Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Day 13 - Five states in one day!!!

Tuesday, July 18: PA, NY, CT, RI, MA. And we arrived in Mansfield, the last car from our Santa Clara Valley group to arrive, about 2:00pm. And it was hot today, record heat. As we got to Mansfield and turned off on the street to the convention, the first Model A we saw was Jack C. and Don S. sitting at a redlight. They got in on Monday. Quickly went in to register and Pat went to buy the new fashion facts book and was informed that she had just purchased the last copy. Whew!!

This morning, we left Hazleton, PA at 6:30, and drove through the Poconos, great scenery, we came out on I84 and ran that for a while, such a rough road, we hit one bump that actually whipped the gear shift out of high gear. Momentary panic, we thought we had lost the transmission or overdrive when the engine raced. When we crossed the Hudson River, Pat looked over the side and saw a man fishing in a small boat and his yellow lab was sitting there beside him, shades of Norman Rockwell, right beside all that interstate madness. Pat wanted to stop and take a picture but the 18 wheelers sitting on my back bumper (even though I was doing 65) made me think twice about it.

I84 has a bunch of left turning splits, 5 or 6 lanes in one direction, and we need to exit to the left to stay on I84, and we are in the right lane, quite exciting, and drivers here don’t give a hoot that you have your signal on, quite a workout for the A.

We have a gas cap story. When Will L. lost his cap in CO, I started to put my gas cap in my pocket every time we fueled up since I no longer had an extra one. Today it paid off. We stopped for gas in Waterbury, Ct and sure enough, off we went driving down the interstate until Pat began to smell gasoline. She peeked over the windshield and frantically said “no gas cap!” I calmly stopped the car, got out and pulled the cap from my pocket and put it on. And here I was beginning to think that I didn’t really need to put the cap in my pocket. Highest price gas yet was in CT, $3.21 per gallon.

There are a lot of stainless steel diners in this part of the country, right out of the fifties. And some strange street names, Peeptoad Road???? In Terryville, I spied a large bell in a churchyard, just had to go and look at it. It was a Meneely bell, weight was 716 lbs stamped right on it, and it had a very nice ring to it. We called M and she said to bring it home, but it might just be a little heavy, I don’t think we could put wheels on it.

There are 29 SCVC members here, we had dinner tonite with 19 of them at the Picadilly Pub. And met Bob LaBrash from Phoenix who has been on the road in his A for two months, his goal, to drive in every county in the USA, Holy Moley.

Couple pictures, how about the chikin coupe from AZ?

TDSCF5496 TDSCF5500

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Day Eleven…finality
July 16, 2006,
Beautiful morning in the Pocono’s. But the mosquitoes own the country up here. Judy insists that the Final Resting Place Motel is “rustic”, not “seedy”. We flailed wildly at the little suckers in the early morning light as we loaded up the A’s, left the seedy..er…rustic motel in the woods, and headed for New York, crossing into Connecticut by 8 AM. California drivers are known for their bad driving, but no one compares to an Easterner merging into highway traffic…these people are either very unconscious or downright suicidal. Well, it was Sunday morning. Judy said they were in a hurry to get to church. I said they were in a hurry to go to somewhere else…in fact, I was yelling out a few choice directions to them…with hand signals.
Actually, outside the terror of driving back here, we made a safe crossing into Massachusetts, and arrived intact at 1:30 PM…all the way across this beautiful land in 11 days. I don’t even want to think about the cost, but we drove about 3,456 miles and burned 2 million gallons of gas. Seems like every time we needed to stop for a potty break, we needed to fill up with fuel...old people...
No more posts from the front…the race is run…the story is done. Now, if we could load this thing on a train and haul it home, I’d be one happy son of a ………
Mansfield, Massachusetts
John & Judy…the others will be along shortly in cars clinking and grinding from too many miles on the Interstate
Ps: the greeting party for Will and us consisted of old friends George& Barb Fontaine, and Chuck & Helen Christensen…MAFCA Board Members, and just good people.John & Judy and all 5 A’s that started from S.J.

M3 said...

Hooray, glad you all made it! Let the party begin. Sounds like all the California A's (and drivers) did a first-rate job on the cross country trek.

I still think there should be a way to get that Meneely bell home. Shoot, you people are ingenious. And I know a whole bunch of you have baling wire and duct tape, can't you use that somehow?

Anonymous said...

glad you got there safe and sound. Enjoy till you start the trek home! Marlayna

Anonymous said...

Way to go guys!!
I'm glad the that Arizona car was there to class up the joint.


-Bobby-

Anonymous said...

I congratulate you all for making it. I very jealous after sitting at the airport for two days and not being able to get on a flight. And now that I have a new Garman Tom Tom that I programed for Mansfield. I will use it for the first time to find the seminar on Sat. to Chucks house. Have fun you all. Darryl

Anonymous said...

Hello to all. Glad to hear that everyone is having a good time. 65 in a Model A I did't know old cars like that could go that fast.Those 18 wheelers are pretty scary. Were the beverly hillbillies driving that little pickup? Enjoy the rest of the convention. Talk to you soon.

Anonymous said...

When you guys get a 36% Mitchel ,you will be better able to keep up with those knot heads--Anyway ,I am glad you all made the destination saftly and I will see you at the Dells on Wednesday--Is ther anything I can bring besides a ten lbs.Hammer??Have fun and watch out for Mr.Flatulence--bill rose

Anonymous said...

GREAT JOB....SAY HI TO EVERYONE FOR US....SEE YOU SOON

Anonymous said...

good job.long trip but nice.looking to 08 and tx. have a good safe trip home . we all miss you larry c

Sparky said...

Hello!
M3 tells me you are in my neck of the woods. I am a waiting a-parent and blogging buddy of Mary-Mia's. I would love to stop by and say hello. Any chance you have free time tomorrow before you leave? I'm not crazy honest I'm not. Well, maybe just a little but I'm harmless. Besides I can teach you how to say "Paaaahk the caaaah in Haaavaaahd Yaaahd". Won't that be fun? If you have time and are not too afraid you can email me at sparkybear45@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

Thanx again for sharing with your stories.
Day 13 it was and there you were arriving in this town seperated for some reason from others in the group who you've just traveled at a neck breaking pace accross this here United States, when you look and see a model A roadster there at the stop light only to(and this is where it gets priceless) (and by the way thanx for putting me in that car right along with you) see Its Jack and Don A good feeling I'm sure no matter what. But better than that its Jack there driving this model a. And if anyone can picture Jack in there mind , there he is and sure enough he HAD to have that big ol lovin life "Jack Smile" from ear to ear goin strong... Just, thanx again for sharin that what a good feeling. And dang if he wasnt early somehow. And as if thats not a suprise... :-) sneeky sneeky Jack...
Looking forward to reading more of your travels. Truely, aw inspireing
Bob S.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the interesting trip across the US of A. I enjoyed following you daily. Say "Hi" to John C.

I am a Pennsylvanian and agree with the comment about the repairwork being ongoing in PA. Try living with the situation on a daily basis. Now, the observations about the idiot drivers I would like to think are a little overboard, but what do I know, I live here.... their my relatives.

Anonymous said...

So glad you arrived safe and sound. Hope you have a great time.

However, I think it is high time you turned that car around and headed home! Where have you been?!
Enough is enough.

Tippy

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob and Pat!
Glad you made it! Air conditioning MUST have worked--you did not melt. Our last trip we found that we could change oil in a Kragen/Napa/Auto Zone and give them the old oil in a 1 G. water jug. Keep the news coming!! Ken and Ruth