Race Across Missouri - Post #1

In five days time, I will be in a competition that spans the state of Missouri. At 9:30am local time, I will depart One Kansas City Place downtown for the St. Louis Arch in a 2011 Porsche Panamera. Justin Meyer, from the Kansas City International Airport will be headed to the same destination, but in a slightly different way. He will be taking a city bus to KCI, a Southwest Airlines flight to St. Louis, and then a city cab to the arch.

I don’t need to detract from air travel to extol the merits of driving. Simply put, I will be in a vehicle that has been designed to be luxurious, fun to drive, and above all, comfortable. These advantages all will be overshadowed by the fact that I am going to beat Justin, despite his ability to travel at speeds exceeding 400 miles per hour for a (small) part of the race. [Note- for those following along, I will be tracked by the good folks at Garmin to make sure I don’t break the speed limit, which would disqualify me]

Public transportation has its place, but at the heart of my win will be a victory for grand touring vehicles and the age old American road trip. We have the freedom to pack it all up and go wherever we want, without schedules and hassle is a spirit this country embodies.

Getting behind the wheel of a car of this caliber is an event in itself. Dr. Ferry Porsche, the founder of the company is famously quoted as saying “I could not buy the car of my dreams, so I decided to build it.” This is what the Porsche represents, dreams. Since a young boy I have dreamed about taking a cross country road trip in a car like this, with the sound of the engine and the open road. Win or lose (unlikely), this will be an experience that I will remember forever.

Can that be said for a bus, a coach class ticket, and a cab ride? I doubt it.

With due diligence, I write this post from a Chilis in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport, en route to a training session in Newport Beach, CA. Obviously I am taking to the friendly skies in an effort to get their quickly, but I can’t stop but wonder how many more memories I would gain if I was in the Porsche.

Expect more posts of the smack-talk variety in the coming days, but I will end the post with a single question: Despite the final result of the competition, have I already won?