Cross Country Post Thanksgiving Run

[JackMan]

Hi all,

If the weather holds, i.e. no snow in the forecast, I'm leaving Hudson, OH, in my 911 and driving to St. Louis, MO.; Little Rock, AR; Shreveport, LA; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; and then back to Hudson via Texarkana, TX.

I"ll keep you posted on the adventure. I hope the snow stays our of Ohio, it's not the snow but the salt.

Wellborn

[Jeff]

Post pictures of your journey. Have a safe trip.

[jjwood]

No snow projected...for Houston. Honk when you pass the Woodlands. Hey is this a timed event?

[SCWDP911]

Originally posted by JackMan
Hi all,

If the weather holds, i.e. no snow in the forecast, I'm leaving Hudson, OH, in my 911 and driving to St. Louis, MO.; Little Rock, AR; Shreveport, LA; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; and then back to Hudson via Texarkana, TX.

I"ll keep you posted on the adventure. I hope the snow stays our of Ohio, it's not the snow but the salt.

Wellborn

Let me know if you are coming through on I40, I am between Memphis and Nashville. I will need an excuse to get out a run around!

[JackMan]

About two weeks ago I pulled out of my garage, in Hudson, OH, on a misty Sunday a.m. and went out for the last ride of the season. Hudson is in the N.E. Corner of 911 Hell, I mean Ohio. (Writer's note: salt is cheap and plentiful in these parts and ODOT drops it on our streets by the ton at the slightest hint of freezing anything.) I drove to St. Louis, then to Little Rock, AR, then to Shreveport, LA, then to Dallas, then to Houston, back to Shreveport and one last haul back to Hudson.

The purpose of the trip was to see clients. Easier to drive, and more fun, than taking planes/rental cars, etc. in this post 9/11 era.

So how did I prep my car with more than 120k miles? Well two years ago I had everything and I mean just about everything redone, top end with new jugs/pistons, blah, blah, blah. Cha-ching lots of money later I have an essentially new 911. For the trip I put on new wiper blades, RainX, very handy, and took an oil filter, lots of oil, confirmed the spare held air, the air pump worked, cleaned the windows, changed the oil/filter, 32f/36r air pressure, packed a supplemental tool kit, and I took the golf clubs (if the car breaks down I'll need something to do). I never touched the tools or the clubs. The car ran perfectly -- thanks Steinels in Twinsburgh, OH, land of the bestest PCar mechanics in my area, not only do they do a great job at reasonable prices, they have taught me how to work on my car. This spring I'll be doing my first valve adjustment.

The ride was great and uneventful except for a pending ice storm in Dallas. I left the 911 in Shreveport with my Dad and took his Suburban to Dallas/Houston to avoid the ice storm that came into that area mid week. (Actually the storm was a whimper, but the Suburban came in handy, as my Dad said, "It's less painful to repair sheetmetal on the Suburban than your 911.")

I left Houston a week after my departure from Hudson, spending the night in Shreveport. I left Shreveport on Monday at 5 a.m. CST and pulled into my garage in Hudson, OH, some 1066 miles later, at 9:43 p.m EST the same day. That was 15:43 of driving and my first 1,000+ miler one day ride. (I didn't even come close to that type of mileage when I did the One Lap of America with Brock's band of car nutz.) I credit my use of ear plugs to making it possible, I was rested when I got home, not fatigued. I stopped four times for fuel on the return. I have no idea what my fuel mileage was, didn't check, but I did burn about 1/2 quart of synth every 350 miles. I did get some really tasty fried chicken in a little place just south of Texarkana. (There is something about eating fried chicken with fingers laced with the scent of gasoline. It just smells like road trip to me. Eating fried chicken while driving your 911 also takes supreme patience and a complete disregard for car's interior.)

I took InterState roads the entire way, my only concession to the time factor. When I woke up on the morning after returning, there was an inch or two of fresh snow on the ground, first big snow of the year. I timed it perfectly. The last ride.

I think these pixs say it all. They were taken just south of Cincinatti as the sun was going down on the last day of trip, the last ride of the year. I can't wait to do this again, next time I'm going to visit the client in St. Louis, then to clients in Colorado, Reno, NV, and San Francisco. I'll probably take a co-pilot with me for that trip.

WJ

[FastCarFan]

Hey buddy,

Nice write-up. As I have already told you, I am jealous -- my recent 2-hour road-trip to Columbus in the R32 doesn't compare to your great trip.

Let's get together for a beer or meal over the holidays.

Doug

[Nostril Cheese]

why are you wearing ear plugs?

[Jim Richards]

Originally posted by Nostril Cheese
why are you wearing ear plugs?

Must suppress the high-frequency noise coming from ricers' fart-can exhaust systems.

[t6dpilot]

Fun run. Those cross country road trips are a ball. I delivered an 89 Carrera Cab to Telluride, CO a couple of years ago. We did 1000+ miles in one 14.5 hour day. That included a 1/2 hour lunch stop, 15 minute gas stop, and 45 minute dinner stop. We averaged 69+ MPH with stops and 77+ MPH without.

[pieterk]

Jack, really nice story. Thanks.

That's more inspiration for a long term dream, which is to one day find a really lovely example of an early 911 in fairly stock trim and take long, winding road trips across country with it.

Here's one little suggestion: rather than keep those expandable foam earplugs in for hours--which, in my experience, tend to make my head feel like it's pressurized and stuffed with concrete--you might want to look into the Sony noise-cancelling earbud system. They're very light and sit in the ear more comfortably I think, and even passively, without engaging the circuitry, they take the dbs down a nice amount. I mostly use them with the circuit on, on the way to and from the track, with or without music from the iPod (no stereo in the car, and it's waaaayy too loud for that anyway), although when on, they do introduce a little hiss. In a fairly stock car, I'm not sure how desireable that would be, but in my growling little monster, it's better. They're also small and fairly discrete, so they're less likely to draw undesireable attention.

[JackMan]

I wore the ear plugs to cut down on noise fatigue. It works great. I have a 3.4ltr with SSIs, back dated heat, and an empty muffler, not much there to baffle the sound. The car is very, very loud.

Driving with just the background hum of the car, no music, is very very relaxing, almost put me into a Zen like state of meditation.

You have to be a 911 driver to appreciate that last sentence.