Friday, June 4, 2010

Home at last


Got home last night from a wonderful vacation in the M5 to Colorado. We put 1907 miles on the Beast and it ran flawlessly! No problems whatsoever except for a minor chip on the windshield from a rock thrown by a passing truck. I averaged 21 mpg with lots of mountain driving. The cheapest gas was $2.65 for premium 93 octane at the BP in Independence, MO and the highest price was outside Estes Park $3.29 for premium.

I'm one who likes to make time on the highway, but we took a sidetrip to the Truman library in Independence and it was much more than I expected. Lots of WWII documentation and one of a kind pictures. We spent more time there than we planned and enjoyed it.

The M5 heated seats were heaven on my sore back, even during the summer. The suspension is just right, firm enough for energetic driving, but smooth enough to make highway miles melt. I liked the Michelin Pilot Sport tires before we left and after the vacation, I love them. Quiet tires with great traction, even during a down pour on I70 in Kansas. The M5 is truly a fantastic road trip car!

In the middle of Kansas the skies turned black as a huge thunderstorm was bearing down on us. I'm not a fan of large hail, or hail of any kind, so we pulled under one of the few bridges on I70 till it passed and I met John S. who had done the same thing in his new Jet Black 328i. It turns out John is a BMW fan and owns a rare M3 CSL, a car that I had known nothing about, but after the storm passed, I had seen pictures and heard his stories of taking it to events. I think it says something about people that love their cars, because tucked under the bridge during the storm was my M5, John's 328i, a Corvette and a Cadillac STS.

John has owned BMWs for 12 years and one of his life goals is to go to Germany and ride the RIng Taxi! He told me he found that almost all M owners know of The RIng and Sabine. Now my wife is planning for our next trip in the M5. She found the seats extremely comfortable and slept through most of Kansas on the way home.

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