Or, more specifically, Braselton, GA. I arrived at Road Atlanta promptly at 0630 this morning, some 2 hours and 44 minutes after leaving friends in Charlotte. 205 miles in 2:44 was about as much as I really wanted to push on a sleep deficit and a possibly leaking left outer CV boot. Must check on that...
South Carolina has cheap gas: $1.93 for regular is the norm, not the exception. I filled up the white Neon for $2.23, 93 octane Shell gas. Wow. I know the gas price drop is only momentary, and there's any number of conspiracy theories out there surrounding it, I'm not complaining this week: My gas budget was calculated over a month ago at $3.30/gallon, so I might just get home without being completely broke! (Wait, no, that means I might be able to afford an extra t-shirt...)
Elsewhere, I'm encouraged to hear that Richard Hammond is on the mend. For anyone who's been under a rock for the past week, the Top Gear presenter and host took a devil of a crash while attempting to break the UK land speed record. I wish him a speedy and complete recovery.
The downside to splitting the trip between two nights this time? My sleep schedule's turned upside down, and I'm currently awake for the past 27 hours. Wednesday is just a testing day at the track, but a testing day at Road Atlanta beats a "super" day working back in DC. Once I was South of Richmond, there was simply no traffic to speak of... and very little in the way of speed enforcement. Some speed limits I'd expected to still see at 70 in NC and SC had dropped to 60, for some reason, but it didn't affect the 80-MPH flow of traffic much.
Not only did I average about 74.5 MPH throughout the trip, but notched 37.8 MPG, owing in no small part to pulling a draft off of whomever I could. Minivans and lowered SUVs are excellent for this; 18-wheelers, not so great.
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