Staycation With The Mazda6 Grand Touring

Recently, Fred and I had a "first." We left my oldest son at home to be with my youngest son overnight. OVER-NIGHT! BY. HIMSELF! Holy cow!!

Yes, Fred and I have gone on trips without the kids, but this was the first time we weren't having someone come and stay with the boys. And by "someone" I mean an adult, which, Buddy is technically an adult at 18. Heck, I was living on my own (very badly quite honestly) at 18!

When I found out I was going to get to drive the 2017.5 Mazda6 Grand Touring for a review, I was thrilled...and then I went into planning mode. Where were we going to enjoy our ride for the week? I really tried to reach out to as many places as I could, but sakes alive, it's not always easy trying to find a place to visit on short notice. What I really wanted to do was see the changing of the leaves. Unfortunately, the leaves aren't really changing down here yet.

Let me introduce you to Lola! Isn't she a beauty? She came to me with just over 300 miles on her. I've never had the privilege of driving a vehicle with so few miles. I was in for a treat! I can't wait to share about our experience on our short little road trip in the Mazda6.

I looked into going to PA and WV. Turns out there's a lot to do, but so much of it was booked in advance by others, our options were limited. This summer friends of ours went to Harper's Ferry, WV, and I loved the photos so much, I decided we had a destination.

As nervous as I was to head out (sheesh we were only an hour and a half away) I was really excited. Just me and the hubs. No agenda. Friday night all we had to do was get to our hotel and grab something to eat along the way. When we started out, I was driving, but at some point I just got too sleepy and I asked Fred to take over.

It was kind of fun being a passenger in the new car. I got to play with the buttons. Let's start by talking about the little things. It's nice (as a driver) to have the plug in power source in an accessible place in the car as opposed to  being almost hidden on the passenger side in the CX-9. We've always got something plugged in. We didn't have the boys with us, but if we did and they needed charges, thankfully there were also two USB ports in the arm rest.

And the color...Soul Red Metallic on the outside and Parchment Leather on the inside. The Active Driving Display is fantastic! Instead of information being displayed on the windshield, this display unfolds when the car starts. There did seem to be times when it worked to show the road signs and other times when it didn't.

Once again, my favorite feature is the Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring. It was kind of funny when it chimed the first time. Fred was like, "What was that ringing noise?" I didn't know what he was talking about because he asked too long after the chime had sounded. When it did it again, I realized what he was talking about. Honestly, you can't beat the notifications you get when there's a car in your blind spot. The chime, the light indicator on your side mirrors, and the notification on the Active Driving Display, it's something I hate living without in my car.

Our drive into West Virginia was a pretty relaxing drive. We checked into our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night. A gal could get used to this! We're always go, go, go so to have nothing planned the next day was delightful!

Saturday morning had us packing back up into the Mazda 6 and going on the hunt for coffee. Fred found a coffee place called Big Dog which was outside of town, but had good ratings. It was a fun coffee place that had a lot of homemade items for sale. Right next to it was a cute little market where we had to get some fall items!

Thank goodness we had no agenda because as we were heading into Harper's Ferry we drove by a flea market and Fred whipped a u-turn. He knew without really having to ask that I wanted to go. It was a great stop! I found old books for my daughter's wedding and this hat...can you even believe I didn't come home with it?!

We drove through the main section of Harper's Ferry a couple of times trying to get our bearings. Since we hadn't been there before we weren't exactly sure where to park or where to start. What was an awesome bonus, it was free parking for September 30: National Public Lands Day! Score, right? Well, we ended up not parking where it was free, but ended up going to the other side of the town and paying to park. Don't ask...

It was a delightful place to visit. So much history to learn about. I had no idea it was such sought after piece of land between the Union and the Confederates. We went into the buildings soaking up the history of what happened in the town. I have to admit, some of it was extremely hard to read. We had lunch at a cute little restaurant, and then continued to explore the rest of the town.

I'm so glad we decided to take Lola on a staycation. She is what inspired our first night away and leaving the boys at home. Did I mention we told both of our neighbors we were going to be gone? Not because we were "worried" about the boys, but because I wanted them to be aware if anything seemed suspicious in the middle of the night.

Our drive home was just as relaxed. I decided that I hadn't gotten to drive as much as I wanted since I was sharing the driving this time. I kicked Fred out of the driver's seat and took over again. The 6 was a nice car to drive. You can definitely tell it's a 4-cylinder, but kicking it into Sport mode when necessary gave it a stronger feel. Since I don't have a moonroof, I kept playing with that because it's such a fun accessory.

We had some weird issues with the HD on the radio so Fred used his Amazon Music to entertain us for the rest of the ride home. I didn't want to program radio stations since we only had Lola for a week. It would've probably been easier though as I look back.

It's incredible how much the weather can change. Friday when we headed on our trip is was in the 70s and we were using the A/C. Monday on my way to my Bible Study I had the seat warmer on as well as the steering wheel heater. Oh my gosh...that steering wheel heater. Dreamy I tell ya! And who doesn't want a warm tooshie on a cold day?

There was also the opportunity to find out the capacity of the trunk, which turned out to be much larger than I expected. We picked up three suitcases for our mission trip. I thought we'd have to lay one of the seats down, but thankfully didn't have to. Laying down the seats would've been easy (I checked later) had we needed them. It's incredible to me how much room you can get out of a sedan these days!

I wasn't quite ready for our weekend to be over, so I asked Fred if we could check out some country roads on our way back. I also wanted to go down to Annapolis to get some pictures by the Bay. Of course he agreed. He's always such a trooper. It was fun trying to find a spot to grab some action shots with the car. It's a skill I need to work on, but was fun to try out.


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It was so beautiful exploring the West Virginia country roads. You could easily spend the day driving and driving just seeing beautiful landscape. On the way home I asked Mr. Easy Going if he'd be ok stopping by Annapolis because I wanted to take Lola down by the water. Of course he agreed. I really had wanted to stop at Sofie's Crepes because it's one of my favorite places to eat at, but we'd had smoothies about an hour before we got there and I was super full.

It was a fantastic weekend and I was so thankful to have that alone time with my hubby. I'm already looking forward to exploring more through the fall. I think we'll have to head up to PA next.

My Week With Blue: Mazda CX-9 Signature AWD

Do you ever experience something and wonder how you are going to share everything you want about it? That's where I'm at right now. I just finished experiencing test driving the 2017 Mazda CX-9 Signature AWD, and it was amazing. I've been trying to figure out how to encapsulate it in one post, so hopefully I can do it!

My only experience with Mazda has been my dad's Miata, and that was fun to ride in. When the CX-9 showed up I kind of gave it a judge eye because I have a crossover (do we call them that any more) and I wasn't sure how it would compare. Let me give you a comparison as to what this drive was like.  Right now the car I drive is an '09 and would describe as a flip phone. The Mazda CX-9 is like the newest smartphone that's just hitting the market! THAT'S how vastly different they are.

So, where do I start? Maybe by telling you I named her. I've never named my cars. She was easy to name. I named her Blue in honor of how I knew I'd feel once she left me. I referred to her as Blue during our adventures which included baseball games, birthday parties, garden centers, and just tooling around town.

My first step was to figure out all of the bells & whistles. There was so much to familiarize myself with. I started with the center console, where you control much of what goes on "smart wise" in the car. It's what they call MAZDA CONNECT™ infotainment system. It's the size of a tablet that sits on the dashboard. It's basically your command center sitting right next to you. It didn't take nearly as long as I expected to familiarize myself with everything, but it all came together in no time.

Let's chat about the seats. The driver and passenger are able to control their own temperature and the passengers in the 2nd & 3rd row share one as well. The Signature comes with divine premium Nappa leather. Those seats were heavenly to sit in. Made me miss leather seats. Speaking of those seats, the driver and passenger have heated seat options! Gosh I love that. The driver's seat also has 2 memory buttons, something I genuinely miss in the vehicle I have now.

Between the seats is the dual armrest. I've never seen a split armrest, but each side can open a half. Not impressed with that, and it doesn't make sense to me, but each to her own, right? There are two USB ports inside the armrest. There's also a plug in towards the floor on the passenger's side, but it's really awkward to get to. None of those 3 spots works while the car is off. Definitely a negative for me, BUT (and this is the strange part) the drop down armrest in the second row also has dual ports, but one actually charges while the car is off. So there IS that. If it comes down to needing a charge, it's found in the 2nd row armrest.

Now let's talk about one of the feature that does a TON for this Mazda. It's called i-ACTIVSENSE®. This gives you some added safety features that you didn't realize you shouldn't be living without. I'm missing them A LOT now that Blue is gone! I honestly won't be able to do it all justice in my explanation, but if you watch my Facebook Live video you'll see everything I'm talking about.

 

If you are using cruise control, the sensors will pick up if you're getting to close the car ahead of you and will slow your car down and then speed it back up when needed. There's the Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring when a car is in your blind spot. It will show up in your side mirrors, on your monitor in your windshield, and as a chime. It. Is. Amazing! Then partnered together are the Lane Departure Assist & Lane-Keep Assist. If the car detects you're departing from your lane, it'll push you back away from the line and jiggle your steering wheel. So stinking cool! Really not sure how I'm supposed to live without these in my old car!

Ok, these next two pieces, which you will also see in my video, are just mind blowing to me. One is super simple and now that I don't have it, I want to cry while driving in the dark. lol So, you know how when you're driving at night and you have to keep switching your low beams to your high beams. Oh my gosh, it can drive a person batty, right? Well, their High Beam Control does it for you. FOR YOU! Whoever came up with that should get a raise or at least a bonus! Then...seriously you have GOT to check this out, they have something called the Adaptive Front-Lighting System. Your headlights freaking turn WITH you...as in they move as you go around a corner then adjust back with your steering wheel! I was absolutely fascinated by this feature. You've got to experience it all to really get the full effect. Again, you can see this in my video!

Oh! Something else that really wowed me was the attention to certain lighting details. There is very subtle lighting inside the door handles. I always feel like I'm searching for the door handle to get out of whichever vehicle I'm in. There's also the LED grilled accent lighting that gives it just that extra bling. The interior lighting is bright, but not harsh on the eyes.

I've never had a moonroof in any of my cars, and with this gorgeous weather, I made sure we enjoyed every single moment of it. That meant I didn't get to try out the rain sensing windshield wipers. I actually hoped for a rainy day just to experience them. Another feature I've missed from my minivan days of old is the power lift gate. From the driver's seat you can push a button, you can push it on your key fob, or if you squeeze the lift gate handle it will open! Magical I tell ya!

Moving back to the second and third row seats, they do a lot more than any of my seats have ever done. The second row seats are rather heavy to push up and I wasn't able to do it one handed. I was actually surprised at how much they weighed. lol It's a 60/40 split and can slide forward to give more room to the back and will also recline! The third row seats 2 and is a 50/50 split. Dropping the back row definitely gives more cargo room if you're road tripping it somewhere or just going to the garden center like I did and stocking up on new plants and soils.

I never had a chance to pack Blue full like we do on occasion with our own vehicles. The Mazda CX-9 is surprising strong for a little 4 cylinder. I think it would probably haul the normal things we'd stick in the back. Maybe next time I'll put it to the test! Speaking of the engine, it has what they call SKYACTIV® TECHNOLOGY which helps with "driving dynamics and efficiency." Now, say you're driving this baby and getting onto the freeway, this came with something called Sport Mode. You can switch that on at any point and kapow, you've just kicked it up a notch. Let me tell you, zoom zoom definitely comes into play. Of course, your mpg drop when you use this Mode.

Going back to our own cars has been quite the transition. Before it was picked up to be shared with another driver, I had to move Blue and my crossover out of the driveway. Pulled her out easy peasy. Got in mine, and sakes alive, it felt like I was moving a tank! I hadn't driven it in almost a week, and the difference was that significant. Letting Blue go wasn't going to be easy. Since Blue has been gone I've compared her to my car every time I get behind the wheel. I realized how important a role those safety features play in your every day driving, and I appreciate them more now that I no longer have them!

Overall Blue was a fantastic automobile to drive. She was fun and zippy. There were a couple of things that I wasn't fond of (as mentioned above), but not so much in a way that I'd pick a different vehicle over her. Mazda has thought of pretty much everything, and I'd give her a place in my driveway!