sending us homeward.  I wrongly assumed it would reverse the route we took down.  Well, we bypassed Nashville completely, and cut more directly through Tennessee.  From Chattanooga to Glasgow, KY.  NOT interstates.  Many, many miles of two lane twisty roads.  The boys were getting sick, literally rolled down the window in preparation of a potential vommit.

The Marquis handled great, much better than I expected.

Once we got near the interstate again, the boys' hunger came back, so we stopped to grab some Pizza.

The trunk made a great mobile table and gave us a chance to stand for a bit.

One more fuel stop and we made it home.

Woke up this morning to snow.

Then after driving it to church this morning, the kids discovered the amazing size of the trunk 

I kinda like that car.........

John Welsh said:

In reply to Indy - Guy :

So, with 12 hours into what will likely be 20 hours is your co-driver a proselyte to the church of Gen2 Prius or a non believer?

Not a true believer yet, but he sees some merits.  Unprompted in the way down, he mentioned the car dries better than he expected.  Then, during the pizza meal (after the twisty roads) he said he was surprised how well it handled. 

M church has limits on how often we are allowed to haul our kids in the trunk, but no limit on the number of kids. 
 

Does the trunk still smell like laundry soap?

Datsun310Guy said:

Aldis chips suck.  Those fake Cheez-it's suck.  Those fake Pringle chips suck too.  Those protein bars are pretty good.  

I shop at Aldis almost weekly and I feel like a lot of their off brands kinda suck but I'm saving money.  

When you're part Bohemian saving money is more important than being happy in life.  

LOL

Indeed, I knew the fake Cheez-its are no where near as good, but the teenagers don't seem to mind.  I discovered, & now agree, the fake Pringles are disgusting.  Never purchase again. 

However, the regular potato chips and Jalapeno Kettle chips are actually quite good.  

I'll also disagree and say the fake Cheetos get a pass from this family.

I'm hoping this car can win an award for having been driven/ owned by the most GRMers, and trained the most young drivers!

Indy - Guy said:

Datsun310Guy said:

Aldis chips suck.  Those fake Cheez-it's suck.  Those fake Pringle chips suck too.  Those protein bars are pretty good.  

I shop at Aldis almost weekly and I feel like a lot of their off brands kinda suck but I'm saving money.  

When you're part Bohemian saving money is more important than being happy in life.  

LOL

Indeed, I knew the fake Cheez-its are no where near as good, but the teenagers don't seem to mind.  I discovered, & now agree, the fake Pringles are disgusting.  Never purchase again. 

However, the regular potato chips and Jalapeno Kettle chips are actually quite good.  

I'll also disagree and say the fake Cheetos get a pass from this family.

Pretzel sticks and tortilla chips are the only acceptable ALDIs chips for my family. Tortilla chips only get a pass because they are going to be covered in salsa anyway. 
 

Cool car as well!

I am so glad the journey went well and was a success.  I'm also thrilled that the GM is going to serve as a training vehicle for yet another teen.  It served its' duty very well for me and helped my twins learn to drive.  It then was pressed into daily driver duty when my oldest sons' car broke a timing chain with an interference engine.  His car was done at the end of the day Wednesday and he dropped the GM at the shop on Thursday.  I didn't get a chance to retrieve it until the morning you were arriving.  I'd like to say I was surprised that a nearly-19 year old would leave the car a bit messy, but that'd be a lie.  I removed the trash and gave it a very quick vacuum, so I hope it was at least decent.

I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person.  I think I missed you by about 30 minutes.  I was planning on having you arrive shortly after lunch and we had already committed to going to my in-laws.  I waited as long as I could, but we had to run.  Given this was a GRM transaction I felt perfectly comfortable just leaving the car and trusting you'd leave the money.  I'd never do that for anyone else.  Yeah, the neighbor across the street is a cop.  Nice guy, keeps to himself.  

Sorry to see that car go.  If I had a real need for it, I'd have kept it.  It runs fantastic and is stupid comfortable.  

Starfleet out.

That's an awesome one day trip. Glad it went smoothly!

That looks like a twin of my GM. Got it from my brother's MIL. Call it the Maroon sofa. 2007, but not the fancy LS model... No trip computer, cloth seats and steelies.  I put Mustang GT wheels (upgrade to 17" and it looks nicer. MIne had 42K miles when I got it 4 years ago, now it has 99K. Still a baby. I just put an intake manifold on it due to a leak in the plastic-to-aluminum water housing. Other than small items just runs - oh, and your observed MPG are similar to my experience on the hwy. Enjoy