garyinseattle

Glad you had fun in Seattle, and a good experience with Barrier. I just dropped my daughters MB off for service. I have used them for sales/service for about 10 years with Porsche and Mercedes. Always find them to be good, although as you would expect, at the high end of the cost curve.

BTW, I have no relation with them, other than golfing occassionally with one of the minority share owners.

n1gels

I don't think I would have looked twice at that color, but the photographs your wife is taking of your car, V, are making me a believer! It looks fantastic, especially with those wheels. I'm sorry it's no longer in Seattle where I could see it in the metal. Great car, great color, great trip report, and then there's the amazing Ms. V It's all great! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Volnomad

Ok, where was I in this traveling tale? Sorry for the late start, but, as usual, we were traveling. So, Big Sur and the PCH were largely obscured. Disappointing for sure, but we still enjoyed some spirited driving, and some other-worldly smoky photo ops. This is one of our last shots of the PCH. The Hearst Castle was totally obscured, but the smoke cleared somewhere short of Santa Barbara. We considered staying there because we had taken so much time on the PCH that it was approaching rush hour in LA. We thought we could stay on Highway 1 west of LA to our destination in Long Beach and beat most of the traffic, so we motored on. LOL, big mistake. It took us 4 hours to go from SB to Long Beach, the last few miles took two hours of start and stop driving., My left foot was killing me from depressing the clutch pedal, and all I could think about was that glass of Deschutes Abyss I could have been enjoying in Santa Barbara. if I ever wanted a PDK, it would have been during that traffic nightmare. Oh well, lesson learned. We ended up with a nice meal on the harbor in Long Beach as a consolation.

Volnomad

Sorry, but the Abyss photo somehow got rotated when I uploaded it. Haha, that's how you end up if you drink 2 or 3 glasses of this stuff, happily flat on your back! We got up at the crack of dawn, literally, to beat LA morning traffic and made our way to I-10 toward Phoenix. It rained in LA, continuing our bad luck with the weather. We drove out of the rain on our way to Palm Springs and through a forest of windmills. My wife liked the dry mountain back drop, so we took a few photos off the highway just across the Arizona border.

Volnomad

We drove through the desert feeling good about being out of the rain. I was using a radar detector but assumed that the HP would be out in force around the border. So, I kept my speed to a reasonable 79. For once I was wise as we passed an AZ Smokey Bear who had pulled over a couple from California who had passed us earlier traveling at probably 90-95 mph. The patrol car pulled out just as we passed at the legal limit, but I was afraid we would get pulled and we did. The state of Washington only issues 3-day temporary permits, so technically we had no license plate. The first thing he said was, "where is your plate?" But, what could we do? We explained, and he let us go with a warning after determining that the car was not stolen. The rest of the trip to Tucson was uneventful, although I was tempted to stop in Phoenix and look at some more P-cars.

Volnomad

We stayed at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort. What a fabulous place. Beautiful views of Tucson, and you can walk right off the grounds into Ventana Canyon. Too bad we only had one night as the weather for once was perfect. But, alas, it rained overnight. We seemed to be bringing the rain with us as we traveled east. (Snuck in a photo of my photographer wife)

sleepy

I remember drooling over nordic gold as it was used for official press shots when 997 Targas launched. Thanks for sharing your photo log!

Volnomad

Day 7? (I lost count)

We reluctantly left Ventana Canyon early in the morning, skirting the east side of Tucson to avoid rush hour traffic.We drove a road, I think it was called Kolb, that may be the roughest city street I have ever been on. I think my fillings were loose before we reached I-10! One cool thing along the way was the air force boneyard where hundreds of reserve airframes are mothballed. It was quite a sight. Anyway, back to our journey. This was a very long day from Tucson to Las Cruces, NM, through El Paso to Odessa, Texas. Quite a long haul, and it rained off and on, and very heavily from El Paso to Odessa. Along the way, we saw the most intense and beautiful rainbow we had ever seen. The photo does it no justice; it literally glowed like neon at both ends. We stopped at Massilla, near Las Cruces, for lunch where Bill the Kid was tried and hanged. Shopping followed of course, so we were late hitting the road, got stuck in rush hour in the rain in El Paso, and and finally pushed through a pouring rain all the way to Odessa. I complained about not having an iPod connection, so our stereo told us what she thought about our whining. We finally pulled into Odessa; the last photo shows my unhappiness with the crud that covered the Targa.

Volnomad

Yes, I even let my wife drive too! After all, she started this crazy Porsche obsession several years ago.

Volnomad

Day 8 - A Slog Across Texas

The drive from Tucson to Odessa was the toughest segment, but the most boring may have been Odessa to Shreveport, LA. Not many photos from this segment or the next because it poured down rain most of the way. The Targa is great wet weather car, as we were forced to learn. I tried to get the car rinsed off a bit by taking it through a touchless car wash in Midland, TX, but did not accomplish much except to show me that the Targa was taking a beating from road debris thrown up by giant pick-ups, SUVs, and tractor trailers. I had no idea just how many shots she was taking though. More on that later. By the way Shreveport is one weird place. Lots of big casinos and hotels downtown, but not much else. The casinos are full of people who look like the walked right out of TV shows like Honey Boo-Boo or Duck Dynasty. (I kid you not!) Some of them were wearing thousand dollar ostrich boots. Go figure. As we left the casino restaurant, a bizarre sight greeted us. A band called Mustang Sally was introduced, direct from Music City, Nashville, TN. You would have to hear what they led off their concert with: Party Like a Hillbilly Rock Star. Here's the link, and a must watch. Enjoy!

Volnomad

Day 9 - Are We Home Yet?

We decided that the rain was ruining our road trip. So, fueled by Starbucks we decided to push through all the way home from Shreveport to Columbia.

Volnomad

Day 10 - Nothing Could Be Finer Than to Be in Carolina

It monsooned from Atlanta to Columbia, literally, but the Targa handled the terrible weather with aplomb. It never felt unstable or skittish, and the summer tires held up well even in heavy rain. We arrived home safe and sound about 1 a.m. The next morning we got up and took a few welcome home pix.

Volnomad

I will post an Epilogue of what I learned on this epic trip in our 911 Targa 4S shortly. I hope you have enjoyed the journey! We did, well at least until the last couple days...

One911

congrats! I remember seeing that car at Barrier Porsche.

SFZ GT3

Thanks to you and Ms. V for bringing us along on your journey. Too bad about the rain, but the pics, memories, and experience will last a long time.

Looking forward to the epilogue and your future pursuits!