[SentraSE-R]

What happened to you, Mark? Vic and Kris showed. I showed them my Scangauge's features. We all had grill blocks. Kris had some nice smooth wheel cover centers. Vic had removed his passenger side mirror and had a nice inside mirror installation, plus wheel deflectors. Their ecomods put my sloppy work to shame.

My only hope for redemption was to wow them with mileage. Their cars are both automatics, so I had a chance. We gave up waiting for Mark at 3:30, and got into my xB for a ride. The weather cooperated, and we had clear skies and dry roads. First, I drove a few miles with cruise control on back roads, then a few miles with cruise control on the highway. I don't recall what the mileage was on each leg, but somewhere in the mid-high 40s, because I was hoping to beat 50 mpg with P&G on the back country P&G demo that was next. Not to worry. I got 51.7 mpg for the 5 miles. Then we turned around, and I reset the trip average for the return trip. I got the mileage up to 59 mpg before we got on the freeway. My high speed P&G got about 52 mpg before exiting the freeway, and coasting close to 60 mpg by the stop sign.

Then Kris drove us in his car, and we discussed ways to wring mileage out of an automatic. We had dinner together, talked about our shared love of hypermiling, and agreed we'll probably meet again. It was great meeting Vic and Kris.