Here is how the story goes, this past January (2003) I get this bright idea that I want a 4x4. This was my critera, it had to be a GM product, it had to be in decent shape, get good fuel milage,and above all be cheap. So the search began I knew that the chances of finding a truck like what I wanted down here (Texas) for a good price were slim. I got on Ebay, Auto Trader, and the online classifieds. After about two weeks I came a cross an 86 S10 Blazer in the parts cars section of Ebay it was a charity auction out on Long Island New York. Suprizingly I won the auction at a grand total of $417.23. I contacted the man the next day to discuse all the details of the transaction, he was very helpful and even agreed to meet us on a Saturday.
Being the brilliant person that I am I decide to drive up there, just in case some thing broke on the Blazer, we could get a tow bar and tow it back. We left here on Friday morning and took the kids to my dads out side of Gilmer Texas, and then we were off. Our route was to take us up to Arkansas then to Tennessee next through, Virgina, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and finaly New York. All this for a grand total of 30 hours and 1638 miles, we were slowed a bit by bad weather and did not arive at the dealer until about 7pm on Saturday. Even though it was late the owner of the lot agreed to meet us and drive the truck before we seeled the deal.
The truck was in much better shape that I was expecting it to be. The worst of it was the fact that someone had painted it with a thick coat of grey house paint to cover the rust. The old truck ran well drove well, and every thing worked including the a/c which, being that it was about 5 degrees I did not need to use. I told him that I would accept the truck and paid him(he told me to keep the 23 cents). Since we were very tired and hungry we found a hotel nearby With a resturant across the street. After confusing a waitress and a bartender with my accent and my order for ice tea, even though it was snowing we managed to get dinner. Then it was off to our very over priced hotel for a nights rest.
Next morning half rested we headed back for Texas with a route change that would take us to the Corvette musem in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I learned three things on my way to Kentucky : One there are some pretty high mountians in western Maryland and West Virginia, Two my new truck is way underpowered and three the 4 wheel drive DOES work. Not long after passing Hagerstown, Md, it started snowing, by the time we hit the West Virgina border we're in a blizzard. We decided to push on and get as far as we could, the Blazer in front and the Venture minivan in back. So for the next 300 miles we avereged 45 miles an hour, partly because of snow but mostly because, that was as fast as I could get the Blazer up the mountains. Upon sucsessfully arriving in Charleston, WV, we hoteled for the rest of the night. 8 am we were off to Bowling Green, after an hour and a half delay in Lexington, due to a Martin Luther King parade and weird one way streets, we made it to the vette musem around noon.
This was somthing I had wanted to do for several years, And now that I was finally here, man it was hard to beleve. I spent the next two hours stareing and drooling, at all the classic vetts plus the 50th anniversary ones.. After a Wendy's burger and a half hour nap in the van, we were off again. Our original plan was to make it a long day and try and get home on Monday night but due to our snow delay we were about 8 hours behind, we decided to try and get as far as we could before stoping. Our stop this time was in Wheatly, Arkansas and the worst motel ever, but I was too tired to care.
We woke up early on Tuesday and headed out again. I tell you when we crossed that Texas state line I was a very happy man, we go by my dads pick up the kids, then down to Tyler to see Whitney's mom and get Jack wwho was staying there. We finally get a start for the final leg of the trip, when it happens with Only a 100 miles to go, a breakdown, luckly it was minor the power steering pump blew a seal. By this time I'm so tired I just pour some stop leak in it, and go. We made it home about 11 pm, so after 5 days, over 3000 miles and not a lot of sleep we finaly got to sleep in our own beds. I dont think ether one of us has ever been so tired.
