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Gearing down for the Diesel MJ. IL > PA > VA > IL


Automan2164
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Have a great time with the Turbo Diesel. I know I did. And YES, my license plates ROCK jamminz.gif They will be transferred to my cherokee. I wish I could have kept it but gonna be travelling the world for work and wanted it to go to a good home instead of just collect rust in storage.

 

Have fun :wrench:

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First off, I want to thank everyone and anyone who may have helped in the process of me getting this extravaganza pulled off. Comanchekid45, Rebelfish99, whowey, truckdriver, mfpdm, ejndssn, JeepcoMJ, WorldsFastestComanche, so many members and more all helped.

 

As for the trip. :cheers:

 

We started out at 4 AM on 10/30, with the destination of hitting Comanchekid45's place early evening. Everything started pretty smooth, couple stops for fuel along the way, where I found out that I was averaging about 11.8 MPG. :roll: Stops were kept to a minimum, we made pretty good time. Checked everything at every stop. Hubs for excessive heat, straps for tension... The scenery was pretty good, trees were in full color, and the hills and valleys made Angela happy. The truck felt good, and after playing with tow/haul mode, I found out that on the Chevy anyway, it didn't eliminate the overdrive, just changed the RPM for shifting. I left it in tow/haul. It handled the hills pretty good, only with minor coaching at times to keep it from double downshifting itself to redline to make the hill.

 

Some of Angela's Pics:

 

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Before I had left for PA, BJ had told me that they were forecasting a 6-10 inch snowstorm. Being from the Chicago area, I brushed it off. Around here, they could call for 2 feet, and we only get a dusting. Then, just as this flat lander starts navigating the hills of PA with a loaded trailer, this is what it starts looking like:

 

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Then, when the pucker factor was high, the GPS led us off the highway... And I was met with a bunch of these signs.

 

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This was part way down. The one we missed was the first one that said we were about to enter a 9-10% down grade for 5 miles with dangerous curves. :rant: Not to mention that, but just after taking us on the scenic route, it put us right back onto the highway. Which we could have never left. After dealing with almost no visibility and all the snow/hills/ in the now dark evening, GPS finally led us to BJ's place. I didn't think he lived in a storage unit, so I have him a call. Notice that by now I should have stopped listening to the GPS. Apparently having dealt with this before, BJ got me back in order. As he was describing it, the road ends before getting to his house. Sure enough it did. All of a sudden the woods grew closer, and it turned into a muddy, uphill, snowy, path, with trees overhung and scraping down the sides of the truck. It was at this point that I felt like the truck would slide down backwards, and I kicked it into 4x4. It felt like a trail at the badlands. I also thought that this had potential to be the worst practical joke ever. Then just when I was about to give up, it opened to a clearing with a gorgeous house on top of a hill.

 

Met by BJ and his family, we were floored. Ham in the oven, green bean casserole, sweet potato fries, cold beer for me, and cream whiskey over fresh snow for Angela... So welcome after such a long drive. Warm fire in the fire place, and full stomach's. Being too late to take any good pics, I got some the next day:

 

Morning view out of BJ's living room:

 

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Part of BJ's driveway in the daylight:

 

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The house: :drool:

 

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The MJ's:

 

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The unloaded run down to VA was pretty uneventful, and easy, as it should have been. Pics:

 

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Aaaaannnnnd.... Then we found it. :D

 

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Rebelfish99 met us there with a bit of backstory on it, the title, and after a short exchange, we were off to start Angela's part of the trip. VA beach and beyond.

 

Well, VA beach wasn't very trailer friendly. After cruising the beach side in the dark for awhile, we finally found a hotel that didn't have valet parking or a parking garage. It just happened to be the Hampton, right next to the Hilton in VA beach. Really nice place. The breakfast was by far the best free hotel spread ever. Western Omlettes, bacon, sausage, seasoned potatoes,

 

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It was off peak, and the place was barren. Angela was excited to get an ocean view room, and this was what we woke up to:

 

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We actually had a bunch of dolphins swimming off shore also. It was really a nice place. We took the time to walk around and take it in. She also had to walk into the ocean... Even though it was 60 degrees out, and the water could have only been 50-60 itself.

 

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And more pics:

 

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Also in VA beach, since there are so many military bases around, there are constantly fly overs. This pic does no justice as to how low they actually were.

 

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Horseshoe crabs were washed up all over the place:

 

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Back on the road

 

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GPS took us off the beltway around DC and right into the thick of it (Of course)... But the scenic outlook was an alright stop.

 

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We ended up flying by the seat of our pants, and the only thing I had planned was a GPS way point set to the train station we wanted to be close to. Turns out that the pressure of finding a place worked out pretty good. After striking out with a bunch of high priced hotels, we found one that was pretty reasonable, in the area, and close to the train. It was in a business park away from the population, and had a free shuttle to the Metro. Breakfast wasn't half bad either.

 

DC, train dropped us off right outside the Hoover FBI building...

 

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Of all the monuments and things to see, one of the only things Angela really had her heart set on was the reflection pool under the Lincoln memorial... Insert "Sad trombone" effect.

 

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Tons of pics from here, but I am really just a big nerd for anything Wilbur and Orville.

 

The Smithsonian actually has the 1903 Wright flyer.

 

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Since I had been to DC before, I knew that there are certain stories and history that can only be remembered with a tour... So I signed us up for the night-time Segway tour... Haha. :rotf:

 

Angela getting her crash course:

 

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8 of us and the tour guide... Looked like a nerdy biker gang tearing up the streets of DC. :yes:

 

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One other thing that she wanted to do was go to the national zoo. We did that before we left on Thursday.

 

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I decided that I would rather be in home in my own bed Friday, so I got a hair up my butt, and decided that after spending the day at the Zoo, I'd drive straight home. We finished loading up, and left DC about 6 PM. Drove through the night, and got back into Harvard about 8 AM.

 

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Angela enjoying some of the finer road trip cuisine.

 

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Tons and tons more pics from the Smithsonian and the Zoo, but I don't want to go through and post up all those pics. So here is a link to the 4 folders of photos I have on Facebook. These links should allow anyone and everyone to look at them. There are a lot of pictures of the same thing, my phone was messing up, so I took a couple pics of most things to help the chance of getting a good one.

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0430a1e5da

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 6cd8bb4661

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 7b55dc358f

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 7f7c11968a

 

Rob :cheers:

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Sounds like the whole thing was a success!....So glad I was able to be a part of it, I hope to someday get to hang with ya again, Greg has already dove head first into The Unicorn and ill be sure to keep you keyed in on his progress, the diesel looks Awesome and for sure will only get better from here. Glad you made it home and had a great time! :D :cheers:

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