Cannonball Opel

Sir, you are totally crazy.   I am proud to know you!

Researching this I heard so many cool stories of people's road trips, for example, cross-country in winter in an MGB, solo, with no working heater. He wrapped his legs in a blanket with only his foot sticking out to work the throttle. Good times.

I've done a number of cross-country trips in cars and once on a bicycle. This one will certainly be different. Still not sure if we'll do a there-and-back Cannonball. That event needs updating, I think. We'll see.

We'll be posting to Facebook during the drive.

Mike

The car is ready. I just need to find my toothbrush and we're off to Emeryville, then on to NYC.

Any idea on a projected day you'll be in NY?

Good luck.

We're back. Sorry that I wasn't able to update here. Have you ever tried to text in a stiffly sprung car bouncing along the freeways at 80+ mph (About all we could wisely sustain, we want to race at Sonoma when we got back.) We did update the team's FB page along the route and especially during fuel stops.

Briefly, the drive out was a test to see what it would take to make a good run back. If we could do the out trip non-stop, great, if not, learn what we can and save our energy for the return trip. With temperatures outside in the low to mid-teens heading into Chicago, and no heater in the car (because racecar), we had to grab a room and thaw. The next day we drove to within 30 minutes of our destination and got a room, regrouped, and headed into NYC the next day, late morning. There we met NYC traffic for the first time, which would have been OK except for the street closures for the parade. Three hours later we made it the ten blocks to the Redball Garage. There we rested, grabbed a NYC bagel, then just as traffic started to clear we left for LA.

Our goal on the return was to do it non-stop. Completion time was not a priority, pretty much like in a Lemons race. We knew we'd be needing to stop and thaw, those stops taking 25-30 minutes typically, which turned out to be cool as we got to chat with locals. We more or less learned how to sleep while strapped into a Kirkey, wrapped in blankets, and wearing ear muffs. (Pro Tip: Kirkey's will do a job on your tail bone after 30-40 hours. Plan accordingly.)

Our sleep strategy was simply to sleep as much as possible while in the passenger seat and do driver swaps at every fuel stop, about every 3 hours. That worked out reasonably well, although twice I had to turn the car back over to Don, my co-driver, about mid-way through my stint. It got a little scary a couple of times, and for the final leg back to our homes Don had to give up his stint.

We got to the LA area around noon Monday and from that point on was the most dangerous part of the trip. My gawd, driving in LA. We were so luck we came in on a holiday and that Don, who was driving, had been a long-haul trucker who'd made many a run to and through LA. LA was also the only place we got off route, but it didn't slow us much and we arrived at our destination, to be met by friends and family of Don, at around 2 PM.

After our first real meal since the previous Wednesday (We ate nearly nothing during the whole trip.) we headed the 560 miles or so to my place up near Sacramento.

As tired as were were on the way home from LA last night it was a great drive, too. I joked with Don about continuing on to Seattle, which at this point seemed like the natural thing to do. In fact, the notion of waking up in the morning and not spending the rest of the day elbow-to-elbow in the Tinyvette felt unnatural.

Anyway, the Tinyvette survived and in fact ran flawlessly the whole way there and back. It'll need a little TLC before Sonoma, but it will be racing. No more of that glitter bomb crap.

Mike

Sounds like it was an awesome trip!

Dang, sounds like a great drive!!

Yeah, that alternator was struggling in some of the most empty, godforsaken land in America.  About 30 miles outside of OKC Westbound I-40 passes through...poverty until you get to Amarillo.