5000+ miles to Scirocco Heaven and back [loooong]

[scirocco16v88@hotmail.com (Tobias ><)]

Don't have time to read a lot of text ... pic links are down at the bottom 
:)

The whole trip started early Tuesday last week with a run over to ND to get 
the oil and pan changed out, then over to NAPA for the all-important 
connectors and back home to finally install the xenon units in the rounds - 
this turned out to be more work than I had expected, I over-engineered the 
rear cover a bit and it didn't fit inside the bracket. 2pm I roll out to 
Castro Valley to get the tires mounted on the RFX's and the snowflakes 
stripped of theirs.

4:30 I finally get on the road, have to beat my way through rush hour 
traffic all the way to Sacramento - Brian is waiting in Roseville, which is 
not exactely in Sac Brian .... cuz I was in Sac at 6:15 hehe. Chat with 
Brian a bit and grab the ragtop for Eric. Car is scraping on all 4 corners 
with the 205/50s (yeah, I listened to Randy and went bigger).

The trip is pretty uneventful till I hit Reno, where two people managed to 
leave nothing but metal shards all over the freeway - I don't think anyone 
walked away from that mess. Nothing much happened till I got to Eric and 
Katy's place the next night - thanks for putting me up for the night, the 
burger and rolls :) Leave there waaaaay too early - something like 5:30am my 
time. Again the ride was pretty uneventful apart from the starter that 
finally decided it had enough when we were somewhere in Kansas - we just 
push started it. Roll into St. Louis that night and head for Scott's place, 
who was putting us up for the night. His buddy Matt was great enough to take 
the the wheels, tires, trannies out of our trunks for the rest of the trip. 
Small incident where we thought we had lost Eric and Katy while they were 
walking their dog ... hehehe.

Head out the next day.. at the first gas-up and elderly gentleman walks over 
to my car and asks me if this thing is a Scirocco .. did it have this 
torsion bar type thing - you mean a Neuspeed stress bar? - yeah my 85 had 
one of those.. had a few others too, but now I drive a 64 Ford, like it much 
better.

I love how in the middle of nowhere some random person knows exactly what 
you're driving, while the rest of the people just give you strange looks.

At some point in Illinois (I think it was there huh?) some crazy ass in a 
Minivan can't get back to South Carolina fast enough, barreling down the the 
left lane flashing people out of his way. Mind you, there's a decent amount 
of traffic. He finally ends up on my bumper, and when I say on - Eric was 
somewhat in front, he couldn't see the bumper of the van behind me. I slam 
on the brakes once for good measure, but he just gestures for me to get the 
f*** out of his way. Two Roccs, a Dodge truck and a Neon proceeded to block 
his way (yeah, who would have guessed we were a group coordinating on 
radios) and he got a bit impatient. Finally found himself an opening in the 
right lane, and proceeded to promtly force his way into my way - he hadn't 
cleared me, just pulled into my lane - so I slam the horn button, what the 
hell else is there to do .......... wait, digicam ... snap a pic of his 
license plate.

When we clear the trucks, I pull ahead, and he roars by from behind in the 
right lane. I drop my car in forth to keep up (mind you, I'm pissed and 
there's no chance this guy is getting off) ... 80..90..100 truck coming up, 
he squeezes into the left lane in front of me, and I'm so close to his 
bumper - at best an inch - that I can read his registration tags. Clear the 
truck .. I hit the left lane - big space - foot to the floor - uphill race - 
100 ... 110 ... 120 - the Safari van drive in the right lane got nervous as 
we were flying up behind him .. I squeeze the Rocc into the right lane - the 
probably wasn't much room, heck I don't recal :) Adrenaline levels start to 
taper off a bit, and I slow this ride down. Let the a**hole pass me - grab 
the digicam and snap a pic of the two clowns in there - the passenger sees 
me and whips up his paper in a lame attempt to hide his identity .... you'll 
see in the pics, he was a little late.

Point to all this - the guy didn't do much speeding after that. Lesson 
everyone should learn - don't piss of people on the freeway, you never know 
when some nut in his Rocc decides he'll come after you.

Later, roll into Cincy .. party starts. Saturday, after I get suprised by my 
parents showing up (from Buffalo), and then later my sister (Auburn Hills, 
MI), I take the car into Daun's garage to swap the starter - came out easy 
enough, but getting it back in was a royal pain in the ass. After many 
attempts of this and that, Drew (Diesel Rocc) finally came to the rescue and 
put things back in place. I owe ya one, and if you want to pick up a Cali 
Rocc, come talk to me. I also owe Daun some cash because the starter, 
although a little rough, did and still starts every time and got me back 
home.  There is no better group of people than Scirocco 
owners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was great to put faces to names and emails and cars, though I think I 
barely managed to meet and greet half the people there. I'll make up for it 
next time I head out there. All the people I did meet, hope to see ya'll 
again sometime!

Sunday at 12:45 it was time to hit the road back here. Starter good, car 
good ... tires, hmmm, not so good. Salina Kansas I stop to get gas and 
notice that the front tries are getting chewed up a bit on the edges. Well, 
after all the rubbing the plasitc was all gone, so the screw heads were now 
sticking out and eating into the tires when I hit bumps. I spend a good 45 
minutes trimming the fender regions and removing the screws. Back on the 
road .. do you know how gawd awefull boring Kansas is?!??!!?!? Couldn't 
manage to stay focused for more than an hour at a time.

Somewhere in the middle of a bazillion acres of farmland, going 80, power is 
gone .. like someone flipped a switch on the fuel line. Strange. Put it in 
4th, give gas, nothing, exhaust groans and gives a loud pop. 3rd .. 
nothing... neutral, coast to a stop, car dies. Wonderfull.. must be the 
external pump, or maybe the relais. I'm on an upgrade, there are 3 foot tall 
weeds on the side of the road, I don't want to do this now. Ignition on, car 
fires back up. Weird. Jump out to make sure I get the right noises from the 
pump and that all fuel lines etc are still intact. All good. Get in and go. 
Have to get the f*** out of Kansas - repeat this every 5 minutes till I 
finally get out of there.

Nothing else happens till I get outside of Salt Lake City. Come up on a 
Trooper doing 70 in a 75. Trucker passes him, I figure it's ok, pass him 
too, pull back in in front of him. He's not going anywhere .......... red'n 
blues come on. What? Not speeding, signaled .. maybe he wants to give me 
crap about the headlights or the dark turnsignals. "How's it going today?" 
"Alright, how's it going for you?" "Ok morning so far .... reason I pulled 
you over " (i get exited to find out what it could be) " saw you weren't 
signaling long enough when passing. Blipped you twice, once back there and 
when you pulled around me. You know you have to signal for 3 seconds when 
you pass?... " " ..sigh... I'm sorry, I'm a bit burnt, had a long trip .." 
"where ya coming from?" "cincy, was ther for a Scirocco meeting .." trooper 
whistles "damn.. ..ok, could I see your license, registration and insurance" 
"Absolutely" hand the stuff over "Ok, how about I let you go this time?" 
"that would be great, thank you." "alright.. remember to singal longer, and 
have a save trip back"

Hahahaha, not signal long enough? Boy, must have been a slow morning. Ok, 
I'm kinda fried so all the way back till I hit the Cali state line I singal 
like forever when I pass people :) California .. back again. Speed limit is 
65 and people are going 90 - yeah this is what I'm used to. I make it from 
Tahoe to Sac in record time .. Brian, I hit Roseville at 8:30, I figured it 
was a bit late to stop for dinner. Heading out of Sac I followed a chick in 
a Grand Am tailing a Benz at 90 plus - let me just say I never made it from 
Sac to the Bay Area faster :P

10:30 pm I pull back in at the apartment. Over 5000 miles, something like 41 
hours driving to, and 38 odd driving back, in 7 days. Oh, no radio and no AC 
on the whole trip ----- yes, I'm plenty nuts  :)

Would I do it again? HELL YEAH! Unless some undetermined circumstances 
prohibit me from making it out there, expect to see me there again next 
year. And here are, finally, the couple pics I managed to take (or which my 
folks and sis took while I was busy working on the car):

http://www.imaginehow.com/scirocco/cincy/cincy.htm

Here are a couple misc shots that were taken there and on my way back home:

http://www.imaginehow.com/scirocco/cincy/blrc1.jpg
http://www.imaginehow.com/scirocco/cincy/blrc2.jpg
http://www.imaginehow.com/scirocco/cincy/blrc3.jpg
http://www.imaginehow.com/scirocco/cincy/blrc4.jpg

Keep on Scirocc'in, and next year, maybe, we'll drag a few more Cali listers 
out there eh .. nudge nudge :)

Tobias

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