Some road trips give you exactly what you planned for. Others drop you into something you couldn't have made up if you tried.

According to a story over at MSN, a BMW M3 E90 led to a car meet in Milan filled with unusual builds and rare cars. That's about all the detail we've got. I'm not going to sit here and invent a bunch of specifics I can't back up. But even that thin description is enough to get a car guy thinking.

I've been to my share of car meets. Around here it's trucks on dirt lots, old Chevys and Fords lined up at the gas station on Saturday morning, somebody's project they've been wrenching on since February finally fired up. Good people, good trucks, no pretension. A car meet in Milan is a different animal entirely, at least in my head. Never been to one in Italy, so I can't tell you what the scene is actually like. Unusual builds and rare cars in a European city, though. That's enough to make you curious.

The E90 M3 is a car worth talking about on its own merits. I know plenty of gearheads who'd argue about this over a beer, but that S65 V8 is one of the best-sounding engines BMW ever put in a production car. Some folks will tell you the E90 was the last real driver's M3. That's a debate, not a fact, and I'm not here to plant a flag in it. What I can say is that platform generates a lot of passion among people who care about cars, and apparently it led to something memorable in Milan.

What exactly was sitting in that meet, I couldn't tell you. The source doesn't get into specifics, and I'm not going to guess. Could've been wide-body builds, restomods, exotics, stuff I've never even heard of. The description just says unusual builds and rare cars, so that's what we're working with.

Car meets are worth your time, no matter where they happen. Doesn't matter if it's a field outside Cabool with thirty lifted trucks or a piazza in Milan. You go to see what somebody else built. The internet can show you pictures all day long, but standing next to a car somebody put their whole self into is a different thing. That sticks with you.

I reckon the best road trips work like that too. You head out with a loose plan, maybe a route, maybe a destination. Then the road decides what actually happens. Sometimes you end up somewhere you didn't expect.

Next time you're on a road trip and you see something interesting pulled over, stop. You never know what you'll find.