Day three had Bucky and us traveling from Cambridge OH all the way to St Charles MO. For those of you that are counting - thats 535 miles on I70 (including multiple reroutes through Indianapolis (what a nightmare) 😱 More detail on that to come.
As I sit here this evening tucked into my little hotel room in St Charles, I am reflecting on just how many miles you can easily burn in a day with this incredible machine. However, we have discovered its one weak point - and that is it’s navigation system. Not to say it’s bad, it just needs to have some “refinements” included into its interface. For example, every turn on a highway is bear right, bear left and it’s ALWAYS at the last second before an exit. It does not call out exit numbers 2 miles ahead of time like other GPS systems like Apple Car Play/Maps or Waze, or others. my wife HATES this system. Thank god we have Apple Car play. So much nicer and more civilized in its directions.
We learned this the hard-way today when encountering the most bizarre Freeway project I have ever seen, in the heart of Indianapolis on I70. For the love of god and all that is holy, their idea of a hiway construction project is to create the most lethal breed of radioactive mutant oversized mole-rats and turn them loose with one mission, destroy all concrete in a 10 mile radius of downtown Indy. What an absolute mess, bonus points, the “engineering department” in charge of the detours all were nearsighted, blind drunken idiots who literally created the detours by throwing random objects at a map and then calling it good. I have found it literally easier to navigate an IKEA, based inside a Super Walmart (my description of hell BTW).
We did however find the Indianapolis Speedway which was a bucket item on my list for this trip. I posted a couple of photos on some of the BMW IX Facebook groups this evening. I will get others onto this blog soon. Now that I have seen the track, I have moved all thoughts of visiting Indy again from my bucket list to my Fuckit list. BTW did I mention the BMW IX’s almost OCD VEER RIGHT over corrections. I finally just pulled over in a random gas station parking lot, turned it off and made Apple Maps my GPS of choice for the rest of this trip. Perhaps I am just missing some options I need to select, but my Wife wants nothing more to do with it. So when I get home, I will get on the horn with BMW and see what can be improved upon. I am in this for the species boys and girls. 😂
DC fast charging the IX continues to be an absolute joy. I was so nervous about this part of the trip, and it literally become a no-brainer. My wife is dutifully recording all these sessions and will put them together into a Youtube video when we get back. Please not: I am no professional videographer, these are just me talking to the the camera and around it while showing how easy this process is. From the notes I have been taking, the handshake process time between the EA dispensers for those Sweet Sweet Coal electrons is only taking on average about 20 seconds. I am charging from around 20% to 80 percent in 30 mins. From a lot of videos I have seen on this process with other manufactures, it can take up to 2 mins or more just for the handshake. Bravo BMW, simply Bravo.
I think I cautioned this yesterday, but the IX only has one speed I can find on the hiway and that is WIDE OPEN TILL YOU SEE GOD, THEN BRAAAAAAAKE! I am averaging at least 85MPH and I cannot figure out a way to keep it under that. It LOVES to cruise at 85. I am will be seeing a plastic surgeon when I return home to get this stupid grin off my face. BTW - did I mention it was fast. Everyone talks about 0-60 in 4.x seconds. Here’s a secret…..sssshhhh… the real fun is 60 - 110! YEEEEHAAAA!!!
We have been seeing a lot of construction on this trip and today we got caught up in a nasty backup of about 6 miles. I remember seeing a video about congestion mode from a guy in Europe, Sorry I don’t remember his name yet, but I need to find it, cause I owe you a beer for creating at that video. After 1 mile in the backup doing about .5 MPH, I remember that video and also remembered I have the 5AU Active Driving Assistant Pro feature and turned it on. The IX then just proceeded to take care of the next 5 miles as if I was not even there. I could have possibly jumped in the back and made a sandwich, if I have sandwich making materials. Seriously though I just barely rested a finger on the wheel and watched it do its thing. Damn, where has this been all my life. The countless hours in I5 and I405 backups, the huge sums of $$$ money to massage therapist to remove the knots from my legs. THE BEST $1700 option I have ever purchased on a car. If you are in the process of ordering your first IX, RUN to, DONOT Walk to your dealer and make sure you have this feature selected.
Tomorrows goal is to get to Kansas City and start eating as much BBQ as I can, until my wife has to put me into the IX with a Cherry picker. (You ICE guys will know what I am talking about there) 😂
I also think we are going to take it easy tomorrow and only do around 400 miles and find a hotel with a hot tub that I can sleep in it overnight. Coming out in the morning looking like a wrinkly zucchini will SO be worth it.
Goodnight all
Bucky and I will see you tomorrow.
PS; Unfortunately we only got two days into the trip before the first fart (me) was released into that supple interior. I almost had to cry. Fortunately every EA stop for charging is at a Wally World (Walmart). Needless to say, New Car Smell Air freshener sticks were procured and all is well.
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