Shake Down Cruise

So I took the car on a little 400 mile shake down cruise today.  Tomorrow night, Brianna is in her first dance recital and I had to be here to see it, though I don't expect it to last more than 2 minutes.  We were originally both going to go, but both of our dog sitters are out of town, and fearing that a kennel experience would kill Polly (or set her back 3 years!), Walt generously agreed to stay home and dog sit while I come down to watch the show (and take pictures).

When we first planned this, we were going to rent a car for me.  We had no idea we would have a brand new car when the time came.  I really felt guilty that not only was Walt going to be missing the show, but here we have this fantastic new car and he can't even drive it for several days!

But I had fun (she says, trying really hard to stay feeling guilty!)

The first part of the trip was back to the Honda dealership.  We had forgotten to take our FastPass off of the front window and called to make sure they had it (they did).  Then I had to drive back home again because I had left my Kindle behind (and I'm halfway through Dan Brown's new book, so I didn't want to go off without it!)

But finally I was on the road and getting a chance to test out all the goodies.  I kept accidentally hitting the "speak" button and actually called Walt by accident once.  Must learn how to hold the steering wheel!

I even tried the cruise control...and I never use cruise control.

Things went fine all the way to San Jose, where I got lost.  Somehow I ended up heading back to San Francisco.  Walt had not put all the maps back in the car, but I had the GPS in the trunk, so I got that out and set up to get me turned around in the right direction!  It was kind of crucial because I had planned to stop at the next McDonald's to use the facilities and I was getting desperate.  Nigel, our GPS voice, got me there all right and then I gave him the rest of the trip off.

I stopped at my favorite cherry stand in Gilroy to pick up some cherries to munch on.  So sweet and juicy!

I didn't stop for lunch because I was full of cherries, but around 3 I was really having a hard time staying awake (I had been up since 3 a.m.).  I found a spot where I could pull over and thought I might take a little nap, but found the front seat is not comfortable for that, so  ended up switching from my audio book to some songs I could sing along with and that helped.

We normally stop in Pismo Beach, south of San Luis Obispo for gas, but when I reached Pismo, I still had 1/4 tank left so I decided to see how far I could get on one tank of gas.

Turns out it was all the way.  I will have to get gas tomorrow, but it made it all the way to Santa Barbara on the tank of gas they filled the car with at the Honda dealership.

As I pulled up to the house, I was praying Alice Nan had left a key for me because I desperately needed a bathroom.  Fortunately, she had and my first stop in the house was the restroom, and the second was their newly remodeled kitchen, to take pictures to send to Walt. It's beoootiful!

A quiet evening at home.  Some errands to run tomorrow, but it should be a fairy quiet day too, since everyone will be at work and it will be just me and my new car on the town in Santa Barbara!  At least until night comes, when Jeri arrives and Brianna dances.