5-17 to 18

First off. Have to say sorry the updates took so long to come.

I just have to say this too. Had to get Star Wars out of the bloodstream before we left so now we won't have that lack of focus that we'll need for the remainder of the trip. Oh and also, want to give a big thanks to Stan and OMG (Orion Marketing Group) for getting us polo shirts and jackets and some, uh, other stuff, with our logo printed on them in record time.

Left a lot later than originally planned. As a result, no stopping for the night in Kentucky. We decided to drive straight through to our destination; Banner Elk, NC.

Well, started off about 7:30ish pm from my place in Downers Grove, Illinois with a ~1/2 tank of gas, no packs of cigarettes and about 5 pairs of sunglasses. I got to drive this shark for the first time. Nothing quite like the feel of an awful lot of ponies screaming to let loose, which all ~327 are happily obliged to do with the lightest tap on the accelerator. And true to one of the best movie quotes of all time..."Porsche, there is...no substitute) and one of the best song title "I can't drive 55".

Of course, though had to start out wrong. Pulling into Wendy's I cut the turn too close and dinged the very expensive aluminum alloy wheel (sorry Dan; I could swear I heard him gasp when I did that). Took a little bit to get familiarized with all the controls but it's a nice cockpit, though the 4 multi function levers on steering column and reverse pattern gear shifting take a bit to get used to (I just keep looking for that extra gear up there)

Have a Garmin Streetpilot color GPS (attaching to the laptop for updating MapPoint) and a couple Compaq Armada (M700 and E500) laptops.

After that I took the first leg of our 12 hour (~2 hours of stop time), 700 mile journey, wending out way through Chi-town - 55N to 294E joining up with 80E into Indiana. Hit 65S a little later and took that to Crown Point, Indiana for our first gas up. I kept driving until we got to a rest stop in Lebanon, just outside of Indianapolis, roughly 160 miles. Turned the reigns over to Big D around 10:30. We switched off roughly every couple hours after that and never looked back.

Had an interesting point in the mountains of Tennessee where the fog was very dense and visibility was ~50' with chunks of debris that we weren't sure what it was but thought not snow (turned out to be shredded pieces of leaves - which were stuck to the grill).

I think we each got maybe 30-45 minutes of sleep each in the whole drive. Got to Banner Elk, North Carolina around 7:30 am with a rally get together for the picnic at 10am. Needless to say we didn't make that. We were SO tired we had nothing left. Slept for a couple and headed to Grandfather Mountain for the Sharks In The Mountains (SITM) picnic, generously hosted by Dave and Jeanie Roberts www.928specialists.com .

Got to the picnic and it was very cool (~45 degrees) and windy. Dan was like the proud papa of a new baby showing off the car to everyone. The only Cobalt Blue Metallic shark there. There was one comment that "if they were giving best car award, he would probably take it". He was just beaming and I wonder how many times the color or the wood interior trim mentioned. Heard an unofficial car count of 76, 928's. Every one unique and pretty in its own right.

I have to say that this being my second year to attend, it is still always a blast seeing all those cars and being as cold as it was still managed to snap off about 300 pics this day.

Cut the picnic short due to the cold and headed to the top of Mt. Mitchell for dinner and camaraderie. Having all those cars cruising those twists and turns on these mountain roads was just awesome - even from the passenger seat. The 928 handles wonderfully and sticks to the ground so well that as much as you feel like your going to go over an edge or break loose into a spin, you just know it won't and trust it. Of course a lot of that depends on the driver and I felt completely at ease with Dan going that fast. Like a fast and free tilt-a-whirl ride (good thing I had a bonine in me). The tunnels were fun too and Dan wasn't the only one to slow down or stop at the entrance and roll down the window to hear the sound of those throaty V-8's roaring up to speed. Ok, I can't help throw in another cheesy movie quote that I was thinking at the time "It's not a convoy, it's a dream")

It was definitely nice to get to the top of Mt Mitchell and get into the restaurant into some heat. The folks there were great and served some coffee and hot chocolate before dinner. Of course I had to take the opportunity to shop for some gifts that they were generous enough to ship back to Chicago for me.

And just a side note to the waiter who squealed: Next time, zip the lip.

Appreciated the offer from Dave and Jeanie to head back to there place afterward but we had nothing left and bailed so we could crash.

Dan finally relinquished the reigns to let me drive the mountains a bit on the way back and while I didn't go as fast as he did, I managed to hold my own, I think. What a hoot.

Came back and zonked out. ~4 hours sleep in a few days took its toll, so once again sorry for the delay but you can see how busy we've been. Hope to be more timely.

Miker