Solo Road Trip

BlckBox04

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That’s awesome. A trip like this is definitely on my bucket list
 

TheOne™

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i'd like to do such roadtrip but to hit the tail of the dragon some day. highly recommend some sort of paint protection film or at least 1 of those bras for the front. the front of my car has all kinds of paint chips and the front bumper feels like a cheese grater(plastic...). This is from doing too many passes at the twisted sisters down in hill country.
 

CobraBob

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Welcome back. That was one hell of a road trip. You covered a lot of fun territory. I visited Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore a few years ago. Hopefully you'll have some photos to post here. We'd love to see them!
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Relaxed Chaos

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Day 1: Drive time ~10 hours. Not much excitement. Pretty straight forward drive from Western Wisconsin to Rapid city, with a stop in the Badlands and Highway 240 for some hiking about. I stopped at the Minuteman Missile Visitors Center to find it closed. The comfort seats were just that, and I had no body fatigue at the end of the day; just mental fatigue from the long drive.

Starting Stats:
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Some Badlands shots:
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TK1299

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I took a solo road trip to the Grand Canyon a few years ago. I love solo road trips. I plan to take my notch on a Route 66 trip all the way to the coast.
 

Relaxed Chaos

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Day 2: Over 12 hours behind the wheel. Rapid City to Grand Junction. I had to visit the stone Presidents as I tackled the Peter Norbeck stretch and Custer State Park. I encountered 3 buffalo herds on my way through the park, and was caught up in the middle of one with buffalo surrounding my car. I rolled over 10,000 miles today, so I stopped to take a picture in the middle of nowhere, a little North of Lusk, WY. The drive through the Colorado I70 Rocky Mountain corridor was amazing. The views, the climbs, the descents, and the engineering all amazing. The video below gives an idea, but is no substitute for this awesome stretch of interstate experienced first hand from behind the wheel.

At high altitudes the Voodoo was short on torque in 6th, so 4th and 5th used through the mountains. Nearly perfect amount of shifting and driving engagement traveling through this stretch. The Voodoo is a very sweet companion.

I was seriously whipped at the end of the day today. Unsure if it was some travel anxiety or altitude effects but I was struggling at the end of the day and into the next morning. Push through; let's keep going.

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Relaxed Chaos

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Day 3: Short driving day today. It's about an hour and a half from Grand Junction to Moab. I stopped at the Colorado National Monument and Arches National Park today for a many hours of hiking. Stayed at Arches past sunset, to around 10PM, and watched the stars come out.

My first stop:
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The rest here are from Arches:
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One of my ancestors was buried out here. You can tell because of the giant petrified rock dong.
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Relaxed Chaos

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Day4: A day in Moab. Got up early and headed out to Canyonlands and the Island in the Sky. It was 100F outside, so around noon I stopped hiking about and headed back into town and out to lunch. Moab is a very touristy town, without the infrastructure to support the number of people. The food was generally mediocre to subpar, but made up for it by being high priced. Didn't much care for the town. In the evening I took a 4x4 tour in a HumVee, which was sweet until the lady in the back started balling from fear. Should kicked her out and picked her up on our way back. She put a damper on the fun, for sure. Overall pretty awesome day, that day.

On the way to the Island in the Sky.
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Canyonlands
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Shafer's Trail. A few days trek in a 4x4 out into the canyon.
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The Colorado River
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Relaxed Chaos

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Day5: Today was a most awesome day, until it wasn't. Today was a driving day on some of the great roads.

It started on Ut Hwy128, which runs along the Colorado River Valley, north to I70 and over to Grand junction. Some amazing views, and a lot of Subaru drivers doing more Subaru driver things. Not alot of speed, so I slowed and enjoyed a slow pace of great views.

Heading south out of Grand Junction on CO 141 to Naturita, this is the Gateway Canyon. Amazing road, empty of traffic (seriously zero cars on this road), incredible views, and freshly paved (not the section in the picture, but most was fresh). I was torn between hitting triple digits and driving slow, so I did both. This car is so solid, and planted. It inspires so much confidence. Even at triple the posted limit the car had more staying power to give through the corners.
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From Naturita I took CO 145 through the San Miguel river valley, and into the mountains, eventually arriving at Ridgway. Totally different experience on this stretch, as traffic was plentiful, including far too many campers towed by under powered tow vehicles. Slowed down and enjoyed the amazing views in this section.

Heading south out of Ridgway, and onto the million dollar highway. This stretch of road from Ouray down to Durango cost $1M per mile to construct 100 years ago. Quite a lot of money, and the road is crazy. Shear cliffs straight up on one side and straight down 1000's of feet on the other. No guard rails to keep you on the road. Cruising up was about 40 mph due to far too many Subaru drivers and camper rigs. Around a blind corner following a camper rig is when I hit the rock. Right there, in the middle of the road. Appearing out of nowhere from under the rig in front of me around a blind corner. I had but a moment to decide to swerve into oncoming traffic, brake harder than the rig behind me could stop (and forcing other emergency maneuvers behind me). A shear drop off beyond the other lane. A hurtful decision on my part was to take one for the team, and try to avoid my oil pan, suspension, and tires, which any of those would have ruined my trip. A bang, a bunch of crunching, some more banging, and out the rock came and onto the side of the road it went. I was sweating bullets until the next turn off, watching the oil pressure and temperature more than the road ahead. I turned off at the next turn off, and was watching for any drips, looking for damage, and generally being pissed. No drips seen, nothing on the ground, I drove on in a state of being pissed for 2 hours.

Upon returning, quote on the damage repair is $9000. Shit. Appointment to get everything sorted out, but may not be until spring due to the shit supply chain. Crushed catalytic converter, torn up plastic, possible replacement of the engine cradle (need to get the plastic off to see it better), scratched up frame rails, dented cat-back (which is $3100 from Ford!) and a broken rear bumper support bracket. My baby is damaged, but I'm so thankful it was not catastrophic. she can be fixed up good as new.

I gotta say, on the way back up north on the million dollar highway, after I gained some confidence that all was well with the car, I had an opportunity to pull off after some road construction and wait for an opening in the traffic thanks to the one lane road red light control piling up and releasing traffic in waves. At the start of the next wave, with the road ahead clear, I had a great time navigating the switchbacks, with the GT350 exhaust echoing off the mountain rock walls. Glorious. I love this car.

Ended the day in Salida, CO. Traveled over Monarch pass, and the temperature dropped from mid 80's into the very low 40's with some sprinkles as I approached the summit at 11,310 ft. I was a bit worried my Super Sports would be no match for a bit of frostiness at the top of Monarch, but thankfully it stayed just above freezing.

What a wonderful and shitty day.
 
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Relaxed Chaos

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Day6&7 - Started with a drive through the Arkansas River Valley and ended in Pueblo, CO. Lots of traffic on this road; much more than I remember. Had some fun blasting through with a Charger for a bit, unitl we caught up to traffic again. I lived in Pueblo for 10 years. I drank beer with a bunch of old friends over the two days I was there. Stopped by my old houses and took some photos for the family and some old neighbors that no longer live there. I stopped by the Pueblo reservoir. It's a neat place that was my local hiking and scenic escape.

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Relaxed Chaos

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Day 8&9. I drove over to Kansas City to visit my brother. He is still recovering from Covid Pneumonia, and he's doing a lot better now. No pictures from today, but we did go and test drive a Tesla Model Y Performance Dual Motor.

Tesla things I liked: The point and shoot acceleration was pretty neat. It's quite fast. Confirmed it'll get up to 120 with little effort or time. The sound system is quite good. The seats were comfortable.

Tesla things that I didn't like: The washing machine acceleration noises. Lack of any character once desired speed was achieved. The single center screen was hard to use. This was noticed immediately when traveling fast and one has to look down and away from the road to read or adjust anything on that single screen that lacks any tactile or haptic feedback. It needs big buttons and knobs to adjust temperature, fan, seat heaters, etc, especially for those of us that live up north and wear gloves half the year. (I thought most manufacturers already learned this lesson?) It needs a modern HUD for all important driver info. The green light chime is ridiculous.

Interesting things: One foot driving was interesting, how it would modulate decel based on vehicles ahead of it and their behavior and also traffic signals.

Overall, it was neat, there's likely a niche for such a city car, but it won't get my money.

We went to Boulevard Brewery. Dang, that's some syrupy sweet beer that joint brews. I didn't like much that they served up.
 
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Relaxed Chaos

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Day 10 - Wrapped up the road trip with a drive from Kansas City back to Western Wisconsin. No noteworthy things happened during this last long drive to get home.

Here's were my trip ended:
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Some thoughts and questions on the GT350:

The good: The car is amazing. I was impressed with the overall ability of the car. From comfort over long distances with the comfort seats, to canyon and switchback blasting, the dual mode exhaust quiets it nicely for freeway cruising. The car is great as is from the factory. I see why it has received so many excellent reviews. The gearing is near perfect for the engine, and the engine is such a sweet companion; always willing as long as it's in the right RPM range. The pairing here is great, and requires the driver to be engaged. It generates so many smiles per gallon.

Quibbles: Entering and exiting the car is not convenient. I have to move the seat to avoid rubbing excessively on the bolster. Getting in and out frequently is a chore. I would like the seat coolers to have more airflow. The gas tank needs another 4 gallons / 100 miles of volume for road trips. Can only go about 250 miles before planning for the next fuel stop. Out west you can go 50-80 miles with zero civilization. The car is so low; it scrapes a lot if one is not careful to take transitions at an angle.

Questions:
- 3rd gear is noisier than the other gears. It sounds OK to me, just noisy gear noises. Any one else can confirm this?
- The gear selector was noticeably warm, and I think the transmission was pretty hot after these longs drives. I assume this is normal for this transmission? I should change the fluid every 20K miles to keep the fluid properties like new.
- Rear Torsen Diff makes a 'tink' or 'clink' sound when traveling slow in 1st/2nd at corner start.... Not loud or concerning to me, but noticeable. Assuming this is normal for a Torsen. anyone confirm or deny this?
- When at idle, the car sounds like it is missing. This is more prevalent after long stretches on the highway. I've read this is normal. Anyone else confirm this is normal behavior?
 
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7998

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Thanks for posting the pics. You have my sympathy for the damage. I bent a rim on my 911 because I was following a Subaru doing Subaru stuff. It was either swerve into oncoming traffic or go off the shoulderless road. Luckily it wasn't a rock.
Thank God you didn't puncture the oil pan and get stranded out there.

Yes for Christ's sake would it kill Ford to put a bigger fuel tank in there. The 200 mile+/- range annoyed the crap out of me when I was road tripping with my Mustang.
 

rotor_powerd

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Awesome trip. Sucks that the car took a hit but MDH is definitely not where you want to try swerving out of the way of anything.
 

RedVenom48

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Hell of a road trip man! The western US is nothing like the midwest or back east. But it does have a beauty all to its own.

Glad your car performed well, definitely a drivers car for sure!
 

AustinSN

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Questions:
- 3rd gear is noisier than the other gears. It sounds OK to me, just noisy gear noises. Any one else can confirm this?
- The gear selector was noticeably warm, and I think the transmission was pretty hot after these longs drives. I assume this is normal for this transmission? I should change the fluid every 20K miles to keep the fluid properties like new.
- Rear Torsen Diff makes a 'tink' or 'clink' sound when traveling slow in 1st/2nd at corner start.... Not loud or concerning to me, but noticeable. Assuming this is normal for a Torsen. anyone confirm or deny this?
- When at idle, the car sounds like it is missing. This is more prevalent after long stretches on the highway. I've read this is normal. Anyone else confirm this is normal behavior?

3rd gear in mine had a vibration that the others didn't have, it would buzz sometimes, especially on decel.

Yeah the tranny got plenty hot, you could definitely feel it through the shifter and the boot.

I never noticed any tinking from the rear of my car, if you get the brakes hot-hot they will tink as they cool down and the rotors contract at different rates from the hats.

The burble-miss sound happened with mine as well, but my coyote did it too. Neither engines had any issues.
 

Kevinbonds

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I’ve always wanted to do a road trip like this with a few cars. Makes the trip more fun. Back in the day a few of us would drive up to North Carolina and Tennessee to hit the dragon and surrounding roads. Would love to take a long road trip in the westerns states. Problem is Florida is so far away, but maybe some day.
 

CobraBob

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Sorry to hear that you hit that big rock that resulted in a good bit of (repairable) damage. I have to ask, though, was there much debris paint damage to your front bumper on your road trip? I can see bug guts and all, but was wondering if you ended up with the typical smaller paint chipping from all the highway driving, especially if you were behind big rigs.

Thanks for the videos and the great photos! Despite the damage from hitting the rock, you had a great time.
 

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