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March 25, 2014: Have arrived in Las Vegas for vehicle delivery.  Towbin Fiat was AWESOME (special call outs to Sica and Jerry) and the final paperwork was super easy (with fingerprints no less).  On a side note, it's hot here (89F) compared to home (10F when we left).  First stop Target for two cases of water and an extra flat repair kit just in case.  Have arrived at Brad's house in Vegas for a nice dinner out.  Hitting the road for Zion in the morning.

March 26, 2014: Easy drive up 15 from Vegas to Zion, and in the end we got to see Zion twice (read on).  The Abarth "Red" behaved nicely, we needed AC (which worked great) in the direct sun and the car handled crosswinds quite well at the 75 mph speed limit.  Zion was very nice and good to visit on a weekday as crowds were thin.  No need for AC at Zion as the temperatures dropped considerably with ominous clouds rolling in for the early afternoon.  The scenic drive was still open to cars (bus loop only after March 31) so we drove all the way into the canyon and walked partway up beyond the last parking lot (no hiking this trip and a good thing as the weather degraded quickly this day).  Not obvious from the pics but there were several rock climbers acending the cliff face with suitable equipment. Zion appears to be quite a hikers paradise, with an awful lot of loose rock to make things interesting.

Just as we were walking back to the car it started to rain, light at first, then it started coming down a bit harder so we decided to continue east on Route 9 through Zion, which includes a lot of nice shots, a road with numerous switchbacks and great views as well as a tunnel through the rock at the top.  We emerged on the far side around 4:00 and opted to run up to Bryce Canyon for a quick peek at the logistics before cutting across Route 14 to get back to Cedar City UT for the night. To make a short story shorter, we never made it to Bryce (at least not today).  Route 9 out of Zion was fine, just some light rain and 40F temperatures, we turned north on Route 89 and made good progress for about 20 minutes as Route 89 climbs to higher elevation.  This was about when the Abarth threw up a snowflake on the dash (ice warning) amd the ambient temps dropped from 40 to 37 to 33 to 31 over a short distance, all while going from rain to snow to more snow to white out. Hmmm, driving into a snowstorm in a 2wd car with 343 miles on the clock and no winter tires installed...  Suffice to say I did what any reasonable car enthusiest (not weather enthusiest) would do, which was reverse course and hightail it back to Zion where light rain was now moderate and 40F was now 35F, but no snow, took more pics, ate Thai food. Eventaully arrived in Cedar City UT safe and sound where there was a bit (maybe 1") of snow on the ground, but still very glad we did not attempt Route 14 today.  We will make a second try for Bryce in the AM.

March 27, 2014: Off to Bryce Canyon from Cedar CIty, first tried Route 14 but was clearly marked snow chains required until March 31, so went the long way around on Route 20, which was clear but heavily salted and had received about 3" of snow the night before (good thing we turned back yesterday).  The trip to Bryce was uneventful, nice views, almost no traffic. Staff at the Visitors center were some of the nicest people we have met so far, very friendly. Friends had told us in advance that when you first enter Bryce it looks lke thin forest land with some evidence of fires (lightning).  Its only when you get to the overlooks that you realize you are above 9,000 feet on top of the canyon.  What incredible views.  The pictures do not do the park justince, you will have to come see it for yourself.

March 27, 2014: We leave Bryce at noon to try to get back on schedule (Bryce was meant to be the latter half of (March 26).  Headed for Arches via Capitol Reef on Route 12 and then Route 24. This is a three hour trip through winding roads and over a small mountain but generally in the right direction toward Arches and better viwes than I70.  Capitol Reef has a separate scenic drive, but much of the park can be seen from Route 24.

We arrived at Arches late in the day at 6:00 pm, big state lots of distance to cover.  Arches is littered with large stone monuments and petrified sand dunes.  Good hiking territory. We will have to come back to see Canyon Lands, Moab and more of Arches some day.  Leaving Arches we took scenic route 128 up the east side of the park along the river to get back to I70 and on to Grand Junction CO.  What a beautiful drive this is, essentially a park in its own right, with numerous camping spots on the river that were all occupied.

March 28, 2014: Heading to Denver CO from Grand Junction CO. Not a long distance drive today as there are limited hotel options between Denver and Kansas City on the back end. Can you say, good thing we allocated plenty of time.  The trip started innocently enough on I70 with some really cool concrete highway engineering. We are on the lower deck and the upper is above us to the left.  We go around obstacles on the bottom following the Colorado River, the upper deck pokes through with small tunnels here and there, so far the weather is cool and calm.  Then we climb into the mountains and pass through Vail and into Breckenridge and the fun starts.  

We are now up at 9000 to 10,000 feet of elevation, the snow starts, not a hard accumulating snow but rather a light dusty white out with limited visibility.  We take this opportunity to exit and stop at Walmart for a few items and to decide whether to push on or take lunch and camp (and contemplate snow chains).  Ultimately we decide that the limited visibility is more fog than snow and we push on.  At the very summit of the passage to Denver (and a welcome dry tunnel for a bit) the roads are 2" deep with snow, ice and traffic, same on the backside of the tunnel.  You will notice that there are no pictures of the summit. I was driving, Kirsten documenting (but holding our breath), both us us slightly nervous about whether the tires on the Abarth might be considered "all season", good thing we opted for the 16" wheels and P7s, not the 17" with P zero tires. From the peak in the passage (Can you say holy crap, good thing we have some winter driving experience).  As we peak and head down, the car in front of us in another Fiat 500 in white.  We wave, they wave, we continue down the mountain where temperatures quickly rise and the snow eventually stops.  In some of the early pics, note the height of the snowbanks (where there were none earlier), big snow that we apparently missed the day before (i.e. the same snow event that delayed us in the transition from Zion to Bryce).  Ok back to having managed the passage, we start on a downhill zipline to Denver dropping from over 10,000 feet to about 5,000 feet. A few thrilling moments as trucks try to conserve their brakes. 

We arrive in Denver at 2:30 pm and head straight to the Wings Over The Rockies Air and Space Museum as many of the museums in Denver close at 5:00 pm, I mean all of them (and its Friday night).  www.wingsmuseum.org  Other options were the natural history museum (closes at 4:30) and the Forney transportation museum (which closes at 4:00). Given that the Air Force Academy is not far away we chose Wings, although there was very little mention of the Academy.  Last two pics show the Abarth dirty from the trip, clean after (best $6 spent).

March 29, 2014: Heading from Denver CO to Kansas City MO, a 600 mile monotonous run at 75 mph with plenty of trucks and plenty of cross wind!  The Abarth had no trouble with the wind at all, but passing an 18 wheeler in the wind is punch it and pass, each and every time, as they are using all of their lane and a bit of the passing lane for good measure. Every truck was 100% accomodating, most of the trouble was merging cars (what does yield mean?). We did see hundreds of wind turbines and ... what is either slash and burn farming (for biochar) or terrible accidental fires, is either case very poor air quality around Topeka and the car still smells like smoke. Passed by a Lamborghini, but only by an extra 1 mph, we were both pretty cautious.

March 30, 2014: Sunday morning at the WWI Memorial in KC.  What a wonderful facility, top notch displays, great staff, learned more about WWI in a few hours than I ever did in school.  The primary layout includes a timeline (one section before the US involvement, one section after) for the conflict with monthly panels and within those, weekly events during the war. Included was a lift ride to the top of the Liberty tower for a sky high view of KC. Proctors indicated that only about 12% of the current collection was on display and that the collection was growing larger every year. 9 million perished in WWI, 21 million wounded, all US soldiers have passed as we are now at the 100 yr anniversary of (the start of) WWI. Perhaps the only haunting aspect (of both WWI and WWII) is that it was only 100 years ago but memories are fading fast. Well worth a visit if you are in KC.

March 30, 2014: Sunday evening in St. Louis MO, dinner with our friends Dan and Beth.  Dan gave us a bit of a neighborhood tour, cool brick brownstones, lots of character. The Abarth continues to perform well, really feels a lot bigger on the inside, but then again I am in the front seats and not in the back.  We have the rear seats folded down in any event for our stuff, plenty of room for two people travelling. Also, very easy to park.

March 31, 2014: Headed to the Arch in the AM, which includes the museum of westward expansion.  At one time St. Louis was the largest western city, the "gateway" to the west.  Now Kansas City and Denver exist, but St. Louis still marks a steep rise in population density, your not in Kansas anymore.  The Arch is the obvious landwark in StL.and was popular.  We took a quick ride to the top, good view but too crowded in such a small space.  The museum was informative, a lot of timeline information to cover (1800 to 1900), Lewis and Clark, decimation of the indiginous people and last but not least, the buffalo.

April 1, 2014: April Fools Day (nothing happened, no fools were fooled).  We did swing down to Nashville to see Kirsten's Brother Neil, his wife Pamela and PAtrick, Bitsy and Noah. Has been a long time, good company, good wine, good food (Thanks Pamela).  Let me start again by saying that I am not a coutry music fan, no hatred, but no love either.  The weather on the other hand was gorgeous and a welcome respite from the cold we have been chasing and running from.  So we wandered to downtown Nashville but it's pretty much all bars on the main drag and its 10 AM so not useful.  We optedt to make a quick visit to the Tennessee State Museum, which had good exibits on Indian artifacts and the Civil War (both Confederate and Union).  The only thing lacking was a timeline as the museum more or less lumped the entire past together as the past. It was free, so you cant beat the price.  It was worth the trip.

We then headed Northeasst to Bowling Green to visit the Corvette assembly plant and the Nathional Corvette Museum where the current C7 corvette is in production. Alas no pictures of the plant as cameras are verboten.  Took some pictures at the museum including some carnage from the sink hole (god thing that happened at night when nobody was around, lucky).  Seems the fall did not do all that much damage, but sad to be the corvette at the bottom of the pick pile.  The first corvette recovered (Blue) was scratched but whole, again for the second (maroon) and even the third (black), these cars might live again.  The fourth (white) is a maybe, maybe not, the fifth is scrap and the sixth is scrap as well (tough to be on the bottom).  One or two more still in the pit.  Sigh, we had lunch and tried to pick our favorite color on the new C7 (lots of black trim make this a challenge).

April 2, 3, 4, 2014: There is a time in a road trip where you figure out you are getting close to home and the will to finish the trip prevails.  From this point onwards we did visit friends but no more national parks or museums.  Final stops included a night in Lexington KY next to the Red Mile, mostly to shorten the next driving leg. We stayed over in Morgantown WV with Nigel and Cheryl and in Philadelphia with Chuck and Cathy, all good friends that we don't get to see as often as we would like.  One last short pitstop in Vernon CT to see Danny at Fun Imported Auto and Toys (FIAT) and then about two hours flat to get home. Danny was with me in LA, Bakersfield and Vegas when I first purchased the Red Abarth.  I am also pulling together my revew thoughts on the Abarth, but after 3,600 miles behind the wheel I can safely say the review will be favorable. Seats were comfortable, no back pain although the fixed headrests are a tad too forward.  Vehicle stability was excellent, far better that I would have expected with such a short wheelbase. 

Purchase of an Abarth comes with a one day session at the "Abarth track experience" and I will add that to the trip blog as well as the first AutoX for Red.  Be well everyone.

Copyright 2014