231,000 miles

The grey van turned 231,000 miles in early November.

I am clearly late to this party, and I missed the milestone by 947 miles.  I wonder by how much I'll miss 232K?

Who was driving?  Luca?  Olivia?  I'm guessing Olivia, I get the sense she uses the van more than Luca does.  Maybe she was on her way to volunteer at St. Margaret's House or the hospital?

Maybe she was driving home for our Thanksgiving snow?

It's been a wildly snowy fall into winter.  We got absolutely dumped on, easily over a foot:

Both the grey van and the CRV are wintering outside, getting buried over and over again.  I like digging them out.

I also am very grateful that both vans and the GLI have winter tires, and the CRV has Goodyear's Assurance WeatherReady all-season tire with the three-peak mountain snowflake.  While the Goodyears are not as good as a dedicated winter tire, they get the job done with the CRV's AWD.  All good.

64,000 miles

 The CRV turned 64,000 miles in early November:

I haven't been in that vehicle for some time.  I presume Madeline was on her way somewhere, bopping along to her music, and enjoying the freedom of independently getting to where she needed to be.

42,000 miles

 The GLI turned 42,000 miles today!

Allison and I had gone to Chicago for her company's Christmas party.  It was a great little overnight adventure, filled with good food, interesting people, and a tiny little European-style hotel room.

We were heading home in time to pick up Enzo from school.  We were caught behind a passing semi, just west of the Tire Rack, when the milestone arrived.

It was a surprisingly warm, wet, drizzly December day.  It was in the high 40s, the abundance of snow we've received had mostly melted from the median, and the VW just hummed along, happily putting on the miles.

Speaking of the weather, I've spent a lot of time this winter driving the VW with the roof open.  Even when it's in the single digits, the seat heaters keep me warm, the wind deflector does a good job of keeping the cabin warm enough, and with the HVAC set at 78, I get to enjoy a taste of fresh air while driving Enzo to school or myself to work.  It's been great.

I really, really, really enjoy driving.  It's such a gift that I get to do something I like so much almost every day.  This lifelong love of the automobile and driving, I never tire of it.  I'm happy in a vehicle, operating it, making it a comfortable temperature, savoring all the little nuances that make each one unique.

I know I've commented on this before, but the GLI is a delight at interstate speeds.  It has a surplus of power in sixth gear, and rolling into the throttle results in a respectable torque surge.  It moves with more urgency in fifth, but honestly, with the APR tune, there's more than enough power in sixth for most situations.  It's a lovely machine, and I love driving it.

41,000 miles

 The GLI turned 41,000 on Sunday, November 16!

It wass a gorgeous fall night, clear and cold, and Enzo and I were heading back from Chicago.  It had been a pretty long day, it was jet black dark, and Enzo was reclined in the passenger seat, sleeping peacefully.  

Every time I drive the car, I'm continually impressed by just how fundamentally good of a car it is.  Powerful, comfortable, efficient, and good at just gliding down the road.  On the winter tires, there is such a surplus of power that I don't really use much more than one third of the throttle.  I've been paying attention to boost usage, and find myself using about 50% of the total boost the car can produce.

The real question is, why were only Enzo and I in Chicago?  Well, we took a day trip to visit my new nephmews:

Enzo was in ecstasy and being able to play with the tiny creatures.  The kittens are so young that they still have spiky kitten fur - truly babies.  You don't get a sense of it when Enzo is holding them, but they weigh about 2 pounds each, and are smaller than my hand:

Kittens are so small for such a short period of time.  It's easy to forget when most of their lives, they're living in their full-sized bodies:

98,000 miles

 The blue van turned 98,000 miles in October.

While I'm not 100% sure, I think it happened when I was in Panama.  Allison, Madeline, and Enzo went to visit Indiana University as part of Madeline's evaluation process.  If I had to guess, I think they rolled 98,000 miles on the way down south.  Uneventful, competent, and good at putting miles in the mirror, the van was built for this.

97,000 miles

 The van turned 97,000 miles sometime in late August.  I have no idea when, where, or who was driving.

39,000 miles

Allison rolled 39,000 miles in the Boxster on the way to Chicago!

She was on her way to take care of Pia, Faris' cat.  Faris was out of town for the weekend, and Pia was approaching the end of her life, so Allison volunteered to go spend some time with her.  

We ended up having a magical date including a delightful dinner at Gibson's Italia, including a lovely walk through the city:

Allison is really the kindest, most thoughtful, wonderful person I know.  She took really good care of Pia, helping bring peace and comfort to Pia's final days.

40,000 miles

 On a cool, cloudy afternoon, the GLI rolled 40,000 miles westbound on I-94, coming back from Lansing:

Madeline had her lacrosse tournament in the morning, and it felt good to be steaming west, ensconced in the VW's climate-controlled cabin, seat heaters cranked up and radiating warm through my chilled body.

The milestone passed as they tend to do, uneventfully putting miles into the mirror.

Early morning delight

 This morning consisted of a 5 am departure to Lansing, Michigan, for a lacrosse tournament.  I have to give it to these girls, they are dedicated and working hard, getting loose on the 46 degree morning:

For me, there's something magical about a pre-dawn departure.  There are multiple paths to get from South Bend to Lansing.  Most of them consist of some two-lane work before getting to I-94 and then I-69.  Since it was so early, I plotted a simple route that would hopefully avoid wildlife: I-80 to I-69, corners of a square with no diagonal shortcut.

Anyway, wheels were turning at 5.  Madeline fell asleep by perhaps 5:10.  That left nothing but the inky darkness, the path illuminated by my headlights, and the quiet glow of the cockpit lights.  I put in my AirPods, listened to The Car Podcast by Chris Harris and friends, and enjoyed slipping through the pre-dawn darkness.

There's something lovely about pre-dawn driving.  The GLI is so good, has such plentiful torque, that it's easy to get into the rhythm of setting the cruise at 77, then toeing into the torque to shrink distance between taillights.  Progress is fluid and fast, resulting in a lovely and invigorating trip.

I enjoyed the blissful solitude of a sleeping passenger, black to grayscale, and the feeling of being in partnership with a magnificent machine.  It was a lovely and efficient morning.

 

And it's always fun to see the girls getting into the competitive mindset, working through their preparations:

230,000 miles

 The grey van is getting closer to the moon:

As with the CR-V, I don't know where or when that heppened.  Thanks to AirTags and the valet key, I can satisfy my monthly OCD by finding the van, sneaking in, and getting the odometer picture.  Based on my observations, I'm guessing Olivia was driving when it rolled 230K, as she seems to be using the van more than Luca.

Speaking of the grey van, it's worth sharing a story about AI.  A week or so ago, Olivia texted me this video when I was sleeping, wondering what the sound might be:

I'm no mechanic, but I do know that given the van's vintage, it has a habit of consuming a bit of oil.  I texted her that I wasn't sure what the sound was, but had she by any chance checked the oil level?

No response.

That's fair, she was probably at class or something.  Once again, the van's AirTag came to the rescue.  I knew where it was, so I picked up some power steering fluid (it consumes a bit of that these days as well), some oil, grabbed my funnel, and proceeded to the van's location.

When I popped the hood, it was definitely low on power steering fluid.  I checked the oil, it was a bit low, so I topped that off as well.  The sound went away, and I figured it must've been related to low oil pressure.  I texted Olivia that she should be in good shape and went on with my day.

But...then I got really curious about the world we live it.  When I got to my office, I uploaded the video to ChatGPT and said, "You're an expert mechanic.  You are working on a 2008 Honda Odyssey with more than 229,000 miles.  Diagnose this sound and come up with possible solutions.  Here's its response:

I pulled the audio out of your video and analyzed the spectrum. Here’s what I can tell you:

    •    The sound in your recording is a sharp, metallic ticking/knocking that tracks with engine RPM.

    •    After you added oil and it went away, that strongly suggests it was low oil pressure causing valvetrain noise (lifter/tappet tick or VTEC rocker arm noise).

    •    At 229k miles, if the oil gets low, the hydraulic lifters and camshaft areas are the first to complain—they’ll tick loudly until oil pressure comes back up.

Diagnosis:

    •    This wasn’t likely a rod knock (those don’t just disappear with oil top-off).

    •    It was most likely valvetrain noise from oil starvation due to low oil level.

What to do:

    1    Check oil weekly (or every 500 miles). Your Odyssey is consuming oil. Never let it get low again.

    2    Stick with a high-mileage oil (5W-30 HM).

    3    If noise returns even with the oil full, then you may have weak oil pump output, worn lifters, or clogged oil passages—but given it went away right after adding oil, it’s almost certainly just low level.

👉 Bottom line:

That sound was your Odyssey begging for oil. Keep it topped up, and you’ll avoid much bigger engine damage.

So I reflected on how hard of a problem that is to solve.  It's actually a very hard problem, in which the system extracted audio from video, compared it against its training data, and came up with a reasonable description of the situation.  

And that got me thinking.  At some point, I'm going to die and my kids won't be able to ask me these kinds of questions.  However, with this kind of technology, they have a new superpower: the ability to establish context.  Instead of, say, going to a mechanic and asking for help, my kids can use this kind of technology to help themselves.  I mean, Olivia knows how to add oil.  This kind of technology can help her learn when it's necessary to do so.  Ideally, it's the kind of thing she'll be proactive about going forward - checking and topping off the oil so the pressure doesn't get low.  Experience, coupled with technology, leads to greater personal capabilities.  What a powerful concept.  The platforms our kids get to build from keep getting higher and higher.

63,000 miles

 The CR-V hit 63,000 miles last month:

I'm not sure when or where it happened.  What I do know is that Madeline is really enjoying the independence and freedom of being able to drive herself.  It's a wonderful thing to watch!  She's so confident and capable, and relishes driving herself to the barn to ride, or to school, or to lacrosse practice, or just...anywhere.  I see some of my love for and delight in driving in her.  It definitely makes me happy to see her come home, sunroof open, windows down.  Driving really is one of life's great joys.

38,000 miles

 The Boxster hit 38,000 miles 19 minutes after midnight on Monday, September 8!

It was a late night drive, so the picture is a little blurry.  It happened as I drove Faris from South Bend to Chicago, just as we passed mile 69 westbound on I-80.  It was my first longish night drive, top up.  The car has fantastic headlights and is just a pleasure to drive.  It's a phenomenal car!

Why was I driving Faris back to Chicago late on a Sunday night?  Long story short, he came to visit, went to play pickleball with us, and ended up falling and breaking his wrist.

Within moments of the break, Allison got an ice pack to alleviate the swelling.  I drove him to the ER where he was processed relatively quickly.

Since he has a clipped wing, I'll be driving him and generally looking after him as he prepares for surgery to repair the break.

One of my favorite reactions to the 38K milestone was Allison's reaction:

It makes me profoundly happy that she really enjoys the car every day.  It makes me happy that she's experiencing the delights of owning something that is truly fun to drive, be in, and look at.

229,000 miles

 The grey van rolled 229,000 this past Saturday!

This time, the entire family was in the van.  We were heading to Ohio for the annual Brewfest fundraiser to support Alzheimer's research.  I decided to pile the miles on the grey van because, well, I'm trying to get that thing to the moon!

It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day.  Luca and I were in front, Allison and Enzo were in the second row, and the girls had the third row.  As is typical, I made a big fuss over the milestone and took my customary photo.

Less than 10,000 miles until the moon!

39,000 miles

 The GLI hit 39,000 miles this past Friday:

I was heading back from Indianapolis and had just merged off I-465 onto 31 heading north.  I was on a Zoom with my Virtues and Vocations group, having just spent a couple of days at the AnalytiXIN summit.

Friday was yet another day in a string of abnormally hot, humid days.  The GLI kept me cool and comfortable as I steamed north.  I made sure to fuel up before I left South Bend, and the GLI easily did the 370 miles I put on heading down, driving around, and completing the return trip.

Every time I drive it I marvel at what a wonderful machine it is.

To help it breathe a little easier, I replaced the air filter with a K&N this past weekend.  As you can see, the K&N is not nearly as wide as the stock air filter:

I've had a K&N in the 911 for over 25 years and it's been great.  I hoping to have a similar experience with the GLI.  I took it for a quick "around the block" shakedown drive.  There is perhaps a tiny bit more intake noise, and it may have smoothed out the surging that appeared as part of the APR tune.  I look forward to driving it a bit more to see if I'm just imagining things or if the increased airflow had this unintended effect.

228,000 miles

 The grey van rolled through 228,000 miles while we were out on the East Coast:

I presume Olivia was going about her daily routine.  Maybe she was heading to work, or heading to go climbing, or going to the grocery store?  Who knows?  All I know is, she obliviously rolled through 228,000 and kept rolling.

The moon is 238,900 miles away from Earth.  The van is getting closer every day.

What a machine.

96,0000 miles

 The van cruised beautifully through 96,000 miles as part of our trip home from Boston:

This ended up being our longest single-day drive.  Allison, Madeline, Enzo, and Sara grabbed breakfast from the Residence Inn on Tudor Wharf while I retrieved the van from the adjacent parking lot.  We loaded up and started rolling around 7 am.  

I made a wrong turn and we ended up driving out to Logan Airport, doing a quick loop through the arrivals area, before finally picking up I-90 and heading west.

We motored along, enjoying the light traffic while observing how jammed the lanes to Boston were on the morning commute.  We made a quick pitstop in South Hadley to visit Jason and his kids, and to pick up a couple of items we inadvertently left behind when we stayed with them at the beginning of the journey.  Unfortunately, Pam had to leave early to be part of an interview committee, so we didn't get to see her during this stop.  The Estes are a delightful group of people to spend time with, and we could easily have spent a couple hours or days just being together.  They are also super thoughtful, and packed us a little "cestino di viaggio" for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, I had a conference the next day and the road beckoned, so we said our farewells and hit the road:

Heading west, we uneventfully rolled through 96,000 miles west of Manchester, New York, in the Finger Lakes region.

Since this was Sara's first trip to the US, Allison and I decided to surprise everyone with a little side trip to Niagara Falls.  It only added about an hour or so to the trip, and it's definitely worth seeing.

After our break at the Falls, we pressed west.  We stopped for fuel and food, and after almost 16.5 hours, we arrived home.  Unintentionally, this ended up being our longest single day trip as a family.

The van did exactly what it was supposed to do.  It kept us entertained, safe, and comfortable regardless of weather conditions.  Over more than 2,500 miles, it returned almost 25 mpg.  It never ceases to amaze me how wonderfully competent it is.

Since the journey was over 950 miles, crossing a thousand mile milestone was bound to happen.  96K came and went uneventfully, just part of the fabric of the longest day.

95,000 miles

 Having missed 94,000 on this trip, I resolved to not miss 95,000, and I didn't:

Allison, Madeline, Enzo, Sara, and I were in the car.  The context for 95,000 was much more emotional.  We had spent the day on Narragansett Beach, by far my favorite beach in Rhode Island:

For the first time that I can recall, we spent the entire day on the beach, primarily because we hadn't been there in years, we brought a shade canopy, and took advantage of Salty's 2-for-1 lobster roll deal at the concession stand.  It's really hard to beat a lobster roll on the beach.

After our beach day, we headed to Hammond Hill to visit Cara and Colin.  This was the first time back since Allison's folks moved away, and none of us felt happy to be there without going "home" to 51.  Enzo was fully weeping, and Allison was similarly volatile.

We visited the horses, then headed to get pizza at Kingston Pizza, followed up with an ice cream from Brickley's Baron's.  We flipped 95,000 miles as we drove away from the horses and were climbing Gilbert Stuart Road.  Marking the milestone was an absolute footnote given the emotional load of the day.  If I didn't mis 94K, I probably would have missed 95K.

94,000 miles

 I missed it completely by about 40 minutes!

We hit 94,000 in the blue van embarking upon our 2025 camping trip to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  Allison, Madeline, Enzo, Sara (Gianna's daughter), and me hit the road early on a Friday morning.  It was raining when we departed, which I think is the first time we've ever set off on a road trip in the rain.

Olivia and Luca woke up early to see us off.

As is our routine for long road trips, we started heading east on I-80 and had breakfast in the car.  Perhaps because it was raining, perhaps because it was an atypical start (folks weren't immediately hungry), or perhaps because I was distracted and excited by the prospect of a road trip, I just flat missed the 94,000 milestone.  94K came and went on a long overall day:

I suppose it's like I've said before, we were just living our lives and enjoying the moment, so 94K came and went without fanfare.  The van was just the backdrop, the context for facilitating the journey.

Gym date!

 Allison and I had a gym date the other day.  It's one of my favorite things, we're both working hard, separately, but in the same space.  I headed out earlier than Allison, and caught the cars having a date of their own.  I composed a shot where the curves blend into each other and thought it was cool:

37,000 miles

 The Boxster turned 37,000 miles this past Thursday.

Once again, it wasn't an extraordinary or atypical drive.  In this case, I was taking Madeline to her evening lacrosse practice.  It was a gorgeous evening, top down, lovely weather.  

Actually, it was an extraordinary drive, because I'm increasingly aware that I won't need to drive her places.  In a couple of weeks, she will have her license and the ability to just go wherever she wants, whenever she wants.  I'll miss the car time with her.  I love being in the car with any of the kids.  I think as humans, we like being in motion.  Walking, bicycling, horseback, motorcycling, driving.  Being on a boat, a train, an airplane.  How do we soothe children to sleep?  By rocking them or walking around with them or going for a drive with them.  I really like being in motion with one of the kids, because there's a sense of movement and adventure and excitement that is just part of every journey.

Based on the mileage the night before, I was thinking Allison would roll 37,000.  However, when I got into the car, I saw:

Soon there will be a mileage milestone that I'll miss.  Hopefully, Allison will just blow past it because she will be just doing her thing, driving around, enjoying being in motion.

38,000 miles

 The GLI turned 38,000 miles today!

Strangely for me, I caught the milestone entirely by happenstance.  I was taking Madeline and Enzo to Prairie Winds Farm on my way to teach.  We'd just gotten off of 31 south, had snaked underneath 31 heading east on Kern Road, and had just turned south onto old 31 (931, Michigan Street) when I happened to glance at the dashboard.  38,000 miles had already rolled, so I quickly grabbed my phone to take the shot.

I'm trying to figure out why I wasn't more in tune with the mileage.  I think it was a combination of factors.  First, I was super low on gas and was doing the mental math to figure out if I could drop them at the farm, go to work, and make it to Costco without putting in a splash.  Secondly, I wanted to make sure the kids were on time.  Enzo was attending camp while Madeline was working.  Third, I suppose I was thinking a bit about the class I was going to deliver.

Either way, I'm glad I glanced down at the right moment and took the shot.  It was a drizzly, gray morning.  It was a delightful reprieve from the intense heat of the past couple of weeks.

As a footnote, I did make it to Costco.  I rolled in with 0 miles of estimated range remaining.  When I filled up the tank, it took an indicated 11.955 gallons.  The GLI has a 13.2 gallon tank, so it's good to know that even when the estimated range reads 0, there's about a gallon of cushion.  Conservatively, that's another 20 miles.  Good to know.

The only thing that matters

 Now for something completely different.  We've been taking care of my mom and father-in-law for a while.  We had both of them in our home until we could no longer support their needs.  For my father-in-law, the catastrophic event that resulted in moving him to a care facility was a stroke.  He went from walking the dogs with us on a Sunday to having a stroke Monday night/Tuesday morning.  Allison called me at work because she was unable to pick him up off the floor.

So began a week of intensive care.  We picked him up, changed him, bathed him, fed him, transferred him in a wheelchair, and generally took care of him.  As we were doing that work, it occurred to me that we were doing the same things taking care of him that we did when our kids were infants.  The infants and the stricken require the same thing - basic care and lots of love.

We were putting him to bed one evening and needed to slide him towards the head of the bed so he had enough space to lie down.  We could tell he was agitated and nervous.  He kept holding his head up instead of relaxing into the pillow.  I supported his head and rubbed his forehead and told him, "It's OK, you can relax, we've got you."

Now, historically, Warren isn't a super emotional guy.  He's more the quiet jokster type.  Anyway, once we got him to relax, I said, "OK Warren, you can relax and rest and go to sleep.  I love you."  Expecting no response, he shook me by turning his head, looking deep into my soul, and saying, "I love you too."

At that moment everything just snapped into focus.  The only thing that matters at the end of life is the same thing that matters at the beginning of life - love.  That's all there is.  And I'd argue that it's the only thing that matters throughout our lives.  It's just that we're human, and we get distracted by ego and desire and ambition and whimsy and passion and rage and all of the wonderful things that make us human.

I think we'd do well to keep love a little more front and center throughout.  I think we'd all be in a better place.

First wash

 I couldn't take it anymore.  The cars were disgusting, and I needed to clean them.  It was the first time I washed the Boxster, and I just needed to give a quick shoutout to the folks at Porsche Fox Valley.  They did a great job preparing the car, and the moment the hose hit the car, it was evident they take car protection seriously.

The water instantly beaded up:

Having such a well-protected car made my life much easier.  After a bit of cleaning and post-wash care, I decided to play around and have some fun with photography:

I worked hard to line up the reflection in the door to make it seem like the car just continued.  I thought it was a cool shot.

Getting Groceries

 We continue to delight in the Boxster.  It's a lovely place to be, has abundant performance, and truly impressive cargo capacity.  Yesterday, I took Enzo to taekwondo, then popped over and did some grocery shopping.  The big question is, would all the groceries fit??

The answer is: absolutely.  The Boxster swallowed the groceries with ease, including my laptop, Enzo's taekwondo bag, and with room to spare:

Front trunk

Rear trunk

Porsche did a truly outstanding job when designing this car.  It is ready to go anywhere and can haul more cargo than most people think.  One of my friends has a Jaguar F-Type convertible.  I'm pretty sure he can fit a duffle bag in the trunk, and that's about it.

Breaking in the Boxster

 This past weekend, Enzo and I had a lovely 1,300 mile trip in the Boxster.  It was the first time I'd had the opportunity to use the car for a serious road trip.  I gave Enzo the option of taking the 911 or the Boxster for this trip, and he chose the Boxster.  Thanks to Allison for letting us take her car for the weekend!

On Friday, we went from South Bend to New Glarus, where we stopped at our favorite bakery.  As I've mentioned before, we try and swing into the New Glarus Bakery any time we're in the area.  We also enjoyed a tasty lunch, in which Enzo discovered some extra-long fries:

After New Glarus, we continued on to Eagan, Minnesota, for a cousin's high school graduation party.  The next day, we headed back to Chicago where we had dinner with Faris before sacking out.  We got up early the next day to attend a pretty awesome Cars and Coffee event at The Exchange, where one of the stars of the event was a Ferrari Daytona SP3:

Enzo?  Ferrari!

After a very cool event and a relaxing lunch, we headed for home, taking 294 around Chicago.

So, what was the trip like?  I'm quite simply amazed at how fundamentally good the Boxster is as an over-the-road car.  If you consider a two seat car to be practical, then the Boxster has to be the most practical two-seater on the planet.  The frunk is massive and the rear trunk easily swallows a duffel bag and a pair of back packs.  The interior is comfortable, and as modern as I need.  The air conditioning works quickly, the seat coolers and heaters work wonderfully, the car is comfortable, and with the top up, it's snug, weatherproof, and relatively quiet.

We drove through sunshine, terrible air quality on account of wildfires in Canada, and a bit of rain.  The rain-sensing wipers did their thing, the car kept us cozy and comfortable, and I never wished for a softer ride.  The suspension absorbed bumps and kept us comfy.

Speaking of the suspension, I have a "favorite bump" approaching the Dan Ryan from the Skyway.  The entry to the express lanes begins as a left-handed curve before entering the on-ramp that dives down and to the right.  There is a pronounced bump in the midst of the left-hand corner before the on-ramp that can upset cars.  I was thinking about that bump the entire time between South Bend and Chicago, looking forward to seeing how the Boxster would handle it.

How did it do?  Impressively well.  The car felt rock steady stable and the suspension ate the bump, which I heard more than felt.  I was super impressed by how easily the car handled it and how it didn't pogo on the suspension.  It just felt planted, stable, and inspired confidence.

The other thing I was super impressed with was the fuel economy.  Similar to the GLI and the 2019 Odyssey, I thought the tank was a bit on the small side.  Well, it's only small if you flog the car around town.  Loping along at interstate speeds, the car returns over 32 mpg:

The entire leg from South Bend to Eagan, which included some spirited manually-shifted back-road driving to New Glarus, netted 31.3 mpg with an average speed of 67 mph:

I was super impressed.  The overdrive 7th gear keeps the engine spinning around 2,200 rpm at highway speeds.  On the return leg, I put 448.5 miles on a single tank with an indicated 46 miles of range left when I stopped for gas.  I think if you were deliberate about it, you could put 500 miles on a single tank on an interstate run.

The PDK made dealing with Chicago traffic simple.  Instead of using the paddles, I just left it in drive and let the computer figure everything out.  I discovered that I prefer using the PDK's sport mode, particularly in traffic.  Sport mode holds gears a little longer, leaving a bit more torque available under foot without the need to downshift.  I definitely prefer the way that feels.

The Boxster was definitely a more comfortable, quieter, less-fatiguing choice for this type of journey.  While the 911 could do that trip with zero mechanical issues, it's spinning over 3,000 rpm at highway speeds, is louder, and the air conditioning isn't nearly as good.  It all stands to reason, as the 911 is fully 21 years older than the Boxster.

If you only could have one sports car, it's really hard to argue with the Boxster.  It's modern, comfortable, spacious, has plenty of storage, fast, makes that lovely flat-6 music, and has the added benefit of being able to operate the top in about 9 seconds as long as you're going under 30 mph.  It really is an outstanding car.

I'm very much looking forward to our trip to Cedar Falls in a couple of weeks.  It's about 400 miles each way, which should give plenty of time to compare the Boxster, 911, and Faris' RS.