AZPCA Drives - Theodore Roosevelt Lake

Itwas a beautiful day in Arizona, our short spring season when it gets warm, but not too hot to be out and about.

Sunny, with a few clouds scattered about to adorn the bright blue sky that shone over the 100+ people collected in the parking lot that day, we were about to start our first tour from Scottsdale to Lake Roosevelt.

STORY BY Karen Farrell

It was announced that we had the most attendees for the Arizona PCA chapter’s history of events and included the longest member since 1979.

This is how my husband wanted to spend his birthday and I was all for joining in the experience. As we gathered and waited for further information and important details such as which group we were assigned to and who the lead car driver was and who drove the sweep, I surveyed the members and asked myself the more obvious and salient factor, who was driving what Porsche?

Sure, most of the crowd had cool name tags which identified names of the owners but what car fit the person and what was each couple’s story about what led them to drive the vehicle they had arrived with that day. The camaraderie of people sharing their love of Porsches leads to many great stories.

The 2016 Spider convertible owner was a former sports car racer and his wife recounted how much she enjoyed the entire journey of the picking up of the vehicle, winding down the European road to end up in Marseille and their dealer giving them a loaner Porsche to drive until theirs made it back home to the States. We met Steve and Brenda, new members like us, driving a great 914 1979 model with Colorado plates.

We chatted with the owners of the sapphire blue 911 turbo S who commute from the Seattle area to the desert. I noticed a tow hook attached to the front end of that car which reminded me of my many trips to the race track I have enjoyed recently both as driver and passenger.

My husband chose to bring his 2011 black 911 to maneuver about that day over the 2018 Panamera hybrid that was waiting for our return and impatiently parked in our garage.

While chatting with another Porschephile about the electric and hybrid models that had little presence in the crowd but emerging in presence, we learned that the 2016 Cayenne E hybrid shows its owner about a 30-mile range in town on charge alone. This was well appreciated since our personal experience is about a 20-mile range which gets us to and from work before needing a boost. Fun and enjoyable but just not the first choice we have for a Sunday drive. I may be hunting for my next Cayenne soon.

After all that anticipation and conversation, and being in the last group, we were ready to get out there on the road. The lead car made way and we soon learned about using the hazards and staying together as a group on the in-town portion of the drive.

Turning heads as we cruised by suburban landscape to the outer parts of the Fountain Hills community, we stopped at the T intersection of the road which allowed the drivers to all catch up to continue together.

We all made our turn and headed past the Fort McDowell casino and reservation towards the second stretch of our journey. To the German auto enthusiast’s delight, we spotted a vintage BMW M5 circa 1970s passing our group and then got to wave to the camera lens of its passenger who had turned to take in the view of Porsches in a line.

No sooner as that spectacle gave way, we had an amazing treat of nature, groups of wild horses were out grazing on the desert blooms on the side of the highway.

The unbridled beauty was amazing to experience in real life and not easily or normally seen from the seat of your own horse powered vantage spot.

Soon the straight lines of the path curved and my experienced driver started to have more fun turning into the gradually ascending road, we passed a forest of Saguaros which gave way to craggily mountains smothered in orange, yellow and red abundant wild flower blooms.

Thank you to our unusually heavy winter rain falls for the colorful background. The temperature dropped slightly which made our windows down and sunroof open atmosphere more pleasant to enjoy the ride.

As we passed over Kitty Joe Creek the 74-degree cool breeze was not too bad compared to the 87 degrees at our start.

Looking out the window to see graduations in the ground reminded me of wine country as the rough road gave the car its opportunity to hop for joy.

Pulling up at the waterfront restaurant on Roosevelt Lake we were given another opportunity to commune with our new Porsche friends. The BBQ spread was ample, filling and tasty as we reconnected and shared comments about the drive.

I could tell my husband was thrilled with his birthday activity as he informed me to sign up for the next winding road event where we will be displaying our new identity badges as Porsche Club members and enjoying the ride again.

FULL HIGH-DEF PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND AT THE LINK BELOW: https://azpcaphotos.smugmug.com/Driving-Tours/Driving-Tour-to-Roosevelt-Lake-2023/