[mobike008]

It's peak summer here and as is the rule we do not miss enjoying even a single weekend.

This time, mom was yearning for some truck food. Yup, she too is a foodie like me.

Last Saturday, we decided to make a day trip to the "Food truck capital of the world"- Portland, Oregon.

There are over 1000 food trucks across Portland divided in PODS (Each POD will have anywhere between 10-15 food trucks).

Some PODS are right next to each other which gives you access to literally 30-40 food trucks dishing out delicious fusion cusine from Burmese, Egyptian, Greek, Argentinian to name the exotic cuisine which is typically not found anywhere in any city.

We enjoyed the leisurely drive of 180 miles (~ 300kms) to Portland which was covered in 3-hours.

Our agenda was simple-

Lunch-Food Truck.
Snacks- Voodoo Donuts (Supposedly the best donuts in entire US)
Dinner- Kashmiri Cuisine.

With a few sightseeing spots thrown in :

1. Multonomah Falls-30 Miles outside of Portland, OR.
2. Rose Garden- One of the best rose gardens on West Coast.
3. Drive through the Global Headquarters of sneaker kings- NIKE (Reminded me of the movie AIR on Prime Video)
4. Shopping in Costco to recover the gas money. (Yeah, Portland is a tax free state )

That's how a 16-hour crammed day trip to Portland, OR looked like after covering 450- miles in Blau Rakete which crunched these miles with aplomb.

Cheers to Road-trips and good food. !!!

Home Made Marzorine Sandwiches (Marzorine is a popular store in Pune, India)



Cold Coffee Enroute.



Entering Portland.



Early Lunch at the Food truck in Portland.





Multonomah Falls, Oregon.











Legendary Voodoo Donuts.



Mt. Hood in the distance. Mt. Hood is to Oregon what Mt. Rainier is to Washington.



Downtown Portland.



International Rose Test Garden, Portland.



Fabulous Kashmiri Cuisine for Dinner.







Drive through the massive campus of NIKE- It's gorgeous and very green with all buildings named after their popular shoes like Air, Air Jordan, MAX etc.



Visit to the International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon.























Shopped worth $800 so I can recover $85 worth of gas money. LOL! we live in a capitalist economy so need to behave like that.

[mobike008]

Earlier this week, Blau Rakete completed 28,000 Miles (45,000 kms) in 2.5 years of ownership.

There is nothing really to update as it works like a charm and puts a huge grin on my face every time I get behind the wheel.

Growl of the B58 and seeing the surprised look from fellow commuters at the signal when a seemingly family type SAV blast away from one-red light to another is simply priceless.

Miles that we clock on this beauty has reduced drastically as I invariably seem to just slide into the Tesla and drive as it's such an easy and enjoyable car to drive. Most importantly, it feels like we are driving it for "FREE".

Wifey uses this car for work and her place of work is not too far- 18 miles R/T.

Finally, yeah the tires are still stock with no punctures till date. Touchwood !!

[mobike008]

When it comes opping up fuel, I'm a bit of a risk taker and wait till last moment to tank up. It has given me quite a few heart stopping moments in the past.

But, I like to trust my instincts and thanks to god, I never got stranded because of this stupid behavior. LOL!

As per manual, my car has a 17.2 gallons (~ 64 Liters) capacity.

DTE (Distance to Empty) in most of the vehicles is pretty accurate. It gives a "Low Fuel" warning when the DTE drops to 50 Miles.

My wife panics and fills gas immediately. I usually wait until DTE drops to 30 Miles before tanking up.

Yesterday, I crossed my own limits and DTE dropped dangerously low to 18 miles but, I brought it back up by driving for those 20 miles in "EcoPro" to 22 miles.

P.S : I know it's not good for the engine to let it drop so low but, this is the first time, I dropped this low as I wanted to know my Blau Rakete's limits. It never fails to impress me in whatever it does.

DTE at 22 miles. It was a bit of scary moment as the nearest gas was some 5 miles away when it had dropped to 18 miles. I brought it back up to 22 Miles by driving in Ecopro.



Gas prices keep jumping each time I visit them. $5.20/Gallon is almost like Covid Days. 15.5 Gallons is the maximum it took till date.

Tesla makes me feel good these days considering these gas prices.



Impressive fuel average last few tankfuls. It gives an impressive FE when it's doing long distance but, if it does 10-20 miles, then FE drops to 18 miles/gallon as you see it happened in June.



Eitherways, love this beast to the core. !!!

[mobike008]

Here is the story of 3-Germans day out to the mighty Mt. Rainier :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5604075 (3 Germans (BMW, Mercedes, Audi) | A Day-Trip to Mt. Rainier National Park)

[mobike008]

Friday (August 18th, 2023)- 30,000 Miles Regular Service Report

I had scheduled an appointment with BMW of Bellevue for a regular 30,000 miles services (My odometer reading was 28,500 miles) and they promised me a loaner.

But, when I reached on time, I was told loaner is not available as due to delay in repairs most cars are not being returned on time.

As a compensation, they offered me a "Test Drive" of a latest BMW, got me a nice sandwich lunch with unlimited flow of coffee.

Besides above, my service adviser-SAF promised to get me the car in 3 hours or before while I hang around in their massive showroom.

I requested SAF to check the tire tread depth as it's stock runlets and he measured all 4-tires and each of the tire thread depth.

Typically the depth when new is 9 or 10 and it's advisable to replace the tires at 4.

Both my front tires were at- 4

Rear tires still have decent tread and were at -6

Imagine stock tires that never went through any wheel balancing nor alignment till date. I'm super pleased as well as a bit shocked at how lucky I'm on these tires despite driving the car hard 80% of the time.

The regular service included the following checks and replacements

1. Oil & Oil Filter Replacement
2. Brake Inspection
3. Windshield Wiper Fluid Replacement
4. Key Fob Battery Replacement
5. Wash & Vacuuming

The final bill presented to me post this service was a grand- US $ ZERO.

The day (January 18th, 2021), I bought this bummer home to this date, I have not spent not even a single $$$$ on this amazing machine.

As promised, I got the car back in 2.5 hours. How did I spend those 2.5 hours?

1. I took a leisurely test drive of a new BMW for over an hour.

2. Ogled at some amazing machines parked in the showroom namely :

1. BMW M440i
2. BMW 780i
3. BMW X7
4. BMW X5M

However, what caught my eye was the following two :

1. BMW X6M Competition
2. BMW XM (There were 2 of them- Black and Blue)

My dream SAV is the BMW X6MC (It costs $150K OTR) and BMW XM is next level of luxury and looks like a cruise ship and costs a whopping ($180K OTR)

Here are some pictures of a beautiful 3-hours spent at BMW of Bellevue.

Front tire is at 4



Rear tire is at 6





Nice and Clean Blau Rakete.







Ready for Delivery



One picture in the sunlight.



BMW X6M Competition- Dreams cannot get bigger than this.



Crazy Price Tag.



I love this angle of the BMW X6MC and color is just outstanding.



The mighty BMW XM- Check the wheels. The size even for US standards is ridiculously massive.



$180K OTR



Note : A brief Test Drive Report to come up soon. Keep watching the thread.

[mobike008]

I drove this last weekend and got myself into a bit of a dilemma.

Details here : https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/elect...ml#post5608909 (BMW iX electric SUV launched at Rs. 1.16 crore)

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by mobike008

My dream SAV is the BMW X6MC (It costs $150K OTR)

It's a very nice car, especially with quilted seats and that Audio and we are not even talking about that engine. It used to be around 160K CAD in 2020, things have moved so quickly.

BMW X6M Competition- Dreams cannot get bigger than this.

Nooo, you need to go past that BMW showroom next time. Here's what I did when a friend went to get his Ford truck serviced

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

It's a very nice car, especially with quilted seats and that Audio and we are not even talking about that engine. It used to be around 160K CAD in 2020, things have moved so quickly.

Prices have indeed sky rocketed and it's shocking to see the new car prices compared to what it was a couple of years ago.

And, a 11-12% sales tax on this price also does not help. WA is an expensive state to live in.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Nooo, you need to go past that BMW showroom next time. Here's what I did when a friend went to get his Ford truck serviced

Haha! Bellevue has all exotics showrooms right next door to each other. Maybe next time I will hop to those showrooms and dream about which car to buy next.

[mobike008]

We had some family visiting us and it was my duty to take them around and show them sights.

A few pictures from last weekend's visit to one of my favorite areas in Washington- Deception Pass Bridge in Anacortes, WA

Blau Rakete Posing at Anacortes, WA



We spotted 3 deers wandering around which made us stop in our tracks and admire them.



This is where I want to buy a home and retire.



Deception Pass Bridge, WA

[mobike008]

A situation where your mind is riddled with multiple thoughts and you are gasping for breathe and trying to clear you head and take a sensible decision :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/luxur...ml#post5621337 (What next? Replacement for a BMW X3M40i)

[mobike008]

Blau Rakete enjoyed a lovely day trip of ~ 300 miles to the Mt.Rainier National Park along with a few other BHPians.

After a long time, I had a proper adrenaline rush as the return drive was "clipping" all the way and leaving almost everyone on road behind.

The power, exhaust note and handling even on worn RFT tires in the forest in winding roads in blinding rain and fog left me yet again breathless with it's capabilities.

Here are a few favorite pictures from this day-trip and a photoblog :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5634816

Just love this beast.

My favorite picture of this drive trip.

[mobike008]

Last weekend being a long weekend, we headed out for a short vacation.

We rented this 2023 Dodge Challenger for 3-days..

It was fun to drive this around. Will share a photoblog of our trip soon.









Immediately after returning home, I had to travel to California on work for rest of the week. My rental car saw a unique mileage during my rental period.

Btw,Can anyone guess the car?

[mobike008]

I hated myself when I looked at the grime on the wheels.

I normally pride myself to drive an impeccable looking car.

It's been over 2-months that I paid attention to the car with respect to cleaning, wiping or even washing the car as it's generally never gets too dirty.

But, with the rains started, the grime stands out like a sore thumb.

I decided to enjoy a 45-mins workout yesterday.

I wiped the grime off the wheels as much as I can. I would say the wheels are now about 80% clean and from a distance look nice and shiny.

Before



After



Took this opportunity to hose down the car as well. Now it looks every inch a beauty that she is.

[mobike008]

While the perception is there that cars in US are cheaper than in India but, look what we have to pay annually apart from expensive monthly insurance.

India

Car Payments + Yearly Insurance

USA

Car Payments + Monthly Insurance + Annual License Plate Registration Costs.

Here is the cost of the annual tab cost for each car.

BMW- $80



Tesla- $363



That's a cool $40 bucks a month additional cost just for the tabs.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by mobike008

We rented this 2023 Dodge Challenger for 3-days..

It was fun to drive this around. Will share a photoblog of our trip soon.

Here is a link to a brief driving impression of the Challenger as well as a photoblog of our vacation to Vegas.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5648451 (Maiden Visit to Las Vegas, Nevada | Driving a 2023 Dodge Challenger in the “Sin City”)