Builds 'Biscuit's Big Adventure' -- driving a 1992 Middle East spec RJ77 across America (2 Viewers)

[John Young]

We finally left Indianapolis at about 1 in the afternoon, continuing eastward on Route 70, now guided by google maps right in the dash.

BTW I tracked our gas consumption throughout this journey and we consistently got between 18 and 19.5 MPG (13 liters per 100 km to 12 liters per 100 km), which I thought was pretty amazing.

In the mid 1980's I'd had a job as a contractor to the US federal government that took me to Missouri and Kansas a number of times. What sticks in my memory was going out to dinner at a steak house called Jess & Jims which at that time had a deal that if you could eat a giant steak, it was free. I didn't actually do that, but I remember it being one of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. I wanted to give my son a similar memory so I had been searching for a suitable steak house as we drove west.

It got to be about 5 pm when we reach Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, which is kind of an upscale college town, so we parked downtown and walked around guided by google and looked at several places, but non really fired my imagination as to what a steak house ought to be. What we did find was a micro-brewery called The Blind Pig. Now it was hot, and I was tired and a microbrewery seems heaven-sent, and in we went, even though my son does not enjoy beer. The place was pleasantly cool and dim and we were pretty much the only ones in there. I asked the barkeep about food and he said the did not offer any but that we were welcome to order in. This is something I never had heard of before--ordering food into a bar. Seemed like quite an interesting concept. I thought for a moment and then asked for his recommendation for deep-dish, Chicago pizza.

I should add here that my sons grew up overseas in Asia and the Middle East. So there are gaps in their 'American experience.' Deep dish pizza being one of them. Just like the Ruben sandwich I mentioned earlier. I've wanted to share Chicago deep-dish with my sons for some time and so this seemed like a good opportunity. I ordered the pizza and we made good use of the wait time:

Me drinking a variety of house-brewed IPA's and Jonathan entertaining himself on the phone. He also tried a taste of hard cider which he did not care for:

BTW, that timer on the phone showed the minutes remaining until the pizza was to have been delivered. They did not have a guarantee or anything, but we both were very hungry. The delivery person turned out to be a lady my age or older, which was kind of food for thought.

When the pizza came, it did not disappoint. And it was huge. This is the pizza after two hungry men could eat no more:

Eventually we left The Blind Pig, with Jonathan driving as Jonathan does not drink at all and dear old dad had had a little too much IPA to do anything other than navigate.

On we went, pausing from time to time as necessary.

Eventually we made it at dusk to Springfield Illinois, of Abraham Lincoln fame in the pouring rain and a thunderstorm alert:

But, I am happy to say, we made it with no issues to a nice Marriott. Here's a little video Jonathan took for those interested--I look grumpy, but I'm really not. I tend to think that this may be the very first time Biscuit experienced rain like this. It really was heavy. Glad I had gotten new blades before we left. Here in Dubai, we use the wipers almost exclusively to clean the windshield.

Next: Perry Como and Abraham Lincoln....

 

[JuanJ]

No.... not me, MK. I have an ex brother in law who is a BMW guy, but I find them a little ... delicate. Re Ferdinand P's creations, I admire the engineering but I've never felt the attraction. Had a Alfa coupe for a few years and it was a real pain. Maybe that's why. That all said, I bought a 2005 SL500 here because the owner of a garage I know offered it to me at a real good price because the top did not work and it drives like the world's most luxurious go-cart, but I find it unnerving to be about 2 feet lower than all the rest of the traffic in Dubai.

Hello,

I find Porsche engineering fascinating but not worthy enough to attract me as well. Almost the same thing with MB, except for a brief period many moons ago when I considered a G-Class.

I find it unnerving to be two feet lower than the rest of the traffic. Or is it claustrophobia?

Your trip post is amazing.





Juan

 

[John Young]

(Thank you Juan!)

To continue...

So we were in Springfield, Illinois, the state capitol and home of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. By this time I was nervously looking at them map and seeing how far we still had to go and how few days we had to do it, and we had not hit the mountains yet, with poor Biscuit's 400K km 4-banger, that was underpowered when it was new. But, we really could not not visit the Lincoln Museum, and it did not disappoint.

Why is Ole Abe talking to this middle-aged, suburban white guy? Is he about to hit him with his hat? The little guy certainly seems frightened. Is that a map? Is he asking Lincoln for directions?

It turns out the suburban white guy is Perry Como; for those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Como:

"Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943." Wikipedia​

Como was from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of Lincoln's most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, during a critical moment early in the American Civil War. Some of you may recall that this is the speech where he spoke of the sacrifices of the soldiers who died at Gettysburg, and exhorted his listeners to resolve--

"...that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."​

Anyways, when it came time for Gettysburg to commission a giant painted bronze statue of Lincoln for some reason they chose to include Perry Como, their most famous son, in the statue. You can't make this stuff up. And apparently this monstrosity is traveling around America like one of those garden gnomes! See: Sculpture of Abe Lincoln Confusingly Includes Generic White Man Sporting “a Dad Look” I never would have known any of this if my son and I had not been driving Biscuit slowly across the United States.

We raced a bit through the museum, but enjoyed it immensely:

I know there is no logic to it, but the fact that my son and I have seen our reflection in the same mirror as Abraham Lincoln is really, really erie. I kept thinking about an old science fiction story by Bob Shaw, the Irish writer, called The Light of Other Days, with its idea of 'slow glass'--panes of glass that light takes years to pass through.

Last stop: touching Lincoln's nose:

...and back in Biscuit!

Next: Samuel Clemens and cheap gas






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[John Young]

We left Springfield and continued ever Westward on Route 72. Suburbs soon turned to corn... and more corn.... and then soya beans.... and then more corn. Here's a little 1-minute video of what it was like. It was a bit erie. Take a moment and look at it. It's actually kind of interesting. It was almost exactly like that Hitchcock movie North by Northwest. (That is if I looked more like Cary Grant and he was driving a truck instead of running.)

Eventually we crossed the Mississippi River and made it to Hannibal Missouri, Samuel Clemens / Mark Twain's boyhood home town, and we had to stop of course. We did not have enough time to look for the famous whitewashed fence, but still enjoyed the stop

We were advised by the Hannibal Cheese Shop owner that there was an ongoing gas war between the three stations in town and that we would get a good deal. We gassed up after an ice cream cone (see video of strange clacky chicken thing) and buying some cheese for Jonathan's brother back in Virginia

We carried that cheese the rest of the way. Anyways, here is what we found at the pump:

That's right. $2.19 USD per gallon. That works out to be .59 USD per liter. Here in the UAE in September 2019, the price for the cheapest gas is 2.08 AED per liter. That works out to be .57 USD per liter. It amazed me that in Hannibal, Missouri I was paying the same as for gas right here in the gulf. Maybe it should not have, but it did.

On we went for some time, and we reached a milestone with the odometer turning over to 400,000 km! Here's a video for those of you daft enough to want to look. I guess you had to be there to get really excited about it....

And we ended the day with less than 1000 miles to go to Salt Lake--over half way there!

Next: Lincoln, Nebraska and more corn!

 

[yourID10Tdriver]

That Chicago-style pizza fed us for a solid 3 days. 10/10 would order again

 

[John Young]

(That was good pizza, son. Not the best, but good.)

So where were we....

On of the things that we saw on this trip was how hard this year has been on the American Farmer. Lots of flooding in the mid-West. East of Lincoln Nebraska we saw this:

This is just on the Iowa side of the Nebraska-Iowa border. Even though it was gettin late, Jonathan really wanted to go off road, so we did, just a little. Here's the video. I was worried about building debris, so we did not do much. Plus it was getting late. Despite this, it was horrible sticky mud mixed with gravel. Really awful listening to this hit the underside of the truck. Here's the video (and audio) of that. Not fun.

Then, into Nebraska, we really were in 'Corn Country'.

We had a lovely sunset:

I think I will leave it here. We found a nice motel in Lincoln and rested up for the next day.

One final note for the day, it was 361 miles from Hannibal Missouri to Lincoln Nebraska. It took 18.99 gallons to fill the tank. That's 19 MPG, which is the highest I ever have achieved in any Land Cruiser.

 

[Dilspec]

Very unique and awesome experience.

 

[John Young]

The next morning, 13 August, we set off early stopping at pretty much every rest stop. Our plan was to drive from the pink 'you are there' arrow all the way over to the other side of the state by the time for a late lunch. We were running out of time to get to Salt Lake City.

The rest stops were always clean and nice with nice landscaping [youtube clip]. Some of them had inviting brochures:

I love the idea of using cattle water tanks to float down the river. Great bite-proof, plan-b idea for the coming zombie apocalypse! I also found what I thought would be an ideal place for lunch:

Most of this driving was along a two lane highway, sometimes down to one. Lots and lots of big trucks. Oddly we never felt pressured in Biscuit even though our little 4 cylinder often could not get us up past 60 MPH. No honking that I can remember. Speaking of zombie apocalypse, one of the trucks was carrying something radioactive [youtube clip]. In the clip you can get an idea of how busy this highway is.

We moved right along, stopping at most rest stops. Jonathan was asleep when I spotted this place, and decided it was something we had to take a look at and pulled off the highway:

 

[John Young]

Both Jonathan and I are interested in military vehicles. This is a great museum started by a few Vietnam Vets, now getting elderly as you might expect. I'd recommend a visit. Here are just a few photos. We took a lot and spent quite a bit of time here despite time being short.

Cool, right!?

Really great collection of jeeps!

Bradley FIghting Vehicle you can climb around inside of.... If you can fit. Not a lot of space in there really.
Interesting collection of vehicles outside as well:

We spent a couple of hours there and really enjoyed it. Highly recommended!

 

[John Young]

I just had to share a couple more photos:

There's Biscuit way in the background.

 

[John Young]

We got back on the road and pushed West. Kinda rushing. Eventually making it to Sidney, Nebraska, home of Dude's Steakhouse and Brandin' Iron Bar (that is the actual name). We got there just before 6 pm so I decided to get gat first--when I discovered I had forgotten to put the gas cap on back in Lincoln, Nebraska. This after I had chastised Jonathan for putting the gas cap on the tire on a prior stop. Sidney, Nebraska is a small town. Less than 7K people. Things close up early. And according to Google we had only a few minutes to make it to the auto parts store. But we did, and the counter man was able to find a new gas cap--a correct metal one, BTW, for Biscuit. Then it was back to Dude's. Frankly not a hugely memorable deal other than in relation to this shrimp cocktail going to the table next to ours.

There was a hotrod place across the street that was interesting:

They were closed, but their work was really nice.
Then it was back on the highway.

Somehow we ended up on road not yet finished and had an interesting time getting back on the actual highway. You can get a sense of how flat this area is from this youtube clip. We eventually made it across the state line to Laramie Wyoming by about 9 pm. Motel rooms surprisingly scarce. We tried replacing the rear door speakers in the parking lot of the motel the next morning:

But there seems to be a wiring issue we were not able to sort out on the road. We then did a small amount of 4 wheeling--going over the curb at the Flying J filling station [youtube clip]. And then we continued West:

It was beautiful, but flat.

 

[John Young]

Leaving Laramie in the morning after fiddling with the rear speaker and getting a really nice used leather jacket for both me and Jonathan and a solid pair of lightly-used and very nice cowboy boots for Jonathan's mother, my ex, as well as a couple of used but solid vice-grips at a thrift store, we spent most of the day simply driving East on the Lincoln Highway, Interstate 80. Breathtaking country!

By mid-afternoon, having stopped for authentic Mexican food at a family-run restaurant, we were only about 300 miles East of Salt Lake City:

I remember looking at the map and thinking that we really had not done much purely scenic driving. And the end of our trip was in sight--I no longer worried much as to whether we would make it. Biscuit had done solidly so far. So, despite both of us being kinda tired, and it being kinda late in the afternoon, we diverted to do a loop of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. A very good decision.

Here is a little youtube video panorama from a lookout just in the park.

We asked a local official about off roading and he said it was permitted on existing roads as long as you behave yourselves. We hunted around and did find keep ourselves to existing trails. Here's a little panorama video of a bit of that.

 

[John Young]

I love this photo:

Biscuit and my son look right at home in this contemporaneous little video. It includes a panorama. Really nice.

Here is a really fun video of us actually driving the pipeline road. This thing was treacherous! Huge holes made by some mysterious animal hidden just enough by the dry grass.

I often wondered about cowboy movies where a horse steps in a hole and breaks its leg. I no longer wonder about this. We drove over this one, and it was ... not pleasant.
Here's a little action video of Jonathan driving up off the pipeline track.

The view was SO worth it!

 

[FJBen]

I just had to share a couple more photos:
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There's Biscuit way in the background.
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We stopped by there last year on the way to a Volleyball tournament of my daughters. Very cool place and lot of cool things inside.

I also grew up about 60 miles south of Laramie in Colorado. Laramie was the "big city" lol.

BTW: those big holes are most likely from badgers.

 

[Honger]

I love this photo:
View attachment 2081321
Biscuit and my son look right at home in this contemporaneous little video. It includes a panorama. Really nice.
View attachment 2081322
Here is a really fun video of us actually driving the pipeline road. This thing was treacherous! Huge holes made by some mysterious animal hidden just enough by the dry grass.
View attachment 2081324
I often wondered about cowboy movies where a horse steps in a hole and breaks its leg. I no longer wonder about this. We drove over this one, and it was ... not pleasant.
Here's a little action video of Jonathan driving up off the pipeline track.
View attachment 2081325
The view was SO worth it!
View attachment 2081327

My family did Flaming Gorge on a road trip from Kansas to California when I was about 16. It's on my "must return" list now that I have kids. Love that area. So beautiful.

 

[yourID10Tdriver]

We stopped by there last year on the way to a Volleyball tournament of my daughters. Very cool place and lot of cool things inside.

I also grew up about 60 miles south of Laramie in Colorado. Laramie was the "big city" lol.

BTW: those big holes are most likely from badgers.

Very neat! They seemed a little on the big side for rabbits

 

[Defuzer1]

awesome trip John.

for rear speakers, my rj77 didn't have any. so the shop fabbed some in behind jump seats. have it posted on my RJ thread.

great mpg also.. I am getting about 17 on avg, but that is here in kuwait. extreme temps probably contribute to that some. hope to have my RJ back in the US next spring.

 

[John Young]

Thank you Hinger, FJBen and Defuser1!

Right after driving offroad a little we made it to Utah just as the sun was setting:

Looking good, I think.

Here's a little video at dusk.

At the dam in the park, parked where we were not supposed to park

 

[John Young]

It got rapidly darker and we were at least 50 miles from a motel. Rather than drive we found a campground and simply slept in the truck.

Before turning in we watched the new Men In Black movie.

The RJ77 seats lie more or less flat. I can't say it was comfortable, but we did sleep through the night and felt pretty ok in the morning.

For some reason there were cows wandering around [youtube clip]. We were looking for a place to have breakfast, but did not find any place suitable.

But we did find some spectacular views.

 

[John Young]

Couple more photos:

Youtube clip 1; clip 2; clip 3 (some deer). Even saw a condor or an eagle a couple of times; clip 1; clip 2. Sorry about the video quality, but still glad to share it.

Pretty country out there. Then it was back in the flat again for the final run to Salt Lake City [youtube clip].

It was just under 100 miles to the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum and frankly not very memorable driving--particularly as we were both pretty tired.

Next: The Land Cruiser Heritage Museum in Salt Lake CIty