Norcal Convoy(s) to Camaro5fest route discussion

[Mindz]

Alright norcal people (Tracy, Gilroy and north), the hour draws near when we'll be rolling down the state in formation making mustangs and challengers hide in their garages. The main questions that present themselves are below. Please respond with your preferrences to the questions:

1.) When do we want to leave? The trip is 13 hours if we take the 99, hit no traffic, don't stop for gas or food. If you factor in gassing up twice, and making one stop for food (being generous at only an hour), most likely we'll be on the road for 16 hours out of the day. This means if we leave at 4am, we'll arrive at the hotel(s) at midnight. We can also leave at say midnight between wednesday/thursday and drive down to meet the bakersfield people around 5-6am, then continue from there. We'd make the host hotel before the meet and greet.


2.) Do we want to plan a stop for dinner or get fast food/pre-ordered pizza? We can cut down on time if we grab fast food, or a bunch of pizzas that were ordered ahead of time and are ready so we can just go in, eat and leave asap to get back on the road. If we do fast food, each meal will be cooked one by one unless we spread out to different fast food places and the people in the back of the caravan will nd up eating in their car trying to rush to keep up with the people who ate first. Parking becomes a factor here as does people not wanting to eat in their cars.

3.) Do we just want to make this a 2 day trip and spend the night at a hotel?

What I'm thinking in my head is the bay area crew leaving at 5am from San Mateo and taking 580 east out to the 5 south. During this time, the Sacramento people would be leaving Sac area and heading South to meet us or down to bakersfield to catch up with us there.

We would find a truck stop that has Shell/Chevron/76 Gasoline just outside of Bakersfield and be stopping there for gas, where the Bakersfield people would meet us.

After everyone is topped off, we'll continue on our route as a big caravan across the 58 to the 395 to the 215 where we'd meet up with the SoCal guys at Cabazon and then all stop for gas one more time as the full California carvan before finishing up our journey.




Updated with one day trip plan:

Originally Posted by IBM/2SS/RS/LS3

We need to plan everything ass backwards..

If we need to be in Chandler for the Meet and greet at 7:30 we should plan on being there no later than 6-6:30

.

So lets plan backwards based on that time and allow for commute traffic in the Phoenix area that someone mentioned.

Pleasanton to Bako (fuel up) is 260 miles (EB 580 - EB 205 - NB 5 - EB 120 - SB 99) picking up Sac, Modesto/Merced and Fresno (break) and Bako (fuel) (4 1/2 hrs to be safe).

Bako to Cabazon is 205 miles ( EB 58 - SB 395 - SB 15/215 - EB 10) meeting with SoCal (4 hrs/safe)

30-45 minute break (fuel up)

Cabazon to Quartzsite AZ (93 octane) is 160 miles (EB 10) 80 MPH is 2 hrs (cause there's nothing out here.....)

Quartzsite AZ (fuel up) to Chandler (Courtyard/Marriot) is 150 miles (EB 10) 80 MPH is 2 hrs but figure in traffic in Phoenix, so 2.5 hrs

13ish hours to be there by 6-6:30 puts us leaving Pleasanton by no later than 5AM. So Depart at 5AM, hook up with Sac in Manteca at 5:30; hit Fresno around 7:15-7:30, leave Bako around 9:30, Cabazon around 1:30, leave by 2 to make Quartzsite by 4 and then onto Chandler by 6-6:30 depending on traffic.

So it looks like we will get to the Casino around 1-1:30. I way over estimated the time from Pleasanton to Cabazon but we'll see how long the gas/breaks/meets take.

[Revo1]

Becka's already got a meeting spot picked out, so give her or myself a call when you have an ETA for us J, and we'll roll on to meet ya! Can't wait!!

[Redemption]

I think planning the stops is important. That's a pretty long haul, and fatigue will play a roll. (Just being honest, but once it gets dark, and its been a full day of driving, I have a hard time!)

SO that being said, a dinner stop/break for an hour makes sense to me.

Im not much help on WHERE and WHEN, cause everything south of Bakersfield is "L.A." to me LOL sorry Socal! And Ive never taken that route east.


Need to get some matching walkie/talkies!

[Mindz]

Originally Posted by Redemption

I think planning the stops is important. That's a pretty long haul, and fatigue will play a roll. (Just being honest, but once it gets dark, and its been a full day of driving, I have a hard time!)

SO that being said, a dinner stop/break for an hour makes sense to me.

Im not much help on WHERE and WHEN, cause everything south of Bakersfield is "L.A." to me LOL sorry Socal! And Ive never taken that route east.


Need to get some matching walkie/talkies!

I'm sure that quite a few of us will be buying walkie talkies soon.

If we stop at a sit down restaurant, most likely dinner will take us 2 hours or longer. I'm guessing at least 30 people from norcal/cencal and a sit down restaurant cooking 30 meals after taking orders, after seating us, etc. will be a long time. I have no problems doing that, but we'll need to plan ahead of it.

[Redemption]

Ya, thats what I was trying to say....Long day today...

Finding an area that has several places to eat, so we can split up. And keep the amount of time down.

[Silver2SSRS6spd]

There's no way I can make that trip in one day so will meet you all in socal I plan on leaving a day early and can take my time getting up the next morning with some Starbucks while I wait for you all to get down there. Are you planning on hooking up with the social caravan? My guess is that they will not want to wait for us since they could leave earlier and get to phx at a decent time. They will all be wasted from partying by the time we get there. I will leave on the same day as all of you for the way back and drive as long as I can with a day to spare in case I need to stop halfway. I can't wait!

[IBM/2SS/RS/LS3]

Gonna need a lot of for that drive..

Are we talking FRS radios? And stopping about every 3 hours to stretch/restroom should be about right..

[Mindz]

Most likely a stop new Bakersfield and then another one at Cabazon to rendesvouz with the SoCal group. Then onto the AZ border. I'm talking with Tribone today and tomorrow to figure out the plans from Cabazon.

FRS radios?

[IBM/2SS/RS/LS3]

Family Radio Service.

I've got 2 of these I use while camping/riding.

[Revo1]

As long as we can all get on the same band, IAG

[WiccaJew]

I am down for whatever

[urr2slo]

Originally Posted by Mindz

Alright norcal people (Tracy, Gilroy and north), the hour draws near when we'll be rolling down the state in formation making mustangs and challengers hide in their garages. The main questions that present themselves are below. Please respond with your preferrences to the questions:

1.) When do we want to leave? The trip is 13 hours if we take the 99, hit no traffic, don't stop for gas or food. If you factor in gassing up twice, and making one stop for food (being generous at only an hour), most likely we'll be on the road for 16 hours out of the day. This means if we leave at 4am, we'll arrive at the hotel(s) at 1am including the hour we lose from the time zone change.

2.) Do we want to plan a stop for dinner or get fast food/pre-ordered pizza? We can cut down on time if we grab fast food, or a bunch of pizzas that were ordered ahead of time and are ready so we can just go in, eat and leave asap to get back on the road. If we do fast food, each meal will be cooked one by one unless we spread out to different fast food places and the people in the back of the caravan will end up eating in their car trying to rush to keep up with the people who ate first. Parking becomes a factor here as does people not wanting to eat in their cars.



What I'm thinking in my head is the bay area crew leaving at 5am from San Mateo and taking 580 east out to near Manteca and hopping on the 99. During this time, the Sacramento people would be leaving Sac area and heading South to meet us.

As we pass through modesto, I would call that area's convoy leader, who would lead their group to the 99 and get on the freeway around the time that we are there and have them just join up with the caravan without making a stop.

Same thing happening at Fresno.

We would find a truck stop that has Shell/Chevron/76 Gasoline just outside of Bakersfield and be stopping there for gas, where the Bakersfield people would meet us.

After everyone is topped off, we'll continue on our route as a big caravan. We'd meet up with the Southern California crew along the 215 or the 10 and then all stop for gas one more time as the full California carvan before finishing up our journey.

hey mindz, as you know ive been spending alot of time in the bay area lately, i recently did the run from milpitas to chandler, in the slade no less.
just over 11 hours, 3 gas stops, grab food while getting gas, ate there since no food goes in my car. left at 1am, missed the l.a. basin rush hour traffic that way, was able to make good time down the 5 since the chp doesnt have the air planes in the air at night and once in socal i knew were the speed traps are along the 210 and 10, i was at my friends house shortly after lunch time, missed phx rush hour as well.

the key to making time will be when you take off, 4am is going to kill you thru l.a. as well as spread everybody out and will put you in phx rush hour which sucks hard core as well.
leave bay area at 1am, have people join the convoy along the way, spread out the fuel stops along the way starting about 40 miles before the grapevine, no more than 10 cars per stop, by the time you hit the grapevine everybody should be catching up to who ever is the lead pack, they can grab something to munch on and coffee/monsters at that point, everybody should have enough fuel at that point to make it to morongo casino, large parking lot to accomadate 100's of car, multiple gas stations to top off as needed, and fast food, should be arriving between 7:30 and 8:30, have everybody ready to pull out by 8:45 that would put the group in quartzsite az around 11am, top off with gas there, about .35 cents a gallon cheaper, several large gas stations there to accomadate large groups of cars, if spread out evenly max 30 min for everyone to top off, that puts the lead pack in phx by 2 and the stragglers by 3:30.
the key to driving fast and taking chances is theres safety in #'s, theres only so many chp units in the morning and they can only stop a few at best.
our cruise to the duel in the desert in october saw several large packs traveling at high speeds and no one got stopped, but on the way home i heard of 1 lone camaro that got popped at 103 mph, he was rolling alone.
i will probably be leaving for the fest on wends, have friends and family i want to spend some time with, but i'm leaving at 1am to be there by lunch time again.
we should plan a return cruise as well, sunday 5am departure time will put us back in the bay area around 6pm. no rush hours to contend with.
let me know if i can help you with logistics. i'll be in the bay area for a good part of feb.

[RedDragon]

Just to clear things up are we taking the 58 East from Bakersfield to the 395 south which ties into the 15?

[IBM/2SS/RS/LS3]

Originally Posted by Mindz

1.) When do we want to leave? The trip is 13 hours if we take the 99, hit no traffic, don't stop for gas or food. If you factor in gassing up twice, and making one stop for food (being generous at only an hour), most likely we'll be on the road for 16 hours out of the day. This means if we leave at 4am, we'll arrive at the hotel(s) at 1am including the hour we lose from the time zone change.

the math is no bueno... If we leave at 4am and on the road for 16 hours + the 1 hour time difference... We'd be there at 9pm.

And are we leaving Wednesday or Thursday cause it looks like Thursday is just for vendor set up.

Looks like we need to be there no later than 6pm on Thursday.

Thursday’s Schedule (April 14th, 2011)
8:15 am - 5:00 pm: Sponsor/Vendor setup at Firebird.
7:30 pm: Meet and greet at host hotel.

Friday’s Schedule (April 15th, 2011)
10:00 am - 1:00 pm: Test and tune.
10:00 am - 1:00 pm: AutoX Open laps (Pedders USA)
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Qualifying for Saturday’s drag races
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Qualifying for Saturday’s Autox races (Pedders USA)
8:30 am - 5:00 pm: Pfadt - High Performance Drivers Education Track Attack

Saturday’s Schedule (April 16th, 2011)
10:00 am – 1:00 pm: Test and tune
10:00 am – 1:00 pm: AutoX Open laps and grudge races (Pedders USA)
2:00 pm - 4:00 Pm Car show
4:00 pm: Bracket racing / Exhibitions / Grudge races
4:00 pm: AutoX Trials (Pedders USA)
8:00 pm: Trophy presentations

Sunday’s Schedule (April 17th, 2011)
9:00 am: Breakfast (Host Hotel Banquet Hall)