With my wife and I leaving for a week's vacation to celebrate 15 years of marriage (and with the mother-in-law watching the kids that week), I figured it would be a good time to leave my Boxster in Jake Raby's capable hands to do the IMS Retrofit (along with a new RMS, clutch, underdrive pulley, and a low-temp thermostat for good measure). So a few days before our "real" vacation, I drove the 500+ miles from Indy to Cleveland, Georgia to drop off the car.
First, let me say that besides my wife and kids, a top-down drive on a moonlit night in my Boxster ranks pretty high on my list of things I enjoy. So the drive down was just beautiful. I hit the highways at 7:00 p.m. on a Thursday night, no rain in sight, full moon, just a gorgeous drive. Kept driving until about 1 or 2 in the morning, then stopped outside Knoxville to take a break. Got up the next morning, put the top down again, and drove the rest of the way, with the last 50 miles or so on some great roads in Chattahoochee National Forest. Made it to Flat 6 Innovations around noon, met with Dean & Jake, got a tour of the shop, and Dean dropped me off at the local Enterprise to pick up my rental car for the drive home.
Fast forward a week--I'll spare you the details of my "real" vacation--and I take a plane back to Atlanta to go pick up my car for the drive home. Another rental car, and I'm back in Cleveland, Georgia. Met with Jake & Dean again, paid my bill, and I was off... But this time, the drive home would be through Deal's Gap, a/k/a the Tail of the Dragon.
Beautiful weather again, and once again I only raised the top when I went inside a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. The actual "Tail of the Dragon"--US 129--was a fun drive, but I was a little too worried about killing oncoming motorcyclists to really let it all hang out in the Boxster. Fortunately I didn't come across any bikes crossing the double yellow lines into my lane, but enough of them were crowding the divider lines to make me nervous. All in all, I'd rather be on a race track, thank you very much. (If you see someone coming at you at Putnam Park, one of you is doing something very wrong.
) The drive through Deal's Gap was worth doing just to say I've done it though. Here are a few pics:
Anyway, I made it home in a little over 9 hours, averaging 28.0 MPG over the complete drive back (including Deal's Gap), even with--as I've mentioned repeatedly now--the top down all the way. The car runs great, and I have a little more peace of mind with the IMS retrofit.
Thanks for reading!
