Following our awesome Rally 12 in Park City, Roz and I went on a ten-state road trip (pre-planned, but also extended a little to avoid being in Houston during and after Harvey). We got home Tuesday evening. House is fine but Houston is a bit of a mess; what should have been a twenty-minute drive round the Loop to our house took almost three hours. Each day is getting better however as more streets re-open.
Leaving Utah, we drove up into Idaho and went kayaking on the Teton river, then through Jackson Hole into Yellowstone to go hiking with Friends. After that it was off to Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands before heading down through South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Couldn't quite get over 5,000 miles, but it was close. We tried to use roads rather than freeways and got to run on some of the best (and worst!) two-lanes I've ever driven. The car came home bruised but intact. Some observations;
- America is one huge-ass country - we drove for hours on end without seeing any signs of civilization, it's a vast and wonderful place.
- We stayed in small town motels and ate at local diners. Everyone was consistently warm and friendly, and always interested in, and knowledgeable about, the GT.
- I know there are threads on this forum about the rise of autonomous vehicles and our current younger generation's lack of interest in cars. However, I think this view is often coloured by our right and left coast, big city sensibilities; all the kids in the towns we visited went gaga over the GT and they were obvious gearheads. I don't think we need to worry about the demise of the car hobby
- every politician in Washington should be required to make a road trip like ours: It meets you up with the heart and soul of the US, real people living real lives, all having common (and common-sense) views on our political class. I won't get political here, but they all were big-time Trump supporters
I'm attaching a few pix, including one showing the accumulated crud that gets on a car after 5K miles - this is for my fellow member of TDCC (The Dirty Car Club) Mr Mark McGowan, who also knows that you NEVER wash the car until its back home in the garage.
Can't wait for Rally XIII!
Leaving Utah, we drove up into Idaho and went kayaking on the Teton river, then through Jackson Hole into Yellowstone to go hiking with Friends. After that it was off to Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore and the Badlands before heading down through South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Couldn't quite get over 5,000 miles, but it was close. We tried to use roads rather than freeways and got to run on some of the best (and worst!) two-lanes I've ever driven. The car came home bruised but intact. Some observations;
- America is one huge-ass country - we drove for hours on end without seeing any signs of civilization, it's a vast and wonderful place.
- We stayed in small town motels and ate at local diners. Everyone was consistently warm and friendly, and always interested in, and knowledgeable about, the GT.
- I know there are threads on this forum about the rise of autonomous vehicles and our current younger generation's lack of interest in cars. However, I think this view is often coloured by our right and left coast, big city sensibilities; all the kids in the towns we visited went gaga over the GT and they were obvious gearheads. I don't think we need to worry about the demise of the car hobby
- every politician in Washington should be required to make a road trip like ours: It meets you up with the heart and soul of the US, real people living real lives, all having common (and common-sense) views on our political class. I won't get political here, but they all were big-time Trump supporters
I'm attaching a few pix, including one showing the accumulated crud that gets on a car after 5K miles - this is for my fellow member of TDCC (The Dirty Car Club) Mr Mark McGowan, who also knows that you NEVER wash the car until its back home in the garage.
Can't wait for Rally XIII!
Welcome to the TDCC.
