As some of you may have heard, I'm taking a nice little vacation with a buddy and the Accord...

To Florida.... from Minnesota. Insane, I know.

I'm leaving on December 26th and coming back on January 4th and all the miles are going on my happy little Accord.

This is mainly a trip for photography, both of us are bringing all of our gear, so my question to you is: anybody know of any neat places to stop (sort of) on the way down and back? We're both flexible to driving out of our way to catch something neat.

On the way down, we're planning a straight shot there, enjoy the weather, etc. in Florida. On the way back we want to take Florida's east coast north, through Georgia and South Carolina and up to Chicago and back to Minneapolis.

Also, besides sight seeing ideas, any of you upper level gear heads want to throw some advice my way? On the way down, we're driving straight through, way back will be accomplished over 2 days.

It's 1,740 miles there and the route back is 1,880 miles.

A little info on the car:

1999 Accord LX F23A1 5MT
-Clutch has about 8k on it
-Engine is ticking towards 184k a the moment
-Timing belt was changed at 133k
-Tranny oil has 8k on it
-Obviously changing the oil before I go (Mobil1 5W-30 and Mobil1 M1-104 filter).
-Will most likely change the coolant as well
-Cap and rotor were changed 2 weeks ago before I went to Chicago, so about 1k on them (BWD cap, Napa rotor)
-Tires are Toyo Spectrums with tons on tread left, but I will probably be driving down on nearly new Nexen N3000s
-Not worried about struts/schocks blowing out, they're getting changed next weekend

Anything I probably should change before I head out? Maybe change the clutch fluid? Clutch slave need to be replaced?

Brakes should be fine, but I'll look at them before I go and re-lube the slide pins.

I plan on packing a full size spare in the trunk and some tools (anyone thinks it's kind of funny you can practically take apart the whole car with 10mm and 12mm sockets?), along with a jug of coolant and two 5qt. jugs of oil (she burns about a quart every 700 miles [I like VTEC]), and brake fluid.

I know it's not even November yet, but if any big ticket items need to be replace I want some time to do it.

Thanks for all of your input, it is well appreciated!


EDIT: List of places we're going:

1. Calle Ocho (8th Street), Miami, FL
2. The Dragon
3. Tybee Island, GA

 

What part of Florida are you going to? and watch out for cops there all over areas like Georgia and Tenn..... and as far as the clutch it should be fine.. man i bet you wish you had an auto with cruise control.. lol

 

you should go to the dragon

 

Cameron, what the dragon?

And JDM, I do haves teh cruise control! Unfortunately my VSS is on it's way out so it doesn't like to work all the time.

 

Me and my friend had a plan to go down this past summer but never did.

 

Noice... good place to test out the new suspension and tire setup.

JDM, I'm going to Sanibel Island for the week.

 

AE86 Rice. Ae baby. lol

no homo

 

Ahh.. West coastin it i see.. Never been to sanibel but i heard its really nice.. If you get a chance... try and see places on the way like Tampa,Cape Coral,panama city..A bit out of the way but Naples is beautiful too.=)

 

Naples is great, I've been to the west cost a lot of times in the past (Ft. Myers/N. Captiva Island and of course Orlando/Kissimmee up north), but don't forget we're driving up the east coast on the way back... I'm planning on stopping at Tybee Island outside of Savannah, GA.. that place is great too.

 

beware of bears patrolling the dragon.

i've done cross country 4x, once in my 94 accord, 2x in my 07 accord, and once in my M3. pack fluids, spare tire, tools and cell phone. and enjoy!