WPC or Bust

[Merle Coggins]

So tomorrow morning begins our 10 day vacation, with the Ol' Dodge, to the annual WPC Club meet in Chattanooga, TN. The truck is all ready to go after my recent maintenance and repairs. I've got a car top cargo bag in the bed to keep our luggage dry. Even through I have a tonneau cover some water gets in around the tailgate, leaving little puddles on the bed mat. The cargo bag will keep things dry just in case... and it looks like a pretty good possibility of driving through some rain tomorrow.

 

Heading to Brownsburg, IN (Indianapolis area) tomorrow (370ish miles) to visit my sister, then on to Nashville (another 300 miles) for a couple of nights. If all goes to plan we'll roll into Chattanooga (130 mile final leg) by noon on Tuesday. We have plans to tour Ruby Falls before heading to the hotel. There will be many sight seeing tours during the meet, but that place wasn't on the list. We've been told it's a must see when in the area.

 

I'll use this thread as a blog of our trip, hopefully with may pictures of awesome Mopar vehicles and other cool things. I was looking forward to meeting up with Greg down there but his plans changed and he won't make it now. If anyone else from this forum will be there be sure to say "Hey".

 

Stay tuned...

[greg g]

Safe trip!  Sorry had to take a bye on this trip.  Enjoy.

[Merle Coggins]

Well... this is what we have to look forward to this morning. Looks like it’ll be a wet drive this morning. 

We’ll probably catch the heavy stuff through Milwaukee and Chicago. ?

[Dodgeed]

Drive safely. I hate driving long distances in the rain. As you know, you'll need to just slow down, take it easy, and remember its better to arrive late, than not at all. ?

[Plymouthy Adams]

bad news on traveling in the rain...do be safe...enjoy the trip anyway....

 

we got some rain after about 20 days of dry spell...we surely needed it and more....Goodbye August, looking toward a better September

Edited September 1, 2018 by Plymouthy Adams

[Don Coatney]

Are you driving through Fort Wayne? If so let me know and we can hook up. 

[Todd B]

Have fun and be safe. 

[Merle Coggins]

Day 1. 

We got on the road around 7:00 am. Traffic was fairly light leaving town.

 

Just a little north of Milwaukee the roads were wet, but we missed the rain. We didn’t get into any real rain until a little south of MKE. Then it rained off and on all the way through Chi-town. 

 

We got out of the rain just before getting into Indiana, but then traffic got heavier. Gotta love Chicago traffic... NOT!!!

 

Modern tech in the Ol’ Dodge...

[FlashBuddy]

A couple nights in Nashville, good call. Rascal Flats is playing Tuesday at the Grand ‘ol Opry?

[Dodgeed]

Gotta luv those fuzzy dice. ?

[Todd B]

5 hours ago, Merle Coggins said:

Day 1. 

We got on the road around 7:00 am. Traffic was fairly light leaving town.

 

Just a little north of Milwaukee the roads were wet, but we missed the rain. We didn’t get into any real rain until a little south of MKE. Then it rained off and on all the way through Chi-town. 

 

We got out of the rain just before getting into Indiana, but then traffic got heavier. Gotta love Chicago traffic... NOT!!!

 

Modern tech in the Ol’ Dodge...

You know Mark is thinking “how can he possibly go that fast?”

[greg g]

We drove through rain returning from Detroit.  Some of it very heavy.  I did notice the temp gauge recorded a drop from 170 to just under 150. There must be something to that evaporative cooling theory after all. Discovered a couple small leaks at the bottom corners of the windshield.

Edited September 2, 2018 by greg g

[Merle Coggins]

Day 2;

Brownsburg, IN to Nashville, TN. Truck ran fine, but the temp gauge was running a bit higher than normal. With temps in the 90’s, and some long pulls up the Kentucky hills, it was understandable. It never approached overheat territory, but I kept an eye on it. 

 

My fun moment of the day was watching the odometer roll up all 6’s. To bad we weren’t on Rt 66. 1 number off... we were on I-65. ?

EDIT: Now that I look at the picture I can see that the first digit is a 5. ? Check back in another 10,000 miles... 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by Merle Coggins

[pflaming]

The hum of a flat head on a long run is like music. Love it? 

[FlashBuddy]

What? Speak up will ya?!

[Merle Coggins]

Day 3;

Not much driving today. Just a little bit around the Opryland area, near our hotel. Visited Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and The Grand Old Opry. Then took an Uber downtown to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Historic RCA Studio B, and the Johnny Cash Museum. Busy day. Lots of walking. But enjoyed it all. 

 

Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Louis, and Elvis Presley. (The Million Dollar Quartet)

 

To keep it car related... Here is one of Elvis’ Solid Gold Cadillacs. 

 

And “The Bandit’s” Firechicken

 

It was hard to get good pictures of the cars due to the museum lighting, and the glass that surrounded them. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

you acting just like a tourist........lol    Glad you enjoying the trip...I think the last time I did a side show was the Batmobile display in Charlotte years back....

 

 

 

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

Day 4... 3rd leg of the journey;

Just a short 130 mile drive today. Nashville to Chattanooga. Not quite as hot this morning either so it was a little more comfortable driving. One long hard uphill pull the temp was running high again. The needle hovered a little below the 212 mark. I estimated it around 200-205. The Ol’ Dodge could only maintain around 45 MPH in some sections. Then once we crested the summit and started the downhill run (6% grade warnings were prevelant) the temps came way down. With very light to no throttle input for the next several miles the temp needle almost got to the 160 mark. Normal running has it slightly above that mark, where I estimate 180 for normal operating temps.  

 

We dipped into Plymouthy’s territory briefly. ? I-24 drops into GA for a short distance, then back up into TN to get to Chattanooga. 

 

Then we “acted like tourists” again with a visit to Ruby Falls underground water falls. If you are ever in thes area I highly recommend this attraction. It’s pretty amazing. 

 

 

We are now relaxing at the hotel. Plenty of “tourist” activities scheduled for this week before the show and banquet on Saturday. 

 

All in all we’ve driven a little over 800 miles so far. The truck is using a little more oil than I anticipated, but I have been pushing it harder than it typically sees. I’m getting 12-14 mpg on this trip so far. It could probably be better, but I can live with it. I’m considering going through the carb again this winter to inspect the function of the step-up plunger and idle-delay plunger. Maybe I can squeeze a little more MPG out of it. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

Merle, would be great if you could stop by again...but we all know that would be quite an extra leg on your journey....that little corner of interstate twists you about a couple times...Mont-eagle I am assuming was your "pull" up the grade......it was all I could do to top out at 55mph with the trailer and 47 Dodge Town Sedan on the back...I also climbed a degree or two in temp.  The return I believe is a longer pull but better grade...

Edited September 4, 2018 by Plymouthy Adams

[Don Coatney]

On the return trip I suggest you travel RT 41 as opposed to I-24. 41 parallels 24 and is much more scenic. Jump back on 24 at Murfreesboro. 

[Merle Coggins]

Yes, Monteagle is what I’ve learned is the moniker for that hill. So you are saying the west side of the hill is the steeper grades? That’s good to know that the homeward bound run will be a little easier. 

 

I thought about running 41 down from Nashville yesterday, as an alternative to the interstate driving. But I had already booked 12:00 tour tickets for Ruby Falls and I didn’t want to risk missing my assigned time slot and have to purchase new tickets. So we stayed on the super slab. As it turned out, they weren’t busy and asked us to join the 11:30 tour to try to fill it up. I’m sure they would have shuffled us into a later tour without an issue. But without knowing that we took the less scenic route. And heading home we have a lot of miles to log, so we’ll probably stick to the big road again too. I’d love to have the time to stay off the interstates, but alas that is not the case on this trip. 

[Don Coatney]

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

Ahh... The Allman Brothers... ?

[Merle Coggins]

Day5;

Not much to report today. We visited the Tennessee Aquarium in the morning and saw a lot of fish. We also watched a movie about the ocean at the IMAX theater next door. Then after lunch we did a driving tour down to Cloudland Canyon State Park, in Georgia. I had a couple in a ‘32 Dodge rumble seat coupe in front of me. They kept up with the group fairly well. He was a little worried about the downhill run as he mentioned the freewheeling trans and the inability for engine breaking. I don’t know what they used for a transmission in 1934 but having a full time freewheeling transmission seems rather strange. Seems there would be a way to disengage the freewheeling part. 

 

We then realized that we only saw half of the aquarium exhibit. There was a second building. So when we got back from the park we went back to the aquarium (it’s only a few blocks from the hotel) to see the rest. 

 

After dinner I went with the group to a brewery beer tasting thing. Michelle stayed at the hotel. She wasn’t interested in it. I wasn’t impressed. It was a micro brewery in town. It was very noisy and I didn’t like any of the beers that they offered for sampling. Wishing now that I’d have stayed back too. 

 

I didn’t take many photos today. I did have my GoPro on for a bit during the driving tour, but I left it out in the truck so I don’t have anything to share from that.  

[Merle Coggins]

Day 6;

Another driving tour day. We headed down to the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia. First stop at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Park Visitor Center & Fuller Gun Collection. We got a history lesson on the battle for Chattanooga in the Civil War. Then we continued on through the park and into Chickamauga, GA for lunch and a tour of the Gordon Lee mansion. Then back up through the battlefield again with stops along the way for more history lessons. 

 

 

At one point I ended up behind the leader of the tour, and the Battlefield historian, in his ‘57 Plymouth Savoy

 

Other dash cam (GoPro) pics showing a few of the cars in the group.

 

 

Right now is relax time, and a chance to cool down before dinner on a river boat. 

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Merle Coggins