Vacation: driving south on I-5

I spent the week before Christmas down in So. Cal. I had a blast!

I know there is an "LA" stereotype but I'm not buying into that anymore. More on the trip in another post.

Just getting there was fun. Fly from SFO to LAX and rent a car? No Way! I drove down in a nice Inifniti FX 35. Not mine, I was just the driver. Cool ride. I love the cruise control. It is really advanced. You set it just like any cruise control, but it has a sensor that monitors the distance between you and the car in front. It has three settings, kind of close, (like maybe 15 feet), farther away (maybe 20 feet), and far, (close to 25 feet) and here's the cool part; the car will slow down to maintain the distance.

Here's how I worked it on I-5. I'd set it to keep up with the flow of traffic in the left lane, like 85. I didn't often do 85 but that would keep me moving with the other vehicles. Then the FX 35 just speeds up if it can, but if a car in front of me is doing say 80 (hey if you have never driven I-5 that is normal) then the cruise control will slow down and if I follow that car I go as fast as it does keeping the distance between us the I choose. If they move over and the lane in front of me clears out the FX will accelerate to 85 or until it comes up on another vehicle, then it slows again to follow. If somebody dives in front of you and violates the safe zone the car gives a loud beeping warning. You can't not pay attention, but it sure is nice on a long drive like I-5. I'm not sure how much use it would be in the Yea Area. It's pretty crowded here.

btw It got about 20 mpg on the I-5 part of the trip.

FX35 and 45 info