[Focus] Road trip!!

[note: this post, like an air-cooled 911, is back-dated to when these events occurred] 

[also note: I have condensed multiple forum posts into this entry, please forgive awkward transitions]

The RS had certainly earned its rest after such a long Saturday tearing around the track. Instead, I put the street wheel setup back on and set out on a 1000-mile week-long road trip:

We needed to get out of the house. I didn't know where to go, except that we wanted to hit our friends in Kirkwood on the way home. So, having not really explored much of northeast California, I opened Google maps and picked something on the map up in that area. The town of Chester looked nice, right on lake Almanor and next to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Booked a B&B and took off.

Outside of Chico the RS crossed the 14,000 mile barrier. We stopped in Chico to eat some McDonald's in the parking lot.

The town of Chester was... smaller than expected. We stayed in a nice B&B on the north edge of town, which was really just the one stretch of road. I got the sense that lake Almanor is more of a private place - there are few public beaches, and most of the lakefront is private homes or country clubs. We were there for four days/three nights, which was a good thing, because that was enough to exhaust the town's takeout restaurant options.

It was pretty quiet up there, and that was nice. Few people out and about. Made it possible to grab a photo on the boat launch ramp.

The RS carried us into Lassen Volcanic National Park bright and early.

Nitrous blue stands out, even from afar.

We hiked the Bumpass Hell trail - named for the guy who found it and then, while showing it off to a visiting writer, stepped through the earth and dipped his leg in boiling mud. Oops. Lost the leg.

The rest of the park was lovely too.

The next day, we did a big driving loop to explore more of the area. We stopped in Westwood to see Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

Next, we passed through Susanville and had lunch.

We cut up north on 139 and spent some time going through the desert.

Our northern-most point was Alturas. Over 5 hours of driving we passed through dozens of towns, almost all of them small and maybe past their prime.

The bug body count really took off some time between Alturas and Fall River Mills.

Had to grab this photo in front of the flag of the state of Jefferson. For those not in the know, Jefferson is a proposed sub-state of California.

This last photo is from Tahoe City. We drove down through Lake Tahoe to reach Kirkwood and it was an absolute zoo. Not even space to pull off for a cool photo in front of the lake. So here's a Street View look at the view I really wanted to photograph.

Oh wait, bonus photo: total bug massacre. Hopefully you're not eating.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, what an amazing car. Saturday I'm tearing around Laguna Seca at full speed, Sunday I swap the wheels and tires, Monday I'm off on a 1,000 mile road trip. The suspension is a bit jiggly but otherwise, fantastic road trip car. Took all our luggage, A/C on and strong, cruise control, Apple CarPlay (now with Waze!), didn't skip a beat. On the many 2-lane roads overtaking was not a problem, and of course it was a blast on the fast and windy roads. Huge kudos to Ford for building such an incredibly capable machine.

Next for the RS: going back to Laguna Seca again a week from Tuesday!

[M3] Road trip!!

[note: this post, like an air-cooled 911, is back-dated to when these events occurred] 

[also note: I have condensed multiple forum posts into this entry, please forgive awkward transitions]

Last weekend we ventured outdoors for the first time in 3 months to visit some friends in Kirkwood. For some people the exciting part of the trip is what you do when you get there, but I know how nice the roads and scenery are, so I was excited to take the M3!

We went out via 88, and came home the 'long way' on 4. It's always a lovely drive across the Sierras and I think we got the timing perfect in terms of weather and conditions, as you'll see.



Just a couple minutes on the road and we were cruising through the 135k milestone. Unfortunately the start of the trip was a total drag... traffic has mostly vanished with Covid but we managed to find it, sitting for the first two hours in crawling traffic all the way out to Tracy. The M3 was loaded up with road trip essentials as well as our weekend bags and a bunch of things that our friends wanted us to bring out to them (they've been in Kirkwood since shelter-in-place started). The M3 swallowed it up without any complaint.



Things started to pick up once we got past Stockton and hit 88. We stopped for fuel, Red Bull, and beef jerky in Jackson.



As the sun came down and we climbed our way toward Kirkwood, the views became irresistible. We pulled over once...





...and then again. My DSLR was buried deep in my overnight bag and we were keeping our hosts waiting for dinner, so all the photo duties were left to the iPhone.





After 4+ hours on the road, the M3 delivered us to Kirkwood safe and sound, no worse for wear except for a bug slaughter.

The M3 relaxed on Saturday while we enjoyed the great outdoors. I took a few DSLR snaps.







I love this detail on our cars: where the surfaces invert just ahead of and behind the doors.



I did step away from the car long enough to enjoy what Kirkwood has to offer. I've been around Tahoe a few times but never down to Kirkwood, and it was wonderful. There isn't much in the way of a village and it was just quiet and peaceful. There are tons of hikes, bike trails, and small lakes to enjoy.









My friend loaned me his spare mountain bike and took me around the trails, most of which cut across and along the ski runs. I am extremely amateur at mountain biking (second time out ever) but it's starting to win me over. 





I am thankful that he didn't tell me how much this bike was worth until after the ride. It's easy to geek out on all the tech these things have, and it added a layer of learning curve as I attempted to adjust my dampers, drop the seat post, and swap into the right gear all at the right times. Thankfully I didn't go over the handlebars at any point and by the end of the ride I was really learning to trust the bike. There are definite similarities with high-performance driving... keep your eyes up, look through the curve where you want to go, and the faster you go, the better the suspension works and the more you can trust the machine...

On Saturday evening we had some down-time before dinner so I went out again with the car and DSLR to try to get some nice snaps in the dusk lighting.























Sunday afternoon we hiked and then made our way home. Highway 4 was lovely, but apparently not lovely enough to stop and take photos. Both 88 and 4 were nice and smooth (88 I believe was repaved just recently), 4 cut through some nice towns and along a nice river for a bit before climbing up and over the hills via tight switchbacks with no center line. We stopped for gas at an extremely overpriced but charming old-fashioned Chevron station in Camp Connell. 



Unfortunately there was a long, straight, hot drag between Copperopolis and Stockton with nothing but wheat and corn for company. We wrapped up our California road trip in the quintessential way, at In-n-Out.



400+ miles and the car didn't skip a beat. The A/C and cruise control kept things comfortable, the motor was a bit wheezy at 8000 feet but otherwise no complaints! It has earned a bit of rest and a nice wash that it will receive this weekend.