By Russ Heaps
Clanging Bell

(May 16, 2017)  I'm not the kind of guy who complains about the number of stops required to get me from point A to point B. Sure, I'd like a direct flight from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport (GSP) to Podunk, USA, but that's just not possible. With only one or two exceptions, direct flights out of GSP to places I actually want to go simply don't exist. And, if they do exist, they are on airlines on which I refuse to fly.

Delta, American, Southwest, United and Allegiant all service GSP. Although I constantly hear good things about Southwest, I have no interest in its cattle-call boarding nor its first-come-first-served seating. I fly way too much to elbow my way onto every flight. Not to mention, Atlanta is its only nonstop destination from GSP. Allegiant has sporadic non-stops to four Florida cities.

Ft. Lauderdale is the only one of the four that I would have any reason to take. Allegiant, however, doesn't fly there every day. Since United began beating up paying passengers and dragging them off the plane to make room for employees it wants to fly somewhere, I have vowed never to fly United again.

I am left with Delta and American. Delta has been my airline of choice for more than 30 years. Having racked up more than 1.8 million miles on Delta, I'm not about to switch carriers now. In a pinch, though, I will fly American, if Delta can't get me where I need to go. From GSP, Delta only flies non-stop to Atlanta, Detroit and NYC. American has a few direct flights to cities like Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia.

 Recently, a client asked me to attend the 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 truck event near Grand Junction, Colorado. Grand Junction is one of those you-can't-get-there-from-here locations. Well, you can, obviously, but regardless of the airline, it means at least two connections from GSP.

Chevy's travel planners were desperate to book me on United. Conceived as a one-night program, this truck event began the afternoon of the first day and finished early afternoon of day 2. Because of my home base and the distance, I couldn't leave Grand Junction any later than noon and still make it back to GSP on the second day.

A second night in Grand Junction was always figured into my schedule. Even at that, the flight bookers wanted me to fly United because it had flights allowing me to arrive in Grand Junction two hours earlier than anything Delta offers. Once in Grand Junction, media attending the event still had nearly a 90-minute drive to the Gateway Canyons Resort near the Colorado/Utah border.

Upon arriving at the resort, I had just enough time to settle into my room, change for cocktails at 6:00, and wander around the grounds a bit. Resting on roughly 2,000 acres, Gateway Canyon Resort is everything most of us imagine a luxury resort to be and more. It includes a cattle ranch, spa, helicopter tours, fishing, ATVs and even a car museum. Surrounded on all sides by towering red-rock cliffs and mesas, its beauty is nothing short of stunning.

Although I had driven a Colorado pickup from the airport to the resort — during which I had an impromptu dialog with Officer Friendly, who allowed me to carry on my journey unmolested with nothing more than a stern talking to — day 2 was my first encounter with the Colorado ZR2 package.



Adding to ZR2's off-roading resume, Chevy installed the first-in-class front and rear electronic-locking differentials. Also segment exclusive are the revolutionary Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers supplied by Multimatic. In addition to supplying the dampers for the Camaro Z28, Multimatic is known for making dampers for Formula One race cars.

Different than the shocks found on most cars and trucks, the specially designed DSSV dampers on the ZR2 (pictured at right) allow for on-pavement comfort, as well as the increased wheel travel required when off roading.

When opting for the ZR2 package, consumers have the choice of a 186-horsepower 2.8-liter 4-cylinder Duramax Diesel or a 308-horsepower 3.6-liter gasoline engine. Chevy mates the V6 with an 8-speed automatic transmission and the Duramax diesel with a 6-speed automatic tranny.

Our wheel time included highway, as well as some fairly gnarly off-roading. We even did a little rock crawling. The Colorado ZR2 performed brilliantly across the board. My drive partner and I found the diesel a bit slow to answer the throttle, but it was a real go-getter on the rock-crawl event.

A pain in the caboose to get to, the Colorado ZR2 event proved to be well worth the trouble.