From: Nick Turner [nturner@cytec-ate.com]

Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 2:27 PM

To: chris guyer



Hey Chris!



Made it back in one piece and never tired of driving the thing.  

Here is the most interesting stories from the trip back:



Left Springfield and headed north.  Ended up taking route 2 

west to get over into KS.  Very fun road, little traveled 

and in good shape w/ 60 mph speed limits so I made good time.  

Met up with my friends in a little bar in Emporia.  

Had a couple beers and then went down the street for Mexican food.  

Left there with my buddy Doug leading me back to his house 

in his Suburban.  We entered a hwy and I decided to show off a bit 

and passed him in third doing about 85.  As I came around him and 

came back into his lane I tried to grab 4th and found 2nd instead.  

The rears skidded and the Viper went sideways but I hit the clutch, 

straightened her out and found 3rd (and my heart) again.  

My buddy and his wife thought I was actually getting her sideways 

on purpose at 90 and were both very impressed by both the car 

and my testicular fortitude.  I probably should have just let him 

believe it but I admitted my mistake and we all had a good laugh.  

I stayed the night at his house, and took off again the next morning.



So I'm headed across Missouri doing about 75-80 and I'm coming up 

on a minvan and a semi doing about 70.  I move left to pass as I 

notice three bikers coming up in the left lane doing about 95.  

I figure I can get around ahead of them until as I'm about to pass 

the minivan it decides to pass the semi and moves over in front of me.  

I back off but the bikes are having none of that so they go into the 

right lane and try to shot the gap between the minivan and the semi.  

The first guy makes it through just as the minivan gets to the back 

end of the semi.  The second and third guys say "what the hell" 

and go for it as well figuring that they can pass through the three feet 

between the van and semi.  I had already backed off and now the minivan 

freaks and hits the brakes while swerving onto the shoulder 

and almost lost it.  The bikes fly through and take off and the minivan 

finally gets around the semi and gets out of my way.   Now I have the bikes 

running a quarter mile ahead of me so I figure I can run a bit faster 

and take it up to about 90.  About a mile later I see a brand new 

Cadillac XLR start to take an off ramp then change his mind.  

I come by him at 85 and about 10 seconds later he came 

around me going about 100.  I dropped it a gear and took off after him.  

I was coming up on him at about 125 when he took off again.  

I finally hit 6th gear (only time on the whole trip) 

and was still gaining on him despite his best effort when we ran into 

a pile of traffic and we both slowed down.  He moved over to the right 

and I pulled up to see the guy driving and it's a guy about 65 years old 

decked out in a nice suit and hat.  A bit later he passed me again 

going slow and he had another guy about 45 all dressed up next to him.  

That guy gave me the universal guy nod of approval and we took turns 

chasing each other down the road for the next couple of miles.  

By that time we had caught up to the bikes who were still running 

at 90 - 95 mph.  We hit Columbia MO about 5 mile later, slowed down, 

lost the bikes and we're running through town at the speed limit when 

I see the Caddy hit the brakes and start heading for an exit.  I look 

into my rear view mirror and all I can see are the toggling high beams 

of a state patrol car.  I figure he's wanting to pass but as I move over 

he follows so I give up and pull over.  He's gathering my license and 

insurance paperwork and asking me the normal array of questions and I 

finally ask if there was a reason he pulled me over.  He smiles grimly 

and says "You don't know?  How about for racing that Caddy 10 miles back?".  

I think for a few seconds as I panic and stammer out "Well, we were running 

along together but I don't really think it was what you'd call racing".  

He looks at me and say "Well, the state of Missori's highway patrol 

sure considers what you were doing racing!" and then he walks back to

his car to run my papers.  Now I'm pissed and a bit worried.  

In Colorado the official charge for racing was "Speed contest" 

and was a 12 point violation which meant going 

before a judge and automatic suspension of your license for a year.  

Lord knows what they do to New Yorkers in MO for such an offense.  

I'm picturing a huge fine at a minimum and the dreaded phone call 

to my wife who had already expressed dismay at the thought of traveling 

to get me out of jail.  I think her exact words were "I had better not have 

to come and get your &%$#@*^ing butt out of jail somewhere between 

here and there!".



I also found myself wondering how the two guys in the Caddilac 

were making out and whether the bikers were pulled over as well.  

I never saw the police actually going after the Caddy and the bikers 

would be somewhere up ahead.  But about that time the officer returned 

and handed me my license and paperwork back along with another sheet of paper.  

"This sheet explains the amount of fines for traffic violations 

in the state of Missouri, and how you will need to complete the paperwork 

and where you can send the fine if you decide to plead guilty rather than 

return here for your court date."  I already felt a sense of relief knowing 

that I would just be looking at a rather large fine.  Then he launched into a 

stern lecture about how an airbag isn't going to save me at over 100 mph 

and how we were endangering everyone else on the road so now I'm feeling 

like a little kid as I nod politely in agreement.  Then he hands me a 

piece of yellow paper and says "and finally, this is an official warning slip 

from the state of Missouri.  Have a nice day."  

I took a second to sink in that I wasn't actually getting a ticket.  

I yelled "Thanks!" as he walked away and then took off again.  

I was probably a couple miles down the road before I picked the warning slip 

up again to make sure I was reading it right.  It occurred to me later that 

someone had probably called it in on a cell phone and they couldn't 

actually prove we were speeding or they would have nailed us to the wall 

but I don't really care.  Whatever the reason, karma was with me at that moment 

and I was a happy man.



About 30 miles later the bikes came up behind me again with girls on the back.  

They were still going 95.  I'm optimistic that they lucked out and 

were off the road when the troopers were looking for everyone.  

One guy slowed down when he came up next to me, pulled his clutch in and 

gunned it a bit while he looked over at me.  I held up the warning ticket 

and he just smiled and took off.  Then right as I came to St. Louis 

I heard a couple of beeps and the Caddy was next to me again.  

The passenger gave me a big grin and nodded again in approval 

so I'm assuming they were let off with a warning as well.  

I gave them a thumbs up and they took an exit a few miles later.



The rest of the trip was fun but rather dull as I kept it within 

10 mph of the speed limit.  Hit a pothole half way across Indiana 

that I thought might have took out the right front.  I never saw it 

till it was too late because of a truck in front of me.  

Man did it scare the crap out of me!  Seems fine though.  

Stopped in Northern Ohio at midnight when I started getting highway eyes 

and couldn't focus anywhere but 500 ft straight ahead of me.  

It had started to rain and I discovered that Viper wipers are 

functionally useless above 30 mph.  It didn't really matter cause the rain 

just runs off the windshield anyway so you don't really need wipers.  

I found a hotel room and fell asleep but woke up at 4:00 AM wide awake 

so I took off again.  The first bug hit the windshield right as I saw the 

"Welcome to NY!" sign.  Made it home by 10:00 AM Sunday morning but had to stop 

and give her a bath before showing her off to the family.  



All in all a very fun trip.  Love the car and never did get sick of driving it.  

Very comfortable and purred like a kitten.  Stereo is a piece of crap but just 

provides background noise for the exhaust and wind noise anyway so I 

left it off most of the time.  Can't get over how it just keeps accelerating 

at high speeds.  I have no idea if I'll ever find that point where it starts 

falling off.  It occurred to me that I was more uncomfortable driving the rental car 

2.5 hrs from KC than I was in the Viper after 14 hrs behind the wheel.





I enjoyed meeting you and Clancy (sp-Yancey).  Thanks for the e-mails!  

I find something decent to send once I get settled back in!



All for now....



Nick