Sorry it’s taken me so long to get some more of my trip report up here, but I’ve been swamped since I got home. I meant to call a few more of you folks along my trip, but was trying to conserve the cell phone battery for emergency use. As it was, it died shortly after I got home.
Overall the trip was great, lots of folks waving, honking, flashing lights and such.
I arrived at Central Wisconsin Airport just before 1100 hours on September 16. Tom was waiting to pick me up in an Air Force Suburban for the trip back to his place. I am definitely glad I went up there. Alfa Heaven is much more impressive than I had expected. Several very nice CUCV’s for sale, and several more waiting for refurb along with some M135’s and M35’s. I got the full tour – saw the classic cars, the vintage motorcycles, and all. He has a good selection of parts and tires too.
Day 1 - I left out of Tom’s place around 1415 hours that day, and headed for my first fill up. The fuel station was a good 15-20 miles from his place, and that is where is started filling out my log book. The truck was running good, and Tom had used it regularly which is a good thing in my opinion. When I got to I-39 I headed south keeping her right at 55mph. I ran straight down to my cousin’s house in Freeburg, IL that night arriving just after 0200 Sunday with two rest stops and two fill-ups along the way, 508.7+ miles. I was able to get a Bio-Diesel mix in IL. I believe it was 10% bio at the first station and 11% at the second.
Day 2 was a layover in Freeburg, IL to rest, visit, and gather additional supplies.
Day 3 – I left my cousin’s place about 0715 hours stopping by my Grandma’s house for another short visit before I left town. She thought the Deuce was “neat”. From there I was driving in the rain most of the day. It was clear for the trip up and down Monteagle which was a good thing. I stopped at the top to give the truck a once over, and then proceeded down hill. I took off pretty easy on the way down, and ended up shifting into 4th gear letting the truck coast down. It pretty much stayed right at 30mph all the way down. I went around Atlanta on I285 east in the 2100-2200 hour range in the rain. The traffic was moving, but miserable with the rain. From there I headed down to Dublin, GA where I stayed in the truck at the Love’s Truck Stop on I-16 stopping about 0100 hours Tuesday. My longest day at 676.1 miles.
Day 4 – Breakfast at McDonald’s and on the road about 0800 hours. 114.1 miles to Ft. Stewart DRMO. No problems at all getting on base. Picked up the trailer, and I noticed the lighting connector was dinged up. I did take a gamble on the trailer, but I figured as cheap as these are it wasn’t worth the expense to go inspect it. I took out my tools and tried to straighten it up in the parking lot, but didn’t have much luck. The GL guys gave me directions to a Carquest auto parts just off base. I carefully pulled it there without lights. The guys and girl at the Carquest were great, they just let me take out whatever I needed, and I settled up in the when I was done. I took another gamble as all they had was 12V lights, so I grabbed some LED lights which I could use on my enclosed trailer at home if they survived. As I was rigging up the lights, I noticed some of the LED’s were already going out. Not good, but I decided to go for it as I would be running out of daylight if I messed around too much. Shortly after heading out, it started to rain and then pour. I was heading south on I-95 hoping I had some lights. Well I pulled into a truck stop in south Georgia to fill up and fix the lights as needed. When I got out of the truck to check the lights, they were all working again. At that point I realized the LED’s were probably cutting out because of the increased heat from the 24V and when moving down the road with the rain it was keeping them cool so they were fully functioning. Yeah!!! The delays with the lighting put me just enough behind schedule to hit Jacksonville during rush hour still in the rain. I made one more stop along the way to check out the lights before it turned dark, and all were still going strong and continued to do so all the way home. I pulled in the driveway around 2030 hours that night, ~407 miles.
3 days of driving, 1 day layover in IL, 1592.6 (+~15 )miles, 197.1 gallons of diesel, 8.1 mpg, $518.46 trip fuel cost plus $90.00/31.6 gallons for the initial fill up.
You know after driving a Deuce 1600 miles an Expedition really drives funny.
Mapquest showed 1619.2 total trip miles from Alfa Heaven to my house. The Deuce odometer showed 1592.6 from the first fuel stop to the point of fuel up after I arrived home. I’d say the Deuce odometer is pretty close, but a little on the low side. I did have a few side trips that probably added a few miles, but if you add the 15 or so miles before I started logging the mileage it’s not too far off from the mapquest total.
( chew gum while you drive or after the first 5 miles your face will hurt from the HUGE grin for for the rest of your trip!)
I finished up about 2:30am Sunday morning, and spent all of yesterday in Freeburg resting. 550 or so miles in 12 hours, plus the flight, and other stuff...that was a long day.
