Update on the cross country trip, sorry if its a bit long, I haven't had wifi at night and don't know when I will again.....
Flew into Portland around 1:30pm on Tuesday, took an Uber about 1.5 hours south west to the area of Willamina OR to meet the seller. We ended up meeting at some Casino, as it was closer than the shop he had working on the bus.
He was a nice older guy, farmer of some sort, said his family had been working the same land since the late 1800's. He bought three Crowns from a ski school at Mt Hood, I might have already mentioned that, this was the last one left for sale. It looked good, ran good, drove good, so we headed off the the local DMV in Lincoln City to get the trip permit.
I drove it for the first time on the way there and it only took me a few tries to get the shifting down (unsynchronized 5 speed) but my first attempt at downshifting in traffic was abysmal.
Got the trip permit, and the title and bill of sale and he offered to bring me back to the shop to take out some seats to make room for me to sleep in the back on the way across the continent.
I said hell yeah, so off we went. Ended up taking out about half or more, and I pulled the cushions off all but 2 rows of those that are left so it can't be said to carry more than 8 people as I don't have a chauffeurs endorsement on my CDL.
Seats come out of these things with almost no effort. Thats not to say they aren't well fastened, they are, but the 4 bolts that hold them in come out with no trouble at all. Crowns have super thick (1.5") marine wood floors so no nuts below to rust.
Ended up hanging out there for a while, shop owner Jeff was a really interesting guy, an absolute wealth of knowledge about these Detroits, something that came in handy soon thereafter. He welded me up a hatch key out of some 5/16" square tube, and gave me 2 gallons of oil left over from the oil change he just did on her.
Then I was finally on my way.
It was about 7:30 by now, it was getting dark, raining lightly, and I had no idea where I was, or where I was going to spend the night.
I had planned to go to the coast, so I found a Walmart down the way (1.5 hours) in the town of Newport OR, funny cause am driving it to Newport RI on the other coast. On the way there I had to stop short coming around a sharp bend in the road because an old 50's Ford truck was dead in the road, shocking I know, and right after that I started seeing the "engine hot" light flickering on the dash, sometimes on steady, sometimes flickering.
The temp gauge was still low, around 145* where it had been as long as I had seen it, but now I'm worried the gauge is bad. I took it easy the rest of the way. I hit up the wallyworld for an air matteress, sleeping bag (needed a new one for my oldest son anyway), a cooler, cheap tool set, some food and some of the other essentials for life in the back of an unconverted bus.
Spent the night in their lot too.
The next morning I set off east. Not 15 minutes into the trip the light is back. Now I'm getting nervous. Is it really hot? Doesn't seem like it, it happened too fast, I'm thinking maybe the water pump, maybe the radiator, maybe I'm 3,200 miles from home, maybe I'm up the creek here. So I called Jeff, the guy with the shop who has 12 of my old seats laying in his yard. He tells me to come by on the way and we'll check it out.
I get to his shop and within 10 minutes he found the issue. The wire was off the sensor and hanging loose, every time it touched something metal it closed the circuit and lit the lamp. We confirmed the accuracy of the gauge with a temp gun and all was well again.
Ended up chatting with him for a while so it was like noon when I finally hit the road for real. This was Wednesday.
Made my way through Portland, into the Columbia River Gorge, absolutely breathtaking by the way, took scenic RT 30 and stopped to see the waterfalls, (you can check them out on the 'gram if you want, @nicholas_insana, still working on a page for the bus.....) hit up Hood River for dinner and a beer and headed out for Memaloose State Park to spend the night.
Got super lost following the stupid GPS which took me to some guys barn, nat a park at all, finally found it around 9:30 and bedded down for night 2
Next morning I caught the sunrise in the gorge and started heading east on 84. Headed for I90 so I went through Spokane, and into the mountains of Idaho and into Montana. This is the first time I have ever been west of the Mississippi, and I was blown away by the size of the Rockies, of which I saw only a small portion. She climbed the steep grades fairly well, dropped to 4th for most, and 3rd for a few. Trying to keep the rpms up above 1600ish and avoid lugging at all costs. 40mph was the norm. Combine that with a top speed of 60 and it makes for a loooooong ride.
Made it to Georgetown Lake off Montana Scenic RT1 about 570ish miles for the day.
The lake was breathtaking, still iced over and 2' of snow on the ground. The spot I found was a boat ramp that was mostly plowed out, gave me a chance to try out the sanders, and they worked just fine. Not sure how long the sand will last, the tanks are about the size of big jerry cans, but handy in a pinch I guess.
Woke up this morning at 5:30 to catch the sunrise over the Rockies and get an early start on the day. Got about an hour into the ride and realized I crossed the time zone at some point and lost an hour
Montana is big. I mean real big. I felt like I was in groundhog day. Driving forever and never getting any closer to home.
Finally made it to SD with a little bit of WY mixed in there as well, I took hwy 212, the warrior road I think its called, and it seemed utterly endless at 60mph.
Just past Sturgis I had my second issue with the bus. I was tooling along down the freeway and I noticed that the pedal was stuck down, throttle was pinned. I thought at first it was the hand throttle (mechanical cruise control) linkage but it seemed free. I clutched out and let her ride on the governor, 2100rpm where she has been riding for the last 3 days, and took a well timed exit. Pulled onto a side road and shut it down on the rack. Checked the linkage at the pedal and all was good, worked my way back to the rack and found the tip of the return spring broke. Borrowed some pliers from a rando in a parking lot (turns out the tool set from wally world didnt have pliers
) Bent a new end on the old spring, and we were back in business.
I am currently parked outside the visitors center at Badlands National Park, using their wifi. I will be up and out at 5:30ish again, and plan to spend a little time here in the park before I move out. First stop will be a hardware store for some spare springs and an assortment of pliers.
My buddy is going to fly into Chicago on Sunday and finish the trip with me so that should help with the boredom, although I have been having a great time, a co-pilot would really be nice.
Ill keep you all posted.....