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I just did a road trip through the Okanogan and a lot of western Washington. We spent five days tooling around mostly driving. We stopped for food and a little sightseeing but mostly it was driving and taking in the scenery. We tried to take the road less traveled when we could. We drove down one side of the 97 and took the 97 ALT on the way back. We went to Levinsworth, then down to Rosyln, across to Edinburg, then back up to I can't even remember. Then we went West on the north part of the Cascade loop, down into Everett to go to the Boeing tour(they were sold out for two days, bummer). Then we took the Muklteo ferry onto Woodby island. There was more but I can't remember every place right now. We stayed the night in Anacortes then caught the ferry to Victoria and drove home that night on the Port Renfrew highway. That was by far the worst road of the trip, do not drive that road in your Corvette. We drove it last year and it wasn't bad but its beat to hell now and a lot of it is just washboard. We got home that night at 1:30 AM.
I think I averaged about 20 miles to the gallon with a TKO 500 five speed. Most of the fill ups I got 22 but a couple I was driving it harder so I got about 18. I was surprised how well it pulled in fifth gear on hills. I didn't have one single problem the whole way. Nothing, no malfunctions of any kind and the stock seats were really comfortable. Over all it was a great trip and we saw some nice scenery. I drove the whole way in my bare feet and it was great....lol
I had a GoPro on the dash the whole way and we are trying to make a time laps video of the trip but its taking some time.
For now here are some pics.
Getting off the ferry in Vancouver with our travel buddy
Hi 73S,
Like the car!
Like the blackwalls!
Like the scenery!
I bet you'll forget about the bugs pretty quickly but will remember the drive!
Thanks for the pictures!
Regards,
Alan
Picture #5… butte?, mesa?, plateau?
I don't think I see these in Maryland!
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C1 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2017 Corvette of the Year Finalist
2016 C2 of Year
2015 C3 of Year Finalist
Looks like a great road trip To me there is nothing greater than a road trip in a Corvette. I did the Route 66 trip a few years ago. I did 7,400 miles in 3 1/2 weeks. I will never forget it.
Thanks for the reply everyone. It was a lot of fun and we will probably do some more trips with it. You really feel like your back in time in one of these cars. This is how people use to travel before heated seats and on star. I really enjoyed it, even when it was roasting hot and I was sweating....lol
An 80s replica? Not sure what this guy was thinking.
Very cool!! Thanks for posting your trip. C3's are great cars, thanks for proving it. Its been over 30 years since I've been on Vancouver Island, it is magical for sure, I used to have a lady friend in Duncan I was quite fond of. Mike
You really feel like your back in time in one of these cars. This is how people use to travel before heated seats and on star. I really enjoyed it, even when it was roasting hot and I was sweating....lol
Get out and drive them!!!
We did a couple of long trips in my 73.
About 3000 miles in a week on the Hotrod Power Tour 2014 and then again 2000 miles in a week last year - but the last 25 were on a flatbed!!!
We enjoyed the heck out of it- took weeks to wipe the smile off my face!!!
Levinsworth, then down to Rosyln, across to Edinburg --->8--- Muklteo ferry onto Woodby island ---8<---
Hope you don't mind me trying to correct place name spellings:
Leavenworth, Ellensburg and Mukilteo, Whidbey is what I think you were probably talking about.
I haven't lived in the area of Sea-Tac since 1985, only visit family now. Some of those ferries are getting very old.
The "butte" picture mentioned is probably part of the scablands from when the ice age glaciers melted and flash flooded central Washington.
Loved that Washington was so diverse, just hated the cool cloudy drizzly weather most of the year between Seattle and Tacoma. And crowded roadways has been incredibly bad there for years and years.
Surprised you didn't say anything about that after driving through Everett.
Great to see the pictures.
edit: Seeing the car show pictures just now, 25 miles out of 5000 is a lot of road time.
My dad (who worked at Boeing Aerospace in Washington, retired from here 20 years ago) had called while I was writing this because he was watching an auction on TV. Wanted to tell me a "restored" 2000 Corvette sold for only $1700 and thought my car wasn't going to be worth anything soon so I should probably sell it. I take his advice with a grain of salt, he's 83 years old and likes his nightly drink of Scotch.
Last edited by LongRoadHome; 07-25-2016 at 09:26 PM.
Hey thats what these things were meant to do....drive.
Looks like you had some fun, took some great pics (I'm sure there are many more) and snooped around the odd bone yard, I see your a true gearhead.
I did a trip like this last year and just loved it....another is in my future.
Hope you don't mind me trying to correct place name spellings:
Leavenworth, Ellensburg and Mukilteo, Whidbey is what I think you were probably talking about.
I haven't lived in the area of Sea-Tac since 1985, only visit family now. Some of those ferries are getting very old.
The "butte" picture mentioned is probably part of the scablands from when the ice age glaciers melted and flash flooded central Washington.
Loved that Washington was so diverse, just hated the cool cloudy drizzly weather most of the year between Seattle and Tacoma. And crowded roadways has been incredibly bad there for years and years.
Surprised you didn't say anything about that after driving through Everett.
Great to see the pictures.
edit: Seeing the car show pictures just now, 25 miles out of 5000 is a lot of road time.
My dad (who worked at Boeing Aerospace in Washington, retired from here 20 years ago) had called while I was writing this because he was watching an auction on TV. Wanted to tell me a "restored" 2000 Corvette sold for only $1700 and thought my car wasn't going to be worth anything soon so I should probably sell it. I take his advice with a grain of salt, he's 83 years old and likes his nightly drink of Scotch.
Thanks for the corrections, we went so many places I can't even remember half of the names. We made a GoPro diary and the start of every video I'm saying ,"where are we? where are we going again." We didn't really have a game plan we were just driving around for a week. It was lots of fun. I do remember Charlene saying something about a flash flood and something about a glacier. The rock around there looks a lot like volcanic rock. It was pretty amazing country. I think that was right after the coleville reservation.
Yes Everette sucked! I didn't want to be negative but since you mentioned it, the roads were terrible. I had to be on the ball, the car wanted to wander all over the place because of the ruts in the highways. The traffic was miserable and it was hot as ***** in the car. Coming out of the mountains and into that traffic was a shock. It was all part of the expierience though. I was bummed I didn't get to see th Boeing tour. Charlene was as well, we love those sorts of things. She's a bit of a gear head as well.
Originally Posted by sstocker31
Hey thats what these things were meant to do....drive.
Looks like you had some fun, took some great pics (I'm sure there are many more) and snooped around the odd bone yard, I see your a true gearhead.
I did a trip like this last year and just loved it....another is in my future.
Two thumbs up to you..
Thanks you, I have a ton of pics but I just posted the ones with the car in them cause this is the corvette forum after all...lol
I am a gear head and Charlene is as well, we tried to get pictures of all the cool and weird cars we saw along the way. I have a motorcycle sickness to go along with my Corvette obsession so I've really got the curse. It keeps me busy though.
Originally Posted by Richard454
Get out and drive them!!!
We did a couple of long trips in my 73.
About 3000 miles in a week on the Hotrod Power Tour 2014 and then again 2000 miles in a week last year - but the last 25 were on a flatbed!!!
We enjoyed the heck out of it- took weeks to wipe the smile off my face!!!
Hey Richard, love your 73 and that other car you're building the interior in. I really like the old Lamborghini motif you're doing. Killer work man, I follow that thread and love to see the pics. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.
I saw your thread about the hot rod tour. These cars aren't as unreliable as people want us to believe. They are really simple once you know how things work. I took some tools with me but I never need them. I did notice the brakes getting a bit soft when I as in Everette but it was super hot and I had to use them a lot. After a few minutes of laying off of them they came right back. I never heated up and it never missed a beat. I did have a vibration before I left and I think it got a bit worse. I found out my back wheels are not totally round. One is way out of sac apparently so I figure that is probably the problem. I ordered two new ones today, Cragar makes them now....who knew?
The vehicle is always a big part of travel fun. I wouldn't expect my Corvette to be the best choice but must be interesting to sightsee from. Most I've done is 50 miles out to a car show and 50 back.
I get it about the motorcycle thing too.
I never got a chance to ride a motorcycle around western Washington much but did manage to get near Mount St. Helens after the May 18 1980 eruption.
Got caught in a wind-driven ash storm on my way back home by way of Chehalis where people were shoveling the ash off roofs and that little 100cc Yamaha didn't survive it. Or rather, I just never got around to rebuilding the carburetor and engine before moving here.
07-25-2016, 02:59 PM
1600 miles in 5 days with a 73 Corvette
To me there is nothing greater than a road trip in a Corvette. I did the Route 66 trip a few years ago. I did 7,400 miles in 3 1/2 weeks. I will never forget it. 
DSCN4333 by Richard Hayes, on Flickr
DSCN4362 by Richard Hayes, on Flickr
IMG_01331 by Richard Hayes, on Flickr
