91W350
Well-known member
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- 48
- Location
- Salina, Kansas
This one has been some time in the making... and this post will be pretty long...
I bought a M1009 from a fellow member a few months ago. I thought I had a free ride home, but it fell to the wayside. I had a free ride there, but I missed it too with a knee operation.
I made plans for a long weekend, five days and decided to go Amtrak because I always wanted to try it. Friday afternoon, my son and I took the M1008 to Harvard Nebraska and dropped me off at a friends house. It was a nasty day, cold, snowing and icy. My son took off for Salina, a big assignment for a 16 year old, but he has a pretty level head. I must admit I was pretty worried about him.... He did fine, made it home safely, then called to ask if he could take the M1008 to Junction City because his sister needed him. I told him to call when he got there and he did, good kid, more grays for Dad.
The Amtrak was scheduled into Hastings at 0147, but did not arrive until 0216 and we were gone by 0217. I tried to sleep, but that was not working. We were back on schedule at Fort Morgan, Colorado. We rolled out of Denver and headed west to Salt Lake City. If I had this to do over, I would have flown out of Kansas City, but I really wanted to take the rail through the mountains. If you get that chance, take it.
The trip through Utah was beautiful, everything west of Denver is incredible. I was surprised at the lack of military vehicles in all of the small towns. I saw a ton of neat iron from the rails. A lot of places I would like to return.
I arrived in Salt Lake City at 10:30PM, 21 hours on that train, I was shot.
My friend in Salt Lake wanted to show me the town. All I wanted was bed, but I have taken him all pver Kansas and he was wanting to return the favor, I am sure. We made a quick loop and finaly I got to crash, about 36 hours after I got out of bed.
This morning, the tour continued.... Salt Lake is a beautiful city and full of history. I had built a license plate bracket. I had to drill a couple of holes through the rectangular tube in front of the rear bumper and hung the plate. I checked the fluids, started it up and hit the road. About 2PM I rolled out of Salt Lake City, it did not take long to find myself on a long uphill grade going east on I-80.
The 6.2 is no house afire, but it held 55 to 60 without depressing he accelerator hard enough to down shift out of third. The miles just kept rolling by, my broher called and wanted to know how the trip was going. I told him the truck was running great. He wanted to know what kind of mileage I was getting, I told him I had no idea. He wanted to know how far I had gone and I told him a little over 300 miles. He said put some in! The fuel guage was still indicating a half tank.
I pulled into the Flying J at Rawlins Wyoming and put a little over 14 gallons in, 22 mpg. I called him back and told him what it was doing and he asked me if it was for sale....
We are now in Boulder with another friend. We are about 550 miles down and should be rolling on to Salina in the morning. I have a left turn signal that the indicator lights up on the dash when I turn he head lamps on and a right brake light burned out. It needs wipers, but we should be good for the 500 mile trip we have planned going home. I also saw a wet pinion seal on the rear axle.
I checked the oil twice and cannot tell that it lost any. I drove 65 to 70, except for a short run at 85 trying to catch an old black El Camino to see if it was my old car. I got close enough to see the vinyl top and the bulky left fender, it was a 70 to 72, mine was a 69.
I am pretty happy with the truck, especially that it got me here with no issues. I took a lot of photos, but I cannot transfer them to my mini from my camera, maybe tomorrow. It is closer to home, over halfway there now.
I saw a few Hemmets, a lot of Humvees and about ten tractors on civilian trucks going west on I-80. It was a really dry trip for military vehicles, considering miles driven. I did see a M-37 on I-80 parked at a museum lot. I think they use it for advertisement.
Originally I planned to do the much slower snake down old 40 through the Rockies, Berthoud Pass was forecast to get over two feet of snow, I decided to just take the shorter northern route and head home.
I bought a M1009 from a fellow member a few months ago. I thought I had a free ride home, but it fell to the wayside. I had a free ride there, but I missed it too with a knee operation.
I made plans for a long weekend, five days and decided to go Amtrak because I always wanted to try it. Friday afternoon, my son and I took the M1008 to Harvard Nebraska and dropped me off at a friends house. It was a nasty day, cold, snowing and icy. My son took off for Salina, a big assignment for a 16 year old, but he has a pretty level head. I must admit I was pretty worried about him.... He did fine, made it home safely, then called to ask if he could take the M1008 to Junction City because his sister needed him. I told him to call when he got there and he did, good kid, more grays for Dad.
The Amtrak was scheduled into Hastings at 0147, but did not arrive until 0216 and we were gone by 0217. I tried to sleep, but that was not working. We were back on schedule at Fort Morgan, Colorado. We rolled out of Denver and headed west to Salt Lake City. If I had this to do over, I would have flown out of Kansas City, but I really wanted to take the rail through the mountains. If you get that chance, take it.
The trip through Utah was beautiful, everything west of Denver is incredible. I was surprised at the lack of military vehicles in all of the small towns. I saw a ton of neat iron from the rails. A lot of places I would like to return.
I arrived in Salt Lake City at 10:30PM, 21 hours on that train, I was shot.
My friend in Salt Lake wanted to show me the town. All I wanted was bed, but I have taken him all pver Kansas and he was wanting to return the favor, I am sure. We made a quick loop and finaly I got to crash, about 36 hours after I got out of bed.
This morning, the tour continued.... Salt Lake is a beautiful city and full of history. I had built a license plate bracket. I had to drill a couple of holes through the rectangular tube in front of the rear bumper and hung the plate. I checked the fluids, started it up and hit the road. About 2PM I rolled out of Salt Lake City, it did not take long to find myself on a long uphill grade going east on I-80.
The 6.2 is no house afire, but it held 55 to 60 without depressing he accelerator hard enough to down shift out of third. The miles just kept rolling by, my broher called and wanted to know how the trip was going. I told him the truck was running great. He wanted to know what kind of mileage I was getting, I told him I had no idea. He wanted to know how far I had gone and I told him a little over 300 miles. He said put some in! The fuel guage was still indicating a half tank.
I pulled into the Flying J at Rawlins Wyoming and put a little over 14 gallons in, 22 mpg. I called him back and told him what it was doing and he asked me if it was for sale....
We are now in Boulder with another friend. We are about 550 miles down and should be rolling on to Salina in the morning. I have a left turn signal that the indicator lights up on the dash when I turn he head lamps on and a right brake light burned out. It needs wipers, but we should be good for the 500 mile trip we have planned going home. I also saw a wet pinion seal on the rear axle.
I checked the oil twice and cannot tell that it lost any. I drove 65 to 70, except for a short run at 85 trying to catch an old black El Camino to see if it was my old car. I got close enough to see the vinyl top and the bulky left fender, it was a 70 to 72, mine was a 69.
I am pretty happy with the truck, especially that it got me here with no issues. I took a lot of photos, but I cannot transfer them to my mini from my camera, maybe tomorrow. It is closer to home, over halfway there now.
I saw a few Hemmets, a lot of Humvees and about ten tractors on civilian trucks going west on I-80. It was a really dry trip for military vehicles, considering miles driven. I did see a M-37 on I-80 parked at a museum lot. I think they use it for advertisement.
Originally I planned to do the much slower snake down old 40 through the Rockies, Berthoud Pass was forecast to get over two feet of snow, I decided to just take the shorter northern route and head home.
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