Since I have been talking about this silly car from before lock-in to delivery, I thought I would share a little summary of her ‘maiden voyage’ and my goodbye to Wyoming and Colorado. The fates came together to allow this nice trip to happen. The car was delivered ahead of schedule, PPF placed, a dash cam mounted, and then I hit the road. The main criteria were to hit some of the memorable paved drives in Colorado and Wyoming, nice hotels and a pleasant time with my wife before I start working again. The dates: September 5 through September 14. Weather: absolutely perfect. All the major passes were open and dry. Car: new 992.2 911. Carrera. Gentian blue. Started off from Cheyenne to Jackson Hole. A heck of a long day with a good payoff at the end with the Togwotee Pass. After recovering from that we spent the next day with local drives on Teton Park Road, Jenny Lake, Oxbow Bend, Gros Ventre / Mormon Row. After a couple of days there we transited to Aspen ‘the long way’ via Hoback Canyon (US-191), US-26 / Snake River Canyon, Pine Creek Pass (ID-31), then US-191 south through Bondurant, Hoback Rim, and Pinedale to Flaming Gorge, then into Colorado and Aspen. A very very long day but absolutely worth doing the Flaming Gorge ‘ detour ‘ First day in Aspen was a little bit more relaxed. Took the Castle Creek Road to Ashcroft and then Crystal River run to Marble for barbecue… Very good barbecue by the way. Another 911 was hanging out in the parking lot so I wasn’t the only one to have a desire for barbecue and a nice drive. Day five in Aspen was a ton of fun. Did Fryingpan Road to Ruedi Reservoir. Quiet, technical, other Porsches and Ferraris on it. I tried very hard to stay out of their way as they clearly were more familiar with that road than me and I had only had my car less than 2 weeks. The next day we transited from Aspen to Beaver Creek via Independence Pass (12,095 ft) to Twin Lakes, then Leadville and Tennessee Pass into Vail / Bachelor Gulch. A very enjoyable high Alpine transfer with great conditions and not too much traffic. From Bachelor Gulch on day seven we did the Copper Triangle: US-24 south through Minturn, Battle Mountain, and Red Cliff to Leadville; CO-91 over Fremont Pass (11,318 ft) to Copper and a short drop into Breckenridge; I-70 home over Vail Pass. Tennessee Pass sits on that same 24 corridor, so the day stacked Battle Mountain, Tennessee, Fremont, and Vail in one loop. Coming into the homestretch of our little drive, the next day we move down through Estes Park, and did Trail Ridge Road up to the Alpine visitor center, and then back down the Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods. Trail Ridge Road was outstanding as the early traffic wasn’t as bad as I expected on the way up. Definitely a nice follow up to Independence Pass. The next day, our last real day of driving, started off Garden of the Gods in the morning, then US-24 / CO-67 to Cripple Creek. Paved Gold Belt run, not a famous 12,000-foot pass, but a beautiful two-lane through the aspens on the west side of Pikes Peak country. Pikes Peak skipped on purpose. At that point, I felt like I had sampled the drives in the area enough and was more than happy to just relax a bit. Next day was the least Interesting drive, Colorado Springs back to Cheyenne. On the way home, I did my final checkout at the Cheyenne VA Medical Center and concluded five years there. Most of this trip has been discussed in multiple tweets over the last few weeks, but I was just putting it all down in one place mostly so I can keep track of this wonderful trip. Thanks for sticking with my silly drive. It was fun to share it. The whole thing probably clocked in at 2200 or 2300 miles. Next stop… The Midwest and my new Urology gig. #porsche

I am ‘off work’ tomorrow, which is nice. Sadly have a meeting at noon I need to drive 60 min to each way….which is not as nice. I think I am going to drive the ‘nice’ car and continue my current audio book, which will make it slightly more enjoyable.

Her and me both.

A very tight band. A very enjoyable show.

A very strong group performing mostly original material. I love the arrangements. The Iowa Jazz composer band.

Down in Des Moines for some Jazz. Not been to this place before. Interested to hear the music.

Well, gonna get out of the house and do something fun today. Going down to Des Moines for some jazz and dinner. Will make a night of it and drive back tomorrow. A big ‘thank you’ extended to my loving wife who kicked me in the ass to do something while she’s out getting our Wyoming house in order.

A couple of hours early here, and sadly, the last time I looked, Rivendell was not in Iowa. But at least I don’t have a meeting tomorrow like he does.

Got a text from my Porsche guy to see if I wanted a ticket to this because they had an open slot. Sadly, I have too many things going on with the new job right now, but man that looks fun. The price point sadly is…well…not low. Maybe 2028.

Took a Model Y out for a test drive today, mostly just because I was curious (and a bit bored today) but also was doing the math of the fuel costs of my one hour commute to work. While I don’t hate our almost 100,000 mile 2022 Outback, the cost of fuel makes it even more expensive to run than the 911. Maybe we will have to give that a look next year.

I have just discovered a terrible fact about Ames. There’s no kosher deli and in particular, there’s no place that I can find to buy pastrami by the pound. So to get pastrami or corned beef, I’m gonna have to drive down to Des Moines and pick it up there. How can a town even call itself a town without pastrami and a good deli. I didn’t even look to see if I could get a good bagel here yet because I’ll just be sad by the results of that search.

My day off today. Did a nice little loop and it was…not bad. A few fun stretches of road and some pleasant views which is atypical for the area. Best part was that it was only about 30-40min away from my home.

Unexpected day off. Going to get a little breakfast and get a local library card.

I accomplished the one thing I wanted to do this weekend…install the ctek battery tender and plug. It took me days of research (and review of countless other installations of this charger in 911’s ) to convince myself that the battery hold down bracket bolt would be an ok ground point for the charging circuit. It seems many people have taken a multimeter to compare the cars main ground point with other potential mounting spots and found it to be equivalent. Go figure. Looking at it now, I think I’m going to readjust the directions of the positive wire so it doesn’t have a bend in it. I didn’t appreciate how sharp it was at the time, but I only put it in as others have.

It was pretty cool the Porsche service people sent me a nice video of them (while I was having coffee down the road ) inspecting my car and showing me all the inspection points while they were actually doing the service. Never seen the underside of that car up on the lift before. If you needed to ok additional work, which I did not, that’s a heck of a way to show people what’s actually going on before they hit the OK button.

Winter wheels/tires in place and functional. Not my favorite look, but I don’t hate them. A less aggressive profile (19/20 inch) than my summer ones (20/21 inch). A bit more rubber between the road and the very expensive wheels is a very good thing in winter weather and the slightly narrower tires apparently is better in snow.

Summer tires ready for their trip back home.

Up in Minneapolis to get my winter tires/wheels put on. I hate rush hour driving up here so much. Maybe look around the dealership at its ‘offerings’ while I wait. If I won the lottery I would not tell anyone….but there would be signs….