letterman7
Honorary Admin
Yesterday I tried to rally up my local VW club for a tour through our county to drive the 8 currently drivable covered bridges. Being the weekend before Halloween, only a handful showed up as most of the rest of the club have/had family obligations with kids. Anyway, we had a '72 (blue car), a '79 (black car) and a good friend came out with his MkIII Polo. The trip would take up from Valley Forge National Park, through the southern end of the county and back north to finish up at our local VW guru's shop. The trip was over 120 miles and expected about 3.5 hours.. much of which was through narrow country roads. We finished roughly 4.5 hours later due to a couple of rest stops and a few wrong turns (Google maps and the GPS had different views on a couple of roads..).
What I found with driving this particular car is that a) it loves the long open roads. Highways where it can cruise at 65 is just divine. The car hunkers down and quiets down (a little) and just goes. Get off those to the country roads where the pavement ain't so good... well... let's just say the seat pans touched more than a few times over some ally-oops in the road. One was particularly hard as we were crossing over an open grate bridge and on the other side was a double set of culverts that we didn't expect. There was no getting around or over them gently....
Thankfully my wife, Sue, was navigating and taking photos, and in some instances was my side-view camera at some definitely awkward intersections where the blind spot to the passenger side rear seemed to be yards long.
Here are some highlight photos of the trip for your enjoyment..! For the record, I'm the idiot in the denim jacket in some of the photos..
The lineup at Valley Forge..
And off we go...
And there goes Chuck in the blue Beetle.... down Rt1..
Where's Chuck?
Bailed out to see a family member close to the third bridge in the run..
We weren't the only ones with the same idea. Ran into a classic car club doing their own tour of the area, heading the opposite way...
And nothing like the looks that say "what the hell is that?" when confronted with a Sterling on the road..
Caught up with the same group a few minutes later when we stopped for R&R at the Nottingham Wawa.. This is the same T-Bird:
And over the Octoraro Reservoir
And winding up at East Coast Imports for some brats and sauerkraut...
What I found with driving this particular car is that a) it loves the long open roads. Highways where it can cruise at 65 is just divine. The car hunkers down and quiets down (a little) and just goes. Get off those to the country roads where the pavement ain't so good... well... let's just say the seat pans touched more than a few times over some ally-oops in the road. One was particularly hard as we were crossing over an open grate bridge and on the other side was a double set of culverts that we didn't expect. There was no getting around or over them gently....
Thankfully my wife, Sue, was navigating and taking photos, and in some instances was my side-view camera at some definitely awkward intersections where the blind spot to the passenger side rear seemed to be yards long.
Here are some highlight photos of the trip for your enjoyment..! For the record, I'm the idiot in the denim jacket in some of the photos..
The lineup at Valley Forge..
And off we go...
And there goes Chuck in the blue Beetle.... down Rt1..
Where's Chuck?
Bailed out to see a family member close to the third bridge in the run..
We weren't the only ones with the same idea. Ran into a classic car club doing their own tour of the area, heading the opposite way...
And nothing like the looks that say "what the hell is that?" when confronted with a Sterling on the road..
Caught up with the same group a few minutes later when we stopped for R&R at the Nottingham Wawa.. This is the same T-Bird:
And over the Octoraro Reservoir
And winding up at East Coast Imports for some brats and sauerkraut...
