drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  525,717

Day Distance:  976 Miles

The return trek from NALM is fully underway!  I’ve already knocked out about half of my return trip to Phoenix from western North Carolina.

These are a few pictures from yesterday evening as the NALM festivities continued.  I met a ‘twin’ license plate car.  The GS 6-speed parked next to my coupe is registered in North Carolina but with exactly the same letter / number combination as I have on my Arizona plate.

I spent some time wandering around the area behind Creekside Lodge.  It was so relaxing to sit and listen to the river flowing.

Temperatures were pretty much perfect, too.

We feasted on a delicious BBQ meal catered by Fat Buddies Ribs & BBQ.  It was finger-lickin’ good.

Lee, Mike, Alex, and Eric were enjoying it for sure.

Alan took center stage for a few announcements related to the itinerary for the following day’s events.

The highlight for me was when Kevin announced that he had a special award to present to me.  Wearing his “500,000 Mile” T-shirt, he called me up to present me with a certificate and a custom clock.

Check out these goods!  Apparently I had the highest mileage Legend at NALM with 524,741 miles on the odometer at the time of the ceremony.

Kevin has gone to great lengths to prepare a number of awards for many folks who traveled to NALM.  It really makes the trip worthwhile to be appreciated in such a way.  Thanks, Kevin!

In anticipation of the long couple of driving days ahead of me, I didn’t sleep all that well last night so I was up & out the door by around 5:30 in the morning.  The first few hours of my drive were along some backroads between Maggie Valley and Atlanta.  I ran into a lot of fog but otherwise it was an easy stretch.  I grabbed a quick parting shot of my car next to Alex’s Milano Red coupe before rolling out.

It was really 5:25, but I glanced at the clock in my car which is still set to Arizona time.  TOO EARLY!

Visited a friend’s place in the Alpharetta, Georgia area.  Nice homes out there!

Then it was on in to Smyrna off the 285 & 75 freeways.

I grabbed a tank of 93 octane.  Kevin had presented me with a bottle of Chevron Techron fuel system treatment last night.  I feel like my car runs smoother after having run that through!

Two friends came by to meet up with me at a local Starbucks.   Paul drives a 1998 Acura 3.2 TL and Matt drives a 2008 Honda Accord coupe.  Both of them work for Honda/Acura and both found me via this blog.  It’s always great to meet fellow enthusiasts!

You’ll notice that Paul’s super clean TL is equipped with 17″ wheels from an Acura TSX.  Paul was featured as a Drive to Five Reader’s Ride not long ago.

Matt’s Accord is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen.  I even noticed that he’d paid special attention to cleaning up his chrome exhaust tips.

The Accord is just about to roll 80,000 miles.

Check out that immaculate interior.

Paul’s TL is just under 240,000 miles, but you’d never know it from looking at the condition.

Again, attention to detail here!  Looks amazing for being 15 years old and nearly 1/4 million miles.

After my meet-up with Matt & Paul, I continued my westbound trek on Interstate 20 in the Legend.

I didn’t linger very long in “Alabama the Beautiful” but I did use one of the rest areas right off the interstate.

Got this roll-over on a video, coming soon on YouTube.

And, spell this one out loud with me.  M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I.  Love that.

Subway sandwich for me, a tank full of octane for the coupe, and we were off yet again!

“Chunky,” Mississippi.  Love the name of that town at Exit 121!

Here’s when I crossed the Mississippi River.  It’s the chief river of the largest drainage system in North America.  It flows 2,530 miles from Minnesota all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.  The bridge took awhile to cross!

At the other end of the bridge, I entered Louisiana.  About the only notable thing that happened in Louisiana was in Shreveport when I saw a broken down Canterbury Green Legend sedan on the side of I-20.  This, for the record, has been the only Legend I’ve seen this entire trip – excluding those that were involved with NALM, of course.

As nightfall descended, I was already nearing my nightly destination of Dallas, Texas.

There, I met up with my friend Brad who drives a 2012 Acura RDX.  Thanks Brad for swinging by!

I’m staying at the home of my friend Jeff.  He is a fellow Legend fanatic who drives a near-twin to my car, except with a lot more upgrades!  Notice his car at the left below.  It has JDM one-piece headlights but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the things he’s done to it.

Desert Mist Metallics in the driveway.

Jeff has “plasti-dipped” his emblems to give them a black finish.  It looks great with his blacked-out trim and wheels, too.

This 6-speed is a riot to drive.  I took it around the block and I can only describe it as an “evil” version of my own car.  Lower, more aggressive sounding, and better handling.

Thanks, Jeff, for letting me stay at your place!

Check out that custom engine bay work.  Attention to detail is the name of the game here.

Tomorrow:  The final stretch home, at last!  We’re almost there!

This entry was posted on August 25, 2013 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Legend, NALM, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.