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NE EMPIRE EXPRESS - day trip to Allentown


JohnD1956

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The oil is changed, the tires pumped up, the A/C cold, and the satellite radio is set to play.  Packing things up today and headed out in the AM.  Hoping to meet up with Buicknutty, around Jackofalltrades 70 place. Will be taking side roads from Clarks Summit to Allentown.  This will add an extra hour to the trip, unless we get lost in the hills,  but promises to be much more scenic with a lot less traffic.  Looking forward to see everyone, and tipping a few Killien's in the afterhours parking lot forum...   

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2 hours ago, MrEarl said:

maybe you mentioned elsewhere, but what are you driving?

 

and dude, when in Pennsylvania, you really should drink their beer, Americas oldest and my all season favorite.  Tip one for me :)

 

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5745500/il_fullxfull.295316413.jpg

 

 

 

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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10 hours ago, MrEarl said:

maybe you mentioned elsewhere, but what are you driving?

 

and dude, when in Pennsylvania, you really should drink their beer, Americas oldest and my all season favorite.  Tip one for me :)

 

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5745500/il_fullxfull.295316413.jpg

 

 

 

Been there done that. 

 

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11 hours ago, MrEarl said:

maybe you mentioned elsewhere, but what are you driving?

 

and dude, when in Pennsylvania, you really should drink their beer, Americas oldest and my all season favorite.  Tip one for me :)

 

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5745500/il_fullxfull.295316413.jpg

 

 

 

 

+1 => One of my favorites also.

 

Have 980 miles on the new motor and shes running like a Swiss watch.  Has neither leaked nor burned any oil, and is hovering around 16 mpg if I can keep my foot out of the switch pitch.  Greased the chassis, adjusted brakes, fixed some last annoying squeaks, will do an oil and filter change and a last slug of ZDDP tomorrow, load up the spare parts box and the cooler. 

 

Ranco valve decided to stick open at last minute and the dashpot quit - mere nuances.  If it gets down in the 40s the interior will get warm with only the flick of a fan switch.

 

Have to be at work Wed so will look forward to flying wing another time - will bring up the rear of the Express and be on road Thursday morning.  See you there!

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Still burning the midnight oil tring to compete as much as possible.  Advanced the timing a bit and out for a 40 min ride around town to our Scranton Region AACA clubhouse to show off the car a bit.  Tuesday nights are our "garage nights" for the club members who have issues with their cars and either need help repairing or have no idea how to repair. We have a full service garage with 4 post lift, tools,etc.

funny how the 47' brought all work to a standstill!

drove back home and how she is outside the garage and doesn't want to start.  

 

I an sti fiddli g with things on the car.  Did not get the fender skirts completed, so they will be stayin home.

 

Pray for NO rain as she doesn't have a top.

 

back to work

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Well JD, if you bring the smaller cooler and leave out the tools, spare parts, and lounge chairs, you may be able to manage with a '76 Century trunk. We went from three cars to two...too much stuff and full interiors too. 

 

Looking forward to to seeing you again my friend. 

 

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Left around 7:30 am, after saying some good-byes and rechecking everything out.  Home by 9:15.  Ran into a wicked downpouring of rain, but wasn't raining when pulled in at the house.  Car is cleaned up and back in the garage.  Had to shop vac

a little water from the carpet at the doors.  She will not go out again when rain in forcast until top is finished and hydraulics working.

 

Hope everyone arrives safely at home.

 

Matt

 

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Well, THIS was an interesting 5 days.  The Queen ran like a quartz clock with a new battery.  The only issue today was the A/C may have froze up for a while and two times we turned it off for 3 minutes, and it worked great the rest of the trip.  It even got 17 MPG on the way home.  Man, I love that car.  Other things however overshadowed the entire event.

 

On Tuesday before leaving for Allentown, I got a message that I had to update the browser on my phone.  So I followed the instructions and totally screwed up the phone.  Not much worked right except texts and phone calls.  IT also kept killing the battery extraordinarily fast.  It took me to Saturday morning to eliminate the program that I downloaded but I still can't get my e mail straightened out.  It should not have been a problem but I was counting on using the GPS feature on it and naturally that did not work. Luckily Matts phone did work very well and he lead us to the destination. Not without losing  two cars in the group, two times,  due to the extremely heavy traffic conditions in Allentown.

 

KAD36 drove down from Binghamton on Thursday, registered his car and then we got a chance to share a meal with Willie and the infamous, Mary-Ann. Lamar is right, She is a wonderful lady.  Unfortunately during the meal Ken received a call and had to leave to return home on an emergency basis. He texted me at 12:15 AM to say he gad arrived safely and the car ran great.  All I could do was wish him good luck.

 

Friday I attempted to use my laptop for the BOD meeting, and after getting the password for the Wi-Fi  on the site, something happened and screwed up my laptop.  It took almost two hours tonight to get it to open.  So I am too tired to post any pictures.  But I think I may have one or two good ones

 

Also on Friday afternoon I got a call from my home area code while on the field. I did not recognize the number but answered.  It turned out to be the wife of our Chapter Director.  She was crying and told me that our Director, Jim Jakubiak had suffered a heart attack at the hotel in Allentown that morning, and did not survive.  In addition, in the confusion during that episode, she fell and hurt her leg and back and was at the urgent care facility.  Naturally this put a huge damper on the rest of the event for all of us from our Chapter.

 

This AM I decided to cancel my own planned after tour of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park, VA. We were going to Tour with our friend Ed, with the green 67 Skylark convertible.  But he told me his car was running poorly and between that, the foul weather, these other events, and the exhausting schedule of the meet, not to mention the few beers I shared with my good friends in the Hotel parking lot,  it just seemed the prudent thing to do. 

 

In one ironic twist, I had noticed my outside passengers mirror wobbling a little and kept forgetting to tighten the attaching screw.  During the trip we stopped at a rest area a few hours into the drive.  When we left the mirror suddenly looked very loose. so I radioed Ed we had to pull over.  We missed the next exit that was right there and proceeded to the following exit.  Wouldn't it just be my luck that the exit we chose did not have an entrance to Rt 81 in our direction.  Apparently one would get off here, travel a short distance through the town and re enter the highway in our direction on the other side.   The only problem was the big crane blocking the road where the bridge to town was being replaced.  While stopped to tighten the mirror on the side of the road this truck and trailer shows up with 4 guys who offered to help but we politely declined.  Then apparently two of them had to relieve themselves.  Since I was blocked in we had to wait em out.  One of those guys must have had a bladder the size of a 61 Skylark !  Then we had to get back on the highway and drive the 5 miles back to the first exit we missed, just to turn around and get back on the road in our preferred direction.  All in all, no real problem,  just kinda funny to me I guess.

 

I sure did have a good time seeing all you folks who went.  And I'm looking forward to Wisconsin next year.  I'll try to post some pictures soon.

 

 

 

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On July 26, 2016 at 10:08 AM, MrEarl said:

maybe you mentioned elsewhere, but what are you driving?

 

and dude, when in Pennsylvania, you really should drink their beer, Americas oldest and my all season favorite.  Tip one for me :)

 

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5745500/il_fullxfull.295316413.jpg

 

 

 

 

Ohhh my, A White Verses a Ford... I'm sure the White out performed the Cheaply priced Ford for many years... Dandy Dave! 

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Ken, sorry to hear that your Allentown trip was cut short.  I hope everything is OK now...  Please let me know ahead of time if you're thinking about a trip north and need a wing man!  ;)  At a minimum we can swap lies over a couple of cold ones!

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  • 3 weeks later...

What with the various technology failures that impacted us during this Meet, I almost forgot to post the few pics I promised. Here we are headed cruising along to Jackofalltrades70's place.  Ed is obviously enjoying the hot summer sun.  Linda and I are cooling our jets inside the ice cold Queen. 

 

Allentown Road trip0001.JPG

 Cruising through Binghamton NY, Missing the opportunity to ride with KAD 36

Allentown Road trip0002.JPG

Some Southern NY landscape.

Allentown Road trip0003.JPG

A quick rest stop inside the PA Border with Ed and Ted.

Allentown Road trip0008.JPG

x

 

 

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After this we met up with Matt, grabbed a bite to eat, checked the route map and decided to take the expressway into Allentown.  I have no other pictures of the ride down cause Matt kicked up a blistering pace, and most of the time I could only see the teeny tiny blue trunk lid on his 47.  But once we got to town the heavy traffic on Rt 22 caused us to head for the back roads.  I had no idea where Matt's GPS was leading us, but we did manage to find the hotel.  After dinner we headed off to the general membership meeting.  It was my honor to give Buick Racer a ride over

Allentown Road trip0011.JPG

x

And we harassed the guys sweating it out  in front of us

Allentown Road trip0009.JPG

And we caught the last nice sunset for the next three days

 

Allentown Road trip0010.JPG

 

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Thursday I got on the field for the first time.  The parking staff was attentive.  They called your parking space number and then waved you through the site to your spot. 

DSC03043.JPG

 

Then they guided you into the spot.  I don't know about the others by my parker insisted the center of my car be over the tag on the field.  Then I had to back up till the tag showed.  That resulted in this.

 

Allentown Road trip0012.JPG

I will admit, I was scared I would get stuck in this spot if it rained.  The back bumper was just about touching the hill I'm standing on for this shot.  And the pitch of this spot was fairly steep.  Sorry folks,  I moved it forward.

 

DSC03047.JPG

 

BTW, that dark green 4 dr on my right was a super nice original car from Washington. That car had 23K on it and still had all 4 1972 T3 headlights, which are a one year bulb.   We laughed at how both our cars came from the northwest.  And how we ride in ice cold comfort while friends are sweating on the same rides. 

x

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I did post my other pictures on various threads,  so I won't bore you by repeating them,  But I was really excited to be this close to these two beauties. You would not believe the throaty sound of the exhaust from that Avista.  Come-on Buick Division... Stop teasing us and put it into production!!!  PLEASE!!!!!

 

Allentown Road trip0013.JPG

Allentown Road trip0014.JPG

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I was also excited to be close to this:

Allentown Road trip0017.JPG

 

It was really nice to see the rest of it besides the view of the trunk lid on the expressway!

 

And I was also excited to be a part of this!

Allentown Road trip0018.JPG

There were so many more of us at the Meet, I just which we could have had a better time so more forum folks could attend.   But we really couldn't have had a much better place.  Very accommodating and decent food, and Yuenglings on tap!  Yes, it was a Buickful Time!

 

Saturday was great!  The big show was just that, BIG!  until the rain came in.  I don't know if I've ever been to a National where there wasn't some storm, except maybe Concord NC.  Just to show you how hard it rained, check the gutter area of the Hospitality Suite:

 

Allentown Road trip0019.JPG

 

I was ticked off that I missed several pictures of  cars being driven off the field slowly with water splashing from all 4 wheels like 4 speedboats!  My spot?  well, as soon as the first drop came down the guy across the road from me pulled out.  That was a nice flat spot and I jumped on it before anyone else could.  No tow truck for me.  The green 4 dr moved out too. 

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Later at the banquet,

Allentown Road trip0020.JPG

 

My good friend Jerry Root, from the Syracuse NY rea, won one of the 16 awards for his 56 Special.  These are pictures from the overhead screens where the closed circuit TV gave everyone an upfront view of the proceedings.

Allentown Road trip0022.JPG

Allentown Road trip0021.JPG

 

That was exciting too.   Go Jerry!!!

 

 

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Sunday we headed home.  We were going to take another three days and drive Skyline Drive in Shenendoah National Park, VA.  But, as you may have heard, the Director of our Local Chapter suffered a heart attack at the hotel on Friday, and passed away.  That kinda took the wind out of our sails.  So we need to do that another time.

After a nice breakfast, we headed home in the sun

Allentown Road trip0023.JPG

These are some views from the US 476 PA Expressway.

 

Allentown Road trip0024.JPG

 

Allentown Road trip0025.JPG

 

Everywhere I look in this Country I am struck with awe at the gorgeous Country we live in.  It was a nice trip home.  Some rain, some sun, and then a whole lotta rain.  But we stopped at the Brooks BBQ in Oneonta NY for another over the top BBQ dinner, and afterwards just moseyed on home in the Queen! 

 

I still thank my friend Dan Cook  for selling us this awesome car! 

 

Looking forward to Wisconsin next year!!!

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I agree on the Avista...a very attractive car...that Buick has said they won't build.  Sigh.

 

Great shots John.  It really was good seeing you again this year and I'm looking forward to Wisconsin next year...not quite a day drive for us, but one of the shorter drives.

 

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The one we went through was quite well lit, so headlights didn't do much (tail lights so the folks behind see you probably more critical). I don't recall if I took my clip-ons off or not...putting them back on is a two handed operation. Leaving, I was in the passenger seat. 

 

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