Index

Day 28 - 18 May 2003

Beckley, WV - New Market, VA - 240 miles

The last morning finds us having a Continental breakfast in the Motel Lobby. Not many takers, as this will be the final leg of the trip and probably everyone is anxious to get home. With everyone all fueled up and ready to go, as a parting memento, we all line up in the rear of the motel for the last picture. Rain is again, the order of the day. We depart Beckley, WV in rain & fog. As the lineup descends down the entrance to the Interstate eastbound, Bob finds that his generator has apparently failed. Not a good thing since the wipers are electric, not vacuum, but not a real bad thing since Bob doesn't use the wipers. Rain-X on the windshield is better than wipers if you keep moving. Not 2 minutes later, Dave Farris reports his engine is stumbling bad. A mile or so later, We pull under an overpass and sort things out. Bob tries the 'hit the voltage regulator' trick, no avail. It appears dead. Dave feels the need to swap spark plugs. Decision: Larry and Norris will escort Bob as far as possible. Bob has a spare alternator ( yes, alternator!) that can be swapped in, if needed. Using the battery only for the ignition can take you a long way. Larry, Bob and Norris head for New Market in a driving rain. We lose contact with the others in a few miles. In and out of rain for the entire trip, over 200 miles to New Market and another 110 to home. Route 64 east wasn't very busy, but after we get on Route 81 north, it's full of traffic with a lot of trucks. Keeping the windshield clear was a chore. The Rain-x works fine on the outside, but inside, you also have to deal with the lack of a suitable defroster. Older cars with worn weather seals tend to fog up quite a bit. The Pres was no exception. The carpets were getting soaked. Where 64/81 splits,Norris and Gael break off toward Norfolk. We say our good-byes well - wishes over the radio. Larry and Bob continue toward New Market and arrive around 12:30. We waited around for the others, taking in a brief lunch and finally got a call that Dave is slowly plugging along and is about 3 hours behind. His top speed is about 40MPH. Larry and Pat decide to head for home, Bob and Donna do the same and arrive around 3:30 Later communication via email indicate Paul & Karen Johnson arrived in Harpers Ferry, WV at 3PM, the Farris's in Rockville, MD around 4:30 Norris called me around 6 PM to indicate that all went well on the final leg to Zuni, VA

From Dave Farris: We made it home safely about 4:30 PM. We did get another plug changed but it started pouring so hard we had to stop before we could finish all we had wanted to do. We did plug along into New Market, got gas and McDonalds and continued onward, the belt way wasn't to bad so we are ever grateful we made it. God Bless one and all. Will be in touch later. Nadine and Dave

From Paul Johnson: "We made it home safely about 4:30 PM." Great! We really felt bad about leaving you at Verona, especially after we ran into rain just north of there. We got home about 3 pm. No further problems. Paul

Monday, 19 May Not setting aside any time to unwind, the next day, I had to go right back to work. The funniest thing happened when I got in my daily driver and started out. The brakes didn't need to be 'stomped on' and the steering wheel felt like it belonged on a go-kart. Many thanks and good wishes to all my traveling partners. This was one of the greatest adventures of my life and it would never have been the same without you all. Thanks to everyone who supported our trip. There are many extremely generous and fine people out there.

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