Hello fellow M2ers,
I wanted to share my recent experience on a cross country journey from VA to NY to LA
! I know it's a very common trip, and this was the perfect opportunity to do it. It was already unreal to own the car, and it was surreal to gain the opportunity to drive across the US! (Really, I moved to LA for a new job, on short notice).
(I actually started from Northern Virginia, so add like another 300 miles)
I was kind of hesitant at first to drive 3000 miles, but hell, why the heck not. These cars are meant to be driven, and it is definitely not a garage queen. Plus, the M2 had better odds in terms of reliability (Compared to my 1er hah!). Some of you may know me from the 1addicts forum, or IG (@iamhnry), and I look forward to meet enthusiasts out here. Beware for photo overload (none of that photobucket bs).
So, the trip was kind of rushed, only because I was limited on time (dealing with move-in and start date, etc.). With a good amount of stops, we managed to get to California in exactly 4.5 days from Brooklyn, NY.
So I packed everything, left the 1er to a trusted friend, did some photoshoots with the M folks (@iceman7m, @m4mehdi, @day_laborer, @thebookofdom ).
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On Friday, I started my trip from Northern Virginia, and I made my way up to the Tri-State region. Spent the weekend with family and friends, even managed to do a couple of “final” shoots in the east coast. Bumped into @supadice, @p4ndam4, @m2driven, and @darthvaderm3 !
Sunday came too fast, and it was time to go. It wasn’t the most pleasant start either. I was still partially intoxicated/hungover, which led me to half-ass my effort on the Trakktape that went on the car. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a temporary clear bra, preferably used for track/autox sessions.
First leg of the trip was to Chicago, but due to the delay, we had to make a stop near Cleveland, and just get a full night’s rest. Monday morning, we headed out to Chicago to grab some deep dish pizza from the famous Giordano’s. It was almost a 2 hour wait, was it worth it? No. I mean, it was good, but it was too long of a wait.
Then we head out to Omaha. Honestly, I didn’t take many photos/videos for the beginning of the trip. It was pretty much all flatlands. I wish we could have taken more detours, if time allowed it.
Fast forward, and we now hit Colorado. This was probably my favorite state to drive through. The scenery here is unreal. The M2 also struggled to cold start, had to push on the gas to keep it alive. This was around 7000-8000ft. in altitude. Stopped by in Denver for some lunch, checked out the city, and immediately drove down to Colorado Springs.
We were lucky as we were the last car through Pike’s Peak. It roughly gave us an hour and half to drive all the up to the peak, and back down. I think I had to stop the car at least a dozen times for pictures. :P From the bottom to top, every minute of the view was breathtaking. Although having no guardrails near the peak was kinda scary, I’d go back there in a heartbeat! Pike’s Peak top altitude is around 14,000ft.
We stayed in Buena Vista for the night, and we continued to push our way to Aspen the next morning. I think we took route 82 to go through Mt. Elbert and Mt. Shimer. The altitude peaked around 12,000ft.
From Aspen, we decided to push for Las Vegas, rather than taking a detour to Grand Canyon/Zion. It seemed to out of the way, and we still had a long way to go. Since GC/Zion is fairly close to California, I figure we can make the trip happen another time.
Found some camo Jeeps. There was a gang of five, and the baby M was messing around
Not much happened to Utah. We got to Vegas around 9PM, grabbed some dinner, gambled a bit. Around 11-12, we decided to just plow through, and make our way to San Bernardino. I don’t regret doing that only because I wouldn’t know what the traffic situation be during the day time. Our final trip time was 3400 miles, and roughly 3000 miles took us exactly 4.5 days (NY to LA). The other 400 miles was VA to NY with some city driving, so I don’t really count that.
Trakktape taken off. There was a couple of residue spots, that might need some light buffing. Overall, I'm satisfied with the product. It did what it's supposed to do!
I’m fortunate that there was no issues. I don’t regret that I bought a DCT model (the 1er is 6spd
), and I couldn’t ask for a better car to drive cross country! Hope you enjoyed the read and the photos! I will have a video uploaded soon!