I'll try this again. I spent 30 minutes yesterday writing this post and somehow I didn't post it or it disappeared. I left TN Wednesday at 3:40 am with tow dolly in tow. My first stop was Rolla, MO to pick up a buddy and his car. I origianlly was going to pull a 81 AMC Eagle wagon home from Denver on my return trip, but those plans have changed, but I already made a commitment to my buddy Rafe to tow his car to Colorado. He lived in MO but moved to Utah and I was helping him get his car most of the way there. He did an engine swap before he left MO 6 months ago and it had ran 2 weeks earlier when he had a friend start it and drive it, but it wouldn't run now. We loaded it up and headed for CO. We stopped at 9pm in Salina, KS for the night and then got up early and proceeded to CO. My wagon did fine power wise, but there were a couple times when the towed Eagle started swaying bad. Both times it happened when semis pulling two trailers had recently switched lanes and must have made a bunch of dirty air. Luckily the dolly had trailer brakes and I installed a brake controller a few days prior. I was able to manually apply the trailer brakes and it stopped the swaying. Butt pucker moments. We arrived at our destination, the Rambler Ranch in Elizabeth, CO at about 1:30. Terry at the Rambler Ranch, owns about 600 cars and most of them are Ramblers and AMCs. He has 50+ Eagles and a little over 20 of them are in museum to driver condition. Every couple of years he invites family and friends to drive his Eagles and other Eagle owners show up also. Terry was kind enough to let us use his lift Thursday afternoon and Friday to try to get Rafe's eagle going. It turned out to be a bad electric fuel pump. We got it running, but he then encountered an oil pressure problem. It will have to sit at the Ranch until he can come back and get it. We met at the Ranch on Saturday morning. Terry had coffee and donuts waiting for us. There were 42 Eagles total. I think half were Terry's and half were Eagles owned by others. I didn't take many pics, but will share what I have. We left a little after 9 and headed for a place called Maguiarsville in Monument, CO. It is a private museum/collection of old stuff owned by a fantastic older gentleman. We toured his place and had a catered lunch. I didn't take any pics of the place, but did take some when we were leaving. From there we took an hour and a half drive to Bishop's Castle in Florence, CO. I took a few pics of the drive there but didn't take any pics of the castle. You'll have to Google it. From there we went to a German restaurant for dinner and then the Eagle Motel in Manitou Springs for the night. I had to be in Montana for work on Monday, so I left early Sunday morning and arrived in Butte, MT about 6:45. The Eagle ran great without any issues. I changed my oil in the motel parking lot Monday afternoon.
Let's see, 42 AMC Eagles. Now that's a sight you don't see too often! I suppose y'all had no choice but to stay at the Eagle Motel! Those are some terrific photos, thank you for sharing. Pete
Here are some more pics a buddy took. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.779640826958.1073741833.58700033&type=1&l=7c2329aa3d I plan on visiting Yellowstone this weekend and hope to have some great pics.
That ranch you went to, I see a railroad caboose in the trees next to the house...do you remember what railroad is marked on the side of it?
That was at the Meguairsville Museum and no I didn't notice it. I can't find any info of the place on the net.
I went to Yellowstone yesterday and the Grand Tetons today. Here's a link to a Google album. let me know if it works or not. First time trying it. https://plus.google.com/photos/116812063066750829106/albums/6071687386330659169 Here's a few pics.
Thanks folks. I made it home last night. I put over 6,000 miles on the old bird during this trip without a single issue. The weekend after I went to Yellowstone, I wanted to go to Glacier National Park, but bad weather and roads that were either closed for the season or construction made me changed my plans. Several months ago, a guy named Bob in Billings, MT, contacted me about my lifted Eagle that was for sale. He was really interested, but the 2000+ mile distance made it tough for him. We have stayed in contact and I had gone to his place in September when I was working in MT and last weekend I went there again and helped him pull the engine out of his Eagle wagon in preparation for a 5.3L swap. It's an 87 with only 72k miles, but Bob's an old hot rodder and can't leave anything stock. With just a little trimming of one bracket, the 5.3L slid right in. Different exhaust manifolds and accessory brackets will be needed though and either a LS1 intake or a small cowl added to the hood. Bob's built a lot of cars over the years. His most recent is a Diamond T truck that he recently sold. He started out with an old body and put it on a P30 motorhome frame and installed a 5.9L Cummins. This pic is when he used it for camping. Here's his 50 something Ford pickup. It's got a 5.7 Chevy engine. Here's his trike. By the way, Bob is 74 and more energy than people half his age. Since I had an empty tow dolly, I decided to look for a replacement for my daily driver Festiva that is pretty worn out. I found an Aspire in Albuquerque with 122k miles and an almost perfect interior. It was 400 miles out of the way, but worth it.
