On the Road with A Toyota Sienna

I made the 10-hour slog from South Carolina to Delray Beach, Fla. Thursday with some of the Wednesday-Night Irregulars from Peddler Steakhouse. As someone who has made that trip solo more than a dozen times, doing it with a car-load of people is a culture shock. Anticipating several unscheduled pit stops for the ladies, we left Greenville at 7 AM to ensure we arrived at City Cellar in West Palm Beach to meet up with South Florida friends at 5:30PM. My fears, however, were unfounded. We only made one pit stop that wasn't mated to a fuel stop. We walked into the Cellar at 5:15.

A few local friends were there to meet and greet us, including future-Greenville resident Erick. In fact, Greenville, SC was the theme of the long weekend as we spent time intentionally or accidentally with all sorts of folks with Greenville connections. This 90-minute diversion completed we headed to Delray and the home of part-time Greenville residents Bob and Meg, where we bunked for this trip. The evening was capped with a lasagna dinner and copious amounts of wine.

My first choice for a trip vehicle was one of GM's long-wheelbase SUVs, like the Suburban. A few years ago this request would have been effortlessly met. No so these days. GM doesn't have such a vehicle in its East-coast press fleet. My fallback vehicle was a Toyota Sienna minivan. This turned out to be an ideal substitute. It's more than 16 cubic feet of cargo space with the third-row seat in place was more than enough to swallow the luggage five of us would need to see us through four days.

Moreover, the third row seat has about 30-inches of legroom, which is plenty to accommodate an adult. The EPA-rated fuel economy is 22 mpg on the highway. With five of us and our luggage the Sienna delivered 21.5 mpg. It turned out to be an excellent road vehicle.

Our three-day drinking contest will come to a close on Sunday when we make the drive back to sub-20-degree temps. All good things must come to an end….