Post-GONE: Day 10

For the first time, in a long time, I took a day-off to relax and recover. The rain that was foretasted showed-up, so I didn’t miss much by sleeping in. Around 10:00 am my package arrived at the hotel, so I got myself out of bed and by butt into gear.

Before I left for my road trip I had my mechanic order me a copy of HP Tuners. This is the same software that he used to build the tune for my car, and gives me complete access to retune my car. Add-in a connection to the Internet and I have access to my tuner wherever I am… like in the middle of Tennessee! With the HP Tuners hardware and software in hand, I have the chance to try and deal with this pesky P2135 DTCs that have been plaguing me lately.

My mechanic sent me a few different files for my car… and I loaded the first onto the car.

This “new” tune is actually the old one I was using before I left for my Cross Country trip. Before leaving there were a few little tweaks made to my tune to help with a long distance drive. While I’m unsure exactly what is causing the P2135 DTCs at this point (hardware, electrical, tune, long-term trim tables, etc.), it was never something I had seen with the old tune… so by reloading the old tune, we’re isolating at least one of the variables.

After loading the “new” tune I fired-up the G8 and everything sounded great. I gave it a little gas… and it sounded even better! After a short drive around the parking lot I found a nice dead end road to play in. I only did a little “testing”, but the car seems a bit more “peppy”.

The bulk of the rest of the day was spent doing laundry and catching-up on being a couch potato. After my laundry was done, I felt like getting back behind the wheel to “test” the car a bit more.

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The drive was short and sweet, but it was just what I needed to get back into the mood for my roadtrip. The curves were gentile, but that was also a good thing since the road was wet. In a few places, the sun found it’s way through the clouds and steam was rising from the roads… which never gets old. While I didn’t receive any DTCs, the drive was too short for a definitive “it’s fixed” answer.

Today I saw my first bicyclist! I’ve been really shocked that in the previous 5354 miles of my roadtrip I’ve not seen a single bicyclist on the twisty roads. This has been quite a (positive) surprise for me… if this was California, most of these roads would be crawling with spandex clad riders. While I still keep an eye-out for cyclists, not having to deal with them has allowed me to have a more enjoyable experience.

When I started back towards my hotel the skies opened up and the rain started to fall. It wasn’t anything too crazy, but it definitely made me want to get off the road. Fortunately my hotel was close, and the rain even decided to stop when I arrived (so I didn’t get wet walking in).

Recently I contemplated jumping ahead to drive a few select portions of road… then returning home early. I still need to double-check the maps, but I think my roadtrip will continue on as planned tomorrow.