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The Move

M1008driver

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Great Falls, Montana
I was wondering what happened to you and saw an empty apartment, so I figured you went for it. Keep us informed of your adventure. Thanks for serving and catch me some bass when you get there. I miss the bass.

Edit- "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"

I don't have PTSD except with the fireworks on July 4th that make me hyper alert. I actually miss the military and all the adventures good and bad. Try to get settled as much as you can before you report in or they will put you to work as soon as they know you arrived.

Stay financially cautious as you may deploy allot or at least they did in the old days.
 
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DieselBob

Active member
2,891
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Location
Arnold Maryland
Good luck on your trip. The wife and I went to Springfield Il. 2 years ago and visited Lincoln's home and tomb. Loved every minute of it. Be safe.
 

JSF01

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Location
Newport News, VA
Did you get your "Wall Drug" bumper sticker?:whistle:
No I did not, Probably should have atleast stopped in there considering they had signs like every 100 ft for 100 miles leading up to the place. I wanted to get to a certian point by the end of the day so tomorrow after the mall of america I'd run down the mississippi in daylight so I can take some pictures for my mother.

Today's update.

This one is going to be a quick one as I plan on getting up earlier tomorow, and my internet conection is poor. I got on the road about 9:30 local time and took 240 through the badlands. I must say well worth the time to go see. When you really think about it you realize how igsignificant we all really are in the grand scheme of things. I could probably could have spent the entire dy there if not two. I only stoped at all the major veiwing areas and only walked the fossil trail as I still have many places to see and while I don't have a strick time table aver day I am on the road costs me more money (not that I am worried about money its just that I like saving money) all of it was really cool.

After I left the park I than drove about 350 miles to Jackson MN where I am spending the night before continuing to the Mall of America than on to lincoln's tomb. Nothing much interestinig happened. It was nothing but very straight roads for miles and miles. I'd say it was straighter than as a crow flys. I will say That the Firehouse Brewery leaves me a bit annoyed. All there signs going the other direction had old fire trucks sitting next to them. I hate seeing old vehicles just sitting like that, I sure hope that actually run and are moved from time to time but I doubt it. Just makes me sad to see a part of history get wasted like that.

One of the gas stations I stoped at to refuel had a couple of retired cropduster pilots there. The were interested in the mini so we talked for a bit. (more people are interested in the mini than the M1009 from my experiance but my guess is because they think its just a normal blazer painted camo) Also I think I saw the same Budget rental moving truck pass me twice and now in the motel next to the one I am staying at.

I am glad I love to drive and it does not really tire me out, and infact wakes me up a bit. The wide open roads with very little traffic is great, not looking foward to the crowded highways of the east.
 

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sierrajcharlie

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Location
Farmersburg, Iowa
I know the road you're talking about, Needles, in the Black Hills. About got dusted off on a corner by a huge motor home a few years back. How are you going from Minneapolis to Illinois? I'm here in the NE corner of Iowa near the Mississippi if you're going by. Take 52 south out of Minneapolis will take you to Dubuque Ia. and into Illinois. That'll take you thru some nice country. Have a safe trip!
 
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M1008driver

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Great Falls, Montana
I hope you and your wife enjoy this trip with no trouble on the way. It is probably a once in a lifetime that you will talk about when you are old.

If you've never been there ease into the east coast. They are different once you cross the Mississippi (not bad, different even though VA more free than your northern neighbors. Never bring a gun into DC and never go there without one. :grin: No, don't even try.) There is so much to do your weekends should never be boring.
 

JSF01

New member
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Location
Newport News, VA
I hope you and your wife enjoy this trip with no trouble on the way. It is probably a once in a lifetime that you will talk about when you are old.

If you've never been there ease into the east coast. They are different once you cross the Mississippi (not bad, different even though VA more free than your northern neighbors. Never bring a gun into DC and never go there without one. :grin: No, don't even try.) There is so much to do your weekends should never be boring.
I am actually single and doing this trip by my self. I am actuall originally from NJ so I know the east cost quite well. The good thing is I believe VA should be a lot better than NJ in many respects (not that I think NJ is bad it's just its politics that annoy me specifically continuing to raise rediculosly high taxes to off set is over spending wich drives people and buisness with money out leaving them worst off in a year)
 

M1008driver

New member
522
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Location
Great Falls, Montana
My brother and I drove an 18 wheeler full of ether from Houston to NJ one time. They said if we crash try to run, but we won't make it.

I liked the east coast and since you are from there you know about the laws. Glad you are closer to home. I can't believe you are single as I just assumed you were married when I met you. Most single guys live on the base.
 

hndrsonj

Senior Chief/Moderator
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Cheyenne, WY
Mall of America? You should skip that and go to Midwest Military. John has some cool stuff, then again; if you are trying to save money that may not be a good idea.:roll:
 

JSF01

New member
172
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Newport News, VA
Mall of America? You should skip that and go to Midwest Military. John has some cool stuff, then again; if you are trying to save money that may not be a good idea.:roll:
I wish I knew of that place before hand. Though i'd probably end up buying things.

Well any way todays trip.

Today started with me seeing a possible minor problem during vehicle check out. Around the gasket for the thermostat housing there has always been a few drops of anti freeze nothing major or any thing but just a little that seeped out. Today it looked like Anti Freeze sprayed out, not enough to notice any dropage in the fluid level, but somthing to keep in mind. After figureing that it should not be a problem. I set off to see the mall of america.

I made it with no problems. I must say that place is huge. I only explored a part of it as I was not planning on staying more than two hours. It even looked like I was going to be able to stick to that plan for a while too. Than I pased the Ace store. The had an episode of dogfights playing and I think I ended up watching the entire episode. The animations were better than I remembered.

They have a lego store there, and I don't care what you say Legos are cool no matter what your age. They had a few of those giant scale Lego builds made out of 10,000 of the small blocks. I don't want to know how long it took some one (or more likely a team) to build them.

After I rode one of the roller coasters I left. My plan was to to follow 61 down the mississippi river and then over to lincolns tomb. At one point I turned down a road seeing if it lead me to a place to get a good picture of a bridge. It did not so I went to turn round in some resturant parking lot. A guy that was leaving the parking lot flaged me down. He was interested in the mini. It turned out he owns a really nice 64 mini, which he invited me over to his place to see. He had a nice little collection of old british cars. We talked for a bit than I left and continued down 61 probably to the annoyance of other travelers as there was plent of hills that I had trouble holding speed up so I had a line behind me.

By this point I started getting low on fuel (which for this trip to me means the needle is at the half way point on the guage) and began looking for a place to refuel. Plenty of places to get gas around but diesel seemed hard to find. (there may have been places a mile off of 61 but I was not going to go search for them) eventually found a place and refueled. This Is where I had my first real trouble. First there was the minior thing of the pump automatic shut off for when the tank is full was slow. So diesel overflowed my tank and created a little puddle on the ground. Not that big of a deal just a waste of money. Then there was the big issue. I went to start my truck, turned the key here a clunk and nothing (as if the starter engaged just would not turn). I thought to my self "What the..." and tried again with the same result. I thought to my self "Please don't do this to me girl" and tried for one last time. Starts right up. So I have a problem some where along the line. After that I decided I to tired to deal with any thing now and just put Lincolns Tomb into my gps and headed off. Of course the GPS just brought be back to I-90E for now and then I fount a motel for the night since it was geting late.

Tommorrow I guess I'll find out if she decides to start.
 

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hndrsonj

Senior Chief/Moderator
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Steel Soldiers Supporter
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So where on I-90E from the mall are you? There's ALOT of members there. (including some of my family).:roll:
 

JSF01

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Location
Newport News, VA
Todays update.

Today my goal was to make it to lincoln's tomb. Originally I was thinking that it was going to take me a day of driving than I would see it tommorrow. Well I made it there by 5 so I spent a little time looking around then decided to press on. I managed to cover an extra 122 miles which should set me up nicely for tommorrows travels to the duesnberg museum. should get there about 2 ish given me three ours to look around before closeing. So total I covered 480 miles today about 130 more then I figured i'd ever do in a day on this trip.

Non of the wories I had yesterday caused any poblems today. the truck started first time every time no problem which is good, and the little bit of anti freeze sepage is no worst. So I am happy with that. I am also only about 100 miles away from being 2/3 f the way done, so I am coming up on the home strech.

The biggest news from today is that I passed my first offical vehicle on this trip. There was a highway repair dump truck just driving along at 50 for some reason so I passed him doing 55.

More bugs hit my windshield today than the entire trip put together so far. It was actually the main reason I had to stop for the night it was getting hard to see because lights were glareing off the bug guts. If any one wanted to know a bug hitting the windshield of a truck doing 55 mph experiences over 8000 g's
 

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Cleptomaniac

Active member
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Location
Tecumseh ,OK
Sounds like a blast! I have been all over the US and never stopped at any of the places you have mentioned:cookoo: Every time I get finished with a job I head home as fast as I can! Will have to take my family on something like this some day. Good luck with the rest of your trip. :grd:
 

JSF01

New member
172
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0
Location
Newport News, VA
Todays update.
Well today started off interesting. Last night when I pulled into the hotel i did not see any good spots to park a truck with a trailer so I drove to the empty parking lot in the back and parked acoss the spots in the rear. This morning there were a number of cars parked there as well so I was blocked from simply doing a U turn in the parking lot to leave. It ment i was gooing to have to do the one thing I have been dreading this trip, back up the dolly with car on it. with a bit of planning and fore thought i figured out how I needed to steer the truck to back the trailer to where it needed to get to in order for me to get out. My first thought was simpliy to back the trailer around the corner. That idea fell through when in order to keep it from jack knifing the trailer ended up to far back to make the turn. So plan two I came up with was now that the trailer was farther back i figured I could do a 3 point turn. It took a little while but I managed it.

That burned up an extra half hour (plus the 15-20 minuets I waited to see if any one was going to be leaving so I could just do a U turn) so Un fortunetly I did not get to the Dusenberg Musuem until 3 which left me only 2 hours to look around. Sadly I discovered there was a truck musuem right next door but with out that extra hour I di not have time to see it before they closed.

I personally love all old antique vehicles (actually antique machinery in general) and really recomend people go see it if they like old cars. The Musuem is in the old Auburn Automobile Company's headquarters so the building it's self is where many of thes cars were designed originally. So not only are there the wonderful cars there but they also set up some of the rooms to how they were originally set up when the company was in buisness based off of old photos. I can not stress it enough that if you have a chance you should go see it.

Now for the bad news, well not bad just slightly dissaponting. My plan to the CMP has been foiled I realized that the CMP is open only wendsday through saterday which means I won't be able to go there tomorrow :( oh well next stop the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson

Attached are a few of my many photos
 

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JSF01

New member
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Newport News, VA
When you are at the AF museum check out the Korean FAC exhibit. My dad was a TACP (Mosquitos) in 1952-53 . The radio jeep exhibit is supposed to be pretty good!
Is the first one the Pic you wanted to see.

Today's Update

Well today Was very short on driving. I drove only a total of about 150 miles today. I spent pretty much the entire day at the Air Force Musuem at Wright Patterson. If any of you plan on going makesure you plan on spending the whole day there you.

The only issue I had today was my camera battery died about 1:30ish because I forgot to charge it. Fortunetly for me in the radio set up I made for the truck I included an inverter. So I went to the truck turned on the inverter pluged in the battery charger and went to the cafe for lunch. With the walk from and back to the truck for lunch it gave the battery 1/2 hour to charge which allowed me to continue taking pictures for the rest of the day.

I do have one complaint about the musuem though and that is it is not very well lit. There is enough light to see every thing just fine but when it comes to taking good quality pictures with an average camera its not so great.

Since this is Steel Soilders I figure you guy probably want a double helping of photos so here you are.

As A final note I expect this to be my second to last up date. After much thinking I decided not to stop at any other places for the rest of the trip. My reason being is that I figure from this point on any place I stop would be within a weekend trip from Langley so there is not much of a reason to go now. I'll have plenty of things I m going to need to do once I get there so why put them off. I am currently less than 450 miles away from langley so I should be able to make the rest of the drive tomorrow with no problem. So with some luck tomorrows update should be me completeing the trip.
 

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