LSchicago

My 07 HHR Panel is just over 3 years old and only has a bit over 10K miles on it. But not for long, Next week I'm driving my son to college at Stanford. It will be fully loaded, and I even removed the cargo box for extra space. I'll be putting about 5,000 miles on it in about a week. I bought a bike rack for the hitch, so I can bring his bike (and now his friends bike too) My wife will fly out to SF, and we'll drive back together. We are going to have a couple vacation days out there too. Last time I had a long road trip was in 1990 with a friend in a suburban pulling a trailer with ATV's to Phoenix for desert riding. We didn't talk the whole trip back....

urbexHHR

Have fun! You'll love it! I took my HHR from Michigan to Florida this spring, and it was a great ride! Had it stacked to the top...I literally couldn't see out the back or side windows!

Make sure you get some good pictures of it too along the way! Nothing better than having a picture of it in a cool place where you might never take it again!

Rooney

We took the HHR from Iowa to San Francisco (I80 all the way), then to Yosemite and finally to Encinitas for our vacation this year. The HHR was a great long distance cruiser, comfortable for all of us and we managed about 28mpg (mountains suck gas with 4 people and luggage on board) for the whole trip.

LSchicago

That's exactly the MPG number I estimated for the trip. I hear 80 is boring the whole way.

LSchicago

I will get some pics of the HHR on the trip. My lowered HHR be be slammed once I load it up with 800# worth of stuff, and both of us.

Rooney

You have no idea. hahaha Crossing the Sierra Nevadas is nice (check out Lake Tahoe, it's beautiful) and Nevada has some nice spots, Salt Lake sucks until you get on the East side of the city, there are some great views. Wyoming is meh...Nebraska is even worse. Iowa is rolling hills all the way. It's not a bad trip, really (I've done it about 7 times now), but there are some monotonous stretches of highway along the way. This last time, we came home through Las Vegas and Colorado and that was really cool. We hit 11,000+ feet at the Eisenhower Tunnel and then it was pretty much all down hill to Omaha. San Francisco was really cool. It was the 1st time I'd seen the Golden Gate Bridge and it was surreal.

Have a safe trip!

Rooney

Oh yeah, and pay attention to the "Turn of your air conditioner" signs along the way. We went in July so it was hotter, but some of the mountains are pretty high and your temps will go up, especially with the HHR loaded up. I think around 7,000 feet or so when you cross into California...and you have to stop at the State Line where they ask if you have any live plants, seeds or fruits and vegetables with you. You'll have to pop the hatch so they can make sure no seeds or anything are trapped in the opening. Considering more than 1/2 the produce we eat is grown in California, I can't blame them for not wanting bugs from out of State. My kids didn't believe me when I told them about that part.

ecl

When did they start that, I took a vacation in 07 ish and we didnt stop. Any how have safe trip I really enjoyed our I-80 trip got to see alot of things I hadnt before. Im in Elko NV and if your traveling 80 the whole way you'll head straight through here, so if you have time or know of when your coming through let me know if you meet up real quick.

Rooney

It could be based on what State you're from. The first time I drove to California, by myself, was in 1989 when I was reporting to my duty station in the Navy and they had me stop and open my truck topper to check for seeds/plants. Every time I've gone to California we've had to stop and be checked.

dkessman

Have a Safe and fun trip!!