Friday, July 21, 2023
I sleep in until 7:30. Get up to have breakfast with Brian before taking him to the train station. Delicious scrambled eggs and little sausages and a ton of fresh fruit. From there, it's time to pack the car and start to head south.
It is a nice lazy start, though, as the weather is a bit inclement so we don't spend time fitting radiator grills and radio harnesses and all of that, just the bare minimum. As the drizzle continues, we head off to grab a bit of autobahn to make some mileage. Have to make sure to vary the RPM and speed as we break these babies in. You also have to make sure you keep a watchful eye on the left lane in your rearview mirror if you want to pull out to pass somebody, as very often there are people going A LOT faster than you and you don't want to force them to slow way down in the fast lane. That would not make them happy. Must say though, the lane change warning system in this car is very impressive, as it recognizes not only the existence of, but also the speed and distance of cars coming up behind you, warning you a long way in advance if it sees something moving fast in the distance - very clever.
At the 150 km mark of mileage on my new car, crack! Something hits the windshield and I think "Oh nooooooo!" I think I've got a stone chip in my windshield on the passenger side, kicked up from Andrew's car in front. Are you kidding me??? Checking it out when we stop, I confirm it. Yep. Stone chip. Passenger side. A 'bruise' as they say. Frig. No longer unblemished. Glad it's not on the driver's side.
As we head out of the suburbs of Leipzig, the rain lifts for a little while, and we drive through a very pleasant sleepy little town, with some lucky horse riders riding out in beautiful big golden fields. We munch on some delicious apple strudel and drink tasty coffee along the way (not in the cars! We stop for snacks!), with it all feeling rather idyllic, but then I note the indicator warning on the display 'Inspection now' again. I muse that it's been there since the beginning - comes on when you start the car - but seeing as it hasn't disappeared, I radio Andrew about it - I could swear I asked him about it at the factory, and his was the same but he had misunderstood me back then, and thought I was talking about the various sounds the car makes on start-up and at idle. Anyway, we pull over in a layby to call Porsche Assistance, who direct us to a dealership. Only 1:20 from where we are, closing at 5:00 pm. It's two o'clock now, so we have plenty of time. We also think it highly likely that it is just a maintenance indicator that just needs resetting, as does the roadside assistance person. We elect to drive to the dealer.
Unfortunately … I don't trust my SIM card data and downloaded maps, so when Google Maps starts complaining that I have passed the dealership, I just rely on my fearless leader in the gorgeous Cayman ahead of me. Turns out he has put the wrong dealership into HIS Google Maps, which I didn't know. Since his data has been reliable, and his new phone always seems to be connected, I didn't question. Oops.
A quick discussion and a reroute, and we make a beeline for the next closest dealership, and make it there with about 15 minutes to spare. Amazingly, they take me in right away and run the diagnostic. A super-nice mechanic named Tobias checks it out and confirms it was, as I had hoped, just a maintenance indicator. Phew. Phew, phew, phew. I was so nauseous leading up to it. Took a while to recover. Like seriously. All was resolved though, with Tobias resetting the indicator and sending us on our way without charging me - nice. It is quite something really, the power of the mind to physiologically affect you - both positively and negatively. I must try to remember that.
All this did take away a little bit from my enjoyment of the drive up to that point - amazing how unsettled one can become. But in the end, all in all, it hasn't been too much of a wrangle - I'm sure there will be more to come! Anyway, from there we meet up with a 718-forum-guy (handle: PeC) who has a Boxster GTS and he takes us to his favourite restaurant for dinner. Super nice fellow, though he talks a mile a minute! All of his friends that he used to hang out and drive motorbikes with have 'grown up' and he's got no one to enjoy his new toy with, so I think he is pretty chuffed to meet us. On top of the great food and great chatting, he treats us to the whole meal, which is SUPER generous of him as restaurant food in Europe doesn't come cheaply!
Feeling rather full and sleepy, it's a welcome short drive to our hotel (only 10 km or so away). We unpack the cars, hit the showers, send emails, etc. and all curl up for some welcome sleep.
We head to the mountains tomorrow!
~ Luke
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