Escape from LA - Escape to New York

[KS]

And you've been pensively awaiting the arrival of Mr Postie carrying your stickers. In the post tomorrow Jude and that's a Bootsoir promise and they ain't cheap!

Unlike the guy making them.

[Bootsy]

And you've been pensively awaiting the arrival of Mr Postie carrying your stickers. In the post tomorrow Jude and that's a Bootsoir promise and they ain't cheap!

Unlike the guy making them.

Get her!

[DeRRis]

Hi Derris, & all.....

I will finish it hopefully this week... I was struck down with an awful bout of bronchitis, & will endeavour to get my words & pictures on the forum as soon as I get home (again)...

Looking forward to it

[misteralz]

Can't wait.

[easy]

So...?

It's not like you are moving your entire world over to Italy this weekend..?

Oh hang on.....

You made a promise and I won't put the seats back in Gloria till it's done

X

[easy]

Gloria enroute to her new Italian home.......

When are you going to finish the story hon...?

[J-Low]

Day 10

The following day, I'm sitting in Hell. Literally. There is a small town some 40 minutes away from Detroit that sounded like a devilishly interesting little stop off. There are some great twisty roads, which made a refreshing change from the freeways I'd been driving the previous few days... It gave me a chance to get to grips with Gloria's new suspension & really feel how she handled. All I'll say is: thank you for your good advice Marco (at TLG), the set up is great, the ride height just right & the only way I can describe the handling is 'communicative'. I discovered that 3rd gear is my favourite, & Gloria really starts to come alive & feel a bit cheeky when she's booting around between 4-6000rpm.
But, be warned, the police are pretty active around this area & just love to jump out from behind a bush, as I witnessed a fellow driver get pulled over...



I don't quite know what I expected in Hell, but there's a few random houses, & a small roadside restaurant. The restaurant is very cool, like a large wooden cabin, run by a Vietnam veteran, who will regale you with tales of the Tet Offensive, being shot 5 times, declared dead, & only being saved from embalming after he fell off the slab in the mortuary & they realised he still had a pulse. He also makes an awesome breakfast for under $10 that will keep you going for most of the day.



I headed back to the town near my brothers place & stopped in a chi-chi little coffee house for some caffeine & free wifi. It seems that a cup of tea is somewhat more complicated round these parts than the builders brews I'd been picking up en route. When asked what tea I'd like, my response, of course, was 'English Breakfast tea'. Now, it's a pretty unfussy cup of tea anywhere else, but when the guy serving me gave me one of those looks as if I'd just landed from Mars, I just pointed at the list & said 'that one'. Pot pourri in a cup I'm afraid....



I hadn't spoken to the shipping agent since before I left the UK, so I thought I'd give her a call to check in & make sure we were still good for me to drop off the car that Friday. Bearing in mind, it's the middle of Monday afternoon, the conversation went like this:

"Hi Irene, it's Jude, with the white Porsche"
"Oh Hi.... Are you still bringing the car to us?"
"Yep, I'll be with you Friday, as per the email"
"Oh we're closed Friday, in fact we're closed Thursday too, you will have to be here Wednesday by midday, latest"
"Whhhaaaaaaatttttt!!!!!! You're nearly a thousand miles away! I have to leave NOW!!!!"
"Okay honey, see you Wednesday" sounding calmer than a vicar on valium in that thick New Jersey accent.

At this point, I'm sure you can visualise the panic.... Its like that moment in a film when everything around you gets thrown into the air in slow motion, the camera spins 360 degrees around the room & it sounds like everyone is talking at half the speed. I went tearing out of the coffee house; a garbled phone call to my brother, trying not to shriek too much, got back to his place, threw my stuff in the boot, & got on the road. The fastest route to New Jersey was driving through the night on the Ohio Turnpike, passing through Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Around 11pm, & another pitstop at a truck stop for wifi & caffeine. I checked the route & decided to head for a place called Beaver Falls, which had a cheap looking motel.



It was late, & I was tired... To be honest, the last thing I needed was a lengthy conversation with anyone.... Now, Big John, the guy on reception, was a friendly sort, & I'm guessing he hadn't had much in the way of conversation that day; I stood for a full 15 minutes before I made my excuses & headed off to bed. I guess it's not every day a lone female, from a different continent turns up in the dead of night with a small rucksack looking for a room.

[J-Low]

Day 11
With the overnight drive to get me across Ohio more towards Pennsylvania, I was dog tired. I'd been keeping up with friends via Facebook, posting pictures & various check ins along the way, when Easy asked me:

"Go on, lets see how tired you really look"
Now, by this time, I'd been complaining about bags under my eyes, & a general reluctance of my body to wake up in a hurry.
I drew a little sketch of how I thought I looked...



"No, Haig!! Lets see a real picture!"



Breakfast at Beaver Falls, another great breakfast of milk & cereal to keep me going, plus more coffee than usual.

I'd set my heart on passing through Pennsylvania & trying to meet some Amish people. A quick scan along the proposed route, & I came across a little town called Intercourse. It seemed like the obvious place to stop, so that's where I headed.



The thing that strikes me most about America, is how diverse it is. I'd driven through some amazing landscapes, past some breathtaking scenery, & also been sat in my tiny car feeling like I was the size of an ant that could be squashed at any second by the giants of the road that frequently rumbled past me.



I passed through tunnel, after tunnel after tunnel from the end of Ohio towards Pennsylvania, the out into open agricultural land. Field, after wide flat field with not a lot else to look at.



I reached Intercourse, & was pretty hungry, so scouted around for a place to stop & eat. There seemed to be a plethora of Amish Farm or Amish life 'Experiences', most of which seemed to be closed. I was quite bemused by this openly commercial side to the Amish; I don't know about you, but I enjoy the randomness of meeting new people without having to pay for it....

Anyway, I found a farm shop that had a cafe attached to it, & decided that was the place to stop & refuel. I don't know a great deal about the Amish, except that they have a pretty strict view on life, so I was pretty surprised to see some Amish girls wandering around in fashionable trainers. The other thing that surprised me was how detached they seemed, unless of course you had paid for an 'experience', then they became quite engaged. Just an observation.

Feeling pretty dejected, I was sitting in Gloria, gathering my thoughts about what was going to happen next, & the phone rings...

"Hi, how are you?"
It's Marco, from TLG....
"Fine, yep, I'm fine"
In a not so fine tone of voice a friend of mine calls the 'coleslaw voice', you know, when it's a bit high, a bit tight, & things are generally not actually 'fine' at all....
"Well okaaaay, I was just checking in to see you were getting along"
It's one of those moments that I've described before, when you feel the universe is putting a steady hand of reassurance on your shoulder.
"& how's the car?"
Now here, I wasn't fibbing...
"She's great, running really well, I've only had to top the oil up once" which did bring a smile to my face "Great, well, keep posting your check-ins & let me know when you get to New York, ok?"

Now my spirits had been lifted, it was time to hit the road again, destination Philadelphia.
Driving out of Intercourse, I passed some Amish in one of their buggies, this was about as close as I got to the real deal.... & probably about as close as they wanted to get to me.



Wow, what an anticlimax, but I was on a mission to get to the shipping agent in Newark the following day before midday, so I hit the road.

The drive into Philadelphia was pretty unspectacular, more tunnels & then later some big, wide bridges.

[DeRRis]

Glad you're back Jude.

[J-Low]

Once again, having no plan, I pulled into a Drive-In for some free wifi to work out what I was going to do next..... I needed to eat, pick up fuel & find a place to stay. Still, without a fixed plan, I hopped in Gloria, & followed the rush hour traffic flow until I found a petrol station.

Now, I guess by now you maybe wondering where it went wrong (apart from my lack of licence plate)......

Well, the truth is, nothing , until now, less than 24 hours before I had to get to the shipping agent.

It was getting dark when I refuelled her, & I noticed something on the right headlight, actually, a lack of something. There was a massive hole in the glass where a stone had smashed it. I taped the remainder of the glass together, in a futile effort to salvage the light, but as soon as the lights were turned on, it just gave up & died.



Lets face it, I'm driving a distinctive car, with no number plate & only one headlight in the rapidly dwindling evening light. Not the best of situations to find yourself in.... I asked the guy at the petrol station if he had a spare, he only spoke one language which wasn't mine, & he continued to stare at me as if I'd just landed from Mars. I took a good look around; this garage had a repair shop attached to it, which was closed, & it looked like on this strip of road, there were plenty more like it. I pointed at the light & I managed to get out of the guy there was a parts shop 2 blocks down. So that's where I headed.

I'd noticed a police car drive past me, so as I drove up to the parts shop, I tucked Gloria in behind a handy lorry that was parked in the far corner. Again, sometimes, don't you just feel that the universe aligns somehow to help you out? I popped into the shop & asked the guy, who scratched his head I disbelief when he told me:

"Yes, actually, I have one on the shelf. It'll cost you $12, & if you want me to fit it, another $20".
I didn't have a lot of cash on me, so I asked if I could pull up outside the shop to steal some light, I had my own screwdriver....

Anyway, he came out, keen to see Gloria & for a general natter. It turns out that his Uncle, who had been an actor in LA, had given this guy his old 1973 912E, which had unfortunately spontaneously combusted a couple of years ago, & he was still pretty sad about it. He showed me some pictures of the burnt out shell, in between fitting the headlight for no charge, which I hadn't expected at all...

Grateful for his help, he sent me on my way, all fixed up & whole lot more legal than before. This must be something to do with the Porsche 'ownership experience' I'd heard about....

After spotting a pretty reasonable looking bar (next to a pretty cool charity shop....) , I managed to peel myself out of the drivers seat again, for a well deserved beer & plate of chicken wings before finding another cheap motel for the night.






The drive to Newark the following morning was, again, fairly uneventful. My only objective was to get to the shipping agent by midday, then it was goodbye to Gloria, & hello New York City. Now, bearing in mind the shipping agent is located right beside the docks, it had only been a few weeks since the devastating flood in New York. It was a very sobering thought, that had my vacation time been a month earlier, Gloria could have been one of the sorry write-offs, still holed up in a container. Sadly, many of them had been washed off the container ships into the harbour.



The whole dropping off process is pretty rapid. I met Irene, who was my contact at the shipping agent, & one of her guys who signed Gloria in, marked her up for export, I signed the papers & said goodbye.



It felt slightly surreal that my road trip had come to an end, & I was to continue on to NYC by train. The one plan I had made, was booking a reasonable room in the Big Apple; I had, after all earned it, don't you think? I booked the room, just before leaving Detroit, I didn't want to find myself stranded at the final post.




I literally crashed & burned as I collapsed on the bed in the hotel.



Situated in the East Village, it was above a very cool coffee shop called The Bean, & round the corner from a hot beef shop called This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef. I can't resist a bit of slow cooked cow in a bun, so dinner was just that & a can of Pork Slap.



Is it weird to miss your car? I was...... It felt especially empty the following morning without our routine warm up & wake up & the realisation that the big adventure had reached its finale.

Back in Blighty, it was work as normal, & the odd conversation with the shipping agent. It was the end of November, & with a backlog of cars to ship from New York, it looked unlikely I'd see Gloria before Christmas. I have to mention a big thankyou to Mark at Kingstown Shipping, I don't know how he did it, but Gloria was on a container back to the UK not long after me; & after the fees were settled at Chatham Dockyard, I picked her up on December 21st.

Straight down to the docks after work......



So, what next? Well, Gloria lives with me down in Italy; I drove her down at the beginning of July, again, without a cough or a wobble, just a good solid drive. I'm going to be hammering the alpine passes in the near future, & whilst all this goes on, back in Blighty, after many cups of tea & slices of cake, her new engine is being slowly assembled..... Watch this space for another Neil Bainbridge project.

I didn't carry any special tools, but Marco from TLG, did very kindly loan me a standard toolkit, a spare set of points & some fuses. I had insurance from a broker in California to make me (almost) legal, a sat nav & iPad. The iPad, to be fair, was a bit of a luxury item..... But it was worth its weight in gold. I had the standard Haynes manual, should I need to diagnose a problem, & I made sure I knew how to change a fan belt & a set of points.... It had been quite a few years since I'd last done that. Lastly, I had joined the Early 911S Registry in the USA, & carried the members list with me, should I have to call on someone (even a total stranger) for some help. I was after all, crossing 13 states on my trip.



Mark from Kingstown Shipping was awesome, he took care of all my shipping needs, & got Gloria over to the UK as swiftly as possible. What a great Christmas prezzie that was......

Why do it? Well, why not..... Sometimes you just have to say 'f*** it' & make it happen. As scary & intimidating that may be for some, I can only tell you that the memories & experience will live with me forever. There was no itinerary, no big plan, just a start point, & end point constrained only by the dates of my holiday (& a limited budget)

Life's too short for 'I wish I had.....'


Big thank you's for their help & support:

Marco from TLG in North Hollywood
Mark from Kingstown Shipping
Neil Bainbridge at BS Motorsport(for everything so far..... the project has a way to go yet....)
& my car, Gloria, for being such an awesome drive

[theorangeperil]

Brilliant Jude. Thanks for writing up such an entertaining travel blog!

[Bootsy]

An inspiring tale, enjoyed every minute of it

[mrk]

Thought that was great, Jude. An amazing experience shared in a very cool way.

[Berny]

Thanks for that Jude great story telling! looking forward to the alpine passes that I would like to do myself! Please give a report on the route. Berny.

[easy]

At last.....
Proud


X