We awoke at the hotel in Topeka, KS to a wicked rain storm. Apparently God knew that we needed to be somewhere and decided it was time to water the earth. The Charger’s “don’t see me” cover was completely drenched and it took Johnny and I a good 30 minutes to wring that sucker out and pack it in the trunk. After that we fueled up and hit I-70 west.

For those of you that have never done a drive across the country I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the state of Kansas. First off, it has some of the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and second, if you like corn, then this is the place for you. I have never in my entire existence as a human man seen as much of the yellow stuff in one place. It’s actually quite amazing. If asked to do it again though, I would have to opt for another route since it was also one of the most boring runs I have ever experienced.

Boulder, CO was our final stop of the day. We rolled in about 5pm, went for a nice steak dinner and then promptly passed out after our 540 mile drive. Boulder in and of itself is a beautiful little town—but very heavy in the hippie contingent, which is not my cup of tea. In fact Johnny and I were constantly trying to stir them up by free revving the 440 for shits and giggles… ah… to be old and immature. We then prowled the streets for awhile and interviewed the locals on what makes them “angry.”

This is where it began to get fun, due to the fact that hippies were hilarious all by themselves and needed no prodding from two Italian guys from NYC. Anger-wise, the environment, the cost of education and the apparent lack of cannabis seemed to be the big contenders of the day. Since my and Johnny’s hippie tolerance was running low, we decided to keep the interviews short and crash early to be ready for our long drive to Bryce Canyon, UT. Stay tuned for that one, because the pics will be unbelievable.

Day three of our excursion across this great land has come to an end. Johnny and I left from Pontoon Beach, IL en-route to Topeka, KS to meet up with some friends from one of my favorite message boards, www.dodgecharger.com. We gathered a group of around five cars on the Missouri/Kansas border and proceeded to make the 75 mile run to Topeka.

Once there, an impromptu Monday night car show materialized that included some classic iron. Everything from a real 1969 Dodge Daytona to a 1978 Dodge Little Red Express Truck came out of the Kansas woodwork. CBS news in Topeka also came out to give Team Angry some air time on their morning news show. When asked why we were driving across the USA, we simply said: “To find out why everyone is always angry…”. Truth be told I think they were a little perplexed by this statement and didn’t really know what to make of us, especially when they saw the Charger all sticker’d up.

I should also mention that on the way to Topeka we had the opportunity to stop at a few scrap yards. Being from Queens, NY the only real scrap yards we have go by a different name – chop shops, so being able to venture out into real yards was a total treat. The field was lined with everything from old Chevy Novas to Chryslers to old Thunderbirds, and walking through these old yards was like taking a step back in time. Unfortunately there was nothing there that was small enough to take with us so we had to be content with just looking.

When we finally got to our hotel in Topeka we realized we had a great day. We met some of the nicest people, got to dig through some old junkyards and made it yet another leg with no worries.

The first leg of our cross country journey is now coming to an end, which is good… cause’ I’m really flippin’ tired. We hit the road this morning at 7am and drove 467 miles to Akron, OH. Thankfully the Charger ran like a top and according to our GPS we had an average speed of 81.6 mph – not to bad for a a 41 year old muscle car. Gas mileage, as predicted sucked – we pulled a pretty consistent 10-11 mpg cruising the old 440 at 3000 rpm.

Our first gas stop in Pennsylvania proved to be an enlightening one. While filling up I noticed this truck driver strolling over the Charger, Jim Tatum or “Jimmy the Kid” stood about 6 foot tall, wore a black cowboy hat, black boots and sported a Texas style belt buckle with the letter “J” on it, he was from Oklahoma… go figure.

“That Charger’s a ‘68…” he said, “I remember those cars from before you were even moving”.

He then asked what we were doing with this old muscle car all stickered up – “We’re filming a documentary on what pisses people off”… I explained.

“Well then Boy… you found the right f*ckin’ guy to talk to.” – I was rolling!

We BS’d with Jim for a good hour, he told us stories from the road and more importantly, why he was angry – that’s another blog though. I then snapped a pic of Jim and his rig and jumped back Rte. 80 heading west into Ohio. Now unbeknownst to me, the state of Ohio is home to Summit Racing Equipment. I found this out as Johnny and I blasted by it on the interstate.

Once seen though we promptly pulled off, flipped a u-turn and proceeded back there. Over the last 5 years I’ve probably spent enough cheddar there to get a third world country back on track economically so when I walked in there I had to instantly pull back the reigns. This building was the ultimate playground for gear heads. Engines, pistons, suspension components and driveline equipment lined the shelves, it was like some sort of automotive god had an organism and the money shot landed in this building… good stuff.

From there we landed in Akron, OH, which is were I am right now. I’m tired and beat down, but am really looking forward to tomorrow cause’ were headed to the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It should be a good day.

Mr. Angry is once again embarking on a cross country journey. This time from he’s running from NYC to Reno, Nevada for Hot August Nights and then onto Monterrey, California for the Concours at Pebble Beach. The thing is, he hasn’t finalized his route yet, and he wants your help. Ideally, he’d like to hit as many tracks, car shows or cruise nights as possible, and would love to meet up with CarDomain member along the way. In fact, he’ll have Mr. Angry t-shirts to give out to anyone who manages to track down the ‘68 Charger. And of course he’d love to caravan with anyone who’s interested. Check out this thread at DodgeCharger.com and then let us know your route suggestions in the comments below. The road trip starts Saturday July 25 and of course Mike will be documenting the journey right here on CarDomain!

Track driving – if you’ve never experienced it you simply have no idea what you’re missing out on. This past Saturday I had a track event at Pocono Raceway doing some instructing. My student was my buddy Brian in his girlfriends 2006 Acura TL. About a month earlier he had expressed interest in hitting the track and asked if I could help out – obviously the answer was yes, as I live for track days. He was concerned however about the car, that being the aforementioned Acura. In all honesty, I was pretty curious myself as to how Acura’s sporty 4-door would run.

Brian picked me up at about 5:30am and we drove the 90 miles up to Pocono Raceway. The Acura was actually pretty cool – typical Acura/Honda build quality, nice comfy seats as well as having the added bonus of being a six-speed. Now at any track event you are bound to find all manner of automobile from full-on race cars, to highly tuned street cars, to everyday daily drivers like the one we were in. In fact the only modification done to this TL were a set of aftermarket rims and this only due to some type of mishap that involved a curb and some over-anxious maneuvering. Oh yeah, the tires were mismatched as well. We had Toyo’s up front and Falken’s in the rear, not too sure why though.

Upon entrance onto the track the first thing I noticed was that this thing was WAY to quiet. In fact my buddy bounced it off the rev. limiter a few times, in fact so did I… whoops. Suspension wise I have to say that the TL actually handled great. Coming off the back straight and pitching it into turn one at 90mph resulted in very little drama, in fact I was actually able to pull down a C5 Corvette… I’ll pat myself on the back for that one… but in all seriousness, this thing moved. We managed to run 5 full sessions with the TL, each time beating it to death harder and harder. My buddy Brian was merciless on it, doing full throttle power shifts out of every turn, it was actually a pretty funny sight to behold.

By the end of the day though I think the ole’ TL was pretty tired. The brake pedal was wicked spongy and we totally fragged what was left of the tires, but we did manage to have a hell of a lot of fun. In the end, the best part was that the Acura, even though a full street car, got my buddy hooked on track driving to the point that he is now actively seeking a new ride. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have ever thought about going on the race track, but thought, for whatever reason you couldn’t do it, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. It’s easy, relatively inexpensive and something that I can guarantee will fulfill that adrenaline rush that we all seek.

We all love them, don’t we? Their engines, wheels, imperfections. Our cars speak volumes about who we are, what we do and how we like to be perceived. They tell stories about our personalities and through their lives may even pick up some battle scars. They get us from point A to point B and everywhere in between. They are, in a sense, our teleportation device from the every day.

I was looking at my Charger this morning and began to notice the many battle scars it’s accumulated over the many years and adventures we’ve had together. I ran my hand over the three deep scratches on the left side of the hood, took a look at the piece of black electrical tape that hides a big chip on the trunk, then noticed the pit marks in the windshield and glass. I looked at the wheels and noticed the shiny polished aluminum that once gleamed was now somewhat faded, and how my once perfect paint now has nicks all over the place. My car has been through a lot with me behind the wheel, and in looking at all it’s imperfections and blemishes, I began to smile, as I knew where every single one of them came from.

The scratches on the hood, for example, came from when the tire on an 18 wheeler came apart in front of me and a piece of it bounced off the hood and up and over the roof. I was on my way down to Florida from NY, and it scared the crap out of me. The chip in the rear deck lid was put there courtesy of a $200k Brabus Mercedes that rear-ended me in 2007 during a 3,000 mile road rally, and the pit marks in the windshield and surrounding glass came from exploding light bulbs that I destroyed while chasing a flaming bus down a runway (true story).

This car has taken me all over the United States and into two different countries. It’s the car I drove in my wedding and the car that makes my five year old nephew Jack giggle with excitement. It does big smokey burnouts at will and is the only car I’ve ever driven that makes police officers let me do illegal things. To put it simply, my 1968 Dodge Charger is part of who I am. CarDomain has made it a point to let owners showcase their cars and at last count had 664,898 rides registered. Think about that for a minute, because that’s almost three quarters of a million stories, adventures and experiences from owners that love their cars. Cool right?

So what’s your story?