On Saturday, I drove from Chicago to Salt Lake City making it in under 22 hours (thanks to a few Red Bulls). Here's a few things I experienced JK-wise:

- I now know what the hood problem is. I'm not that tall and I slouch so I didn't really see the hood when driving, until I sat up straight trying to keep the low, setting sun behind the visor. That's when I saw the hood jump during wind gusts or turbulence from a passing big rig. Is that something the dealer can fix? I imagine it increases drag and puts strain on the hood clamps.

- Rain didn't hit until I was 20 min from destination, but my driver's side roof leak returned. Going to see a dealer about getting that fixed somehow.

- Gas mileage averaged 19.5 mpg. I removed the backseat to fit more junk since I rarely have more than one passenger. I also had a hitch mounted bike rack with a mountain bike and road bike. I wouldn't say the load was that much more than an extra 200-300 lbs. I also tried to stay below 70 mph despite the 75 mph speed limit most of the way.

- Gas prices ranged from 3.68 in eastern Iowa to 4.09 in Wyoming.

- Acceleration (auto trans) in the mountain passes was very sluggish, even big rigs were passing me up. I was flooring it just to maintain 60 mph. RPM's would hit 3500 and I got a little nervous pushing it higher since it spiked one time but didn't kick in for a second or two, then jerked forward. It didn't seem natural. Any suggestions? (I normally don't accelerate above 2500 RPM's from a stand still.)

Otherwise, the JK was a champ.