Missed it by 96 miles.

[Thumper]

I just came out to do a bit of clean-up in the motor home and realized I’d forgotten to record the mileage after our trip. I had predicted we’d travel about 6000 miles and came pretty close to nailing it on the head!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221027/e8459417813d3a8f41454ec675e01aa8.jpg


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[Thumper]

Ha! I just noticed …. if I’d gone 2 more miles, my total mileage on the coach would be 12345 ! ;)

[jb]

What was your MPG ?
Decent road trip, I bet you wish you had that rig in College !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thumper]

I averaged right at 16-mpg Jerry (15.9 to be exact) over the complete 6000 mi. trip. That includes farting around towns, a few heavy traffic jaunts (worst one in Houston, Friday afternoon rush hour) and exploring different places as well as being stuck at a dead stop in East Texas for 1-1/2 hours on I-10 due to a multicar accident involving 2 semis. I averaged as high as 18.5 at one point, but ran into three full days of killer headwinds in Iowa and Minnesota that had my mileage dropping like a rock .... not good when you're driving a 12,000 pound square box! My brother's lighter, smaller rig with the same engine/chassis got about 2-mpg better than me. Overall, I'm fairly happy with it and the mileage actually seems to be improving after racking up a bit higher mileage. Maybe that little diesel needs some breaking in time. My brother bought his new in 2015 (I believe on a 2015 chassis, not positive) and has close to 90,000 miles on the clock. Mine's a 2020 on a 2019 chassis.

Man-O-man, I'd have been every mother's nightmare if I'd had this rig in college! :biggrin

[BarryBobPosthole]

Haha, I had a buddy who had a VW van in high school. He was always swapping vehicles for the night with somebody. You’d see him driving all kinds of cars.
I dated his sister for a good bit. Taught him to drive. He wouldn’t let me take his sister out in his van. He’s all growed up now and a phd in restoration ecology. Works on water projects mainly for all kinds of people.
Speaking of memories….

BKb

[Thumper]

In those days, a van just wasn’t cool unless it had shag carpeting! ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Truth! I had a buddy who worked at the carpet mill in my hometown and he got me a remnant of some gold shag that I used in my old Pontiac.
It was luxurious I tell ya.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TT2RmsifJSY


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[Thumper]

Funny ... my brother and I both received low draft lottery numbers during 'Nam and we were both going to college. We both quit school and went into the military ... he went into the Coast Guard and spent his whole tour in Hawaii. Me? I joined the Army and spent my whole tour in sunny S.E. Asia. We had a plan, since he is a year older than me and went in the CG a year before I joined, we'd get out about the same time since the Coasties serve a 4-year tour and the Army is a 3-year tour. Our master plan was to get out of the military and buy a van, then tour the U.S. We were going to head North (from S. Cal) to the Canadian border, then turn East to New England, then South to Florida, then back West to California ... with as many zig-zags along the way that we wanted to take.

Well, I kind'a screwed things up a bit .... one, I went into Intel, which was a 4-year hitch. But, that gave my brother time to purchase a new Chevy van, complete with "port-hole" windows in the back and full shag carpeting! By time I got out, he was set to go .... BUT ... I came home married and had to think about earning a living to support myself and a wife. We never did take that trip. :(

Odd thing is though, it's the same brother I just finished this trip with! We may have been almost 50 years late ... and didn't do it by ourselves in a Chevy van, but it was about as close as we'll come to it I guess. :thumbsup

[BarryBobPosthole]

In ‘76 I bought a ‘74 Dodge B-100 to build just the kind of van you’re talking about. I couldn’t afford one with an AC. Lived in Florida. Brilliant!
Added Goodrich TA radials, Keystone Classics, headers, and a Pioneer sound system. Insulated it and carpeted and built a platform in back to sit ot sleep on. My first wife and I toured the entire east coast up to Pennsylvania and back through the Blue Ridge and Smokies. We never ever missednot having an AC and camped the entire way. Took three weeks leave to do it. One of the best trips of my life. (if I want Julie to know that I’ll tell her) I had a camo cargo chute I would use a a shade awning when we camped. Good times in our early 20’s! I loved that van. Never finished it. Moved to Dallas in ‘79 when I got out and in the summer of ‘80 we had 65 straight days of 100+. Traded it for a ‘81 Celica with luxurious AC. Loved that car too!
BkB

[Thumper]

Cool! I guess we had something in common! I had an '84 Celica Supra and loved that little car.

13183

What's really funny is, there was a time when I wanted to buy a '70 Dodge B-100 from a tune-up mechanic at the Caddy dealer in Memphis. It was butt-ugly, but for some reason I was sucked in by that rounded panel that went down the side of the body. I have no clue why I was attracted to it, but I wanted to paint the van a dark, metallic blue and paint that center panel a metallic silver color. I was not even close to being a fan of Chrysler products back in the day, but for some silly reason, that strip down the side of the early B-100's intrigued me and it just screamed 2-tone at me! ;)

13184

[BarryBobPosthole]

I love the sound of a Mopar induction starter. I had a ‘64 Cuda with a little 273 Commando V8 that ran like a striped ass ape. Same model and color as Robbie’s on My Three Sons too!

BKB

[Thumper]

Ha ha ha! Back in the day, you could tell anytime anyone from 2 blocks away started their Chrysler product. NOTHING sounded like those old gear reduction starters! I think they still used those things up into the late 80’s.

[Chicken Dinner]

I inherited my grandfather’s 71 Lebaron when the Alzheimer’s got bad enough that they had to take away his keys. Man, I loved that 440. All that space in the back seat was pretty sweet as well.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

There’s nothing like the sound of one of those old 440 Magnums winding up. One of the rich rancher’s daughters a class ahead of me got a brand new ‘70 Dodge Charger for graduation. Both her and the car were hot. And so far out of my league I could barely see it.
But that car, man.

BKB

[Thumper]

Ha ha ha! That reminds me of my first “date” with Lynn. We’d met at a nice club/restaurant in Beverly Hills and SHE asked ME out. I had left my company car at home and brought my 10 year old Datsun B210 to work to have the oil changed. (Just went through a divorce, wife got the new car and I was paying attorneys for my divorce and a child custody battle) I was sweating until she offered to drive. She was not only drop dead gorgeous, but WAY out of my league in any way you could think of. Total class and one of the best looking women I’d ever seen. To rub a little salt in my wounds, she had the valet bring her car to the door for us …. a brand new (4 months old) BMW. I thought I was toast. Funny thing is, she went home with me and never left! That was going on 38 years ago! :)