Drives - where have you been? Longest drives., Mine is minimal, but there should be better. Options

[Pat Garvey]

This was suggested in th Originality forum. Doesn't belong there, so I sent it here, and said I would be the first.

My first longest drive in 38 years has been 600 miles each way. Yeah, pretty "missy".

That drive was to the Pocono Parade in 74.

Know this - there was, and still is, only one expedient way to traverse PA - the turnpike (I-70 & I-76). Now, in 1974, the PA turnpike was really, really BAD! Particularly if you were in a lowered 914. It was 200 miles of pure torture, and pureed kidneys. Each expansion joint seemed 12 feet tall! Gas was almost non-existent, though I got my best mileage ever.

Long story short - won my Parade concours class, placed well in the rally & autocross. BTW - that's all there was to a Parade in those days.

Longest trip was from Cincy to New Orleans the following spring - 900 milrs each way. Not a HUGE drive, but it was really destructive to my 914. And the reason I had to repaint it in late 78.

Nice(though hot July) drive until we reached north Mississippi. Then we went through a "storm" of love bugs. Fritz was wearing a bra then, but we had to ditch it after that storm (have never seen anything like it). Wasn't salveagable so I thru it away. Not fooling here - it was caked 1 inch thick with dead bugs.

So, we made our way on - to Hahnville, where my ex-army buddy lived with a Zambezi '73 914. Ate enough bad/great food to fill a lifetime & headerd north after a week there.

The same F_cking storm of "love' bugs attacked us on the way north, only this time I didn't have the bra for protection. By this time my 914 paint was ruined & the front glass needed to be scraped - like with a winter frost scraper.

When I got home from the drive, and after trying to remove the remains of the "love bugs", I was decimated. My beloved 914 had been ruined. The acid that the love bugs left behind was devistating.

That's why it was reprayed in late 78.

Next time I'll pack an extra bra. Like them oor hate them - they work
Pat