OK I'm finally back and reunited with my car. Had a brief study abroad stint in France for the last 4 months.
Basically got back to California on December 27th, and after like 6 days drove the thing back to Florida. It had a horrible exhaust leak that I should have taken care of before I left, but didn't. Because of the leak the car was running rich and it smelled horrible and made that stupid fluttering sound. Hit some snow in New Mexico/West texas which slowed me down a little, but my trusty old datsun made it.
As soon as I got back to Daytona Beach I rinsed off the bottom of the car, did an oil change and changed out the intake/exhaust gasket. Ran a lot better. Now I'm almost ready to start my Turbo swap (although I've been saying that for like a year now)