Road trip

Inflate all the tires, including the spare.
You are going to need tire rotation, when you get back.

I recommend the entire Harry Potter audio books, $305 well spent.

www.amazon.com/dp/0739352245

About $60 if you have kindle and space on your phone.

"Dale is perhaps most famous for being the voice of all the Harry Potter audio books, in which he notably performs hundreds of distinct individual character's voices."

 

Check or replace wipers, carry a jug of washer fluid. Prepare for delays on I-95.... Chillax.

 

how many miles after your last service will you be leaving?

 

Great question!
You will want some time between say.....the 120,000 mile maintenance and the road trip....

 

Try to get down to the FL Keys if you can. I love that area!

Other than that, the v is a great road trip car. My son and I did a long road trip last summer and our v did great!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SZ1qRjr6NLZs-YSY9lb_cbTyxNUFAbYr&usp=sharing

 

cooling system will be fine, prius is a drivers car.

if you are closing in on 120k, best to do that major work before leaving, and have some time to drive locally in case of mechanic stupid.

if not, change the oil, check the air filter, pump up the tires and go. how is the 12v health?

 

LOL!!

I can't count the number of times that I've been driving home bleary-eyed from an oh-dark-thirty call-out and listened to George Noory - sometimes just to see what the topic is!

+1 on Audiobooks.
I fall asleep listening to them every single night, but for some reason they always have the opposite effect on me when I'm on a road trip - something I do 3-4 times a year.
More than once I've sat in the driveway after 12 hours on the road to finish out a chapter....

Audible is horribly expensive but you can get one free month at Amazon, and buy three credits (books) for something like $35.
That's something like $8.50 per book....and you get to keep them. Pick the right books, and you're covered for most of the trip.
Your local library almost CERTAINLY loans audiobooks (Bastan?) and they're free.
They use the Overdrive app, and there's a little bit of an on-ramp for learning how to use the app, but you will be rewarded with, literally, a world of entertainment and learning!

Start now.
There are lots of cheapskates in the world (like me!) so often as not there is a waiting list for current best-sellers but all of the old classics are usually available wait-free.
If you're retired military there are also literally tens of thousands of books that you can download and listen to...free as air.

With your driving patterns you should be good to go for maintenance - but you might be close on the oil change.
If so...do it a week or two before the trip....but ONLY the oil and maybe tire rotation.

I'd save things like plugs, transmission fluid replacement, throttle body maintenance, etc...for after the trip.

Consider bumping your tire pressures up to whatever the OEM values are (on your door jam) plus about 5 psi.
Probably in the neighborhood of 42/40?

The station wagon is heavier than the hatch so I don't know if the OEM pressures are the same, BUT your tires will run slightly cooler and you might get a slight bump in fuel efficiency.
If you find that it makes the ride too harsh, you can always let the air back out.
It goes without saying that your tires should be in good shape, but remember that "The sunshine state" gets TORRENTIAL downpours occasionally and people who aren't used to driving in the southernmost Yankee state are often taken by surprise.

Check your wipers.

The most important thing!!

Have fun!
Be courteous.
Take some pictures (while stopped, please!) and post them when you get back!

Good Luck!

 

I drive in the South and have a Scangauge II which lets me follow water temp, mine never gets over 197, which is not at all bad for a 195 thermostat. I would not worry about it.

www.amazon.com/dp/B000AAMY86

 

Yep, just drive it. I have been on five road trips with our 2010 liftback and 2012 v (wagon) and they never let me down once. Three of the road trips were in the SE Utah area in the middle of summer...and absolutely no problems whatsoever.

 

I tend to listen to podcasts on long road trips. Free and plentiful. I may have even had an earbud in one ear listening to them while others sleep.

Audible is a great idea though.

 

+1

BTDT.

 

One problem (well, it can be, for some) is that outside major radio markets, everything is on repeaters and it's literally the same programming for hundreds of miles at a time, like all across Pennsylvania on I-80 from west of NJ to Ohio. Same up and down I-95, south of Virginia to Florida.

 

App for audiobooks? The ones from my local library are simply on standard audio CDs. If we get back and haven't listened to the whole thing (most recently "Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan", Steve Coll, 29 hours), then I just pop the remaining discs into the computer and rip them as MP3s onto the car's USB music thumbdrive.

(Oh yes, with a 2010, you may not have the USB port. My 2010 didn't).

"Free" depends on how one wishes to do the accounting. On one hand, my property tax bill shows a line item of $167 for public library service this year. OTOH, that is a fixed annual charge, whether we use it or not. The incremental cost of borrowing audiobooks and other items is zip.

 

Yeah...the Clear Channel effect. Some would say it is a monopoly. That is why I take plenty of podcasts along.

 

Yes.
Many libraries use the Overdrive app for lending digital content.
The audio files themselves are in MP3 format and have DRM limits....sometimes, but yeah.....as a property owner myself I get where you're going with "free."


ALSO!!!
Since the OP is probably not lucky enough to have a Cracker Barrel in Bastan, these places make for a great pit stop since they have good coffee, endless gedunk options, and they rent audiobooks for something like $3 a week.
You'll see their billboards.

The process is fairly simple and ingenious.
You buy the book, and listen to it. Then you go BACK to a Cracker Barrel and return the book and they refund the purchase amount minus the rental fee.
They have a fairly good selection too.

Don't forget to wave at Pedro's on your way South........