Final Comments

Teri has done the blog for all of you and from the feedback everyone thoroughly enjoyed her entries.  I thought some of you would enjoy some specifics:

Trip Dates  -  Departed June 1, 2011, returned July 14, 2011

Total mileage  =  11,609

Fuel consumption  =  563.5 gallons  -  Average mpg  =  20.6

Total Trip Expense  $9,701.00  US

44 Days  -  19 States  -  3 Providences  -  2 Countries

Parts used:
6 fan belts (4 Jim, 2 Ray)
1 flat tire (Jim)
1 battery (Jim)
1 wheel bearing issue (Ray)
1 Water Pump  (Ray)
1 engine (Jim)

I thought I would express my thanks to a few for getting us ready for the trip.  Thanks to Bentleys Antique Auto services for technical support and mechanical services.  Mikes “A” Ford-able Parts for having just what we needed to prepare the “A” and Cardin’s Machine Shop for building a quality engine to stand up to the abuse of the trip.

Our engine had 17,979 miles since the last rebuild by Cardin’s when we departed.  Bentley’s had not long prior to leaving pulled the pan and checked all bearings and adjusted the valves.  All other work was done myself to ready our coupe.  Without the help and expertise from these great Model “A” professionals, I would have never been confident enough to make this type of trip.

Thanks to everyone for their support in helping us get ready and following us along the way, especially to Jim & Rose for all of the preplanning and camaraderie

Ray Besch

PS:  Teri and I both agree that we would do a trip like this again.  Let us know when you are ready to go!

Home at Last

At the hotel this morning

Back in GA               

Home in Peachtree City

We parted with Jim & Rose when we left to hotel this morning. We hugged, shook hands, and promised to have some more adventures in the future. Ray and I arrived home at 1:00PM today. The cars ran well. It is hard to believe that it is over after planning for 2 1/2 years!
Now Ray & I have some other goals. We want to take our car up Pike's Peak and take it to California to the Redwood Forest. Both of these things could have been accomplished on this trip but it was agreed that CA was too far away and the guys were afraid to stress the cars because they had already been through a lot going on the Alaska Highway and to the Arctic Circle.

Miles today were 127. Total miles: 11,644.0 . Rose & Jim's mileage will be a little different.

Here are some statistics from our trip.
We went through 19 states, 3 providences and 2 countries. We were gone 44 days. All but one of them were spent in hotels.Our average daily expenses were $220.38. Even though we budgeted $200.00 a day, we came in under budget because we planned on 8 weeks and were gone 6 weeks and 2 days.

This is not our last post. Ray will publish a post within the next few days. I won't know what to do each night now because I will not be updating the blog. Thanks for following us on our adventures to Alaska & back.

Teri

Last night on the road

Teri's Uncle Thomas & Aunt Carolyn

Our last state to visit on this trip.

Rose waiting to check in the hotel. 

Last night I realized that we were going through the town of Corinth, MS. I have an uncle, Thomas Pettie, that I have not seen in several years. I gave him a call and told him that we were going to be in Corinth, MS today. He agreed to meet us for lunch. Thomas met us ate the edge of town and took us the a restaurant that served good country cooking.

I can't tell you how surprised we were when we came in and there was a table full of about a dozen men and one woman, from the Magnolia Antique Car Club there. This car club has street rods, classic cars, and some Model A Fords. They were very interested in our trip, asking lots of questions. It was a very nice group. There was a younger guy there that we thought was a part of the car club. It turns out that he was a reporter from the local newspaper. He took pictures and asked a lot of questions and planned to publish an article about us.

After a stop at the local bank to see Thomas' wife, Carolyn, we headed towards Gadsden, AL for the night. We checked in at a Best Western Hotel and were happy to learn that we earned a free night because we had spent so many nights at BW in the past month. So we checked in and got the best room with a Jacuzzi for free. Tomorrow it is on to PTC for us and Jim & Rose will head to Marietta.

We talked at dinner about our favorite parts of the trip:
Rose: Canadian Rockies
Jim: The ice fields in Banff & Jasper National Park
Ray: Cantwell, AK when we went to the local bar and talked with the locals. We wanted dinner and all they had at the bar was steak sandwiches so that's what we had. The bar tender was also the middle school teacher. (He taught grades 4-8). The school had a total of 23 students.)
Teri: Not sure what to pick but Idaho was lovely with the windy road (99 miles) that followed whitewater streams; Loved Seattle; Seeing Old Faithful; the glaciers; Can't choose just one!

It is sad to see this all come to an end. It will always be one of our best memories of adventures in our "A".

Still over 100 degrees today

We started out on Highway 65. We went through the town of Marshall, Arkansas and saw a thermometer that read 96 degrees. It was 9:59AM. We took I-40 into Memphis. The plan was to go to Mud Island, get ribs at Rednevous, and go to the Peabody Hotel. Since everyone except me had been there, the idea was scrapped due to the extreme temperatures. Now Ray owes me a weekend in Memphis and I will to add Graceland to that list.

The cars ran well today in spite of the high temperatures. I forgot to mention that Jim's gas gauge quit working yesterday. We have been getting better gas mileage throughout the trip than them so now we are his gas gauge. We stop when our gauge is below 1/2 of a tank to make sure that he does not run out of gas.

For dinner tonight we went to The Bonefish Grill and had some good seafood, except for Rose, of course. She had a steak that she said was very good. The entrance has a revolving door. We all went through. Rose was last. She got stuck in the door. Ray helped her push it so that she could get into the restaurant. Tomorrow we plan to spend the last night on the road and should be in Huntsville, AL.

A cooler day - only 104 degrees

Miles driven today: 335 Total to date: 11,008

We left the hotel in Wichita, KS around 8:30PM. As I was walking out, I saw a newspaper headline: "It's a Record 111 Degrees." Lucky us we were here for that record!  All morning the road seemed long and boring. Highway 400 by passed all of the little towns that break up the monotony of driving. Ray says it is worse than driving interstate because there aren't even billboards to look at.  We didn't break for lunch but continued to south Missouri where the roads became windy and narrow. We got close to Branson but didn't venture into the town.  After crossing the border to Arkansas, we spent the night in Harrison.

Ray & I have noticed throughout our adventure how courteous the truckers have been. This is true all over the country and in Canada with the exception of Missouri.  In Missouri, the truckers blow their horns, go around you and then cut you off. We are not on the interstate when this is happening. I don't get it because it is easy to pass a vehicle. You can see for miles on these state highways and there are frequent passing lanes.

Tomorrow we will do some touristy stuff in Memphis. As I have never been there, I am looking forward to it.

Hot as H...!

One of the many stockyards we passed today.

Interesting shirt.

Look close: it is 104 degrees.

Today we went a little over 300 miles. We drove a little slower because it was so hot. This is the first day in a long time we didn't have any mountains to look at. I miss them. We drove Hwy 50 to Dodge City. It is straight and flat. You can see for miles. We went through many small towns like Holly, Coolidge, Loucks, & Pratt. We looked ahead and saw what looked like a skyline. As we got closer, we realized that it was silos and grain elevators. We passed a big Tyson Chicken Plant close to Garden City.

After an interesting 3 hour tour of Dodge City and Boot Hill, we left driving Route 400. At this point the temperature was high 90's. It got worse. Both cars started to act up. Ray added some Mystery Oil to ours and it cleared up. Jim tried a similar thing but it didn't work for him. Several miles down the road it was still acting up. Ray remembered something similar that happened to us a few years ago in Williamsburg. He told him to get rid of the micro filter in the sediment bowl. That took care of the problem. When we arrived in Wichita,KS, we were told that the high today was 110 degrees. No wonder we were all so hot! Tomorrow we should make Springfield, MO. It is only supposed to be 102 degrees there.

Rain and hail today

John & Marcia

Working on the fan belt

Dust Bowl?

Last night, Jim & Rose spent the night with their friends, Ed & Joyce Hastings. They were treated to fresh grilled trout. Ray & I spent the night with our son & daughter-in-law, John & Marcia. We all enjoyed the home cooked meals and we got to see the house in Colorado Springs that they will be moving to in a couple of weeks.

We met at Walmart in Aurora at 1PM to head east. Our first stop was at a rest area to get a Colorado map and some hotel coupon books. Ray decided to be proactive and change the fan belt because it looked worn. We started the trip with 2 extra and Jim had one extra. Jim used up his and one of ours. We used the other. In Butte, we tried to purchase another one but the only one they had was not quite right. The guys ended up taking Jim's fan belt off of his car and putting it on ours. Jim was able to make the fan belt that he purchased in Butte work on his car. So about an hour later, we were on our way again and we never did get the map or hotel book. We got off of I-70 and headed south on US Hwy. 287. The first town we went through had a NAPPA store. The guys were able to purchase a fan belt and some wheel bearings. We continued on our way again and it started to rain...hard... and then it started to hail (pea size). We pulled off of the road to wait out the storm but we were in the middle of nowhere so there was not any place to go for cover.

 In the town of Kit Carson, we found a gas station...two pumps. Not only was it self serve but there was no one around. We were able to get the gas and we continued on to Lamar, CO for the night. I guess you had to charge the gas or you couldn't get any. Just outside of Lamar, we passed a huge stockyard. When we passed it, the aroma stayed with us for a while. Rose was so glad that we were not stopping at a hotel close by!
Our mileage today was 206 miles. Total to date: 10,350 miles.

Taking a break in Denver

We left this morning at 10:30AM. The late start was because we only had 150 miles to get to Denver. About an hour from Denver we had a severe weather forcast. It was easy to tell that a storm was coming by looking at the sky. We went to a gas station to wait out the storm. The good news was that it went northeast and missed us but if we would have continued, we would have been in it dealing with strong winds and hail. It was well worth the 45 minute wait.

We arrived in Aurora and went to see our daughter-in-law and son. Rose & Jim went with us but they got a call from some friends in the area so they left to go and spend the night with their friends. We are all having the first home cooked meal in almost 6 weeks. Yum! Tomorrow it is on to Kansas. Since we have the use of a garage, Ray is changing the oil in our car and doing some other routine maintenance.

Laramie, WY tonight; Denver tomorrow

This sign was over the door at a gas station/restaurant/liquor store/convience store/information center.

We took a scenic route again today, Route 191 for over 100 miles.  The Grand Tetons were gorgeous to look at. This morning, a hotel clerk told everyone to be careful hiking because yesterday in Yellowstone a man was hiking with his wife and came upon a female grizzly bear and her two cubs. She killed the man. It was the first time a bear has killed anyone in Yellowstone since 1986.  A short distance outside of Jackson or Jackson Hole (It was explained to me that the town used to be called Jackson Hole but the town leaders decided to change it to Jackson & the surrounding areas called Jackson Hole) A trucker had stopped along side of the road. He was looking a the biggest moose that I have ever seen. We stopped and after taking some pictures,  it finally hit us that it was a fake. I wonder how many people think that they saw a real moose there.

In Farson, WY we ate lunch at Mitch's Cafe. The locals said that it was not only the best place to eat but the only place to eat. The population was 368.  Ray said that it was the best hamburger he had eaten in a long time. It was a 3rd generation restaurant and had just good ole home cookin'. After we hit I-80 the landscape started to change to a more desert like appearance. The mountains disappeared for a while too. At the end of our ride, we ran in to a little rain but we made it to dinner and back before the big storms came.

We have driven just about 10,000 miles now.  The only car issue today was that Jim had to use his reserve gas today to make it to an exit where there was gas. Tomorrow will be a short ride. We will be in Denver & are looking forward to seeing John & Marcia (son & daughter-in-law).

Wed. July 6th: Yellowstone & Grand Tetons today

Old Faithful

We left around 8:30AM after a trip to the NAPPA store. We were out of fan belts. The drive was west to Bozeman and then south to Yellowstone. We crossed the continental divide 4 times today. Got gas at a station that had: a casino, convience store, gas, & Subway. Quite a combination.

Last night at the hotel, there was a brochure for "Our Lady of the Rockies." It was a 90 foot statue visible from the hotel, on top of the continental divide.

Lunch was at The Old Saloon, Established in 1902. It had all kinds of memorabilia from the area. One sign in the saloon read: Lost House Saloon Where the beer is colder than your ex wife's heart.

It is hard to describe Yellowstone. We did not see many animals: 2 elk, 1 bison then a herd of bison, 2 wild horses, a herd of deer. I was a little disappointed in the animals but it was hot outside. However, the geysers were amazing. Jim was leading. We came around a curve and saw a lot of steam. We were so glad that it was not his car, just a geyser close by. I finally saw Old Faithful, something that I wanted to see for a very long time.

I almost forgot to mention Jackson Hole. It is definately a tourist town. In the center of town, there is the town square that is a park. Each of the 4 corners have arches made for elk antlers. It is a tradition that started in the 1950's. All of the antlers are from local elk. There is a reserve here for the elk.

The cars ran fine today. Tomorrow we will be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. After that, Denver.

Fantastic Scenery in Idaho

We left around 8:30AM continuing on Highway 12 East through Orofind, Kamiah, Lowell to Missoula. We followed the Clearwater River for a long time. It is beautiful, with lots of white water, tall pine trees along the banks, waterfalls, and a very curvy road. In fact, there was a sign that said "Winding Road next 99 Miles" It was true.We traveled 100 miles, much less as the crow flies, it took 4 hours.  The road was also called "Northwest Passage Scenic Parkway, Lewis & Clark Trail & Nez Perce Trail.  When we crossed over Lolo Pass we were in Montana. Several times the words "Moose Crossing" were written on the road. I guess we were on the moose's road.

We got on I-90 and all was well. We were about half way to Butte when Jim passed us & pulled over. He had a broken fan belt, an easy fix. It wasn't long until we were back on the road again. This was the first car issue since June 28th.

Mileage today:  317   Total mileage is about 9,500.