[AMRadio] Drake RV-3 / trip

[Geoff/W5OMR]

Tom Chesek wrote:
> Sounds like you had a great and memorable trip. I'm jealous of your
> magnificent road trip!

I'm living, Tom.  that's the short of it.  I don't mind flying, but I 
mind not seeing this country of ours.  MOST of the trip was done on 
rural roads/routes.  Brookfield, MO to Indianapolis, IN was done on 
hiway 36.  I think there was even some Route 66 tossed in there :-)  
Interstates are nice, but boring and predictable.  I -should- have taken 
the time to drive along Skyline Drive, starting in the Shenandoah 
Valley, down to Southern Virginia, but it was getting late, and I only 
got to Wytheville, VA as it was, before I stopped there for the night at 
a Motel6.  After a good breakfast early in the morning, back to the 
hotel to 'freshen up' with some "S"'s tossed in there (shower, shave, 
etc...) then back on the road.

Oh, really.. the purpose for this trip, along with visiting friends, 
Dayton, etc, was that this was the first 'road trip' in the CRX.  I'm 
proud ot say that on the highway, that thing -averages- 45mpg.  Readings 
were as low as 38mpg, but that was driving around town in New Jersey, to 
as high as 53mpg (and I -think- most of that was due to 'coasting' down 
some of the hills towards the East Coast, on the Turnpike, and down 
Higway 81 in Virgina, going downhill.

Save for the glass incident, the car did -wonderful-!

I did get a little misty-eyed driving back through East Tennessee... it 
hadn't been that long ago, I was there for the funeral of my fiancee'.  
I thought about stopping to see Dave/W4QCU, and I know I would have been 
welcomed in, as I have been before, but my heart just wasn't in it, when 
I passed exit 407 on I-40 (that's the road that goes to Pigeon 
Forge/Gatlinburg, where she lived).

I was so looking forward to moving my big rig, or building a new one to 
operate from East TN.

Scuze me... must be some heavy humidity outside...

--
73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR