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OT - Roadtrip!

DrEntropy

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That Benz V-8 is thirsty. But its legs are really l o n g! :wink:
 
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tdskip

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Looks like 40 minutes or so to Walla Walla. Took 95 down to Lewiston, then 12 west to Washington. Surprisingly hilly, very hot, and dry. Pictures when I find a Starbucks.
 

TR3driver

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tdskip said:
11.5 MPH at average of 70 MPG. Yikes.

Ok, I'll bite ... why are you driving so slow? Just to get 70 miles per gallon?

:jester:
 
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tdskip

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Pictures down 95 to 12 into Walla Walla.

Great roads, simply great. Very pretty country and I now know where all of wheat comes from.

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DrEntropy

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[quote-Tom] all of wheat comes from. [/quote]

Ya ain't been thru Kansas yet.
grin.gif
:jester:
 

AngliaGT

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Tom,

You should have let me know ahead of time-
you could have dropped off the Berlina on the way up.
You need to do the proper thing,& drive down the
Oregon/California coast.

- Doug
 
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tdskip

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OK - some random thoughts now that I have an Heirloom Tomato salad in me.

When they say that eastern WA is really dry and hot, they actually mean it is really dry and hot. High desert - very cool, er, hot.

Her driver's manual says 350SL, and lists engine capacity as 4.5 liters.

She doesn't like to down shift much, but then again it is rarely needed.

She generates a LOT of heat.

Really likes cooler air at night, noticeably happier at speed.

She generates a LOT of heat.

She handles well enough to have saved a snake despite my motoring at a good clip.

Industrial scale wheat harvesting doesn't do good things for air quality.

Never pass up good gas in north central OR. Never.

Did I mention she generates a LOT of heat.

Route 19 to 218 is simply fantastic. Fantastic. So long as you don't pass up good gas before you get there.

If you pass good gas right off the 84 you will have an urge to hug the gas station attendant in Fossil OR. Don't do that - he'll think it is weird. Give him a tip instead, he'll like that.

Merc isn't effortless, you can feel the engine pushing the mass forward, but it makes that effort seem effortless. Yes, that makes sense but probably only to SL owners.

Really big steering wheels are cool.

Downtown Bend is worth the trip even if it were not on the way.

Anyone know how to get power to the cigarette lighter so I can listen to Sirius?

darn, Mercedes built these well.

Popping the hood when you stop for makes starting her a lot easier. Probably because she generates a lot of heat. Did I mention that?

Pictures to follow.
 

mrv8q

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Are you driving with the top down? How many miles on this ol' gal?
 
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tdskip

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mrv8q said:
Are you driving with the top down? How many miles on this ol' gal?

I wish - I have the hard top on since I didn't want to pay to ship it separately. Probably not a bad thing in mid-day sun however, but then again when the climate control got stuck on super nuclear hot today was a tad toasty.
 
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tdskip

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These are off Route 19 and 218 in OR, no pictures of the twisty bits since they were, um, twisty. Also no sense of the elevation changes or the roads being banked in parts. You really need to drive this section.

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And finally 97 into Bend

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tdskip

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Made it to Redding CA, nice to know I can get gas at 5 AM now unlike OR. Not that I forgot to gas up and tried to get gas at 5 AM in OR outside Bend. I mean really, who is that dense?

Had a nice chat with a Shasta CHP member who was exceptional pleasant and citizen oriented. Seriously, he was just great. I had my finger on my ear so I could ear my one ear bud and he thought it was a cell phone. 5 minutes later and I'm off with a renewed appreciation for how consistently nice CHP is.
 

angelfj1

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tdskip said:
For those that track or care about such things I picked up another member of the fleet, or should say I am about to. She is the 917th Mercedes 350 SL built, so early they didn't tag her as a 450 actually. The car is in WA and I'll be driving her to my in-laws in greater Sacramento over the weekend.

5Nb5E15P03Eb3F73Jec7j8b868d45dab319e4.jpg


Photos and updates from the road if anyone gives a hoot.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

very nice - enjoy in good health & safety!
 
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tdskip

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Thanks Frank - made it to my in-laws just now so the trip is over. She made it. Kinda going through the "OK, now what" phase.
 
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tdskip

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OK - to close the trip out here are the last set of road pictures.

Some random guy heading out of Bend at 6 AM today in an old Mercedes;

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Into Klamath Falls;

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Klamathlake6.jpg
 
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tdskip

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Into California

DorrisCA.jpg


Shasta.jpg


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Shasta4.jpg


Redding.jpg


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intoRedding2.jpg


Not as many pictures today as the drive, well, just wasn't that interesting compared to yesterday.

What was interesting is that I had a chance to catch up a bit with Pat - he's done some great work on his TR3.
 

DrEntropy

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Did you get the climate control thingie working? If it goes to full hot again spontaneously, check and clean the two electrical contacts on the by-pass solenoid. It should be on the firewall, under-hood, black cylinder lookin' widget, heater hose attached. The plug/contacts tend to get corroded, the ground side in particular. The normal state for the solenoid is "open" and with poor contact electrically you get hot water thru the matrix.

HTH!
 
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tdskip

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DrEntropy said:
Did you get the climate control thingie working? If it goes to full hot again spontaneously, check and clean the two electrical contacts on the by-pass solenoid. It should be on the firewall, under-hood, black cylinder lookin' widget, heater hose attached. The plug/contacts tend to get corroded, the ground side in particular. The normal state for the solenoid is "open" and with poor contact electrically you get hot water thru the matrix.

HTH!

Hi Doc - thanks for the note. I did get it working, more or less. I am now able to get heat when I want (morning or when engine temp starts to creep upwards and turn it off when I want. Usually. These are a known fiddly area on these as it turns out, and I'll check out the contacts as suggested above.

Thanks again!
 
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