My 4,000 Mile Winter Expedition in the F10 M5

[RPiM5]

"Nothing burns like the cold."

- George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Well Lady and Gents, this is it. I successfully completed an almost 4,000 mile winter journey from Washington, D.C. to San Diego, CA last month and now that I'm pretty much set up in my new (old) life back here in Sunny Southern California, I finally had some time to do a little media editing for your viewing pleasure. I'm going to do this one a little different this time. I actually don't have as much media for this trip as I did for the first time I crossed the United States in the M5, for a few reasons. Number 1 it was extremely cold, number 2 my media equipment failed on me quite a bit, and number 3 it was so cold! So I'm just going to give a brief synopsis of the trip and let you view all the pictures in order, but there aren't as many as last time.

I stretched the trip out to 11 days total. I left Washington D.C. on Friday Feb 12th and drove up to Springfield, Pennsylvannia that night. From there I made it up to Toronto Canada and stopped at Niagara Falls along the way. I then drove from Toronto around the Great Lakes and stayed the night in Sault Ste. Marie, CAN. Next stop was Minneapolis, MN, and then the next day drove straight to Rapid City, South Dakota. After taking in the sights around South Dakota I then made my way south to Casper, Wyoming for a short drive. Left Casper early in the morning and made it all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah and spent 2 nights there. Then it was easy driving down to Las Vegas, NV where I spent 2 nights as well. The final stretch from Vegas down to San Diego was a blast and very surreal for me, I had been away for nearly 3 years.

The whole trip went pretty smoothly with one minor hiccup. No speeding tickets and no flat tires thankfully though. The toughest parts were the drive up from DC to Pennsylvania as there was a major snow storm that moved across the state from the NorthWest to the SouthEast, along with the drive through Wyoming and Eastern Utah. That night of Feb 12th it was snowing quite a bit and I really put my Michelin Pilot Alpins to work. This was the same snow storm that caused a catastrophic pile up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

When I got up to Niagara Falls, it was -5 degrees F outside and I have never felt that kind of cold before. The whole time I was in Toronto it felt like -30 degrees with the wind chill factor. Every morning, I would get the battery low charge warning on the M5, and prayed that there was enough juice to start the engine, thankfully there always was. Toronto was cool, but I thought that everyone drives like maniacs there. They have really tough driving laws in Canada, but it seemed to me like no one cared and I never saw the police pull anyone over.

The drive up the Trans-Canada highway was scenic and cold. I stopped in Sudbury, Canada to gas up and get some food, there was still a ton of snow everywhere, luckily all the roads were well plowed and the weather was sunny. While on the Trans-Canada highway, I stopped a local store to get a snack and take some shots with the M5 and some Snowmobiles parked outside. I walked in there and the guy behind the counter said to me "Oh, yer not from around here eh?" Lol! I bought a couple of souvenirs and jetted. I reached Sault Ste. Marie in good time, but the Canadian police were following me around for a while. They must have been checking the M5 out.

Crossed the border back into the U.S. without any problems (was worried about the straightpipes) and stopped to get some American food. That was one thing I noticed up there in Canada, that there weren't really any good places to eat. Anyways, I hit the road and what do ya know it started to snow quite a bit again. I took a short cut between 2 major highways and ended up going through the Hiawatha State Forest in upper Michigan. What a beautiful place in the winter. Of course it was only me out there, so DSC button came off and I was off to drifting in the snow for the next 50 miles. Absolutely too much fun! AWD my ass, the M5 doesn't need it!

Got to Minneapolis and was dead tired so all I did was rest and hit the road the next morning. Driving through Western Minnesota and Eastern South Dakota is very boring but I happy to at least see the snow tapering off as I drove further west into South Dakota. I did get lasered once in Minnesota and I just laughed as I drove by, that was probably the most exciting thing that happened that leg.

South Dakota was nice, weather started to feel warm again, but there were pretty much zero tourists at Mt. Rushmore, with it being the off season and all. So I did what any enterprising M5 driver would do, I made the maximum use of the empty windy roads. It wasn't until I got to South Western South Dakota and Eastern Wyoming where I experienced wide open roads and had a lot of fun. I took a lot of back roads through those parts and then intercepted the Interstate later on as I got towards Casper. When I got to Casper it was insanely windy though. The night I stayed at the hotel there were wind gusts up to 75mph that night, I was indeed a little worried a flying tree would end up going through the M5 out in the parking lot. Luckily, no objects were sticking in the M5 the next morning, but still very windy out. As I left Casper, I was thinking that there would be no more precipitation for the trip. Boy was I wrong. A major storm was rolling through Salt Lake City and I was heading right into it. On the way to Salt Lake, at first it was just really really windy, but then it started to rain, and then it started to snow. Visibility was almost down to zero with the crazy winds and the snow. There were complete white outs on the highway with 60mph crosswinds while I'm doing 75mph and counter steering into the wind like crazy with the M5. Luckily I made it to Salt Lake with no incidents and had planned to stay at my friends house for 2 nights.

Unfortunately for me, my dumbass forgot to lock the doors on the M5 the first night I was staying at my friends house. My friends lived right on the corner of a street where there was a Middle School located less than 100 yards away. The next morning on Friday morning I had discovered that my car had been broken into, or I mean unlawfully entered. My Mika had been violated by some Middle School punk. All they took out of the car was all the coins I had in the ashtray as well as the astray itself. But then weeks later as I'm unpacking the M5 here in San Diego, I realized that I can't find my Passport. Then I remembered it was in the glove box and I had a some foreign money stashed in the back of the Passport. What dumbass middle school kid is going to exchange Mexican Pesos and Japanese Yen in Utah? Anyways, I called the police and ironically enough the police said there has been any crime reported in that neighborhood in years. Just my luck! Luckily they left Bacon alone, but some guard pig he is!

So as planned I left Salt Lake City on Saturday morning and got to Vegas in the early evening. It was a pretty uneventful drive. My good friends were driving up from SoCal as there was the Life in Sixth Gear (LSG) Car Rally going to Vegas that weekend. Had a ton of fun with my friends in Vegas Saturday and Sunday nights. I was also glad to finally see some other exotic cars for the first time in over 3,000 miles of driving.

One of my good friends owns a 2010 Aston Martin Vantage V8 and we drove together back to San Diego on Monday morning, the 22nd of February. We drove about halfway, stopped in Barstow and switched cars for fun. Him and his girlfriend drove the M5 and I drove his Aston Vantage. We had a lot of fun hearing our own cars from the outside on the highway. I never have had the chance to hear my car at full throttle on a highway pull from the outside. It blew me away, I had no idea the straightpipes were really that loud, I was very pleased. Haha! Driving his Aston was very fun too and I was immediately reminded of why my next car is going to have a Naturally Aspirated engine. The instant response and sound of that NA V8 was sorely missed.

So just before San Diego we drove to his house and switched cars back again. I then headed straight for the coast. I wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. I hadn't seen it in almost 3 years and I really wanted it to the culmination of the long journey I had just completed. I made it to the beach, to my old hood actually, in Oceanside, CA and snapped a few shots. It felt so good to be back in the wonderful California air. Later that night my friends threw a small welcome back party for me and I was very elated to see everyone again.

So now I'm here, back in San Diego, Southern California again and starting my new life once again. I am never leaving San Diego again and I have some very big plans now that I am back. So stay tuned.

I'd like to thank everyone for their support during my journey. This community needs to stay strong, there really is no other like it. I'm looking forward to all the fun in store for the future! Thanks again for reading this and I hope you enjoy the videos and pix.

Cheers,

RPiM5

The pictures are in chronological order and a mix between iPhone, Instagram, and Nikon Camera shots.

[Jay-K]

that is crazy!,
what a road trip!

[TrevorM3]

i long to do this one day with a bunch of friends in a fast car.

[Rearview]

Great post and great trip! Love SoCal ... you went from Uber expensive to Damned expensive.

[JNoSol]

I love these BMW adventure posts, thanks for sharing.

Jason This is news worthy.

[bimmer-boy]

Thanks for sharing a great post and those awesome pictures!

[GladiatorOwner]

Very cool! How did the wrap hold up?

[bobblehead]

totally epic !

Excellent write up

[lsturbointeg]

reminds me when i drove from San Diego to Ohio and back!

[chrisburns]

Really enjoyed that, thank you for sharing, awesome trip

[ozbmwnut]

Fantastic photos, thanks for sharing.

[M6-Coupe]

Nice write up and nice pictures... and welcome back to SoCal Dave...
Looks like it's time to meet up and have some fun run

[boots]

I'm very happy for you Dave and glad you had a wonderful journey. I wish I could move back to Cali

[DrKevM5]

Awesome journey Dave! Since you're not going to need those snows anymore, I'll take them off your hands!

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by DrKevM5

Awesome journey Dave! Since you're not going to need those snows anymore, I'll take them off your hands!

Dude the Alpins did so fantastic! Still a ton of tread left on them. Only about 6,000 miles on them total. I was gonna wait until next winter season to try to sell them but if you want them now I could ship them out to you.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by GladiatorOwner

Very cool! How did the wrap hold up?

The wrap got beat to hell, but that's what it's for. It did its job protecting the paint. I'm gonna re-wrap in a few months.

[cjackson1906]

Congrats on the return to Cali and escaping from DC...and as you said, don't ever leave San Diego again...

[swagon]

Winter sucks!
Glad you've made it safe back home, and thanks for sharing your awesome trip.

[bruza]

Great post. Glad to hear you made it back safely and that most of the trip was uneventful.

I love a great road trip. A few of those roads looked very familiar from my previous treks.

Thanks for sharing.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Sounds like an awesome adventure Dave. I was in San Diego for New Years and didn't want to go back to New York. Would love to move to San Diego / La Jolla at some point. The air is so fresh, people are so nice, and so much car eye candy in the road. My garage would by a bit if I move to San Diego.

[RPiM5]

Originally Posted by E90potentialbuyer

Sounds like an awesome adventure Dave. I was in San Diego for New Years and didn't want to go back to New York. Would love to move to San Diego / La Jolla at some point. The air is so fresh, people are so nice, and so much car eye candy in the road. My garage would by a bit if I move to San Diego.

I've told a lot of people this already, but the way I see it is if someone offered me a $200k a year job but I have to live on the East Coast, versus a $100k a year job but I get to live in Southern California, I'll take the California job. You only get one go at life, why spend it in a place that doesn't suit you? Even if all of your family is one place, that's why they invented the jet airplane for you to fly from Cali to every place else to visit your family and when you get to see the relatives, you get to tell them how happy you are living in SoCal. For me my only other real option was to move to Germany, but that is easier said than done, especially when you still have to work for a living.

[E90potentialbuyer]

Originally Posted by RPiM5

I've told a lot of people this already, but the way I see it is if someone offered me a $200k a year job but I have to live on the East Coast, versus a $100k a year job but I get to live in Southern California, I'll take the California job. You only get one go at life, why spend it in a place that doesn't suit you? Even if all of your family is one place, that's why they invented the jet airplane for you to fly from Cali to every place else to visit your family and when you get to see the relatives, you get to tell them how happy you are living in SoCal. For me my only other real option was to move to Germany, but that is easier said than done, especially when you still have to work for a living.

I hear you. I love SoCal. But for what I do there are very few places I can move to. I will have to totally change my career to make this switch and not really in a place yet to do that. But never say never. I have hope.