The 911 turned 142,000 miles yesterday evening!
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| 142,000! |
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| Trust me, it's actually 142,000! |
It was a beautiful, cool June evening, right around mile marker 68 on I-80 eastbound in Indiana. Enzo was next to me, and despite it being almost 11 pm, he was awake!
What were we doing driving along at 11 pm? Well, Allison, Madeline, Enzo, and I had just made the trip to Chicago to retrieve the Boxster and the 911, both of which had been in for service. The Boxster got an oil change and PDK service, while the 911 got an oil change, a window switch replaced, the trip odometer rebuilt, and some minor rust taken care of.
Since the C4S made its unexpected trip to the shop, my original plan to drive the 911, come back in a loaner, drop the Boxster when the 911 was done, bring the 911 home, then take the loaner back and bring the Boxster home was scuppered. So instead, we decided to make a little mini-adventure out of the retrieval process.
After finishing teaching at noon, I went home, grabbed a quick snooze, we all had a bite, piled in the Macan, and headed west:
We also took advantage of the opportunity to meet Faris for dinner at Tocco, which is actually like going to Italy for dinner. The food is out of this world, the street next to the restaurant transforms from motorway to oasis of outdoor tables, a cellist plays beautifully, and did I mention the food is out of this world?
On a cool June evening, there's really nothing better! Those magical two hours are proof that you can turn any day into something incredible, indelible, and unforgettable!
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| The start of our trip...though it wasn't long before I was the only one awake! |
We also took advantage of the opportunity to meet Faris for dinner at Tocco, which is actually like going to Italy for dinner. The food is out of this world, the street next to the restaurant transforms from motorway to oasis of outdoor tables, a cellist plays beautifully, and did I mention the food is out of this world?
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| What an evening, what company, what a meal! |
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| Faris, Madeline, burrata, and amazing tomatoes! |
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| Enjoying the cool breezes and warm sunshine |
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| Savoring his Shirley Temple! |
The meal was unforgettable for many reasons. We had lots to talk about and look forward to, with Faris departing for Greece in a week and our pending trip to visit Olivia looming. And ultimately, it's just really nice to be together. I love these people, and it's a joy to spend time with them.
Another highlight of the trip was "getting the band back together." The 911 went in for its restorative work towards the end of April, so I hadn't seen it for a while. Last week, when the C4S was ready, Enzo and I took the Boxster, dropped it off, and...went to dinner with Uncle Faris at Tocco! It was pretty hilarious, this time when Enzo went up to talk to the cellist, the cellist looked at him with surprise and said, "Don't you live in Indiana?" Winnetka is a lot easier to get to than Italy!
It was great to see the little car again!
Clearly, my crazy generous, crazy loving, crazy brother had been up to some mischief here. I couldn't figure out how to get CarPlay working, so Enzo and I streamed Bluetooth audio on the way home.
The cool thing about the PCCM installation is that you can put the USB ports in the ashtray.
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| The 911 is a very small car |
Much to my surprise, when I picked up the 911 before dinner, I saw that the original CD head unit had been replaced by a Porsche Classic Communication Module. It's a fully modern head unit that connects via Bluetooth for phone and audio, and includes wired CarPlay! Amazing!!!!!
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| What??? PCCM??? |
Clearly, my crazy generous, crazy loving, crazy brother had been up to some mischief here. I couldn't figure out how to get CarPlay working, so Enzo and I streamed Bluetooth audio on the way home.
We made a quick pitstop to stretch right before the entry toll on the Indiana Toll Road:
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| Formation parking |
The cool thing about the PCCM installation is that you can put the USB ports in the ashtray.
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| Two USB-A ports, I put an A-->C adaptor in the one labeled "phone" |
Brilliant! I don't smoke, and what a perfect place to hide the ports while keeping the car looking stock. Another cool thing about the PCCM is that the color of the illuminated buttons is adjustable. The default is white, mimicking the button color in a modern Porsche. However, at night, it looks slightly out of place in an older car.
Of course, the Germans thought of this! You can configure the buttons to be amber (perfect for the 964), or if you have an even older car, green! How cool is that? Super cool.
At the stretch, I tried the USB-A to USB-C cable from the Boxster to see if that would do the trick. While it provided power to the phone, it didn't get CarPlay going. I pondered as we finished the drive, and thought that maybe the problem was the cable itself.
When we got home, I swapped out the cable for an Apple cable, and voila:
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| CarPlay in a 33-year-old 911 with amber buttons! |
What a wonderful adventure, what an amazing brother, what an incredible wife, what lovely children! I feel deeply, happily lucky.
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