So as I've mentioned before, my family intends to travel down to South Carolina this winter to visit my mom's parents. It's about an 800 mile trip just one way and so it's not often we make it. The last trip was last year, a week long stay in the summer. I had chosen not to go because I really wanted to repair Ayumi (her brakes had failed the week before) and get her back out on the road and practice driving. Then my parents had viewed it as an opportunity to test my ability to live on my own and I did quite well. Even though I couldn't manage to repair Ayumi within the week and later found out that my grandpa would've happily tossed me the keys to his stickshift Chevy Colorado (a compact pickup like Ayumi) and taken me all over the state.

Now it's been several years since I've gotten to spend time with my grandparents. I've seen them several times over the past few years, at graduation, a brief few minutes near Christmas last year, and most recent at my grandmother's funeral. So I really want to go, though I'm somewhat reluctant to be asking for time off, asking for two weeks off back in the summer in one go was a huge favor on the part of my boss and he's gotten mad lately when others have taking a lot of time off. But that isn't my real decision to make and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting time off for just a weekend. In the past winter visits my parents have left on Fridays, arriving at sundown. We celebrate an early Christmas on Saturday and leave the following morning.

So my choice in this really falls in how I want to get down. At some point I will get a Commercial Driver's License and more than likely I will try what is called linehaul trucking. Linehaul is basically long distance trucking and because I have my own vehicle, I could use this opportunity to try driving long distance. The longest I've ever driven in one go is 4 hours down to Dumfries and back with a used differential that I had purchased for Ayumi, but ultimately returned it in a second 4 hour trip. I definitely remember Ayumi not seeming too happy by the end of the trips. Her transmission was definitely making a good bit of racket, which leads to my hesitation.

If I take Ayumi down, more than likely her transmission will get rather hot and I'm very concerned about burning it up and becoming stranded. She's also not exactly an ideal long haul machine because she lacks cruise control and the seat is a bit worn out and gets uncomfortable after a good while. I'm thinking that if I stop at just about every rest stop and allow Ayumi time to cool down a bit, then she'll make it just fine. However, because she's limited to about 55 to 60 mph, my trip would take considerably longer than my parents.

Do I chance it....