DribbleDuke
About a year and one half ago I bought a 1980 300 TD from my neighbor. The car had been sitting for some years due to it being uncomfortable to drive with a broken seat. I brought it home (300') and proceeded to bring it back to life. I originally bought it as a "Top Gear" challenge purchase. Buy a car for cheap and see how far she'll take you. Not very. After a bit of this and that, I got it to the point that I felt it may run for a while or not and was curiuos just how well she would fare on the open road. Our whole family loves Top Gear and the challenge was letting us have our very own contest.
Take the car to Maine or leave it on the side of the road and fly home from wherever she quit. My original goal was to get the car to the east coast and sell her for airfare home. I figured she would sell pretty easy on the east coast as most cars are rust buckets in ten years and a 1980 Mercedes wagon had to have some value. This idea was quickly extinguished when I realised that if she indeed did make it to Maine I would continue the challenge and bring safely back to the left coast.
October tenth my wife and I left to head up to Idaho to visit a sister and then turn right for a northerly route. There is not a working speedometer so the GPS was my gauge. Through long boring Nevada we rode. Then afetr a great visit with sissy we headed to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, South Dakota,well anyway we traveled on smaller roads that give Mercy Me an easier time.
Except for the quart of oil she spilled or drank every eight hundred miles and the fact that seven thousand feet is totally out of her comfort zone, she trudged along well.
As luck would have it my son, the unemployed recent graduate of a semi worthless history degree was in New York partying with a bunch of other likeminded hippies and he shared the road with me on the west bound leg. My wife needed to get back to work so she was dropped of in Boston.
The fall colors were brilliant and the history that the New England states have going for them is special. In California we have nothing even resembling old if you remove the native history from our equation. To see an historical plaque that dates to before this nation was founded is a unique occurrence to a Ca. natives eyes.
My two favorite areas were Middle Idaho with its rich farming and busyness getting ready for a cold winter and Wisconsin, with its gentle rolling fall colored splendor.
Nashville and Chattanooga and Tulsa and Wichita were places that seemed to carry on in the same traditions of their forefathers and had great river comminities built up around them.
Another hilite of the trip was having my oil changed at the original Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers garage called Good News Garage. Our family has been listening to Car Talk for over twenty years and it was a pleasure to see "Our Fair City". On a sad note I also was informed by my son while gassing up in North Carolina that Tom Magliozzi had passed. What an infectious laugh, and all three Barrett's have shared many a tear of joy and sadness over this news.
The best was camping on lakes with nary a soul in sight after a long days drive.
Oh and another hilight was dispensary in Colorado. I got myself some keef for the first time and my son is calling me Dusty
Take the car to Maine or leave it on the side of the road and fly home from wherever she quit. My original goal was to get the car to the east coast and sell her for airfare home. I figured she would sell pretty easy on the east coast as most cars are rust buckets in ten years and a 1980 Mercedes wagon had to have some value. This idea was quickly extinguished when I realised that if she indeed did make it to Maine I would continue the challenge and bring safely back to the left coast.
October tenth my wife and I left to head up to Idaho to visit a sister and then turn right for a northerly route. There is not a working speedometer so the GPS was my gauge. Through long boring Nevada we rode. Then afetr a great visit with sissy we headed to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, South Dakota,well anyway we traveled on smaller roads that give Mercy Me an easier time.
Except for the quart of oil she spilled or drank every eight hundred miles and the fact that seven thousand feet is totally out of her comfort zone, she trudged along well.
As luck would have it my son, the unemployed recent graduate of a semi worthless history degree was in New York partying with a bunch of other likeminded hippies and he shared the road with me on the west bound leg. My wife needed to get back to work so she was dropped of in Boston.
The fall colors were brilliant and the history that the New England states have going for them is special. In California we have nothing even resembling old if you remove the native history from our equation. To see an historical plaque that dates to before this nation was founded is a unique occurrence to a Ca. natives eyes.
My two favorite areas were Middle Idaho with its rich farming and busyness getting ready for a cold winter and Wisconsin, with its gentle rolling fall colored splendor.
Nashville and Chattanooga and Tulsa and Wichita were places that seemed to carry on in the same traditions of their forefathers and had great river comminities built up around them.
Another hilite of the trip was having my oil changed at the original Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers garage called Good News Garage. Our family has been listening to Car Talk for over twenty years and it was a pleasure to see "Our Fair City". On a sad note I also was informed by my son while gassing up in North Carolina that Tom Magliozzi had passed. What an infectious laugh, and all three Barrett's have shared many a tear of joy and sadness over this news.
The best was camping on lakes with nary a soul in sight after a long days drive.
Oh and another hilight was dispensary in Colorado. I got myself some keef for the first time and my son is calling me Dusty