Road Tripping – STL to DCA

First off, this was a very frugal trip for me. Because this was a pick up for my boyfriend, he paid pretty much for everything, with the exception of a couple Diet Cokes and a hot dog.

Background:
My boyfriend bought his dream car off Ebay Motors. It was in Missouri, so we had to go pick it up and drive it back to DC. The plan was to rent a car, go get the vehicle and then drive the car and the rental into Nashville before dropping off the rental. We needed to see if the car was roadworthy for another 12 hours of driving. If not, ditch the rental, arrange car transport from Nashville to DC and fly out of Nashville back home.

Trip – Day 1:
Flew into STL and ate lunch at Iron Barley off the recommendation of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Very worthy choice, but the service was slow during lunch. Order the Blaster Pie early so it can thaw out. Otherwise you’ll waste another 20 minutes lingering so you can stick your fork in it. (They give you a serrated knife if you are impatient.) If you are in St Louis, definitely try it out.

The weather was pretty rainy and we were a little nervous about that. We were running late because lunch went longer than planned. We were about an hour behind schedule and the rain wasn’t helping. Fortunately, it we were able to pick up the car before 5pm and hit the road before dark. I got a little confused with the GPS settings but we only went 1 exit out of our way. While we were on our back roads detour, my boyfriend had no cellphone service and kept flashing his lights. We stopped twice and neither time was he signalling me. Uh-oh. Sounds like an electrical problem and it could be serious as nightfall approaches.

Eventually we were near Paducah, KY and right in the middle of ‘Mopar Country’. It was perhaps the luckiest place to breakdown. The townies see us and call up a guy who does a lot of drag racing mods to check out the engine that’s leaking oil like mad. The prognosis is definitely that this thing is not perfect, nor a great restoration job, but also not as terrible as it could be. But we should watch the oil pressure, stop every few hours and top off the oil. Once we get it home, change the mainfold, gasket, dipstick and a re-seal a few things. This ‘bad deal’ could end up being a great deal and boyfriend will be able to sell the car for a profit on the east coast. It’s a bummer, but the body is clean with very little rust anywhere. (Which is important on a 30yo car.)

We spent way too long talking to the car guys and every pit stop means a thousand questions about the engine block size, the model year, etc. In the end we stopped at a hotel on the north side of Nashville because the rain was so bad the lights on the car were behaving strangely.

We dined at a Cracker Barrel which was a first for me. I have to say, the mac n’ cheese is really good there. Along with the chicken n’ dumplings, it was awesome, but calorie-heavy.

Trip – Day 2:
We wake up after a bad night at a motel. All night the guy upstairs is stomping around and it’s hard for us to sleep. But we hit the road a little early and drop off the rental without a problem. (Boyfriend is a Hertz Gold member so everything goes pretty smoothly with a rental and the GPS was included free.)

We realize that we’re making good time across TN till we hit the timezone change and then suddenly we’re making really bad time. Because the engine is having some issues and we’re fairly certain the speedometer is not calibrated right, we drive a little slower than we’d like. We’re now looking at a midnight arrival. EEK.

Another thing is that the doors were working just fine, but somewhere in TN, I lose the ability to open my passenger door from the inside. Oh and another thing, the door locks don’t work! HA. The sway bars I asked about? No, non-existent. Boyfriend’s not too happy about all these things, so before writing a negative review on the seller, boyfriend is going to try and negotiate a refund of some of the sale price. The hot rod builder has a lead on an appropriate engine that would upgrade what’s in the car so there’s a pretty good plan starting to form.

We hit up a Wendy’s for lunch to save time and keep motoring home. We skip our favorite pizza joint off I-81 North before I-66 in VA and hit up Sheetz for snacks. Eventually we roll into DC around 11:30pm, safe and sound.

I’m psyched that my boyfriend got his dream car even if it’s not so dreamy. He’s starting to think that the car is not street legal in DC or in MO, but he’s prepared to do the work and it’s his hobby so we’ll see. (It is quite a pretty car.)

BTW, I don’t want to say what the car is or post a picture because it’s unique enough that the car will be recognizable in DC or turn into a Google search term.

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