btw - CONGRATS on the new (to you) ride...!!!  👍

Jim Olson

 
"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave! 

 Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

Now in North Dakota.  Last night the Greyhound negotiated about 150 miles of snowfall as we passed through the Rockies.  I now know that this northern routing (I-90) will not be a sure bet for the return trip.

Based on that observation I'm going to guess that I-80 through Nebraska and Wyoming to Salt Lake City or I-70/US 6 through Kansas, Colorado and Utah to Salt Lake City are going to be just as iffy weather-wise.  I don't know what the weather would be like west and north of Salt Lake. 

I-40, or even I-20/I-10, and then I-5 may be better bets to avoid winter weather.  Those routes are roughly 8-10 hours and 500 miles longer but may be worth it.

Been on I-90 and I-94 across the northern plains many, many times.  I-80 as well.  Loonnngggg stretches of nothing out there.  Hope you have plenty of good reading material to pass the time on the buses.

Jim Olson

 
"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave! 

 Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

LOVE a clean '88 Anny car! That, and the '95 Pacer are my favorites of the C4 era. Congrats on the acquisition, and best of luck on the trip home! 

Joel Adams  
My Link

    
(click for Texas-sized view!)             NCRS

"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

Epic trek for sure - look forward to the updates and hopefully some pics of the journey. Very impressive taking on that cross-country trip in a new (to you) corvette. Longest trip in a C4 was about a 1000 mile  North - South endeavor from Washington State to southern Nevada, in spring/summer time :). Enjoy the adventure and here's to favorable weather! 

Well.  I am home now.  I hadn't anticipated just how horrible riding Greyhound has become.  Not a very nice way to see the USA anymore.  Nasty attitudes about passenger comfort, horrible truck stop cuisines, and the ever - present need to change busses early in the morning.  When my trip ended in Charlotte, it was 5:30 am and I was so woozy from the din of the tires roaring on the pavement for 3 days.  Thankfully the seller was pretty gracious about getting me along my way that the taxi trip to his home was begun while it was still dark.  It was Saturday, and the town was heavily packed with weekend warriors who seemed from what I saw were taking advantage of a final couple of weekends before winter set in.  I was unable to make good time and seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time stopped waiting for a green light.  So, without really getting a chance to see the town, I fled, away to the flowing roads leading me back to home.  Almost immediately, I started to nod off.  I found a rest stop, and nearly passed out in my new ride.  I woke, cleaned the car up and organized a bit, then allowed myself to rest more.  A gentle rain started, and I had an immediate drip due to a bad roof seal.  Still slept for 6 hours.  I pulled back onto the highway and noticed that the roads were much less congested, and made my way into Tennessee for my first night in a real bed in 4 days.  After getting reset there, I pulled onto the path that would take me to NCM, only after removing the roof and stowing it in the back.  Nice ride.  I got to NCM a bit late in the day and decided to get more rest and come to the museum the next day.  I had a chance to visit a Valvoline oil change facility, and had the oil and filter changed.  I didn't like seeing it black that first meet, and I was reassured by the crew at the Bowling Green Valvoling place.  Highly recommended.

There's more!  The NCM is having a special exhibit on Callaway Corvettes, and I was surprised to see that they did an Annie up and it was on display.  I wanted to see its plaque # (mine's 0771).  I had attended a car show the Portland / Vancouver folks know well, called "Beaches", held at Portland International Raceway a few times each year.  One time I saw a CERV replica there.  This time at NCM, it was on display!  Same one!  A reminder of home so far from home!  I think that this time I was mostly impressed with the Falconer V12 somebody stuffed into a C4.  Wow!

Sure glad I don't have to feed it, though.  Eventually, it became time to wrap up my third visit to NCM and plan the next phase of the trip.  There was a nice fellow in there who is there to help in those things, and he routed me out and onto the most direct path to my next objective:  I bought Annie under the expectation that the instrument panel was broken.  My next night was to be in Rolla, home of Batee.com.  Salvation for my instrument panel!

 Eventually I arrived in Rolla, Mo., and had another restful night there.  That morning at the "continental breakfast", I called Bryan at Batee.com, and he graciously invited me over.  Up to this point in Annie, I only saw an occasional "7" in the tachometer, otherwise I had absolutely no info while driving.  In his driveway, Bryan sat in his lawn chair and visited while I tore my only way home apart and produced the recalcitrant instrument panel.  Bryan's nephew took it and did quick magic on it, and I was on the road by 2:00 pm.  So much nicer to have that space-age panel back up, and be apprised of all of the info once again.  This singular point was probably the reason why I won the bid on eBay for Annie, and at the time I knew it would be easy to work in a visit to Batee on the way home, but I am still thankful that Batee took my business that morning and I wouldn't be deprived of the info all of the way home.  And now the panel has a guarantee!  From this point, I linked up with Route 40 (a trucker on the bus suggested it) and made my way to the Las Vegas area.  This is where my first C4 now resides, and I had graciously been offered a place to stay the night there.  Henderson is right in L.V., but incredibly quiet.  It was a nice night and a good rest.  I had been warned about an oncoming snowstorm in my immediate future, mostly the reason why I kept the pace I did returning from Charlotte.  And I failed, a bit.  I made it to Klamath Falls, Oregon that day, but stopped because I had gone a large distance and was naturally tired, but also, because I had driven into snow that night.

  ... so here we are, in the situation I had tried to avoid all trip.  Facing the last mountain crossing, the Cascades, temperatures well under 30 degrees, in a Corvette.  I wanted to stay in the hotel until, say, June.  Nice heater, a Burger King next door, etc.

I needn't have worried.  I had been aware of a pass in Oregon, in fact, I'd been wanting to use it for 3 years now.  I had an adventure in 2019 when I similarly Greyhounded it to Lodi, Ca. to take delivery of a Copper colored Z52 1987 coupe with a cloth interior.  There, with the car my only way home, I found that the car was not as advertised and not really capable of being driven anywhere.  No fluids registered on the sticks, and the brake master cylinder was cracked and partially missing, incapable of holding fluid at all.  The seller returned my funds and brought me back to the bus station.  There, the last bus for home had left an hour or so before I got back.  Lucky for me, the station was also Amtrak, and I got a ride back home from there about midnight, in leather seating.  I was tired from the stressful, unsuccessful day, and missed a bunch of the scenery.  That's why I wanted to return to this pass.  I suspected that it wasn't well traveled, and I was right.  I was able to push the car as slowly as I wanted, and only broke into a slight drift once on the black ice.  Now that I was over the last mountain obstacle, my trip quickly unwound and it's now over.  Yesterday I did the taxes and licensing, got the "collector plate", and gave Annie a well deserved bath.

  ...it only looks bad!

  Next step is to get myself back to class and get to work on Annie's faults.  The (HVAC) vacuum system seems to be compromised and will be the next emphasis.  I want to see this car do better than the 24 mpg it delivered, and I am reasonably confident it can do better.  The interior will need to be fixed a bit (seat upholstery is bad) but I think I'll keep the floor mats with C4 logo -- they have faded into a very dark green, and I kind of like that!

CONGRATS...!!!  

What a great trip - save the slight misfortunes of the bus ride. Have taken a few treks on Amtrak but never on the bus.  I applaud you for that!

Had some fantastic road trips in our '90 ZR-1.  Wish I still had that car as it was a FABULOUS road-trippin' vehicle!  Drove it from Minnesota to a C3VR Members Gathering in Bend, OR many years ago.  A few days earlier my wife had flown to Seattle to go on a mountain trek in the North Cascades.  When it was over she took the train from Seattle to Eugene where I picked her up and together we drove back to Minnesota.  That was just one of the many great road trips made in the car.  Saw a good chunk of the USA in that Chevrolet...!!!

Just curious what path you took across the Cascades from Klamath Falls.  I imagine just about any path through them is a nice drive (except in the winter).  I had a lot of fun going west from Bend to Eugene.  Not so much going east as my wife doesn't enjoy the mountain roads as much as I do so had to tone it down a bit with her in the passenger seat.

Glad you didn't run into too much winter weather and had a safe trek.  Let the REAL fun begin now...!!!

Jim Olson

 
"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave! 

 Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

The route is called Hwy 58.  I have seen it called Pengra Pass, the "Natron Cut-Off" (Southern Pacific Rr. routing that obsoleted the route paralleling I-5), then while I drove it and never saw any of these names, I saw "Willamette Pass".  I understand that the train I was in, returning me from the 1987 Copper C4 disaster in 2019, passed through several tunnels in this pass area.  I had wanted to come back and spend some time soaking in the history, but was too worried about how much worse the weather might become.  I volunteered at a local museum in Ilwaco, Wa. for about 5 years after I retired, and we do a lot of research on history, especially railroad history.  The "Natron Cut Off", while distant, had a significant effect on our neighborhood.  And it turns out that a lot of bizarre machinery we were aware of was actually used on the cut-off, specifically the famous Southern Pacific cab forward steam locomotives, and the weird German experimental Kraus-Maffei diesel locomotives.  Both pretty unusual in history.  I saw a couple of bridges that reminded me of the Feather River Canyon sights that reflect the Western Pacific activity in California.  That's a really scenic route not heavily traveled and worthy of a Corvette outing.

  If I keep talking like this, I'm going to turn around and head back out!