9,400 mile road trip in a 22 year old hand-built 240sx

[Catchmydriftwood]

Thanks for the updates and pics. I've always wanted to take a long road trip. Haven't been able to get away this summer so it's kind of nice to see somebody else getting out there and your 240 looks like its in better condition than mine. Plus I have a sweet spot for old Vettes with sidedrafts!

[Onizuka]

Thanks for all the nice words, this trip is super fun but also takes a lot of energy, doing this here is just a little bit of extra motivation to get those early starts every day.

Day 8: Utah, and then...

As usual I start the day off filling up my gas tank to the top, and I have finally found a gas pump that offers not a single octane type I get back home (which is 87, 89 and 93)



Like every other town in the rockies, cool scenery is just 3 minutes out of town.



Just 20 minutes after that I drive up onto a plateu, and the the light blue sky, flat desert-scape and cool weather(!) make it seem like I'm driving on another planet.



Its neat seeing a real oasis of sorts out here, every once and a while there will be a depression or even a lake studded with trees and green grass or crops. Being the rockies, of course there is another moutain pass to climb accompanied by another scenery change. It doesnt get tiring in the least going through the motions



Going over this pass drops you into a valley you could swear came right out of a water color. The ground was covered by a monocromatic pale green shrub and at the bottom was a very brilliant blue lake, the bluest water I've ever seen.




Mountain pass. Wash, rinse, repeat.



As I drive into the millionth unremarkable town along route 40, I spot what looks like a white plastic bag in the middle of the road. I wasnt going to try any sort of dodging manuver on a two lane street with oncoming traffic so I decide to just continue on, barraling down hill at 55mph. As I approach it dawns on me that the plastic bag is staying remarkably still even with traffic the other way buffeting it with gusts of wind. Then I realize its not a plastic bag but a white construction helmet. With merely yards to go there is no swerving, hitting the helmet with my wheel would be even worse, I reason. And so, at full speed, I quickly say goodbye to my front bumper and run over the helmet. CRRRCHUNK, sssschhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......... I see bits and pieces fly out from my under my car through the rear view mirror and hear the sound of plastic grinding under the front of my car as I slow down to pull off the road. I jump out and round to look at my bumper, miraculously unscathed. I peak under and there is the helmet, cracked and wedged up between the oil pan and cross frame. I have to jack up the car to yank it out, then I toss the cracked in half helmet to the side of the road in good riddance.



I get back on the road and ponder for the next half hour how a 6 inch tall construction helmet lost to my 4 inch ground clearance fiberglass bumper. R40 finally turns into a 4 lane as I approach the last of the rockies east of Salt Lake city.



As I get back onto the same I-80 I left outside of Denver, there are various buildings and infrastructure improvements with signs from the winter Olympics they held in Salt Lake back in 2002 (hey thats when I started my first SR20 swap!). Soon enough I hit the outskirts of Salk Lake City Utah, the major road interchange in the state.




So what way do I turn? South to Las Vegas? East to Reno? No! Northward again, towards Idaho! I'm sad I couldn't see the salt flats, but the northern end of the salt lake basin is pretty and unique in its own way (with lots of farming, which surprised me)




I pass the border into Idaho and am shortly greeted with road construction as far as the eye can see. At least there was no suffering lost expectations on when it would end (never).



The cool thing about america's mountain regions like this is that no matter where you are, there is something cool to look at. Even this gas station...



I follow this cool old biker dude off the highway in Idaho Falls to change directions again, this time... EAST, BACK INTO THE ROCKIES!



Between town and the egde of the rockies, I see several farms and ranches for sale, so if anyone is looking for a 1600+ acre lot with a good view, now you know where to look.



Just as before, things start getting really cool as I pass over rivers and through valleys at the foot of the mountains.



Now, I don't pretend to be a pro with the camera, but I think this picture I shot, going 45 mph up a curve on a hill out my window, turned out pretty damn spectacular. I dunno what it is, just looked cool



As the mountain climbing starts in ernest, I spot some horses having a party next to a ravine. Are there wild horses up here?



Along the way I pass the border into Wyoming and the road starts getting down right vicious with incline and sharp curves.




I finally reach the summit of my 4th major hill climb, and of countless smaller ones, to peer down into Jackson Hole.



Its too bad there were quite a few cars on the road, the down hill had 5 miles of 10% down grade to carve up. Instead I had to follow this moron who rode his brakes the whole stinking way down. And I do mean stinking, his brakes were burning up pretty bad and thats all I could smell until we reached the bottom of the valley.



My actual campsite was 15 or so miles south of the town of Jackson (the whole valley is 'Jackson Hole'), but as a bonus I got to set up my tent only 15 or 20 yards from the Snake River. And the temperature was super cool out!



As I'm setting up camp some stranger comes up and we start talking. Turns out he needs a fourth person for rafting tomorrow and was wondering if I'd tag along. I don't know, I got a lot of miles to drive tomorrow and I've never been white water rafting... free did you say? Heck yeah I'll come! Plus I got invited for dinner, Its like Christmas in August.

[breadbox]

Rafting? Awesome. Great scenery this day.

[Oatmealman]

Wish i woulda know you were staying in Colorado,I coulda meant up with you and bought you a drink and shown you the place.The way you took is damn scenic if you had a truck i woulda told you to take guanella pass to wardolf mine and back down on the other side of the mountain.berthoud pass is a b****.I've taken lightly loaded diesels (with lots of power mods) and they still struggle.Granted you can hold the speed limit but when you get close to the peak you notice the power loss immensely

[Solar_Runner]

Great stuff! Keep it up and best of luck! Good call on the rafting, enjoy.

[Otto.]

Good luck with the rafting!

[skydragoness]

A River Runs Through It. I hope not :P

Farthest west I've been is CO...Ouray and Colorado Springs. Beautiful state. Scenery is so gorgeous!

[S13_love]

White water rafting is soooo much fun.

This thread is awesome, nuff said.

[Onizuka]

Wish i woulda know you were staying in Colorado,I coulda meant up with you and bought you a drink and shown you the place.

Its not that I don't have the time, but if I stuck around to really explore every place I visit, I'd still be in Michigan at this point. I literally have to force myself to not stay too long at any one location, which is actually pretty hard. Thanks anyways

[Catchmydriftwood]

Totally enjoying this! Take lots of pics of white water rafting. You might get a book out of this.

[Onizuka]

Day 9: Rafting the Snake River

As promised, I got to go rafting with some chill guys out of Utah. The temperature was in the low 50's in the morning which made it real hard to get up just so I could freeze my a** off. We got started somewhat early, leaving camp at 8 to go pick up a raft from a rental place and strap it to the truck. I followed with my s13 because we needed a shuttle car as well (rivers don't run in circles unfortunately, nor will cars drive themselves to the end spot).



I'm not a stranger to a canoe or kayak, and paddling a raft isnt all that different, but the experience was more like a roller coaster ride than a stately cruise down the river. I actually bought a cheap waterproof camera to take pictures, but its film so the likelyhood of that getting done before the end of the trip is next to nil. On the other hand, there is this company that photographs every raft that goes down the river. Too bad they want $85 to email 5 pictures(!). Instead I encourage you all to go steal their bandwidth and click on these links. I'm the smart one wearing a shirt.

http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/ ... e=fullsize
http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/ ... e=fullsize
http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/ ... e=fullsize
http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/ ... e=fullsize

We were all near hypothermia near the end. A cold front had moved in with a rain cloud and there was a biting wind going up river to boot. It was fun though and I got to partially warm back up in the truck ride back to my car. I thank the cool dudes many times for the free food and fun, shake hands and shoot off back up the valley to make a northern exit from Jackson Hole. I keep my heater turn on full blast. Along the way I spot the western pass I came in on, you can see the road cut outs on the side of the mountain.



Luckily the main route out runs through the center of the town Jackson, which I didnt get to see on the way in. It was crammed with people and cars, but otherwise a pretty nifty place. A little park in town has this gateway that is completely made of antlers, crazy.



As I hit the northern valley I run past the small airport, you can see this full sized passenger jet looking insignificant next to the Grand Tetons.



My guess is that they got tired of people pulling over on the shoulder of the two-lane, 70mph highway to take pictures and they smartly added several pull-offs. Lucky for me the weather wasnt too nice and they were free and clear to take some pictures.



This part of Wyoming is pretty amazing, you've got Jackson Hole, and Directly north of that is the Grand Teton National Park, and directly north of THAT, is Yellowstone National Park. Its already past noon so I truck it into the park. You pay a $25 dollar toll/pass fee and you can drive around for 7 days. Its a gyp for me because I'm not staying anywhere near that long, but I don't mind supporting the place (whatever I rafted for free this morning ). I'm a little sad its still poor weather, but at least the roads are clear.



It takes an hour and a half in GTNP until I get to Yellowstone, where you have to show your pass receipt again despite being on the same exact road where you bought the thing.



The roads are actually in pretty good shape considering they are in a park high up in the mountains with harsh winters that degrade pavement.



after an hour of driving up the southern entry route, I get on the loop road that circles the park so Im going in the clockwise direction. As I climb up a hill Yellowstone's first wonder shows itself, North America's highest altitude lake.



Its good there is lots to look at from the road because traffic is actually quite heavy with tourists. I dont even bother trying to stop off at the main features of the park, seeing cars lined up just for parking. Today I will just settle for various pull-off on the road.



You may or may not know this, but Yellowstone is basically just one giant volcano that only pops every 6 or 900,000 years or so. In the mean time, geothermal activity on the surface is pretty cool to look at and is evident everywhere you go.



I make my way towards the west of the park for a early exit, deciding to better try my luck early in the morning tomorrow, and hopefully avoid the crowds. The camp I end up staying at is the largest one I've been to yet, and I'm lucky to even get a campsite without a reservation. It actually ended up being a RV/camper spot, but I told them I'd take whatever they could offer.

[Oatmealman]

oh i understand that.Colorado is a beautiful place and even in my entire life of living here i still have yet to take it all in.there is some beautiful scenery.if you pass through colorado again my house is always up for dibs for strangers staying at it,even got a guest bedroom.Definatley a sweet trip though,i've imagined doing this in my jeep and just wheeling my way across the country and documenting it.

[Mr1der]

temperature in the 50's sounds amazing...

when you swing back around, hit up the south for some awesome high 90's and wicked humidity

[nissangirl74]

Looks like you had one heck of a fun ride down the river. You are now in one of my favorite areas of the country. I can't wait to take a summer vacation up there with Greg and the kids. They've never been. The last road trip my dad and I took together went through Yellowstone. Undeniably one of the most beautiful places on earth.

[ADDirishboy]

God damnit, I'm so jealous of this trip. I LOVE driving long distances like that, but I've only been able to do it for work before.

[slydewayz503]

Keep the updates coming man this trip sounds like lots of fun & cant never turn down free lol

[Gold Digger]

Matt! Glad you made it to the show and the BBQ. I haven't read through the entire thread, but I will when I have a bit more time.

Was good seeing you again, and thanks for posting up pics.

By the way...the owner of that Vette that was at my BBQ is the guy who is restoring my dad's 1963 Impala Wagon. You can follow that thread by clicking the link in my sig.

Matt, drive safe and have a great trip. Look forward to seeing you come back to Japan for some more fun up at Tomo's bar!

Be good, my friend!

[fiznowler]

This thread kicks major a**! I want a roadtrip now.

[Onizuka]

Sorry for the big delay, I was visiting with family for a few days and couldnt get on the internet, then I got pretty sick and had to take a 2 day vacation from my vacation. I'm like a week behind now. Theres lots more cool stuff that happened though and I'll post it all up in good time

[drksolest]

yayayayayaya glad u made r feeling better, can't wait for more of an update n' pix

[LeD ippen]

Sup man saw your car in miyako lot in little Tokyo

[Heavy]

this thread is absolute awesome, i am so doing this next year

[Onizuka]

Day 10: Yellowstone

I got up around 5am to get everything packed away today, so I could get into Yellowstone and avoid crowds if possible. I know at some point I will have to deal with crowds anyway because its really big and its going to take time no matter what. How big is Yellowstone? Its about as large as Delaware and Rhode Island combined, not including the several other large national parks that are right next to Yellowstone. By the time I hit the road the sun was just starting to make its presence known behind the clouds.



The day before I had noticed several side roads that would have been absolutely no fun following a RV down, but this morning I had things all to myself. I assure you I followed all posted speed limits at all times Firehole Canyon was a blast, and like much of the rest of Yellowstone, quite pretty too.





Back on the main road things were still pretty clear too, as it was still early morning.



First stop was sort of a combo spot of geysers, mud pots and sulfur pits. It smelled bad and was really cool.




Again I met some cool strangers who were travelling the country, and they offered to take some pictures. This one was called a spasm geyser, it pretty much spits out boiling water continuously.



I head over to Old Faithful and its pretty clear, unlike the traffic-jam no-parking madness I saw yesterday. They can predict when it will go off pretty accurately, and it turned out I had like 60 minutes to burn so I went into a near by lodge to kick back and have a Cinnamon roll.




With still more time on my hands I explore the old faithful area, which is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Too bad the lighting today sucked, because the colors were really awesome to see.




As I was on my way back, Old Faithful wasn't faithful enough and blew 5 minutes ahead of schedule. It was still cool to see and I'm glad I came to Yellowstone for a second day.



I spotted this cool restored sight seeing bus at a nearby lodge, there are several of them running around that are operated by the park.



Continuing my way around the road loop in Yellowstone (which would be comparable to the Nurburgring, but longer, if not for all the slow driving), I pass some recently burned forest. Most of Yellowstone burnt to the ground a couple decades ago and its evident just about everywhere in the form of tall wooden spikes of bare trees jutting up out of new pine growth. This was all much more recent, and fascinating to look at in its own right.



Of course, there were parts of the park that managed to avoid the inferno and those are pretty self evident too (because you cant see more than 10 feet from the road).



I'm on the eastern side of the park at this point when I have a run in with some buffalo. I'd seen quite a few already at this point, but this time there was a ton of them and right next to the road. It was neat to see, but they are about as exciting as cows to watch, so I move on.



This next stop I smelled waaaaay before I could see it. Steaming sulfur pits are common in Yellowstone, but these were HUGE. The rotting egg smell is fine once you get used to it, there were some buffalo chilling near the pits too, they must not mind either.



There is a lot of mountain driving in Yellowstone, but for some reason guard rails are often just not there. It was definitely the most harrowing drive yet of the trip. I felt pretty confident in my driving, but if you aren't just a little bit scared of a sheer cliff right at the edge of the road, you should get your head examined. If you slipped off the road it was a looong way down.






Tower Falls was pretty cool, although you couldn't get close to the actual waterfall





It looks like I took this picture from an airplane, that's how steep some of these mountains were.



Here is a 50 million year old petrified redwood tree, supposedly there is a whole forest of these buried under the hill, all in the upright position just like this one that was exposed by erosion.



I was running late already and was prepared to dash out of the park but I saw what looked like a giant piece of crumpled tinfoil on the side of a mountain and knew I had to check it out.



It ended up being the Mammoth Hot Springs. There were very cool formations, but like the rest of the day the lighting wasn't the best...




...except for these I think it worked out great.




You could see bad weather coming so I ran back to my car and got on my way just in time as the rain came in. I made my way out of the north end of the park and into Montana.




Technically I just drove into another big park, but you can never tell the difference between park and private land out this way anyways. Can you?




I don't know if I can type anymore about mountains for the rest of my life, and after 4 days of driving through the Rockies I'm ready for some nice flat and strait highway driving. Yellowstone was so interesting that nothing else today really made me draw out the camera other than this smokestack way up in the hills above some small town, and mostly because you could see it for miles and miles away and it clashed with the surroundings like a giant black obelisk. In a way it jolted me back to remembering that man made stuff can be impressive as well.

[Onizuka]

Sup man saw your car in miyako lot in little Tokyo

Whoa spoiler alert*... yeah I decided to take it easy while in LA because I'm still a little sick, splurged a bit (two weeks in a tent makes you want to treat yourself). The parking attendant said he was putting it out front because the front bumper is too low to clear what-ever in the below ground garage, but im guessing he just liked the car

So yeah you're the first one on here to spot my car, only took 6000 miles of driving

Other than a guy from northwest nissans somewhere south of Seattle, the only 240sx person I've met so far on the trip is Neal. Honestly, 240sx sightings have been rare, more rare than Ferrari's in any case. I got to kill time until like 3 before heading down to Encinitas to meet up with more family tomorrow, if you want to meet up. Otherwise supposedly there is some festival going on and I'm just going to walk around tomorrow.

[Noxy]

I've always thought about doing something like this, too. However, as it stands all 3 nissans I've owned haven't had cruise and that would suck.

[nissangirl74]

Most of Yellowstone burnt to the ground a couple decades ago and its evident just about everywhere in the form of tall wooden spikes of bare trees jutting up out of new pine growth. This was all much more recent, and fascinating to look at in its own right.

My dad and I were there when the fires broke out. It was an amazing thing to see. It didn't take long to turn into something scary. Lots of the grizzlies were driven out of their area into the more populated areas and campgrounds. Lots of destruction caused my them and the other animals which were all in a panic.

Tower Falls was pretty cool, although you couldn't get close to the actual waterfall

I don't know if it was destroyed in the fire but there was a staircase attached to the rock face next to this waterfall when I was there. Dad and I climbed the entire thing top to bottom.

[Onizuka]

I've always thought about doing something like this, too. However, as it stands all 3 nissans I've owned haven't had cruise and that would suck.

Lack of cruise actually isn't that bad actually. If I were ever to recreate this trip, I'd get A/C and a nicer driver seat for the S13 before cruise control.

I don't know if it was destroyed in the fire but there was a staircase attached to the rock face next to this waterfall when I was there. Dad and I climbed the entire thing top to bottom.

I'm jealous of anyone who got to see Yellowstone in the "glory days". Its definatetly changed, especially in terms of the number of people that visit.

[Noxy]

Your right it's not that bad, but the times when I'm really tired I start thinking it would be nice.

[Onizuka]

These next two days are going to be short because I didnt really do anything but drive. Yellowstone put me a bit behind schedule.
Day 11: Washington


Early in the morning I got into Idaho again, this time the northern panhandle, which was just as beautiful as western Montana. There are some rediculously small towns on the order of 3 or 400 people along the highway nestled in valleys, it must be hard making a town survive off of mostly highway business.




So after a while I finally make it to Washington state. I'm prepared for the inevitable rain and cool weather, but what do I get? Its flat and hot like kansas, but even drier! I even saw dozens of big dust devils, ranging in size from a small tree to as wide as a house.



Honestly, this really isnt anywhere close to what I expected of Washington.



When I got to within 80 or so miles of Seattle, things started changing a bit more towards what your mental image of the place might be.



The drive into Seattle was really really cool. Definitely the most pleasant and interesting entrance to any city I have been to so far. There were these bridges and tunnels, plus dozens of finely done-up cars headed towards down town. The Lexus SC300 seem to be super popular around here, I see at least 10 of them, mostly modified with at least some big wheels and suspension. I spotted tons of other cool cars, S2000s, AE86's and what must be the Miata hive capitol of the world. I also see lots of older 70's and 80's Japanese metal cruising the street that is nonexistent on the east coast: 240z, celica supras and a few others.



Unfortunately since I'm behind schedule I have to skip downtown and head south on route 5 for my campsite. It is so cool you can see this mountain so far off in the distance when traveling southwest from Seattle on a clear day. I think its called Mount Rainier but I'm not sure.



My day is done other than to find a car wash, because my car is loaded up with grime from the last several days of driving, both bug guts and dirt from riding on gravel roads. The first place I found was a autowash with tire guide rail. I had my doubts about weather my car would clear it, so I asked the guy to look. He bent down and told me he thought it would clear so I slowly pulled up as he guided me in. I hear a tiny bit a scraping and then the sound of metal grinding on metal, thanks a$$. I pull back to hear a nice pop and crack sound. Again I come out to expect a big chunk of my bumper to be missing, but the damage is minimal and on the underside, so I just leave only slightly perturbed (last time I ever go to one of these types of washes).

[247sxy]

Awesome so far, keep the post's coming! Are you noticing a difference in the cars performance from the East coast to the West coast?