CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(July 6, 2012) I'm no stranger to traveling on holidays. I've flown on Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas and New Year's Eves. Usually my willingness to spend a portion of such days on an airplane is rewarded with unpopulated flights, loads of attention from flight attendants, and almost guaranteed upgrades.

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(July 2, 2012) So I participated in one of the car companies' "Bantam death march" events last week. It was an Audi event to Colorado. We flew in on morning No. 1 and flew out the next afternoon. For us Eastcoasters, it meant a dark O'thirty run to the airport on the first day and a late-nite run from the airport home on the second night.

I must admit, it wasn't as bad as one of the California "Bantam death marches" that some of the car companies host, but it was still a very long two days.

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(June 21, 2012) I managed to keep my head from exploding while traveling this week. Lexus flew me to New Jersey to drive the redesigned sixth-generation Lexus ES. No, the Lexus folks aren't mad at me; they flew a bunch of journalists to New Jersey for the East-coast press launch.

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(June 11, 2012) One of the cars in my driveway this week is a 2012 Honda Civic Si.

I like this little coupe. At $22,355 it's a bit on the pricey side, but a pure hoot to drive. Its 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine punches out 201 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of torque. That's plenty of go for a car tipping the scales at svelte 2,900 pounds.

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(May 13, 2012) Wow! I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but Chevy has a compact car that I absolutely love!

I have become a slobbering mess over its new Sonic.

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(May 8, 2012) Driving to Key West is always a bit of an adventure. It's easy to forget you are still in the good old US of A, rather than a Caribbean Island.

I am in the Keys at the behest of AAA of the Carolinas for a travel piece. I am one of five journalists in the care of a PR liaison for the Keys. We typically think of getting from Florida City to Key West as just one straight road — and it is — but there is an alternate route from Florida City to Key Largo, the first of the Keys. It's Card Sound Road, a toll road. It costs all of one buck. Be sure and get a receipt!

CLANGING BELL
By Russ Heaps

(April 16, 2012) I drove from Greenville, S.C., to Holden Beach, N.C. over the weekend. It isn’t a bad drive as these things go, but nearly one-third of the 270 miles is on state and county roads.

Infiniti provided the abbreviated version of the FX35, the EX35, for this boondoggle.  Its comfortable surroundings and enthusiastic performance contributed heavily to the “fun” quotient of my drive. The window price sticker in the glove box told me the EPA expects it to get 24 mpg on the highway. I averaged 25.5 mpg on my little jaunt.