OK so being unemployed and having stuff on the west coast made for a perfect chance to do a road trip.
So on 13th sept I load up the truck and set off for spokane washington. The plan is to get there, help my friend who has had a heart attack stuff the 1835 motor in the convertible, and help get the 1127 motor back in the 90 GSXR frame. Then load the GSXR in the truck and tow the vw back. 2560 miles 1 way. Easy right. OK. Yea the 97 f150 has 221K miles ... spring chicken. Yea no problem.

So day 1, sept 13 - drive 500+ miles to dayton OH (I stop at several goodwill stores along the way looking for odd junk) where 1 mile from a 24 hour wal mart the battery light comes up in the dash. I get there and they open the auto section after they have closed, test my truck and conclude the alternator and battery are dead. So next morning I make it to pep boys - and the truck works just fine to there. They find the same thing and they change them.

Day 2, 14th: Late start after pepboys and I Drive to Des Moines IA. Just a simple drive. 650 miles.

Day 3, 15th: 950 miles to hardin WY. Get there midnight, find very little decent food, eat a microwaved pocket and decide I will avoid WY on the way back. Go to sleep only to find the camper leaking slowly in the back, its freezing cold and wet. I was going to get on 85/212 through MT even then, but I get to the west side of sturgis @ dark and figure I have 2-3 hours of driving I could do, not enough to cover 212 in the dark.

Day 4. 16th: 650 miles to spokane covered just fine.

Day 5, 6, 7, 8: Stuff the 1835 in the vw, stuff the 1127 in the gsxr, cram the VW full of vw and gsxr parts and cram the gsxr in the truck on the right side crammed in as tight as it can get, and well I get to sleep in the thing still, just in a 2ft wide space.

Day 9 sept 21: Leave spokane @ 4 am and make 500 miles to just east of Billings MT

Day 10 22nd: Get to sioux falls and camp @ a mcd's parking lot, get rain and get soaked and freezing cold. Again 500 miles.

Day 11, 23rd: Drove to IA and through mason city and after a lot of local roads in that area (again good will shopping) I get to a Mcd's for lunch, and as i am about to leave, find no real right tar. No tar ... the rim is bashed ... WTF, I felt nothing. More ironic is the fact that that was the same tar we fixed cos it was flat, it had a leak @ the bead, we clean and re fit it and it holds air. I think I picked up a nail, it must have been a leak not a blow out.
Anyway I use the 1 spare and the rim and put it on. Then run to galesburg Il. Again just about 500 miles. In the pouring rain, I pass a guy pulling a rust colored 66 beetle (I think it was dark) with a rust colored older ford truck. May have been primered to match. Man was it alternate reality like.
But I duct taped the rear of the camper where it was leaking and it dried out and didn't leak.

Day 12 24th: Drive ~300 miles to knightstown IN (east of indianapolis) and hear a nice loud pop 1 mile from the exit. That was the other rear tar on the vw. OK so I make it to a BK and call for tow truck. Try to find a tar and finally find one. Then make it to a Big o tars and decide that the rear of the VW is so heavy its blowing tars, and swap both rear tars for new. I make it to Washington CH OH and into a truck stop. Why do truckers leave their engines running for 6-7 hours Someone better alert al bore, its causing global warming ? Again 500 miles for the day.

Day 13, 25th: 500 miles home. Made it ~11 pm.

Told ya it was boring.

It was boring enough when I was living it.

Cool.
Buddha.

  sounds like it was alot of pain. was the view nice at least?

The way up there was a regular snooze fest. I thought I'd fall asleep @ the wheel and miss montana.

The way back - well a whole other story. Every bloody stop some guy/gal/old dude/kid/whole family would stop by and start drooling @ the VW. It was fugly, faded green and white with tons of house paint drippings on it, ass end nearly dragging on the ground, top with seams comming loose ... still it somehow got people excited. The coolest thing was one time @ a gas stop a woman (maybe in her 40's) and her daughter possibly, in her 20's were all excited looking and giggling and very animatedly talking (about it I presume) or they were talking about what a moron he's moved from CA to Minnesota. Anyway, that car is a magnet ... sadly its mostly a guy/geezer magnet. Ocassionally it may catch a chick (and at my age the definition of chick covers a lot of ground).

It was also cool to never stay @ a motel and never pay room charges. I also had a grand old time sleeping whenever I felt like it. I'd wake up and hit the road @ 5 usually, get b'fast sometime ~8-9 am, then nap for an hour. Then run till lunch 2-3pm, then nap again. Then run till midnight, get dinner and sleep for the night. Pretty cool.

Cool.
Buddha.

Sounds like an awesome trip. You were in my neck of the woods..corn fields..Iowa, twice. Next time you make it thru here definitely hit me up. I would love to meet the Buddha and a warm bowl of pho (vietnamese soup) is better than mcd's.

i like fishing.





ya, no one cares about fishing when there are boobies around ! PICS MAN PICS POPULATE THIS THREAD ALREADY !!!

Dude that first chick has one much bigger than the other.
Pics ... yea I better get them on.
Seamax: I got a pic @ that massive truck stop on my return trip from IA. I was in some weird hurry ... though sheite breaking ate up plenty of my time. Anyway If I recall I did drive through your town only on the return trip. Way up I went through Des Moines and council bluffs and got the only traffic stop of the trip, for tinted windows. Warning only. Made it out of there just fine.
Cool.
Buddha.

Yes..you should post pictures. Let's see those tinted windows.

"...No tar ... the rim is bashed ... WTF, I felt nothing..."

Maybe you were sleeping...

Quote from: bill14224 on October 01, 2010, 08:16:24 AM
"...No tar ... the rim is bashed ... WTF, I felt nothing..."

Maybe you were sleeping...

Maybe, it was Iowa after all.
Cool.
Buddha.

How funny I went from NJ to Idaho and back 2 weeks earlier towing my two bikes. Your trip sounds like much more fun though!