We had to make a quick run to Boise last weekend. And because it was such a beautiful loop, I thought I would throw a trip report together.
After some continual prodding about picking up something to enjoy these beautiful Idaho back country roads, my good friend Don settled on a well sorted 1973 240z. He spent quite a bit of time figuring out "what" he wanted, then he had to find the one. I think he did pretty well. So Friday after slipping out of the office a bit early we hit the road from Coeur d'Alene on our way to Boise. The plan was to hop in my 911 (Frisco) Friday after work, get mostly to Boise, and slip in Saturday morning for the pick up. Followed by a stop off at the airport to grab the wives for the beautiful trip home.
Here's our planned loop.
We pretty much shot straight down US-95 with the goal of landing in McCall for the night. First the Lewison grade, and then Whitebird pass. Two great openers to our chosen route that has a total of 7 mountain passes. As we ran out of daylight, we pulled into the Hartland Inn in New Meadows instead of going all the way into McCall. This actually saved us a little backtracking the next morning. Pizza and beers across the street at Miss Kitty's Pizza was amazing. Over dinner we also learned this was the one year anniversary of the double murder of the owners of the Hartland Inn. (Crazy story if you want to google that.) I snuggled Frisco in tight to keep an eye on him and we hit the rack.
This was much like Christmas morning for Don, so we were up and out the door by 5:00am Slow picking down the grade into Glendale and Council as the animals were on the move. Rolled through Weiser and Fruitland before jumping on the dreaded I-84 heading to Nampa for the 8:00 pickup time. The only good thing about driving on the interstate is the speed limit. You can cover some ground.
I have to say there are so many joys of driving and old 911, but how it drives at speed is certainly one of them. The fact that a 54 year old car, rolling at 90, at 4000rpms, drives so straight, so tight and so comfortably, just makes me smile. My hand on my knee, with one finger on the wheel for some reason just blows my mind.
We made it to Nampa and spent 30-45 mins going over Don's new z. After some general 240z and 911 conversations we headed straight to the airport to pickup the wives. Not sure if we could have planned it much closer as we only waited about 4 mins in the cell lot before we got the call. Quick pickup then downtown for a nice lunch.
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