Yellowknife Post 2
How it came to pass that this trip will be made in a Volvo.
And so it was that I was not meant to ride on two wheels to Yellowknife. Days and life experiences happened. I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease. I had a triple bypass in January of 1997. I was discharged from the hospital on my 41st birthday. Damn. It will eventually take my life. Modern medicine can keep me around for at another couple of decades so I am not quite ready to lay down yet. But the knowledge of it makes everything seem just a bit more urgent. If I want to do something I really need to move on it. You never know what tomorrow will bring.
It was with that sense of urgency that I started looking for a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda. I had one when I was a teenager and I wanted another one. I think what I really wanted was my youth. Short of that, a Barracuda would do, eh?
The plan was to build a rally spec car. I started hitting various internet web sites and I found one on the Edmund's web site. The price was $2800 and it was up near Tulsa. I serviced my old Chevy pickup, borrowed a tow bar, and drove to Tulsa with nothing but a phone conversation with the owner as a reassurance that it was a complete car just needing paint.
I had $2500 cash with me, intending to buy the car if it was complete and if I could get the man to come down on his price a bit. It was in pieces. The glass was removed and the trim was in a pile in the back of it. The upholstery was shot. It was not running. But it seemed to be all there. The engine was wrong; the '64 was never sold with a 318. I pointed that out to the fellow, that it wasn't original and therefore not as valuable to me nor any other collector. He seemed indignant. I pointed out a couple of rust spots and the very rough interior. The dash board had been cut for a radio. These are all things that, in my mind, made this car a #4 rather than a #3. The car was not worth the $2500 I had in my pocket, let alone the $2800 he was asking. But, I offered him $2000. He said no. I thought about it and allowed that as all the glass was present I reckon I could go to $2400. He said no. I asked what his lowest price would be. He said he posted it on Edmund's for $2800 and that is what he would take. I apologized for wasting his time and drove the six hours home.
I told you that story to tell you this one. My search for a Barracuda continued. One late night I was on eBay and was searching through all the 1964 through 1966 cars listed. One of those cars was a 1966 Volvo 122S. An Amazon. Now, I was not looking for a Volvo. I had never considered a Volvo at all. But the photograph on that eBay auction captured my attention and my imagination. The bidding was coming to a close at $1200. With no more thought than if I was buying a pair of shoes I bid $1225. The car was mine. Good-bye Barracudas. Good-bye recaptured youth.
The car did not run when I got it. I lost my job shortly after I acquired it and I thought that would be the end of any possibility of continuing the restoration on it. Since I had time on my hands, I straightened a bit of body damage on it and got it running but it was far from roadworthy. The restoration of the car is an entirely different subject that would take us too far away from the main point of the narrative; Yellowknife.
Fast Forward...
Eventually I ended up working in Houston. I talked to my wife and told her that one of the things I wanted to come of this job was to have the Volvo restored. She agreed. The resurrection of that car was long and expensive. But, eventually it became my daily driver making weekly trips between Jacksonville and Houston; 500 miles round trip. Meanwhile, my clock is ticking. I am now 52. I have burned up a decade of the few alotted to me. I want to go to Yellowknife. It is one of the few things I will ever do that has no reason other than I want to. So I started planning.
I layed out the general path I would take. I have not seen most of the Rocky Mountains. I will next month. The path meanders through the mountains in Colorado. I figured that the Dinosaur parks of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming would be worth a peek too. I will pass through Yellowstone but I don't know if I can deal with the huge influx of summer visitors long enough to actually see Old Faithful. It would be a real shame to miss it though. The planned entry into Canada will be at Glacier International Park, after traversing the Going to the Sun Highway.
It was at this point in the planning that Tyler Horne signed on for the trip. Tyler is a young man that jumped into old Volvos in a big way and needed some help to get them running. For the past year and a half I've been stopping by his place most Sunday nights to spend an hour or two work on some piddling thing or another. When he learned of my plans he all but begged to come along. I was happy to have someone to share the experience (and the expenses) with.
It was Tyler who brought up the question of what to do if the car broke really bad. Would I leave it where it was? I had thought about this but really had not dwelled on the subject. Tyler's question brought up the rather unpleasant idea of having to abandon the car that I had spent so much time, money, and effort to get back on the road. I opted for Plan B, Rev. 2: I would look for another car to use on the trip. The ideal candidate would be a Volvo wagon for less than $1000. The added space of a wagon meant that I would not have to take a trailer. A purchase price of less than $1000 meant that I could walk away from it if necessary without looking back. So, I started looking for a wagon.
Within days I found one. A 1982 Volvo 245GLT Turbo. The man was asking $500. I drove down to Clute, Texas and looked the car over. I bought it. That was six weeks ago. I have already put 3000 miles on it. It will make the trip.
There you have it. From a 1971 Harley Police Special to a 1966 Volvo 122S to 1982 Volvo wagon. The important thing all along has been the trip, not the vehicle. I would make this trip in my 1970 Chevy pickup if necessary. I would not want to; it gets about 15 MPG and gas prices continue to close in on $4/gal. I fully expect that we will pay at least $5/gal in northern Canada, maybe more.
Stay tuned. More to come.
-sd
And so it was that I was not meant to ride on two wheels to Yellowknife. Days and life experiences happened. I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease. I had a triple bypass in January of 1997. I was discharged from the hospital on my 41st birthday. Damn. It will eventually take my life. Modern medicine can keep me around for at another couple of decades so I am not quite ready to lay down yet. But the knowledge of it makes everything seem just a bit more urgent. If I want to do something I really need to move on it. You never know what tomorrow will bring.
It was with that sense of urgency that I started looking for a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda. I had one when I was a teenager and I wanted another one. I think what I really wanted was my youth. Short of that, a Barracuda would do, eh?
The plan was to build a rally spec car. I started hitting various internet web sites and I found one on the Edmund's web site. The price was $2800 and it was up near Tulsa. I serviced my old Chevy pickup, borrowed a tow bar, and drove to Tulsa with nothing but a phone conversation with the owner as a reassurance that it was a complete car just needing paint.
I had $2500 cash with me, intending to buy the car if it was complete and if I could get the man to come down on his price a bit. It was in pieces. The glass was removed and the trim was in a pile in the back of it. The upholstery was shot. It was not running. But it seemed to be all there. The engine was wrong; the '64 was never sold with a 318. I pointed that out to the fellow, that it wasn't original and therefore not as valuable to me nor any other collector. He seemed indignant. I pointed out a couple of rust spots and the very rough interior. The dash board had been cut for a radio. These are all things that, in my mind, made this car a #4 rather than a #3. The car was not worth the $2500 I had in my pocket, let alone the $2800 he was asking. But, I offered him $2000. He said no. I thought about it and allowed that as all the glass was present I reckon I could go to $2400. He said no. I asked what his lowest price would be. He said he posted it on Edmund's for $2800 and that is what he would take. I apologized for wasting his time and drove the six hours home.
I told you that story to tell you this one. My search for a Barracuda continued. One late night I was on eBay and was searching through all the 1964 through 1966 cars listed. One of those cars was a 1966 Volvo 122S. An Amazon. Now, I was not looking for a Volvo. I had never considered a Volvo at all. But the photograph on that eBay auction captured my attention and my imagination. The bidding was coming to a close at $1200. With no more thought than if I was buying a pair of shoes I bid $1225. The car was mine. Good-bye Barracudas. Good-bye recaptured youth.
The car did not run when I got it. I lost my job shortly after I acquired it and I thought that would be the end of any possibility of continuing the restoration on it. Since I had time on my hands, I straightened a bit of body damage on it and got it running but it was far from roadworthy. The restoration of the car is an entirely different subject that would take us too far away from the main point of the narrative; Yellowknife.
Fast Forward...
Eventually I ended up working in Houston. I talked to my wife and told her that one of the things I wanted to come of this job was to have the Volvo restored. She agreed. The resurrection of that car was long and expensive. But, eventually it became my daily driver making weekly trips between Jacksonville and Houston; 500 miles round trip. Meanwhile, my clock is ticking. I am now 52. I have burned up a decade of the few alotted to me. I want to go to Yellowknife. It is one of the few things I will ever do that has no reason other than I want to. So I started planning.
I layed out the general path I would take. I have not seen most of the Rocky Mountains. I will next month. The path meanders through the mountains in Colorado. I figured that the Dinosaur parks of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming would be worth a peek too. I will pass through Yellowstone but I don't know if I can deal with the huge influx of summer visitors long enough to actually see Old Faithful. It would be a real shame to miss it though. The planned entry into Canada will be at Glacier International Park, after traversing the Going to the Sun Highway.
It was at this point in the planning that Tyler Horne signed on for the trip. Tyler is a young man that jumped into old Volvos in a big way and needed some help to get them running. For the past year and a half I've been stopping by his place most Sunday nights to spend an hour or two work on some piddling thing or another. When he learned of my plans he all but begged to come along. I was happy to have someone to share the experience (and the expenses) with.
It was Tyler who brought up the question of what to do if the car broke really bad. Would I leave it where it was? I had thought about this but really had not dwelled on the subject. Tyler's question brought up the rather unpleasant idea of having to abandon the car that I had spent so much time, money, and effort to get back on the road. I opted for Plan B, Rev. 2: I would look for another car to use on the trip. The ideal candidate would be a Volvo wagon for less than $1000. The added space of a wagon meant that I would not have to take a trailer. A purchase price of less than $1000 meant that I could walk away from it if necessary without looking back. So, I started looking for a wagon.
Within days I found one. A 1982 Volvo 245GLT Turbo. The man was asking $500. I drove down to Clute, Texas and looked the car over. I bought it. That was six weeks ago. I have already put 3000 miles on it. It will make the trip.
There you have it. From a 1971 Harley Police Special to a 1966 Volvo 122S to 1982 Volvo wagon. The important thing all along has been the trip, not the vehicle. I would make this trip in my 1970 Chevy pickup if necessary. I would not want to; it gets about 15 MPG and gas prices continue to close in on $4/gal. I fully expect that we will pay at least $5/gal in northern Canada, maybe more.
Stay tuned. More to come.
-sd
posted by sdewolfe at
7:39 AM
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