An Autumn Road Trip, Chapter 2: The Main Event.
Words: Steve Johnson
Photos: Austin Scroggins, Audi Club Oklahoma Chapter members, & Steve Johnson
We pick back up on our autumn road trip adventure on Friday afternoon with our arrival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That involved checking into our hotel and then the next most important task—washing 1,100 miles of road dust off our 2014 S5 we call the Red Baron. Proud we are of his Misano Red paint, but the real reason he needed to be clean was for the application of the MidCon Mountain Rally door stickers. So part of this road trip’s planning was locating a convenient self-serve car wash, and there was… exactly one.
Six dollar bills later the Red Baron was washed, rinsed, and dried at the most festively illuminated car wash I’ve ever seen. At first glance the building’s green, white, and red lights gave it the look of a Mexican restaurant that would’ve redefined “drive thru”. The location was only a few blocks from an event sponsor, Tuff Industries, where a door stickers application gathering was planned. Many thanks to Tuff for hosting the group. We meet about half the folks we’d be driving with while talking about our Audis and debating sticker placement.
I promised Oklahoma Chapter President Eric Climer I wouldn’t steal his thunder by talking too much about the rally here. We’ll save those details for Eric’s recounting of the rally in the next issue of quattro Magazine. But I will tell you about what I enjoyed most about attending this event: meeting fellow Audi aficionados, making new friends, and of course, the driving. Before coming here, my wife and I had made friends in 16 states from attending Audi Club events like Quattro de Mayo, One Lapp of Ohio, the Carolinas Chapter’s Treffen, TT West, and three National meetings. Now we need to add OK, AR, KS, and MO to the list of states where friends live. We were even reunited with a Texan friend we first met at TT West 2022.
When the rally began we had to drive for a while before the roads became exciting, note though that the pace made up for it. After lunch in northwest Arkansas the roads were twisty with changing elevation, what we’d call scenic by-ways where I live in Virginia. Arkansas gave way to southwest Missouri and we arrived at the event’s hotel in Branson just south of their “Strip” where many of the area’s attractions are located. If you ever visit this area, The Ozarker Lodge is a very nice place to stay and you can find out more about it by searching for it on YouTube.
Taking a November road trip is a bit like flipping a weather coin. Heads it’s warm, tails it’s cold. We’d been spoiled by the coin coming up heads since we left our house including a sunny, warm first day for the rally. But Mother Nature flipped the coin over on us on Saturday night and winter arrived as we slept. It wasn’t just cold; it was windy with a few light showers around as we left Branson behind. But by mid-morning clouds gave way to sunshine just in time for us to reach my new favorite road: Missouri State Highway 90. It reminds me of a cross between the Triple Nickel, Ohio State Highway 555, and the Back of the Dragon, Virginia State Highway 16. (If you’ve never driven these roads you need to plan a road trip.) Missouri 90 is just the right mix of curves and elevation changes without being as frenetic as the Tail of the Dragon. Plus the fun lasted for a good long time, but too soon the event would be over.
Ultimately, the group collected at a restaurant for a going away lunch and parting words from Eric Climer. We were so glad that we’d made the trip to share some excellent roads we’d never traveled upon before with a group of new friends we hadn’t met yet. By funny coincidence, a bunch of us all headed to the same gas station to fill up for our drives home, it was like one last group drive before parting ways. Where did we end up that day? Read about that in Chapter 3 of An Autumn Road Trip.
P.S. The fantastic, colorful photos are by Austin Scroggins.
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