What a weekend! 2000 miles covered round trip in 2 days. Woohoo! Ok, first off, some things about the car. You can find a description in the entries from march 1st. The official color is "sunlit sand", i.e. it looks like the color of the desert. This is a very good color on the car, imho, except it tend to blend in and go unnoticed. Al's dad, had one this color that was in 7 accidents. I'm hoping this won't be an issue. I do really enjoy the car. Good stereo, comfortable seats, even for leather, and of course plenty of power. So far my favorite little perks are the one push switch for opening/closing the moonroof, and I didn't think I would but the volume controls on the steering wheel are nice. One odd thing, there's a quarter tray right next to the gear shift. Also, the headrests don't seem to adjust forward and back, just up and down, despite the picture I have showing them make that adjustment. I'll have to refer to the owner's manual to see if I'm missing something.
A rundown on the trip, I flew out Friday morning at 9:09. The flight was on time, however American seems to think you need to have everybody boarded 25 minutes before you depart from the gate. How I didn't realize that the cattle herding techniques of Southwest are nice. Of course, it was either there or in the terminal, so not really a big deal, gave me a chance to sit and think about nothing for a while. A plane was occupying our arrival gate in Dallas, so we were a few minutes late arriving as they switched gates. Besides that the flight was boring. I met up with Al's dad in the airport (a time when mobile phones are truly justified). We headed straight for the bank to do the paperwork on the new car. We got there too fast, and had to wait 5-10 minutes for the seller. I think the seller was really proud of the car, he kept offering to show me all the features and stuff even after the transaction was complete. I kindly declined so that he could get back to work quicker. Mr. Miller & I headed to subway for a late lunch, then talked, watched TV, etc until dinner, went out for BBQ (mmmm... no real bbq places exist in Phoniex), and watched two movies - Blazing Saddles and Ep. 2 of Star Wars. Both were entertaining. By that time it was bedtime. Woke up at 7:00 cst, packed up, took a few pictures, and was pulling out of the driveway by 8:09 cst. I'll be posting pictures sometime end of this week, I'll post a note in the journal when they're up.
New Mexico must have too much road construction signs, barrels, etc. Every time I drive through there's extraneous signs for road construction that never exists. "Road Construction next 22 miles. Just kidding!" I mean, come on... how much effort does it take to go pick up the signs when you're done constructing the road?
The drive was pretty boring, the occasional driver trying to play "highway games" as Andy would say, and that was about it. One thing I don't understand, there was a guy who would drive really fast when he wasn't passing, and then slow down as he passed people. I finally justified speeding up for a little while to get well in front of him. The car is very smooth, besides that on the highway I perhaps would say I like the prelude a bit better, smaller and therefore handles a bit better, but the prelude is very loud in comparison. Also, the nice Bose sound system in the Maxima does make for excellent companionship on that long trip. 15 hours after leaving Dallas (9:05 mst) I was back at my apartment unloading the car. Not bad for 1000 miles, give or take.
I'm very tired now, and am thinking of going to bed so I can catch up on my sleep a bit. Just need to print out my assignment for tomorrow morning and I'll be set.