drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  532,645

Odometer (ILX):  114,580

Trip Distance:  570 Miles

Panic attack.  It’s alarming to see flashing red & blue lights in your rearview mirror, especially when they seemingly come out of nowhere.  It was a normal Interstate 10 commute across the desert on Saturday evening until three or four black & white Ford Explorer highway patrol vehicles blasted up from behind and passed me like I was sitting still.  I’d guess they were doing at least a buck-twenty on the speedometer. I exhaled in relief that they weren’t coming for me, but I thought to myself, “I’m going to see them again.”  Sure enough, I’d just crossed over the California/Arizona line into my home state and traffic came to a halt.  There were enough red & blues in the distance up ahead to light up a Vegas nightclub, so I knew things didn’t look good.

For 45 minutes while I sat in the ILX at mile marker 2, I entertained myself with Instagram and some classic 1990’s CDs I’d brought along (who doesn’t love a little K-Ci & JoJo, Creed, or Everclear?).  A few vehicles started turning around in the median to head back to Blythe but I decided to try and wait it out — whatever “it” was.  I got out of the car and grabbed my sweatshirt out of the backseat, then wandered over to the driver’s side of a semi truck that was idling next to me.  Its driver was on his cell phone examining a spot on the fender of his truck.  Except, it wasn’t just a spot.  “Bullet hole,” he pointed and said when he saw me walking up.  What I thought was just an accident was in fact the result of a high-speed chase and shots fired!

So that’s why every police cruiser in eastern California was blocking the road ahead.  The truck driver said he’d seen a black SUV fly past and he’d heard a noise but at the time didn’t realize a stray bullet had come his way.  I started chatting it up with a few of the drivers in the I-10 parking lot around me.  There’s something about being stranded together in a traffic jam that makes people band together – it’s like we all shared this common bond and we wanted to swap conversation about what we thought was going on up ahead.  I spoke for some time with a man and his sister who were en route from Oxnard, CA to Tucson, AZ with a Penske moving truck.

On the bright side, the traffic delay was a nice pause on my drive and a chance to see the desert sunset.  After another thirty minutes or so, we finally were allowed to creep past the carnage of a rolled “getaway vehicle” black Chevy Tahoe and continue on our way.  So, that was probably the peak of excitement from my 9 hours in the car on Saturday.

Why the drive?  This was a “business” trip, in a sense.  Each year, the Acura NSX Club of America (NSXCA) Board of Directors votes on submitted bids for an annual NSX gathering called NSXPO.  It just so happens that the 2015 event will be held in Palm Springs, California.  Three colleagues and I are putting the puzzle pieces together to organize the itinerary for our event which will be held in October and is anticipated to draw over 200 vehicles.  Some of you may recall when I took my drive to Idyllwild last fall to scope it out as our proposed drive route for NSXPO.

This time, the recon mission was to check out our racetrack facility.  The Thermal Club, located in Thermal, CA is a members-only facility that has 4.5 miles of freshly-paved, beautiful track.  Administrators have graciously agreed to host our group during NSXPO so Chris, Les, JC, and I met up to get an exclusive tour.  From the Cottonwood Springs exit off Interstate 10, I drove through Box Canyon toward the town of Mecca about 20 miles away – this was all “new” road to me, and the scenery did not disappoint!

Thermal lies just a few miles north of Mecca and there’s really not a heck of a lot there – except this glorious track.

Thermal Club is a high-class place for high-speed cars.  What was once just a remote piece of land next to the airport has been developed into an oasis for car nuts.  The first thing I noticed after the security guard granted me access from the gate on 62nd Avenue was that BMW had a Performance Center on-site.  At couple dozen “M” cars were parked and awaiting test drives as part of a training program.  I was surrounded by cars worth more money than I’ll make in my lifetime.  During our tour, we walked through a garage that had three Bugatti Veyrons in it.  That’s $3.9 million worth of cars!

The highlight of our visit was getting to ride as passenger in an Ariel Atom while Thermal member Rahul drove each of us around on the track.  What a riot that car is!  Powered by a 2.0 liter Honda 4-cylinder motor, the Atom is so light and nimble that it seriously felt like a go-kart.  Well, a go-kart on steroids, caffeine, and with rockets attached to it.  I don’t think I’ve experienced that many G-forces in a very long time.  Thanks, Rahul, for the test ride!

The last stop on my SoCal adventure for the day was to pick up a box full of goodies from my friends Scott & Sandy.  Acura brochures!  Scott worked for over a decade with Acura’s ad agency and managed to collect a bunch of materials (43 pieces, in fact) that he decided to share with me, knowing how much I geek out over auto literature.  Check out all these beauties.

Thanks for joining on the drive.  Here are the rest of my pictures.

Headed westbound on Interstate 10 and rocking out to my CDs

Exit 168 would take me to Box Canyon

Road headed to Box Canyon

A few shots from within the canyon itself

You know it’s a light traffic day when you can be comfortable stopping in the middle of the road for a picture

Just before exiting the canyon

Arrival at Thermal and seeing a lineup of BMW performance cars

Thermal racetrack, looking toward the west

Interior of one of the Thermal Club buildings

Thermal Club map showing the 4.5 miles of track, and the homesites surrounding it

Beautiful day in Palm Springs

Visiting my friends Sandy & Scott in Palm Springs

Stuck in traffic later that evening on I-10 eastbound

Finally getting past the incident after a long wait

Does anyone else agree that I must own this sweater from the a 1988 Acura magazine?

This entry was posted on March 1, 2015 at 10:22 pm and is filed under California, ILX, 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.