The first Road Trip for Nan's Z06 was to Monterey, California to watch the Corvettes race in May, 2024:
The second Road Trip was to go to Pahrump, Nevada to attend the Ron Fellows Performance Driving School in also in May, 2024:
Road Trip 3 was in late September 2024 to the Grand Canyon -- our first road trip in the new Z06 with our Corvette Club (North Coast Corvette Club)!
Twelve Corvettes began this trip by meeting at the intersection of I-15 and California Highway 76 at 7:30 AM on Monday, September 23rd.
Our first trip leg was to drive 206 miles across the Southern California Desert, across the Colorado River to Quartzsite, Arizona for lunch at the Mountain Quail Cafe.
Once we were all settled in our rooms we gathered together for dinner at the hotel's large conference center.
Tuesday's agenda was accomplished without Corvettes -- we took the Grand Canyon Railway round trip to the South Rim.
We even experienced a train robbery!
Wednesday saw us on the road again, driving to Winslow, Arizona so the we could "stand on the corner"! We visited the public park in Winslow dedicated to the Jackson Browne / Glen Frey song, "Take it Easy", made popular by the Eagles. Each couple had their photo taken with the statue by John Pugh, and as luck would have it, the sculptor was there that morning!
Next stop . . . Meteor Crater! It is the best preserved meteor impact site on the planet. We watched the video and took the brief tour of the site.
The day ended with a return trip to Williams for the night. Everyone split up into small groups and went to local restaurants. We took the advice of the train conductor and went to a small taco shop -- Nany's Tacos -- the food was fabulous. On our way there we happened upon Pete's Gas Station Museum (I wonder if he has a copy of Beltsville Shell in the museum?).
We felt that we didn't want to take either I-40 or I-10 west to the LA area -- too much traffic. Instead, we decided to use I-8 since it goes directly into San Diego. From Williams we headed East (I know, we were going the wrong direction, but we had a plan!), picking up I-17 at Flagstaff, then headed south toward Phoenix, skirting their metropolis by taking 308 to the I-10 West for just a short distance. We next turned south on Arizona Highway 85 toward Gila Bend.
Highway 85 goes about 35 miles from Buckeye to Gila Bend. When we initially charted the route home, we chose Highway 85 simply because it was a nice connector to I-8. We didn't realize what a great choice this turned out to be. As you can see in the map below, once you cross the Gila River, there isn't much of anything until you get to I-8. The highway is divided so that the north-bound traffic is separated from us as we traveled south. From time to time we would encounter an 18-wheeler going about 65 MPH. Mike and Patty are great at formation driving, and they kept close pace with the Z06.
After about 20 miles, I couldn't see any traffic ahead, and the map showed no cross streets for miles. So, I decided to attempt a new personal speed record. My current record, set while coming out of Pahrump, was 151. It didn't take the Z06 long to pass that speed. While still in 6th gear (with two more gears to go), and the engine turning at about 5,700 RPM (versus its red line of 8,600) the speedometer went past 163 to a top speed of 164. There was still plenty of "go" available, and the car was handling beautifully. But I decided "enough is enough".
We announced into the hand-held radio our top speed to Mike and Patty. Mike replied, "Well, we hit 158!" WOW!
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