Carl's Econo

Sunday; 13 Econolines headed from camping area C over to the museum for the day. On the way we stopped at the Rockerfeller Center for a photo shoot:

All of us at the show and shine:

On the way home Tuesday. We caravaned with the McNairs (of McNair McMuffin fame! )


The van travelled flawlessly for 1140 miles. Towed the camper between 65 and 70 (on the flat roads, sometimes a little faster downhill!) and averaged a little over 12mpg.

Excellent! Awesome time!!!

Looks like a great time had by all.Great gathering of Econo's.And thanks for sharin your road trip with us Carl.

Thank you for all the great pictures, glad you had a fun & safe trip

Awesome picture's Carl!!! Van looks great too...

Yep, That's them yella belly Texans for sure. LOL. Great pictures of a wonderful meet. Proud to have Texans for neighbors!! Can't wait till next year.

And here's proof that we let Chevys hang out with us. That's my fat butt standing in front of Jeff Royal's van, My red pickup in front and a first gen Chevy right behind me.

Duane in Tennessee

Nightmoves wrote:Looks like a great time had by all.Great gathering of Econo's.And thanks for sharin your road trip with us Carl.

Personal invite:

Nightmoves, you're welcome to come see us too! have a few come over from TN every year!

Later,
Rip

Wow, I have been away from the site for awhile and did I ever miss a lot of action. Great job on the van and great pics from your trip. How does the trailer tow?

econopoor wrote:Yep, That's them yella belly Texans for sure. LOL.

Duane in Tennessee

I swear the t-shirt shop said they were athletic gold!

Thanks for all of the comments guys.

Nightmoves: you do need to make it next year. That Tennesse bunch needs some back-up!

Wacko: The trailer tows great. Last years van had a 170, this one has a 240. I could not believe the difference!

Thanks Rip.I appreciate it.Econpoor told me about it some time back,and liked to have gone.But i needed to stay close to home this past weekend.But ya never can tell where I may show up.

Carl,did any of your parts get damaged in Jim's wreck? You did get them didnt you?

Yeh Tim, I got the parts, just been a little busy after the 8 day hiatus! The parts faired a whole lot better than the 'Vanner Express' did! Took the seat to the upholstery shop today, going to get them to match the new fronts that came with the van. (Note to self: call Fred to get the engine cover on the way! Duane's sure does look good.) Here are the parts Tim (EconoUSAparts) is talking about:

Thanks to Econopoor (for the front springs), we were able to get the blue van ready for transport back to the storage lot. Anybody out there looking for a slightly used van? Cassius Clay was the original owner!:

Haven't done much to the van lately, aside from putting miles on it!

I did finally order the A/C system for it today. Old Air Products in Fort Worth was the only company that i found to have a compressor bracket for the 240 engine. They are putting a system together and we're going to pick it up from them on Friday.

looking fwd to hearing about that a/c system. would greatly expand my driving season and slightly less work than my plans to build a device to extend fall and spring weather to july/aug/sept.

so... what's the the deal with the blue van?

austinmodhouse wrote:so... what's the the deal with the blue van?

It's a HeavyDuty I picked up in Bastrop last year. Good thing I did, we used the springs and rear end housing (and various misc parts) on the turquoise one. Now it has a single leaf on each side of the rear. It's altitude is courtesy of pieces of 4x4!

im jelous, that thing is minttt!!

I found some center caps that didn't stick out past the Torq Thrusts and
finally got around to getting some year of manufacture license plates.



Here's a shot from today in front of Cisco's new garage:



Gotta' brag on Cisco's place a little!
Here's the old garage and the new one:

Road trip today. Had to go to Crystal Beach before the cold front got there.
Started out in the rain and it didn't get much better.

Finally got around to gettin' some things done to the van ths week.

Stuck Fatmat on most of the rear of the van. Then fit the DCW trim around the windows (this trim took a wild ride from Tim to Jim to me!). We'll have to remove it all and paint it later:







Eric sent a glove box door to replace to padded one:

Before:


After:


Friday morning Martha and I are driving the van to Fredericksburg, TX for the weekend (350 miles one way).

Looking good Carl!

Ditto that!

Looks awesome!

This past weekend I took Martha and the Econoline on a tour of the wineries on Hwy 290 between Austin and Fredericksburg http://www.wineroad290.com/ . I even enjoyed it myself! When it was all said and done we logged in 768 trouble-free miles. Below are some thumbnails of our travels:

FRIDAY---

Texas Hills Vineyards in Johnson City


Pedernales Cellars in Stonewall


Arrived at our Bed & Breakfast cottage in Fredericksburg


Next stop Chisolm Trail Winery in Fredericksburg


Headed to Luckenbach for a change of pace (a few beers!)


SATURDAY---

Strolled on Main Street in Fredericksburg in the am


Martha scheduled a "Wine Tasting 101" class at William Chris Vineyards in Hye


Becker Vineyards in Stonewall


Grape Creek Vineyards in Fredericksburg


Torre di Pietra Vineyards in Fredericksburg


Back to Main Street to hide in the crowd


Sunday will be in the next post.