First Road Trip

[Blue03]

A couple weeks back I took the first road trip in my MM. We went fron Everett, Wa (25 mi north of Seattle) to Pleasant Hill, Ca. (San Francisco Bay Area). It was great and I'm still impressed with car. It gave me chance to try several kinds of driving under multiple weather, road and load conditions. I must say it handled it all and was comfortable too!

First day Mrs. Blue and I decided to go bonzai straight through. We left at 3:30 am to miss rush hours in Seattle and Portland. We arrived at our Pleasant Hill motel at 5:30 pm. It was 14 Hours and 814 miles. We had a sit down breakfast stop in Salem, Or and sit down lunch in Weed, Ca. We had 2 gas stops and one pit stop. I drove the whole way and wasn't really too tired when we arrived. The MM was comfortable and we had great weather without much traffic. Mrs Blue never once asked how much longer it would take after she woke up for breakfast.

The first tank of gas carried us 391 Miles at 23.84 MPG. Not Bad for limiting my speed to only 5 to 10 over the posted limit. Oregon tops out at 65 MPH. The lowest mileage was running around the Bay area freeways getting 19.69 MPG. The best was 25.07 MPG on the last leg home because of a short tank running at about 55 to 60 MPH due to traffic and possibly not toppoing it off the same as the previous fill. The total trip was 2026 Miles and averaged 21.6 MPG. That was just under 94 Gallons at prices in a tight band from $2.49 to $2.59.

I'm going to add some stuff here later but I get nervious when a post starts getting long that I might messup and lose all the typing. Especially when Scooter the cat is trying to jump on the keyboard. To be Continued...

[Blue03]

I had to visit the the Blackhawk Car Museum while we were in the Bay area. I had been through it before on a special tour in the late 80's before it was open to the public. It was impressive then and is today as well. I guess it's associated with the Smithsonian now.

My favorite car was the Tulipwood Torpedo. My next favorite is the Maharajah's German Silver paneled Tiger Hunting Jungle Car. They had a Tucker as well among dozens of other Classic's. Hopefully the pics attached will do them justice.

The Maharajah's and Tucker pics will be on the next reply. I guess we can only add 5 attachments per reply.

[Blue03]

Here's the Maharajah's and Tucker Pics. The Snakes on the front wheel covers are actually air horns. The red tongues move when activated!

[Blue03]

Mercury on Winged Wheel - I almost missed it but it caught my eye. I even asked the Museum folks if they could pull it out of the display so I could get a better picture of it. But no dice on a quick pull out of the display case. I thought it was cool for being made in 1918 and wondered if I couldn't make some use of it for the MM.net.

[Blue03]

Heading back north we added two friends for the trip home but no bonzai trip back. We did a little wine country (Hwy 29 to 101) and up to Eureka, Ca for the night. With 4 adults, 5 suitcases, 1 box of books, 1 outdoor umbrella stand, one outdoor umbrella, 2 soft coolers and several bottles of wine, I would say we had one fully loaded Marauder (see trunk pic). The roads were good with some twisties and the weather turned wet later but not a bad day. The winery pic is of Sterling Vineyards. The Winery with the crew is V. Sattui.

[Blue03]

The next day we drove from Eureka to Medford, Or. via Grants Pass. The weather was drippy but seemed to cooperate when we wanted to be outdoors for the tourista stuff. I will have to do that drive again without a full car. It was twisty and could be real fun. I had to behave and nobody got seasick. It was still fun. Man there are some quite large trees out there!!!

The Walk of the Giants was interesting. Blue03 got to meet the Blue Ox. Paul even used Blue03 as a foot rest. Don't ya love how that air suspention takes a load!!!

I almost tried to put my MM through a tree but I chickened out and didn't want to fold the mirrors.

And finally, I had 3 Marauder moments on the trip. We were mailing some boxes home (full trunk and all) and I saw a guy and his son walk all around the car checking it out. I almost used the key fob to blip the horn but wasn't really in a mischievous mood. Next I was in the parking lot of the Pleasant Hill Motel and a Dark Pearl Blue CV Sport pulls in. The guys were from Sacramento and we chatted, looked at each others cars and I gave them the MM.net site. They were looking to mod the CV Sport. Maybe they will show up sometime. the last one was in Eureka and a nice lookin and soundin newish yellow Mustang with big (hood/roof/trunk) stripe and either 360 or 390 on the side pulled by in traffic and gave me thumbs up which I returned.

Well I'm done with the fun. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Hope I didn't go too overboard on the board. The MM performed well, got reasonable mileage, and was comfortable for all. I still can't get rid of the Smiles!!!

[tbore007]

very cool..looks like you got some good milage..did ya utilize the cruise control..o ya..that big dude looks like he is stepping on your ride

[Bluerauder]

"...snip..."..that big dude looks like he is stepping on your ride
It does appear that Paul Bunyan is about ready to step on your Blue MM. :eek: Sometimes the newspapers are looking for "humorous" pictures. Of course, to many of us Marauder owners ... that ain't real ha ha funny. :bigcry:

Great pics of the Tucker (even more rare than our Blue MMs) ---- and the drive through tree. I think you could have made it. :up:

You may wish to consider the SS Inserts for your ride. They definitely are an extra nice touch on my Blue MM. Unfortunately, the pics in my garage were before I put mine on. :coolman:

[teamrope]

Hey Bruce, the MM would have fit threw that tree. Our old GM did. :up:

[TAF]

Well done Blue! I really enjoyed reading this and your pics. Thanks for taking the time to post this chronical of your great trip. :up:

[Blue03]

Cheers All!
For tbore007 - yep I use Cruz Ctrl as much as I can and did on the trip. It really helps minimize foot fatigue for me.
For tstrat99 - Paul B is a stand up guy. I wasn't too worried about him because...he ain't heavy he's our brother. Hey maybe you could post a pic of your SS inserts on your Blue. I think they do look good but I'm still having fun with the ...what is that car? stuff.
For TR - I know I should have tried and wished I did now ... Oh well I'll have to go back and get it right. See you Pacific Raceway in the AM I hope!
For TAF - Thanks

[01 Interceptor]

Great post Bruce, glad that you enjoyed your trip and you made it back safe and sound. The tree is awesome, I remember going there when I was about 15 with the grandparents on my first cross country adventure. We were in an 88 Lincoln Continental...a tad slimmer than the MM but the opening is generous and you would have fit just fine. :D

[MICA Racing]

Awesome! Thanks for the pictures and story. I can't wait to get on a nice long trip like yours - Houston to Vegas, anyone?

[RCSignals]

Breakfast in Salem OR?

[Blue03]

Darn :eek: Looks like we missed a chance to say Hi! We were there about 7:30Am and had breakfast at Elmers west of I-5 off of Market Street. I guess I never noticed that 4corners was right there. I thought you were somewhere down near Kfalls for some no good reason. We wrote the stop down because Mrs. Blue had some mighty fine tasting strawberry crepes. Now we have 2 good reasons to stop there again. Maybe next time!