Story: "Mustangs Across America" Road Trip.

“Mustangs Across America” By Darwin D. Dirks

As I’m putting the car cleaning supplies away, and doing a little straightening up around the garage, a bit of memorialabilia catches my attention. It’s the window placard from our participation in “Mustangs Across America”. That was a great trip we took in our 2003 Mustang Cobra.
In April of 2004, a special cross country trip took place, that had been organized by a group of Mustang guys from the Phoenix area. The plan was to organize a convoy of Mustangs to travel from Southern California to the 40th anniversary Mustang celebration in Nashville. They had done this in the past for other special Mustang occasions, and they knew good participation for the 40th anniversary would be assured. I had pre-registered months ahead of time, and had made all the hotel reservations, and such, for my wife Jackie and I to join the fun.
The planned route would follow Interstate 40 from Southern California to Nashville, with pre-arranged nightly stops and activities along the way. Other Mustangs, from all over the country would join the procession along the route. The convoy would grow from the original, maybe 50 cars, leaving California, to around 500 by the time they roll into Nashville five days later. Several people came from overseas to be part of it. Some people actually drove across the country to California, just to make the complete trip with the group. Jackie and I would join the group, at the lunch stop in Needles, California on the first day. Though our schedule prevented us from making the entire trip, we wanted to be part of it for a couple of days.
The Cobra was cleaned, gassed, and packed, and we left Northern Utah headed south. We stayed over the first night at my Mom’s place in Mesquite, Nevada, and headed for Needles the next morning. The weather was beautiful, the drive was great, and we arrived at the designated lunch stop in Needles about 15 to 20 minutes ahead of the Mustang convoy from California. We found the perfect parking spot, ordered our lunch, and sat down to eat and watch the show. All at once Mustangs started coming off the freeway exit, and were everywhere. Every thing from early “65” originals, to late model customs. There were Shelbys, Mach 1s, SVT Cobras, and many other special models as well. Two cars were there from New Zealand, covered with the sponsorship decals from the supporters who had contributed to their quest to be part of “Mustangs Across America”.
The first two guys I talked to had come all the way from Australia. It was too costly to ship their own Mustangs from Australia, so they had rented a V6 Mustang in California. It was interesting to talk with “car guys” from half way around the world, they had pictures of their, right hand drive, Mustangs from back home. I talked cars with them for over a half hour, it was great.
When everybody was fed, and gassed up, the convoy started to form up and head back out on the freeway toward Kingman and Flagstaff, Arizona. It was quite a sight to be a part of that long line of Mustangs cruising down the freeway. Some would go on ahead, and stop to take pictures as the rest of the group would come by. Others would conduct the occasional brief acceleration contest with their fellow cruisers.

Note: Checkout “Mustangs Across America” on the internet for many great pictures of the 2004 trip.

We went ahead at one point, and stopped at a rest area, and watched as the main convoy came by. Some of the stops were pre-planned, others weren’t, but we all arrived later in the day at the hotels in Flagstaff for the evening layover. There were Mustangs all over town that night, at every restaurant, gas station, and several hotels. We spent the night, and attended the drivers meeting the next morning. The plan was to parade through town, and back onto eastbound Interstate 40 at the other end of the city. That’s where we would leave the group and head north, back toward Utah.
As we left Flagstaff, and out across the desert of northern Arizona, it was early on a Monday morning, and traffic was very light. The Mustang was running very good in the cool dry air, and I was anxious to open it up a little and let her run. Jackie was starting to work on a cross-stitch project she had brought along, and the CD player was providing some of our favorite music. My radar detector was on, as usual, and was not picking up anything, perfect situation to really do some cruising.
The area is wide open, with low hills, and long valleys, where you can see the road clearly, sometimes for two or three miles ahead. As was my usual practice, I was traveling five to seven miles per hour over the posted limit. When I would crest a hill, and could see no other traffic through the next valley, I would quickly gain speed going down into the valley. I would get up to 100 or 120 MPH across the flat, and let off as I approached the other side, to let the speed drop naturally as I climbed the next hill. That way I would be back to safe speed as I crest the hill, incase the local lawman should be waiting on the other side. This routine would be repeated many more times as we traveled across the open desert of northern Arizona, unless there was other traffic present, or the radar detector indicated the highway patrol was in the vicinity. On some of the longer valleys I was reaching 130 MPH, but the added wind noise would prompt Jackie to comment; “going a little fast, aren’t we”? , and I would slow down again, for awhile.
Coming down from the Jacob Lake area, near the Arizona-Utah border, there is a long stretch where you can see for several miles, and the road is pretty straight and flat. I thought it looked like a good place to try a little higher speed. I kept increasing speed, and was cruising along at 140 MPH, when the wind noise, and the suspension settling hard through a shallow dip in the highway, prompted an even harsher response from my wife; “slow down, you know I don’t like this”. I obeyed. As the speed fell back closer to the legal limit, I’m wondering what the fine is for going twice the speed limit? I don’t think I want to find out. The car goes so fast, so easy, you can’t resist letting it run once in awhile.
Twenty or so miles up the road, it was time for a fuel, snacks, and bathroom stop in Kanab, Utah. As we pulled into town, I was telling Jackie that the gas mileage probably wouldn’t be very good on this tank full, because of all the high speed driving. I was very surprised to discover it made 26.5 miles per gallon, as good as it had ever done. I guess the gradual increase going down hills, even though I was traveling at high speeds across the flats, was off set by coasting up the hills. Anyway, is sure didn’t hurt the gas mileage.
The rest of the trip home was accomplished at more normal speeds. The traffic was heavier, and there aren’t as many wide open stretches of highway, as in Northern Arizona. Plenty of time to reflect on the experience of participating in “Mustangs Across America”, meeting the Australians, and pushing the speed envelope in the open desert. What a fun trip. The best part is the time spent with “the loves of my life”. And, Jackie, I mean you first, the Mustang Cobra second. . . “Really”!