Many of
you know that I convinced Adele that it would be a fun adventure for us to drive
my silver 1973 911S across the US
to join the R Gruppe (a car club for early 911 enthusiasts) for an event in
Snowshoe West Virginia
in late September. Certainly to many, 3,000 miles in a 40 year old sports
car that is loud, has no A/C, and has pretty stiff suspension seems
crazy. To my fellow R Gruppe friends, they thinks it’s awesome.
Originally, we had planned to take 6-7 days to drive from San Diego to VW taking our time and picking a
route that includes very few Interstate Highways and with a number of
stops along the way. That plan has now changed and the first leg of our
trip is to Telluride Colorado for a week long
family vacation and then to Denver
where I will store the car until late September where we will pick things up
again. I got full buy-in from Adele on this idea, so I’m writing this first
update from Telluride.
Nick and his wife Adele
Our
first day drive from San Diego to the Grand Canyon was fantastic; we left our
driveway at 6AM to avoid the heat that has been hanging over the southwest for
the past two or three weeks. I think we made it to Yuma before my coffee was cold and then
headed north on 95 toward Quartzite well before the heat was a factor.
The traffic was light (none—who goes to Quartzite?) and we made our first
gas stop and break. Next stop was Prescott,
where we had lunch. The drive up to Prescott
was fun; finally found some good twisty roads to enjoy.
We made
to the Grand Canyon in what must have been
record time. My radar detector never beeped and I don’t think we saw more
than a dozen cars. We had our first glimpse of the GC from the grounds at
the El Tovar Lodge where we also enjoyed a great meal and watched a fast moving
rain cell sweep across us in about 30 minutes. We were surprised at how
much water was produced in such a short period of time but it certainly left
the air cool and clean and the colors in the canyon and sky as sunset came upon
us were amazing. It was a great first day.
Sunday
morning we were up for sunrise at the canyon, near the visitors center so we
could exit the park via the east gate and then work our way around Monument Valley
toward Colorado.
Once again the big ditch was spectacular in the early morning light, we stayed
about an hour longer than we thought we would as we just couldn’t seem to pull
ourselves away. The road that takes you around the eastern side of the
canyon was great; it was smooth as glass and with no traffic we had a nice
“spirited” drive through the park. The rest of the way to Telluride was
another high speed day of travel across the Navajo Nation and the varied
terrain of Arizona and southern Colorado. Again,
no pesky law enforcement was present and my silver 911 hauled butt all the way
to Telluride where we met our friends and settled in. We’ve rented a
beautiful house (VRBO is great) in town with our friends the Burke’s along with
all the kids, except for Matthew who’s gallivanting around Europe right now.
From the
perspective of a car guy, it is just a treat to experience a cross country drive
in my '73 Porsche. The driving is engaging and commands your attention the
entire time. It’s easy to appreciate the design, engineering and
craftsmanship that make these cars so special. I’m happy for the week
vacation with the family in Telluride, but I also can’t wait to continue this
excellent adventure.
