As part of my catching up I noticed that my Gettysburg adventure had
been truncated. The best is yet to come if you have patience.
When last we left, I had just arrived in Gettysburg after 12 hours on
the road, and felt so good that I went sightseeing.
C is for Comfort
Part II
Gettysburg
I called the Re's and got an answering machine. I had made a map
of the area with their house on it, but didn't bring it. After
driving around for a while I decided to see if I could find the
house without the map. As I was driving down the street I heard
a loud shout. Matt had been outside with his two sons Austin and
Jensen, doing yard work. That stopped immediately, and we went
into a chat mode until I decided I better had get some sleep
having been up for about 20 hours.
The event was fun, I got the award for furthest traveled, beating
out the Deagan's be only a few miles. I bought a taped tour of
the battlefield, used it on Thursday, wandered around, went up
on the tower overlooking the battlefield, and had a
great time meeting people (that's what its all about), and saw
some cars that were so perfect that it hurt to look at them. I
also had a chance to pick up some spare parts, including a
cylinder head without paying freight. On Thursday the car ran
poorly as a result of the heat and the stop and start nature of
the tape tour. That is a problem with Cs. The originals had
blower motors added to blow a stream of air over the carburetors
when things got too hot. Some of the members helped with the
adjustments until the car stopped running, but we did get it
sorted out for the trip home.
Tom Boscarino, old number one, the founder of the registry took
pictures of all the cars at the show on Saturday and presented a
plaque to each member with his car and the commemorative plate on
it. A class act! After the banquet I went right to bed , missing
the ghost walk tour.
The Trip Home
Got up at 3:00 AM Eastern time, prepared my water and cooler, and
was off by 3:30. I tried a different way back to the Turnpike.
The days when AAA knew what they were doing are long gone. They
gave me the shortest route, not the best. I added about 15 miles
to the trip, but avoided the mountains on US 30. The time
probably was a wash, and the drive was a lot easier. I was
surprised to see people out at that time on a Sunday morning,
but there was some traffic on the road. Once I got to the
Turnpike the driving wasn't all that easy. The Pennsylvania
Turnpike was built before planners drew a line from here to
there and blasted their way through. My speed was held down by
the fact that there wasn't a straight stretch of road longer
than several hundred yards. There was enough traffic for me to
have to keep my low beams on for most of the time so I couldn't
see the next bend in the road. Next time I will have my old
Lucas driving light mounted before the trip.
I stopped at the first oasis, and was the only car there.
There were several trucks. Fortunately they are open 24 hours,
and I got my cup of coffee. Then back on the road. I remember
less about the trip back than the trip out. I don't remember
breakfast.
Traffic was heavy between Cleveland and Toledo. It rained a few
times, and I ended up with a wet left knee, and the box holding
the spare cylinder head got wet, but nothing major until I got to
the Indiana/Illinois boarder. I did have a moment when I ignored
my rule to look for gas when the tank was 1/4 full.
There is construction at the boarder, so I crawled the five miles
of the jam. At one point I smelled Anti freeze, and saw some
steam. I started to pull over, then saw that the temperature
gauge wasn't showing overheating, so I ignored it. When I got
home I found that the heater water valve had burst. That is a
problem. NOS has deteriorated rubber, and new ones are not
available. When I got home I bypassed the valve with one piece of
hose. Heaters don't work in summer either.
Epilogue
When I got home I did look at the readings on the GPS. Be aware
that a GPS receiver has to be moving to be accurate and they
don't work in tunnels or when trees are shading the satellites.
My distance was listed as 672 miles, Elapsed time 12:23
(including the 5 mile jam at the Illinois/Indiana boarder),
travel time 10:47 (again how accurate was the receiver when I was
crawling through the jam?), maximum speed 82.1, average speed
62.4. I used 73.4 gallons of gas for an average of 20.2 miles per
gallon. I should be able to improve that now that I found out that
the front carb wasn't doing it's share.
I was surprised how refreshed I felt after the trip. On the way
out, even though I had been on the road for 12 hours, I felt
great. Same on the way back. I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon
doing chores, not what I usually do after a long trip. Maybe I
was running on adrenaline, who knows? I do know that the following
week I drove four hours in a large Olds Wagon. When I was done
with that I was stiff and tired. 10 hours in a C vs 4 in an
American monster, and the C won hands down for comfort, not to
mention fun.
Our next C meeting is July 98 in Pensacola, Florida. My initial
reaction was that it was too far. I checked, and it is only five
hours longer. Easy in two days, but who knows?
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