So, a month ago, I packed up and moved from upstate NY to northern CA for a new job (three weeks after an interview, for a job I applied for on a whim, after a recruiter called me out of the blue).


...and I drove the box across the country. It's surprisingly comfortable if you have to spend 44 hours in it in four days.

Naturally, there are pictures.

I took these with my phone:

The old apartment:


Cats in crates for four days. They mostly just slept:


Wyoming:


Utah:




...and most of these with my Point'n'Shoot attached to a mount I made that attaches to my passenger seat headrest with $8 worth of brackets from Home Depot:

I am pretty sure Ohio is a thousand miles wide. This was a relief.


I stayed my first night of the drive with a friend in Indianapolis who drives an automatic '06:


Somewhere in Nebraska, the only thing that isn't cornfield to look at:


Leaving SLC:


The hoon Mecca that is the Bonneville Salt Flats:







...and I eventually made it to California:




I actually took several hundred pictures, of varying quality.

I've already decided that I need to to back to Utah, because it's absolutely gorgeous.

...and life is mostly good so far. Of course, I got crashed into by a motorcycle in Berkeley 2 weeks ago while on my way to visit some friends I haven't seen in a few years (it was fairly low-speed and just kind of crunched up my bumper; bikes have no business in traffic), and having to deal with real, nonrural traffic has shot my gas mileage all to hell.

 

Oh, and I thought I had rubbing issues before; I was seriously terrified that Ohio's atrocious roads would leave me stranded with two destroyed tires. In that state that I wish didn't exist, bridges and roads tend to differ in height by a couple of inches.

 

Nice... Ive done the cross country trip in my box... it was enjoyable

 

Thats awesome. I'd love to see more pictures.
Yeah you have so much offset that all I can think is *cough* camber!

 

Choice ! i would not trip in any other car the xb rocks on the road

 

that is awesome! definitely one thing I would love to do in the future!

 

Thanks, guys. The drive was a hell of an adventure.

The first day was the southern tier of NY to Indianapolis, then Indy to Omaha, Omaha to SLC (Nebraska is the most boring 500 miles of driving I have ever done), and SLC to my new home in the central valley of CA (yeah, I'm in the boondocks, still, but it's better boondocks than before-- most people have all of their teeth here).

The only thing I wish I'd have done differently would have been to take a few extra days to see stuff, but that wasn't really an option. I'll have to take another road trip for fun in the future.

If rolling the rears doesn't solve the vast majority of my rubbing, camber's the next step (along with another inch or two of lowering).

Also awesome: the job I moved out here for will allow me to afford to deghettoify my car slowly. I couldn't really swing non-half-assed mods before.

 

California: Welcome to 25MPG. And remember, we are the best drivers in the country so you better drive like us, or you'll be "toast".

 

I highly recommend camber plates for the rear. Mine work great. Get -5 though, I wish I did instead of -3.

 

How's the tire wear?

 

My tires are already worn. I think its not bad.

 

Welcome to cali the farthest trip i took was from cali to kansas city missouri in one shot 30hrs total. took some of the route you did but i hit highway 70 through colorado.

 

Awesome adventure! I've traveled in my box but definitely only anfraction of what you went haha. Thanks for sharing, also too bad about Cali traffic!

 

For better or worse, I live in the boondocks in the central valley, so I have a 15 minute commute if I hit every red light. I just thought it was fitting that I got stuck in traffic on I80 minutes after entering the state.

I'd never driven the box that much in one shot; the weekend before I came out here, I drove 600 miles round-trip across NY (totally worth it to see some old friends I don't see often enough and will see less), and it was a good dry-run.

While buzzy and high-strung, it's a comfortable place to sit for that long.

The longest day of driving was the 3rd -- 935 miles from Omaha to SLC, in about 14.5 hours.

 

I agree with taken the xB on a adventure...my wife and i 3 weeks ago took our 05 from Madison Wi to Boston Mass and back in a week. We had no com plaints besides the hills/mountains in New York on I-20. We got 34 mph total average and only spent $235ish on gas the whole time. Glad to see others are enjoying there cars as much as we do

 

Don't believe the b.s. about 25 mpg CA driving. I regularly get 46 mpg tanks with my xB in CA. I drove mine from the Bay Area to Miami after I bought it, and got 44.7 mpg for over 7300 miles of driving.

 

They don't turn the car off sitting in traffic though. ;)