1967 'cuda
Dropped on Head as a Baby
I don't know what the temperature was but it was sub freezing. The bad news was that those wide tires on the back weren't going to make the icy snow packed roads any easier to drive across. The good news was that we were heading south.
It took us a while to figure out how to keep the windows from frosting up. That ceramic heater was fine for keeping a small area of the windshield thawed and it was so cold that we'd started using it as a hand warmer before we'd gotten a half hour away from where we started. But as it turned out, we needed to open the wing windows to get cold air on the glass. As long as the windshield was the same temperature inside as it was outside, - it stayed clear. The blankets filtered any moisture from our breath so it didn't glaze the windows. I was wearing two pairs of socks. I should have worn three. Every so often I had to pull my shoes off to massage some heat back into my feet.
We were running pretty far behind schedule. The slick roads slowed us down. Each time a semi truck would pass us we'd lose traction and the car would get squirrely. Although we hadn't run into bad weather, poor visibility through the windshield slowed us even further. The Nebraska and Iowa portion of the trip was the hardest. I think it must have taken us an hour just to get across Omaha. There wasn't enough snow on the roads to worry about getting stuck. But the traffic was slow and unless you had a gentle touch with the brakes you'd start skidding real quick. It wasn't until we were most of the way through Missouri that the road conditions improved. We could tell it was beginning to get warmer. I thought that we'd take turns sleeping but the co-pilot had to keep the windshield clear for the driver. I don't know if we could have slept much with that cold anyway.
For the most part the trip was uneventful. The Chevelle was no economy car but it wasn't as thirsty as I thought it would be. I think we averaged around 13 or 14 mpg. As the temperature rose so did our spirits. It really wears you out when you've spent the better part of ten hours straining to see through the windshield. I'm not complaining. I was still enjoying the trip. The sound of that big block might have lulled others to sleep but it had the opposite effect on us. It had kept us pumped up during the trip instead of regretting we'd chosen to embark. It was in the same tradition as Kowalski that we kept on going (although without the police chases or high speeds).
We were able to open it up more as we crossed southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennesee. We weren't trying to break any speed records but it felt good to see what the car could do. Fellow road travelers weren't as hagard as the ones on the highways up north. There were a lot more thumbs ups as we continued on. And of course there were those occasional newer gen Camaros and Mustangs that would pull alongside and then gun it. We may not have been in a rocket ship but we were sporting more than enough horses to make them realize that they were little more than wannabees.
Somewhere south of Nashville the car started to get warm. We hadn't noticed it until we'd pulled over to gas up and saw the dribble beneath. We couldn't see any leaks other than through the overflow hose. Our assumption was that we'd pushed it just a little too hard prior to refueling.
Within a half hour the temperature began rising again. We didn't have a cell phone (what do you think we are, pussies?) or GPS. All we had were road maps. So we weren't sure how far it was to the next gas station. When we pulled over to the side of the road we could see coolant coming from the bottom side of the water pump. Luckily we had filled the antifreeze jug back up after we'd topped the radiator off earlier. Unluckily, we could see that the stream underneath wasn't stopping. After letting it cool down we put the rest of our water in and headed on down the road. At the next exit we bought some stop leak, more coolant, and filled our old jug back up. It was a band-aid at best but we felt we could still finish the trip if we kept the speed down and pulled over to refill the cooling system whenever necessary. Sometimes we'd shut the engine off and coast down long hills to try to make it further between stops.
View attachment 12798-20533.jpg
It took us a while to figure out how to keep the windows from frosting up. That ceramic heater was fine for keeping a small area of the windshield thawed and it was so cold that we'd started using it as a hand warmer before we'd gotten a half hour away from where we started. But as it turned out, we needed to open the wing windows to get cold air on the glass. As long as the windshield was the same temperature inside as it was outside, - it stayed clear. The blankets filtered any moisture from our breath so it didn't glaze the windows. I was wearing two pairs of socks. I should have worn three. Every so often I had to pull my shoes off to massage some heat back into my feet.
We were running pretty far behind schedule. The slick roads slowed us down. Each time a semi truck would pass us we'd lose traction and the car would get squirrely. Although we hadn't run into bad weather, poor visibility through the windshield slowed us even further. The Nebraska and Iowa portion of the trip was the hardest. I think it must have taken us an hour just to get across Omaha. There wasn't enough snow on the roads to worry about getting stuck. But the traffic was slow and unless you had a gentle touch with the brakes you'd start skidding real quick. It wasn't until we were most of the way through Missouri that the road conditions improved. We could tell it was beginning to get warmer. I thought that we'd take turns sleeping but the co-pilot had to keep the windshield clear for the driver. I don't know if we could have slept much with that cold anyway.
For the most part the trip was uneventful. The Chevelle was no economy car but it wasn't as thirsty as I thought it would be. I think we averaged around 13 or 14 mpg. As the temperature rose so did our spirits. It really wears you out when you've spent the better part of ten hours straining to see through the windshield. I'm not complaining. I was still enjoying the trip. The sound of that big block might have lulled others to sleep but it had the opposite effect on us. It had kept us pumped up during the trip instead of regretting we'd chosen to embark. It was in the same tradition as Kowalski that we kept on going (although without the police chases or high speeds).
We were able to open it up more as we crossed southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennesee. We weren't trying to break any speed records but it felt good to see what the car could do. Fellow road travelers weren't as hagard as the ones on the highways up north. There were a lot more thumbs ups as we continued on. And of course there were those occasional newer gen Camaros and Mustangs that would pull alongside and then gun it. We may not have been in a rocket ship but we were sporting more than enough horses to make them realize that they were little more than wannabees.
Somewhere south of Nashville the car started to get warm. We hadn't noticed it until we'd pulled over to gas up and saw the dribble beneath. We couldn't see any leaks other than through the overflow hose. Our assumption was that we'd pushed it just a little too hard prior to refueling.
Within a half hour the temperature began rising again. We didn't have a cell phone (what do you think we are, pussies?) or GPS. All we had were road maps. So we weren't sure how far it was to the next gas station. When we pulled over to the side of the road we could see coolant coming from the bottom side of the water pump. Luckily we had filled the antifreeze jug back up after we'd topped the radiator off earlier. Unluckily, we could see that the stream underneath wasn't stopping. After letting it cool down we put the rest of our water in and headed on down the road. At the next exit we bought some stop leak, more coolant, and filled our old jug back up. It was a band-aid at best but we felt we could still finish the trip if we kept the speed down and pulled over to refill the cooling system whenever necessary. Sometimes we'd shut the engine off and coast down long hills to try to make it further between stops.
View attachment 12798-20533.jpg
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