/diy/ - Do It Yourself

...and i left. 0730, june 10th, 2016, almost exactly 3 months after i had bought the car. 3 months after i had broken down and jumped directly into the deep end. 3 months of hard work, turmoil, ups and downs, crazy days, the car falling apart and me fixing it, meeting loads of new people, and living life with a purpose. 3 months, and i was here, on the road, finally leaving. it felt like the world was watching me and judging me. failure would be a let down for everyone, and i wasnt about to fail.

my plan was simple. i had planned out 30 minute segments all the way from base to base, in order to allow my car to cool off (mid-june this year was really hot everywhere along the route and wasnt helping). i would stop in random cities that loosely follow the route up to nebraska, avoiding long stretches of highway, at least for the first portion. as i gained confidence in driving the car for long periods, i would ramp up the distance i would drive in order to save time (and my sanity).

it was so simple, that there was no possible way it could go wrong.

i made it the first 30 minutes easily. the floorboards were warm, but the car was running fine. i maxed out at 50 miles per hour (in a 65 zone) and stopped to wash my face, arms, and legs off in a gas station bathroom sink from all of the carpet fibers that blew around the cab. i also donned a pair of safety goggles (to keep residual shit in the floor from flying into my eyes more than already had), and put on headphones to cancel out the loud ass engine (from the exhaust leak at the manifold that i had found a week or so prior, but had yet to fix). i kept the windows down to keep myself from fainting due to exhaust fumes, and pressed on.

another 30 minutes, and i filled up at a gas station, thinking the car was gulping gas like a hungover guy drinks water, but i had actually consumed very little gas. turns out, i was getting 25 mpg.

1 hour down, lots more to go.
>cruising along in the second portion of the drive