drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  520,482

Odometer (ILX):  32,234

Trip Distance:  292 miles

The middle east would make a fun road trip destination, wouldn’t it?  Too bad the logistics are a headache.  I found a nearby substitute that will have to suffice for now. My friend Justin was raised in a remote town in east-central Arizona called Bagdad.

Similar to some other small towns in Arizona like Bisbee, Bagdad got its start as a copper mining town in 1882.  Today, there are around 2,500 people living there.  The town is actually owned by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, the company that operates the mine.  Justin told me that since the entire town is technically property of the mine, everyone rents their homes from Freeport.

For this trip, Justin and I took the 2013 Acura ILX 2.4 6-speed and my friend Matt took a “test vehicle” from his work at the Nissan proving grounds.  This is a Medium Brown Metallic 2013 Pathfinder 2WD “Platinum” with leather and a huge sunroof.

Our first stop was for fuel & drinks in Wickenburg, Arizona at the Shell station.

I saw this sign posted on the window of the convenience store and it reminded me of a similar anti-litter campaign from the days when I grew up in Utah called “Don’t Waste Utah.”

Located in the hills about 100 miles northwest of the Phoenix metro area, I’ve often seen this sign on Highway 93 northbound and been intrigued about Bagdad.

Heading eastbound on Highway 97, the roller-coaster ride began.  This two-laner is posted at anywhere from 15-35 mph on most of the corners — and for good reason.  Most of those corners are “blind,” and the road is not banked in such a way that aggressive driving can be done safely.  Justin had lots of stories about folks who have lost control of vehicles out there.

The ILX handled the terrain with ease and it was a nice workout for the 6-speed gearbox to slide through its gears.

Soon we reached an intersection and headed left another 4 miles to the town entrance.

Entering Bagdad:  “The Best Copper Town Anywhere.”

Here is a story about how the town allegedly got its name:

“Please don’t associate our town’s name with that of Baghdad, Iraq.  Please note the “h”.  Bagdad has always been a mining town. As legend has it, the first miners were a father and son team. The ore was hauled out on mule teams in bags. (see the “Historical Photos” link) The son would be mining, filling the bags with ore. The father would be getting the things the son needed to mine. When the son needed another bag to fill, he would yell, “bag Dad”. Consequently the name Bagdad was derived. It had nothing to do with Iraq.”

It was about that this time when we realized just how fitting it was that Matt ended up bringing this particular Nissan Pathfinder on our trip.  It’s equipped for the Middle East markets!  Notice that the “OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR” on the passenger sideview mirror is in Arabic.

The air bag warning on the passenger sunvisor is also in Arabic.  Matt’s gauge cluster was in kilometers per hour.  How fitting that he brought a Middle East spec Nissan to a town called Bagdad, right?

First order of business was to refuel our bodies with some delicious hometown grub.  Bagdad has 2 restaurants and 1 grocery store.  Only 1 of the restaurants was open on Saturday when we arrived.  It was called “The Diner.”

Fast, friendly service in here!  A group of people who’d just toured the Bagdad mine were seated near us.

I opted for the classic “Main Street” burger.  It rivaled the green chile burger from Sparky’s in Hatch, New Mexico but wasn’t quite as delicious.  Still, the curly fries were to die for.

Happy to be experiencing some of the local sights and sounds of Bagdad.  That’s Justin seated next to me.

I’m serious – those curly fries were amazing.

The Diner’s operating hours are a bit funky, so I thought I’d share.  It’s open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. only.  It’s closed every Monday.  And it’s closed from March 24th through April 1st for Spring Break, so don’t try and go this week!

Next we took a short driving tour of the “hot spots” in town, including the high school.  Justin graduated in 2010 and he says his class had 23 people in it.  The mascot, appropriately for a town called Bagdad, is the “Sultan” (see the painting on the side of the school in the below picture).

The ILX took a rest while the 3 of us saddled up in the Pathfinder for some off-road adventures.  It was a good thing, too, because the terrain that Justin directed us to required some high ground clearance.

Along this one-lane stretch, we dropped down into a canyon that was full of sandstone rock formations that made great hiking potential.  This particular pullout had a fire pit and a bench – it’d be a great place to have a bonfire and camp out.

Enjoying our perfect weather and sunshine.  It’s too bad that some of these rocks have been been tagged with graffiti.

This one looked like it’d be fun to rappel from – if I knew how to do that sort of thing.

Making our ascent back up the mountainside with Matt at the helm of the front-wheel-drive Pathfinder.

Justin led us on a short hike to a site where we were able to get up close to some rusty, abandoned mining equipment.  We only had to cross over one barbed wire fence (Shh!  Don’t tell anyone!) to get to it.

I have honestly no idea what this type of equipment was used for but perhaps some of my readers will enlighten me.

Glistening in the distance, I spotted something that looked like chrome.  I had to investigate further.  What we ended up finding was an abandoned 2-door car with its leaf springs raised up!

Matt and Justin, climbing on/around the overturned vehicle trying to identify it.  I’m guessing it’s from the 1960s.

There were no badges left, and there were only a couple of part numbers identifiable.  It would be fun to find out what kind of car this was / is.  This is taken from the front.

View toward the back, taken from the driver’s side.  Notice one of the yellow gas shocks still attached there.

Close up of the back bumper and a slight look at the muffler.  I couldn’t believe how immaculate the chrome looked, while everything else had completely rotted away.

View from the rear end.  Somebody help us out.  What in the world is this car?

It was only about a mile up the road where the entrance to the mine was found.  I hadn’t thought to make a tour reservation beforehand, so we didn’t go on-site, but we were able to view some of the tailings from the visitor parking lot.

Some information about the mine can be found here, on the Freeport McMoRan website.

Bagdad is an open-pit copper and molybdenum mining complex.

Bagdad is home to the world’s first commercial-scale concentrate leach processing facility (2003) and one of the longest continuously operating solution extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) plant in the world (1970). An unincorporated community, Bagdad is one of two FCX “company towns;” the other is Morenci, Arizona.

The Bagdad operation includes a 75,000 metric ton-per-day concentrator that produces copper and molybdenum concentrates, an SX/EW plant that can produce up to 25 million pounds of copper per year from solution generated by low grade stockpile leaching and a pressure leach plant to process molybdenum concentrates.

Fun with a convex mirror just outside the mine’s main entrance.

And just up the road – the Bagdad Airport with a few tiny planes stored there.

Back in the ILX, we looped around Highway 97 toward Kirkland, Peeples Valley, Yarnell, and Congress, and then reconnected with Highway 93 after a dramatic drop in elevation on Highway 89.  A few stretches of this road were just one-lane.

Rolling through Morristown, Arizona, home to 227 people as of the last census in 2009.  This is also home to now world-famous internet sensation, Tardar Sauce — otherwise known as “grumpy cat.”

For those who haven’t yet met Tardar:

And finally the last stretch of our drive was via a brand new stretch of freeway called Loop 303 which took us to reconnect with I-17 southbound just north of Phoenix, Arizona.

Bagdad – check!  I’m systematically crossing off a bunch of to-see destinations in and around Arizona this year.

Classic Car Ad

In the year of my birth, Cadillac launched a new feature in its 6.0 liter V8 engine that powered its mammoth cars:  An 8 cylinder that was able to cut fuel to “unnecessary” cylinders under certain driving conditions, thereby increasing fuel economy.  Similar systems are common today, but in 1981 this was pretty revolutionary.

There’s more detail on Cadillac’s “8-6-4” engine in the below scan:

My favorite paragraph was this:

“How reliable is it?  The system has been proven in over a half-million miles of testing.  It’s that reliable.  All electronic components are solid-state, including the digital computer itself.”

Yeah, because who could ever conceive a car going beyond 500,000 miles back then?  Cadillac’s V8-6-4 system, I’ve learned, only lasted a year before it was discontinued due to issues.  I guess they should’ve pushed for a million miles of testing.

Hope the weekend treated everyone well!

Odometer (ILX):  31,733

Trip distance:  168 Miles

Sometimes I take the long way.  Just because.  My attitude is something like this Acura ad from 1994:

For this weekend’s short & sweet drive, my friend Jack and I took the 2013 ILX to explore a 37-mile stretch of highway that’s a “road less traveled.”  Dating back to 1926, US 80 was once an Atlantic-to-Pacific highway.  Everything west of Dallas, however, has since been decommissioned.

The stretch of Old US 80 that we drove was bypassed in 1956 when a larger, more direct Highway 85 was opened just east of the old highway.  It’s the rounded left side of this box that illustrates today’s journey:

I first learned of this road thanks to a post by member “jdmrex1” on the AZHT forum which is a gathering place for Arizona import car enthusiasts.  He took pictures of his CRX on a bridge and they caught my eye, so I decided to check it out for myself.

Setting out from Phoenix, we made our way eastbound on Buckeye Road toward where Old US 80 starts.

We blew right past the post office in Arlington, Arizona without even realizing it, but I looped back for a picture.  As of the 2010 census, there were just 194 people living here.  It’s remote to say the least.

Here’s where we took a step back in time to the 1950’s and enjoyed the route that people back then would have seen as they traveled from the Phoenix area to San Diego or vice versa.

Desert Rose Bar, Cafe, & Arena.  Talk about an all-in-one.  Believe it or not, I think this place is still in business because there’s a review posted as recently as 2 years ago on Yelp.

Shortly down the road, I pulled the ILX off Hwy 80 into a gravel parking lot on the east side of the road.  Here we were faced with the machinery of the Arlington Cattle Company.  This is a 170-acre facility with quite a bit to offer:

In addition to three tailored feeding programs, we offer a 24 hour receiving & processing crew, truck & cattle scales as well as an on call veterinarian.  We work around the clock to maintain the clean & safe environment necessary for cattle to reach their optimal gain per day.

Just a few more miles down the road, we rounded a corner and saw the long-awaited 1,662-foot-long bridge that I’d viewed in pictures a few days before.

I learned that this location is the Gillespie Dam Bridge which crosses the Salt River.  It’s a steel truss bridge that was commissioned in 1926 by the Highway Department.  It was completed August 1, 1927 at a cost of $320,000.  At the time, it was the longest highway bridge in the state of Arizona.

The was part of US 80 until 1956 when it was decommissioned.  The bridge itself was added to the National Register of Historic Places on the year I was born, in 1981.

When looking to the north from the bridge, the old Gillespie Dam (1921) can be seen.  Fishermen were out in full force enjoying the weather like Jack and I were.  This dam was breached in 1993 and has never since been rebuilt.  You can clearly see the broken area here.

In 2011-2012, the bridge underwent a $7.9 million rehabilitation project which included construction of an “Interpretive Plaza” where we were able to walk up to an elevated platform for a nice vantage point of the entire bridge.

Here’s the parking area of the Interpretive Plaza.

The platform is pictured at left here.

Jack and I hopped back into the ILX and continued south toward the end of this stretch of our journey, in the tiny town of Gila Bend, Arizona.  A metal cobra and dinosaur greeted us at the Shell station.

We enjoyed some lunch before departing from this fine town.  (A little sarcasm there – Gila Bend really doesn’t offer a whole lot to see or do!)

From there we took Hwy 238 about 40 miles to Maricopa, Arizona and then down Hwy 347 north toward the Phoenix area.

We approached the south end of town and met up with a couple friends at Firebird Raceway.  There were some import car race events going on, sponsored by NASA (National Auto Sport Association – Arizona Region).

Nick, Matt, and Jack

This is the motor to Nick’s 1990 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo.  It’s a beast.  This entire powerplant is fresh – while his car’s chassis has around 170,000 miles on it, the motor itself is only a few thousand miles old.  Nick says he spent twice as much on the engine build as he spent on the car itself.  This sucker is fast — and loud.

The color is called Aztec Red.  I still think the 300ZX design has aged very well, much like Acura’s original NSX of the same era.

A few other events were going on around there, including a drifting competition, so we headed over there.

We watched our friend Brandon put this Subaru through its paces on the track.  His AWD capability gave him a distinct handling advantage.

And back at my house, we had a bit of a car detailing party.  My friends call my home the “Hugie Autospa” because it’s the go-to place for anyone who needs to shine up their ride.  Here is Jack with his obnoxiously-colorful (but awesome!) 2001 BMW M3 6-speed.

The 300ZX even got a little bit of love.

First time this garage has seen two non-Acura products at the same time!

I had a great time today driving and working on my cars and spending time with friends.

“Follow Me” on Instagram

I bit the bullet and signed up for Instagram this week.  I don’t know a thing about it, but it was the best way for me to see the latest pics of my niece and nephews that are getting uploaded daily.  If you want to follow me, look me up!  @tysonhugie

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Odometer (Legend):  519,285

Odometer (ILX):  26,491

It was time to head for the hills in my freshly-washed Acura ILX 2.4.  Beckoning mountain roads, a full tank of gas, and a weather forecast of sunshine with 75-degree temperatures are all the motivation that I needed.  This weekend’s trip looked something like this.  Google told us to expect a 249-mile round trip of just under 5 hours drive time:

On Friday night, Alex the ILX got a much-needed bath.  I’ve always used Meguiar’s car care products, and my preferred product for cutting the grime is called Deep Crystal Car Wash.  Just a little bit in a bucket is all it takes!

These 10-spoke 17″ accessory wheels can be a chore to clean, but the results are always worth it.

Saturday morning, I revved up that 2.4 liter engine and joined a few friends for the drive.

• Aaron:  2013 Audi S5; Turbocharged 3.0 liter V6.  333 horsepower through a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission
• Matt:  2012 Nissan 370Z; 3.7 liter V6.  332 horsepower through a 6-speed manual transmission
• Tyson:  2013 Acura ILX; 2.4 liter inline-4.  201 horsepower through a 6-speed manual transmission

It was a perfect day for moonroof-open cruising as we made our way up Interstate 17 from my home in Scottsdale.

Aaron’s S5 was clearly the glamour girl of the group.  Those LED headlights looked extremely sexy coming up in my rearview mirrors.

Our first stop was a place called Montezuma’s Castle National Monument.  These ruins are located just off Interstate 17 in north-central Arizona.

That car wash on Friday night really paid off.  This ILX’s Silver Moon Metallic paint was gleaming in the sunlight!

I enjoyed seeing some of the featured displays, including some historic pictures like this 1933 traffic sign that once led travelers to the site.

According to Wikipedia, the dwellings were built around 700 AD and had a maximum population around 1300 AD.  This is around the same time that the Casa Grande Ruins that a visited a couple of weeks ago in the Legend were also thriving.  The ruins are in fact not a castle, but rather a form of apartment housing.  It is estimated that they were abandoned by around 1425.  There are 20 rooms.

We were able to walk a 1/4 mile paved trail from the visitor’s center to get a closer look at the ruins, but we were not able to go inside them.  Prior to 1950, tourists could scale a series of ladders to get up and inside the ruins, but there was too much damage to the area (and too much looting) so that level of access was discontinued.  Today about 350,000 people still go see the monument each year.

Here, our tour guide Ruth talks to Aaron about some of the history here.

Matt and Beau take a look at the remains of one of the castles.  The monument’s cliff dwellings are well preserved due to their location in the hillside.

There’s a whole lotta silver paint going on here.  Technically, though, Aaron’s color is called “Monsoon Gray Metallic.”

After our visit to the castle, we headed to lunch at the (Urbanspoon-recommended!) Verde Cafe on at 368 South Main Street off Hwy 260.

Breakfast is served until 3:00 p.m.!  Three of us ordered the breakfast burrito, and we highly recommend it!

Another group of satisfied customers.

Next door was the Thanks a Latte coffee shop – I thought it was quite a clever name.  Camp Verde is home to about 10,000 people.  Since the town is at 3,100 feet in elevation, it’s more likely to get winter weather than the Phoenix area at 1,900 feet.

A few photos of the Audi before starting off to our next destination.

For about the next 40 miles, we climbed on 2-lane Highway 260 toward Payson, Arizona.  These mountain roads are where the 6-speed manual ILX and 6-speed manual 370Z really required some driver input.

There were lots of nice curves including some hairpins posted at 20 miles per hour.

We rolled through the tiny towns of Strawberry and Pine, where’d I’d last been in September 2011 with my Legend.  Once we’d taken the turnoff from Hwy 87 toward Tonto Natural Bridge, the two-lane highway quickly got more technical in nature.  There’s a particular 1-mile stretch with sharp curves and grades up to 14% – this is where the ILX demonstrated its tight handling.

The Tonto Natural Bridge Lodge is where we each paid our $5 entry for admission into the park.  The lodge is listed on the National Register of Historic places, having been built between 1925 and 1927.

Inside the lobby:

The lodge had some unique artifacts from the area, including some chairs from 1900 and an organ from around the same timeframe.  It had been transported to the lodge via wagon around 1903.

The Gowan Trail is the hiking route that leads to the overlooks of the natural bridge.  It’s short, at only 1/2 mile in distance each way, but it’s very steep.

Here’s the view as we got started – standing on TOP of the natural bridge and looking down.

Beginning our descent down the trail.

According to the Arizona State Park website, Tonto Natural Bridge is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world.  It’s 183 feet high and stands over a 400-foot-long tunnel.  It was discovered by a prospector in 1877.

Here is what the bridge looks like from the ground level.

Blue shirt twins posing for a pic.  Josh copied me, I swear.

Yikes – bees!

Back up at the top (and panting from the steep climb!) we enjoyed the view for a few more minutes.

We practically took over this Giant gas station in Payson, Arizona when we stopped in for drinks.

Once again, just like with the Sedona group drive from a few weeks ago, my ILX was the high miler of the bunch.

• Aaron’s S5 turned over 5,000 miles this trip
• Matt’s 370Z has just under 19,000

I was very impressed with how well the 4-cylinder ILX held its own with two V6 cars (of over 100 additional horsepower) during some high-RPM sprints.  Plus, I don’t think either the Z or the S5 are getting 32 mpg like I am!

Dale’s Legend

My friend Dale stopped by this morning in his 1993 Legend L Sedan 5-speed.  I’ve known Dale since I first moved to Arizona seven years ago.  Our first meet-up was in October, 2006.  His car had 140,000 miles on it and mine had 255,000 miles on it.  These are pictures from back then.

We also attended a Legend meet together in March 2008.  By that time, he’d installed a set of 17″ wheels off a 2002 Acura CL Type-S:

His car today is largely unchanged, except that it has 80,000 more miles on it.  Mine has 264,000 more miles on it.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Dale’s car is that he’s completed a headlight retrofit project.  His headlight housings have projectors inside them.

Notice the difference between Dale’s modified headlights and my stock ones.  The beams on his are much more precise.

Just 220,617 miles on his Cashmere Silver Metallic beauty.

Rare cloth interior!   It’s held up really well after 20 years.

I had Dale take the ILX for a spin and he commented about how well it handled and how smooth it shifted.

Thanks, Dale, for stopping by!

Final parting shot taken this afternoon with the ILX near historic Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona.  I haven’t been able to dig up much information about the “A.H. & V. Co” but the building is currently occupied by a beauty salon.  Quite a transition from a place that once apparently specialized in “hardware & vehicles.”