wow.. i feel alive again after a hot shower.... anyways, the adventure started like this:
i picked up the car on weds in providence and started driving at 6pm. i had mixed feelings about its condition after finally seeing it in person. the interior was spotless and 97% of the paint looked brand new, but there were definately some rust spots on lower portions of the fenders and doors. the frame also had some rusting wherever bolts were fastened to it. at this point i had no idea how well it was maintained and was praying i would make it home. the only way to find out was to start driving. traffic wasnt bad at all and i was through connecticut and into new york in no time. since i had never even driven a 62 prior to this, i had no idea what to expect, so i drove those first 140 miles in complete silence to listen for any strange sounds. A stop after that, i checked the oil, which was about 1/2 a quart low and added some. everything else was fine. i was 1/4 through PA and moving along at 65mph no problem while achieving an amazing 16.3mpg, but now the fun starts.... i knew there was going to be some bad weather coming into the northeast but for some reason thought it wasnt supposed to start until early thursday morning. besides, after surviving 22 ft. of white in 2 weeks in tahoe last winter, whats a few inches gunna do? well i forgot that typical east coast snow is usually never more than a degree or two below freezing and can change from snow to slush back to ice in no time at all. the storm started as scattered flurries but quickly began to intensify. at first i thought this was cool because it kept everyone off the road and made the drive intersting. then visibility became poor and i was getting a headache from trying so hard to focus on the road through blinding snow. then i missed my exit on the PA turnpike (in part because visibility was so bad) and ended up almost in cleveland instead of the much further south city of columbus ohio. i didnt realize this mistake until i exited the turnpike and asked the attendant how much further until columbus.. he gave me a weird look and then we both realized i f$@#$^ up. oh well, i decided to continue on the 71 until i hit the 77 south to get me back on i-70. well by this time it was sunrise on thurs and the 3 inches of snow that fell during the night began to turn to ice. this made driving demanding and slow and strong wind gusts did not help at all. whoever said to get on the 40 as soon as possible knew what they were talking about.. while it may have cost me a few more total miles, it would have shaved off many hours spent driving 40mph behind a line of cars and past countless accidents. it wasnt until between springfield, OH and indianapolis that the conditions finally improved but it was still windy and passing semis was scary as hell! the cruiser was still running fine, in fact at this point i think it was running better and when the roads improved i increased the pace to ~70mph to make up for lost time. i was almost through illinois before dark and stopped at a subway (the only open food place) for my thanksgiving meal of a grilled chicken sub. i still wasnt feeling tired so decided to keep driving. i checked the oil at every gas stop and it never changed. traffic was light at this point so i kept going through st. louis into missouri. passed through no problem and still wasnt tired so i drove through tulsa, OK and stopped inbetween there and oklahoma city. i had an inflatable mattress in the back and camped out at one of those big gas station/rest stops on the toll road. it was way colder than i though and i had to put on like 5 layers of clothing to sleep comfortably. finally got to bed around 3am friday morning and slept until 10am. i woke up and started driving. passed thru OK city and later into texas. found one of those car wash stalls with the high pressure sprayer and spent $6 spraying off all the cancer(salt) that attached itself from the previous states. Texas was pretty boring except for the strange road signs.. while driving through on the 40 i noticed every once in a while a large sign would be completely mangled and bent, like some giant hand crushed it. i thought maybe kids here had nothing better to do than vandalize signs and didnt think twice about them... until i stopped at a rest stop built into the side of a hill that also said "tornado shelter" it was pretty crazy to think that tornados were responsible for those "vandalized" signs. while passing through texas i got tired and took a 2 hour nap in the cruiser at a gas station. woke up feeling better and kept going into new mexico. it was dark as i hit the first small town there and gassed up. I also saw 85 octane gas and was like WTF? i knew regular mexico had poor gas but didnt know new mexico did as well. oh well, i put it in the cruiser anyways and it still got 15mpg on its way to albuquerque. i didnt quite make it all the way there cuz i was feeling tired so i found some cool spot and slept another night in the trunk. this was friday night and i was really tired so i went to sleep at 10pm. woke up at 3am absolutely FREEZING. I didnt understand, i had a north face down sleeping bag and 5 layers of clothes on but was shivering uncontrollably. i had to start driving to warm back up. finally was warm again and into arizona by the time the sun came up. found another cool spot off some dirt road and thought i would try sleeping again. the sun kept me from freezing and i slept from about 7-10am on sat morning. then i kept driving and finally hit flagstaf AZ. I thought that area was pretty cool with high desert on one side and then all of the sudden a pine tree forest and eventually palm trees and cacti the further south i went. it was cold all through new mexico and AZ until 1hour outside of phoenix when i stopped and was able to change into shorts for the first time all trip! it was hard to imagine that less than 2 days ago i was still driving through snow. from phoenix i was told its only a 5 hr drive to san diego but that came from a friend with a nice sports car. while i could have easily done the drive in 5 hours with my jetta, the cruiser would turn over 3000rpm past 78mph and i didnt want to subject the motor to extended periods of hi rpms, plus there were some steep hills coming out of AZ into CA so it took be about 7. I made it into san diego at about 9pm on sat. While initially i had no idea if i would even make it w/o breaking down, the more i drove the more i trusted my new ride. it didnt burn a drop of oil the whole way and averaged 15.1 mpg over the entire trip.. and most of that was at 75mph! it never ran warm, even through the hot AZ desert w/ the ac on and always started on the first try. not a single problem the whole way! definately a solid vehicle. i now know i can always depend on it and invest some $$$ into mods and maybe some rust repair. well thats all i can think of right now cuz i'm way tired and plus the neighboor girl wants me to come over and watch a movie so later everyone.
P.S. I didnt take many pics since most of the driving was at night and/or through freezing cold weather (dont like numb fingers) but there are a few from TX to CA and i'll work on posting those tomorrow.
Enjoy the ride and after you recouperate a bit, go through all the maintenance. Most importantly, post up some pics!
