LA/XC-4 Sneak Preview: The Beagle Man Tour Goes Topless!

I know there are still more than 160 days till I hit the road for LA/XC-4, but I find myself looking forward to my annual September cross-country drive earlier and earlier each year.  And this time around there’s gonna be a special bonus that I’m pret-ty excited about.

Loyal Beagle Man followers know that from the git-go, it was my fantasy to do my road trip with my beloved beagle in my beloved Jeep Wrangler — with the top down, of course.  I spent an inordinate amount of hours trying to make this work — including adding “pieces” to the Jeep — but some of the

obstacles were insurmountable, principal among them being: 1.) In a pop-up storm, it takes me, on average, 6 hours and 47 minutes to get the top up and all the canvas and plastic flaps and doodads in place; and 2.) If I left Ricky in his crate in the open Jeep, someone who really wanted a super-stubborn, food-obsessed beagle could pretty easily coax him away with little more than a slice of turkey.

In the end, I became reconciled to the fact that we weren’t going to be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid taking on the USA in our rugged Jeep Wrangler.  We were just going to be good old Beagle Man and good old Ricky in the good old Herman family  SUV — the Acura MDX.  And that’s how it went for the first two years.

For last September’s trip, we were supposed to switch over to our newly acquired SUV, the Audi Q5; I even introduced it — prematurely, and erroneously, as it turned out — as “the New Official Vehicle of LA/XC-3.”  But I was so intimidated by the Audi’s advanced technology and gadgetry that for a few months I was afraid to open the door, let alone sit in the driver’s seat.  As you may recall, I was tremendously relieved when circumstances called for me to drive Robby’s old Pathfinder to L.A. instead, and to do the return trip in a rental car — a GMC Terrain.

Subsequently, though, I finally did get acclimated to the Q5 and, quite honestly, fell madly in love with it.  So I wasn’t at all disappointed, when Carol’s lease on her small sports car was coming due, to learn that she was thinking of replacing it with a car that would be more comfortable for her back.  An Audi.  The A5.  A four-seater.  Roomy.  Decent trunk space.  Same technology package as the Q5 — so no steep learning curve.  And, oh yeah — it was a convertible.  S-L-O-W-L-Y it dawned on me (I’m sure a lot more slowly than it’s dawning on you, but that’s what we love about the Beagle Man, right?):  Maybe Ricky and I can drive across the country in this car . . .

I kept this realization to myself while Carol did her new-car shopping because, after all, this was her car and her choice.  (I already had the Jeep Wrangler, and had also by this time pretty much commandeered the “family car” — the Q5.)  But I can’t say I wasn’t rooting heavily for her to settle on the Audi.  In fact, before she even made her final decision, I secretly stopped by to see Chris, our sales friend at Audi of Fairfield, to see

if Ricky’s crate would fit in the back seat.  Which it does.  Easily.

Bottom line:  She went with the Audi A5 — and she’s cool with me (and Ricky) driving it across the country.  So needless to say, I’m pretty jacked about the fourth edition of our road trip.  I don’t want to jinx anything, but September weather has been little short of amazing these last three trips.  I’d say about 95% top-down days.

LOOK FOR A NEW BEAGLE MAN POST EVERY THURSDAY.  OR PRETTY CLOSE TO THURSDAY.  COULD BE WEDNESDAY.  OR FRIDAY.  LET’S NOT GET TOO OBSESSIVE HERE . . .  OH, AND BTW, YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER