Across North America in Five Weeks!

[hecrod]

I kept an eye peeled along the smaller state highways, I figured you would avoid I-64!

If you make it up into Maryland anywhere around Antietam Battlefield hit me up! I am home now, less than 5 miles from the battlefield. I can at the very least point you towards some good food!

@rkymtnflyfisher Thanks for the kind offer! My next two stops are in Fredericksburg and Gettysburg... as far as Civil War battlefields, I plan to stop by those two (Fredericksburg and Gettysburg). Will have to skip Antietam due to time. But thanks again... much appreciated!

Here's hoping you get to feeling better and don't succumb to a bug of some kind. And with the kind of luck you had with the oil cap I think your chances are good.

Still loving every post you make on this thread.

You need to capture all these write-ups and your photos into one of those photo-print-albums like you can make in iPhoto. This would be a great album to have handy to reminisce about your trip in the future.

Joel

@Honger Thanks for the note. Actually felt much better today. I think it was the heat... yesterday was very hot! Today, at least until I got to Lexington, VA it was much better.

I'll try to learn about iPhoto... I admit I don't know much about it. At least I have it all here on MUD!

@hecrod

75-78' had the presson oil filler caps... Is yours a presson type?

You would not be the first to loose that cap... You need to make sure the contact area is very dry of oil

If it still does it there may be a pcv issue

@JohnnyC It's a press-on. I think I just left it off when I added the half-quart... I hope it doesn't happen again!

Don't know your route back to Boston but if you need a break the Coal Mine Cruiser Classic starts next week in PA. If you can fit in a rest day there are plenty of open passenger seats in our trucks this year. Some of us will be up there starting Tuesday. LMK.

Coal Mine Cruiser Classic - Gotham City Land Cruisers

@iptman Wow... now that's an interesting proposition! I'll send you a PM to see how we can get this to work. My only possible day is Wednesday, but I wouldn't be able to get there until late morning. Hopefully that works?

I would also have to leave mid-afternoon as I have to be in New York City by 7:30 PM... meeting my wife there on Wednesday night! She's taking the train down from Boston...

hector,

Glad you found your oil cap!! 44 blew hers into the desert before my 2F rebuild. Too much back pressure, from the blow-by.

I now carry a spare, but didn't at the time... But, duct tape and mechanics wire worked well... As does twine for a tether, if you are inclined to forget it.

We're in Alamosa, CO... Staying at a motel tonight... Gotta bathe before heading up the mountain in the morning... Gotta be fresh

DaBoise rude and sleep in the back seat of my Tundra... Yesterday morning, I found Chester had projectile vomited all I've their area. He was curled up in the drivers seat and Poor Hunner was laying in the stinking mess of dog food.

We stopped in Cortez, CO and bought carpet/upholstery shampoo and drove fast, to out run the horde of flies that we're sure we were carrion...

We pulled into a FS campground (7k') and I backed into a site and the host ran over and said, "a rattlesnake bit my dog this morning".

We drove off and climbed over Wolf Pass (10.8k') and camped at another FS campground and the host ran out and said, "a bear tore up a capers tent this morning. They had food in it". I said, "we smell too bad to attract bears"... We stayed... We know bears... We don't like rattlesnakes!!

We were at 8.5k' and I shampooed the hell out of my truck. Smells like a bouquet of roses now!!

So, provision shopping in the morning, then 70 miles of pavement and 20 miles of washboard dirt road... And heaven!!

Drive safe, Hector... It's ok to be grumpy when driving alone... Just don't take anything you say to yourself personally!!

I hope leaving the cap off was a one time thing... and that I don't develop an inclination to forget it!

@pngunme man... that last phrase??? The bomb!!! LOL Was that line from Yogi Berra?




Kind of chilly this morning in West Virginia... Chilly and foggy!


Wonderful temperature to log some miles in! Drove over to the New River Gorge Bridge... it was for many years the world's longest single span bridge. It is also almost 1,000' over the river below! A very impressive engineering marvel...

And all of the struggles I've been referencing since I got to the Quad Cities by the Mississippi??? I guess it is a fact of life... we must renew ourselves. We may not like it, it is painful... but at least here in the USA we allow for it to happen. We help in the transition, we may try to manage the process, but we don't stop the process.

Case in point... take a look at the river below... to the farthest turn. There used to be a town there! A coal town that was abandoned many years ago. The forest already covered it! Those people suffered... I'm sure we helped... but what had to happen took place. We are no longer there.

Beautiful mountains by the way... rugged, green, stunning. Something good will come to this part of the Country soon. But before...

Drove some more... the Town of Rainelle seemed especially hard hit. And I started to think that this was too much... something else must have happened here... piles of debris everywhere... just about every business shuttered... it was not until a few miles later that it became obvious.

There had been a flood here... and in fact it took place only two weeks ago... every other house had the dreaded red sprayed-cross on it. Condemned. FEMA everywhere... Military trucks everywhere. I am actually a bit ashamed that I did not know about this. Does it have to be Clinton and Trump all the time???!!! The clip below is from Richwood... similar situation where I drove through today...


Heartbreaking... everything is destroyed. I decided not to take pictures of that... there must be plenty of those in the internet...





And I moved on... Logging is still a very present industry in the Region...

And, yes, I made it to Virginia... a State in the Atlantic seaboard!!! That means I must be close to home...

To be continued...

 

[hecrod]

Lexington, Virginia... home of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the Virginia Military Institute, and where General Robert E. Lee is buried. The town itself? Absolutely gorgeous... all of the buildings well maintained. It is a beautiful town. Come and see it...

Below is General Jackson's home, totally restored and in excellent condition. $7 get you a detailed tour of its insides. Whatever our politics may be, General Jackson has to be considered one of the greatest war tacticians ever... read about him if you haven't. Quite extraordinary.

Also made it to the Chapel where Robert E. Lee is buried... I don't think I have to say much about him...

The struggles these individuals must have gone through in deciding who to fight for!!!! We may question their decisions in hindsight... but would we have decided differently??? Really???? Maybe what happened from 1861 to 1865 had to happen...

And finally the Virginia Military Institute...

It's a fortress... a gorgeous fortress. One has the feeling of Old Europe when driving through Campus. All of the buildings look alike... one lane bridges... What a beautiful place! The oldest military college in the US. Had several buildings burned during the Civil War, in retaliation for its cadets' participation in the Battle of New Market... the history in the Region is beginning to reveal itself...

Fredericksburg coming up!

Read and ride along!

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Re: "that last phrase??? The bomb!!! LOL Was that line from Yogi Berra?"

Nope, that's simply one of the rules by which I live.

You know, like, "do unto yourself the same way you would like others to do unto you".

Drive safely my friend!!

 

[caladin]

And finally across the Mississippi again, with the Chester Bridge in Chester Illinois in the background...
View attachment 1285681


I cross the Chester Bridge every time i go to visit my wife's folks in steeleville, did you notice the status of Popeye on the left side of the road there? It's the town the artist who made Popeye was born in...

Man this makes me want to take my 40 across country...

Eric/Cal-

 

[1911]

The struggles these individuals must have gone through in deciding who to fight for!!!! We may question their decisions in hindsight... but would we have decided differently??? Really???? Maybe what happened from 1861 to 1865 had to happen...

Thought-provoking questions for sure. Interesting to note that nearly all other European and western hemisphere nations were able to give up slavery without having a bloody civil war - leading me to conclude that our Civil War was more about states rights versus federal control than it was about ending slavery. Slavery was merely a convenient moral justification for the winning side.

I would not however like to derail your fantastic trip and thread with politics; if you like I will be happy to delete this post. Fair winds and following seas Hector!

 

[Coolerman]

Route 60! I have driven every mile of that stretch between Lexington, KY and Charleston, WV multiple times when I used to work in the coal industry. During the heyday of coal, one had to be VERY careful not to get run over by a 27 ton coal truck coming around a blind curve on the wrong side of the road. For many reasons they ALWAYS had the right of way! (I drove a small Ford station wagon that would have just been a bump in the road to one of those trucks... )

Glad the temps cooled down and the humidity dropped for you!

Be safe for the rest of your journey...

 

[tls3601]

Nice Civil war stuff on your trip, sadly I feel we need another one to restore a Constitutional state as our founders envisioned. So much history in those areas, thanks for the pics!! Enjoy the journey and drive safe......

 

[TheHardWay]

Ah, the Civil War... to all the buffs out there, I just finished reading 'The Myth of the Lost Cause: why the South fought the Civil War and why the North won, ' by Edward Bonekemper. Regardless of which side you favor, the quotes and writings from that time will give you a different perspective of that time and place.

 

[hecrod]

And finally across the Mississippi again, with the Chester Bridge in Chester Illinois in the background...
View attachment 1285681


I cross the Chester Bridge every time i go to visit my wife's folks in steeleville, did you notice the status of Popeye on the left side of the road there? It's the town the artist who made Popeye was born in...

Eric/Cal-

I did look for the Statue, but I think the detour I took to take the picture of the bridge caused me to miss it... and then I forgot. Bummed a little about it.

Thought-provoking questions for sure. Interesting to note that nearly all other European and western hemisphere nations were able to give up slavery without having a bloody civil war - leading me to conclude that our Civil War was more about states rights versus federal control than it was about ending slavery. Slavery was merely a convenient moral justification for the winning side.

I would not however like to derail your fantastic trip and thread with politics; if you like I will be happy to delete this post. Fair winds and following seas Hector!

Delete??? No way!!!

See, when I drafted this trip, I knew this was going to take sort of three stages:

1. National Parks in the West, to see their beauty and magnificence... and boy did we get to do that... Olympic, Jasper, Banff, Glacier, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Badlands... amazing! And in the 40? Even better!!!
2. More of an economic tour, going through the agricultural parts of the country... South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois... the Mississippi... the industrial Mid-West. Coal mining! Different from the National Parks, but awesome on their own. I was also curious about Iowa, and I left it thrilled... what a gorgeous place... and lastly,
3. The South and the Civil War... and everything that comes with it! Including country music! It was an extraordinary time back then... the Civil War I mean. Continues to be extraordinary today. Any such event, with the passions that it stirs, is bound to raise emotions. And I expected that.

So, don't delete the post.


That said, and in response to your comment, I'll have to say that I agree with you in that the technicality behind the War was States' Rights... but we have similar issues today (think abortion, weed, healthcare, LGBT issues), which many argue should be left to the States, while others disagree... yet no one seriously considers the possibility of a Civil War over these States' Rights matters. Slavery, as an issue, was at a different level. The South's economy depended on it, its culture was heavily influenced by it, and its Key Leaders (think Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe) had been ambivalent over it for many, many years.

Slavery had for literally hundreds of years been a critical topic of contention... necessitating compromises to even get the Constitution approved. In 1776, Our Founding Fathers knew of the contradiction of "All men are created equal..." in our Declaration of Independence. Many suspected that if something was going to break the Union, it was going to be the issue of slavery. Just today I visited Montpelier (more on that below), the home of President James Madison, and throughout the Tour, Movie and exhibits one can see how conflicted he (Madison) was over this topic... he did not have a realistic solution for it.

Now (and this is absolutely my own opinion), if there was something that made any solution realistically impossible, it was the tone that the conversations around slavery took on. It was accusatory, demeaning, personal... It was meant to hurt. Very, very difficult to reach common ground when you feel insulted. Reasonable people will often act unreasonably under those conditions...

It is this which worries me at times nowadays. The meanness of the political discourse, the disparagement of others' cultures, lowers our ability to converse or negotiate. People will react unreasonably under those conditions... the Civil War proved that.

There is still something to learn from it...

Route 60! I have driven every mile of that stretch between Lexington, KY and Charleston, WV multiple times when I used to work in the coal industry. During the heyday of coal, one had to be VERY careful not to get run over by a 27 ton coal truck coming around a blind curve on the wrong side of the road. For many reasons they ALWAYS had the right of way! (I drove a small Ford station wagon that would have just been a bump in the road to one of those trucks... )

Glad the temps cooled down and the humidity dropped for you!

Be safe for the rest of your journey...

No coal trucks witnessed... no coal movement at all!!! I did see a train full of coal (and I took a picture!), but it seemed to just be parked there. Another sign of the changing times...




So the day started with the 40 getting a much needed shower... the sixth time during the trip! Seattle, somewhere in BC, Montana, South Dakota, Illinois, and now Virginia. It was worse in the West, with all the dust, muddy only one time in South Dakota... looks nice and clean right now!

Then I took I-64 (yes, I took the interstate today!) to drive from Lexington to Charlottesville. These are the Blue Ridge Mountains... near Afton, VA.

Charlottesville proper did not have much for me. Downtown looks pretty, with Main St. converted into a "Walking Street" or Mall, but basically no points of attraction (for me!)... other than The Nook!, yessss, where I had a nice brunch... accompanied by my three most favorite tools of this trip... maps, iPhone, and Coffee!!!

Now I mentioned Montpelier before... and here I was impressed. Beautiful plantation, solid restoration, amazing Tour Guides! On the Tour Guide, she did her job so well (articulate, knowledgable, transparent) that she got an applause at the end! She deserved it... I told her so myself...


Montpelier...

A place to visit without a doubt. President Madison was one of the Founding Fathers, he drafted the Virginia Plan, which led to The Constitution, was a Congressman, Secretary of State, and President for 8 years, covering the War of 1812. Only 5'5", but with a huge intellect... we owe a lot to him.


To be continued...

 

[hecrod]

And then I took the backroads again towards Fredericksburg... and saw corn again! And horse farms again! With the same black fences I saw in Kentucky! Virginia is a big big State...

With nice landscapes...

Beautiful barns... and much, much more...

Ended the day at Fredericksburg Battlefield Park... this was a sobering experience. Very nice walking tours provided free of cost (ahem our taxes... ) by National Park Service personnel...


Ever seen this picture?

Or this one???

This is how the road (AKA The Sunken Road) looks today... just about the same as it did in 1862 (look at the house... same as two pictures before)... that's the original wall on the left, built on the left and the right to prevent the ground from shifting. It just happened to provide the Confederates with perfect cover to repel the advancing Union. Union soldiers were attacking Up the Hill from the left, thousands of Confederates behind the wall, with supporting artillery further up the hill on the right. It was a massacre. Total casualties... 17,000... 13,000 of those from the Union.

Click here for more on the Battle of Fredericksburg...

Tomorrow? Alexandria, DC (traffic permitting), ending the day at Gettysburg.

Read and ride along!


Hector

 

[brian]

what's the plan of attack after gburg?
i'm in the Harrisburg area.

should i drive the 40 to work tomorrow?

 

[Dagha Boy]

wow. wow. wow. I've been caught up in life for the past month or so and had no time to follow since about page 7. Just finishing reading to the end. Truly awesome. I am envious. I am facing 2 000 miles with the Grand Cherokee and the Dagha Boy on a car trailer in tow tomorrow and the next day. Only two days to do it. That is not the kind of road trip to look forward to. Happy travels!!

 

[bikersmurf]

I find myself wishing that your trip will be longer than five weeks... I'm enjoying the virtual ride along. It brings back memories of my Trip down the Washington/Oregon/California coast.

 

[hecrod]

what's the plan of attack after gburg?
i'm in the Harrisburg area.

should i drive the 40 to work tomorrow?

I'm staying in Gettysburg today... heading through Amish country tomorrow into New York City. Anywhere convenient to meet for lunch somewhere? Just let me know...

@Dagha Boy @bikersmurf






First thing early in the morning? Not a good start... iPhone acting up again. Amazing how much we (I?) depend on those things nowadays. I would seriously consider a backup smart phone if I were to do something like this again.

So I found myself at a McDonalds... ostensibly to buy breakfast (which I did), but really to get to use their free wifi, mostly to find out about the closest Apple Store in the area, to get the iPhone fixed! Also to let the family know that I was going to be out of touch for a while... didn't want them to worry...


Driving into Alexandria / DC??? its a PITA! There's the Pentagon right ahead... the Washington Monument on the left... the Jefferson Memorial right in the middle, and the Capitol in the distance. That's all I'm going to show about the area, because I got in, got the iPhone restored, and got out... all in a brisk three hours. How do people do this every day?!!! Police everywhere, damn tourists everywhere, impossible... at least driving. Forget about parking... forget about photo ops with the 40 there... not happening.

DC proper is a beautiful place... but not to drive in. You fly in, take a cab to a local hotel, and walk. Driving a car in that place is not fun.

I did say is beautiful... and austere at the same time. You can feel its governmental vibe... which I generally do not appreciate, but they've done a good job here. Just don't drive in...


I then headed Northwest towards Gettysburg... and what an amazing place this is. People from outside the US (or even from within, those who are not aware of the History), may never get to understand and / or feel the importance this place has to our Country. It may not be an exaggeration to say that the USA as we know it today, hung in the balance in those early July days in 1963. The place is authentic... the battlefield locations (the Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, The Railroad Cut) are all there!!!!! In the exact same way you have seen it in the old pictures. WOW!!! You can't help it but be quiet and respect what took place there. ~50,000 casualties over the three days...

Many books have been written... but standing at the top of Little Round Top... and seeing what the Confederate soldiers were trying to do, going uphill against an entrenched enemy... and seeing what Lt. Chamberlain had to go through on those big rocks... it just brings it home. What a time... what a historical event.

Now, on the black and white picture below... it was not created on purpose, I just made a mistake with the camera today. Probably appropriate anyways...


One of the positions the Confederate Army held for the majority of the Battle... with Gettysburg straight ahead in the distance.

Sorry that this is all I have to show for today picture-wise... I did mess up with the camera. I may be able to save the rest of the pictures I took today, but that will have to wait until I get home...


So I figured I should try to make up for it... and since this is a technical blog anyway... here you go... a ~6-min video I just shot of the 40, going through some of its features, especially those that may be relevant to the trip. Sorry for the wind in the background (you don't hear it much after the first minute or so), not much I could do about that. I recognize I may not have covered every topic of interest to you, so if you have any questions, just type away!



Tomorrow? New York City... Millie will meet me there. One goes to Nashville, one listens to Country Music... one goes to NYC, one goes to see a play! May not get to update the blog tomorrow night

Read and ride along!


Hector

 

[brian]

what route are you taking? all kinds of breweries, vineyards and distilleries in these parts.
there is the statue of liberty in the middle of Susquehanna river...albeit a bit out of the way.
would be more than willing to meet you somewhere.

 

[hecrod]

what route are you taking? all kinds of breweries, vineyards and distilleries in these parts.
there is the statue of liberty in the middle of Susquehanna river...albeit a bit out of the way.
would be more than willing to meet you somewhere.

Hi Brian. PM sent. Hector

 

[franklin40]

nice tour of the truck. what's the little orange led guage to the right of the steering wheel? what tranny are you running. and what cruise control do you have. may have missed it in an earlier post but it looks like a nice feature for the longer road trips

 

[JohnnyC]

Should swing by Strasburg real quick ... Great Steam locomotives if you were needing something to do lol

 

[hsumbal]

You got a good AC in there...but I think you did not use it...

 

[hecrod]

what route are you taking? all kinds of breweries, vineyards and distilleries in these parts.
there is the statue of liberty in the middle of Susquehanna river...albeit a bit out of the way.
would be more than willing to meet you somewhere.

So I met with @brian yesterday... who was kind enough to drive 30 minutes out of his way to meet me!

Brian drives a very nice '75 40, lifted a bit D) with a shackle reversal on... and antique plates, with a permanent registration! He's had this nice 40 for over 20 years!

Here's the two posers...

Brian... thanks for driving over... it was very nice meeting you!

nice tour of the truck. what's the little orange led guage to the right of the steering wheel? what tranny are you running. and what cruise control do you have. may have missed it in an earlier post but it looks like a nice feature for the longer road trips

@franklin40 Those are the brake and seat belt lights... two separate lights. I guess this is not standard on every 40... did not know that.

You got a good AC in there...but I think you did not use it...

@hsumbal Ahhhh the AC... one of my mistakes on this trip. I decided to look into fixing it too late into the process, and didn't have enough time to get it done right. I thought I had it fixed but it lost the charge soon thereafter... Big mistake... I'm now know that the two times I felt ill it was related to the heat.




After meeting Brian and chatting for about an hour I drove straight into New York City... but before I got there...

Technical ALERT! I'm on the highway (Route 78 from PA into New Jersey) and I notice that power was a little down. Soon thereafter I thought I saw smoke coming into the cabin. I saw some reflections from a tractor trailer on the side window and decided that no... it must not have been smoke... probably a reflection. So I kept on driving, things seemed to settle, but going up the next hill, it did the same thing again... smoke was definitely coming in.

@#$%@$#! I don't need this! Not this close to home! So while waiting for the next exit I start to brainstorm... with myself... what could it be? Spark plugs gone bad? Could explain the loss in power, but not the smoke... Oil cap again? Explains the smoke, but not the loss of power... what else???

I leave Route 78, find a nice place to park to check this over. As soon as I park I felt the 40 stuttering a little. Shut it off. Open the hood... and right away I saw what was wrong. The hose going into the PCV valve was off! It worked itself lose from the valve... how? I put it back in, the stuttering went away... and life was good again.

A good example of the type of things that don't bother you much when you are 5-10 miles away from home... 300 miles away? The feeling is a bit different! Anyway, just another close call...


And... I made officially it across the Continent, with the 40!!!!

Right on this spot I spend a bit of time chatting with a nice gentleman from Saudi Arabia... who took all sorts of videos and pictures of the 40, and who really wants to get one of these! I told him about this site... and how we have several members from Saudi Arabia who roam here from time to time! Now is a good spot as any to write a little about all of the people who talked to me about the 40... at gas stations, rest areas, campgrounds, hotels, towns... you had the shy people looking it over, and then looking away the moment you looked at them, and then those that couldn't resist but walk over to it to chat about it!

Then you had those driving by who double honked in appreciation, there were many of those... there was also I admit one sustained use of the honk in clear anger... somewhere in TN... I had probably been holding him longer than he deemed appropriate...). There were several who slowed down to give me the thumbs up... the 40 has lots of fans!

One more view of One World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan... taken from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. We did make it across! This was a long drive...

But before that I took a short detour... to visit a home where we have a lot of history (the one in the left)... NJ is a special place for us... it's where Chelsea was born! They were good years...

To be continued...