Cross-Country RX-8
 

I may or may not be the first one to do this in the 8 (I doubt it, but who knows?). I will be packing up my things and driving from Bethesda, Maryland to San Francisco, California during the last week of this month. It looks like it's going to be a fun little trek.

Anyone have any recommendations on a few key detours to make? Let me know if I can make it to any meets on my way. I'm driving solo, so the human contact would probably be refreshing.

See you ladies & gents on the road.

Well stop in Vegas! or the painted desert along the way

I moved from Gaithersburg to Phoenix and did that drive 4 times (three in the '8, once in a 24' truck).
The only good parts are east of the Mississippi. After that, the whole middle of the country is the doldrums.
The Northern route (70 to 80) will be more comfortable this time of year than the southern route (40 to 5).

If you take the nothern route, give us a shout when you will be going through Columbus, OH.

Sounds like the northern route it is. I'll definately give you guys a shout. I figured as much about the plains. Not going to be the high point of the trip, but I'm sure I'll manage to get through it

It may be more comfortable in terms of less-heat, but there is absolutely nothing more boring in this world than driving through Iowa / Nebraska. Perhaps the most boring 500 miles of road in the world. Seriously.

Say I didn't care about the heat...how far South do you think I could go & still make it in 5 days?

I did the whole trip in 37 hours on route 40.

I moved from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, but I had a big U-Haul and not the 8. I took a southren route, dropping down thru Cinnci through Tenn, all the way to Texas and then straight over thru NM and then AZ. Your route will be different but it was a nice trip, but after Dallas, TX there is nothing until Phoenix. And I did the trip in January so a southren route was a must.

It doesn't really matter what route you take, the middle of the country is just going to be boring. No way to avoid it really. A straight shot thru the heart of the country will probalby be your quickest route.

Iowa's actually a lot prettier than Illinois (via I-80) and especially Indiana- it's got rolling hills, and is not too much like people expect it to be. I've never been through Kansas, but I picture it worse than Nebraska for some reason; maybe the Wizard of Oz left a sour taste in my mouth, but I see it as one big flat dustbowl which would make it even more unbearable than its neighbor to the north.

Hey man once you get in SF send me a PM, we have meets in Union City every Friday and we've love to have you out there with us.

see how much of rt. 66 you can find.

beers :beer:

Route 66 is AWFUL in a car - especially a tightly-strung one like the '8.
Its all washboard and potholes.
Furthermore, it doesn't go anywhere. Its just little snippets of what it used to be.
40 follows most of it, so one can take a detour for detour's sake, but you can't get anywhere on it.

good to know. i did some of it in az and nev i think. flat and boring..

beers :beer:

Parts of Rt 66, here in Illinois, isn't too bad. I've driven a few miles of it. It's never too far from Interstate 55. Then it would follow I40 for a while once you hit Missouri.

When I went west on I80, I had heavy traffic until I was west of Lincoln, NE. After that, there was times that I couldn't see another car on the road. I had the cruise control set to 90 mph. Not a patrolman to be seen.

I'll absolutely be shooting you a PM, throwdown. Hopefully I'll be able to drop by your meet in the midst of my house-hunt.

Decisions...decisions...with the route. I guess the next question once I get out there is does my first bit of cash feed the 8's need for new toys or go straight to the ducati fund? The 8 will definately be deserving some love after the trek. I'm looking forward to getting out of this humidity & into some nice breezy California weather. I had never even been to the West Coast until I came out to interview (4-days worth of interviews), but I couldn't get over the weather.

Is anyone en route in need of a stock airbox? I'm probably going to toss it to save space, but i'd be happy to take it with me if someone can make use of it.

This is pretty true. Indiana and Ohio are some of the worst places I have ever driven through. Illinois is only slightly better. Iowa is "prettier" but still very boring. However driving through the mountains once you hit central Colorado and beyond to the west would be worth every mile spend across the central abys, IMO.

driven through both Kansas and Nebraska, and they are both horrible but Nebraska is worse. It's longer than Kansas by 100 miles (from end to end), and is just as flat with absolutely nothing to look at for the entire 400 miles on I-80. To give you an example of how much Nebraska sucks, we were hungry driving through and wanted to grab a bite to eat. After about 50 miles of nothing we saw a sign for McDonalds, so we pulled off. At the bottom of the offramp it said, "McDonalds, 25 miles, turn right here". WTF??? 25 miles off the highway I have to drive to hit a freakin McDonalds? Why even advertise it on the highway in the first place?? Got back in the car and drove another 150 miles til we hit Wyoming and then got off. I never will go back to that freakin state again.

Yeah i live in iowa and I80 is definately alot of nothing ... i have made a few trips to omaha and its all flat ... you find yourself changing lanes just to have some action ... i used to live in illniois also and they have some pretty cool backroads if your up for the trip... some good scenery

Given I'm new at this, but it seems to me that there is a geometric rule in place. The more squigly lines in the state's border, the less boring it is & avoid parrallelograms at all costs.