TRANSCONTINENTAL FLATFENDERS RETURN HOME!!! ahh….

26 days-total road time

5,038 miles-total distance covered

14mpg-average fuel economy

45mph-average speed

over $2000 in donations

THANKS THANK THANKS

National Geographic Traveler Magazine,
Intelligent Travel Blog
Downtown Saloon,
Leesburg, Virginia
Magna Photo,
Leesburg, Virginia
Bicycle Outfitters,
Leesburg, Virginia
Telos
Ashburn, Virginia
Z&M Jeeps Ltd.
Toledo, Oh
Willys Overland Motors
Toledo, Oh
INDEPENDANT/ PAYPAL DONORS:
Carol Sullivan- leesburg, Va

Steven Barringer- early cj5

Joel Hannah-leesburg, Va

John Ebersole-leesburg, Va

Kris Ritter-Cannonsburg, Pa

Thao Nguyenk-Sterling, Va

Bruce Werner- Purcellville, Va

Debbie Moe- Gettysburg, Pa

Steve Robinson-Sterling, Va

Jen Schnider- Sterling, Va

Tim “the toolman” Taylor-Oakland, Md

Rose-Sterling, Va

Josh-Salem, Wv

Mike Meyers- Washington Court House, Oh

John Wadler- WAshington Court House, Oh

Doug Hendrickson-Maysville, Ky

James Berry- Paypal

Mark Scott- Wichita, Ks

Mike Tarvin-Alexandria, Ky

Greta Arnold-Washington, DC

George & Susan Webber-Va

George & Janet Lyon- Canonsburg, Pa

Eric Gazvoda- Canonsburg, Pa

Bruce Mullen- Wv

Paul & Merrie McIntyre-Leesburg, va

Jeff and Linda Meyerricks-Leesburg, Va

THANKS THANKS THANKS

5 days of mechanical breakdowns

longest time broken down: 22hours in Georgetown, Kentucky (NOT 24!!)

list of parts replaced or broken while on tour:

• 2 omixada sideview mirrors
• 1 overdrive
• 1 second gear and synchro keyset
• 1 cruddy nat’s hat (health hazard)
• 1 16″ tube
• 1 134 headgasket
• 1 rear D44 pinon seal
• 1 speedomenter cable + housing
• 4lbs of grade 8 nuts and bolts/ other hardware
• 3 body mounts lost
• 1 battery box (fixed while on the trip is that broken?)
• 2 cooshy top bow cusions due to wind

number of times ran out of gas: 2 (Durango, Co & Moab, Ut both evan haha) (i ran out once in gordania, WV the first day and somehow coasted into the gas station)

number of other roadtrips like it: 0

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So we’ve made it….yes i know we got home like  a week ago, but i’m typing this from my new home in Williamsport, Pa. i had to leave for school less than a week after getting home so we didn’t get around to updating.

 The first thing to do when you get back from an exhaustive month long road trip in a six decade old roadtripmobile?….

take it apart and fix all the crap you broke because you’re a hack mechanic….not really just my knuckle was loose and wheel was on the verge of falling off…but other than that. clean up the rigs…it’s time for tireshine.

 

 

 

ONCE AGAIN STAY TUNED FOR A SPECIAL TOLEDO UPDATE WHEN THE PHOTOS COME IN!!!

thanks to all who followed along, all who put up with use, and especially all who helped contribute to this amazing journey we could never thank you enough.

-Paul

Toledo & Getting back home.

Sorry for the staggering update here, but we were waiting for some photos to show up for the post and they still have not surfaced.

No matter though, i’ve got plenty of footage and other pictures from toledo and other parts of the trip.

After we left Chicago we made it about halfway through Indiana and stayed in an area that would best be described as Amish-ville. it was like the Mecca of single horse drawn carriages and dissaproving stares from the occpants as i accidentally blew through a indiana stop sign or two….whoops.

nine inch drums people, optional fuction comes standard.

Continuing out of Indiana we finially hit Ohio again since the first time only 20 days ago…(is that it?)

So we had made it to the infamous intersection of Jeep Parkway and Wiillys Parkway. But for the uninformed the factory that once stood here, the OLDEST automotive factory in the work, was demolished unceramoniously by Chrysler back in 2003. how sad. the demolition took with it many artifacts and original blueprints from as far back as bantam and i’m sure other priceless pieces of american history that i guess we’ll never know. apparently the job could have been better taken care of from the people that we talked to while in the area.

all that remains is a lone smokestack fenced into a few hundred acre lot where this landmark once stood. from what i understand the smokestack should remain there, although the cut off the top of it where it use to say “willys overland”. after hearing the story of the factory’s demolition, and the way it was handled by chrysler and the people they contracted to do the job i decided it was just about the most unamerican thing i’ve ever heard of. There were other items STILL IN THE FACTORY when they demo’d it, including a large wooden desk that all the willys executives and alledgedlyThomas Edison once sat at.

alot of what i’m typing here sounds like it’s slightly rumored…but it makes you think. WTF. i do know i’ve seen a picture on the internet where an orignial blueprint for a jeep was blowing against a chainlink fence shortly after the demolition. makes the stomach churn. uhng.

well that was the very first place we stopped at in toledo after that we tracked down the Willys Overland location and stopped in.

it wasn’t long before the owner and others were outside scoping out our mode of transportation. one of them noticed that i was missing a shifter bezel and without even asking they handed out some freebies and remedied my issues. they hooked us up with a tour of their warehouse and even helped us find a place to stay. BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE AT WILLYLS OVERLAND

check their website at

willysoverland.com

here we are on their visitor’s section:

http://willysoverland.com/index.php/WO/visitors/

you guys rock.

Also while in the area we hit yet another willlys parts supplier. this place was different from overland motors because he dealt mainly in NOS parts for you resoration nazi’s who hate omixada.

Z&M jeeps is also located in Toledo although you will have to work a bit harder to find their location. trust me it’s worth the search.  Zack i believe is the owner and showed us around and like overland hooked us up with some more freebies. AWESOME! he saw the wrath my homemade hoodblocks had recieved and grabbed a new set off the shelf and now my windshield folds down with confidence.

if you are in search of a tough drivetrain part or a NOS part that you are missing from your original restoration…look no further:

zmjeeps.com

 

finially we were off to the NEW toledo jeep plant where the build the new JK wranglers…ah ha.

A huge thanks goes out to Gloria (quality control manage for JK production) who did alot of legwork just to get us hiked around the production lines and a chance to meet so many great folks.

I think our visit to the plant went way beyond our hopes, it was head and shoulders above what i was expecting. the people of Toledo really put alot into these new jeeps and they’ve changed our outlook on the new model. (everyone is slow to accept something new).

I hope everyone who saw or met us that day knows how much we appreciate our visit to their place of work, more than a few guys off the line opened their wallets and donated gas money ON THE SPOT! that was amazing. we weren’t there to beg at all. i’m working to figure out the names of the donors so that they can be properly recognized.

we also met up with the executives who run Toledo North and they donated as well. thanks guys you rule.

This is Gerome, a gentleman who has been working for jeep since 1946 if i remember right…that’s 2 years longer than these old willys have even been in existence! i believe he is 80yrs old and still employed at the same company, now that’s dedication.

he said himself seeing these old rigs makes him remember the old days, he said it “gives him a pain right there (points to his chest)” but he was the most lively guy we saw that day. telling us that once he’s down checking out our jeeps he was off to go dancing. this guy has a firm grip on life, nothing slows him down.

We also weasled our way up to the huge jeep sign and parked it next to the new 08 JK rubicon unlmited…now there is a stark contrast….there’s 80 years of history between those two models.

that’s it for now, there are literally over 100 photos that jeep is going to send us fromthe factory tour so stay tuned, i’ll post soon.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE AT THE TOLEDO NORTH FACTORY!

-Paul

TOUR UPDATE (at last)

Sorry for the wait, we literially didn’t have internet access from nebraska to virginia. we are currently waiting on some pictures to get emailed and we are going to start updating today with all the footage and stories we accumulated from colorado to chicago to toledo to home.

 The next morning in Fort Morgan, Co we were rewarded with our very first flat tire. courtesty of a screw evan picked up the day before. but we brought spares for a reason and switched it out. finiances got tight and we missed a bank deposite so we stayed and extra day in Fort Morgan and caught up on some sleep…it certianly wasn’t the scenery drawing us in.

We scoped out a few different places that might have a tube and the facility to repair it and checked out this place on a local recommendation..i don’t think they were a good choice. they “fixed it” with a 30 dollar tube, (free labor). but left the offending screw in the carcass and put a heinous brass bent valve tube in. wow that’s horrible. don’t go here if you find  yourself in northeastern Colorado.

But we continued on our journey and muscled through the less interesting terrian out in Nebraska and Iowa. we did have the highest temperature day in these states, as the heat soared to 106 degrees.  we just kept nailing down our milage (about 300-350 per day) until we hit Illinios. Our next stop was at the residence of Stephen Robinsion.

First of all we can’t thank Stephen and his wife enough for opening up their home to us. we were fully expecting to just bed down in our tents in their yard or something. we would have been satisfied with that, but they surpassed out expectations by making us a great meal, providing beds to sleep in and we got the tour of the jeeps he had in his garage. including an FC170 and his project (i think 51′) CJ3a. he’s also got a CJ7 in storage with some sweet plans for that as well. Our pass through their area couldn’t have worked out better for the road weary travelers that we were.

The next moring we were off to the big city. our first major destination since we arrived in Moab only 6 days earlier. Again the Robinsions’ generousity showed as they made some food for the road and provided us with ice to keep it cool. btw those sandwiches were great and i ate them for the next two days. thanks again.

many of these shots are from the 95/96th floor of the Hancock tower in the restaurant that showcases the skyline.

more updates soon.

thanks for staying posted

 

-Paul

updates on the way…

hey everyone,

sorry about the delay. the past few days we were unable to get any internet connection. don’t worry we’ve got a bunch of updates on the way. here’s what’s coming:

nebraska and iowa
chicago
toledo, OH, and the tour of the jeep factory
PA and back home to Leesburg, VA

we’ll be getting these online in the next day.

– evan

Day 17&18 Moab-Grand Junction-Fort Morgan, CO

Well we finially and reluctanly left Moab, Ut. and headed east for the first time during this trip. feels good to be headed home, but as soon as we left the state i felt like i missed the area we were in just a few miles before.

Prior to getting all the way out of Utah we did hit one last trail, this time just a moderate one rather than the difficult ones that seem to be the only available trails in Moab. This less challenging trail was more what we were looking for since it had lighter terrain and more scenery.

We didn’t nail down as many miles since Grand Junction wasn’t far from Moab, but today we really hit the ground running making it all the way to Ford Morgan (about 70 miles northeast of Denver) making today probably close to a 350 mile day. we are almost back into the central time zone. tomorrow night we will definetly be in Nebraska. then our next major destination will be the City of Chicago, that should be fun driving these old tractor-like vehicles right through the middle of the city.

thats it for now.

-Paul

 

two 60year old relics on the beginning of hell’s revenge with Lion’s back in the backround

 

Blue Mesa Trail, Arches Nat. Park, Utah

 

Abandoned gas station next to Dewey Bridge near the Colorado boarder

 

66 cents…if only.

 

On top of a boulder, with the trail in the backround

 

Photos can’t do this place justice, this arch was every bit of 40ft off the ground

 

Trying to climb out of the area next to the arch, either side is probably a fatal fall. so that’s why we are climbing it….can you say medivac?

Day 14-16 Moab, Utah. (western most point reached)

we’ve been in moab for 2 and a half days now, so far we’ve done fins and things, and the beginning of moab rim. both were pretty crazy, i’ve never seen terrain like this. the strangest thing i think is getting use to driving offroad when there aren’t trees everywhere. if you roll out here or your vehicle gets away from you it’ll be going for awhile.

it’s not uncommon to have 30ft minimum cliffs on one or both sides of your vehicle. make you feel alive, and trust in all the bolts only YOU tightened…i think. the drivetrains have been rock solid, the 5.38 gears hold with security on slopes you’d have trouble walking down, and the brakes are really just supplemental, although they hold tight as well. i’ll post some basic videos and pictures of the exploits so far.

we are waiting on krage to send evan’s new carborator, he was wrestling with it earlier today with new plug wires to no avail. it seems to be missing and stumbling and hopefully this new part will remedy it. since we still need to drive home. we’ll be here one more day and in a few hours i want to go hit hells revenge and other trails in the area. there are over 100 trails within ten miles to choose from, so you really can’t miss.

So it’s been a great trip so far, 11 states, 2500 miles or so. new updates soon.

Paul

Day 13 Durango and Mesa Verde (trip route changes)

it’s our 13th day and early on i did an evaluation of the time we have left vs the amount of mile that need to be covered and we ammended our route.

unfortunatly we will not make it all the way to california, the trip’s beginning and end dates were from the 15th of july to the 14th of august and with only a few days left in july we would have to be putting down a grueling 350 miles a day just to stay slightly ahead of the schedule.

we are already in a great area for offroad trails, and great sights with all the mountians, so instead of making this trip a death march we decided it would be more fun to hit some of the areas around utah and colorado, and hook back toward the east coast early.

we still have some major sites to hit, moab, chicago, toldeo so stay posted!

today we got out to mesa verde, it was an epic drive to say the least. some of the grades were probably like 11%, and my jeep did great, didn’t overheat and was great on the downhills too. the gears totally control how fast you go, the brakes are practically unused. here are some videos/pictures.

 

Open road west of Durango

 

Mesa Verde

 

Cliff Palace

 

Durango

 

Mesa Verde

 

look at that lens flare! oh yeah.

 

Spruce Tree House

Day 12 La Junta-Durango

some backlogged videos with todays update + photos below:

Our twelfth day has us seeing our first mountians since west virginia, and these ones were no picnic.  We put down 300 miles most of which were through the foothills of the rockies then up through Wolf creek Pass at a dizzying 10,500 feet from our start at only 4000 in La Junta.

you could really feel the thin air up there when you couldn’t catch a full breath, and it was evident just by the way the motors reacted, with less power from the oxygen depletion. but overall they functioned perfectly, the cooler temperatures made keeping the motors cool no problem, and they drove great all day.

we did finially hit some rain toward the end of the day which lasted all the way til durango, but its good to finially be here, can’t wait to hit Mesa Verde tomorrow afternoon, and then on to Utah for our next destination in Moab. i’ve been scouring the forums to find a friendly local that might show us around and we have a couple leads, but we’ll see what happens.

here are some pictures and maybe some video from the last couple days.

-Paul

 

A locomotive in Dodge city, Kansas

 

Dodge City

 

The first Mountian we’ve seen since crossing the Mississippi

 

Yes those are bullet holes…

 

There’s not much going on along route 10 in southeast Colorado

 

Tell me if you think these vans are slightly overloaded…Walsenburg, Co

 

One thing this Caravan wasn’t short on was ratchetstraps…my god where are the Walsenburg Police?

 

First Oil change of the trip, right outside Walsenburg

 

Near Wolf Creek Pass, getting close to the 10,000 ft mark.

Day 10-11 – Dodge City KS, Sublette KS, to La Junta Colorado

we woke up a bit later after the long drive the night before and headed over to Boot Hill in Dodge City before heading southwest towards Sublette, KS.

next we headed down to Sublette.. it’s amazing how flat it is down here. the winds ripping across the plains make it difficult for the little flathead 4 to do much over 45–atleast until the road changes direction and the wind moves behind us. we get into Sublette and i meet up with some distant relatives that i’ve never met before and we bumed around town for a bit. it’s a pretty neat place, but feels like a different country down there.

the next goal was to get into Colorado and head in the direction of Durango. once we made it into Colorado we started to see some small hills and thankfully it broke up the wind and we were able to get 55mph out of the old jeeps and make up some lost time.

we came in to La Junta, Colorado last night around 10:30 mtn time. today we’re heading to Durango. it should be the first day that we encounter some of the big climbs over the rockies, so today should have some neat updates.

– evan

Day 8,9, and 10 Princeton-Owensville-Iola-…

Alright new update!

we are currently in Wichita, Ks updloading from a Dillons/starbucks with their wifi.

We hit the ground running making up our 250 mile goal easily from Princeton to Owensville, MIssouri.And kept up the pace on day nine going from Owensville thru St Louis and onto Iola Kansas. We would have had our updates last night but the Hotel in Iola didn’t have the wireless internet they promised.

But we got off down the road and it was HOT. in El Dorado it hit 102 degrees. the temp gauges stayed under 190 in my jeep, and once we slowed the pace down to a nice 50mph evan’s dropped to the same temp and kept it safe all the way to wichita.

we did have a casualty along the way, somewhere after El Dorado my batter box (that i made) dropped out of the wheelwell and hit my rear driver’s side tire at 55mph and make a hideous squealing sound as it tore at the rubber of my NDT.

this resulted in a 40ft long black mark in the highway as i labored the brakes trying to slow down. we used a strap to hold it up off the tire and relocated my battery to get down the road.

Luckily we ran into a Mark Scott who had a sweet lifted Blazer that was a work in progress but he has another one that he says is his nice one. the one we saw was pretty sweet though, with a 400block, SM465 tranny, probably an NP 205 or D300 Tcase and a 14bolt rear w. 44 front. i liked the shifter with the Low under one.

but he led us to a friend of his, Tony Sacket who gas welded my battery box back into place, and in less than a half hour we had it all back to normal, just missing a little paint as a souviner, and a reminder for me to do a better job welding next time.

thanks again to Tony and Scott, you saved the day and now i won’t have a questionable looking battery sitting on my wheel well for the rest of the trip.

so after this update we’ll head to Dodge city for the night. check out some photos and possibly some video below:

 

sketchy east St. Louis, Illinios

 

Finially at the arch in St. Louis, Missouri

 

Arch 1

 

Arch 2

 

This is a Patton tank outside Iberia, Missouri

Battery box welds breaking outside El Dorado, Ks.

Batterybox hitting the rear tire, this happened at speed and burned the paint off

Scott’s Blazer

Tony Welding the box back on, still holding!

some videos from earlier on this week:

 

 

we are here in Dodge City now, after 4 hours of driving through the night. then we showed up at the Best Western hotel that we had reservaitions at and they claimed to have never heard of us, despite the fact that we had a confirmation number…go figure. but we found another place so it’s not so bad. tomorrow we’ll check out the city then head to Sublette and finially on to colorado, finially!.

-Paul