Month: June 2008

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Flight Delayed 2 hours

And I’m not suprised. This flight is late 99% of the time.

So I walked down the terminal. This terminal is also the international terminal. Being that – I knew there had to be a McDonald’s somewhere. How else do we welcome people to America anyway? 😀  While in line, I talked to a guy from France who had his flight to Paris delayed 3 hours. So what am I complaining about? 😀

So – I’m parked on the floor near a power outlet. Chargin’ and Postin’!

To top it all off, my wife called me, and demanded a divorce over the phone because I didn’t invite her to stay at my parent’s house.

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Rule 240: This could save your trip

Working for a travel agent, you learn a few tricks.

Bring the airline’s own Rule 240 policy with you to the airport. You can find this as a PDF file on any airline’s website as their “Contract of Carriage”
Frontier’s is here: http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/pdf/Contract_of_Carriage.pdf

Rule 240 is on page 58. Print that page!

For example: Delta
http://images.delta.com.edgesuite.net/delta/pdfs/contract_of_carriage_dom.pdf

Delta’s rule 240 is on page 47.

Rule 240 basically says that if the delay or cancellation was caused by the airline’s fault (equipment problems, scheduling problems, crew problems) then they must fly you on another airline to your destination.

This does not apply in the case of weather-related delays.

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Flying in the Face of Fuel Prices

You may be wondering why I am doing this trip now, when prices for gasoline are at record highs. Why? Well, it’s not going to go down!  Americans have traveled far less this year as fuel prices have gone up. The great American roadtrip is fading away.

This site is an effort of many people to experience the roadtrip. All of our money together will make filling up the tank easy. I’ll take pictures of everywhere. I’ll write about the capitals. It will all be here as it happens.

My car can get 35 mpg reliably. I got 39.1 mpg on my last leg from Dayton, OH to Philadelphia in early June. The highest I have attained ever was 46 mpg.  The trip is so far 14,719 miles. At 35mpg, that is 420.5 gallons of gas.

Here is the Department of Energy website on fuel prices: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

That says that as of this post fuel is an average of 4.08 per gallon across the nation. 420.5 times 4.08 is $1,715.81 estimated exact fuel costs.  Now this does not include driving in cities, getting lost finding the capital buildings, and it does not include several side trips I’m going to take to see landmarks.

But it shows that taking a trip like this is not as expensive as you’d think – even with the crazy fuel prices.

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Thanks to the people who have donated!

Special thanks to those who have sponsored me some gas monies! 😀 every little bit helps.

I’m getting on the plane to Colorado tomorow – It’s Frontier flight 449 from PHL to DEN. It departs 6:10 PM from Philly. It is on time less than 1% of the time apparently. Today’s 449 is en route as I post this and delayed 17 minutes. Whee!

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Departure Date Set: July 21st

I am going to leave on Monday, July 21st for the 48 state trip. I’ll be driving down with Fraser Dachille – known as frd206 on the Vortex.

I’ll stay with him north of Washington, DC that night.

Please visit the Donate page and throw me a buck or two! I’m at 10% of the goal as of this post! I thank you so much for this!!

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Fuel Economy of my car

Check out www.fueleconomy.gov – it has the old and new EPA ratings for the MPG your car gets.

Here’s mine: (The oldest it gets is 1985 – mine is 1984, but 85 has the same JH 8v motor)

Fuel Economy

That’s EPA economy. Most of you who own Sciroccos know that it’s easy to get above that number.

Because of the modifications I’ve done, I can get far better MPG. I count on 35MPG reliably. I have a 10.1 gallon fuel tank, so have a range of 350 miles between fillups. I generally fill up at 300 though. I have gotten above 40 MPG before, with the best-ever MPG at 46.1 miles per gallon.

Modifications I’ve done for better economy:

  • Megasquirt Electronic Fuel Injection
  • Dual manifold pressure sensors for altitude correction (so it doesn’t get rich at high altitude)
  • Wideband oxygen sensor (allows me to tune to run the car lean on the highway)
  • .76 ratio 5th gear to replace my .89 5th gear (lets the engine run at lower revs on highway)
  • low rolling resistance tires inflated to 40psi
  • removed the back seat and seatbelts (I did that more because they were useless! :D)
  • Low restriction air intake with a cone filter, larger throttle body, intake manifold with longer runners

This car did not come from the factory with power steering or air conditioning – but if it did – I would have removed both!

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Planning for the Colorado Trip

Gray SciroccoThe Colorado Trip is set!

I fly out June 19th, and my parrents will pick me up at the airport.

I’ll hang around in Denver, buying tires and a battery to get that car ready to go.

I leave July 5th: Destination: mr lee in Kansas City!
Leave Denver: 8:30 AM
Arrive KC at 5PM

July 6th: Destination: Daun in Dayton!
Leave KC at 8:30 AM
Arrive Dayton at 5:00 PM

July 7th: Return to Philly to prepare for the BIG trip.
Leave Dayton at 8:30 AM
Arrive Philly at 5:00 PM

 

The Colorado trip will be used as a sort-of beta version of the trip. The distances between destinations are longer on the Colorado trip, so I will pull over at rest-stops more often to post up.

 

Total Distance

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Starting the Trip Schedule

Schedule PlanningI’m planning out the schedule for the trip right now – to give everybody a good idea of when I’ll be in their area. I am thinking about starting out on July 21st – a Monday.

Special thank-yous go to those who have offered their places and foods! 😀

There is a new Trip Schedule page – it’s still being worked on, but it gives you an idea!

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Welcome – TimboTrip is Live!

Timob MobileAlright. The site is launched!

Here’s what’s gonna happen:

This site is here mainly to support my upcoming 48 state capital road trip. But I have a short road trip coming up in early July from Denver, CO to Philadelphia, PA – so I’ll use that trip to sort-of beta test this site!

After I get some donations together I’ll leave on the big trip! The plan is to use two months to visit all of the destinations. I have added a few locations to the trip such as Los Angeles, and Chicago that are not state capitals, but are great places to visit as well.

Click on the pages above in the green bar for details on the trip, and to donate me a few bucks for gas!!