Updated: 5000 Mile Trip, Porsche Parade or Bust!
07-04-2012, 08:39 PM
#17
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No update tonight... Hotel doesn't have internet connection and I'm too tired to type it out on my phone.
Just one note, Iowa must be the corn capital of the planet.
Just one note, Iowa must be the corn capital of the planet.
07-05-2012, 12:01 AM
#18
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Well done so far! Good for both of you- sounds like an epic trip in the making. Regardless of what happens! You're past the point of no return now... and yeah, consider going even further west if all is still well after Parade.
Makes my trip from Nashville to Dallas to get my 951 off eBay last year look like a piece of cake.
Makes my trip from Nashville to Dallas to get my 951 off eBay last year look like a piece of cake.
07-05-2012, 08:52 PM
#20
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Thread Starter
UPDATE
The lodging we were staying in last night didn't have wi-fi and I was too tired to attempt to type out an update and include pictures on my phone.
So, to recap the last 2 days.
We departed early (0600) from South Bend, IN with the intent of stopping for the night outside of Omaha, NE. The humidity at 0545 was pretty shocking, guess some of that was left over from the storm the day before. Here's a pic of the cars (sorry it's cloudy, the lens kept fogging up):
And here is Minta, now much more rested than the day before:
But the dawn was beautiful:
We quickly entered Illinois and made great time skirting around Chicago. Luckily we didn't need to enlist the aid of any fellow Rennlisters (Thanks for the offer OmniGLH!!). Traffic was light and we got tons of waves, thumbs up and stares. I don't know what it is about the new-ish Chevy Impala/Malibu but man, folks from Illinois seem to love those things. We did run into a spot of trouble outside of Joilet though. We were cruising along doing the speed limit when we quickly noticed that traffic was at a total stop. We managed to slow down without any difficulty and the traffic behind us didn't do anything jerk-ish like rear-end one of the cars. After a quick hop off of the highway and a chat with a Illinois State Police officer, we got back onto I-80 and saw that the delay at least had the good grace to light itself on fire as an apology:
The rest of Illinois was flat, smooth and pretty unremarkable.
We entered Iowa for the last leg of our drive for the day. Th mission was to get across Iowa, enter Omaha, NE and drive about 7 miles south to Offutt Air Force Base. Iowa has all kinds of crazy things that I had never seen before. A chain of convenience stores called Kum & Go:
Apparently, the World's Largest Truck Stop:
And, for the best photo:
(Wait, we didn't get a chance to take the picture of a crop duster flying ~50' AGL over the 951 because someone [ModdedEverything951S] had to call and talk to Minta about cats)
Minta and I were both pretty surprised at how hilly Iowa was. For some reason we were under the impression that Iowa is flat and full of corn. Totally wrong on both counts. Just as the heat was getting close to unbearable, we finally arrived in Omaha and Offutt AFB.
Base Lodging was nice, for $40/night it was much nicer than an equally priced Motel 6. We lucked out and the Commissary was open even though it was a federal holiday and dinner consisted of deli sandwiches. We were just too tired to try and get anything else.
Waking up early again for a 0600 departure we were greeted by some great photo opportunities:
And then we found out that we were totally wrong about Iowa, but not about Nebraska. I think we drove 285 miles with about 80 feet total change in elevation. And I'm pretty sure that Nebraska grows enough corn to feed the entire planet. But gas was the most expensive in Nebraska than anywhere else on the trip, $4.09/gal for 91 Octane!!!!! We did get to see the "breadbasket" of America and saw our first fellow Porsche owners headed to Parade:
We also saw a massive arch across I-80:
Once we passed the split with I-76 toward Denver, it seemed like the rest of Nebraska was at an incline! On a side note, the cruise control in the 951 randomly started working, after hours of diagnosis and testing prior to departing with no success. As we continued west, we noticed that besides a change in the terrain, there was also a change in the people. The best way I can describe both together is that there were a few places that easily could have doubled as a scene from Mad Max II. I kept waiting to get passed by a black Ford Falcon XB or asked at a fuel stop "Who Rules Bartertown??"
We felt like a million bucks when we finally arrived in Wyoming. There's just something about making it a couple of hundred miles to the border of a state that just gives you a feeling of accomplishment. In the 50 or so miles of Wyoming, we had a few interesting photo opportunities:
And we were really surprised by the wildlife all over the base once we finally arrived:
The lodging we were staying in last night didn't have wi-fi and I was too tired to attempt to type out an update and include pictures on my phone.
So, to recap the last 2 days.
We departed early (0600) from South Bend, IN with the intent of stopping for the night outside of Omaha, NE. The humidity at 0545 was pretty shocking, guess some of that was left over from the storm the day before. Here's a pic of the cars (sorry it's cloudy, the lens kept fogging up):
And here is Minta, now much more rested than the day before:
But the dawn was beautiful:
We quickly entered Illinois and made great time skirting around Chicago. Luckily we didn't need to enlist the aid of any fellow Rennlisters (Thanks for the offer OmniGLH!!). Traffic was light and we got tons of waves, thumbs up and stares. I don't know what it is about the new-ish Chevy Impala/Malibu but man, folks from Illinois seem to love those things. We did run into a spot of trouble outside of Joilet though. We were cruising along doing the speed limit when we quickly noticed that traffic was at a total stop. We managed to slow down without any difficulty and the traffic behind us didn't do anything jerk-ish like rear-end one of the cars. After a quick hop off of the highway and a chat with a Illinois State Police officer, we got back onto I-80 and saw that the delay at least had the good grace to light itself on fire as an apology:
The rest of Illinois was flat, smooth and pretty unremarkable.
We entered Iowa for the last leg of our drive for the day. Th mission was to get across Iowa, enter Omaha, NE and drive about 7 miles south to Offutt Air Force Base. Iowa has all kinds of crazy things that I had never seen before. A chain of convenience stores called Kum & Go:
Apparently, the World's Largest Truck Stop:
And, for the best photo:
(Wait, we didn't get a chance to take the picture of a crop duster flying ~50' AGL over the 951 because someone [ModdedEverything951S] had to call and talk to Minta about cats)
Minta and I were both pretty surprised at how hilly Iowa was. For some reason we were under the impression that Iowa is flat and full of corn. Totally wrong on both counts. Just as the heat was getting close to unbearable, we finally arrived in Omaha and Offutt AFB.
Base Lodging was nice, for $40/night it was much nicer than an equally priced Motel 6. We lucked out and the Commissary was open even though it was a federal holiday and dinner consisted of deli sandwiches. We were just too tired to try and get anything else.
Waking up early again for a 0600 departure we were greeted by some great photo opportunities:
And then we found out that we were totally wrong about Iowa, but not about Nebraska. I think we drove 285 miles with about 80 feet total change in elevation. And I'm pretty sure that Nebraska grows enough corn to feed the entire planet. But gas was the most expensive in Nebraska than anywhere else on the trip, $4.09/gal for 91 Octane!!!!! We did get to see the "breadbasket" of America and saw our first fellow Porsche owners headed to Parade:
We also saw a massive arch across I-80:
Once we passed the split with I-76 toward Denver, it seemed like the rest of Nebraska was at an incline! On a side note, the cruise control in the 951 randomly started working, after hours of diagnosis and testing prior to departing with no success. As we continued west, we noticed that besides a change in the terrain, there was also a change in the people. The best way I can describe both together is that there were a few places that easily could have doubled as a scene from Mad Max II. I kept waiting to get passed by a black Ford Falcon XB or asked at a fuel stop "Who Rules Bartertown??"
We felt like a million bucks when we finally arrived in Wyoming. There's just something about making it a couple of hundred miles to the border of a state that just gives you a feeling of accomplishment. In the 50 or so miles of Wyoming, we had a few interesting photo opportunities:
And we were really surprised by the wildlife all over the base once we finally arrived:
07-07-2012, 01:51 AM
#22
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Quick Update
Got to ModdedEverything951S's house and already changed the oil in both cars and helped him install his headers. Turns out he has a very expensive Porsche paperweight in his garage. Tomorrow we'll finish installing his rebuilt turbo, exhaust and intake to get him ready for Parade. I'll recap our trip through Wyoming and Utah too (Spoiler, Utah rules for driving I-80!).
Got to ModdedEverything951S's house and already changed the oil in both cars and helped him install his headers. Turns out he has a very expensive Porsche paperweight in his garage. Tomorrow we'll finish installing his rebuilt turbo, exhaust and intake to get him ready for Parade. I'll recap our trip through Wyoming and Utah too (Spoiler, Utah rules for driving I-80!).
07-07-2012, 12:54 PM
#23
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07-07-2012, 09:08 PM
#25
So what kind of car are you driving? Can't be a Porsche because the dash is not cracked!
I'm glad to see you doing this trip as I am planning Montreal to Vancouver via P-car and I am fascinated to see what sort of reliability you have. Something like 3500 miles. Mine is an N/A but what sort of fuel usage are you getting?
I'm glad to see you doing this trip as I am planning Montreal to Vancouver via P-car and I am fascinated to see what sort of reliability you have. Something like 3500 miles. Mine is an N/A but what sort of fuel usage are you getting?
07-09-2012, 08:54 PM
#27
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
So... After delaying an update for a number of different reasons (turns out ModdedEverything951S is a task master when you're working on his car...) here are the photos from yesterday and today.
Yesterday we went to Little America and checked in. It was like almost-organized chaos! Since this is our first Parade, we were attending the Parade 101 presentation. Thus, semi pressed for time we attempted to quickly make our way through registration. Naturally, we ran into PCA members that we haven't seen in years and had some great conversations but that meant that we cruised into Parade 101 seconds before the presentation started. After finding out more about the history of Parade than I ever thought I could know, we left Little America and headed back to Darwin's house to change for the Pirelli Welcome Party. When we made it back to Grand America, the party was already in full swing. We met some great folks from the Maverick Region and a local couple. The highlight? Pirelli gave away a set of tires and Fastlane Travel gave away $1000 off and $2000 off gift certificates to their tours. Unfortunately, we didn't win.
Today was the Concours/Concours Corral. We signed up for the Concours Corral because we've never been big on concours but love to see the cars. Darwin signed up as well and this was his first trip out of town with his 951 since we reassembled the exhaust. The concours was held on the grounds of the Capitol building, with the concours corral located on one of the side streets. We arrived about 20 minutes before they wanted to start populating the corral but we were allowed to park. Luckily, we found some shade because it was already starting to get hot and bright at 9am.
The PCNA tent. Notice that the 968 is highest? They were giving away commemorative calendars and goodie bags with all kinds of neat stuff associated with Porsche Classic.
The trip to concours, Darwin's car finally moving under it's own power:
Minta and the Pink Panther:
Darwin's car, Eagle Gate and the Capitol building:
Utah's capitol building is very beautiful:
Right after we got there we saw this 968. Besides deleting the 968 badge and replacing it with a "Carrera" badge, he also blacked out the tail lights. Why someone would intentionally want to make it harder to tell people you're stopping is beyond me. Never talked to the owner but I hope he doesn't get rear-ended.
We saw this speed yellow 968 in the concours. The license plate read "968M030" so you can imagine that he meant business. Very pretty car and I hope they placed well.
This 968 might have been the saddest story at the entire concours. The car was parked at Little America last night when someone that worked at the hotel backed into the car. As the story was told to me, the hotel worker tried to leave the scene and another PCA member saw it and stopped them. To the owner's credit they decided to show the car regardless, but what can you do?
Here are some of the other oddities that we saw, including a 1 of 8 928 convertible and a 924 Carrera GT clone:
One of the neatest 356's I've ever seen wasn't in the concours, just parked in the concours corral.
Naturally, they had to get a few race cars out there and one in particular caught my eye:
An early 912 parked out in the concours corral, a great example of the spirit of PCA and Porsche ownership in general:
One of the Glockler Porsche Specials was on display and Minta caught a picture that I think is absolutely perfect:
And finally, a 911 that was featured in Excellence last year and embodies the spirit of driving the car because you love it:
Yesterday we went to Little America and checked in. It was like almost-organized chaos! Since this is our first Parade, we were attending the Parade 101 presentation. Thus, semi pressed for time we attempted to quickly make our way through registration. Naturally, we ran into PCA members that we haven't seen in years and had some great conversations but that meant that we cruised into Parade 101 seconds before the presentation started. After finding out more about the history of Parade than I ever thought I could know, we left Little America and headed back to Darwin's house to change for the Pirelli Welcome Party. When we made it back to Grand America, the party was already in full swing. We met some great folks from the Maverick Region and a local couple. The highlight? Pirelli gave away a set of tires and Fastlane Travel gave away $1000 off and $2000 off gift certificates to their tours. Unfortunately, we didn't win.
Today was the Concours/Concours Corral. We signed up for the Concours Corral because we've never been big on concours but love to see the cars. Darwin signed up as well and this was his first trip out of town with his 951 since we reassembled the exhaust. The concours was held on the grounds of the Capitol building, with the concours corral located on one of the side streets. We arrived about 20 minutes before they wanted to start populating the corral but we were allowed to park. Luckily, we found some shade because it was already starting to get hot and bright at 9am.
The PCNA tent. Notice that the 968 is highest? They were giving away commemorative calendars and goodie bags with all kinds of neat stuff associated with Porsche Classic.
The trip to concours, Darwin's car finally moving under it's own power:
Minta and the Pink Panther:
Darwin's car, Eagle Gate and the Capitol building:
Utah's capitol building is very beautiful:
Right after we got there we saw this 968. Besides deleting the 968 badge and replacing it with a "Carrera" badge, he also blacked out the tail lights. Why someone would intentionally want to make it harder to tell people you're stopping is beyond me. Never talked to the owner but I hope he doesn't get rear-ended.
We saw this speed yellow 968 in the concours. The license plate read "968M030" so you can imagine that he meant business. Very pretty car and I hope they placed well.
This 968 might have been the saddest story at the entire concours. The car was parked at Little America last night when someone that worked at the hotel backed into the car. As the story was told to me, the hotel worker tried to leave the scene and another PCA member saw it and stopped them. To the owner's credit they decided to show the car regardless, but what can you do?
Here are some of the other oddities that we saw, including a 1 of 8 928 convertible and a 924 Carrera GT clone:
One of the neatest 356's I've ever seen wasn't in the concours, just parked in the concours corral.
Naturally, they had to get a few race cars out there and one in particular caught my eye:
An early 912 parked out in the concours corral, a great example of the spirit of PCA and Porsche ownership in general:
One of the Glockler Porsche Specials was on display and Minta caught a picture that I think is absolutely perfect:
And finally, a 911 that was featured in Excellence last year and embodies the spirit of driving the car because you love it:
