Stealth GTI

Being a former TDI owner, I still love to track fuel economy and other technical stuff. Come to think of it, I’ve tracked MPGs from the day I got my first car, a 1973 Beetle in 1986. Overall for this trip, I drove 7668 miles and burned 352 gallons of premium unleaded. That puts the trip’s average fuel economy at 21.7 mpg, which is 1.3 mpg less than on my previous trip to CA. I had hoped that the cargo trailer would be more aerodynamic than the top-loaded utility trailer. However, the cargo trailer is heavier, wider, and taller; plus, I think my speeds were consistently higher along the way. I suspect I-80 may be slightly more mountainous than I-40, too. I haven’t scrutinized the costs of hotels, fuel, and food separately. I don’t want to! But I do know that this trip was an expensive way to get a small amount of my mother’s stuff. Regardless, this was more about the journey than the economical acquisition of goods. Continue reading →

As I was digging in my suitcase and deciding what to wear, I saw a strange color that surely was not my normal thing. “What’s this?” A kid somewhere is upset! I guess finding someone else’s clothing mixed-in with my own is an aspect of laundromat-life that I had forgotten about. I don’t think I had this happen before, even when I was a regular at laundromats, and certainly not 1000 miles after the fact. Live and learn, them more than me this time, I guess.  😀  I left Columbia just after sunrise and planned to drive 500 miles to Springfield, OH. Why the turn north? I saw an opportunity to enter Pennsylvania for another “Been There” mug. Coincidentally, someone had commented on my tiny cargo trailer conversion in Instagram about a month before I left on this trip. He’s near Pittsburgh. So, I offered to meet him and show him the trailer in person. Some of you may recognize him. More on that later… Continue reading →

I left Rawlins, WY bright and early. The drivers of the pickup trucks that had parked around me were early birds! They were already gone long before sunrise. I was certain that I-80 would be endless miles of boredom; that’s what I was hoping for, at least. There are a lot of mountain passes and opportunities to find closed gates if unexpected snow came. I didn’t see anything in the forecast, but that didn’t preclude the possibility of a mountain pass being closed. Other than avoiding snow and ice, my only priority on this day was to get more “Been There” mugs for my wife. Continue reading →

My wife got up around 3:30am to pack her bags. I slept until about 10 minutes before we needed to leave. The hotel was just five minutes from the departure terminal; so, I had the luxury of kicking her out the door and then going back to the hotel to pack. We said our goodbyes and I returned to the hotel. Traveling with her, even for just a weekend, often results in A LOT of extra stuff in the car. She loves to pack plenty of snacks and drinks. My back seat had just a jacket and a suitcase for my outbound trip. I buy food and drinks as I travel. Here’s the car after a weekend with my wife and for the trip home… Continue reading →

After a good night’s rest, we went to my mother’s storage unit to unpack and decide what was coming home with us. I nearly had a heart attack every time I heard my wife say, “Awww…” It seemed like a potential signal of each additional thing she’d want to load into the trailer. HAHA! I had made it clear that I was bringing home “just” 500 lbs, nothing more. Thankfully, many of the things that gave her moments of pause were also things that she was able to put back into their box and move on. Later, she said that it was 1:00pm and that she was hungry. “WOW! Has it been that long already?” We had leftover pizza in the car’s refrigerator and took a lunch break. While eating, I opened my Instagram page and discovered that it wasn’t 1:00pm. Her FitBit was still on east coast time; it was only 10:00am. “Early lunch for us!” HAHA! Continue reading →

In my previous entry, I had left my trailer in a pull-out just below the snow-line on the mountain climb to General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. I didn’t want to spend too much time away from it since I was paranoid about it being stolen or towed (small trailers are easier to snag). It wasn’t about the cost of replacing it. Instead, its disappearance would have put a huge dent in my timeline for getting my mother’s stuff. I was burning PTO (paid time off) in the hole (negative balance) and wanted to minimize any disruptions. Realistically, had anything happened to it there or elsewhere, I was prepared to just buy another trailer and get my mission completed. Still, the park ranger assured me that it would be fine. My first stop along my way farther up the mountain was to shoot the “small” Sequoia in my previous update (shown here). From there, I went to the Fallen Tree Tunnel. The road was closed because it is unmaintained during the off-season since the plows cannot fit. I could have hiked and saw the tree. But shooting it without the car was not part of my plan. Plus, I was on a tight schedule because I needed to pick up my wife from the airport soon. Continue reading →

I awoke nice and early because I wanted to beat the crowds to Sequoia National Park. My goal was to photograph the car with some Sequoias and to get a photo with the car/trailer in the fallen tree tunnel. The road had been indicated “closed” on Google Maps, but appeared to be open now. I called the road conditions hotline: “Roads open… Chains not required.” I’m gone! My hotel was at around 350 feet above sea level. The Sequoias are in the mountains where there is no fuel stations or cellular service. It was no place to take a trailer without a full tank of fuel. I refueled about halfway there to avoid any surprises. Then came the entrance… all to myself…

Continue reading →

Next, I entered the place that compelled me to pack extra fuel in the trailer: Death Valley. Websites and blog write-ups warn that there is no cellular coverage in Death Valley. They’re not kidding! I easily drove over 150 miles without a signal, even with my cellular signal booster. Bring paper maps and/or download offline maps for navigating. I had both and was ready to visit a few main attractions. For a very long time, I had thought about a road trip that included the highest paved road in the U.S. I thought that was Pike’s Peak until I later discovered that it’s Mt Evans nearby. Regardless, both my November trip and this current trip took place when those roads are closed due to snow and ice. Continue reading →

I mentioned in my previous entry that I arrived in Flagstaff under moderate snowfall. I settled into my hotel room and enjoyed an early evening inside. Silly me, I didn’t look at the weather forecast before going to sleep. I awoke early the next morning at around 4am. I don’t know why, but I STILL didn’t think to look at the forecast to check for more snow. I guess I love surprises! I went outside to discover that a bit more snow had fallen, maybe two inches. After taking this photo, I opened the trailer to grab my snow removal tool. I KNEW it was a good idea to pack for snow! Continue reading →

Rainfall during the days leading up to my departure was killing my workflow. But I got things done when I could. Here’s the trailer’s interior as it was for the outbound trip. I don’t think I mentioned that I’d be traveling with a refrigerator and a battery back-up. I’ll share a photo of the setup in an album at the bottom of this page. I visited a scale to weigh everything. Unfortunately, the video of that visit got corrupted and the specific numbers are lost. BUT – I do remember that the trailer itself weighed 1060 lbs (480 kg), which included five gallons (19 liters) of extra fuel as a precaution in sparsely populated areas along my route. So much for staying below 1000 lbs (455 kg) for the outbound trip. The good news was that I expected to be past the scarce fuel areas by the time I loaded cargo and could empty the fuel can into my car’s fuel tank in California. Continue reading →

It came time to hit the road again. You may recall my “Coast-to-Coast” series from November (shared in January). My wife and I had driven to CA to retrieve my mother’s cremains and some of her effects. What we didn’t expect was to have a change of heart regarding our desire to bring more of her things home with us. Unfortunately, we were at my limit for cargo capacity in my GTI and the baby trailer. We immediately made plans for a return trip. We had two significant concerns: 1) Winter was coming; so, we needed to wait until at least March. 2) Unloading/reloading the baby trailer each day was a pain! Plus, it was an aerodynamic disaster. I decided to speed my efforts to finish the conversion project that I had started on my cargo trailer. Using the cargo trailer MIGHT improve aerodynamics, but would certainly allow me to leave my cargo locked in the trailer each night. Continue reading →

Note: This journal is printed as it was shared on my previous website at StealthTDI.com. It was updated periodically and followed by friends at TDIClub.com (before it was a registered site). As a result, it is written in a present tense even though the voyage happened over 20 years ago. I duplicated the journey on this site because it was a good trip and still referenced as a basis for some of my travel-related decisions today. Enjoy! -Scott

May 12, 1999

Windmill in Buzzards Bay, MA.

On May 18, 1999, my wife and I will transfer from Cape Cod, MA to West Texas. Instead of making the transfer a four-day 2400-mile “Point A to Point B” drive, we decided to make it a 5000+ mile tour and see some sites while we’re on the road. Our main goal is to drive to Montana to meet family members I have not seen since I was a toddler (in other words, I’ve never met them). We simply plotted our course to West Texas via Montana and chose points in between to visit along the way (or slightly out of the way). Continue reading →