[mobike008]

What : 2022 Fall Drive
Where : Leavenworth/Peshatin, WA
When : October 22nd, 2022
Meeting Point : Safeway Parking Lot, Monroe, WA

Confirmed Names

1. Mobike008 (BMW X3M 40i)
2. Rahul BMW X3M 40i)
3. Shashwath (BMW X3M 40i)
4. Abhinav (BMW M 340i)
5. Abhiram (BMW X5)
6. Ashir (BMW 5-Series)
7. Rahul Newskar (Mercedes GLS 450)
8. Ashu (Mercedes C300)
9. Ram + 1 (Subaru Forestor)
10. Croupier + 1 (Subaru Forestor)
11. Amol4181 (Mini Cooper)
12. Nitin (Hyundai Santa Fe)
13. Himanshu + 1(Tesla Model S)
14. iamapc (Porsche Cayenne)


Based on this article, we planned the route map which is supposed to be really pretty with plenty of fall foliage through this entire route.



This is the route map and final stop for lunch at a Mexican place either in Leavenworth or Peshatin, WA



With fall colors already in bloom from these pictures outside my home. My expectations are pretty high during this drive.





Should be a colorful and exciting drive. !!!

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by iamapc

Adding myself to the confirmed list. Look forward to the meet up.

There is a slight change in plan as we want to avoid US2 as there is too many road closures (for small sections) due to the Bolt Creek Fire.

Hence, we are taking this route :

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9kbeDPJa96koqqyT8?g_st=iw

What : 2022 Fall Drive
Where : Leavenworth/Peshatin, WA
When : October 22nd, 2022
Meeting Point : 9:00am at Costco Parking Lot, Issaquah, WA

Confirmed Names

1. Mobike008 (BMW X3M 40i)
2. Rahul BMW X3M 40i)
3. Shashwath (BMW X3M 40i)
4. Abhinav (BMW M 340i)
5. Abhiram (BMW X5)
6. Rahul Newskar (Mercedes GLS 450)
7. Ashu (Mercedes C300)
8. Ram + 1 (Subaru Forestor)
9. Amol4181 (Mini Cooper)
10. iamapc (Porsche Cayenne)

[abhiram90]

Another eventful day with the awesome weather.

I'll let pictures do the talking now .

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by abhiram90

I'll let pictures do the talking now

Thanks Abhi for sharing these lovely pictures.

Sorry for late reply. But, here is my take on our meet.

This was the 3rd Team BHP meet since I moved to Seattle over 14 months ago.

I know it’s not a great talking point but, it makes me glad that we were able to at least do these many knowing that we all lead such busy life’s.

Ideally meets would be great once a quarter covering each of the seasons. LOL!

It was initially decided to go to the beautiful town of LEAVENWORTH but, we’ve had some fires in the north cascade mountains this summer and that disrupted the smooth traffic flows in most of that region.

As PNW is full of super tall trees, they fall on road and it becomes difficult for WA state authorities to remove them in time so they shut down part of the highways for small durations without any notice.

We changed plan and decided to cut short the drive to just 250 miles roundtrip (Previous one was much longer) and we head south east taking I-90 Freeway which is usually full of fall colors to Steven’s Pass Mountain and then stop somewhere in the mountains to walk to a unique tunnel that is pitch dark and runs 2-miles long.

Weather was cloudy and gloomy and forecasts had rains most of afternoon.

We met at 9:00am at the Costco parking lot in ISSAQUAH, WA (Btw, a small trivia this is the headquarters of COSTCO and their HQ office is across this parking lot)

We spent 30-mins chit chatting and waiting for everyone to turn up and once that happened, we left at around 9:45am and drove 100 miles with everyone stepping on the gas and taking full advantage of the beautiful freeway. Drive till the destination was uneventful and enjoying the beautiful curvy I-90 freeway and fall colors all through the route till we reached the spot at about 11:30 am, where we parked our cars with an awesome backdrop (Foggy Mountains) and enjoyed the M340 of Abhinav shake the earth and mountains from it’s launches.

We then walked to the dark tunnel and walked inside this dark place for a few meters till it became extremely dark and we decided to turn back and stop for some pictures at the tunnel.

Here folks ride bicycles, run and even do marathons passing through this dark tunnel (light or lights on headgear is mandatory as the tunnel is almost pitch dark)

Spent an hour enjoying some beautiful scenery here and then drove 2- miles to one of the most popular grocery store in the mountains (Lee Grocery) renowned for their pizza slices. We all grabbed a slice and enjoyed a “standing lunch” exchanging notes about our lives.

Around 1:30 pm, we all decided to disperse and head back to our respective abodes.

It was an enjoyable meet and hope to see more car brands (We funnily call the group as a “Bimmer Group” as majority of folks drive one).

Sharing some pictures of this meet (Not in any particular order).

Till we meet next time. Cheers !!!

Meeting Point and Rides Lined up- It was pouring in the morning











Final Destination Parking





Some amazing scenery enroute





My favorite spot for a quick click-Bellevue Downtown

















Using the phone torch inside the dark tunnel





Pizzas- Yaaayyyy

[CrackedHead]

Nice pics and looks like a fun drive. Count me in for the next meet please (and is there a Seattle whatsapp / Telegram group?)

[Jhinchak]

If this was in India, This would look like a supercar Meet.

[mmxylorider]

Nice to see this turnout. And the current time of the year is best suited to driving. Cool weather, no sun glare, more dense fuel (better power) and no need for AC (yet more power). I still see convertibles here having fun while it lasts.

Rural TX has some of the better roads across the country and with a 70-75 posted speed limit (even on undivided county roads), very sparse traffic - it's fun to push your ride. Wish something materializes this side of the country.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by CrackedHead

Nice pics and looks like a fun drive. Count me in for the next meet please (and is there a Seattle whatsapp / Telegram group?)

Nice to see you here. Check your PM and look forward to you joining next meet.

Originally Posted by Jhinchak

If this was in India, This would look like a supercar Meet.

Haha! Thanks. Honestly, these cars look pretty common here in US and like any other car. Cars that stand out and call for attention are the Ferraris, Lambos, Challengers etc.

Only some of us know what lies beneath the hood of the cars in these pictures.

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Nice to see this turnout. And the current time of the year is best suited to driving. Cool weather, no sun glare, more dense fuel (better power) and no need for AC (yet more power). I still see convertibles here having fun while it lasts.

Rural TX has some of the better roads across the country and with a 70-75 posted speed limit (even on undivided county roads), very sparse traffic - it's fun to push your ride. Wish something materializes this side of the country.

Last week, I was in Dallas for almost a week and the roads of TX did not appeal to me. They are just too broad and big and honestly not enthusiast friendly.

If talking about rural roads, please check out Ohio 555 in Ohio state (Please google it) where we did a meet last year. That was the most hair raising drive of my life. Even the tail of Dragon which I did on a personal note when I visited the Smoky Mountains in TN was also superlative.

Alright, here is a small treat (tricks are not included) for you all.

~ 1800 Horsepower Revving in the mountains of WA

https://youtu.be/FJBR0cCJFoQ

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Last week, I was in Dallas for almost a week and the roads of TX did not appeal to me. They are just too broad and big and honestly not enthusiast friendly.

Everything is BIG in Texas!! The DFW area has some of the more congested roads but travel out for about 50 miles and the landscape and driving experience is quite interesting.

[mobike008]

Greater Seattle is seeing some unprecedented snow this week as it's been snowing relentlessly most of this week.

Everywhere we go it's looking surreal due to the amount of snow we received.

This calls for a nice snowy drive meet before we call off 2022.

And, this meet details are getting "brewed" as we speak and a decent turnout of Seattle BHPian's have already confirmed their interest for this drive meet.

What : Snowy Drive Meet
When : December 10, 2022
Where : Diablo Lake/Snoqualmie Summit/Mt. Rainer National Forest

Confirmed Names

1. mobike008 (BMW X3M40i)
2. Abhinav (BMW M340i)
3. Ashir (BMW 530e)
4. Rahul_Newaskar (Mercedes GL 450)
5. Ashu (Mercedes C300)
6. Iamapc(Porsche Cayenne)
7. Amol4181 (Subaru Outback)
8. Abhiram90 (Jeep Wrangler)
9. Nitin (Hyundai Santa Fe)

This is how Seattle looks like now.

View from my bedroom



WSDOT Camera shot of Steven's Pass which is 55 miles from home



Downtown Seattle



Downtown Seattle

[FlyingSpur]

Damn, there's 14 of you in the PNW? I am SO impressed (and slightly FOMO'ing too). But I like my CA weather and state tax and lower tier gasoline too much. I intend to drive up in the spring, will let this crew know!

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

Damn, there's 14 of you in the PNW? I am SO impressed (and slightly FOMO'ing too). But I like my CA weather and state tax and lower tier gasoline too much. I intend to drive up in the spring, will let this crew know!

Hey FS, Nice to see you here. I didn't know you moved to Bay Area. Welcome to ping us anytime and we will most certainly plan a meet and have some fun in PNW.

Btw, how do you figure the gas prices are lower in CA? Isn't CA the most expensive for gas and electricity prices and I am not even going into housing. LOL!

In other news, despite pretty inclement weather out here in Seattle, some of us were still able to make it for below planned drive.

Here is a quick summary of how the meet went.

Team Seattle Snow Drive Meet- December 7th, 2022

It was a day to file into our memories as not only was it a great team-bhp drive but, also a day to remember due to the amount of snow that we witnessed and had fun in.

As per the plan in the previous post, we were supposed to head to Mt. Rainier National Park but, since Greater Seattle was inundated with snow most of November and also it was snowing heavily in Mt. Rainier National Park, it was announced a day before that all roads leading to it including the park itself will be closed.

As it was Friday evening, we were wracking our brains where to head for the drive as all great locations were covered with snow and it was dangerous to drive in such conditions.

After dabbling with some locations, we finally decided to “Lake Diablo” in the North Cascades Mountains which was a short drive (200-Miles Roundtrip). Also, now this direction was exactly opposite to Mt. Rainer one which was going south of Seattle.

Now we had to head north.

Many folks who earlier confirmed dropped due to snowy conditions but, just the 4 brave BHP’ians including a Kiddo Girl BHPian made it to this drive. Haha!

We met at Chic-a-Fila up north at 9:00am and enjoyed a lovely breakfast before heading out at 10:00am and drove up north into the mountains to the destination which was just 90 miles away.

From 20 miles point onwards, the scenery changed drastically and as we continued to drive, my jaw kept dropping in awe as the scenery kept changing to white, whiter and totally white as the amount of snow that we witnessed was phenomenal as everything (roads, trees, homes, etc) was covered with snow. There was no plan, we kept stopping at points where the scenery was gorgeous and also did a little bit of hike and explored the snow covered trails and view points.

We finally reached the Diablo Lake View Point around 3;00pm and road post that point was closed as it was completely filled with snow and not accessible. This spot was great to spend time enjoying the beautiful view point of the frozen Diablo Lake and also do some snow-fighting. LOL!

Around 4:00pm, it was getting dark so we slowly made our way back and enroute we found a quaint little place where we could fuel up our tummies.

Finally, after a nice meal we said ‘Good Bye” around 6:30pm and reach home by 8:00pm.

A fabulous day spent in the fairy, white and gorgeous landscapes of Pacific North West (PNW).

Enjoy the pictures which are in no particular order.

The BHPian Crew- Amol4181, Mobike008, Ashir and Crackhead



First pit-stop



Second Pit-Stop to enjoy a beautiful view of mountains with clouds hanging low







3rd Pit-stop in the mountains where we all were dazzled by the ice-formations on the mountains by roadside.





We had a lot of fun driving in almost 2-feet snow in this parking lot. Then we went up hiking for a view point.



Blau Rakete buried in snow. lol



Highlander in it's elements



This was the end-point. As you can see the road further is closed as it's completely filled with snow.



Most of the drive was like this- Passing through winter fairy land.



Diablo Lake- A surreal, jaw dropping view.





A group picture at the surreal location.



We spent an hour here snow-fighting.





Diablo Lake is frozen.









Frozen Diablo Lake.







View from inside in the 2-feet snow filled parking lot.





Tunnel had long icicles hanging from the top. Nice !!!





Nice pit-stop to enjoy the mountains surrounding us.



Walking in Snow

https://youtu.be/Cud7C_R8Y6o

Frozen Diablo Lake

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hk-U_aoHbjk?feature=share

Enroute Diablo Lake

https://youtu.be/V4ZPSwDk6g8

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Btw, how do you figure the gas prices are lower in CA? Isn't CA the most expensive for gas...

Lower tier gas, = crappy gas for too much money, yes. Also these snow pics are nice to look at and all, but thanks no thanks, I will see you in the summer

[mobike008]

Some of the Seattle Team BHPian’s planned an almost impromptu drive meet on Feb 4h, 2023.

Some of the regulars (there are just a little handful) keep in touch and we exchange notes of our schedules and invariably the talk about a drive meet pops up.

This is how it all started and search for a destination is always a confusion as we have so many exotic locations to visit for a drive meet which are as close as 50 miles to as far as 150 miles.

Yes, that’s correct. Where we live we don’t have to travel beyond 150 miles one-way to enjoy the best of what the beautiful state of Washington has to offer. This means that we can enjoy a drive that can literally be a day-trip.

After tossing lot of options in the air, we selected “Artist Point” on Mt. Baker which is north of my home and is roughly 90 miles one-way. This spot is a professional skier’s paradise as it’s on Mt. Baker which is one of the mountains in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington and has an active volcano and is ~ 11,000 feet altitude.

I’m part of the Washington Hikers group and that’s a rich source of information as people go to some amazingly exotic locations for hike, camp, snow shoeing and skiing. That’s how I got to know about this location.

Out of the 15 odd BHPians, as usual just a few folks said “yes” to join. Sometimes, I feel the Seattle Freeze is real. LOL!

We all met at Chic-a-Fil in the morning for breakfast where we enjoyed some nice coffee and sandwiches for breakfast. We headed out at 10:00am and drove towards Artist point which was around 90 miles away in about 2 hours after driving through some scenic mountain roads which was full of twisties that let us enjoy our cars to it’s full potential.

That entire area was packed and there was absolutely no parking spot anywhere. We had to keep driving and circling a few times to find a spot as it was season and full of skiers. Finally, we found parking at the top.

We parked and spent a couple of hours in the snow (it was snowing continuously for the 2-hours that we spent there) and walked 3 feet deep snow until the edge of the mountain to get some jaw dropping views of the mountains covered in white sheets.

Boy! I love Washington as it’s an outdoor lover’s paradise.

We headed back at 3:00pm and came down from mountains to plains and stopped at a place which had lot of good reviews by the hikers group. It was a place called Skagit Valley Burger Place and it had no seating.

Just order and eat in the car or on the bonnet (like we did) in extremely cold weather (it was around 2C temperatures outside). It was really fun to enjoy those lovely burgers, fried jalapeños and fried Oreos in that cold weather.

We decided to eat on the bonnet of the “Blau Rakete”. This is second time the bonnet got to enjoy some hot burgers (first time was when we took delivery in Washington DC and driving back to Detroit, we had halted at a McD’s)

Overall, it was a fabulous trip and weathering that cold (it was - 5C or 6C) is really tough and our gear was also not enough as our hands were frozen from whatever little pictures and videos that we managed to grab while they were out of the gloves.

Cheers to many more drives in future. !!!

Washington- Evergreen State



Full Line-Up-Stopped for a quick picture on return



I can never get tired of Washington Scenery. Simply Gorgeous



50 miles of these twisties to reach Mt. Baker. That is 50% of the drive.









Reached...



Professional Skiers enjoying themselves.



Beautiful Snow Capped Mountain right next to our parking.



Last 20 miles of drive to mountains was like this. Breathtaking !!



Quick picture on the mountains.









Yours truly with Blau Rakete.



Taking a breather after clearing the snow. LOL!





Top of the world???



This made me feel like that for sure..



On our way back, stopped at this awesome place for some quintessential burgers, jalepeno fries and Fried Oreos.

My Bimmer became the meal stand. Haha!











Candid Shot




Walking to edge of mountains. Whew !!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tDRGT7GB6fo?feature=share

Drive up the mountains

https://youtu.be/WCbL72GKZvc

BHPians lined up at Mt. Baker

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CbVkkGOtP9Y

Parking at Mt. Baker- Just too much snow with snowfall happening continuously

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0hsyXFJi-Zk?feature=share

[mobike008]

Yet another Seattle Team BHP meet done on March 18th, 2023

Like most of the meets these days. It's usually impromptu and planned just a few days in advance (3-4 days) and the goal is to always club our drives with the beautiful outdoors that we are blessed with here in Washington.

As the weather is slowly and steadily getting better (warmer and less rains), this time we decided to club the drive with a short hike to enjoy the beauty of the nature as that day the weather was a nice warm 5C with sun shining through the whole day.

BHPian's who joined for this drive + hike were :

1. Mobike008 (BMW X3 M40i)
2. Ashir (BMW 530e)
3. Amol4184 (Subaru Outback)
4. Rvracer88 (BMW X3 M40i)

We decided to meet in the morning at 9:30am at a Mexican food truck near home and enjoyed some lovely tacos to start off the day.

From there we headed north towards Chucanut Drive (It’s a legendary drive of 10 miles on the mountains on 2-lane narrow roads where most auto and motorcycle enthusiasts drive as it’s completely windy roads with water on one side and cliffs on other). As the weather was sunny, as usual the whole WA population was on the road and enthusiasts driving and zipping on their motorbikes on that road. It was super crowded.

Post the drive, we drove over the Deception Pass Bridge which is another awe-inspiring place with torquise blue waters, snow-capped mountains and cliffs.

Once the drive was completed. We headed to Rosaria Beach Trail where we did a short hike to enjoy the nature from up and above the cliffs.Infact, I did this hike yet another time just yesterday (March 26th) marking my 4th time in about a year on this beautiful trail.

Post that hike, when we were driving back, we were feeling hungry after the hike and decided to stop yet again at another Mexican truck for a very late lunch of Tacos, Quesedillas with Mexican Soda (Jarrito) which was even better than the morning breakfast food truck.

Here are the pictures from this drive + hike meet.

Cheers to impromptu drives.