Skip to main content

Roadtrip Recap: To SEMA and Back

 

 

“You did what?” an employee at the MGM asked, as Head of Sales John Acton and I stood before her, tired, and wearing the sort of cologne that can only be earned from nearly 30 hours of driving through the desert.  “That was pretty stupid,” she continued.  Neither of us had the energy to disagree.  And even if we did, we probably wouldn’t have bothered.
vmg-roadtrip
When the plan was originally hatched to drive to SEMA rather than fly (although I would take a plane from Philadelphia to Chicago before officially beginning the trip), words like “nice”, “fun”, and “relaxing” were tossed around casually.  It’d been years since either one of us had done the trip in admittedly less quiet and comfortable vehicles than a new GTI, and nostalgia kept the reality of a 28 hour drive far from our minds.  Even as we started, it didn’t really seem so bad.  Illinois and Iowa were gone in rapid succession. Even Nebraska was fun for a little bit, but tongue-in-cheak Instagram posts can only keep you in for so long, and darkness came quickly.
fillerup
Eventually we made it to Colorado, taking 70 through the Rockies and into Utah, then picking up 15 for the final leg to Vegas city limits.  In total, the trip took 28 hours, which is more than enough for one adventure.  But that’s the thing about driving somewhere- eventually you’ll have to drive home too.  So we consulted Google Maps, finding that legendary Route 66 would take us back to Chicago, and immediately thought, “job well done.”  Even better, we’d be confronted with the type of old-timey romanticism that Pixar profited off of with their 2006 film, Cars.
headlight-desert
So after a long few days on the ground at SEMA, we left Las Vegas with a sigh of relief on Friday morning, pointing our GTI toward the Hoover Dam.  Opened in 1936 to restrain Lake Mead from flooding the towns below and harness a bit of hydroelectric power while doing so, the Hoover Dam is nothing short of a testament to American ingenuity.  Nowadays, its nearly as famous for a cameo in Vegas Vacation than anything else.  For us, it proved to be the first of many scenic stops along our route home, and one last opportunity to use the dam bathroom before settling in for the long haul.
damgti
Setting our sights on Interstate 40 in Arizona (a road which shadows Historic Route 66), we were treated to a vast expanse of nothingness.  No vegetation.  No exits.  No services.  As a life-long east-coaster, the everything and nothing nature of the desert is simply mystifying.  In fact, there really isn’t much until you hit Flagstaff, and then you’re thrust back to nothingness just as quickly as you left it.  But before we could make it that far, we’d hop off of 40 and onto 66, in Seligman, Arizona, the “Birthplace of Historic Route 66.”  Sure, the road technically extends westward to Santa Monica, California, and as far east as Chicago, Illinois, but locals know that this particular stretch, which runs to Kingman, Arizona, is the longest continuous bit of Old Route 66 left in the states.  We knew because there was a big sign on the side of the road.seligmanSoon enough, 66 would meet back up with 40, revealing an interesting fact about the iconic road- there really ain’t much of it left. As we made our way down the patches that remain, through towns like Winslow, Arizona (Yes, like the song. No, we didn’t stop), and San Jon, New Mexico, what we found was blistered tarmac, yearning for days gone by.  To be honest, it was all a bit depressing.  So we stopped off to get some rest.texas-ticketsThe next day, we entered Texas…. scratch that.  Texas entered us.  While in the nation’s second most populated state, I had the pleasure of being greeted personally by two different, yet equally friendly State Troopers- they also happened to be the only ones we’d pass during our time there.  One even liked me so much, he invited me into his squad car for a chat.  You see, I unknowingly had messed with Texas.  And to pay for my crimes, they messed with me right back.  Our little GTI was pulled over for doing 3 over (78 in a 75 zone), and again for a “seatbelt check”, while doing 3 under.  Normally, I’d consider myself lucky to leave an encounter with the law owing no money, and possessing no ticket.  But this time, I was just sour.  I still am, to be honest.  It was a 99 Problems-style traffic stop, and I have no idea why it even needed to take place.  Was it my Michigan tags?  My lowered new GTI?  All those times I expressed my distaste for “Bro-country” music? All I know, is that if I ever go back, I’ll be sure to be in something quintessentially American.morefuelFinally out of Texas and back to the land of the free, we had begun what John and I considered to be the home stretch of our journey.  Having been back in Central Daylight Time for a bit, we traded Interstate 40 for 44 just outside of Oklahoma City, and began heading north.  From there, time seemed to pass effortlessly, as we were greeted with an abundance of cellular phone service, restaurants and service plazas.  Soon enough, we’d pick up 55 in St Louis, and the remainder of our trip was a cake walk.  Or at least I’m told it was.  I was passed out in the passenger seat.nightfallWith me curled up somewhat comfortably in the GTI’s bolstered buckets, John set in for the final few hours home, punching up the gut of Illinois, land of Lincoln and home of Vortex Media Group.  It was a four hour drive he knew quite well, having done it countless times before.  At this point, the only co-pilot needed was Red Bull, and the final few episodes of Eastbound and Down.
report
It was a long day, capping an even longer trip.  In total, we’d covered about 3700 miles, burned a little over 97 gallons of fuel, and traveled through 11 states on the journey.  At times, yes, it does seem a bit ambitious (ahem, stupid), to spend 50+ hours in a car as opposed to all of eight on a plane, but John and I would say it was more of an excellent adventure than a bogus journey.  Hell, given enough time to forget the realities of such an excursion, we’d probably even do it again.  Just not for a long, long, long time.

The post Roadtrip Recap: To SEMA and Back appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1Yunomq
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Bugatti Chiron Won’t Get a Roadster Version

The all-new Bugatti Chiron hypercar will not get a convertible version like its Veyron predecessor did. Speaking to Autocar at the London grand opening of the sole Bugatti showroom in the U.K., marketing boss Stefan Brungs confirmed that the French automaker’s latest hypercar will only be sold in coupe format, with “no roadster or convertible” version in the plans. Brungs also said that the company is only planning on selling the allotted 500 Chirons as standard, so faster variants like a Super Sports version also aren’t likely. This is a very different strategy than the Veyron, which has targa top Grand Sport and Super Sports models, as well as a number of special edition models. The Chiron is set to try to break the world record for fastest car and attempt to beat the Veyron’s record of 268 mph. It is believed that the Chiron will be able to hit 288 mph. Powered by an 8.0-liter W16 engine with 1,500 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque, it shouldn’t ...

Volkswagen Group Records Best Ever First-Half-of-Year Sales

With 5.5 million vehicles in customer hands after the first six months of 2018, the Volkswagen Group is seeing the best performance of its history. Group deliveries increased significantly in all core regions,” said Fred Kappler, head of sales for the Group. “Our core brands recorded strong growth in the first half year.” For the year-to-date, all of Volkswagen’s brands had sales bumps. MAN, SEAT, and Skoda led the sales charge with performances 24%, 17% and 11% better than the previous year. The big sellers, too, had strong sales periods, with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Volkswagen sales rising 3.5%, 4.5% and 6.3% respectively. That last figure is particularly good new for the board, since Volkswagen alone sold more than 3 million vehicles in the first half of 2018. As Kappler stated, the numbers are equally good when you break sales down by region. Brazil and Russia were the most improved markets (22% and 20%, respectively), while strong sales in Europe and China (u...