Silicon Valley Nation: Five epic road trips

SAN FRANCISCO -- I can safely say I have been the luckiest bugger on earth for most of my life, and 2012 was no exception.

How else to explain my then-boss's lapse in judgement to let me drive a car around the country for a year interviewing engineers? Top that off with a request to tag along on a really cool Littelfuse project that involved a lot of engineers and race cars.

For me, both of those projects, Drive for Innovation and Speed2Design, carved out in relief the nimble human minds, good humor and engineering brilliance behind the relentless technological progress we make every day. And it's everywhere in Silicon Valley Nation.

So, herewith, are five favorite stories from the road, in no particular order.

Pikes Peak

When we began planning the DFI road trip in early 2011, I was determined to try to get to the top of Pikes Peak in the Chevy Volt. In the spring of 2012, we'd already crossed over Donner Pass (7,000 feet) on the way to Denver. So we figured Pikes Peak, no problem!

We called my old colleague and electronics publishing legend Loring Wirbel, who lives in Colorado Springs, and demanded that he ride along. He's an easy mark. It turned out to be his birthday, so the night before we secured a growler of IPA from Rock Bottom Brewery, found a cheap cooler and packed it with ice and the beer and secreted it in the back of Volt.

The next day couldn't have been more beautiful, 70s in the Springs when we picked up Wirbel. The ascent couldn't have been slower. The Volt's gas-backed electric engine after 10,000 feet dragged us down to 5-7 mph. At one point, my brother Kirk got out and raced the car on foot!

Finally, we edged our way into the parking lot at 14,000 feet to whoops and hollers. We jumped out and started running around, only to nearly pass out like idiots because of the thin air.

After posing for a few snaps, we broke out the glasses and toasted Wirbel's birthday with the IPA (and at 14,000 that stuff goes to your head pretty fast!). After a decent interval, we descended and through regeneration picked up a completely full battery.

Here's the trip up...

 

..and the trip down: