Guest tony78_280z Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 There and back again A Z guys Holiday The wife and I left by 2:00pm on Friday afternoon. In theory we would arrive by 6:30 or so. But of course I knew it was going to be an adventure. I broke down while still in StL County. Had to do some quick along interstate rewiring and I was back on the road. For the rest of the trip I had to disconnect my battery post to turn off my electric fans and my fuel pump. I'll fix that later. Mile marker 234: Blew out a rear tire, and didn't have any air to inflate my spare. It took two hours and forty bucks to to have a wrecker come out and air up my tire for me. Mile Marker 226: At Goodyear, while getting the new tire put on, my starter solenoid quit on me. The good guys at Goodyear let me borrow their floor jack and in no time I dropped the starter got another solenoid in there went to fire it up. It still didn't start. I hot wired the solenoid to the + bat terminal and "vroom!". SO I got a new solenoid when it was just the switch. Now I have to hook up the battery, turn the key and jump the wire to get the car to start, and then disconnect the battery to shut it down again, but I'll fix that later. The rest of the trip I started the car this way. In Springfield, we made an unexpected stop to visit the wife’s aunt or something. Another in law anyway. We killed some time there, and I cleaned up a bit and changed my clothes from the tire/starter fiasco. I couldn't show up at a Zfest dirty oily and greasy now could I? The drive from Springfield to Branson was at dark, which I didn't want to do. I didn't want to have to fix something in the dark, but we made it to Branson without further encounters. In Branson we got lost and spent about a half an hour driving around looking for the hotel. At the Hotel, we finally got checked in and got to the bar for the left over pizza and beer. After a few drinks we went out to look at all the pretty cars. The first night, in the hotel lot I had a blast. Simply say, the next day, at the banquette there were some comments about having A LOT of fun, And making A LOT of noise. It was probably me. My car is by far the loudest at the gathering. I sat in a lot of Zs that night. Heard a lot of fun stories, and saw quite a lot of bling. Then drug my drunk self up the hotel room at 5:30 in the morning. When my wife awoke me (she turned in at about 2:00am) the next morning (10ish) I expected to be hung over. Nope, I was still drunk. I staggered down to look at all the pretty Zs drunk. I quickly took in all there was, grabbed a burger, and went back to bed. I didn’t spend as much time yakking and gabbing and talking cars. I was actually burnt out on that conversation from Friday night! A good nap later I found myself at the banquette. The service sucked, but the food was good. Raffle was boring, and my hang over was starting to kick in, so the wife and I bailed early to hit the hot tub back at the Hotel. A few more drinks and a good time in the hot tub then we went to bed. The next morning I made a few changes to my carb jettings and springs. And we were off. After about 60 miles (past Springfield) I happened to noticed a broken spark plug. Remember, I have to start the car from outside the car near the battery. Anyhow, this spark plug wasn’t hard to change, but it is interesting to note that I probably broke it while changing the starter solenoid that I didn’t need to change. On the freeway, at 75-80mph I was cruising at a respectable 2500 RPMs with a carbed v8 350 with 7 spark plugs most of the trip that translated to about 16mpg. Not bad really. And had driven it for a few hundred miles that way. I hope there is no lasting damage. A few more miles down the road and we got to enjoy a lovely detour (I44 was under some construction) that took us down a stretch of the “Historic Route 66†and that was kind of cool and poetic. Getting back on I44 I was blocked in by a trucker who didn’t seem to want to let me off the ramp. Naturally I had to jump ahead of him. The one and only time I put my foot in it on the whole trip and my wife thought we were going to die. I didn’t even have it to the floor yet. I had babied it the whole trip. I had enough things break on me without actualy giving it reason to break. We made it though. There and back again, in a Hot Rod of my making. I may have had the ugliest car there (body work still in the future) But at least I’m not making payments on my Z and my BaZtard didn’t show up on a trailer. This trip for me wasn’t really about showing off my car, but was “Can I make it, can we do it.†And the three of us Me, My wife, and My Z, made it. Sorry I didn’t meet many of ya, If you weren’t out in force on Friday, I didn’t get to know you. Because, Saturday I was drunk and then hung over all in the same day. Rumor has it there is another show here in StL towards the end of the Summer I should make that one too. And I should have a prettier car by then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Congrats! Hopefully next summer I'll have a running Z so I can participate in the festivities! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olie05 Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 sounds like a fun drive! How long did it take? like 7hrs getting there? btw I love road trips when stuff fails. I went to pedernalis(sp?) falls near austin. Its about a 40 min drive from the city, but on the way out there was traffic. Perfect time for my fan wiring to fail, right? It was less than a 1hr drive and my car was already falling apart!! lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Great adventure! I get bored easy but you kept my entertained through the whole thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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