Road Trip Cross Country

Just thought I would share. My wife and are are going on a 7 day road trip starting 6/20/11 in the Pcar. The car's getting a fresh oil service Monday, just got the new custom interior installed, new regulator installed, and fresh detail today. We are going without any real plans, going to do alot of hiking, camping, driving without any firmly set destination. We are going West until we run out of time, then coming back. Our direction will be across Texas, stopping at anything interesting, Tuscon, AZ, Tombstone, AZ, maybe California, Grand Canyon, and Route 66 all the way back to Amarillo (eat at the 72oz steak house), then back down Dallas, Tyler, then back towards the Louisiana border behind the Green Pine curtain in southeast Texas. Anyone who would like to meet up or share something interesting/worth seeing are more than welcome. 5 states, approx 4K miles, with no time schedule should be fun!!

4K miles in 7 days? If you average 70MPH(which is harder than it sounds), you'll be driving 8 hrs/day. You won't have time for much else. Have fun.

Sounds like a blast, enjoy! Average of 70 mph out west probably won't too hard - the 72oz steak may slow you down though. Post pics along the way!

Sounds fun! I'd be looking for temps in the 70s somewhere!! Good luck!

What a great idea for you, your wife, and your Porsche. I have not yet driven a 4k mile trip in my Porsche so I'm looking forward to any trip pics, car pics and remarks on your 5 state excursion, sounds like a good time.

6/20/11, using a time machine? Check out Carlsbad Caverns, good break from the heat. Well worth the time, since you will be in the area.

LMAO yeah not in the delorean this time,(and hopefully when I reach 88mph I WON"T see some serious Sh*t...lol ) let's try 7/20/11 West Texas should be nice avg at least 80-85 mph for several hours (Speed limit is 80 and about to be 85mph if it isn't already). LA to my house is 1,700 miles one way, so 4K is just a rough estimate. Depending on what we find along the way, it may be less although we usually drive all day and night until we find someplace we think would be neat to camp out, or a town that would be neat to explore in the morning. Here are the suggestions so far: Carlsbad Caverns (Carlsbad, NM) Mt Lemon (Tuscon, AZ) Boothill Graveyard (Tombstone, AZ)

Sounds like a super fun trip. Drive safely and post some pics of the journey

Have a nice trip Take some motor oil with you, I'll bet that you need to add on the way.

Good luck packing the car so that nothing blocks your view of whats behind you with the center mirror.

Suprisingly, the packing was no problem,: 2 tents (back Seat) Big Duffle Bag(Trunk) 2 sleeping bags(1 in the Trunk) 1 Duffle bag for dirty clothes (Trunk) Laptop case(Trunk) Travel Bag(Trunk) Back Pack (containing portable DVD Player and other electronics)(Trunk) Portable Air Pump (Trunk) 2 Beretta's (40 & 32 Tomcat) (Door Pocket) It was like a jigsaw puzzle, but luckily I'm good at those, lol.

Well, let's just trip started out interesting at best. I'm working on resizing my pics as I don't have my old program on the new computer. Route: -I-10 from Beaumont, TX to San Antonio -Hwy 90 from San Antonio through Del Rio, then down 385 to Big Bend National Park (this is where the first fun part of the trip started ). Had two belts break on the rear tire in the middle of nowhere in West Texas. We called Porsche North America, (no dealers had the size in stock), called every major tire chain in 3 states and the only one that had one in stock was Phoenix Arizona. So we decided not to camp at Big Bend but to head towards Phoenix at night so the roads wouldn't be quite as hot, to melt down the spare faster than we could get there. Needless to say, 14-16 hours later at 50mph we arrived in Phoenix, AZ. Have to admit leave it to the germans to make a trunk that fits a spare, but not the actually rim & tire, lol (see the pics). So onwards we went: -118 from Big Bend to back to I-10 -I-10 all the way to Phoenix AZ (Props to Discount Tire in Mesa, AZ for holding tires for me) Side Note- I donated a Passenger Side Headlamp Washer Cover to the City of Tucson, AZ. Some hobo should have a nice chrome plastic piece, lol. I looked for it for about 45 minutes, and then gave up as I was getting drenched from a thunderstorm. -I-10 from Phoenix to Hwy 80 into Tombstone, AZ. Tombstone was awesome, we actually stayed several nights as there was plenty to do (with the occasional blast to Sierra Vista through some decent curvy roads) Next the plan was to explore AZ to the Grand Canyon, but with all of the issues so far, we decided to stay toward the south, and take the back roads back to Carlsbad. - Hwy 191 (AZ) to Hwy 180 (NM) through Silver city -Hwy 180 to Hwy 152 (Absolutely Awesome 180 hairpins with 100+ft drop offs, no rails, through Mimbres Mountains / Gila National Forest. Strongly recommend for anyone, by far the best road I have ever traveled. -152 to I-25 to Las Cruces, through El Paso - I-25 to Hwy 180/62 to Hueco Mountains (State Park w/ Ancient Indian Pictographs) We actually slept in the car since we arrived after hours, and used border patrol inspection station rest rooms for emergencies - From Hueco Mountains went through Guadalupe Mountains National Park to Carlsbad, NM to eat, and then back to Carlsbad Caverns. The bat flight was neat, but the best part was the 70 degree cavern that I could definitely get used to. - Hwy 285 from Carlsbad NM to Pecos (the only place to stay was Motel 6, camping was not allowed at Carlsbad due to the recent fires) - Hwy 285 from Pecos, TX to Fort Stockton - I-10 to San Antonio to Catch dinner on the River walk and Harry Potter in 3d on the IMAX, loll. Then back home. In summary, the trip was over 3,000+ miles, through 3 states with the following fun: 1.) Two separate broken belts on rear tire 2.) Passenger Side Headlamp Washer Cover that decided to reside in Tucson, AZ 3.) Near head on collision at high speed with F150 that came across the middle divider (I'm not sure how we missed) on Hwy 180 NM to Carlsbad. 4.) Exploding tire from oncoming 18 wheeler that left rubber on just about every front body panel (hood, bumper, fenders, and windshield), (luckily with much buffing, all is well). Best Recommendations: 1.) Hwy 152 (Absolutely Awesome 180 hairpins with 100+ft drop offs, no rails, through Mimbres Mountains / Gila National Forest. 2.) The Best Ice Cream Ever! Old Benson Ice Cream in Benson, AZ (I spent over $30 bucks total, by the time I was through as I even bought T-Shirts, ) 3.) Tombstone, AZ definitely a neat place, to experience a trace of the old west. (Much to do here for all age groups) 4.) Carlsbad Caverns 5.) River walk, San Antonio, TX Pics coming soon, I need to resize them so I don't take up too much bandwidth.

Great up date can't wait to see pictures. How many miles or how old was the tire that disintegrated. What Brand?

8 months old around 4K miles, quite disappointing. I had a blow out thanks to Houston's fine roads aout 8 months ago, (did have Michelins) and they did not have any instock so they made me a deal on these. They were Sumitomo 285 30 18. The tread pattern looked good, and they drove great (until now). Temp was approx 110+ but that should not have made a difference. Oh and for anyone in our area, Tire 59 in Houston is where I bought these. They should be covered under manufacture warranty, but I'm having complications with these guys. Irony though, because of the deal I got on these tires, I also bought a set (different brand) for my Lexus, and was about to get another set of 4 for the Maxima. I'm just waiting to see how they handle this situation, whether they stand by their product or do the typical BS.

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You might want to seriously consider running "n" spec tires, I don't believe that Sumitomo manufactures an "n" spec. I have absolutely no idea if this would have helped to prevent your tire problem on the long distance run. I have made a couple of near non-stop runs from pa to south florida, and I will admit to long runs at 140mph plus (i know, that is just stupid) and thank god I never had a tire problem. I personally subscribe to the belief that no manufacturer specs anything in the build of their products that they absolutely do not need. There isn't one extra bolt or washer, it is a pure cost/profit deal. I get somewhat concerned when I hear that people are picking up Porsches because the price seems so good and then install $60.00 brake rotors or other parts that are not O.E.M. spec. "n" spec tires are expensive, I know, I am on my third set of summer and my 2nd set o winter tires. Below is a quick blurb I found on this site. I remember reading a full article in Excellence magazine but that was years ago. Although they never ever said to absolutely not run an "n" spec tire, they were adament about the engineering reason that Porsche specifies these tires. I would think that if Porsche could ship with a cheaper tire, they certainly would. "It is recommended that only matching tires be used on Porsche vehicles. Since many Porsche vehicles are fitted with differently sized tires on their front and rear axles, this means matching the tire make, tire type and N-specification. If a vehicle was originally delivered with N-specification tires that have been discontinued and are no longer available, it is recommended to change all four tires to a higher numeric N-specification design appropriate for that vehicle. Mixed tire types are not permissible." "t is also important to know that while Porsche N-specification tires have been fine tuned to meet the specific performance needs of Porsche vehicles, the tire manufacturers may also build other tires featuring the same name, size and speed rating as the N-specification tires for non-Porsche applications. These tires may not be branded with the Porsche N-specification because they do not share the same internal construction and/or tread compound ingredients as the N-specification tires. Using tires that are not N-specific is not recommended and mixing them with other N-specification tires is not permissible." Let us know if your local tire dealer makes good.

Sounds like a trip to remember,looking forward to you pics.

1.) Fresh Fluid Service (Open Oil Filter to Inspection, all good, no shavings 2.) Clean Air Ducts and Water Drains 3.) Fresh Tank of Shell Fuel and ready to roll out (approx 900 miles across Texas for those who didn't know just how big it actually is)

Pic 1.) Neat Old Town West of Del Rio, TX 2.) Changing out the Turbo Twist for the custom RED DUB 3.) Broken Belts in the Tire 4.) Leave it to Porsche to make a trunk that fits the spare but not the actual Rim, so Walmart bags and newspaper to keep from messing up the interior, and off we go. 5.) Top Down Pimping all White Trash like with a Wheel in the back seat, and walmart bags on the head rest

Big Bend National Park 3.) Little offroad action 4.) Is that not the most aweful thing ever, I never thought I would own a Porsche growing up, and run around like that, lol. 5.) Some nice sweepers around Big Bend.

1.) Looks like a Boot, ( I called it Boothill, no idea what it's name was, lol) 2.) Ghost Town Terlingua, TX 3.) Wife and I scratching our heads on whether to get fuel or not...... 4.) and this is why Diesel or 87 ahh the choices, lol 5.) Boothill Cemetery (Tombstone AZ). It was an awesome place to go see, lots of murders, 2 Graves in particular: -One Headstone reads- Here Lies George Johnson Hanged by Mistake 1882 He Was Right We Was Wrong But We Strung Him Up And Now He's Gone -Another Headstone reads - HERE LIES LESTER MOORE FOUR SLUGS FROM A 44 NO LES NO MORE I would post pics of the grave site but I'm running out of upload room

1.) In Front of the Crystal Palace Saloon, just down from the OK Corral for you Tombstone Fans 2.) Apache National Forest 3.) Absolutely Awesome Roads 4.) Taking a break on the cliff edge over looking the national Forest 5.) Some nice twisties, several 10mph marked hairpins, it was amazing, (although the abundance of cows.. Yes COWS! in the roadway, and even a deer w/ her baby fawn, it was a little uncomforting (I've got video coming out of a nice curve around 45mph and a bunch of cows in the road).

1.) Wife and I turning in for the night about 3 miles from the Border Patrol Inspection Station in the Hueco Mountains 2.) Climbing around Hueco Mountains, (Ok, I'm actualy only about 6 feet from the rock surface but it looks more impressive, lol. I'm out of shape I didn't think I was ever going to get up there, ) 3.) EPIC Fail in Carlsbad, NM, lol 4.) Long Straights for some high speed blast (which we made plenty) Okay, I'm out of upload room, so from there we went through Silvercity, to Carsbad Caverns, San Antonio Riverwalk, Alamo, etc...

Cool

Wicked Cool ! Thanks

Personally, I would park the Porsche in the garage and if you don't already own a Lexus LS it might be worthwhile picking one up just for this drive, air suspension most heartily recommended. Wife and I have driven cross country, Seattle/Daytona, Seattle/Memphis, and back a few times. '78 Targa back when and '99 & '01 996's more recently. No real opportunity for "fun" drive aspects of the Porsche so might as well be comfortable.

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Huh??? Driven Dallas to Salt Lake City in new Lexus RX400h = boring Houston to SLC in 996 Cab = excellent! Las Vegas to SLC 996 Turbo Cab = way too short, we'll do a longer one! Done some longer trips in the Boxster, top down! very nice. I think topless is the only way to travel. If the sun gets unbearable or it rains too hard you can always put up the top. The views don't get any better! Sounds like a good time!

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NFW

Oh man, what a great trip!

Thanks for sharing! what an awesome trip and memorable photos!

Seems like a great road trip! The longest trip I've done in my car is from Charlotte, NC to Tampa, FL. That was less than 600 miles but still a good time and the car performed flawlessly. I'd like to take a trip to my parent's home in Colorado but the wife isn't too keen on that idea. In any case what year is your car? Apart from the interior color it seems we have very similar vehicles! Lapis Blue? Blue top?

How long did you go on the spare?

Approx 800 miles on the spare, took forever thanks to only going 50-55mph. We drove all night and got mid way through the next day. fpena944 yeah Lapis Blue w/Blue Top, just got 25 pieces of the interior done in Lapis Blue as well.

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25 pieces, wow! you will be competing with that sid guy! lol

woow, a great trip. thanks for sharing the nice pictures.

Awesome trip and photos. Good for you for just going for it!

great pics! sounds like fun man So how was the Chinese - Mexican restaurant like?