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.
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.