That’s right, I might be stopping through Pittsburgh sometime late next week. A friend and I are going to be leaving Saturday AM for a cross-country run in his E39 M5. He was relocated to NY and has been living back there w/o his cars for about a month already so he flew out, we’re driving the M5 back, then I’m flying home. We have a rough-plan laid out:
For those of you paying attention it includes stopping through the Corvette Assembly Plant/Museum. We have a tour booked for Tuesday AM. From there the plan is to be in Chicago area Tuesday night, and probably be staying with some friends in Ann Arbor Wed and maybe Thurs. As you see after that we are rolling right by Pittsburgh, so I hope to stop by (Fatheads anybody!?!) sometime between Thrus-Sat depending on how things go. I have a flight out of Jersey (where my buddy now lives) mid-day Sunday so that will put some constraints on my time.
If you know me, remember me, hate me, or :love: me PM me a phone number and hopefully we can hookup for a wing night when I’m there.
I’ll keep this thread updated as we travel as well.
Well, we left Santa Clara, CA at about 9:15 AM (Pacific) today headed for the East Coast.
We had planned to stop in Flagstaff, Arizona today but were still feeling good when we got there about 10.5 hours into the drive so we pressed on. We ended up stopping in Gallup, New Mexico for a total of 922.5 miles, at about a 73 MPH average on the day. Since we got so far today we’ll try to press on into Tennessee tomorrow, probably stopping in Memphis. That way Monday we can make a quick run into Nashville and spend some time there before running up to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tuesday morning we’ll be doing the Corvette Assembly Plant and Museum tours.
Anyway, the day was mostly uneventful, almost no issues with law enforcement, almost. After the long day on the road (a bit over 13 hours) we found a hotel in Gallup then went looking for some dinner. Headed a bit down the road and saw nothing but hotels, so made a u-turn and headed back. I honestly thought it was a legal u-turn (would have been in Cali) but apparently it wasn’t, I also redlined out 2nd at WOT in a 45mph zone, haha. Pulled up to a donut/sandwich shop we had passed earlier and as we got to the door a Sheriff pulled up and called me over. He opened with “I know, a donut shop is a bit cliche’, but an illegal u-turn and hauling ass isn’t the best idea on a Saturday night.” He pretty much just told me to slow down, and pay more attention and rolled away, never even got out of his car. I’ll take that any day.
Well that’s it for tonight, time for some sleep. More updates tomorrow…
Anyway, day two brought a flat tire. M cars don’t have spares, and the fuggin’ jackasses at the dealer he bought this on from must have jacked the “M Mobility kit” (basically a can of fix-a-flat and an air compressor) and sold i ton ebay or something. So we had to wait around an hour for a tow truck, then take a damn 2 hour ride on the truck to get the tire fixed. We ended up making it to Oklahoma City Sunday night, which was our original plan anyway.
Yesterday about 30 miles out of Bowling Green, KY (our destination for the night) the SES light came on and the car started stumbling. A minute later it stopped making power and we coasted to an off ramp. It wouldn’t even move under its own power so we called BMW roadside assistance for the 2nd time in 2 days. We got towed to a BMW dealership in Bowling Green and got a hotel here. The dealer gave us a ride to/from the Corvette Assembly Plant & Museum so at least we still got to do that. I guess the code they found in the M was a MAF code so they’re just replacing them both (after some forum searching it looks like they really just needed cleaned, but whatever it’s warranted). We’re stuck here in Bowling Green another night though, so that sort of sucks.
At this rate it looks like we’ll make Pittsburgh Friday.
So we ended up stuck in Bowling Green for 3 damn days. They miss-diagnosed the problem initially, MAFs didn’t fix it. Ended up needing fuel pump & relay. So we hit Ann Arbor last night and are on the road now (WAN FTW). I’ll either be rolling through PGH in a few hours, or we’re gonna stop off at Cedar Point and I’d be in PGH tonight and staying there tonight. Not sure yet, I’ll update when we figure it out.
Anyway, I’m sitting in the Starbucks in Sewickley right now. Man, it’s weird being back around here, though it seems like nothing has changed.
My plan at this point is to head down to Fathead’s soon. I’ll be content just posting up there for a while eating too many wings and drinking too much beer. If anybody wants to make it down, that’d be cool.
I’ll be the kid in the SJ Sharks hat, blue stripped polo and a plate of wings in front of me.
All bad.