Loved the trip report -- makes me want to take a road trip with my husband in tow (vs. the whole extended family, which we did the second week after taking ownership of my '06 FEH). Something leisurely, more under our control than family coordination (we don't have kids, yet, and try to enjoy that fact when it's just the two of us.)
Some comments, not to ignore the rest of your write-up at all:
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Originally Posted by Pravus Prime
Somewhere in Virginia, one of my biggest complaints about the FEH became a big problem, that darn drivers side arm rest began to really rub me the wrong way, so much so that my elbow was sore (and looked a little bruised) so that I was resting my arm in my lap.
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I have the same problem. It doesn't help on road trip/highway drives, but I tend to put my driver's side window down and just rest my arm on the open window rest at slower speeds (<45mph).
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Originally Posted by Pravus Prime
Now, I hadn't reset my trip odometer since I left home, and at that point crossed the thousand mile marker. Much to my dismay, the electronic trip odometer resets after 999.99 miles, no 1K trip odometer. WHY?
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Now that's just silly. Annoying and silly! Course my portable GPS (high end; Garmin Streetpilot 2720) fills up its track database even on a drive from San Antonio to Dallas and back, so I lost my data track of the trip which I'd hoped to download to my computer and plot for posterity's sake. In my case it's a data storage issue; how much could tracking another digit 'cost' in the trip odometer's case? hehe
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Originally Posted by Pravus Prime
When the time to leave comes, I hit home and away I go. On an entirely new route. Okay. Through the back roads of SC and NC, crossing into North Carolina on some tiny little road. Whatever. I'm taking it easy anyway, I'm leaving in the afternoon, and I'm planning on stopping for the night and get home the next day anyway. When it comes time to get onto the expressway, the Nav turns red/orange. The Nav system states, "The route you have chosen contains incomplete data, safe driving is the responsibility of the driver." Oookay. I continue on the Expressway, and it tells me to make a U-turn. States the safe driving message, then tells me to get off. Then replots, and tells me to continue on the current road. Good.
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Had the same happen to us a few times on our San Antonio->Dallas->San Antonio trip. Never got that message on our Streetpilot 2720 which we dual routed with on the trip, for fun (not a lot of variance, but the processor in my Streetpilot is faster than the FEH's GPS system, so we had lots of slightly delayed vebal instructions. None that would cause driving hassles, though.
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Originally Posted by Pravus Prime
One disadvantage to having a hybrid, you don't stop for gas a lot. Which means you don't clean your windshield a lot. Lots of bugs can accumulate as you drive.
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Stop for ergo/rest breaks if nothing else. We were travelling with family so there were kids (8, 11 years of age) and retirees so there were inevitable bathroom breaks, soda/water refueling and lotto ticket purchasing (the retirees in the group, oddly enough). Gave me a chance to clean off bug muck, and top off the tank because everyone else felt weird hearing we didn't actually need gas anytime soon.
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Originally Posted by Pravus Prime
The Nav system was a godsend. There's no way I could've made this trip without it. At any point in the Nav or Map modes, you can hit enter and the voice will repeat your "instructions". While it's great to have, there seems to be a pretty clear need for a "refind position" button.
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The nav system is better than my initial impressions, as a long time GPS user (can't even count how many GPS units I've had, and right now between hubby and I we have something like 8 or 10 units for various purposes -- vehicle nav, aviation, hiking/geocaching, mountain/road biking, hiking/geocaching with kids (built in walkie talkies), etc.
Sounds like a great trip and like I said makes me want to take a leisurely one with the hubby after having done the extended family route just a month or two ago.
