Heading south tomorrow - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

t walgamuth · #1 12-09-2011, 10:36 PM

I will be delivering the black euro 123 interior to Ngarover in Chatanooga, then continuing on to Milton near Pensacola Bay to visit the Son and his lovely wife and three hell raising grandsons (twins that are 3 and a 5 year old).

I spent most of the day rounding up stuff, cleaning, loading and tarping it all. Also had to find a few parts for the tow bar setup. Then went to an early Christmas open house and out to eat with the lovely Mrs. W.

I will be there about a week and will help do some work around the house, visit, and on Wednesday will go over to Davenport to pick up Pancakes from TheDon. Back to Milton for a few more days then back home in time to Christmas shop.

I will be flat towing the 240d with my 03 Dodge diesel to avoid the fuel economy penalty of a large trailer. I am hoping to get about the same fuel economy towing as running without it.

So I am loaded down with seats, tools and misc parts. I feel like Santa!

The truck is tarped down and waiting faithfully for an early start.

G'night!

E150GT · #2 12-10-2011, 12:19 AM

Have a safe trip!

Jim B. · #3 12-10-2011, 03:16 AM

Have fun!

And please if possible, post up a few pic's for us to enjoy on here, if there is time along the way...

t walgamuth · #4 12-10-2011, 05:03 AM

I'm off.

God, how I love a winter road trip!

MS Fowler · #5 12-10-2011, 07:29 PM

I am looking forward to your Peter Egan-esh report on your trip.
Hope nothing MAJOR goes wrong. You need minor obstacles to surmount and report about.

Can't Know · #6 12-11-2011, 02:24 AM

Have a great trip and keep an eye out for the crazies!

The Clk Man · #7 12-11-2011, 12:37 PM

Be safe my man.

t walgamuth · #8 12-11-2011, 06:34 PM

Yesterday was a lovely day for traveiling.....sunny and crisp when I left. I made decent time and was supposed to call Ngrover when I was near the rondeveax point....but unfortunately as I got nearer apparently his cell phone was apparently dead. So I did not have his address or a land line to resort to....so I called the lovely Mrs. W and asked her to get his address from the paypal. this she did and I got off and began searching for the sleeply little town where he lives .

I eventually found Rising Fawn (it is in Georgia....just). So I went into the depot diner and asked directions from a lovely fifty something lady with a equally lovely Georgianear drawl. She directed my to Ngrover's street.

So I meandered out that way and found his street. Turning up the hill, I found his A frame with three Mercedes, a Winnebago lesharo and a Ford f350 diesel..

I will just take a minute and mention that this is lovely country here with rolling hills, switchbacks in the road and his house has spectacular views across the valley. This valley contains the interstate, 59, a railroad,a river and the local roads and some villages and homes.

I pulled the big dodge up within ten or twelve feet of his front door and let it idle. I knocked on the door and soon he appeared. Before looking at the seats we did a tour of his black wagon, and his LeSharo, which he is swapping in a Buick Supercharged 3.8 engine into. the Wagon looks as clean in person as in the pictures but the drivers seat is a Palimino, hence the need for my black seats.

We had a nice conversation about his lovely rust free 85 coupe too, then unloaded the seats and in less than an hour I was back on the interstate.

Everything went well until about nine oclock when I was just coming into the northwest corner of Florida and missed my turn from US 31 onto US 41. by the time I realized my mistake I was 30 miles west of where I was supposed to be.

But all in all I had a great day and arrived about two hours later than I might have had everything went by the book. If it had, though I would have missed his house and collection.

Today we got up, had a breakfast that could not be beat and went to their church. My lovely DIL sang in the choir. It is one of those new style churches in which there is lots of singing with the words on a screen up front.

After church we went to a Japanese Hibatchi restaurant where they cook it all in front of you and do a lot of fancy stuff with the spatula and fork. I had fried scallops and fried rice and sat between my grandsons and had a wonderful time.

When we got back to the house the grandsons took their bikes and we walked down to the Bayou and poked around everything inbetween. My grandsons picked up little fiddler crabs to show me.

We also explored everything along the way and picked some wild Holley and Blueberry branches along the way and took it back to the house for decoration. I thought of how I love to find Mistletoe up in the trees in the south and began looking for some to point out to my son but most of the trees are pine and we came up empty on that.

My son is now fixing Spagetti and here I am.

Tomorrow I will try to hang two new doors for them.

Then Tuesday I will pick up the #2 Grandson from his school and we will head over to Davenport to meet Joe (TheDon) and pick up his 82 240D Pancakes on Wednesday. We will be taking the back roads and stopping for each place advertising stuffed bears, tame aligators, fresh oranges, etc along the way.

A great adventure!

MS Fowler · #9 12-11-2011, 06:40 PM

^^^ Nice trip.

kerry · #10 12-11-2011, 11:11 PM

Keep up the travelogue. It's too bad that Winnebago chose that Renault chassis for the LeSharo. It gave a bad name to 4 cylinder diesel motorhomes in the US. I wonder if they tried to negotiate with MB for the 307d vans before settling for the Renault. It may have been even better to go with the Fiat diesel vans.
There's a small boat event that takes place down that way every May called the Florida 120. I'd like to participate in that some day.

Air&Road · #11 12-12-2011, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I will be delivering the black euro 123 interior to Ngarover in Chatanooga, then continuing on to Milton near Pensacola Bay to visit the Son and his lovely wife and three hell raising grandsons (twins that are 3 and a 5 year old).

I spent most of the day rounding up stuff, cleaning, loading and tarping it all. Also had to find a few parts for the tow bar setup. Then went to an early Christmas open house and out to eat with the lovely Mrs. W.

I will be there about a week and will help do some work around the house, visit, and on Wednesday will go over to Davenport to pick up Pancakes from TheDon. Back to Milton for a few more days then back home in time to Christmas shop.

I will be flat towing the 240d with my 03 Dodge diesel to avoid the fuel economy penalty of a large trailer. I am hoping to get about the same fuel economy towing as running without it.

So I am loaded down with seats, tools and misc parts. I feel like Santa!

The truck is tarped down and waiting faithfully for an early start.

G'night!

Have a safe trip. I hope you disconnected the driveshaft on the towed vehicle.

t walgamuth · #12 12-12-2011, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LarryBible

Have a safe trip. I hope you disconnected the driveshaft on the towed vehicle.

Since it is a stick I was planning to just put it in neutral and go. Disconnecting the ds on a benz is not the easiest thing to do.

t walgamuth · #13 12-12-2011, 02:53 PM

On saturday night after a long day at the wheel and getting lost in Northwest Florida I was nearly to my son's house but in a rural area when I came upon a small group of deer. Of course they all just stood and stared at me. Luckily I had time to veer left a bit to miss the one in my lane. Perhaps I was punchy from my long day at the wheel which began at 4:15 am but I could swear they were tiny antlered reindeer looking for Santa to hook up.....

t walgamuth · #14 12-12-2011, 03:00 PM

Sunday evening after dinner I had brought along presents for the grandsons from my Lovely Daughter #2 in Lafayette and from the Lovely Mrs. W and myself. Since the presents were in those fancy bags with handles I received permission from the Mrs. to let the boys open them.

The bags from my daughter contained a foam sword for one of the boys and foam battle axes for the other two. My proudest moment was when the number three grandson opened his bag and found the sword. Having some premonition it might be in there I was very impressed with his move....he pulled the sword from the bag and in one smooth swift motion went right into a decapitation move on his nearest brother!

Naturally the boys (four year old twins and a six year old) battled with the
foam weapons of destruction until the weapons started coming apart!

Next they turned to the Cars, the movie garages, stores, etc. until they were run off to bed.

Grandsons are a hoot!

Air&Road · #15 12-12-2011, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

Since it is a stick I was planning to just put it in neutral and go. Disconnecting the ds on a benz is not the easiest thing to do.

Tom,

Sticks don't take well to long distance towing with the trans in neutral either. I have heard mixed reviews, but I've always dropped the driveshaft. Sinc it has no slip yoke, you might be okay.

Good luck and enjoy your cruising.