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Ecto Across America 3 - We Couldn't Believe It, Either.

57K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  392-Hemi-Dave 
#1 ·
So, quick run-down, if you build a car from Ghostbusters, you've GOTTA take it to New York City at least once, right? Pretty much a moral imperative there. In 2009 we attempted to drive from Denver to New York in our brand-spanking-new 2008 Magnum only to spin a bearing in Ohio, canceling the trip. Never ones to be defeated, we vowed to return to Ohio as conquerors.

So on September 2, 2010 we embarked on a 10-day trip. Our schedule was thus:
Denver to St. Louis - St. Louis to Huntsville to Atlanta - Atlanta to Raleigh to Washington D.C. - D.C. to Philadelphia to New York - New York for two days - New York to Centralia to Indianapolis - Indianapolis to St. Louis - St. Louis to Denver.
An epic trip!

So our journey actually began several weeks before EAA 3 officially kicked off. In the weeks before we were to leave, I began putting the finishing touches on the Magnum. We rolled the car out in July of 2009, but only now does it resemble the original vision we conceptualized.

The first addition was a set of blacked-out wheels.






Followed shortly by a Setina PB400 pushbar, things really started to cook!






We pulled the hood and handed it over to Stever (one of our Knight Rider guys) who proceeded to pull all the hail dents from the previous spring.

Positively beautiful!


As the side stripes never really jived with me, and because my vinyl guy actually put a lighter shade of red on, he offered to re-do all the pin striping and rear hatch work. It came out look immaculate.



Then it was off to Charles' place to re-run all the wiring for the lightbars using a wildly more efficient relay setup. We drilled some holes to hide the wires in the rear hatch channel, positively SEAMLESS!


And I managed to get the new "Tumbler" lights hooked up to a flasher and three-way switch.


Good stuff.

We then pulled apart the roofrack down it's bare components and started refinishing them. Polishing lenses and tanks, giving fresh paint to the frame, building a new sonobouy, and de-yellowing the ABS plastic box.

We wanted to put our efforts toward having the sharpest, most-pristine Ecto at DragonCon, and we wanted the car to look its best while meeting its destiny in New York City.

Another major goal to accomplish before EAA launch was motorizing the binocs on the roof of the car. This was achieved through a motor sourced by Charles, connected through a mechanism built by Kris. The result was a setup that allowed the binocs to stay rigidly in one position at speed, as well as operate smoothly at up to 80 miles per hour. Technically, we haven't tested it to failure, but I'd be surprised if it didn't work perfectly beyond 100. We also installed a set of neon lights inside the roofrack for accent lighting.

After being mired in setbacks, we finally had the car back together around 4am on Thursday morning. Richie and I decided to push back our departure by an hour and to take regular shifts to compensate for the lack of sleep. Kris and I only managed to test the motorized binocs for a mile or two on the freeway, so the entire mechanism and new construction would meet it's trial by fire on a 5,000 mile road trip.

Richie and I launched EAA3 at 7am on Thursday, and we made our way East. It wasn't long before we hit Kansas and stopped for a few pictures. Already we encountered our first obstacle, vicious cross-wind, evidenced here.


We then proceeded East, we'd been through here before and any sight-seeing would be done on the return trip. For now we just had to get to St. Louis.


Firefly, anyone? AUGH, I MISSED THE GORHAM EXIT!


In the middle of Kansas we suddenly found where all that wind was coming from....



Richie and I kept ourselves amused by counting the conservative religious billboards that practically outnumbered every other kind of advertising along the highway. Billboards are kind of funny to us, in Colorado I believe there is a state beautification law that has kept the amount of roadside advertising to a minimum, so going through places like Wyoming and Kansas and Nevada are absolutely HILARIOUS to us, what with the sheer amount of advertising that appears as soon as you cross the border.

BATTLE OF THE BILLBOARDS!

FIGHT!

Richie, expressing what turned out to be misdirected enthusiasm.


Kansas City, whose skyline was being particularly sinister what with the weather and all.


Also, it was pretty stormy throughout all of Kansas and Missouri, and every time we stopped we were asked about the weather as everyone seemed to think we were storm chasers. At one rest stop, I spied a "Tornado Chaser" shirt for sale, and I bought it to help aid griefing those people even further.

(looks at car) "Are you storm chasers?"
Nope, Ghostbusters.
(looks at shirt) "For real?"
Yup.
(looks at car, looks at shirt, goes cross-eyed)

It was fun.

Back to Kansas City, some dude was cruising around in this badass monstrosity, and we waved, but he just scowled. It's okay dude, you're a douche but we still think your car is neat!


About two hours outside of St. Louis we were treated to an incredible sunset.

We always seem to get terrific sunsets while on EAA trips. Last September there were the big fires in California, which provided ridiculously red sun rises and sun sets. We also saw some stunning light shows in December and in July... positively breath-taking!

After dark, we were treated to an astonishing light show as a rainless lightning storm practically strobed all around us!


That night we stayed in Alton, IL with future-dentist and hardcore prop-collector, ProtoKev. Between his four packs, full-size Vigo, complete lightsaber collection, 501st gear, MiB and Jurassic Park collections, the man is a maniac! Talk about toys for big boys!


We were treated to Steak and Shake, quite the midwestern late-night treat, a first for us!

The next morning we set out early for Huntsville and Atlanta.

Richie, where the hell are we?

I will say this, Tennessee was probably the prettiest state we drove through.


I passed out in the passenger seat and we missed an exit, officially failing my shotgun-seat role as Rabbit. We detoured south back into Missouri and across some very rural backroads, but were rewarded by getting to drive over some incredible bridges.


BAAAARGES



Our trip through the backwoods was made even better after we discovered that the region we were traveling through was actually named Blandville, poetic justice is alive and well.

Arriving in Alabama, we discovered a climate entirely alien to us. The humidity we encountered absolutely ridiculous, never before have I seen rain falling up. Alabamans, you need to fix that ****.

Seriously, the entire time we were there I didn't know if my pants were soggy or if I was just continuously ****ting myself. Ugh.

Anyway, we made it to Huntsville and U.S. Space and Rocket Center.


We met up with gbMatt, who promptly began lecturing me about jumping fences to touch exhibits and how I would "get in trouble" or some nonsense. Feh. Judd, another member of GBfans met up in costume for some pictures with the car.


The rocket center was, well, pretty amazing. I've never really seen any sort of full-scale shuttle or manned spacecraft aside from the Titans and Redstones at certain other museums, it really was a sight.


Playing around on one of the umbilical arms.


Richie, succumbing to one of my stupid ideas for a stupid picture. Stupid.


Shut this off, shut these all off.



Yup. We're gay for shuttles.

Probably the best part of the whole place, the Space Monkey Graveyard. Memorials to monkeys who helped us edge closer to manned space flight. People leave bananas on top of the markers, amazing.


Also there was the first Blackbird of the trip. Technically an A-12 Oxcart, this is the plane I had to hop the little fence to get up close to.


We said our good-byes and bugged out for Atlanta and DragonCon, pushing hard to arrive before registration closed at 10pm. If we didn't make it, we'd have to register in the morning and that would interfere with the parade line-up.

The Ecto pulled into the Sheraton loading area at 9:52pm, I bolted out of the car and ran in to register. There was no line by that time, so I was in there maybe four or five minutes. After that we headed out in search of the GBfans members who were currently dining at a downtown chinese place. We found them and started a ruckus on the side of the street, running lights and sound as loudly as possible. Soon we were joined by the Georgia Ecto, built out of a 2007 Dodge Magnum.


Around this time we had our first encounter with police. Several cops on foot had walked past the cars at this point, some even stopping for pictures. Eventually a crown vic rolled up and the officer asked to speak to whoever owned the car. I walked over and he proceeded to tell me that the lights on the car were illegal. I asked if I should cover them, or deactivate them, or what I should do to best comply with the local laws. The cop gave me the annoyingly vague advice of "be careful." The hell? Anyway, after that we picked up Kris at the airport, got situated in our hotel room, and headed back downtown for some cruising. It was late and I managed to somehow get confused at an intersection and made an illegal right turn. I was promptly pulled over by an officer who gave me a dressing-down, but did not run my license or registration. Weird.
 
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#2 ·
The next morning we washed the Ecto and joined up with the other guys for the parade. I didn't take hardly any pictures for the rest of the con, but here are some that were found online!








Saturday night was off the f****g chain! We started ferrying people back and forth between hotels just for fun. Pulling into the Marriott every 30 minutes we were greeted with some form of the following....


I also managed to get with two of the other Ectos for an impromptu photoshoot out near the old Olympic stadiums (Turner Field now, yes?) I thought the results were pretty neat.







Wild stuff.

Sunday I actually got to do con stuff, and that was great. Too much to explore for one day -I'll have to come back- but it won't be for several years, unfortunately. While heading out for lunch I came across this group of donkin' hip-hop car enthusiasts (is there really a name for these guys?) cruising super slow through Atlanta with their 24" wheels and stick on vents and spinners and floaters and bumpers and thumpers.


I took it as my solemn duty to keep pace with them for their entire route through the city and play "White and Nerdy" out my roof speakers the entire time.

Also, Lady Stig!

Hop on in!


Sunday night the remaining gbfans members headed to the Vortex, several miles from downtown, to try their famous quadruple bypass burger. I had a lesser form, 1/2 lb burger, 6 strips of bacon, 6 pieces of cheese, with two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns. It was glorious, though I didn't finish the whole thing. Very tasty.
 
#3 ·
Monday morning we set out with two new people, AJ (who founded and runs GBfans.com) and Chris, another friend. We drove to Raleigh to drop Chris off, and then Richie, AJ, Kris, and I proceeded to our next stop in Washington D.C.

Thanks to AJs advantageous viewpoint from the Westin, we managed to catch the Mach 5 for a few pictures.


Then we were on our way.




The Carolinas were fairly pretty.


I'm sorry, I think this is worth a picture.


By sunset we'd made it to Richmond, where I hopped another fence and fondled another Blackbird.


Shortly before midnight we'd made it to the outskirts of D.C. where we set up camp on the floor of an old friends apartment. Thanks, Lacey!

Tuesday morning we were up and out to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian Air and Space annex. But first, breakfast at the local super marchet!

Anyone else thinking "Oh Hai Thar?' K, nevermind.


Here we got to see the Enola Gay, the shuttle Enterprise, and the record-setting Blackbird, among other enormously historic pieces of history
.
Kris was flipping his **** the whole goddamn time.










The mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind!


There are some tiny planes!


There's R2!


There's a tiny TIE fighter!


Here's a missile that is fired from a submarine, flies through the air, then goes back underwater to f*** up another submarine. Christ, I love engineering.


This is kind of lame.


But this is KICKIN RAD!


At the UH center we met up with George, another GBfan member. Wherever we went we offered to meet up with people and he is one of the guys quick enough on the twitter feed to pin us down to the right location at the right time. He perused the museum with us and even gave offered crank knobs as gifts.


This sums up the whole thing quite well.


From the Udvar-Hazy center we booked it over to Langley, where we had the balls to snoop around the CIA headquarters to see if I could spy the A-12 on display there. From an access road around back I managed to see the vertical stabilizers, but nothing beyond that. You win this round, Central Intelligence Agency!

We headed into D.C. and looped around the main sites, settling on the a parking spot smack in the center of the mall. We left the car for about two hours as we explored the main Air and Space Museum.


It was my third time, so.... the usual.








After the A&S I experimented with getting as close to the White House as I could in a car market "radioactive." Turns out the answer is "about a block." Just southeast of the parade grounds we were intercepted by three Secret Service vehicles.


We were greeted with a less-than-friendly "Do you have any idea where the hell you are?" My credentials were taken, as were the IDs of everyone in the car. Several of the cops really pushed at the "bad cop" thing, but we could hear them chuckling over how "f****g badass" the car was. Eventually we were asked to step outside and sit on the curb and dogs were called out. The dogs never came, but several plain-clothes specialists did come out to inspect the Ecto. I gave one officer a walkaround, detailing what each of the roof parts were made from and how they were put together. The specialists laughed at the cops, saying "Oh yeah man, that's some WMD!" then proceeded to take pictures for their kids. One officer began harping on a lower-ranking cop for saying the words "radioactive materials" over the radio. "They're freaking out up there," he growled while thrusting a finger directly at the White House.

After about a half hour, we'd all checked out and wished a safe trip, the majority of the agents were fairly amused, but I wouldn't be surprised if our names are all on some list somewhere.

Our first sign indicating a direction to New York!


Of course we had to stop in Philly to run the Rocky steps!


No time for cheesesteak, unfortunately :(

We entered New Jersey and were completely stumped by the gas station laws there. Apparently you guys aren't allowed to fuel your own cars? We had a guido assistant there to fist-pump ours for us, pretty funny.

We crossed the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn and unloaded at our hotel off of 3rd and Union. Not a bad place, tiny, but better than I've had in New York before! Four guys to one two-bed room? WE CAN DO IT!


From there we set out to do quick drive-bys of the areas we wanted to visit over the next two days. Times Square, the NY public library, Ladder 8, and...... 55 Central Park West.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Wednesday morning we were up and ready to hit Manhattan. Since there aren't any self-service manual carwashes - apparently, f****g anywhere- in the five boroughs, we washed the Ecto off by hand, shining the wheels and scrubbing bugs off the lights. A quick re-attachment of the satellite dish and we were good to go.

Surprisingly, the construction traffic we encountered coming to Brooklyn the night before had completely disappeared, and we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in a matter of minutes. Yep, playing "Judgement Day" out of the roof. Come on.


Since it was completely covered in scaffolding (curse you, fall in NY), we skipped the NY public library and starting visiting the usual sights.




Here we stopped for the breakfast of champions, cart food!


I'm probably just retarded, but I seem to be incapable of ordering mediterranean or greek food. I always seem to get some form of gyro, no matter what I order. I'm not complaining, at all. Anything the guy behind the counter produces is a little slice of heaven wrapped in tin foil, but it just feels like there is no point in me actually looking at a menu and ordering something. It always comes out in the shape of a gyro, even if I'm ordering shwarma or kafta kebab or shish kebab. It's getting to the point where I am not going to even bother with the pictures of the food at one of these carts or here at Ya Halla in Denver, I'm just going to say to the cook, "You pick what I am about to eat, I have no say and I'm going to f****g love it anyway."

After breakfast we made our way to Ladder 8 in Tribeca.

If you recall, this firehouse was used as the exterior location for the headquarters in both Ghostbusters films, though the interior was actually a separate location in another firehouse in Los Angeles.

The engine was gone so we waited around, exploring the nearby shops and streets, enjoying the wonderful weather. Fun fact: the blue fenced-in area under construction at the bottom of the picture was the location of the gas station used in Zoolander. Freak gasoline fight accident.


Also, there was this lady, who was walking her dog down the street as he peed on the tires of every single emergency vehicle parked there.

God I love New York.

About a half hour later the engine returned and backed into the station.


Green light, GO GO GO GO!


We backed in, left the engine running, and started snapping pictures. There was no welcome to be outstayed, and we just wanted to get our pictures and move on. In an ironic twist, just as we parked, a film location tour bus pulled up and offloaded about 60 people. What was supposed to be a quick little thing immediately turned into a fiasco of hilarity. The firefighters had to be thinking, "ya give 'em an inch...."










We did our thing for ten minutes or so, trying our best to avoid confirming or denying rumors of Ghostbusters 3 to the tourists. We loaded up, switched everything on, and blew out of there moments later, not providing any answers. Also, let's run some red lights!



 
#5 ·


After the firehouse we headed West to the Intrepid Air Museum. By this time we'd discovered that the car could get away with being considered a "commercial vehicle" so finding cheap parking became remarkably easy.

The Intrepid had been on my list of things to do in NY since my first visit in 2008, but during that time it had actually been towed out to New Jersey for renovations. Will, AJ, and I went to the museum while Richie and Kris poked around for a bit.

Aside from Coney Island, this was probably the most chilling thing I saw while in New York, found on the walk to the museum.


Also, steampunk Segway!

I hate steampunk, but it's the only way the joke works

I'll spare you the relatively boring pictures of the Intrepid, as we really only skimmed the surface. The interior of the Growler missile sub was pretty neat, though I want my garage to look like this some day.


Also, why is it that the area around the Intrepid smelled more like 'ocean' than the actual oceanside? Maybe I don't want to know.

This was funny, and only funny until after we'd left.

I didn't even see the sign, and apparently the dude in the background is one of the guards. Heh.

After the Intrepid we made our way back to the hotel room. We got to experience REAL New York traffic, JUST LIKE YOU SEE IN THE MOVIES. This just meant that my buddies were getting out of the car to smoke and buy snacks while we creeped forward. It was also just like driving on I-95 south of Washington D.C., except there the traffic jams move at 80 mph. f***.

Now this, this is where things start to take a turn and get really f****g...I-I-I don't know how to describe it. Frankly, the whole night has barely sunk in -even a week later.

So we're back at the hotel. We've been tweeting the entire journey and Kris has been following the tweets of other people since DragonCon. People like Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage and mc Chris. We'd actually met mc Chris months before at one of his shows, and he'd absolutely loved the car, then we got to talking about the Jurassic Jeep and all this other ****, mostly just really casual stuff like comments here and there on Facebook. Apparently mc's cousin had recently committed suicide, and he was taking it pretty hard. I suggested, jokingly, that we should take him for a spin and let the amazed shouts of New Yorkers get a chance to lift his spirits. Kris immediately started messaging him, but we didn't hear anything back for some time. Eventually this popped up on the feed: _mchris - because someone up there likes me, the ecto 1 is gonna pick me up and we're gonna drive around and bust ghosts.

So, it was on. He texted us his number and we got ready. We picked him and his assistant/friend Cat Greenfield up in Brooklyn. AJ climbed into the trunk to make space and we were off, hanging out with mc Chris. I'm pretty sure this is going to warrant some posts of "mc chris is a joke act" or something else along those lines, but we all really like Adult Swim and we enjoy comedy hip hop, so... I guess, go for it?

Anyway, Chris wanted to make a few stops to say hi to friends, these stops turned out to be the awesome Forbidden Planet comic store and the f****g Upright Citizens Brigade theater.

Holy f***! We mounted the curb and did the whole lights/sound thing and people went nuts, it was fun.


Around this time I wanted to do a run through Times Square, as it was early evening and we hadn't done that yet. So we drove over and did a slow cruise right through it, with everything but the lights absolutely maxed-out. Cat was laughing non-stop from the fun and Chris was keeping his twitter feed flowing steadily. EVERYONE inside the car and out seemed to be having an awesome night.


Now, we'd had some pretty heavy experiences with police during this trip, and it wasn't until we cruised Times Square that I really thought we'd show up on the NYPD radar as something that might need to be addressed. I mean, come on. It's New York f****g City, they have bigger fish to fry than a nerdmobile filled with nerds. But as we pulled out of the Square, a police car whipped in behind us and followed at a very close distance. Sphincters tightened and I prepared for the lights to turn on us to get our asses handed to us on the side of the road. But there were no lights - at the first opportunity the car pulled up alongside and the officer simply asked, "Hey, can you pull over so I can get some pictures?"

Suddenly the mood was completely changed. We pulled over, got out, and turned everything on. The officer and his partner we f****g jazzed to see the car come to life and started snapping pictures.


It wasn't even two minutes before Chris had their police lights on for a "siren party."


AJ suddenly had an idea, grabbed my arm and dragged me across the street to make a quick video parodying our pull-over clip that surfaced on youtube from Atlanta.

Eh, I thought it was funny.

The cops finished up their pictures and thanked us. Not one to ever waste an opportunity, I politely asked if there was any place in Times Square where the Ecto might pull over so we could get photos a little better than if it was in the middle of traffic. Something like a taxi pulloff or a vacant ambulance spot, anything. I knew it was an impossible question but one would have to be an absolute idiot to come this far and not even ask. The cop began to describe an area off to the side near one of the police towers, but then cut himself short and simply said, "Follow me."

We immediately piled back into the Ecto and began following the police car as it headed back toward the Square. The officer had radioed ahead and arranged for Broadway to be shut down in order for the Ghostbusters to drive directly into the middle of Times Square.


At the earliest chance, I flipped on our lights and followed our f****g POLICE ESCORT around to a barricaded area, where an opening was made. One cop car blocked off traffic in one direction from 47th, and another veered off to cover the other side. We then drove into the pedestrian area of the Square, next to the TKTS stage.




For the next forty minutes, tourists and New Yorkers alike mobbed the area to see what all the excitement was about, and thousands of people crowded around the car for pictures.

What started off as a lark and a potential traffic violation had turned into an unforgettable and unprecedented moment for us. We shook hands with police and thanked them profusely, but it seemed the whole ordeal was enjoyed equally by both parties.


Not wanting the moment to grow stale or outstay our welcome, we gave one last round of thanks to the members of the NYPD present and loaded up into the Ecto. Traffic into Times Square was once again shut down as the Magnum backed out of its spot and into the Broadway intersection. After receiving a send-off salute from the crowd present, the lights and siren were turned on and we departed down 47th in true "end credits" fashion.

Un. f****g. Believable.


Here's the video.

Forgive our gooniness, but we were all just moment from f****g soiling ourselves.

After that we headed back to Brooklyn and trolled some of Chris favorite spots to grief hipsters. There is almost nothing as fun as watching groups of people seeing something that makes them really excited, and watching them try very hard not to look excited.

Anyway. Yeah. I don't... I don't f****g know.
 
#7 ·
Alright! Continuing where I left off!

After sleeping surprisingly well after our little adventure with mc Chris in Times Square, we got up on Thursday morning to check out more of New York City. Our first stop was in lower Manhattan, the location of the art museum from Ghostbusters 2. The building started life as the US Customs House, but has been since repurposed as part of the Smithsonian Institution, housing a branch of the Native American Museum.



The area where the Ecto-1A pulls up in that movie isn't actually a road, it's a pedestrian plaza. Technically it's been inaccessible to all vehicles even before the film was made. Directly in front of the Customs House is the famous Bowling Green park, and beyond that the famous "Charging Bull" stock statue. Ever ones to press our luck, after surveying the scene we decided to go for it. I hopped out of the car and dashed into the museum while the guys entered a holding pattern around Ground Zero.

I asked the security guards if I could talk to the officer on duty, and they sent out a member of the Federal Police. Since the building is of the Smithsonian, it wasn't just normal NYPD running the show. I explained to him what was going on and what we wanted, he agreed to have the car pull up but it needed to pass some security first.

While waiting for the Ecto to arrive back at the museum, I snapped this picture...

Awesome.

Apparently "addition security" meant an inspection from a bomb-sniffing team.


After that we were free to enter!

We hung around a bit taking pictures, this was less about showing the car off in public and more about a fan-made vehicle going where no other fan-made vehicle had been before.








After the museum, we headed back up to Times Square to meet up with Will and drop Richie off so he could see some old friends. While trying to find parking, we managed to get pulled over yet again, but this time by an AMBULANCE! These guys were behind me when I starting hearing a repeated siren "yelp." I checked behind and didn't see any lights, so I figured it was coming from somewhere else. The yelping continued, and I finally pulled over. The EMTs hopped out and ran over to ask for photos, we busted up laughing and told them to go nuts. Hearing the one EMT calling his photographer a "retard" in a rich Brooklyn accent for taking so long was priceless.


Apparently our visit had fallen right in the middle of Fashion Week, and our arrival in Times Square was greeted by half a dozen honest-to-god paparazzi.



I had no idea what was going on when were were suddenly hit by rapid-fire flashes and guys walking in the middle of the street alongside the car as we found a parking spot. Unreal.


This is most likely where the blog news about GB3 came from, as we started spouting off filming rumors as soon as we were out of the car.




We chowed down at a horrible, horrible chinese buffet and were back on the road soon after. This time we headed out of Manhattan and into Queens, in search of the World's Fair park and our meetup with NJUKGB.

Eventually we found the park, but were discouraged to discover that the U.S. Open was going on and that access to most of the park was closed off. I got as close as I could to the Unisphere, but it just didn't make the picture. Eventually I found an access road leading around back to a barricaded area swarming with police. I asked nicely and they let me park in the middle of the road to take pictures, so long as I promised to take less than 5 minutes.

But there was a problem, every single one of those cops wanted a picture next to the car on their phones. So while I tried to get my framing right, cop after cop after cop walked in and ruined the shot...

Kind of frustrating, but ultimately quite funny.

At one point, one officer commented to Kris that he was going to get yelled at by his boss if he let us hang out any longer. Kris noted that we would finish a lot quicker if we could actually get a clear shot of the car by itself. The cop immediately started yelling at his cohorts to "get the hell out of the way."

I eventually got the picture.

We chatted with NJUKGB for a bit and then headed out.

Spotted this in Queens.

SAVE ME, JEABUS!

Also...


My last unfinished goal of the day was to get a shot of the Ecto in front of the Atlantic Ocean. The car made it to the Pacific originally in July 2009 (then again in December and a third time this July), but I wanted it to be official that the car has made it to both coasts under it's own power. Coney Island offered this, and potentially pictures in front of scary amusement part stuff.

I got much more than I bargained for.

I've been to a lot of sketchy places. Commerce City here in Colorado feels like it's straight out of a RoboCop movie. LA23 is a block from the Los Angeles Mission. We explored Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago. Also, Ohio. But nothing could every prepare me for how unnerving Coney Island in the off-season could be. Most of those other places are abandoned and decrepit, but they are industrial or very urban in nature. Take the seediest urban environment imaginable, fill it with clowns with half their faces missing and amusement rides that look like they were designed by the SAW production team, and you have Coney Island. Don't get me wrong, it was AWESOME. But it was scary.

But this was funny.

AJ, can we change the name of the site to GhostHoleFans.com?

As I'd feared, Coney Island didn't really have any vistas accessible for personal vehicles, so we moved on. But not before I ran up to the boardwalk to take a few pictures for myself.




With that out of the way we headed south, toward the Narrows Bridge. Here I did manage to find a suitable vantage point along the expressway.




A few wrong turns and mixed exits ended up forcing us to cross the bridge, costing AJ nearly $20 in tolls to get us back to Manhattan. Now you know where your supporting membership fees go: out my window to a guy in a booth.

But, it afforded us a nice view of New York.


Spotted while turning around.

BUT HOW WILL I REMEMBER WHEN IT IS?

I REALLY regret not getting some Ecto pictures in DUMBO.... man.


We finished up the night by taking the subway from 56th and Lexington to Times Square for Planet Hollywood. AJ had never ridden on the trains there before and I wasn't opposed to seeing some of my favorite dystopian undergrounds again on the trip.

Planet Hollywood was as good and as expensive as ever, though I was wildly disappointed to discover that the Jurassic Park display which I didn't care about the last time I was there (since I hadn't built the jeep) had been replaced by f****g TWILIGHT COSTUMES. Bull****. Man, I wanted to make a stun gun.

After PH we perused Toys R Us. I bought a little helicopter and AJ.... well.... AJ uh....

I suppose that's the t-shirt equivalent of what we did with the Ecto and the White House.

We hit up Grand Central and then made our way back to the car. f***, the subway is hot in the summer months....


We crossed the Queensboro bridge and I started looking for places to take pictures of the New York skyline. I wanted a shot similar to the one I have of the car in front of Denver, but in New York. Fernando recommended spots near the giant Pepsi Cola sign, and we soon found a parking lot for a Brooklyn water taxi.

I was QUITE pleased with the results.


Interestingly enough, a five-alarm fire started in midtown while I was shooting, you could see the smoke rising through the different pictures near the end of the shoot . Here's the clearest.

After that we headed back to the Super 8 and crashed, hard!
 
#8 ·
Friday morning we were up and ready to get out. To avoid as many tolls as possible we drove back through lower Manhattan and took the tunnel to New Jersey. Of course we had to stop by City Hall.

There was no time for us to work our magic, though :(

After heading out through the tunnel (playing Promised Land, of course), we were in Jersey once more.

Horrible, horrible, rusty Jersey.

Then there was Pennsylvania.

I found PA to be very, very pretty. I wish our trip had taken us through there a month later so I could see all the colors, it must be insane.

Our first stop was actually a detour to Centralia, a small ghost town in the coal hills.


If you don't know what Centralia is, was, and signifies, then CLICK HERE TO LERN SOMETHIN.

One of the most visible areas affected by the fire is an old section of Hwy 61 that is now blocked off and re-routed. At either end of the highway are two earth berms, about six feet in height, to prevent vehicle access to the area. Here is the Ecto in front of the innermost berm.


To the left is sort of an ATV trail that provides easier, albeit still-limited access to the abandoned highway. The little trail was quite steep at the end and composed almost entirely of large loose rocks, and I didn't want to risk the Magnum ****ting the bed this close to Hell. I have absolutely confidence that the Jeep would have made it in a heartbeat, though. Hell, the Outback could have probably scrambled around it as well.

Anyway, this is how the road starts off.

Plants growing up and out, and the occasional spot of graffiti. From here it just gets more and more I Am Legend, though. The plants in the middle become full bushes, and spraypaint tags spot the road every few feet.

Then the road starts to do this.

The entire area was once, most likely still is, prone to collapse - it's a fact that doesn't leave your mind for a second while walking this road.

Running down the middle of the highway is an enormous fissure, now filled with garbage and - probably - urine from visitors. Hell, if I'd had to pee, you can be sure I would have done it right where the smoke was coming from.








Can Sad Kris take his turn at the top of the front page?


Richie fighting the urge to put a traffic cone on his head and start raping and killing and raping and killing and raping.


Oh yeah, the smoke. There was seriously smoke still billowing from the cracks. And the ground was noticeably warmer near the fissures, freaky stuff, and very neat to finally see in person.

We made our way back to the car and drove up through the remnants of the town, making sure to pass down every road. The signs leading to the "fire" actually take you up a hill to an older cemetery (older than the one right next to the highway) and past several areas filled with rubble and bare patches where nothing will grow. Up here there was actually tons of smoke and the smell of the fire was very much apparent, compared to the highway where you would only get occasional wafts of the odor (aside from the odorless, more poisonous fumes, that is).


Aside from them the roads (which were really neat to drive down), there was practically nothing there. A half dozen homes -including this funeral home- was all that remained.

Having our fill, and needing to get back on schedule, we departed.
 
#9 ·
Aw, are we really down to the end? Looks like it, Sports Racers!

Centralia really put us behind schedule. I wanted to be in Cambridge, Ohio before the sun went down, yet we had to stop in Pittsburgh to say hi to Sam, and Sam's one of those guys that I really didn't want to just give a Hi-and-Bye. ****'s lame.

But we were behind. We pushed the speed limit heading West. We actually overshot our original meetup location due to construction making me miss the signs, but we did catch up. And it was GLORIOUS!

We had that poor little gas station in [i[turmoil[/i], it was great.

Kids asking for autographs.

We each signed the napkins as Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray.

The reason we had to stop was because we needed a pole and didn't have time before the trip to build one capable of collapsing. You see, we weren't going to drive around for a week with a f****g spear strapped to the roof of the.... actually that sounds kind of cool. Anyway. Sam found us a broom handle that worked great with zip ties

Now, I know you're asking.... a pole, you say? Well, before we left we knew we'd have to come back to Cambridge. It was the place of our greatest failure, and we simply could not let that stand. We had a plan, a mission, that we felt must be enacted upon our return. In fact, this was all decided during the breakdown last year.

Some suggested we leave a memorial to the Ecto and it's spun bearing. A cross or a pile of flowers. But that's not what we'd be doing when we returned. No, we wouldn't return filled with anxiety or fear. We would not be returning even with quiet reverence for our fallen chariot. No, we'd be returning as conquerors. And what do conqueror's do?

CONQUERORS PLANT MOTHER f****g FLAGS



Yeah, that's right. We had a flag made up to commemorate the occasion. It was simple nylon waterproof construction, with the picture of a bearing on it, with the words "DON'T SPIN ON ME" printed below, and a latin translation of a modified quote from General Douglas MacArthur: I Came Out of Ohio and I Shall Return!" Shauna's mom made it for us just two days before the trip.


From Sam it was a mad dash to Cambridge. We blew through West Virginia at top speed.


I wish I could articulate the emotion of the moment, the closest I can relate it to is the moment where you're on your way to confront the ex who treated you like **** and tell her what a heartless, carnivorous, cock-sucking, anal-plunging, lowlife, ****pig bearblower she is. It was this rush of pain, anger, but also triumph, as we had made it to DragonCon, we'd been to New York, and Cambridge was just a niggling thing to take care of. I can put the feeling into song, but not one with words. The whole thing was rather hardcore, and we needed a song with brass balls to travel by. For nearly an hour we listened to this on repeat, and upon arriving in Cambridge we actually switched it out to the roof rack speakers.


And before we knew it, we were stopped there, on exactly the same spot, a year later.


We each took turns with the mallet, hammering the pole into the ground.



But we all felt the flag didn't belong so low to the ground. As if to inspire us, the song hit it's second repeat of the main "drop theme," and we took off across the highway and up the hill. And there, fifty feet above the roadway, we retook our pride and claimed our victory!


The flag is still there, or at least it should be. It's actually quite nice and I'd hate for it to end up in the garbage, so if you feel like retrieving it, please do! And post a picture of you getting it!


After that we revisited Cambridge out of morbid curiosity. We didn't find anything new, who knows what we were looking for, I guess it was kind of nice to not have to walk through the town for once... Anyway, we ate at a Denny's there, and the feelings of animosity just grew and grew. From the poor service to the water that tasted like ****, to all the people giving me mean looks because I was wearing my "Ohio: Worst State Ever" shirt, it wasn't long before we all felt we needed to leave.

I promptly took my sleep shift once we were back in the car, and I slept all the way to Indianapolis. Did anything interesting happen, guys?

We stayed with Borz that night, coming in late barely able to walk. Strangely enough, we each started becoming more active as we related the tales from New York and D.C. to Borzou. I think we only got to sleep around 3 or so, someone of us later than others. The next morning we got situated and headed back out. Forgetting majorly important things like my iPad and my phone, I had to turn around briefly, but soon we were on our way to the airport to drop off AJ.

Wait a second, why is it that the happiest I've seen AJ this entire trip is when he is leaving us?

Duuuuuuude not cool.

We'd slept in a bit for the first time since, uh, the parade, but we were on our way by noon. This was to be sort of a half day of travel in order to save us from a grueling 17-hour alternative. Also, this.

This trip, seriously you guys. Seriously....

Skies cleared by the time we got to Alton. We unloaded our gear and made space for ProtoKev and Maggie. Then we saw this tall dude.


Then we crossed this awesome bridge.

We don't have any bridges in Colorado. Bridges are f****g cool, and if you have them, be grateful.

Then we stopped at this giant half-buried paperclip.



We hung out with the St. Louis crew, ate some horrible fried burgers, and tried without success to get the people of the city enthused about the car. Stupid jerks. We did, however, get quite a crowd going at the City Museum, which is like this giant f****g steel playplace, I really can't describe it, google St. Louis City Museum and be AMAZED. Seriously, climbing through slinkies 60 feet in the air between jets, 6-story metal slides and tunnels going into whale anuses. It's wild.

In order to make room for everyone, Richie sat in the back.

He's a goddamn trooper.

The next morning we made for Hutchinson, Kansas and home. Hutchinson has the Cosmosphere, and our very last Blackbird of the trip.


A plaque that is, actually, quite moving.


Ah, there we are.


From Hutchinson we angled back northwest toward I-70, passing through some really gorgeous farmland.


Stopped about three hours from Denver, our last tank of gas. Also, bug battle damage.

Did any of the other Ectos that made it to DCon take pictures of their bug scores?

With a steady tailwind pushing us home, we started through the eastern plains of Colorado.


We witnessed an astonishing sunset. It was quite fitting that the "horizon" the sun was sinking behind actually turned out to be our first glimpse of the Rockies.


Kris and I dropped off Richie and gave a brief greeting to Alyssa, who was there waiting for him. Together, we knelt before the Ecto and thanked it for giving making the journey without so much as a single problem. From there we drove the remaining mile or so home, and pulled into the driveway. Here's the odometer from the entire trip.

So close!

And with that, Ecto Across America 3 drew to a close. A 100% successful trip. Amazing people, unforgettable events, unprecedented locations. Places I've never been, and sights I'd never imagined. It's definitely up there in the top five greatest times of my life.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the link, Boomer! :beerchug:

Fantastic write-up with terrific pictures, as always! :pepper: :thumbs_u: :banana:

I still wish we'd known you were going to be driving RIGHT PAST MY HOUSE, I would have run with you guys for a while! :banghead: There's probably at least 10 of us would have run convoy with you!

Well, rest up, get the Ecto back to it's original color (and get the 10 lbs. of bug guts off the front), and get rested. You've earned it! :friday:
 
#14 ·
Thats great! And now the question of how my FedEx truck driving friend got a picture of this car on the south side of Indianapolis and posted it on Facebook all makes sense!!
 
#15 ·
very cool
 
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