The trip was tough and pretty hectic since it was my first time doing something like this. Kind of a weird thing but I did NOT keep track of what jobs I did. However, I did start dreaming about timing belts and PCV systems
. I did enough of those to close a shop or two. After leaving Chicago, went through Michigan, and spent 2 days in Pittsburgh. Tried to leave Pittsburgh around 11 am but was held up by a machinist until around 1:30. That is when the sky opened up and I was stuck in a horrible rain storm all the way to Carlisle PA. Much of the time driving around 35 mph on the turn pike. By the time I got to Carlisle around 4:15 pm, the car show was all but closed down. Looked like the clean up crew is all that was left. So I didn't stay there long, went on to New Jersey. Spent several days in the NY, MA, ME, NJ area before heading south into VA. Went as far south as Boca Raton and then across to New Orleans. Then back up to TN, into my old stomping grounds of AR then home.
Sad to say I did NOT make it into Texas. Not sure the weather would have allowed for much. Also ran out of time, had to get home to tend to some family matters.
Things that I wish could have been different...
1. Was not able to connect with more people, meet and greet. I sure would have liked to connect with more Volvo enthusiast but helping people get repairs and maintenance done was really a hand full. Also, it was hard to justify driving 4 hours out of the way just to shake someone's hand.
2. Bad parts. Boy I wish I would have had a better supply of parts on hand to resolve issues with people having poor quality parts on hand or wrong parts all together. I did have some parts that saved me time but in some cases, I had to take a few hours to get parts we needed which often meant the work went into another day.
3. Limited online access and time. I missed connecting with several people due to my limited ability to get messages from this forum and my e-mail (which I still have not been able to catch up with).
Overall it was an amazing trip. I'm still a little set back by how friendly everyone was to my wife and I. I was also pleasantly surprised with the financial donation from you guys here on MVS (thank you guys very much). Really helped me get trough the trip, especially having to purchase a couple of tires due to physical damage (rough northern roads).
Future plans... I hope to spend a week to 10 days in Texas next month since we were not able to make it. My guess is that I will need a covering/tent of sort to help me get some work done due to the sun and heat. I don't think I'll be able to do much after noon so work hours will likely be between 6 am and 12 noon. I also hope to make a similar trip in the Mountain and Pacific time zones in the beginning of September. During the fall trip I hope to be better equipped with parts and scheduling.
Maybe next summer we will load up our passports and travel into Canada.
Lastly, if I had to pick a repair that simply amazed me, I'd say it was the gross oil leak in the VA area. A '98 V70 T5 had a lower oil trap box connection leak. The guy was loosing about 1 quart of oil every 250 miles due to a deteriorated URO hose leak (the one at the bottom of the box with the metal ring). I initially thought the oil pressure switch was leaking. Finally pulled that box off and found that rubber hose in there as soft was a cooked onion. What a shame, the thing was about 4 years old. It started leaking about 1 year into use and got worse as time went on.
Again, thanks for the support, kind words, well wishes and prayers.
