'72 Bmw 2002 Cross Country Adventure

........and we are done.

2008-07-25T14:05:00.001-04:00

Im a little worried..... This morning i woke up to the sound of my 02 pulling back into the drive way...steve had taken it out this morning... Im just kidding i know he will take care of it like it was his own.
What a great trip. Thanks to everyone who followed along on our trip. This Trip means a lot to me...it was a 30th birthday gift for me. I got a great car.....drove geeat roads...and traveled with a great friend.

Im cramped into this economy steat and longing for the no ac... In july..in the desert contitions of the 02.

Baby if you are reading this...get ready for bhugs when i get home see you soon.

Open For comments again

2008-07-24T18:56:00.002-04:00

But please keep it clean. We have our families reading this....including young ones.

Once a Marine... always a Marine

2008-07-24T18:41:00.002-04:00

Steve was going on an on about how he can kill with his bare hands and how he has survival skills. I mentioned that he could use his glasses to start a fire... he didnt think so.

This lead to a bet.. if his glasses could start a fire he had to kill and cook with his bare hands.... if they didnt I do what I do best... Cut a check for dinner.

We pulled over right away .. this was while in the Nevada desert

I have known steve for years now... and although I know his word is bond..he proved it once again.

We were ripping down the highway, when he locked up the brakes and took off into the hillside

I waited for an hour........ good thing I did

The money shot... and trip stats...

2008-07-24T18:35:00.004-04:00

Pulled over :2
Tickets: 0

Bonus Money shot...

Now mind we only did the last 1K miles on high ways.. the rest were back roads..some unpaved.... we drove this car hard!!!!!

The Tape was a good idea......

2008-07-24T18:10:00.005-04:00

Before...

After

After..After

Sorry for the lack of updates....

2008-07-24T16:12:00.001-04:00

We are out ripping around the blunt tech proving grounds. My car seems to be passing the test.

Waking up in Gc

2008-07-24T10:53:00.000-04:00

A cap and biscus is the way to start off the day.

Carl did not waste any time as his check has already cleared. We got here just in time because if we broke down we were going to stop payment and leave the car where ever it died....but this monster didnt.

We will more pics up later along woth stories which we could not quite post from the phone.

115 miles to gods country

2008-07-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

Weve had rain on and off all day but the rain quit and the skies cleared when we hit the minnesota border. Reports from biscus bravo indicate perfect weather for our arrival. Weve had a lot of interest in chucks 3 piece dash via email. This should help pay for the trip.

We dont have a for sale section...

2008-07-23T16:38:00.000-04:00

very nice 3 peice dash one blemish no cracks...will deliver between omaha and gods country.

Best offer.

90 miles west of omaha

2008-07-23T13:58:00.000-04:00

We heard back from chuck and we are hungry so we will stop to try and get a free meal off him. If it doesnt seem like hes going to pay we may eat and run. There are lots of cops with radar but we do not fear them as we are running the speed limit. Avi hasnt hit anything all morning. We are going to try and stop at choppers house to get biscus as shes been watching him for me. More pics later

Good morning

2008-07-23T06:31:00.001-04:00

Good night to us......age has hit steve like i hit bushes..... There was a time when he could drive all night...and he has driven all night...but not tonight. There was a time he could nap for two hours then drive for two. Now its i cant sleep in this car.... I need to streach my legs..im cold...my timeless hair is getting knotted i could not take anymore of it so we got a hotel.

Still rocking

2008-07-23T03:44:00.000-04:00

And running much better when not one mile high

No concept of time.

2008-07-23T02:25:00.001-04:00

Ever since we got to cali.... I have had no concept of time. My watch is still ny time...as is my phone... I dont know which time zone we are in right now but i know its not the one on my watch or phone.

Here i am at the closed gates....

Today we measured time in gas tanks we are on the 4th tank

Ripping thru denver..let down but still satisfied

2008-07-23T00:18:00.001-04:00

We went thruy 3 tanks of gas today driving the best roads ive ever been on. Some paved and some not. But none were highways or interstate. The bad news is we wernt able to make it to keiths in kc to meet him and stella. I hope he understands. Avi and i got to pikes peak to see a closed sign. It may have been a blessing in disguise. We have been pushing this car pretty hard and i cant tell you how much we both love it. Carl builds a nice car. We have tons more pics and some wild rallye video we will post when we get to gods country. We decided to take the interstate and drive from denver to gods country stopping in omaha to have coffee with chuck if i can reach him by 6am. But the adventures not over. I have avi for 2 more days ands its never over till i drop him off at the airport and shut my phone off so if he misses his flight i wont know

Ohhhh great

2008-07-22T21:19:00.001-04:00

We just got near the peak.... On rt 24 some poor biker is laid out on his back. ...and traffic going up hiss is backed up for a good while. We are losing daylight things dont look good.

From today

2008-07-22T18:47:00.000-04:00

At lunch in dillion co

2008-07-22T18:32:00.000-04:00

Having a dam (this is a dam town) burger.... Laughing at all the roads and sliding from this morning's run.

Rallye stage 1 day 2

2008-07-22T17:49:00.000-04:00

Route 8 meeker to yampa co.........we are on pavement again

Flat tops trail scenic bi way

2008-07-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

Avi offed a bird

2008-07-22T11:29:00.001-04:00

So we left the hotel and jumped on i70 to make some time because we have to be iin kansas city tonight to meet keith for dinner. There was construction and avi nearly took out a pylon but missed it. So to make up for it he hit a bird at 75mph. I may have to stop for more blue tape

Waffle race....

2008-07-22T10:57:00.001-04:00

Steve's is the one on the right.... He keeps opening it to check

haaha

2008-07-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

He is so worked up because i was questioning his house husband skills that he called the first waffel a hot lap....and now he is green flagging one..... hahaha

Its not always the faster one.....

2008-07-22T10:50:00.000-04:00

He kept opening the maker..... Here are the results

I dont know what time it is...

2008-07-22T04:17:00.001-04:00

But we cant go any more today.... 12 west of grand junction.....

6 hours of perfectly straight roads

2008-07-21T22:21:00.001-04:00

This morning avi drove the sweetest set of 35 and 40 mile an hor twisties for almost an hour. Then it was my turn to drive and i didnt turn the wheel for 6 hours as i had bone straight roads. We just had dinner at the base of some huge mountains and guess who sturnit is to drive as we enter more twisties again. Avi is a lot better driver going forward the he is backing up. He did very wellafter i taught him how to keep a line

I ask nicer....

2008-07-21T21:49:00.001-04:00

So we come in and each ask for a malt..... Steve says give me just a little more then him.... I asked nicer.

Dinner time.....

2008-07-21T21:44:00.001-04:00

4 chilli dogs.. Two malts

I am falling in love with this car

2008-07-21T21:43:00.000-04:00

Dwb explained.....

2008-07-21T21:34:00.001-04:00

First one was when i was driving at maybe 30 in a 25 the cop was heading the other way...did not clock me... Just stopped us to have a chat.

Second was on route 50 about 40 mins after the first one...again he was heading the other way.... I was doing about 79 in a 70 no ticket again though. We are not speeding much staying with in 10 above if not brown......and 2 below if brown

We have to stop every 47 mins

2008-07-21T21:22:00.003-04:00

I have been clocking steve. If there are any doctors reading this blog can you call in a script for flomax? His excuse is he wants to pee where no man has peed before.

Rippin threw utah... Just left delta

2008-07-21T21:22:00.001-04:00

Dwb 2

2008-07-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

We are on the lonliest road in america...... Avi gets pulled over again....no ticket this time either...but we get the 20 questions.

We are starting to think they are messing with us. 79 in a 70 zone.

dwb

2008-07-21T12:26:00.001-04:00

Driving while brown

Just leaving dave Schmenck's in tahoe

2008-07-21T10:43:00.001-04:00

Honda got their tag line for their scooters from watching '02 folk. You meet the nicest people driving an 02 is the way it should be.

Dave, Cathy and Chris (who made bear stew) opend their doord to us last night. They boarded us in their awesome house which has the best view of the lake. Its Awesome how a shared passion can make friends out of strangers.

The Whole day yesterday was great. From Norm who took us on a great drive to Chico Joe who baby sat us for a few hours to Pinepig who showed us how to grill steaks on your front breaks..to Chris who showed us how to bake a corner and stay composed.

Thanks everyone......

Avi and Steve.

Ps. Im sending you all a special 10% more coupon to blunt tech.

Waking up at dave's

2008-07-21T09:47:00.005-04:00

Thanks again dave

2008-07-21T09:47:00.003-04:00

I would rather stay with dave

2008-07-21T09:47:00.001-04:00

Emerald bay... tahoe

2008-07-20T16:10:00.000-04:00

Shooting my load

2008-07-20T14:10:00.000-04:00

Right now... At 7k

2008-07-20T14:01:00.000-04:00

These guys are nuts

2008-07-20T13:55:00.000-04:00

Nice turn out...

2008-07-20T11:24:00.000-04:00

We just finished bfast time to roll out

I get the message

2008-07-20T11:01:00.001-04:00

............we wake up to leave......they turned the car around in the middle of the night

2008-07-20T09:09:00.002-04:00

last night avi asked me if i minded if he drove first this morning . i said sure but to be on the safe side i waited till he fell asleep and then i snuck out , turned the car around and backed it in the garage so he doesnt have to back up at all. im fairly sure he can get it out of the garage without hitting anything and get it pointed to the restaurant where we will meet up with 4 or 5 other 02'ers from the area, have breakfast and head to lake tahoe

Less words more Pics

2008-07-20T08:54:00.003-04:00

We leave Carl's House in about 35 mins.... to start our drive. The first leg will be with 4 or 5 other '02 to Lake Tahoe.

From here on in.. we will be posting only from the cell phones... so More Pics... less words.

Recap

2008-07-20T00:17:00.003-04:00

So it was indeed a fun day today... we went out for breakfast.. I trimmed the hedges... carl beat us both in go kart racing and we had a kick ass dinner!!!!

here are some pics of highlights.

The paper cup showed up

Steve did not have Closed tow shoes ... so he had to borrow a pair

We* Fixed the temp guage in the '02

*By we I mean steve

Some guy with a really nice orange car showed up for a few.....

I swear after Ash left steve went to the bathroom and started sobbing I heard him talking to him self about how the front spoiler was popping out how the fire suppression system was torn apart.. and how there was a fine layer of dust on the inside...

Carl* made us a great dinner.

By Carl I mean Steve

Finally... the car is not hacked up that bad... in this case it will BUFF OUT!!!

Blue Tape

2008-07-20T00:11:00.003-04:00

i noticed avi was missing for a good period of time so i walked out to the garage to see he had gotten a hold of a roll of painters tape. he told me he wanted to protect the paint on the way home but i think he hit something else and did this to cover the damage

2008-07-19T23:55:00.002-04:00

so i got a call from joseph and cris tonight and they have put together a caravan of 6 cars to drive with us from sacramento to lake tahoe and helk us get across the boarder.. what a great bunch of guys!! i cant confirm this but its a good possibility they just want to escort us out of the state before avi can do any more damage to the car and their state

Kart Racing

2008-07-19T22:09:00.003-04:00

As a part of tradition we went go kart racing... here we are all suited up and ready to go.

After 10 mins of racing.. here are some highlights... Avi got Blue flagged after which the track umps did not blue flag anyone in front of him.. so he had to spin a guy to get past him.

Steve got black flagged...

No Come along sign administered.

Here are the official results.

Carl Fastest: 21.86
Steve Fastest: 21.88
Avi fastest: 22.02

We were really happy Carl was able to win this time..but on further inspection of the timing slips..... he had practiced this track 3 days recently.. running 5 sessions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder they knew him by name when we walked in!

2008-07-19T16:32:00.001-04:00

this morning after buffing out the damage on the car we went to breakfast at tower cafe. carl suggested this place and hinted he would pay so avi and i left our wallets at the house to be sure carl would deliver on his promise to treat.

Avi had the following

Steve had...

And Carl got the bill...

But while he was putting the card away... i noticed he had the same card as me...

Its not usual that you see a credit card with a red back... when we got home i check the spot where Steve and I had hidden our wallets and at first glance nothing looked out of place... but i thought i had left my wallet staked on top of steve's...hummmmmmmmm

2008-07-19T14:41:00.003-04:00

ok its saturday morning and we are having our first look at the car. avi decides to drive and as hes backing it out the driveway he blasts a hedge with the drivers side and scratches the hell out of the fender and door

as you can see hes humiliated

of course you know who has to fix it right???
so avi is on strict back up restrictions. here i am backing it out for him

Old jokes never die

2008-07-19T12:48:00.001-04:00

Steve is driving aroung complaining that its too hot. Hahahahahaha the old heated seat in summer trick never fails.

Eat it

2008-07-19T11:56:00.000-04:00

You can post long stories ... Or you can just show up first. I had a pep talk with the pilot and we showed up 30 mins early and 45 mins before steve.

2008-07-18T18:19:00.002-04:00

while avi is sweating his ass off in a stinky NYC cab trying to get to the airport on time im still in gods country sipping iced coffee on the veranda. i will be leaving for the airport around 7pm and i predict my plane will pass avi's somewhere over omaha nebraska. i will motion out the window to him as i pass. i call this "the come along sign" and avi is used to getting it from me. whether its on a race track, a go kart track or the street avi is very familiar with this sign. i constantly pass him and then taunt him to try and keep up with my patented "come along sign". we will be snapping a pic of airport clocks when we each get off the plane to prove who arrived first. its true i have a 4 minute handicap but this is nothing new. im constantly giving him head starts and or handicaps and the results are always the same. blunt 1, avi 2

This is how it starts....

2008-07-18T17:52:00.001-04:00

In a cab in traffic on the way to the airport.

Steve thinks his plane will get there first....its scheduled to land 4 mins after mine..... This will be the first of many showdowns during this trip

2008-07-18T12:18:00.003-04:00

ok i will admit i took one of my wifes sleeping pills by mistake but they look identical to my synthroid and they were right next to them. i hope this doesnt bog me down for the day because i have a lot to do before we leave..

edit :: i just did 2 double espresso's and im back to normal

Old people....

2008-07-18T11:58:00.001-04:00

I'm talking to my Co-pilot just now

Avi: Do you have enough medication for the trip

Steve: Yea I just took my pill

Avi: Cool

Steve: OH crap…. I just took a sleeping pill by mistake

Phone drops and all I hear is snoring.

Only a few hours left

2008-07-18T08:46:00.002-04:00

I am packed and ready....all I have left is to watch the clock for the rest of the day. Thankfully I have a lot of work which makes the day go by faster.

Saying bye to my wife was really hard its been almost two years and this will be the longest time away from her. I don't know how I will be able to sleep at night =/

I noticed that I had to pack a lot of wires!!!!

cell phone charger
cell phone to computer
camera to computer
shaver charger
ipod charger
camera charger (not a wire but about the same)

Its funny how much technology we have to take with us now a days.

The weather looks great in the west. Its going to be hot .. but we will have clear skies. Hopefully there are no flight delays either.

One more day

2008-07-17T08:40:00.001-04:00

In 24 hours..we wont quite be on our way but I will be at work packed and ready to go. Hopefully it will be a busy day which will make it go by fast.

Speaking of packing...what kind of clothes should one take for a brisk drive in the desert..in a 36 year old car with no ac...in july?

Driving Log

2008-07-16T20:00:00.002-04:00

Well i have been saving this notebook which was given to me by a classmate in grad school...the time has come to use this.

Planing the route is harder then i thought it would be.... So many great roads... So little time.

2008-07-16T15:28:00.003-04:00

I am currently upping my life insurance policies because Avi will be one half of the driving team. Before we leave Avi will also be shaken down to make sure he has an ample supply of cash and credit cards for the journey. Ive traveled with Avi extensively in the past and have learned the hard way to not assume anything. The desert heat in mid July, 40 year old car and driving up pikes peak dont scare me nearly as much as getting stiffed every time theres an expense does

2008-07-16T13:19:00.003-04:00

Here is the rough Route map.. the actual one will remain a secret since we don't want smokey to read this and wait for us on top of a crest..or around a bend.

View Larger Map

Its roughly 2,231 miles of which we will try to avoid high ways and stick to the back roads.

This better work

2008-07-16T13:14:00.001-04:00

If it doesnt........screw this blogging thing.

I think I have this set up now

2008-07-16T12:57:00.005-04:00

Okay I should be working.. but instead im trying to set up the blog. How many times have you heard that in the blog world?

Well we are about 2.5 days away from the trip / adventure and there is still a good amount of things to do. I cant believe the time is almost here.. this has been about 3 months in the making!!!!!

Here are some pictures of the car we are picking up. Its a 72 Bmw 2002 which was restored about 7 years ago. Tons of upgrades.. and money went into this car.. we are getting this at a bargain.