Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - Another Road Trip Post

Last Sunday, (June 22), my 14 year old daughter and I left Minneapolis to climb Devils Tower in Wyoming. Along the way we stopped in the Bad Lands of South Dakota, met up with a 993 buddy from Denver for an early morning romp in the Black Hills, and visited Deadwood and Bridal Veil Falls. Altogether an enjoyable and memorable time with my daughter. The round trip was exactly 1,625 miles. Today my car has 115,xxx, so it’s not a garage queen by any stretch. I packed the same road trip repair kit all of you do, but the only tool I needed to keep it running was my key. As far as mechanical failures go, I did experience an intermittent drivers side window switch, quickly swapped with a spare. I know the car could theoretically leave me stranded, (and probably will, some day), but not once did I feel any sort of dread that it would fail to start or run.

I’m not sure what the rules or etiquette are, but since I personally enjoy reading about road trips, I’m going to give some detail. Feel free to skip, of course. Pics to follow, might take a little while as I’m entering all this on my iPad from a hotel.

It rained almost continuously the first four days of our trip. Although I essentially daily drive the car, and drove it over 1,300 miles home from Toronto after purchasing, I’ve owned it less then a year and haven’t previously experienced anything approaching that sort of relentless exposure to precipitation. Dynamically I was very impressed with the car. It’s a great touring machine, comfortable at speed and predictable. We zoomed across South Dakota taking advantage of the 80 mph speed limit with the cruise control (generally) set for 90 mph, with frequent forays above that. Overall I got just over 23 mpg for the round trip. The Fister III’s are loud but well-documented to be drone free and while I probably wouldn’t have chosen the Bilstein HD suspension set up, it was surprisingly comfortable even on MY02 wheels. Before the trip I installed a Porsche Classic Radio. The map came in handy and it clearly streamed music and an old Harry Potter audiobook my daughter rediscovered on my phone. I purchased the headlight/tail light conversion from Torre last fall and was glad to have them in the rain. This trip also prompted me to finally hardwire my Valentine One with a remote display, which is an essential element to my enjoyment of any road trip.

The first day we left about 1600 Central after I returned from a work trip. Four plus hours later we were in Mitchell, SD to spend the night. The next day we got up and continued to the Bad Lands. The park was reasonably busy, but everyone except us seemed to be staying in their cars or the visitor center. My daughter and I felt like we had the place to ourselves as we happily hiked around in the mud and rain. Each time we moved to a new trail I’d strip off my shoes and drive barefoot to avoid getting clay and mud in the carpet. The car appeared right at home crouched in the foul weather next to giant SUV’s packed with squabbling families.

We ate dinner at Wall Drug and spent the night at a hotel in Rapid City, SD with friends from both Minneapolis and Denver. The next morning my buddy from Denver and I got up at 0445 and headed up to Keystone. He purchased his beautiful 1996 C4 late last summer about a week after I bought mine. Unlike mine, his is an all original jewel with sport seats and only about 25k miles. We arrived at the beginning of 16A, known as Iron Mountain Road, shortly after dawn. The rain had let up a bit, basically becoming a torrential mist, but the roads were soaked, and there were occasional patches of fog. The plan was to follow a ~3 hour loop, and the first part was awesome. The slow tight turns gave us confidence to get on the throttle early and hard once sight lines opened up. Mostly my car stuck solidly to the road, but to the extent that the tail did come out it was predictable and easily controlled. We never saw another vehicle along 16A south, and dozens of deer were by far the biggest danger. I was leading and was acutely aware it’s doubtful I’ll ever again have the opportunity to drive that road without traffic, followed by a life-long friend in another 993. Therefore I biased our speed a bit toward “fun” with a slight but corresponding increased chance of encountering a venison steak served raw. Several times we had to slow or stop while crazed deer decided which way they were going to bolt, but I truly feel we found found a reasonable, dynamically engaging speed that we could safely replicate many times given the chance. At the end of the road I pulled over so we could chat. Due to nearby cabins we shut the cars down, and that’s where my friends’ 993 failed to start. I gave him a push and it fired right off, but after pulling over again to confer a few miles down the road we decided to return directly to Rapid City. We were disappointed not to conclude our loop, but a second run up 16A was a pretty solid consolation prize. Ultimately the morning wasn’t wasted as I was back at the hotel before my daughter woke up, joined her for breakfast, and spent a few hours chatting with all my friends in the water park while the kids swam.

After lunch my daughter and I said our goodbyes and headed for Wyoming. We took the scenic route up 44 and 385 to Deadwood, SD. After walking the main drag we headed to Bridal Veil Falls via ALT 14. What a great road! It’s much more open then 16A but still stunning and curvy as it follows a small river through a long, deep gorge. I may, or may not, have applied an extremely liberal interpretation to the 35 mph speed limit, but no one will ever be able to prove it one way or another now. Again we saw very few cars, and almost all politely moved to the side when we closed. At the Falls my daughter and I quickly crossed the ice cold stream to hike the very steep unofficial trails threading up the bluff. We returned after almost two hours to discover a bouquet of wild flowers waiting for her on the ground below the passenger door.

We spent the night in Belle Fourche, SD, notable primarily for the extremely friendly natives and a wonderful, ridiculously hot hot tub.

The next morning we took 34 about an hour west to Devils Tower Lodge anticipating two days of guided climbing. Of course it was still raining and this road was very smooth allowing water to pool. It was by far the most treacherous part of our trip and I took it *very* slowly since the car was prone to hydroplaning. We were appreciative of the complete lack of west bound traffic, but in dry conditions this would have been another enjoyable road to travel at speed. Unfortunately by this time my rear tires (Continental Extreme Contact Sport) with barely 5,500 miles were worn to the wear bars. I’ll order replacements tomorrow, but not thrilled at the long term prospect of replacing my rear tires every 6,000 miles.

Anyway the first day at Devils Tower predictablly featured rain. Once again my daughter and I hiked around in the mud, looking for the trails less traveled and enjoying the feeling that we had the entire place to ourselves. Late that afternoon it dried up and before dinner we were able to climb the first pitch as a warm up.

The next day was perfect, sunny with a high just below 80*. Although some portions of the climb were still wet we successfully summited; that’s a vertical climb of ~600’, broken into five pitches. I’m very proud of my daughter, it was not easy. After rappelling down we had an early dinner of premade turkey sandwiches purchased from the general store at the KoA campground. They tasted incredible!-undoubtedly due to our ravenous appetites. We made it back to Rapid City to spend the night, running the same scenic route through the Hills we had coming up, but now bone dry. Nothing need be said here about our speed except to note we handily beat the google maps time estimate and the only digit another driver vigorously extended in our general direction was an upright thumb.

The last day, (Friday June 22) we just burned back out I-90 and then up I-35, stopping only once for fuel after the first 403(!) miles. We arrived home about 1930 Central in no great discomfort agreeing that the 911 is a perfectly suitable road trip conveyance. It did well whether we were making time along the interstate, hammering through the curves, or inching up the steep, dirt/rock/mud driveway to Devils Tower Lodge in Wyoming. Through rain, and dark of night, with more then a few pounds of dirt stuck to it, and nearly every bug in the entire Midwest splattered on the front end, the car never missed a beat or gave us reason to worry. In short it’s more reliable then I was at 22, better looking, and aging more gracefully besides. I love my 993!