Ruby — the 3.2 Carrera — my son Brayden, and I broke the run from Ashland, Oregon to Boise into two segments. First leg: Ashland to Bend. Easy day, an excuse to see my oldest daughter and our granddaughter, dinner, an early night downtown.
Up before the city the next morning. Four hours of straight blast across eastern Oregon — open desert, scarce towns, scarce fuel stops, well outside any AAA tow radius. The trust in the car was high. She ran smooth across the sage-filled flats. The landscape shifts at the Idaho border — the road widens from two lanes to four, and the metropolis Boise has become rises up. We made great time.
Park Place
Got to the hotel, cleaned up, headed over to the evening event hosted by Park Place in Boise. Great cars, great people, great food. Got a few minutes with the famed Nathan Merz of the Seattle-area PCA — quiet legend. Ruby kept good company in the lot.
The show
Bright and early Saturday for the main event — Idaho Air Cars & Coffee, the air-cooled Porsche gathering. The turnout was epic. Over 150 air-cooled cars, weather that cooperated, a morning that disappeared the way good ones do.
Detour to McCall
As the show wound down we connected with the PCA crew out of Spokane — they were headed up to McCall and waved us in. A long rip through the mountains north of Boise with great roads and great people. Made some good new friends on that run. Back to Boise that night, food, a solid night of sleep at the hotel, ready for the long day home.
The long way home
Sunday was the one-day push: Boise to Ashland in a single leg. The desolate kind of West Coast country — the kind you can put an air-cooled car through if you trust it. Ruby was running great so we took the road less traveled — skipped Bend, cut south through Lakeview, saved an hour and a half.
Miles of sagebrush. Mostly straight, the occasional good corner, almost no Oregon state troopers to keep us honest. Record time. Pulled into Ashland just as a thunderstorm rolled in to wash the bugs off the car.
Thanks
Can't thank Kelly and his wife enough for putting on the show. Great event, great people. We'll definitely be back next year.
Want to find more events like Idaho Air? Check out pcarfolk.com — track days, rallies, cars and coffee, updated weekly.
— Shane