Speedgraphic

Just for fun. Why don't you guys/gals post here about your favorite place to roadtrip in your car with the top down...


I just made the my first daytrip of the year with the top down. It is springtime in South Georgia. The stark white blooms of the dogwood trees only accent the multitude of colors of the Azalias... The flowers are in bloom and pollen is everywhere! I have had a good number of days so far this year where I was able to go topless a bit during the middle of the day but this was the first time this year that I was able to go out topless for any extended period of time...

I left home this morning headed to the FIREANT festival in Ashburn GA. Ashburn is a small town of maybe 10.000 people right on I-75. It is about thirty miles east of me. It's beyond me why they chose to honor the pesky and painful fireant with a festival but I guess all the other good themes were taken...

I had heard that they were going to have a car show as part of the festivities. Yup they sure did. All of Three cars and a pickup truck. OK so it was small but those that did show up were VERY nice. One of the cars was an all original first gen camaro RS. Red with Black racing stripes. The interior was kind of a checkered black and white. with black carpet...

I knocked around the festival for a couple hours. I took a camera and got a few pics of people and STUFF... I finally got bored and took off headed east. I figured on taking mostly paved backroads and generally head in a north easterly direction.

Let me tell you. There are some VERY nice backroads in that part of the state. I was on several county maintained roads that were as nice as most of the two lane federal highways you might have seen. Traffic was light and I was pretty much able to drive at whatever speed I chose. There is something about easing down the highway with the top down at seventy or so with the soft rumble of exhaust behind you and the sun on your face!

I rode around looking for things to photograph. I had color in my Nikon and Black and white in my new camera. The new camera was made in Russia and is a Panoramic camera. It has a angle of coverage of 120deg x 55 deg and produces a negavie that is 24mm X 58mm... I found some interesting stuff and ruined a bit of film...

I had decided to turn back toward home, but to be in no hurry to get there at about 2pm... Shortly after turning back in that direction the clouds started gathering and the sky looked ominous. I really did not want to put the top up unless it became absolutely necessary. I got fairly serious about getting back toward home, all the while LOVING the way the car drove.

I got home without seeing a single drop of rain fall and without seeing a single member of law enforcement although I had driven about two hundred miles of backroads. I pulled under the carport and got out of the car as I usually do with a GRIN on my face. I looked back at the car and thought MAN! that car is F U N!!!!!!!!!

The above is not my favorite road trip but it was the first of the year. That makes it special. If you guys carry this post forward I'll tell you some of my favorite places to cruise...

Happy (TOPLESS) Trails!

Speedy

Bill Speed

When I could afford it, I'd cruise to the World's best pizza joint; only one in MN, Rocky Roccoco Pizza!
I took a top down sunny trip up North for 4 hours, I got burned!!
I also road trip to Milwaukee for the annual MetalFest held there every year. Recently, I had stopped doing that due to my poor cash flow. As far as my top problems, some a*hole hit my trunk up and now it blocks the tonneau from raising
Bill

2manyprojects

The Blueridge Parkway is a nice ride, but if the weathers right I like going anywhere with the top down.

gmgod

I hoped to do a little cruising today but the weather was'nt havin' it. My favorite spots around here are the lakes along the western Arkansas border, though it will be a while before things green up around here

Cargasm

Well, unfortunately there's only one main road down here in the Florida Keys.... from Florida City to Key West, it's just US1. All 120 some odd miles of it. The upside is, the scenery is fantastic....from the gumbo limbo trees and canals of Key Largo to where the green of the gulf meets the blue of the sea down Key West way, it's just hard to top it. I've had some fantastic tops down weather this winter... starting to get a bit warm for it now, tho. My favorite cruise so far has been the drive down to Key West, with a little cruising up and down Duval St, followed by a cap'n and coke or three at the nightly sunset party at Mallory Square.

Speedgraphic

Cargasm,

I've not had my vert down there yet but I will soon!

I actually planned to go there last year but every time I turned around Florida was in the path of another hurricaine!

I do have some fond memories in a vert from down there. In college I got to take SCUBA diving as a phys ed. After the Classroom/pool course you had the option of making some weekend dives at Panama City to get certified or you could sign up for another course called Adventure Diving which consisted of a week of diving in the Keys.

While on the trip I managed to get hooked up with a gal with an almost new Fiat Spider. We drove all over the keys in that car and made a stop in Daytona on the way back home. Good times and great memories!

Thanks for the reminder!

Speedy

Cadillac

Sadly, since I obtained my car has only been one road trip for me. That was last summer when I went to Vacaville to attend (and participate) in the 3rd Annual "All Pontiac" show. Here is the pic I whored so much at that time:



I took a second place trophy home for "D Class" -- All Stock, 3rd Gen.:



In May of this year, the E3 Expo hits LA like it does every year. This year I am bound and determined to go. It's an 8 hour drive south from San Fransisco and LA. I can't think of a better way to see the California coast as well as check to see if 26 MPG on the road @ 85MPH+ is possible. If this still happens, I'll make it a phote documentary complete with booth babes of E3 at the end.

Great story Speedy. My driving around south Georgia has always been in an Oldsmobile. Dang gnats.

JerseyMark

iTrader: (2)

Best trip I had in my vert....

After I picked it up, I drove it from Daytona Beach Florida to my home in South Jersey!!! It was mid July, the weather was perfect & I think I had the top up for mabey an hour out of the whole trip. (Only when it was raining!) I WAS SOOOOO SUNBURNT the next day!!

It was worth it.


Jersey Mark

Speedgraphic

I have been wanting to cruise the North Carolina Outer Banks. I had planned to go last year during the summer but it seemed that every time I got the opportunity there was a Hurricaine or Tropical Storm blowing through...

What are the best places to see? Are there any speedtraps to avoid? How about food and lodging? Information from somebody who knows the area would be greatly appreciated!

Speedy

Speedgraphic

Jersey Mark,

That sounds like a great ride, especially as you had JUST gotten the car!

Speedy

JerseyMark

iTrader: (2)

It was great... plus I even made a stop in Virgina Beach to "catch up" with an old girlfriend. hahaha. Fun times.

MerF

I'm constantly topless. If it's not raining or snowing, the top is likely down.


That's why they invented heaters, people.

Now that it's spring, the rear end wnet out, but hopefully I can enjoy my first Spring cruise this weekend.

dakleenupman

Downtown Chicago, no doubt. Cold or hot, night or day but best is warm and in the night........for obvious reasons

Chris

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

Where I cruise in my convertible?
Anywhere the road takes me. To work, to lunch, to dinner, to in-laws (and I must say, my father-in-law is really jealous ) ... simply wherever I go, I tend to take my vert with me and enjoy it. Especially with the 5-sp I dropped in.
Haven't had much bad luck with the weather down here in TX, had to put the top up only a few times.

Convertibles are FUN!!!!!!!!!

Bill Speed

I was just thinking, anyone have some funny stories like losing their hat while driving? It happened to me on a particularly windy day.... LUCKILY, I was entering a bridge overpass onramp, so I pulled to the side to get it.
When you wear a b-ball cap as often as me, It's happened while out in the boat as well, right into the drink!
Bill

MerF

Ok.

I had only owned my first convertible ('91 Z28) for about 3 months and I was in school in Virginia while my (then) finacee was very pregnant with daughter. I was on a 3 day weekend trip all the way down and was taking her for a ride (first time she had seen it and she was loving it). So I'm in the Florida sun in the fall cruising down I-75 when I look down and see the gas gauge low. Little did I know that when that gauge is near "E", you're already out! So I tell her that I need to exit, and about that time the car sputters and stalls. So here we are sitting on the side of Innterstate with my large pregnant (and now sweating and surprisingly smug) wife waiting for a buddy to make the trip with a can of gas for us.

She still hasnt' let me live that down.

Speedgraphic

Anybody done this?

I have been wanting to cruise the North Carolina Outer Banks. I had planned to go last year during the summer but it seemed that every time I got the opportunity there was a Hurricaine or Tropical Storm blowing through...

What are the best places to see? Are there any speedtraps to avoid? How about food and lodging? Information from somebody who knows the area would be greatly appreciated!

Speedy

Bill Speed

I should point out, recently having my car die close to home (getting a feel for that problem with my Cad), after having addressed a dead fuel pump last year, my buddy emphasizes that you should never let fuel go below the pumps' level, it will shorten the life drastically. That's his arguement, along with lifting residue into it. I also had addressed gas a week prior, then it was $2.15 a gallon, now down to $1.97!!
Bill