leaving tomorrow for a week long road trip up through new england and into canada. a ford excursion will be flogged the entire way. plenty of off road action (yes, with the 24's) along the way and hopefully broken parts/hilarity will ensue. if there is any catastrophic failure, it's getting left there.

anyway, this will be my thread to document the journey with pics and commentary.

i'll start it off right with an excellent quality phone pic of the rig. i've spent most of the day getting it prepared for the 4-5k miles it will see. everything is as well as it can be and plenty of supplies, tools, etc. on board. all that's left is putting the grill back on with the new billet center (it's assembled with driving lights behind it, just have to screw it back on) and load a few more things. i might give it a half ass wash too, or at least the rimzzz. dunno. off to md in the morning to stay with Igor tomorrow night, w00t.



[Edited on April 23, 2009 at 12:47 AM. Reason : angel eyes, so euro!]

4/23/2009 12:46:03 AM

damn, I wish I have the time/money to go on as many road trips as you do.

4/23/2009 1:04:23 AM

i wouldn't trade them for the world. it's definitely meant some sacrifices in money and jobs, but well worth it to me. i refuse to be one of those people that gets to retirement age and is like "damn, wish i'd done things different".

4/23/2009 1:19:01 AM

well you're over halfway to retirement age, but what are you retiring from?

4/23/2009 2:35:14 AM

W00t we gon have to kick off this epic event with some PBR-fueled redneckery and scooter burnouts

4/23/2009 8:57:57 AM

4/23/2009 9:00:05 AM

^^^ha, as little as possible. i'd like to think i'm over halfway there too.

^^ i'll holla at you in an hour or so.

truck is as ready as it will ever be. i'm glad it takes trips like this to force me to do routine maintinance and finish the mods that i only got halfway through. just need to load a couple more things and i'm up out.


[Edited on April 23, 2009 at 11:01 AM. Reason : hell has frozen over, i'm on schedule for once]

4/23/2009 10:59:00 AM

I do not envy the gas bills that you will have by the time your trip is over.

Sounds like it'll be a blast though

4/23/2009 1:14:45 PM

Stage 1 complete. Scooters, fireworks, and cops were involved WV strippers will have to wait till next time

4/24/2009 6:46:06 AM

this would be the best time to road trip in an Excursion actually. Gas prices haven't shot up too much but the weather has improved.

4/24/2009 2:31:09 PM

made it to boston. went to gettysburg today and nyc. started the trip off solid with a speeding ticket in va yesterday and then a nice chat with md cops about fireworks last night. i'll post some pics and stuff later, i'm worn out.

^^^it's actually not that bad for what it is. if i drive like a sane person, it gets 13-14mpg. flogging it results in a solid 10mpg. consider it's got heavy ass 24's also (~33" diameter tires).

[Edited on April 24, 2009 at 11:43 PM. Reason : .]

4/24/2009 11:42:15 PM

Man, you do the craziest shit with random cars it seems. Like running the jeep liberty wide-open on the salt flats.

Why the comments about more or less destroying this truck on the trip? I mean, did you get this truck on the cheap, or is it just something you inherited and want to have a little fun with.

4/24/2009 11:54:44 PM

^ dude, he's not a gayrager for nothing.

4/24/2009 11:58:19 PM

fucking mexican

[Edited on April 25, 2009 at 12:19 AM. Reason : lol]

4/25/2009 12:19:28 AM

^^^ yeah, i like playing with cars, and i like taking roadtrips and experiencing all kinds of stuff, and I understand that broken parts and so on are part of the game, but I at least try not to destroy my stuff, haha.

4/25/2009 4:29:28 PM

damn I'm jealous... next time take me with you!!!!!!!!
sounds like you've already had enough fun to make it worth the drive

4/25/2009 6:09:18 PM

Quote :

"damn I'm jealous... next time take me with you!!!!!!!! "

FOR REAL

thanks for the call bruh

4/25/2009 7:45:07 PM

any updates?

4/26/2009 5:19:59 PM

yeah, the bitch caught on fire yesterday, lol. i was going through a stretch of deep sand out on cape cod, working it pretty hard. transmission overheated and started puking fluid from the front seal (common issue with the 4r100's, my f350 will do it too). the crossover pipe from the driver side exhaust manifold runs right under the bellhousing. when the fluid hit it, it caught fire. i jumped out and threw a few handfuls of sand at it and it went out.

Quote :

"Why the comments about more or less destroying this truck on the trip?"

oh, i don't really try to break things on purpose. it just kind of always invariably happens... better to laugh and joke about it than get upset.

4/26/2009 5:49:56 PM

Quote :

"oh, i don't really try to break things on purpose. it just kind of always invariably happens... better to laugh and joke about it than get upset."

Words to live by here!

I feel the same way

4/26/2009 5:55:30 PM

okay, a few pics.


gettysburg, pa.







lincoln tunnel going into nyc.




times square








flexible bus being towed. it takes some skillz to maneuver all that around nyc. right after that, two dudes rolled by on dirt bikes wheels up.they were out of site before i could get a pic though.




rollin through da bronx.




aston martin in ct.







[Edited on April 26, 2009 at 6:40 PM. Reason : .]

4/26/2009 6:28:57 PM

werd

4/26/2009 9:49:09 PM

BONJOUR DE MONTREAL

off to quebec tomorrow. i'll post more pics later, my connection here sucks and uploading them would take forever.

4/28/2009 1:44:26 AM

this looks like a fucking awesome trip

4/28/2009 4:12:00 PM

okay, back in boston now. put in some serious time under the wheel today.

i got tagged with a speed camera in a little town just north of the border this afternoon doing ~30kph over. if they even send anything, best of luck to those french bastards getting a dime unless they would like to extradite me.

the poor truck took a beating today on lots of roads that haven't been patched up from winter as well as running some mining/logging trails in northern maine. it'll be a miracle if all 4 rims aren't bent or cracked.

the public reactions to it in the downtown areas of montreal and quebec were hilarious. people acted like they were seeing a spaceship. 99% of them seem to drive compacts/hybrids/ev's. even a lot of the buses are mini sized.

i'm going to try and get some pics up in a bit...

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 12:17 AM. Reason : .]

4/29/2009 12:16:25 AM

northeastern sae baja









beach/dune wheelin out on cape cod







downtown boston






somewhere in vermont







canadian customs






canadian sunset







montreal









st. lawrence river






somewhere between montreal and quebec city






downtown quebec










u.s. customs






just across the border into maine







random trail in maine






still lots of snow left in spots




[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 1:37 AM. Reason : .]

4/29/2009 1:31:29 AM

you're a crazy fucker

..i'm jeaous

4/29/2009 11:09:43 AM

goin wheelin' on some old canadian shit FTW bruah






[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 6:45 PM. Reason : lol.]

4/29/2009 6:44:13 PM

joel... thx for pissing off my computer

4/29/2009 10:01:20 PM

dickwad

4/29/2009 10:06:06 PM

adblocked

4/29/2009 10:08:05 PM

DO NOT WANT

4/29/2009 10:13:49 PM

^^^^^lol, yeah i was going to pull farther out there and really hang it out but i figured ~7500lb. truck + old canadian shit = not a good idea. with my luck, the damn thing would have crumbled.

got back to raleigh last night. made pretty good time, only took me about 10.5 hours from boston to raleigh and that included sitting in some rush hour traffic through nyc. damn speed limiter held me back some (96mph according to gps).





overall, another fun trip. the totals over 6 days were 12 states visited, one canadian province, and about 3300 miles traveled. i had hoped to do a little more, mainly in terms of some more off road trails, but i ended up having to come back a day early. i'm sure i'll be back up that way again though, i plan to do novia scotia and newfoundland at some point.

[Edited on May 1, 2009 at 2:03 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on May 1, 2009 at 2:09 AM. Reason : .]

5/1/2009 2:01:38 AM

dammit ivan, takes 15 min to load this damn page now

5/2/2009 5:47:28 PM

yeah, i forgot you're out there in bfe, tn using cans and string.

5/2/2009 9:14:46 PM

nice trip bro. sounds like you had an awesome time. u crush any canadian pussy?

5/2/2009 10:40:49 PM

i have yet to meet a hot canadian chick, some bwnable, but none i would consider hot

5/3/2009 5:30:52 PM

When I was in Montreal I couldn't help but not run into hot Canadian chicks.

5/3/2009 9:59:41 PM

yeah, there were definitely plenty of hot girls in montreal. especially around mcgill university. that area of canada is pretty different from the central/western provinces though due to the heavy french influence.

the scenery in boston was impressive as well. quite an improvement over the last time i was there a few years ago for some reason.

[Edited on May 4, 2009 at 12:13 AM. Reason : .]

5/4/2009 12:11:46 AM

the key question is, did you bang any canadian chaicks, and did they go EH EH EH EH EH EH

5/5/2009 11:07:48 AM