So for those who have been listening to me freak out about packing and wondering "so what's Rob doing?" the last post was a far better illustration of the fact that he's been working his tail off then my explanation of "all the car stuff." I am feeling really good about using a 20 year old whale-car to drive across, up, and down the country because of all the work he's put into it. Truly a labor of love!
Sooo speaking of packing...not much else to report, I was running around the state a bit with appointments and trying to get bonds cashed (closing at 4 Newport Fed? Really? Not cool.) My mom stopped by after work because she's awesome and helped me get some of the food packed. We'll be eating an awful lot of rice and quinoa, Rob gets to jazz it up with some pasta, woohoo! Other than beans we'll have to pick up most of our protein along the way, same with fruits and non-canned veggies. That still leaves two large totes stuffed with food. It probably is overkill (it's not like there won't be stores along the way) but I hear "3 months camping" and the whole idea of shopping along the way gets lost in the motto so diligently memorized and live by "Be Prepared!" which apparently means having enough food for half the trip when we set out. Oh well, like my habitual tardiness, I can say I come by it honestly. Speaking of which, thanks for the leftovers parental units! They are very much delicious. :)
Happy Trails
-Miriam
P.S. So Rob has a cool road name I see...any ideas for mine? Best idea gets the first postcard!
P.P.S Keep it PG-13 please. Yes, you know who you are! For shame, my parents are reading this!
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Some more technical mumbo-jumbo on the Buick
In the interest of sparing your eyes and brains for a bit I present the second installment of the Buick saga, although this one is a bit more technical and number-y rather than the whim and whimsy you've all come to love and expect from my posts. Okay so maybe it was just the last post but still.
Anyone not terribly interested in cars or machinery may wish to skip ahead to Miriam's next posting, since I can get a bit dry and boring. You've been warned...
I got the Buick about a year and a half ago with the intention of using it during the winter while my grandparents used it during the summer so that they could leave their own car down at their Floridian condo. While I got the car for a great price, it wound up with a bad transmission after only about 60' of driving. Yes, that's a "feet" apostrophe. I'm starting to get why the guy was soo willing to drop the car off for me. The plus side to this is that it forced me to get the tranny rebuilt, which is by far the most I've ever gone to an actual shop for (luckily a transmission line blew right in front of the shop, so that saved even more grief). So a week and $1000 later, the car is running great. Lets fast forward to now and I'll just give a list of things that have "popped up" with the car....
Coolant reservoir leaking: fixed that. Dealership only part and VERY expensive for a plastic pressure tank.
A/C clutch bearing shot: went to fix it only to find the clutch frozen to the A/C compressor, which prompted me to replace the compressor (for much more money), which then forced me to replace the main hoses since THEY were frozen to the compressor. WHO KNEW that when you put aluminum pipes in a steel compressor body that they will be galvanically welded to each other in 20 years...oh right, that's just science! Thanks a lot GM!
Dash fan quit working: replaced that.
Mufflers rotted out (which I knew when I bought the car): I replaced them with much cooler sounding ones. You can actually tell that it has a V8 now!
Rear bumper failed inspection: it's near impossible to find a bumper that isnt swiss cheese for these cars and I wasnt going to spend $300 for a new one, so I found a used one, cut it in half (sliced the top off essentially) and grafted it to the bottom of my bumper. Welding skills are important when one wants to save money :D
Rear shocks failed inspection: these have to be the worst designed shock mounts in the history of everything!!! It took me three days...THREE DAYS to get these off. Granted this was only a few hours per day before and after work, but still. It should not take like 7 hours to dismount shocks. I had to cut the bolts off without causing sparks and blowing up the fuel tank that they are mounted next to.
New battery: pretty much self explanatory.
And the kicker....the axle ripped out of the frame when I pulled away from Town Fair Tire trying to get an alignment done (horrible frame rot in an isolated location, something I was going to get around to and waited too long). This was another shop fix, as I wasnt about to try to re-align the rear end on this beast. I'm impressed with the work though, quite a solid repair.
So in trying to be a "look on the bright side of things" person, I see all this as I now have ice cold A/C, a sweet sounding exhaust, and um, not an axle dislodged from my frame. This all sounds bad I know, but it's a pretty solid car with an unbelievably comfortable ride.
Now lets see what could go wrong with the car on such a long trip? Well, pretty much anything, but considering I have a newly rebuilt tranny, professionally repaired frame/axle thingy, and custom fabricated exhaust (courtesy of ME!), I have dared to cross those off the list of potential goings-wrong. To prevent future misadventures with our beloved Moby the White Whale (I think Miriam gave you the introduction in a previous post), I took the liberty to both expertly and thoroughly install the following:
Alternator
Starter
Idler pulley
Water pump (and radiator hoses, thermostat, and gaskets)
Plugs and wires
K&N air filter
Fuel filter
Hand fabricated spare tire well (since the old one rotted off)
Front and rear brakes (pads, rotors, and shoes with assorted hardware items)
Front wheel bearings
Front shocks
Engine oil change (to synthetic)
Differential oil change
Hand fabbed exhaust heat shield to stop the annoying jingle-bell noise from the loose factory one
Rear coil springs swapped for variable rate springs to allow heavier loads in back. It also raises the rear end about an inch and a half which looks pretty cool.
Fuel tank straps
Note: by expertly and thoroughly I of course mean done by me, to save as much money as possible.
And for convenience sake I have added the following amenities to the car:
Tachometer
Oil pressure gauge
Coolant temp gauge (yes the factory cluster has one but it doesnt have actual numbers on it, just tick marks)
Voltmeter
Hourmeter (for trip logs)
4 extra 12v cigarette lighter sockets (three are from a charging kit that will live on the front floor, the fourth is installed nice nice in what used to be the ash tray).
Offroad "Alaska" lights. I just call them that since I plan on using them driving up to Alaska
Fog lights
Backup camera (wired so we can use it as a regular rearview mirror while driving)
CD player (per request of the wife)
CB radio (per request of the me)
Trailer hitch and wiring mounted and installed. Although the hitch came with a 1.25" receiver tube I cut that off and welded on a 2" tube so the hitch hardware matches the hitches on my trucks.
Perhaps it goes without saying but all the fabrication, mounting, wiring, and repairing has taken for-freakin'-ever and has been a pain in the butt. I'm really happy with the results so far, and the Moby runs and drives so much better than when I got her. Oh, and I havent even gotten to the cargo rack/spare tire carrier/bike carrier ordeal which was another time and effort pit (although all done now!)
Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures this time!
RhodeKill Rob
Anyone not terribly interested in cars or machinery may wish to skip ahead to Miriam's next posting, since I can get a bit dry and boring. You've been warned...
I got the Buick about a year and a half ago with the intention of using it during the winter while my grandparents used it during the summer so that they could leave their own car down at their Floridian condo. While I got the car for a great price, it wound up with a bad transmission after only about 60' of driving. Yes, that's a "feet" apostrophe. I'm starting to get why the guy was soo willing to drop the car off for me. The plus side to this is that it forced me to get the tranny rebuilt, which is by far the most I've ever gone to an actual shop for (luckily a transmission line blew right in front of the shop, so that saved even more grief). So a week and $1000 later, the car is running great. Lets fast forward to now and I'll just give a list of things that have "popped up" with the car....
Coolant reservoir leaking: fixed that. Dealership only part and VERY expensive for a plastic pressure tank.
A/C clutch bearing shot: went to fix it only to find the clutch frozen to the A/C compressor, which prompted me to replace the compressor (for much more money), which then forced me to replace the main hoses since THEY were frozen to the compressor. WHO KNEW that when you put aluminum pipes in a steel compressor body that they will be galvanically welded to each other in 20 years...oh right, that's just science! Thanks a lot GM!
Dash fan quit working: replaced that.
Mufflers rotted out (which I knew when I bought the car): I replaced them with much cooler sounding ones. You can actually tell that it has a V8 now!
Rear bumper failed inspection: it's near impossible to find a bumper that isnt swiss cheese for these cars and I wasnt going to spend $300 for a new one, so I found a used one, cut it in half (sliced the top off essentially) and grafted it to the bottom of my bumper. Welding skills are important when one wants to save money :D
Rear shocks failed inspection: these have to be the worst designed shock mounts in the history of everything!!! It took me three days...THREE DAYS to get these off. Granted this was only a few hours per day before and after work, but still. It should not take like 7 hours to dismount shocks. I had to cut the bolts off without causing sparks and blowing up the fuel tank that they are mounted next to.
New battery: pretty much self explanatory.
And the kicker....the axle ripped out of the frame when I pulled away from Town Fair Tire trying to get an alignment done (horrible frame rot in an isolated location, something I was going to get around to and waited too long). This was another shop fix, as I wasnt about to try to re-align the rear end on this beast. I'm impressed with the work though, quite a solid repair.
So in trying to be a "look on the bright side of things" person, I see all this as I now have ice cold A/C, a sweet sounding exhaust, and um, not an axle dislodged from my frame. This all sounds bad I know, but it's a pretty solid car with an unbelievably comfortable ride.
Now lets see what could go wrong with the car on such a long trip? Well, pretty much anything, but considering I have a newly rebuilt tranny, professionally repaired frame/axle thingy, and custom fabricated exhaust (courtesy of ME!), I have dared to cross those off the list of potential goings-wrong. To prevent future misadventures with our beloved Moby the White Whale (I think Miriam gave you the introduction in a previous post), I took the liberty to both expertly and thoroughly install the following:
Alternator
Starter
Idler pulley
Water pump (and radiator hoses, thermostat, and gaskets)
Plugs and wires
K&N air filter
Fuel filter
Hand fabricated spare tire well (since the old one rotted off)
Front and rear brakes (pads, rotors, and shoes with assorted hardware items)
Front wheel bearings
Front shocks
Engine oil change (to synthetic)
Differential oil change
Hand fabbed exhaust heat shield to stop the annoying jingle-bell noise from the loose factory one
Rear coil springs swapped for variable rate springs to allow heavier loads in back. It also raises the rear end about an inch and a half which looks pretty cool.
Fuel tank straps
Note: by expertly and thoroughly I of course mean done by me, to save as much money as possible.
And for convenience sake I have added the following amenities to the car:
Tachometer
Oil pressure gauge
Coolant temp gauge (yes the factory cluster has one but it doesnt have actual numbers on it, just tick marks)
Voltmeter
Hourmeter (for trip logs)
4 extra 12v cigarette lighter sockets (three are from a charging kit that will live on the front floor, the fourth is installed nice nice in what used to be the ash tray).
Offroad "Alaska" lights. I just call them that since I plan on using them driving up to Alaska
Fog lights
Backup camera (wired so we can use it as a regular rearview mirror while driving)
CD player (per request of the wife)
CB radio (per request of the me)
Trailer hitch and wiring mounted and installed. Although the hitch came with a 1.25" receiver tube I cut that off and welded on a 2" tube so the hitch hardware matches the hitches on my trucks.
Perhaps it goes without saying but all the fabrication, mounting, wiring, and repairing has taken for-freakin'-ever and has been a pain in the butt. I'm really happy with the results so far, and the Moby runs and drives so much better than when I got her. Oh, and I havent even gotten to the cargo rack/spare tire carrier/bike carrier ordeal which was another time and effort pit (although all done now!)
Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures this time!
RhodeKill Rob
Quick rundown on the Buick
So I figured it might be fun to know what we're taking on this trip. I'm terrible with taking and uploading photos, so for now you'll have to deal with not seeing exactly what I'm talking about. If the rain holds off tomorrow I'll snap some shots to give a little visual elaboration to this post.
The car we'll be driving slash travelling slash living in is a 1994 Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon. It's everything you think of when you hear the name Buick; it's big, it's comfortable, its big, its quiet, its big, its quite boat-esque, and oh yeah, did I mention it's big? If I recall correctly, it's actually the largest vehicle made by GM, or at the very least it's the largest wagon they put out, and the last of the full-size family wagons to come from the domestic car market in the US (thanks a lot, SUVs!! *shakes fist*). In case I haven't stressed this enough, this is quite a large vehicle. When it's all packed up nice nice for the trip it'll be somewhere in the 21 or 22 feet range in length and roughly 6 feet wide. If that doesnt sound like much to you, go out and measure your own car. Unless you have a dually pickup or a limo as your regular vehicle, I'm pretty sure this car has you beat in both dimensions. Just sayin'. If the Titanic were a car and could only carry 9 people, it would be this car....on second thought maybe the Titanic isnt a good thing to compare it to. Lets think more along the lines of a battleship on wheels, and one that wasnt parked in Pearl Harbor.
So a little bit of technical info for anyone that this means anything to. The Buick has an LT1 350 (5.7Liter) V8. Most people know the LT1 as the Corvette engine of that era, but the fact is GM used that engine in a lot of cars. The tranny is a 4 speed automatic (3 speed with overdrive), and it is of course rear wheel drive. The loaded weight of the wagon is 4400lbs, but this accounts for 9 passengers (since I have the rear facing pop up bench in the waayyyy back) and 23 gallons of fuel (although the gas light comes on after 18 gallons). All this and it gets a very respectable (in my opinion) 19 mpg. It should actually get about 23 mpg or so on the trip since I've done a lot of tune-up work to it. I really cant complain about the mileage considering the car is close to 2 tons empty, is 19 years old and has 150,000 miles on it (I think it's about 154k now). Oh and did I mention the knobby truck tires I put on it? All this and she'll move pretty quick. Its not uncommon to catch yourself doing 80 on the highway without realizing it (as Miriam commented after taking it one day).
I had to find one with a leather interior, since it's a Buick afterall. Getting a luxury car without leather would be like staying at the Ritz without drinking all those tiny bottles of booze at the mini bar. Except that you regret drinking those nips when the bill comes and it takes till summer to realize that whoever came up with leather seats obviously never wore shorts or had any sweat glands apparently (*shakes fist again*). Sitting on a slab of ham right out of the frying pan would at least be a little more comforting since the ham would more than likely be juicy. Oh, and you could eat it should the thought of ass-ham not totally disgust you (in which case you may have some issues).
All in all its probably the best road trip car....ever! It's roomy, it's comfortable (with the exception of the ass-ham scenario above, although that should be augmented by A/C that is apparently drawn directly from the stratosphere), and it gets decent-enough mileage to not totally kill us. Oh and it has airbags to not totally kill us as well (not a selling feature for me in particular with this car, but nothing I can do to change the fact that it has airbags I guess). Add to all this a set of off-road lights, off road tires, a super awesome trailer hitch cargo rack to carry spare gas AND two more tires, some built in awnings, screens, and window shades and you have a pretty sweet off-road-ish camp-mo-bile. I've been told it's a Mad Max wagon and a Zombie-pocalyse wagon, both of which I take as high praise!
In the interest of not killing our readers, I'll leave off this "quick rundown" for now, but I'll post some more technical mumbo-jumbo about the car and the work that I (and Miriam) have done in a future post.
Till next time,
RhodeKill Rob
The car we'll be driving slash travelling slash living in is a 1994 Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon. It's everything you think of when you hear the name Buick; it's big, it's comfortable, its big, its quiet, its big, its quite boat-esque, and oh yeah, did I mention it's big? If I recall correctly, it's actually the largest vehicle made by GM, or at the very least it's the largest wagon they put out, and the last of the full-size family wagons to come from the domestic car market in the US (thanks a lot, SUVs!! *shakes fist*). In case I haven't stressed this enough, this is quite a large vehicle. When it's all packed up nice nice for the trip it'll be somewhere in the 21 or 22 feet range in length and roughly 6 feet wide. If that doesnt sound like much to you, go out and measure your own car. Unless you have a dually pickup or a limo as your regular vehicle, I'm pretty sure this car has you beat in both dimensions. Just sayin'. If the Titanic were a car and could only carry 9 people, it would be this car....on second thought maybe the Titanic isnt a good thing to compare it to. Lets think more along the lines of a battleship on wheels, and one that wasnt parked in Pearl Harbor.
So a little bit of technical info for anyone that this means anything to. The Buick has an LT1 350 (5.7Liter) V8. Most people know the LT1 as the Corvette engine of that era, but the fact is GM used that engine in a lot of cars. The tranny is a 4 speed automatic (3 speed with overdrive), and it is of course rear wheel drive. The loaded weight of the wagon is 4400lbs, but this accounts for 9 passengers (since I have the rear facing pop up bench in the waayyyy back) and 23 gallons of fuel (although the gas light comes on after 18 gallons). All this and it gets a very respectable (in my opinion) 19 mpg. It should actually get about 23 mpg or so on the trip since I've done a lot of tune-up work to it. I really cant complain about the mileage considering the car is close to 2 tons empty, is 19 years old and has 150,000 miles on it (I think it's about 154k now). Oh and did I mention the knobby truck tires I put on it? All this and she'll move pretty quick. Its not uncommon to catch yourself doing 80 on the highway without realizing it (as Miriam commented after taking it one day).
I had to find one with a leather interior, since it's a Buick afterall. Getting a luxury car without leather would be like staying at the Ritz without drinking all those tiny bottles of booze at the mini bar. Except that you regret drinking those nips when the bill comes and it takes till summer to realize that whoever came up with leather seats obviously never wore shorts or had any sweat glands apparently (*shakes fist again*). Sitting on a slab of ham right out of the frying pan would at least be a little more comforting since the ham would more than likely be juicy. Oh, and you could eat it should the thought of ass-ham not totally disgust you (in which case you may have some issues).
All in all its probably the best road trip car....ever! It's roomy, it's comfortable (with the exception of the ass-ham scenario above, although that should be augmented by A/C that is apparently drawn directly from the stratosphere), and it gets decent-enough mileage to not totally kill us. Oh and it has airbags to not totally kill us as well (not a selling feature for me in particular with this car, but nothing I can do to change the fact that it has airbags I guess). Add to all this a set of off-road lights, off road tires, a super awesome trailer hitch cargo rack to carry spare gas AND two more tires, some built in awnings, screens, and window shades and you have a pretty sweet off-road-ish camp-mo-bile. I've been told it's a Mad Max wagon and a Zombie-pocalyse wagon, both of which I take as high praise!
In the interest of not killing our readers, I'll leave off this "quick rundown" for now, but I'll post some more technical mumbo-jumbo about the car and the work that I (and Miriam) have done in a future post.
Till next time,
RhodeKill Rob
Beginning the Great Pack!
Today we started packing in earnest, I printed out my master packing list, got a clipboard, highlighter and willing friend (Matt, you rock!) and spread gear out across the lawn. It was a pretty daunting amount of stuff and there was still quite a bit missing. I did manage to get the cooking, cleaning and camping gear mostly assembled. Most of the cooking gear has to get washed before it can actually be packed though...these are times I'd give my left pinky toe for a dish washer. I may just steal someone elses come to think of it.
I also finished the screens for the back windows of the Buick. Since we'll mostly be sleeping in the car and would like some ventilation but aren't too keen on inviting in all the bloodsucking wildlife; I stuck velcro around the windows, then hot-glued the matching side to some window screen. Ta-Da! Instant removable car screens! Unfortunately some of the velco bits are being contrary about sticking to the car trim, for the most part glue-dots have solved the problem but there are a few areas that might need more problem solving. Luckily the issue spots are on the little vent windows where the screens can stay on pretty much all the time. Still, I'm pretty proud of my handiwork.
Now Pictures!
Some of the places we'll be visiting in the first leg of our trip:
The Pine Barrens in New Jersey
Mammoth Cave
I also finished the screens for the back windows of the Buick. Since we'll mostly be sleeping in the car and would like some ventilation but aren't too keen on inviting in all the bloodsucking wildlife; I stuck velcro around the windows, then hot-glued the matching side to some window screen. Ta-Da! Instant removable car screens! Unfortunately some of the velco bits are being contrary about sticking to the car trim, for the most part glue-dots have solved the problem but there are a few areas that might need more problem solving. Luckily the issue spots are on the little vent windows where the screens can stay on pretty much all the time. Still, I'm pretty proud of my handiwork.
Now Pictures!
Some of the places we'll be visiting in the first leg of our trip:
The Pine Barrens in New Jersey
| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pine_Barrens_2.jpg |
Assateague Island (Ponies!!!!)
 |
| http://www.concierge.com/travelguide/maryland/photos/photoview/507907 |
 |
| http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/mammoth-cave-national-park/ |
Happy Trails!
-Miriam
Monday, May 27, 2013
Basic Trip Info
So you may notice a bit of a time gap between this post and the last. Unfortunately right after Rob quit his job he developed a hernia and needed surgery. Luckily we were able to schedule it before the insurance ran out (with 2 days to spare!) but our trip had to be delayed while he recovered. So instead of heading out mid-April we'll be leaving late May. I've also been wanting to update but the massive amount of preparations have left me with little time or energy for "extra" stuff.
However, I wanted to have more than one post before I give the link out to family and friends! Our plan is to update weekly at the very least, but preferably bi-weekly, from libraries or coffee-shops en-route. Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures and fun stories to share about our adventures, and can get your feedback (and souvenir requests) in the comments.
Currently our (very general) projected route is to head down the east coast, follow the Blue Ridge parkway south-east, cut across the south to the southwest, head up the west coast all the way to Alaska and head home from there through the trans-Canadian "highway". Depending on which route we take through Canada we'll either come cross back into the US west of the great lakes and take the southern route home or head towards Ottawa and come down through New York back to home sweet RI. Sadly, due to timing and the locations of the national parks highest on our must-see list we'll be missing the south-east states entirely.
We hope to see many friends and family along the way! For their showers as well as their company because our goal is to camp pretty much the whole way. I've already told Rob I'll be getting us a hotel for his birthday, and every few weeks we might splurge for a real shower and bed for a night but other than that we'll be roughing it.
I know shorter posts are easier to read (and I'm wiped from a long day) so I'll leave this one off here and fill you in on more details (like our sweet off-road equipped Buick station wagon, Moby) later.
Happy Trails!
-Miriam
However, I wanted to have more than one post before I give the link out to family and friends! Our plan is to update weekly at the very least, but preferably bi-weekly, from libraries or coffee-shops en-route. Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures and fun stories to share about our adventures, and can get your feedback (and souvenir requests) in the comments.
Currently our (very general) projected route is to head down the east coast, follow the Blue Ridge parkway south-east, cut across the south to the southwest, head up the west coast all the way to Alaska and head home from there through the trans-Canadian "highway". Depending on which route we take through Canada we'll either come cross back into the US west of the great lakes and take the southern route home or head towards Ottawa and come down through New York back to home sweet RI. Sadly, due to timing and the locations of the national parks highest on our must-see list we'll be missing the south-east states entirely.
We hope to see many friends and family along the way! For their showers as well as their company because our goal is to camp pretty much the whole way. I've already told Rob I'll be getting us a hotel for his birthday, and every few weeks we might splurge for a real shower and bed for a night but other than that we'll be roughing it.
I know shorter posts are easier to read (and I'm wiped from a long day) so I'll leave this one off here and fill you in on more details (like our sweet off-road equipped Buick station wagon, Moby) later.
Happy Trails!
-Miriam
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