The Steamtug Blog

When I was just a school kid, all I wanted when I grew up was a Chev Corvette. So when I came to the USA with no money, all I could afford was a 40 year old car… so I bought that old Corvette and furfilled my boyhood dream. And after months of fiddling with this n that, she was ready for a 2000 mile adventure to see the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder if I should also plan a trip to California to see the Pacific Ocean?

The destination was Savannah Georgia. I have never heard of this place, but Bee had entered a bikini girl competition there and after a lot of convincing, she agreed to let me drive her in a 40 year old bomb! After all, it was only 14 hours each way.

I pulled apart lots of things, rebuilt the distributor and found the mechanical advance mechanism was stiff and not sure if it worked, and the vacuum advance was just leaking air and not advancing. So fixing these 2 problems that I wasn’t even aware of, made her a different car… now she goes like shit through a pelican! And I even got 16 mpg if I drove her carefully. I checked oil levels in the diff and gearbox which is not over full and leaks a little… and all seemed to be ok. But a high speed burst up to 110mph (because you can…) late in the night on the first leg out of Louisiana shook loose a universal joint that squeeked and rattled at 72 mph. So I just drove her at 68 mph, and although everyone passed me, the rattle n hum had healed up by the time we got back home.

We covered Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida! He went to the Tybee Island lighthouse on the East coast of Georgia, Jax Beach in Jacksonville Florida, Pensacola Lighthouse in Alabama and the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile.

I thought back at some of the songs written about the Southern United States and realised that we….

passed over the bridges of Madison country, went over the Suwanee River singing “how I love ya, my dear old Suwanee” and thought about the old folks at home and even crossed the Tallahassee bridge!

And the bikini competition? Well my eyes got a good work out looking at so many beautiful bodies. And Bee got 4th place!!!! Not bad huh…. Goes with the 3rd place she got in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a few months back. We celebrated after the competition with beer since she was again allowed to drink one!