Deb and I picked up Deja from Stef and Dave on May 11, 2002.
The plan was fly to Portland, and drive back from Battle Ground WA (near Portland OR)
to Morgantown WV (near Pittsburgh); about 3000 miles counting sight seeing.
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Our adventure started with a trip to the Columbus airport. It is much cheaper to fly Southwest from Columbus than to fly out of Pittsburg. George sent his plane to give us a lift, but since we already had tickets on Southwest, we decided to stay with the commercial flight.

Proud new owners

First drive, man is this steering tight! That's Stef and Dave up ahead in the Mustang Stef is keeping.

First sight seeing stop, Multnomah Falls. Sight seeing photos will be added to another web site.

First feeding of Deja, some Texaco high test in western Oregon. No self-service in Oregon!

Deb takes a turn at the wheel. Now we will find out what Deja can really do, buckle up!

Early the second day got Deja out of a left coast state. Even with the need for a paint job, got some nice complements at this stop; especially after opening the hood.

Montana information center, not quite finished. You have to take a gravel road to the office so, it doesn't seem like they get a lot of business. Note the modern rest room facilities. Despite being "infrastructure challanged" (Civil Engineers talk like that), the staff person was very helpful and we got a lot of good information.

About sunset in Gardiner Montana, at the northern entrance to Yellowstone. Early night, expecting a full day sight seeing the next day. We made great time in Montana, if you don't cruse at 80 to 85 you risk getting hit in the but. Touched it up to ~95 at one point. Deja was willing to do more, but we still had a lot of miles to go and I didn't want to stress things too much.

Heading into the park. The northern entrance was the original gateway into the park.

Deja enjoying the view at the upper loop of Mammoth falls.

Bison, right by the road. How close - check out the next picture.

I sure hope that guy doesn't take a sudden dislike to Mustangs!

Since I teach about road construction, I thought we should have a picture of Deja's first trip through a construction site.

How's that for timing? Getting Old Faithful to put on a show for Deja.

We have a bunch more pictures of Yellowstone, but there is a limit to what you can fit on a free web page. And the trip has only just begun.

Got to check out the handling on the road between Cody Wyoming and Mount Rushmore. Handling is great, corners flat, but you really need to watch the steering. Why did Ford wait so long before putting rack and pinion steering in the Mustang? Couldn't be happier with the drive train, the engine has a really flat torque curve, pulls well from 1200 RPM up to ...? (didn't want to push it too hard), the 3.55 gears allowed for great acceleration and climbing, and the overdrive T5 was just the thing for freeway cruzing.

Four presidents enjoying the view of Deja!

Time for a little preventive maintenance. Got the oil changed in Rapid City SD. Only took about two hours. When I ask what oil the shop used they said Valvoline, then proceeded to open a bottle of Car Quest finest. Despite assurances by the "mechanic" that they were the same thing, I insisted that they go to the store and buy some Valvoline since that is what I was told they would put in the car. I'm not sure that Valvoline is the end all of motor oil, but I kind of like the paint scheme on the 10 car. If you follow NASCAR, you know who I'm talking about. If you don't follow it, then it doesn't matter.

The Bad Lands of South Dakota. Worth taking the loop road if you're in the area, but not quite as appealing as Yellowstone.

Deja inspects the world famous Corn Palace, Mitchell SD. The murals on the inside and outside were created with corn husks, stalks, cobs, etc. Probably the result of brainstorming during long-cold winter nights.

My first road trip into Minnesota. Stoped at the welcome center to find out about sight seeing opportunities. We found TWO along I 90.

The world's largest statue of the Jolly Green Giant. Is this another long winter night thing?

The other Minnesota site was the Spam Museum in Austin, Minesota. We actually went on a tour and it was a suprisingly good experience. However, we're saving the sample can of Spam we received for a real emergency.

We didn't find a lot of photo ops in Wisconsin so we decided to go to a grocery store to get some cheese. While in the parking lot, Deja made friends with this T-bird. Looks like about a 59 to me, but I'm not up on T'birds.

Yes Virginia, they really do make cheese in Wisconsin.

On to Illinois, and a real lack of photo ops. Partly due to incliment weather and partly due to a lack of desire to be creative. This is a photo of a corn field. Naturally since it's May, there is no corn for Deja to inspect.

Parking at the Indy Speedway. Later we learned we could have parked on the infield.

Winner of the 1968 Indy 500. Bobby Unser won the race in this Rislone/Leader Cards sponsored car. The qualifying speed was 169.500 mph. Qualifying speed this year is 231.342 to get the pole and 227.096 to get into the show. Isn't technology a wonderful thing.

Deb did some sweet talking with the gate guard, explaining how we were on this cross-country trip in an old Mustang and couldn't we please get onto the in-field without having to pay double. Sure enough it worked (I should know by now that Deb's charms are too much for any mortal man to resist). Anyhow we got onto the infield and managed to snag this photo in front of the Museum. Just as we were leaving some cars started practicing. Man are those things quick and LOUD!