4/15/25:
Taxes are done, no worries from the IRS People.

Sunday was finally a sunny day here for more than 2 hours after 10-12 days of straight April Showers.
I took the car for a shakedown run to the bike trail for a 20 mile bike ride and then to the the "Pitt Maneuver" 24h of LeMons Race at Pitt Race (the Road Course Track here near Pittsburgh, PA)

Here it is is parked on the top of spectator hill at pittrace - If you zoom in and squint you can see some lemony cars in the background on track.


The car ran well. Some fiddly bits to take car of:
- loosen the Valve Lash to 0.024" / 0.028" from 0.020" and 0.026" It makes a difference you can feel andv a difference in the idle quality.
- recheck the timing
- found a slow leaker in the LR Tire... pulled the wheel last nite and found I picked up a nail. No time to dismount and patch or put a plug in it, so I took it to the local shop where I get my state inspections done and got it repaired today.

3 Cordobas (2 of the B body flavor, One was a J Body/Mirada; I have no pictures of the mirada shaped one) were on track at the same time at the Lemons Race.
I don't believe I witnessed any slanted 6 powered entries at the event. I was there on Sunday, as Saturday so very doomy and gloomy ' round these parts.






I also Enjoyed this Corvair among the many Front Drivers and Seemingly endless sea of BMW 3 series cars.



Ready for More adventure.

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Going for a drive:

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Some more adventure was had today:
It seems with the correct finagling and the proper dingus ends I can likely fit 3 bikes on the roof bars or one bike and a canoe.

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4/21/25:

All Packed up for a trip with the Grüne Hölle '64 Dart.


The weather forecast was improving as the days got closer, but when I left it was not totally dry on my entire route.(more on that later.)
The trip Took me to Blacksburg, VA and instead of taking the Highways or Interstate (I79/US19/I77/US460) I rerouted through the middle of West Virginia, pretty much straight south, taking US119 / US250/ WV92 and finally US219. The travel time is of course longer but the drive is more interesting, as I get to see snippets of small and medium sized villages and towns on the route.

After I rolled the car out of the Garage, I hoisted my trusty Vintage Cannondale MTB on the roof rack, tightened the fork mount as well as cinched down the rear tire strap.

I left before dawn, preparing for a quiet drive south over the state border to cross into West Virginia.



On a good day it will take me exactly 1 hour to get over the state line, this time was fairly good at 58 minutes. Once in WV, I stopped for some fuel and a sandwich.


South of Elkins, WV on US Route 250, I remember looking east toward the cloud filtered sunrise over the mountain ridge, and thinking it "looks white and snowy up there."



As US 250 Wound up to ~4000' in the Monongahela National Forest, Sure enough ~3"-5" of fresh, wet snow fell over night. It was a winter wonderland with much of the Spring's wet snow still adhering to the trees




State Plow trucks had been through the area, plowing, and putting down cinders and sand. I did not detect much salt, thankfully. The Drive up elevation was fine, but after cresting the high point, the way back down was much more icy and snow packed. A normal car with All seasons and ABS would have been fine, but this thing with the UHP Summer tires does not provide a lot of confidence in the snow, so it is time to put the camearfone down and drive it to Green Bank with out putting it over a cliff or into the Armco.


I did not realize it at the time, but I was following some vehicles a bit close and many sections of the road had cinders on them. (too early for street sweeping in the mountain regions of WV.) One of the Headlights got a got hit and was destroyed. The glass on these headlights is thin and prone to crack or chip when encountered with road debris.

No Worries, I ordered a replacement and had it overnight shipped to my location for installation the next day.

Why did I route through all the back roads and snow covered roads? To encounter the NRQZ, the GBO and the Radio Telescopes housed there. Pocahontas County, WV is quiet and there is some pretty neat stuff if you look around besides the Radio Telescopes. If you cant live without your WiFi or cell phone or shopping plazas and Starbucks then this place is not for you. But if you are a bit of a science nerd and like to see one of 3 places like this in the world then the highlands of WV is where to find it.



(I will Edit and toss in some more / better pictures when the disposable camera is developed).
At the Observatory there are no Cell phones or digital cameras allowed inside the Restricted area, and all maintenance vehicles are diesel powered. No Spark ignition internal combustion engines allowed due to the radio interference.

Here are some Pictures on an instant camera of the Robert C Byrd Radio Telescope (the largest one at the GBO) as well as Some Old Diesel International Harvester Trucks and Scout in the maintenance shop yard.


After I arrived and got settled in I went for a bike ride on the Huckleberry Trail in Blacksburg, VA.
The next morning, my friend Lou and I Had an errand to run before getting to the McAfee Knob trailhead Area on the AT.

The Errand involved swapping his daily driver vehicles for inspection at Oliver's Garage. Oliver has some cool Automotive Treasures lying about to spy at, here are a few:

An Oldsmobile 442:


A 1957 Chrysler Saratoga:


A late 1940's or early 50's Dodge Truck:


After we swapped vehicles for the state inspection business, then we got to the Hike.
The hike contains elevation gain for the first 2 hours from the trailhead parking area to the knob. ~4 Hours of total hiking from the trailhead to the knob and back.


Some people say the Knob is the most photographed spot on the AT.
It has great views of the valley below and the mountains and the rippled landscape.



The weather for the rest of the trip was clear and beautiful. No snow here.


The Next Day we decided to go canoeing. The Roof Racks can handle probably up to 3 bikes or one canoe and one bike.




This Canoe Just happened to match the car well!




Later that Evening We went to a local car cruise in Radford, VA.
Lou Brought his Slant 6 equipped '34 Dodge 5 Window Cope with rumble seat.
To no one's suprise we had the only slant 6 vehicles there and also the only '64 Dart and '34 Dodge.



The Next Morning we got up early, hit the waffle house for breakfast, then pointed SW toward Marion VA for a drive on the "Back of the Dragon" a section of VA Route 16 from Marion, VA to Tazewell, Va which is claimed to have 438 Curves and ~3500' Elevation Change in 32 Miles.
Lou Brought his Well equipped for the task '62 Valiant V-100 2 door sedan, we joined up with Mark from Chilhowie, VA. He is another slant 6 die hard buddy and early A body fan. He brought along his '61 Valiant 4 door Sedan.


We ran the "back of the Dragon both ways. First north, and we were there early enough to avoid any traffic which was nice.
We hung out at the Back of the Dragon Brewery for a few hours before taking Route 16 South Back to Hungry Mother State Park.

On the North Route we did not encounter much traffic going the other direction. On the South Route, opposite traffic started to pick up with many motorcycles and about 70 Porsches running in Groups of 5-10 for their tour of the route.

As always we stop at the big overlook for some glamor shots.





After that we Stopped at Mark's place to check out some Slanted projects and to hang out and chat.


On the way back to Blacksburg for my final day of the trip we stopped at Pycone Creamery, which is owned by Ken, a car guy at heart.
This was our second stop at Pycone in as many days for the Fresh Homemade Ice Cream.


On the way back I took WV Route 20 From US 460 to Interstate 79. It bypasses about ~200 Miles of Interstate and Highway Routes - I77/US19/I79. It is slower, but much more interesting.
I made it home for an Easter visit with the family and In-laws, and was able to get one more ride on the bike trail before the Easter get together began.

It was a good trip, and put just over 1050 miles on the Grüne Hölle Dart. It will be ready for more adventure this summer.

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Fantastic writeup, Mr. O. Thanks again for the lovely visit and activities.

Cheers!
Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

You betcha. I will be training for that ~50 Mile one way bike ride. Hope to get one in before August.

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You guys ROCK!

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Thanks for the kinds words Dennis.
Living the Slanted life out here!

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

I found some documentation of the Saturday's events.

Enjoy!

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6/7/25:

I just did a relash on the valves. I was lucky that on my last ~1000 Mile trip as one of the pressed in trunion shafts for the Grey Chunky Roller rockers was working loose. It did not back all out way out or fail, as I was beating on the car pretty hard around the Back of the Dragon. I swapped the roller rockers back out to a set of stock rockers.
The stock rocker arms put out so much more oil up top compared to the aluminum grey roller units.


Also, here are some photos from my last trip (4/25) from the Disposable Camera at the Green Bank Observatory inside the Restricted Zone:

As you walk or bike past the the Restricted zone gates this is what you first encounter:

If my memory is correct the closest instrument is the 85' Telescope, then The 140' Telescope and above the treetops about ~1/2 Mile away is the Robert C Byrd Telescope.


This is the same 3 instruments as above, just the 85' is cut off on the left.



This is the view looking back towards the Restricted area gate, parking area, and visors' center which cannot be seen in this shot.


Close up of the 140' Telescope.

A fascinating documentary about the construction of the 140' unit can be found here.


Here are some better shots of the Robert C Byrd Telescope (the big one) this thing is huge!


Compare it to the ~8' High Fence surrounding it in the foreground.




This week my daughter and I explored putting 2 bikes on the roof rack - it worked fine.
We Went to the Local bike trail for some bike time.



Next up is a tent camping trip, and will be using the '64 dart as our truck.
It will be fully packed on the roof with 2 bikes, one canoe, pulling a trailer with firewood, camp gear, tents, paddles, rods, cooking gear and other tenting things. It should be a blast!

I can 99.9% guarantee that we will be the only ones there with a 61 year old car towing and hauling stuff.

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6/14/25:

More adventure was had:

The plan was my daughter and I were to go camping at a semi-local state park (Prince Gallitizin SP to be exact) 78 miles from home.
We took the Grüne Hölle Dart and the ValianTrailer with all of our food, gear, tents, paddles, canoe, bikes, and all the rest of the stuff for camping.
We had a nice little site on the main road of the campground. It's safe to say we were the only campers with a '64 Dart.

We had great weather the entire time. (it's raining again here now), We got some biking in, spent some time fishing and paddling on the lake as well as just hanging out, making a campfire, cooking s'mores and mountain pies.

Here is the Rig loaded for the trip at home:



As I was taking these pictures, A nice guy said that he followed us ~ 5 miles from the local town to the State park sign where we looped around the parking area for these shots. The gentleman and I exchanged some stories. He proclaimed that he was appreciative of old cars and stuff of the sort, and that he had just finished up installing a windshield in a VW bug earlier that day before dinner.





The Setup at camp:



Campfire faire:


At night my daughter and I would take a stroll to the lake. The campground area is essentially on a ~1 mile x 1/2 Mile peninsula that juts out into the lake.
Every night the weather, wind, and water was calm, no boats out late, and 2 out of 3 nights it was clear save for the Canadian wildfire smoke making some haze.
This was the view on Tuesday night, one night before the full moon.

Wednsday night: The moon rise was ~1 hour later, but this time it was the full strawberry moon:


Next morning, the chief pancake flipper was hard at work.


Later that day we ran out to Ebensburg for some provisions.
On old US Route 219 there is one of these markers - I like to take pictures of the car near these dumb signs.... just think, a few drops of rain on the other side of the sign go the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River and on this side that rain goes to the Atlantic via the Chesapeake Bay.


Ice Cream at the Pirate's Cove is a perennial favorite enjoyed by many in the area.


After ice cream we headed to the lake for a few minutes in the canoe before sunset.


The next morning we headed back to the vessel for some more canoe time and fishing.
(the fishing is for my daughter, I know nothing about the activity and have no interest in it)


Lunch back at the camp: someone learns to make her own grilled cheese sandwich and is impressed with the results for a picky eater's taste....or lack thereof!


Later that night, we went for a drive. My daughter asked for some twisty roads. Well, we are in luck, there are a few of those around here and with 2 local historic railroad sites trying to get up and over the Allegheny front, lets drive to one for a few photos.

This is the view descending down into to the valley on Veterans Memorial Highway toward Horseshoe Curve.


We had Already installed the Canoe back on the Roof as we were planning to leave the next day.


This tunnel goes under the Triple Track that is on the "World Famous" Horseshoe Curve.



A few Glamour Shots:




That wraps it up, We left Friday morning, and the rain began to fall a few hours after we left.

Next time I hope to be reporting on some AutoX from Carlisle, PA in July.

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I loved reading about your adventures, Greg. Nice writeup and pics. So glad you and Ava get to do these things together!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks Lou.

Yep, memorable times here, for sure.
So far, so good with towing and the "do-all" Grüne Hölle Dart.

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Livin' the life buddy!

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

6/29/25:

Since returning from camping trips and vacation, I began to set the car ready for some possible track days and Auto X.
Tossed on the RPF1's with the 200TW track tires. I also Removed the Brake fluid, Topped the MC off with fresh stuff and did a bit of bleeding at each caliper.

I ran a with a local rally group today as well.



Here are some pics from the rally - all were fast cars, most were faster than mine on the boost etc.

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