Chase has some more pics that he will send me to get posted, so we'll be a little out of chronological order here, but here it goes.

We spent the first night at the Dutra's and went over several things on the car (I'll post a pic of Doc with his favorite tool later ). Doug and Allen wanted to make sure we made it up to Paradise, so they led the way up there the next day. Here's the enjoyable view we had along the way.




We swung by Bruce and Wendy Pine's place for a quick look at just a couple of their rides. There were several more under covers that I sure was curious about. I guess we'll have to make another trip!

Then we went over to Edd & PJ Jesiolowski's place where we would stay the night. They had arranged for a Slant 6 get together BBQ with several local Slant 6 racers. After the BBQ Edd needed to go turn the lights off at his shop, so... We got to see PJ's gorgeous Demon that looks more like a trailer queen show car than the national points earner that it is. Chase was absolutely WOWed by this car!





The next morning we had breakfast at a local restaurant with Edd, Doug and Allen where it was apparent that Edd has made a name for himself... Just about everyone knew him and most folks teased him or he teased them. Very cool to live in the same small town for a long time. I miss that being in the Army.

Edd was nice enough to spend the morning welding extensions on the Thrush mufflers dumping out under the driver floorboard even though he was supposed to be relaxing with a fishing pole. Thanks again Edd! (Chase has a picture of Edd crawling around under the car with a welder that I'll post later).

Once on the road North we got a text from Bruce Pine telling us of a great spot to get a picture of Chase and "Stella". He was right!





That's Mount Shasta in Northern California a couple exits North of the town of Weed. Thanks for the pointer Bruce! (I think this would be a good pic to send into Mopar Muscle for their "Young Guns" section )

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Where were we... Ah yes! On the road...

Here are a couple at Doug's place. Here he is on the phone with Bruce Pine as he looks the car over.



And THIS is Doug's most favoritest tool...



One of the header tubes was too close to the steering coupler and would actually rub at certain angles causing a somewhat unsafe condition. We tossed around the idea of swapping the stock exhaust back on, but there were too many other things that needed attention. Not to mention that Chase really liked the loud exhaust.

So, a crowbar fix it was. I thought Chase had a picture of Edd welding on the extensions, but I guess not. (He was too busy admiring PJ's Demon while Edd worked...

As soon as we made it to Edd & PJ's, she made sure to get some pictures of Chase and his new ride.





Paradise, CA is a beautiful little town. It reminds me of Flagstaff, AZ.

Here are some of the suspects,... err I mean racers at the BBQ:

Allen and Sergio:



Bob and Doug:



Dana, Suzy and Curtis:



Edd, Rob and Chase:



And, of course I couldn't miss the opportunity to get my picture taken with the two top ladies of Slant 6 drag racing.

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Once we made it to the track at Woodburn I got too busy socializing and having a good time and didn't take that many pictures.

Luckily, Bruce, Wendy and others took some pictures and posted them in the Woodburn thread or on the Killer Bees website.

Here is one we got on Chase's cell phone with Andrew "Kidd" Howard. He's the first guy to ever beat Chase in a drag race. Remember this Andrew. One day you can tell everyone that you beat Chase before he became all rich and famous and stuff...



Here's one I got of Chase pulling around the water box. Bruce has posted better shots of Chase and the Duster on the Killer Bees website.

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

As we were tooling across America on the way home we figured we'd stop and get a picture every time we passed mile marker 225.

Here's the first one. It's on Highway 20 East between Burns and Ontario, Oregon.



This one is on I-84 South in Idaho. It was at night and taken through the windshield. It reflected off the glass and gave it this kinda cool effect.



The next day was the desolation of Wyoming. It's like driving across Texas! The Western 2/3rds of the state is nothing to write home about. The Eastern 1/3rd is better...

This is on I-84 East. Lots of "Big Sky" and not much else.



The next 225 we passed was the next morning near Lexington, Nebraska just before we turned off to meet up with Mike Jeffrey. There was construction and one of the workers came over to see why we pulled off and to tell us we couldn't park there. He liked the story and the car reminded him of high school...



That's the last one we got. We turned off at marker 210 in Missouri to go around St. Louis and neither Illinois or Indiana is 225 miles across.

That's the "225" post for today.

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

We were getting pretty good gas mileage (21-22) and I thought it would be cool to see if we could bump that up a notch by adding an air dam under the front bumper for better aerodynamics. Lou Madsen said it worked for him, so it's gotta be right!

We had stayed the night near Ogden, Utah and there was a Home Depot next to the gas station we filled up at, so...

Some drilled angle, thick floor tile and the mandatory duct tape put us in business. It didn't have to be pretty,... just functional...











This is Tony and Shana that helped us find the stuff we needed and even let us use their tools and helped install the air dam out in the parking lot. What great people we met all along the way!



Here it is in Nebraska. It held up fine all the way home.



Here's Chase and Mike Jeffrey. He questioned our sanity for jumping in an unknown car and driving it across country. He had mixed feelings about the air dam. And until we explained that Chase ran an 18.78 at Woodburn and kept the dial in on the window for the drive home, he wondered if we had bought the car at an auction or something...

He did let us sign his "Guest Book Wall" and let us oogle at all of his cool stuff though. Great guy! I wish we could have hung out there longer.



The best mileage we got was 24.09 MPG. Once we hit the hot, humid weather in Missouri and for the rest of the trip the mileage suffered considerably. It dropped down to 18!

We need to re-route the fuel line away from the heat of the headers and we need to give "Stella" a good tune up and possibly a carb rebuild (or maybe a bigger carb )

We're headed over to the garage to "play cars" now...

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Rob, I have to say that for Kentucky that air dam is probably pretty high class. But here in PA where most of the people have a full set of teeth that is just not gonna cut it.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Air dam is kinda Mad Max-isk.or Max'(ed) looking...lol Great postings and great story.. Wait untill the grand kids can hear it and understand it...

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MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

Chase removed the the air dam as soon as we got home. You gotta give us credit for picking a color that sorta matched "Stella"...

We re-routed the fuel line yesterday. I think another contributor to our poor fuel mileage and hot drieveability issues was the fuel pump being on it's last legs.

We had a faint fuel smell toward the end of the trip that I thought was due to the fuel boiling, but the fuel pump may have been leaking a little as well. After we re-routed the fuel line and started it up to check for leaks and idle quality the fuel pump weep hole started spewing fuel.

We were out of time at the garage. Mike and I had to go sell ice cream at the Independence Day celebration for a 4-H fund raiser. We'll get back over there soon to replace the fuel pump and see if all is well.

"Stella" displaced GodsRods Duster II. I don't like leaving it outside at the garage, but that's the scenario for now.

We need to make sure "Stella" is ready to go for Elk Creek NEXT WEEK!

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Nice trip guys. I have enjoyed your serialized chronicle, and photos of this site’s frequent posters. It’s always nice to put a face to the name.

Running out of the Rockies to Missouri is all downhill with a prevailing tail wind both good for gas mileage. Perhaps that spoiler was acting as a spinnaker. LOL

Years ago we made several trips from Maine to Chicago in a new 76 Cordoba 400 4V lean burn. That car would get 19 mpg when heading west, and 19.5 mpg downwind heading east during the 3000 mile round trip with only a few hundred feet difference of elevation between Chicago and our Maine destination.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I started to wonder about that myself and considered that the reduced air under car could have been contributing to the hot fuel line issue...

I calculated the mileage for the last tank of gas and, as expected, it was even worse. 13 MPG! I'm pretty certain now that the fuel pump going out was the main culprit...

I'll be driving her to Elk Creek, Virginia a week from today (without the funky air dam ). Hopefully I'll be able to confirm that and average at least low 20's MPG on the trip. I'll let ya know.

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Did you verify no gasoline in the oil?

CJ

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

There doesn't appear to be. I think it was all coming out the weep hole and not into the oil pan...

It's getting an oil change, tranny service and full tune up before I head out to Elk Creek NEXT WEEK!

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Mater and Chase thanks for the update and pics! One heckava trip.

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66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

Make sure your distirbutor vacc. pod didn't just pick an opportune time to create a vacc leak and leave 15 degrees on the mileage table...that'd sink your highway mileage pretty good...

-D.Idiot