Day 22: We made it! Epiblog

There's no place like home!

Our last day was a cruiser.   The high passes of New Mexico offered no vapor lock challenges this time. An odd wind out of the NE and cold front chilled the ride home, making it little work for the LaSalle.

It took forever to unpack the car.  It had become less and less organized as we stuffed more and more junque into who knows where. The car now rests quietly in the garage.  We'll update the this blog after Bill inspects the car. Superficially, the car runs just about as well as it did 5610 miles ago after our shaky start. Sure, the car is filthy, the generator is still out and the fuel system is not trustworthy. But she still looks good, drives great and acts ready for another drive.

Bill did remove the generator and discovered that the field coils were stripped of insulation. The insulation had started to delaminate and got wound up in the armature. It was a good thing he didn't try to fix it on the road. That would have taken a lot of time that we really didn't have. Driving without a generator proved to be just a minor inconvenience.  For now the generator is in the shop for another complete rebuild.

Thanks for joining us, we appreciated your company and hope you enjoyed this trip as much as we did. See you down the road!

Day 21 Neosho MO to Guymon OK

Finally, a crisis free day!

We got an early start with some discussion about the best route home.  We finally agreed on northern route, continuing on US 60 through western MO and the northern half of OK.  We thought about sticking with US 60 all the way home (it eventually turns south and passes by Estancia, just a short distance from home) but it had a few problems.  It goes through big city Amarillo and wastes some distance as it drops well south of I-40.  We decided to stick to the northern route through the OK panhandle and on to Clayton, NM.  This avoids all the major cities, travel on I-40, and more congested truck traffic. And its shorter.

Original unrestored Rt 66 gas station

US 60 enters OK with a fairly brief section of Old Route 66, running parallel to I-44.  This section had many Rt 66 architectural remnants.  Too bad most of these are now ruins, not sure how long they will last.

US 60 is the road less traveled through OK.  We really appreciated the lack of traffic and congestion all day.  The relatively small towns of Bartlesville, Ponca City, and Enid are all on this route.  They were parts of the  Chrome Glidden Tour that Bill went on in June.  This area is rich in US western history. Indian settlements, the discovery of oil and oil barons, homesteading land rushes, wild west shows and Route 66 have deeply imprinted this area. The worst part was we had little time to linger, just enough to see a few physical remains flash by the window. That included many Indian casinos, oil pump jacks, and ancient main street store fronts.

Many elaborate store fronts, this is typical

We racked up quite a few miles today.  The LaSalle had no fuel supply problems, though we did run the electric pump most of the day. We did gas up ethanol free, there is a local rebellion about ethanol here and many stations offer "100% gasoline" for about 25 cents more per gallon.  I hope that trend spreads to the rest of the country. Weather was great until black thunderheads loomed ahead just west of Enid heading into the panhandle. Nance managed the drive through this storm with Bill adjusting the vacuum wipers and defrosting by rag.  There was no hail, but it sure looked like hail was coming.

We finally pulled into Guymon OK at dusk, tired and ready to retire.  We enjoyed ice cream and dinner at Braum's, and slept well in a clean Comfort Inn.  If all goes well, we should be home tomorrow.      

Day 20, Progress not Perfection, Kuttawa KY to Neosho MO

We managed to get on the road by 8:30, a great start for us.  The gas station near the hotel offered ethanol free gasoline.  We filled the tank, even though it was just below half full. (or empty).

These are old bridges were probably
built before 1937.  They still are
a tight fit for the LaSalle

Our route proved very interesting.   We left I-24 without regrets and headed west on US 60 just north of Kuttawa.  The road was rather pleasant, a great improvement over the congestion of I-24.  US 60 managed to skirt Paducah with little traffic or hassle. It offered an extremely scenic pass over the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.  The old truss bridges that cross these rivers are very old, tall and narrow.  They offer incredible views of these enormous rivers and terrifying encounters with oncoming semi trucks.  Bill was driving and was not able to enjoy the views.  He focused on staying in his very skinny lane.  He did recall that we passed this same route about 20 years ago in a cross country trip with David and Malli.  On that trip, we stopped for a picnic or hike between these two mighty rivers that define so many quadrants of this country.

After the river crossings, US 60 went four lane divided across southern Missouri and carried us many miles directly into Springfield MO.  US 60 was very light on traffic and trucks.  We were able to keep rolling mostly non-stop at 60 MPH.  The LaSalle did exhibit a few fuel supply stumbles on the modest hills on US 60.  It seemed to do a bit better with a full tank and just slowing down to 50 or so was enough to smooth out the engine.  This was not a problem while driving on US 60, but after Springfield, we jumped to I-44.  This did not work out well.  The traffic was very heavy on I-44 and the LaSalle's tendency to lose power suddenly on hills put us a risk with aggressive truck and auto traffic.   We quickly got off the interstate and followed secondary roads to the south to rejoin US 60. It was a good call.  We motored on until dark and settled in Neosho, MO in a comfortable Super 8. Rooms were scarce here, there are various weekend events (including a VW show) planned for tomorrow.  We were lucky to find this one.

Nance the gardener noticed that tent worms
were thriving in Southern MO; trees not so well.

Bill decided that the car was not vapor locking but rather the two fuel pumps we use simply cannot keep up with the demand for fuel.  The car only stumbles on hills and recovers quickly when we slow up a bit.  This is not the case with vapor lock, once the fuel starts boiling recovery only happens when the engine cools to condense the fuel. The electric fuel pump we installed back on Day 1 is an Airtex, not known to be as good as the Carter pump we replaced.  What's mysterious is why the Airtex worked so well for so many previous travel days.  There are a couple of fuel filters on the car that Bill thought might be restricted.  He tried to change them but they are located under the car near the gas tank and they are very hard to reach. It was too much for the limited tools and access we have in the motel parking lot.

So good night to all; we hope we are only two days from home.        

Day 19 Disaster Day, Knoxville TN to Kuttawa KY

What could go wrong on our trip today?  Let me count the ways.

Actually the day started well with a nice good-bye breakfast with Nance's sister Holly. We got cleared out of the Executive Inn 1/2 star hotel and were on the road by 8:30. Shortly we gained another hour as we passed into the Central time zone.

It was smooth sailing until the LaSalle started to have some vapor lock issues on the rather modest hills that surround Nashville.  We have an auxiliary electric fuel pump we hardly turned on since we left the high country of NM.  When we did turn the pump on, the car had no problems dealing with long grades.  We even  drove up Mt. Washington in that mode.  But suddenly in Nashville, even with the pump on she could barely hold 50 mph on Tennessee's mild hills without surging and stumbling. We did not want to take on Nashville's traffic this way, so we pulled off to try to find ethanol free gas and see if we could bypass the city. Did we tell you that Nashville was experiencing a gasoline shortage due to a pipeline failure to the south?  Fortunately, a bit of regular gas was left, but no ethanol free variants were found.  Still, we topped up hoping this new batch of ethanol laced gasoline might work better.

Cooling off in the I-24 jam.This car
never experienced this in 1937

The potential for more gas shortages and hotter weather in the south pushed us to consider vectoring to the NW via I-24.  The road was wider, and cooler with fewer trucks. On the way to I-24, Nance noticed a small electronic sign saying something like "I-24 closed 20 miles ahead" that Bill discounted. He thought it was probably some old advisory and surely they we will get road open soon. NOT!  I-24 came to a nearly complete stop that lasted about four hours. Nance read her book by the roadside while black vultures, common in these parts, circled overhead.

Vapor lock complicated our attempts to inch forward. The LaSalle could only deal with the crawling traffic for 10 or 15 minutes. After that she would heat up enough to boil her ethanol and the engine would die.  Once that happened, the only option was to find the shoulder and wait an hour for the engine to cool. We made some new friends with all the bored folks who crawled by in the traffic offering us water, sympathy, and compliments to the car.

Unfortunately, a trucker was killed about five miles ahead in the major accident that caused this jam. When the multiple wreckers and hazmat folks finally finished their jobs the dam broke and we were able to get the LaSalle rolling and headed to Kentucky.  For some reason, vapor lock was not a problem once we got up to speed again. Darkness ended the journey at a very comfortable Comfort Inn in Kuttawa KY.  We only managed a frustrating 280 miles this day.

We mismanaged some of our consumables today.  We didn't have as much water as we needed, Thanks to those folks who gave us some more.  Bill didn't recharge our booster battery and its voltage dropped to the point where our Garmin died and we couldn't charge Bill's phone.  No harm, no foul, but we are busy recharging all this stuff in this comfortable hotel room tonight.

Wonder if we'll have vapor lock problems tomorrow...                

Day 18, Radford VA to Knoxville TN

We knew this would be a short day, it was a mere 220 miles from Radford to Knoxville where we planned to meet with Nance's sister Holly for the afternoon.  Our war with trucks on I-81 continued with some relief: A lane or two got added on some sections and quite a few trucks were siphoned off onto I-77 which headed SE.  The net effect was a much friendlier day of driving.  We particularly enjoyed a stop at Chilhowie VA convenience store.  Here we found a very friendly restaurant inside the store with a great short order menu.  The "Hey Y'all it's Fall" apple festival was the event dujour. Folks gathered around to check out the visiting LaSalle and ask questions about New Mexico and the VMCCA.

Entering Tennessee, we took a short diversion to the Bristol NASCAR track.  This enormous aluminum bowl is a NASCAR icon.  It features a rather small oval at its apex and many steep rows of grandstands that put the spectator very close and above the racing surface.  It is known to be an raucous sonic and visual experience.  Alas, there was no race today, so this coliseum was quiet and abandoned.  Stopping at Bristol is becoming a tradition; we did it with the Mercedes on the Maine trip in 2014.  After the usual photo op we moved on.

As we continued, we could see that this sliver of Tennessee and western VA was booming.  We drove through miles of box stores, hotels, and Wal Marts.  We both wondered what drives the economic engine here. Is it education, mining, scenery or ???

Around 3 pm, our GPS navigator found the O'Connor Senior Center in Knoxville. There we

Nance, the center director
and Holly meet and greet

connected with Holly who is a regular volunteer.  After a tour of the excellent facility and a brief LaSalle Q&A with some seniors, we went to dinner and stopped for the night at a very rough Executive Inn near Holly's home.

LaSalle report:  Bill has been quiet about the LaSalle for quite some time.  To paraphrase a Mercedes commercial: "Sometimes the best cars deliver to you simply nothing.  No problems, no issues, just steady enjoyable performance day after day, month after month". Well, this is not the case with the LaSalle or any old car that we have.  They all have their moments that put you on edge: a new rattle, a strange vibration, an odd engine surge or stumble. Most anomalies like this just come and go, but any one can expand and turn into a quick show stoppers. But so far there are none. We don't want to jinx the car, but we must say the competence of this LaSalle continues to amaze us. She just runs and drives so smooth and strong that we forget we are in an 80 year old car. Still, there are a few issues. The engine's oil consumption really bothers Bill. She takes at least a quart every 200 to 300 miles, way too much for a car with new pistons, rings and fresh cylinder bores. Not sure what's going on here, but she does not smoke much, just a puff or two at the bottom of a long hill. We are still doing fine without our generator, but the starter turns over very, very slowly when the engine is hot. She always starts right up, but it feels like it is all the starter can do to turn this monster over. We also have lost our LED brake light, a casualty of the generator failure: without the generator working, the battery voltage is too low to trip the relays that turn on the LED's.

We are now a mere 1400 miles from home. Much of our remaining trip will be on I-40 or secondary roads in parallel.      

 

Day 17 Frederick MD to Radford VA

Traffic and construction
builds on the way to DC

Our big treat for the day was a visit with Bill's friends Joe and Marion ,  Les, and Bill L.  Joe and Les went to high school with Bill and they have kept in touch with each other for many years. They gathered at Bill L's home in Oakton VA, a good choice enabling the LaSalle to keep to the west of DC's most oppressive traffic.  Still, the foggy trip took us near Dulles airport and an army of huge "Beltway Bandits R Us" office buildings.  There was plenty of congestion to keep us on edge.

We enjoyed a delicious Subway sandwich lunch at Bill L's house. Bill had an eclectic car collection to share:  it included a very clean, original XK 150S roadster bought new by Bill's father; a rare DOHC Porsche 356 Carrera 2, an unusual 1952 Siata roadster, and an original Mercedes 250SL.  Oh yes, there was also a Triumph powered Morgan Plus 4 roadster that Bill L continues to race occasionally in VSCCA races.

Bill L, Nance, Marion, Les and Joe

We would have liked to enjoy this company longer, but the road beckoned.  We are still 2000 miles or more from home and need to get back before the LaSalle melts down and the pets and garden leave Albuquerque completely.  We planned a mostly interstate day, taking us west on I-66 through DC's northern Virginia suburbs then turning SW on I-81 through the Shenandoah valley and blue ridge mountains.  The scenery was spectacular but the truck traffic on I-81 rather frightening. Most of I-81 is just four lanes and trucks dominate the traffic.  We drove the LaSalle at 60 MPH, but the trucks would barrel toward us having to squeeze into traffic aggressively to the left just to get by.  There weren't the usual friendly toots and waves here, this is a serious road with serious people on the way to somewhere important.  We felt like a virus that needed to be purged.

This is a 1952 Siata, body by Bertone

Why so much truck traffic here?  Not sure, but the nearest NS alternative to I-81 is I-95 which is many miles to the east and has even heavier traffic.  You tell us.

We did survive and found a great new Comfort Inn in Radford, VA. This is home for Radford College, it used to be a woman's school that was a favorite destination for VA Tech students seeking dates. We took a drive through the campus.  It was most impressive, looked almost new.  But we did not linger, our headlights were dimming rapidly. It was time to sign off, recharge ourselves and the LaSalle, and look forward to Knoxville for tomorrow.  Today's progress:  about 310 miles, not bad considering all the time we spent off the road.

Day 16: Burlington CT to Federick MD

We didn't get a very early start today.  We wanted to enjoy just a bit more time with Rick and Mary. It was also raining, so no rush to get out on the road.

Nance planned a route that would take us through Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  It took us days of hard driving to pass that many states on the way out here.  We took credit for New Jersey too, we decided we passed close enough to its border.  Hello and good bye Governor traffic jam!

The rain came and went all day, but our tiny vacuum wipers valiantly hissed and clacked a good fight that kept us in the game.  There was only one short period of really heavy rain that tempted Bill to stop.  It was hard to see ahead and we worried about folks seeing us with no lights on the LaSalle. But the heavy rain eventually slowed up and returned to a sprinkle.

I-84 took us through the beautiful Pocono mountains of PA and around most of the congestion of Scranton.  When I-84 died, we switched to I-81 which headed SW towards Harrisburg.  We passed several exits to Hershey.  Bill has airplane reservations this year to go to the annual mega-swap meet there.  Too bad it didn't start a couple of weeks sooner, he would have liked to take it in as part of this tour.

After Harrisburg, we switched to US 15, a nice four lane highway taking us south through Gettysburg and on to Frederick MD.  There we found a great Mexican restaurant and a clean and comfortable Enonolodge,  Tomorrow we will carefully try to navigate around the DC area traffic to visit some old friends from Bill's high school days.  Total distance: 377 miles.  Sorry, no pictures today, we had too much rain and managed to forget to pull out one of the many cameras we have at several photo ops.